Chapter 468 - 401: Something Strange with the Body
Chapter 468: Chapter 401: Something Strange with the Body
Flora Bloom lay under the covers, blushing as she pulled them up over her face.
The mountain air was wonderfully fresh, carrying the faint scent of green bamboo and the soft scuttling of small animals that had yet to hibernate for the winter.
"Lex, my due date is in a little over a month, and I’m suddenly starting to get scared."
"Don’t worry. I’m always here."
Lex Cross turned to face Flora, slipping a hand under the covers to gently rest it on her rounded belly.
"Polly Cross, you’d better be a good girl. When it’s time to come out, you come out quickly and without a fuss. If you dare give your mom a hard time, I don’t care if you’re a girl—you’ll be in for it!"
As if Polly had understood her father’s words and was protesting, Flora’s stomach suddenly cramped, making her cry out in surprise.
"Ah!"
Lex Cross shot upright in alarm, his face tense and alert. "What is it? Is your stomach hurting?"
Her face beaded with cold sweat, Flora took deep breaths and slowly rubbed her belly.
"Polly Bloom, your daddy’s just talking nonsense, don’t listen to him! But Mommy really is scared of pain, so you have to be a good girl, okay?"
It was the first time since the apocalypse began that she had felt such strong fetal movement. It was a clear sign that her due date was drawing near, and from now on, she would have to avoid any strenuous activity and focus on getting more rest.
"My daughter is taking my surname, Cross! None of this ’Polly Bloom’ nonsense. It’s Polly Cross!"
In fact, they had argued about Polly’s surname at least ten times over the past month.
Flora felt that since Polly was the only person—her own flesh and blood—who had been with her through both her past life and this one, the baby should take her surname.
But Lex felt that since the child was his, the surname was not something to be taken lightly.
"Flora, Dr. Maeve Preston and Old Man Gu both said you need to start being more careful! You might not feel the high-altitude air currents while riding the Golden Crow, but this still counts as a long-distance flight!"
"It’s not good for you to overexert yourself!"
Flora covered her ears, closed her eyes, and turned her head away, pretending she couldn’t hear him.
"You’re nagging me like my mother!"
"Just listen to me!"
"But I’m really not tired! You guys won’t let me come along on hunts or help clear out zombies. You even limit the time I can spend wandering around the base. I’m going stir-crazy!"
Flora was just so bored! In her past life, when she was pregnant, all she wanted was to lie in bed and rest. All she thought about was eating and drinking well to make sure Polly got enough nutrients.
But in this life, when she was eating and drinking so well that she’d even started to develop a double chin, she knew, ’I can’t let this go on!’
Polly was perfectly healthy in her womb; as her mother, she knew this better than anyone.
For some reason, she’d recently developed an insatiable appetite, wanting to eat anything she laid eyes on. She was eating five or six meals a day and still felt hungry. In just over half a month, her weight had shot up by more than fifteen pounds.
’Gaining weight during pregnancy is normal, of course.’
But she had eaten plenty in the early stages of her pregnancy, too, and her weight hadn’t budged. In fact, aside from her growing belly, she had actually looked thinner.
Now, in just over half a month, even though she was eating so much, she refused to just lie around. A walk after every meal was a mandatory part of her routine. Her calves were a little swollen, but to avoid gaining too much weight during the pregnancy, she insisted on staying active.
Yet no one around her seemed to think anything was amiss. They were so afraid she might overdo it and risk the pregnancy that they’d started restricting her movements.
Flora knew they were just concerned for her, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
So, late that night, when everyone else was asleep, Flora couldn’t stand it any longer. She summoned the Golden Crow and flew away from Morhaven.
The old saying, "The sea is for the fish to leap in, the sky is for the birds to fly in," perfectly captured Flora’s feelings the moment she and the Golden Crow soared into the heavens. The feeling of freedom was exhilarating.
As she lay on the Golden Crow’s back, gazing at the scattered, twinkling stars, her spirits lifted instantly.
But then, her stomach started to growl again.
Getting hungry in the middle of the night was nothing new. Usually, she could just ignore it and the feeling would pass. But for some reason, tonight, the more she tried to ignore it, the more intense the hunger became.
’Do you get hungry faster the further along you are?’
’But I don’t remember being so delicate in my past life that I couldn’t even stand to miss one meal, did I?’
She lived by a simple philosophy: if there’s food, don’t go hungry. She could bear it herself, but she couldn’t let little Polly go hungry, could she?
The flight from Morhaven to Korsan Base took just over two hours, which was two hours faster than even the quickest commercial airliner could make the trip.
Then came finding Oscar Owen, the siege by the mountain folk, and finally, this moment, lying here under the covers.
What should have been a cozy moment of just talking under the blankets was first derailed by the startling cramp from the baby’s kick, and then immediately interrupted by the gurgling of Flora’s own stomach.
Lex Cross was still watching Flora with a tense expression.
He saw that her face was still rosy and that she was looking at him with an inviting expression, her bright red lips pursed as if she wanted to say something but held back.
His gaze was fixed on Flora’s red lips.
A village deep in the mountain wilderness, an unfamiliar setting, a room all to themselves. As if on cue, the world outside fell silent. Not a single sound could be heard.
Lex bent down and brushed a light kiss across Flora’s lips.
Flora, who was already hungry, was startled by Lex’s sudden move, and the jolt made her hunger pangs even more intense.
Lex saw her deepening blush and took it as a silent invitation.
But then, her stomach let out another inopportune "GROWL."
He looked at Flora’s face, and understanding dawned. "Hungry again?"
Flora nodded. "I don’t know what it is, but for the past few weeks, I’ve been getting hungry so quickly!" She touched her now-plump cheeks, then pinched the new flesh of her double chin.
"I’ve gained over fifteen pounds! I just feel like something’s not right!"
Lex sat up and pulled Flora into his arms. He squeezed her arm, then the soft flesh at her waist. "Hmm, there’s definitely more to you than before. It’s fine. This is great."
Flora glared at Lex, wriggled out of his embrace, and pulled a small, portable table from her dimensional space, setting it on the bed. Then she took out the special maternity meal Ethan Monroe had prepared for her.
"I’ll just have a bowl of porridge and an egg, then I’ll go to sleep!"
Flora picked up the clay pot to serve herself some porridge, while Lex took an egg and began to peel it for her. He even separated the yolk for her, letting her drop it into her bowl and mash it into the porridge.
"This should definitely hold me over!"
A fond, indulgent smile touched Lex’s lips. "If you’re hungry, eat up. It’s not like I’m going to complain if you get a little chubby."
Flora shot him a look. "You wait until I’m as round as a ball. You’ll definitely complain then!"
With a wide grin, Lex watched her mutter to herself as she ate her porridge and teased,
"In that case, I’d actually like to see my Flora as round as a ball."
「The night passed quickly.」
The pre-dawn hours in the mountains were even colder than the dead of night.
Flora, however, remained still in Lex’s arms, as if in a deep, unbreakable sleep.
Lex looked down at the changes that had occurred in Flora overnight, his brow furrowing.
If Flora hadn’t mentioned it herself last night, he might not have noticed. She had indeed put on a lot of weight over the past few weeks, but he had just assumed it was a normal part of pregnancy.
Even Caleb Bloom and Jade had said the same thing.
But just now, he’d sensed a type of energy within Flora’s body that felt completely unfamiliar to him.
And overnight, after nothing more than a bowl of porridge and an egg, Flora’s face, nestled against him, seemed a full size larger than it had been the night before. Both her face and her neck were swollen.
The puffy, crescent-shaped bags under her eyes were so pronounced that anyone would know something was wrong.