Chapter 56: I Can't Support Him
Chapter 56: I Can't Support Him
Anran remains silent, and Hu Zhen's eyes widen in disbelief, quickly turning red. She shakes her head, ignoring the corpses on the ground and everything else, fixated on Anran, continuing to shake her head. Then she turns away, collapses onto her bed, and sobs loudly.
There is no need for words; everything that needs to be understood has already been guessed long ago. Hu Zhen doesn't want to know the details; she just knows her son is dead.
As she cries, Chen Jiao’s son, left at the door, seems to sense that Anran is going to abandon him. He wakes from his sleep, opens his small mouth, and begins to cry, flailing his tiny hands in the fruit basket.
The piercing cries echo through the hallway of the obstetrics department on the fourth floor, amplifying the gruesome scene of zombie corpses lying around. Anran stands a few steps away, watching the conflicted look on Chen Jiao’s face, feeling the urge to take Chen Jiao's son back.
The child is still very young, barely a dozen days old. If he stays with Chen Jiao, the likelihood of him surviving this hospital is slim. But if he follows Anran, she can only offer him formula milk. In this bizarre world, it is far better for children to drink breast milk than formula.
Moreover, Anran struggles to care for two children on her own. The exhaustion is secondary; the main issue is the danger. When one child stops crying, the other starts. With the zombies growing increasingly agile, Anran fears that one day, she might faint from exhaustion and be overwhelmed by zombies. If that happens, neither Chen Jiao’s son nor her own daughter will survive.
Just as she hesitates, Hu Zhen sits up, tears streaming down her face. She looks at Chen Jiao and asks through her sobs, “Your son is crying. Don’t you care?”
Chen Jiao is still in her pink pajamas, appearing as clean as possible except for some stubborn stains. She bites her lip, struggling to look at Anran with reddened eyes, feeling both wronged and stubborn. “I can’t raise him. I never wanted this child; I thought he had already died on the fifth floor!”
Is she implying that Anran has meddled by saving her son?
“I can’t raise him either! I can barely take care of my own child! Why should I be so kind as to take care of yours?” Anran raises her eyebrows and shoots back at Chen Jiao.
They started from the same place, but initially, Chen Jiao had the advantage. With all the supplies brought in by friends and family treating her like a treasure, her starting point is many levels higher than Anran's.
Yet Anran never considers giving up her own child. If Chen Jiao chooses to abandon hers, that is her decision, but why push the burden onto Anran just because she has been kind enough to save him from the fifth floor?
That doesn’t make any sense!
“I can’t support him! I can’t! I really can’t!” Chen Jiao shouts, her emotions spiraling as the child continues to cry. She can't help but yell at Anran. As she shouts, she begins to cry as well. After all, this is her own son. Even if her heart is as hard as iron, Chen Jiao still feels uncomfortable.