LABICTTS_ARCHIVE_C11_CHAPTER11: GROWING UP

 

LIKE A BOAT IT CIRCLES TO THE START

Chapter Eleven

Growing Up

---

Zhou Xiao was jolted awake by the sound of someone sobbing.

She turned on her phone to check the time—3 a.m.

What the hell? Who’s filming a horror movie in the middle of the night?

She lay still and listened. The sobbing came from the balcony.

Mixed with the wind, the sound was fragmented and eerie. The more she listened, the more unsettling it became.

She heard the head of the dorm turn in her bed.

“Hey, are you awake?” Zhou Xiao whispered.

“You heard it too? Scared me to death. Who’s crying at this hour?” The head replied, her voice muffled under the blanket.

“I’m awake too,” came Xiao Lu’s voice from across the room.

It was obvious to all of them who was crying.

They fell into silence, the dorm filled with quiet, broken sobs.

“You go check on her. “You’re closer to her,” Xiao Lu finally said.

Zhou Xiao sighed, sitting up in bed. As she lifted the blanket, a chill ran down her spine, raising every hair on her body.

I must’ve done something terrible in a past life, she thought. Why else would the heavens punish me with leaving my warm bed in this cold?

She knocked on the balcony door.

“Tao Ling, what’s wrong?”

The sobbing stopped. But there was no answer.

“If you don’t say anything, I’m coming in, okay?”

The sound of the door opening roused the others. They all sat up in bed.

Zhou Xiao saw Tao Ling sitting on the floor, hugging her knees, her face streaked with tears under the glow of the streetlight filtering in.

All traces of Zhou Xiao’s sleepy irritation vanished, replaced with concern—and a creeping fear. Something was very wrong.

She knelt down in front of Tao Ling and looked her in the eye.

“What happened?”

Tao Ling suddenly lunged forward and hugged her tightly, sobbing loudly.

The dorm head and Xiao Lu also came out, kneeling beside them.

The four of them huddled together in silence.

They didn't know what happened, but they could cry with her, even if they couldn't ease her pain.

---

When Tao Ling finally calmed down, she told them her boyfriend wanted to break up with her.

And—she was pregnant.

The dorm head asked, “Does he know?”

Tao Ling nodded. “He… told me to get rid of it.”

“Then do it,” the dorm head replied calmly—so calm, it felt almost cruel.

Everyone looked at her, shocked and judgmental.

Suddenly, the dorm head burst out, “What else do you want her to do? Drop out of school? Have the baby? Then what? Her parents might disown her out of anger. She’ll be stuck raising a child alone without a father, with no college degree and only a tiny salary, working all day while worrying about baby formula and school fees. She will age prematurely, losing her youth and beauty, and her baggage will deter potential suitors from marrying her. And then what? She’ll end up blaming the child for everything life did to her.

Did the baby ask to be born?”

Her voice cracked with fury, bitterness—and something deeper. Pain.

Everyone went quiet.

After a long moment, Tao Ling finally snapped, “How could you say that?! It’s my baby! It’s a life! How could you be so cold?”

The dorm head clenched her eyes shut, trying to steady her emotions.

“I just… I just don’t want your child to walk the path mine did.”

Zhou Xiao had never imagined that their usually chill and quiet dorm head was hiding such a heartbreaking story.

She gently tugged at the dorm head’s sleeve.

“Let her make her own decision. None of us has the right to choose for her, no matter what we’ve been through.”

The dorm head was quiet for a long time, then sighed and gently patted Tao Ling’s back.

“Don’t mind what I said earlier. My life doesn’t have to be your child’s. Just think it through. Whatever you decide, we’ll be here for you.”

---

The whole dorm boarded a bus to the city hospital in silence at dawn.

No one said a word on the way.

Tao Ling sat by the window, staring blankly outside, her phone clutched tightly in her hands.

Zhou Xiao watched her pale profile, lips parting several times to speak, but never finding the words.

Outside the gynecology department, Tao Ling’s hand gripped the dorm head’s so tightly that her fingernails dug into her skin.

Time appeared to halt abruptly.

Every expression, every breath, felt like a scene unfolding slowly.

“Next—Lily,” the nurse called, her voice flat.

No one responded.

“Lily!” She barked louder.

Zhou Xiao suddenly remembered that "Lily" was the fake name they had given.

She nudged the dorm head, who also seemed to come to her senses, and helped Tao Ling to her feet.

Tao Ling, ghostly pale, staggered toward the operating room.

The nurse, annoyed, rolled her eyes and muttered, “What, suddenly deaf?”

Xiao Lu was about to go off on her, but Zhou Xiao pulled her back.

The dorm head tried to follow Tao Ling in, but the nurse stopped her.

“No one’s allowed in the operating room.”

Just before the door shut, they saw the sheer panic in Tao Ling’s eyes, pleading for someone to save her.

Zhou Xiao almost ran forward to pull her back and say, “It’s okay. Let’s go home.”

But she didn’t.

She just looked away, ashamed.

---

No one knew how long they waited.

When the door finally opened again, Tao Ling emerged, clutching the doorframe.

The dorm head rushed to hold her up.

---

On the ride back, Tao Ling sat with her eyes closed, her face as pale as paper.

A tear slid from the corner of her eye.

“I saw my baby… It was just a bloody lump of flesh… in a cold metal tray.”

Zhou Xiao didn’t know what to say.

She just gently held Tao Ling’s trembling hand.

---

She still remembered the first day of college, when Tao Ling had come bouncing over with a sunny smile and said,

“Hi, I’m Tao Ling! My parents just left and forgot to hang my mosquito net. Can you show me how to do it?”

She was just a kid back then, Zhou Xiao thought.

Why did she have to go through something like this?

Tao Ling’s bright, smiling face alternated in Zhou Xiao’s mind with her pale, tear-streaked one.

And for some reason, she wanted to cry too.

Tao Ling had grown up overnight.

But Zhou Xiao couldn’t understand—

Why did growing up have to be so cruel?

_______________________

Eunie here: I'm a crying mess. Indeed, why did growing up have to be so cruel? ... Arghhhh ...

The things the dorm head said are sadly true for some people even in RL, but at the same time, Tao Ling wanting to love her unborn child but not being able to do so is truly heartbreaking. Yes, she’s a child, but now she can probably never find peace in her heart. Women who undergo abortion at such a young age might also suffer permanent consequences. There could be no right answer in this type of situation, but I hope every girl reading this chapter can and will cherish themselves more.

SERIOUSLY CASTRATE MEN WHO KEEP ON SPRAYING THEIR SEEDS BUT REFUSE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!!! LIKE WTF!!!!!! If you want to risk a woman’s life by telling her to go get an abortion, then the man should also castrate himself because his b@lls are just unnecessary decoration at this point! Or wear a freaking condom! QUADRUPLE IT IF YOU HAVE TO! Don’t involve someone else’s life if you can’t take responsibility!

PAYPAL

PREVIOUS.     INDEX.      NEXT.