Chapter 1472 - 1474

Gong Ruini sat uneasily in the chair, her face full of anxiety.

"Don’t worry." Zhao Xuran pulled a thermos cup out of the bag he always carried and poured some hot water for Gong Ruini.

Gong Ruini actually didn’t really want to drink; she’d already had plenty of water earlier for the exam.

"Don’t worry." Zhao Xuran gripped Gong Ruini’s hand tightly, hoping he could pass his strength on to her.

He kept saying "don’t worry," but his hand was shaking like crazy; Gong Ruini had really never seen him like this before.

Gong Ruini kept staring at his hand, and of course Zhao Xuran noticed.

"Yeah, I’m pretty nervous." Zhao Xuran admitted that right now he really was all kinds of panicked.

"It’ll be fine. And we’ve already prepared ourselves for the worst-case scenario." Gong Ruini said calmly.

"How could things get any worse than they already are."

"True." Zhao Xuran pressed his lips together. "I was thinking, if something really does go wrong at that time, I want to know if it’s a boy or a girl."

"Mm."

"Even if the baby isn’t born, even if no one else remembers that there was once a child who went straight to heaven before coming into this world, we have to remember."

Zhao Xuran gripped Gong Ruini’s hand even tighter, bowing his head as low as he could, not wanting her to see him losing control like this.

"We’ll definitely remember." Gong Ruini tried hard to hold back the tears threatening to fall.

Zhan Jing sat quietly to the side, listening to what they were saying. Her lips moved; she wanted to say that doing this would mean a lifetime of pain.

But for first-time parents like Zhao Xuran and Gong Ruini, with a child just dying like this, that kind of grief would absolutely stay with them for life.

"What do you think we should name him if it’s a boy..." With his eyes closed, Zhao Xuran asked Gong Ruini what name they should give the baby.

"That... I don’t know either." Actually, ever since they found out she was pregnant, Gong Ruini and Zhao Xuran had already started researching names for the baby.

Even though Zhao Gang and Gong Tao often called to say that as the child’s grandfathers, they ought to have naming rights.

For this, Zhao Xuran had been stubborn as hell: their own child’s name should be chosen by them. This wasn’t just the Zhao Family’s tradition, it was also the Gong Family’s tradition, which nearly pissed both grandfathers to death.

Even when they shouted over the phone in high agitation, saying Zhao Xuran was an unfilial son, he still refused to engage with them.

If they had a problem, they could totally fly to the United States and have a proper argument in person.

Thinking back to Zhao Xuran’s attitude on the phone, Gong Ruini couldn’t help but want to laugh—he really couldn’t be more cocky if he tried.

"Of course I’m the one naming my kid. Besides, my dad and your dad picking names is just asking for trouble." Her own old man wanted to name his grandson, and her father-in-law wanted to name his maternal grandson.

Stuck in the middle, Zhao Xuran really had no idea what to do, and there was no way to please both sides; so he decided that, as the dad, he would just settle it himself.

His reasoning was reasonable, and on that point Gong Ruini agreed he wasn’t wrong, but no matter how she looked at him, he just seemed ridiculously smug about it.

Just as the two of them were discussing what name to give the baby, it was finally Gong Ruini’s turn.

Hearing the nurse call her name, Gong Ruini tensed up instantly.

She had genuinely forgotten about this for a while, but once it was actually her turn, she panicked hard, and finally realized she had been deliberately refusing to think about it.

"It’ll be fine." Seeing that his wife didn’t even have the strength to stand up, Zhao Xuran reached out to help her.

"It’ll be fine." On the other side, Zhan Jing also helped support Gong Ruini as she got up.

Deep down, Gong Ruini was resisting and protesting going into the Doctor’s office; she’d done all the mental preparation, but she really didn’t want to hear the answer that would break her heart.

When they went in, the Doctor was looking at the report, and his expression didn’t look good.

Gong Ruini’s heart sank—could it be that things had gotten even worse?

"The report shows the same thing I told you last time." The Doctor

really wasn’t surprised at all by this result.

Since the outcome was the same as last time, then why did the Doctor’s expression look like that? Gong Ruini really didn’t get it.

Could it be that last time the Doctor had sugar-coated it and hadn’t told them the whole truth?

Gong Ruini looked at Zhao Xuran, but he was just as confused as she was.

"Last time I mentioned that if you decided to terminate, we could perform surgery." The Doctor had a headache; he really had never encountered a situation like this.

He had indeed brought that up before, but why did it feel like now this Doctor wasn’t insisting on surgery at all?

Zhao Xuran didn’t understand why the same Doctor who’d suggested surgery before now seemed to think not operating was very likely.

"At this point it looks like we’re not going to be able to operate." The Doctor’s head was throbbing; he honestly worried the patient might kick up a fuss.

Not able to operate? Why can’t they do surgery? Even if subjectively they weren’t going to accept surgery, there are too many possible reasons not to operate.

Like the baby’s condition improving and there being no need for surgery, or things getting so bad that there’s just no way to operate anymore.

From the look of it now, it was definitely the latter.

"How bad is it?" Holding himself steady, Zhao Xuran asked the Doctor for the specifics.

Zhan Jing didn’t understand much English, couldn’t follow what they were saying, but she could tell from Zhao Xuran’s expression that something was off.

And Gong Ruini’s posture was ramrod straight—clearly both of their expressions were wrong, and it all had to do with what the Doctor was saying.

Zhan Jing was so anxious she was practically spinning like Tuantuan; at this moment she really regretted not studying English properly back then—at least she’d be able to talk directly to the Doctor now.

"The baby’s position isn’t ideal; it’s stuck somewhere..." The Doctor held the scan up and started explaining to Zhao Xuran.

Listening, Zhao Xuran was totally lost. It was just a bad position—couldn’t they take a little extra time and still deal with it?

Gong Ruini was stunned too. That explanation sounded absolutely ridiculous to her.

Seeing the patient’s even more bewildered expression, the Doctor himself felt awkward. "The main issue is that the umbilical cords are actually connected together. If we’re not extremely careful with one, something could easily go wrong."

"And it looks like the two babies’ hands have been holding onto each other the whole time."

Their hands holding onto each other the whole time? Gong Ruini was completely dumbfounded. Seriously, Doctor, could you show a little more professionalism when you talk?

Who on earth would think babies still in the womb are ’holding hands’ the whole time? Do they have brains or what?

All their movements are unconscious; at most they might grab at something now and then, or their hands just bump into each other by accident. Calling that hand-holding is really stretching it.

Right now, Gong Ruini’s opinion of this Doctor’s professional competence dropped another notch.

She could accept that the attending Doctor’s level wasn’t great, but what she couldn’t accept was that, despite being so average, he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong and kept pushing the blame away.

Especially the way he shifted responsibility—that really was top-tier. Probably he’d figured out that she and Zhao Xuran weren’t easy to deal with, so he just dumped this whole mess on the babies.

Just thinking about it made her burn with anger. She really shouldn’t have gone for convenience and chosen this place for prenatal checkups just because it was close to home.

Zhao Xuran was thinking the same thing—it’s not like they’re short on money, so how did they end up picking a hospital like this.