RAM Chapter 1

Chapter 1: “I’m pregnant.”

Translator: Abo Dammen

“I’m pregnant.”

Under the sun, with the sand and sea breeze, Lu Xie, wearing a white tank top, groggily sat up from his lounge chair. He took off his sunglasses, squinted, and stared blankly at the silver-haired, muscular, naked guy standing in front of him, backlit.

Lu Xie felt like he was still half-asleep, or maybe dreaming. He kept repeating those two words in his head, but just couldn’t figure out what they meant. That is, until a nearby troublemaker, playing pool, let out a snicker.

“Pfft.” The troublemaker cupped his hand over half his face and repeated what the naked guy had said to his companion, “He said he’s pregnant.”

Lu Xie didn’t think of himself as a shy person, but right now, he felt super embarrassed. He almost sprang up out of the chair, pushing the naked guy away, muttering, “You’re crazy.”

The naked guy, completely unprepared, stumbled back a couple of steps from Lu Xie’s push, barely managing to steady himself. He looked at Lu Xie again with a hurt expression, his lips slightly pursed, brows furrowed, and his beautiful eyes, like glass beads, shimmered with tears, making him look like he was about to cry.

If he wasn’t wearing a strip of seaweed around his waist, he’d totally look like the kind of guy you just want to take care of. Who wears seaweed around their waist and goes out like that? He’s not crazy, but who is?

Only on the beach could this happen. Anywhere else, this would be called sexual harassment. Such a waste of that pretty face and muscular body.

The naked guy had no idea what the troublemaker was laughing about. He wanted to ask Lu Xie, but as soon as he stepped forward, Lu Xie grabbed something from the ground and made it like he was about to throw it at him, cursing as he did.

“Get lost, acting all crazy. Don’t make me punch you.”

Lu Xie’s arm was tense, veins popping as beads of sweat rolled down his arm. He was putting all his strength into it, not acting like he was joking around. The naked guy lowered his gaze, feeling a little down, and walked towards the rocks, glancing back every few steps.

By the time the naked guy disappeared from view, Lu Xie’s back was drenched in sweat, soaking his tank top. He lowered his aching arm and felt dizzy all over.

The troublemaker playing pool was still grinning, “He’s pregnant.”

Lu Xie shot him a cold glare, clearly pissed off. “What’s so funny? I’ve been paying you twenty bucks to play pool all afternoon, and you’re out here acting tough when you have no money? Get lost!”

Lu Xie was a good bit taller than the troublemaker, his muscles on full display in the sun. There was a shallow scar on his cheek, and his whole expression radiated aggression. He looked like the kind of guy you wouldn’t want to mess with, even though his legs seemed a little stiff. Despite that, the troublemaker didn’t dare take him on directly, pouting and scattering.

What the hell is going on?

Not far away, the murky waves rolled toward the rocks. The tide seemed to have risen without him noticing, and the water was moving faster. Every now and then, he could see fish jumping out of the water. It looked like a heavy rain was coming. So, Lu Xie decided to pack up the pool table, pull down the roll-up door, and close up the shop to rest.

Before long, a heavy rain started pouring outside. Lu Xie was woken up by the sound of the roll-up door being hit by the sea breeze. He had slept so deeply that he couldn’t tell what time it was just by looking out the second-floor window. He fumbled for his phone and checked—it was 8 PM.

He got up with messy hair, took a quick shower, then dug through the fridge for some leftover food and a can of beer. He turned on the TV, but the sea breeze was messing with the signal, and all he got was static. So, he just popped in a random DVD to watch.

The movie had just started, and the main character hadn’t even appeared yet, when two loud bangs on the door interrupted Lu Xie as he was eating. The sound didn’t seem like it was from the sea breeze, so he instinctively reached for the baseball bat next to the cabinet.

Two more bangs followed, this time mixed with a familiar male voice. “Are you home?”

Lu Xie froze for a moment. The face of the naked guy from earlier that afternoon flashed through his mind, but he wasn’t sure, so he hesitated and didn’t respond.

“Is anyone there?”

A deafening thunderclap almost drowned out the man’s voice outside.

“Ai!” The man must’ve bumped into something, his surprised shout following.

The pool table was still outside, and it was his livelihood. Lu Xie was worried the man might get upset and destroy it, so he decided to open the door cautiously and wait to see what would happen.

The roll-up door was cracked open just a bit, and Lu Xie peeked through the gap. The man was still naked, drenched from head to toe. His silver hair was a mess, blown wildly by the wind, and the seaweed around his waist was flailing about, almost useless in the wind, looking pretty ragged.

“Damn!” Lu Xie couldn’t help but curse. He yanked the man inside and then struggled against the wind to pull the door down. “What the hell are you doing? Performance art or something?”

The loud sound of the roll-up door blocked out the sea breeze, and the room felt stuffy and damp. The dim light illuminated the naked guy’s lake-blue eyes, which sparkled like they were about to tear up at any moment.

“Don’t you remember me?” The naked guy asked, looking almost desperate.

The DVD player jammed, making a loud, screeching noise. Lu Xie froze for a moment, too distracted to care about what was on the DVD. Of course he remembered.

A week ago, Lu Xie, a bounty hunter, was on a mission at sea, trying to steal a deep-sea pearl for his employer. But he didn’t get the pearl—he ran into a storm instead. No matter how strong people are, nature is always stronger, and the sea can swallow everything in an instant. Even the best swimmers couldn’t fight off a tsunami.

When the yacht was flipped by the giant wave, Lu Xie thought his life was over right there. He didn’t expect… He thought it was a dream or maybe a hallucination before death. Before he lost consciousness, he saw the naked guy swimming toward him through the crashing waves.

What happened after felt like a dream. Lu Xie’s vision was always blocked, and he could only make out the man’s face and some shiny bits on his body. When he woke up again, he was already back on the shore. He’d injured his leg in the storm and hadn’t been able to contact his teammates, so he returned to the seaside shop he’d been staying at to recover.

The naked guy saw Lu Xie’s face change dramatically. Not knowing what Lu Xie was thinking, he reminded him, “We mated.”

“Can you be a little more civilized?”

Lu Xie’s face twitched with anger. He was an orphan, raised in one of the roughest slums, so there wasn’t much he hadn’t heard in terms of crude language. He thought “sleeping with” or “having sex” would be the most blunt and vulgar ways to describe what happened between him and this unknown naked guy, but he never expected there was something worse—“mating,” a formal and hard-to-say word.

Lu Xie wasn’t sure if the guy was an enemy, and he couldn’t figure out his identity for the time being. He also had no idea why this man, dressed like this, was showing up in front of him. He wasn’t a patient person, so he asked bluntly, “What’s your purpose?”

The naked guy’s hand touched the seaweed around his waist. He looked up, his face full of embarrassment, and said, “We have a baby.”

As a bounty hunter, Lu Xie thought his personality fit his job pretty well. He had a quick temper, didn’t smile much, and didn’t seem like someone you could easily talk to. It had been a long time since anyone had made him laugh like this.

He thought it was some old enemy coming for revenge, but turns out it was just a lunatic. The man’s a stranger to him, and Lu Xie wondered if he’d been away too long and just hadn’t met him before.

“You’re also the baby’s daddy. Do you want to feel it?” The naked guy’s eyes were full of tenderness.

It’s like a performance personality, so strong in belief that even actors might struggle to pull it off. As expected, there’s only a thin line between genius and madness.

Lu Xie twitched the corner of his mouth. Outside, the wind was howling, and lightning was flashing. He could’ve easily thrown the naked guy out, but this sense of helplessness made him feel like simply kicking him out wouldn’t do. He pointed at the seaweed around the guy’s waist and asked, “Is your baby this seaweed?”

“Of course not.” The naked guy’s finger went between the seaweed and his tight stomach, then pulled out a pearl, about the size of a soybean, dull in color. He cradled it carefully in his palm and showed it to Lu Xie, treating it like treasure. “This is our baby.”

This guy is crazy.

Lu Xie grabbed the pearl and slammed it hard onto the floor. The little thing bounced off the ground, hitting the roll-up door, and then rolled under the TV cabinet.

“Ah!” The naked guy screamed, his face pale with shock. He slid to his knees beside the TV, stretching out his arm, desperately searching around. Muttering to himself, it was no different from being completely insane. “Baobao! Baobao!”

After feeling around for a while, the naked guy finally found the little pearl, his hand covered in dust. He carefully wiped off the dust and, like it was a treasure, tucked it back into his waistband. He looked up at Lu Xie, furious and annoyed.

“You’re also the baby’s daddy, how could you hurt it!”

Lu Xie thought it was all ridiculous. Sleeping with a stranger was ridiculous. This guy saying he was pregnant was ridiculous. And now he was holding a pearl and claiming it was their child? That was even more absurd.

“With pearls like this, they wouldn’t even be wanted at a seafood market, even if you gave them away for free.”

The naked guy’s eyes were filled with tears, his face full of sorrow. “How can you say that? It’ll be heartbroken if it finds out!”

“Stop it, I don’t have time to entertain your madness. Get out.”

Lu Xie was ridiculously strong. He lifted the big man by the arm and got him up off the floor with ease. But the naked guy wasn’t weak either. He grabbed onto the TV cabinet and refused to leave. Neither of them would back down, and for a moment, the situation was at a standstill.

“I’m not leaving. Aren’t you going to take responsibility? Human! Aren’t you going to take responsibility?”

For some reason, calling him “human” felt so superior, like looking down on everyone else. Lu Xie almost burst out laughing.

“What responsibility am I supposed to take?” No one ever said anything about being responsible for a crappy pearl.

The naked guy covered the spot where he kept the pearl, looking touched. “I’m pregnant, we have our baby. Shouldn’t you take responsibility?”

“Are you done? Did your mom leave your brain in her belly when she gave birth to you? You’re a guy, how the hell are you pregnant?”

They’d just had a random, messed-up moment together, and now this guy was holding a pearl and demanding responsibility?

“Guys can get pregnant too.” The naked guy adjusted the messy seaweed around his waist, looking serious and sincere. “And I’m a fish.”