The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 25

"Your Highness is pregnant. I have the honour of congratulating you first."

At first, Xie Lian couldn't comprehend what Shi QingXuan had just said. It took him a few seconds of dumbly staring at his doctor, before the meaning of those words was starting to make sense in his brain. And once it finally dawned on him, he teared up instantly.

"Me? I- I'm p-p-pregnant? Really? Are you sure?", Xie Lian couldn't help but ask. Now it was him that was clinging to Shi QingXuan's hands.

"I'm 100% sure. So you need to take really good care of yourself now", his friend said once more.

Xie Lian could only nod, suddenly feeling much too overwhelmed to even speak, before his emotions overwhelmed him and he couldn't help bawling his eyes out. It was only a few months ago that Shi QingXuan had told him the devastating diagnoses of Xie Lian's infertility! He never would have expected the medicine to be so extremely efficient! After all, they'd only done it once since he started taking it, and to think that it was suddenly enough, just like that, when not even a simultaneous heat and rut had helped in making him pregnant- it was truly unbelievable, and Xie Lian had a bit of trouble coping with the sudden revelation.

Thankfully, Shi QingXuan stayed with him until Xie Lian calmed down from his emotional outburst, and only left once he determined him to be as composed again as he usually was.

However, once the doctor had left, Xie Lian hurried up the stairs and into the bedroom to check himself in their big bronze mirror. Maybe he could see something already!? The thought alone made him much too giddy.

Once he reached the bedroom, Xie Lian threw his robes off, and scrutinised himself thoroughly. Though, his excitement faded a little when he could see absolutely no changes to his belly. He would definitely have to talk to Shi QingXuan again. Xie Lian needed to know when he would start showing. Actually, the doctor's ramblings earlier about what he could and couldn't do weren't very helpful, Xie Lian realised just now. He thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that Shi QingXuan must've been visiting him as a friend first and foremost, and not a doctor. Xie Lian couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's antics.

It took Xie Lian quite a while to properly wrap his head around the fact that he was pregnant now. In fact, it took him a few days. However, the more he talked about it with Shi QingXuan, the more and more real it became.

It was about one week later that Xie Lian had fully grasped the situation, and he woke up every day feeling giddy about it. It had even become part of his morning routine to not only check his belly in the bronze mirror, but he'd also very quickly developed a habit of touching and stroking his still flat belly almost constantly. He even spoke to it.

Xie Lian was aware he was looking like a lunatic to anyone who happened to see him in those moments, but he frankly couldn't care less.

Xie Lian had spent the better part of the morning in front of the mirror, and just got done dressing himself, when the door to the bedroom suddenly opened, startling Xie Lian quite a bit.

However, standing in the door was Hua Cheng, so the shock disappeared instantaneously, making room for nothing but sheer joy.

"San Lang!", Xie Lian exclaimed, and made his way over to his husband as fast as he possibly could, before he crushed him in the biggest hug he was capable of.

"Gege", Hua Cheng whispered, and hugged him back just as tightly.

Xie Lian couldn't even begin to put into words just how happy and relieved he was to finally have his mate back, and he revelled in the elation he was feeling for quite a few long moments, before he realised that maybe their baby probably shouldn't get crushed like this.