DA chapter 60

After Jin Jian finished speaking, he observed Lin Jia and Yan Xu, hoping to read their expressions. However, neither of them showed any emotion.

At that moment, Jin Jian felt a wave of lingering fear. He had thought he held a clue that would lead him to the Soup Base. He could then take advantage of everyone’s unpreparedness and claim the fish spirits before they could react. Even if he could not find the Soup Base, he could still get most of the fish spirits if he revealed this information, according to what Yan Xu said at the beginning.

However, looking at it now, it seems that these two have probably seen through his little scheme.

Jin Jian was extremely regretful. How could he have forgotten that these two were still inside the Fish Belly? Doing this kind of trick in front of them was more than just showing off minor skills to an expert.

He was worried Yan Xu had marked him down and hurriedly added, “His belly is already big. After the nurse came today, she confirmed his due date. It’s today.”

Having a big belly and a nurse confirming the due date was nothing new. The white-haired old man had already set that precedent yesterday.

Lin Jia responded with little interest, “Oh.”

Glancing at Jin Jian, Lin Jia asked, “What time?”

Jin Jian could not answer. Only then did he realize he had provided a worthless clue. When he met Lin Jia’s gaze, which seemed to treat him as trash, his heart sank. Embarrassed by the loss of his dignity, he tried to recover some self-respect by adding something.

“That…” Jin Jian thought for a moment and said, “This morning, when the nurse came, I seemed to hear them say…”

Lin Jia did not respond; he only looked at Jin Jian with a light gaze.

His whole body gave off a sense of boredom.

Jin Jian: “They seemed to complain that his belly wasn’t big enough. They guessed he might be intolerant.”

Xiao Yao quickly asked, “Intolerant to what?”

Jin Jian had vaguely heard those conversations between the nurses while he was panicking. Worried that he would disrupt Lin Jia and their line of thought, he did not dare answer Xiao Yao’s question or raise his eyes.

“What else could it be?” Lin Jia said lightly.

Xiao Yao froze for a moment. Xiao Tian softly reminded him, “Brother Xiao, the word ‘intolerant’ is usually related to medicine.”

Xiao Yao paused again, then suddenly understood and raised his head. “It’s the medicine we ate.”

That was right—how could men give birth?

How could their bellies suddenly become big? In Journey to the West, Tang Sanzang and his disciples only got big bellies after arriving at the Daughter Kingdom and drinking the water there.¹The sentence refers to an episode from Journey to the West. In this episode, Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing arrive at the Daughter Kingdom (also called the Women’s Kingdom), a country where only women live and no men reside there permanently. Near the kingdom is the Mother-and-Child River (子母河), a river whose water can cause men to become pregnant after drinking it.

So, the reason their bellies could grow was probably related to the medicine they had eaten. Lin Jia was right; sun exposure was a kind of photosynthesis that allowed them to absorb the medicine and then, at a specific time, become fat.

Xiao Yao seemed to understand something, but he still could not grasp the key point.

He could only look at Lin Jia and Yan Xu. The Soup Base was right in front of him, but he could not find the method because he had curled up in the ward for these three days and lacked clues.

However, Lin Jia did not tell everyone the complete Soup Base, as Xiao Yao had wished.

He only looked at Yan Xu, fully aware of the thoughts that had arisen during his scrutiny. However, now was not the time to explore Yan Xu’s thoughts, so Lin Jia called out to him in an inviting tone, “Captain Yan.”

Yan Xu understood that Lin Jia intended to keep last night’s promise and accompany him to explore today.

He turned his head and glanced at the nurses standing by the entrance to the inpatient building.

Because the curly-haired man had a large belly, most of the nurses had gone to Room 201, so not many were watching them at the entrance.

Yan Xu raised his eyebrow and said, “I’m going right now. You still want to follow?”

His words sounded deliberately difficult, and also like probing something.

Lin Jia did not think too deeply about it and nodded.

“Better not.” Yan Xu then said, “I’m faster alone.”

As he spoke, he picked up a moderately sized stone from the flowerbed, weighed it in his hand, and threw it hard into the distance.

Crash.

The stone rolled repeatedly on the rough ground. The nurses monitoring the entrance of the inpatient building were attracted by the sound.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Yan Xu quickly moved to the side of the building, beyond the nurses’ line of sight. He planned to jump into the building from the big tree beside it, just as he had last time.

His movements were agile, and he easily climbed onto the tree trunk. Just as he was about to jump into Room 302, he caught sight of a tall figure below the tree out of the corner of his eye.

Yan Xu: “…”

At some point, Lin Jia had followed him over.

“You…” Yan Xu frowned.

Lin Jia raised his head to look at Yan Xu, then glanced at the tree trunk under his feet. The tree canopy was dense, but could not completely hide his figure. Standing high up, with lush greenery brushing his face, he even seemed to carry a vigorous vitality in his expression.

“Can climb trees?” Yan Xu asked.

Lin Jia: “No.”

“Then why did you follow?” Yan Xu asked.

Lin Jia answered frankly, “To check answers with Captain Yan.”

According to Jin Jian, the curly-haired man’s belly had grown large. Even if Yan Xu had wanted to save him, there was nothing he could do. Therefore, Yan Xu’s disappearance under the nurses’ noses could only mean he was going to ask the Fishman question.

Today was already the third day. The Fishman question was extremely important because it determined if they could leave the Fish Belly alive.

Yan Xu supported his elbow on the branch and looked down at Lin Jia from above: “You chose this time to check the answers?”

Lin Jia replied, “Captain Yan should have grasped quite a few clues by now, but some details are still missing. For example, who exactly is staying in the next-door ward?”

However, they had never been to the VIP ward on the third floor. They only knew someone was living there, but they had no idea what kind of person it was.

In order to find the Soup Base, they had to understand the situation in the VIP ward clearly, so today’s Fishman question had to revolve around the VIP ward.

However, this posed a challenge because knowing nothing about the VIP ward made the question itself vague and unclear.

They had to know the situation inside the VIP ward without letting the Fishman question materialize a new problem…

Lin Jia said, “Captain Yan wants to ask the Fishman whether the ward has windows.”

The VIP ward was completely sealed, but if there were windows, that would change things. There were trees outside the inpatient building that could elevate their vantage point and enable them to see inside the ward.

The answer matched.

However, Yan Xu impatiently waved his hand, signaling for Lin Jia to leave.

He stood on a tree fork, shaded by green leaves, but Lin Jia, unable to climb trees, would easily be spotted by the nurses. After all, only six people remained out of eight. If two more disappeared, the nurses monitoring them would easily notice the discrepancy.

Lin Jia did not leave. He moved closer to the trunk, raised his hand, and reached toward Yan Xu.

Yan Xu frowned again. “What are you doing?”

Lin Jia: “Didn’t we agree to accompany each other?”

Yan Xu said, “You can’t climb trees.”

Lin Jia raised his head. “So, Captain Yan, can you help me?”

“I don’t want to help, you—” Yan Xu stopped mid-sentence when he saw Lin Jia take off his coat, revealing a neat, white shirt underneath.

The color of the collar was slightly darker than the rest of the shirt—stained by Yan Xu.

Yan Xu: “…”

Lin Jia didn’t mind being refused by Yan Xu once. He reached his hand toward Yan Xu again, his long fingers stretching across Yan Xu’s line of sight.

“Captain Yan.” He called softly.

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  The sentence refers to an episode from Journey to the West. In this episode, Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing arrive at the Daughter Kingdom (also called the Women’s Kingdom), a country where only women live and no men reside there permanently. Near the kingdom is the Mother-and-Child River (子母河), a river whose water can cause men to become pregnant after drinking it.