Liwu sat up abruptly. She grabbed a pillow and slapped her husband’s face with it. "Are you crazy? I am having an emotional crisis and your solution is to smoke?"

Weijun thrust the pillow aside. "Well, you are not slipping into a sad state anymore, are you?"

She squeezed her brows together. "So, it was a distraction?"

He threw the box of cigarettes and lighter on the floor. It had not been a distraction, but since she assumed so, he would leave it as it was. "Yes."

Weijun grabbed her, dragging her to his side of the bed, firmly holding her waist like a chain being snapped in place. "Since you are struggling with the decision, I will help you make it." His next words were decisive. "Termination, without a doubt."

Liwu flinched. "You sound so certain."

He threw a leg over hers, his tome calm but unyielding. "Think logically, Liwu. Remove emotions and politics from this decision. The child was conceived through violence. Every day that woman carries it, she relieves the assault. That is psychological torture. Look at your partner Linlin, she saw future murders and became hysterical. Every day, she will live with those images in her head, worried about the moment barrel boy will snap and fulfill his destiny."

Liwu clenched her teeth.

Her husband continued. "If Jinling keeps it, she risks years of trauma, resentment and guilt. If it’s a boy, she might wonder always if he will become like his father. And what of the child? Born into stigma, whispers, and shadows.

The whole world knows she was assaulted. That child will know about it too. Children sense these things. They suffer for them. Choosing to have that child for the sake of putting her heart at ease is hypocrisy. When the child is being abused verbally, will she block every word? Will she cover the sky to save them from pain? Will she block every sound of mockery? Will she save him or her from every bully that uses this past against them?" He squeezed her shoulder gently. "Trust me, no child wants to grow up being pointed at and called the product of a rape."

Liwu’s eyes filled with tears, but he pressed on, relentless. "Termination spares her the the agony. It spares the child a life of pain. It allows her to heal, to reclaim her body her future. Keeping the pregnancy is not noble, it is cruel. Ending it is mercy."

Liwu’s heart twisted. She wanted to argue, to defend the possibility of hope. "But....what if that child wants to live? What if that child will become her only reason to live, her anchor?"

Weijun shook his head. "All the more reason for that child not to be born. No child should be born as an anchor for their parent. You might as well put the baby in a prison suit, name them 001 and make the parent the prison guard.

What you speak of is fantasy, Liwu. You have seen the cases. You know the statistics. Most women in her position spiral and fall into despair. Some turn to drugs. Many cannot bond with the child. They see the one who assaulted them in the face and eyes of the child.

If something like that happened to my wife...to you. I would not support you keeping it. Personally, I would hate the child as much as I hate the father. Their presence in the house would make me resentful. And resentment poisons everything it touches.

Better to end it now than to condemn the mother, child, and everyone who feels distressed on Jinling’s behalf, to misery."

Liwu’s voice cracked. "You speak as though it is all a perfect calculation."

He turned her head back slightly, leaning over her, his gaze steady. "It is. You know that I weigh everything because I am a politician. I weigh suffering against survival. I am not the only one. I am sure the chief who took the case knows how to weigh trauma against healing. Logic is not cold, it is clarity, and clarity saves lives."

She groaned, her mind overloaded with his logic and her own doubts and the sound of Jinling’s cries of despair. "A single moment." she muttered. "Her life was fine one minute and then changed in a single moment, by a single decision made by someone else. I am a detective, I see terrible things all the time and yet I still ask myself how things like this happen."

Weijun’s voice softened, but his words remained firm. "The past cannot be changed, unless you have a system that lets you turn back time. But otherwise, you have to move forward. If Jinling comes to you again, guide her with the truth. Tell her what she needs to hear, not what comforts her or what makes your chief comfortable. Comfort is fleeting. Truth and facts endure."

Truth and facts...she thought. These were two undeniable things. He was right. Even though she had spent a fortune to get rid of the stories online, they were still out there. Someday, if Jinling had the baby, the child would stumble on his or her background.

In fact, if Jinling took the child to school or anywhere in public and someone recognized them, and blurted out her past, the child would know!

Then, was her only option to hide the child away from the world until they were old enough to understand the past?

The more she thought, the more she wondered if she had been thinking too simply about this matter. It was much more complicated than a simple keep or terminate debate.

Liwu closed her eyes. "And what if she chooses to keep it?"

He sighed. "Then she chooses suffering. And the people around her will watch her drown. Everyone will watch that child grow under the weight of whispers. If the child is lucky, this past will make them resilient. Maybe, they will become someone great from the experience. If not, the child will become another barrel boy."

She lifted her head, but her pushed it back down gently. "I mean, he will have psychological issues. Maybe he will resent his mother and father. Maybe he will become the next system host who is filled with anger and hatred for the world, so much so that he wants to destroy it."

Silence filled the room. Liwu’s mind raced. She thought about his logic, and everything else that had happened on that day. She thought of barrel boy and the unborn child, a fragile spark of life. Weijun’s logic was undeniable, yet her heart rebelled.

She whispered, almost to herself, "Maybe.....maybe there is no right answer." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Her husband placed a hand on her shoulder. "There is. You just don’t want to see it."