Raise a Baby in an Apocalypse 2

An Ran was stunned for a moment. Behind the dark curtains, the light emanating from the cell phone screen reflected on her pale and exhausted face as she stared at her ex-husband’s phone number. Her slender fair-skinned finger paused on the green dial button for a while, but did not press on it in the end. Hesitation lingered in her heart as she wondered if she should have told her ex-husband about her giving birth to their child.

Maybe not. They had nothing to do with each other anyway. Wouldn’t it be self-contradictory if she were to reappear in front of him right now? Even so, her ex-husband had the right to know whether the child was his or not. Moreover, whose registrar should the child be added in the future?

Now that she thought about it, today would be the seventh month since she divorced her ex-husband. Ten months ago, after she came all the way to Northwestern China to sleep with him one last time, she gathered up her courage and asked for a divorce. Back then, his reaction was rather violent. Engulfed in dismay and anger, he quarreled with her and angrily escorted her into an army car, sending her off to the airport. He kicked her back to Xiangcheng together with a pile of Northwestern specialty goods he had packed up as well.

During the following days, Zhan Lian’s phone was continuously blown up with her calls. He could not stand to hear about the divorce, because as soon as An Ran mentioned it, he would immediately get angry. But An Ran was a focused person. She had already made up her mind to ask for a divorce just so she wouldn’t have to continue living by mediating their differences at the sacrifice of her principles.

Therefore, whenever Zhan Lian called back or whenever she called him, An Ran would insist on talking about the divorce with him. Despite Zhan Lian being a headstrong man with proper manners and having the ability to send a decent amount of money to An Ran every month, she just couldn’t understand why he would still waste his time on a plain-looking inept woman like her?! Based on his qualifications, he could marry a young model or an internet celebrity after their divorce, or even keep a few mistresses on the side.

What did she do to deserve this?! 

As a result, An Ran continued to be entangled with her ex-husband for a whole three months. Before the divorce was officially finalized, they quarreled during those three months while being physically separated. Immediately after that, before she had the opportunity to be excited for her return to her single status, she found out that she had been pregnant two days later… for three months.

Back then, when she wanted to divorce her ex-husband, she had said all the harsh things she could think of; like how she would rather leave the marriage with nothing, how incompatible their personalities and horoscopes were, how she wanted no contact until she died of old age, and how she would not seek him out no matter how desperate she became.

Truthfully, those were not the reasons why the divorce was not settled. No matter how she spun it, her ex-husband refused to sign the divorce papers. He was a soldier, and if he refused despite An Ran unilaterally asking for a divorce, the divorce would be invalid.

An Ran had enough and decided to call her ex-husband one last time. She cried to him saying that she only wanted a family, a man who cares for her health and well-being, and a child whom she could worry about. She wanted a husband who could piggyback her half-conscious body to the hospital when she caught a high fever in the middle of the night, instead of being left to die while being unconscious at home without anyone knowing about it. She understood how good Zhan Lian was, truly she did. He was a good-looking man with a high salary, but she wanted what Zhan Lian could not give to her, not even an ounce of it!

Zhan Lian stayed silent on the phone for a good length of time. In the end, he hung up the phone without uttering a single word. And after those three months of divorce war, the whole matter was finally put to a close. Within the next two days, Zhan Lian signed the divorce papers and shipped them back to her via express delivery.