Despite the doctor's profound shock, Bi Cuiwen was indeed carrying a boy.
The entire family was ecstatic. Even after learning Bi Cuiwen had sought a spirit medium's dubious ritual to "transform" the girl into a boy, their jubilation knew no bounds.
So long as the Zhou lineage had a son to carry on the ancestral line, did the means truly matter?
With Bi Cuiwen finally pregnant with a boy, her mother-in-law broke tradition, personally attending to her care during the pregnancy.
The due date arrived. Bi Cuiwen labored in the hospital for over ten grueling hours before the cries of a newborn finally pierced the waiting room.
Shortly after, a nurse emerged, her expression oddly strained. She carefully placed the infant boy into Zhou Pingcheng's arms.
"Congratulations, it's a boy," the nurse announced, her tone measured. "However, the baby has a significant birthmark. Please prepare yourselves."
The grandmother dismissed the concern instantly, eagerly reaching to unwrap the swaddling blanket. "A birthmark? What of it? Nothing wrong with a little marking on a boy!"
As the folds of the blanket fell away, the celebratory mood died instantly. Dead silence descended upon the small group.
The entire left half of the infant boy's body was covered in a deep, mottled gray birthmark.
The mark was unnervingly symmetrical, stretching diagonally from his collarbone down to the top of his thigh on his left side. It covered his entire torso, arm, and the upper leg on that side with a uniform, marbled pattern. In stark contrast, the right side of his body was smooth, pale, and unblemished.
"I... it's... it's nothing," the grandmother stammered, forcing a smile even as a horrifying thought intruded: At least it's a boy. If it had been a girl burdened with such a disfigurement, her life would have been effectively ruined.
At that moment, doctors wheeled out the exhausted mother, Bi Cuiwen, weak from delivery. Her eyes fell upon her newborn son in his father's arms, taking in the shocking birthmark.
The grotesque nightmare from her visit to the spirit medium slammed back into her consciousness with visceral clarity.
An uncontrollable wave of icy dread washed over her, starting from her feet and spreading upwards until her whole body trembled violently.
His child... was a half-and-half.
The family named the boy Zhou Benxin.
Fortunately, aside from the massive birthmark, Zhou Benxin thrived. He grew up healthy and plump, doted on by the Zhou family.
But when Zhou Benxin turned five, catastrophe struck. He returned home from playing one day suddenly running a raging fever. Days passed in the hospital with no improvement.
Bi Cuiwen, desperate, thought immediately of the spirit medium. She rushed to the village, only to discover the woman had died a couple of years prior.
Returning to the hospital, the doctors offered grim news: take the child home and prepare for the worst. Zhou Benxin was fading fast, his breathing shallow.
The family carried their barely conscious son back to their rural home, shrouded in despair.
Then, an itinerant priest appeared at their door, seeking a bowl of water. After drinking, he offered: "I can save your boy."
With no other options, the Zhou family entrusted their son to this stranger. The priest carved a small wooden figure resembling a boy, meticulously carving Zhou Benxin's exact birth characters onto its back. He explained this was Zhou Benxin's "replacement effigy." If Zhou Benxin's closest kin placed this effigy at Chongguang Mountain, he would recover. However, he sternly warned: Benxin must never set foot on Chongguang Mountain before his twenty-fourth birthday. Violation would risk his very life.
Bi Cuiwen and Zhou Pingcheng wasted no time. They traveled immediately to Chongguang Mountain, pleaded with the resident Taoist priests at the mountain's temple, and secured a place to enshrine the wooden effigy.
Rushing home, they found Zhou Benxin miraculously recovered, his fever gone.
From then on, Zhou Benxin lived and studied like any other child, seemingly untouched by his earlier ordeal.
*
"So that's it," Yun Jianyue concluded, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It was the proxy effigy backfiring." She fixed Zhou Benxin with a glare. "They told you not to go, and you went anyway. Made your own bed, now lie in it."
Zhou Benxin protested weakly, "I didn't know! If I'd known, I wouldn't have gone near the place!"
Zhou Ruyan snapped, "The family only wanted you safe! As long as you stayed away before twenty-four, you'd be fine! They said no, and you disobeyed! You're the only son! I'm married and pregnant now – if anything happens to you, what will Mom and Dad do?" She laid bare the family's reasoning: the secret kept for his protection, especially the knowledge of his "half-and-half" condition, to spare him pain or insecurity.
"Only son? Only son?" Zhou Benxin retorted, irritation flaring. "Is there a royal throne to inherit?" He'd detested this kind of talk since childhood.
He stopped abruptly, realization dawning. "Wait, what? Pregnant? Since when?!" His eyes dropped to Zhou Ruyan's still-flat stomach, showing no sign of pregnancy.
"Not quite three months," Zhou Ruyan answered curtly. "But that's unimportant. Fixing your mess is the priority. We need to tell Mom and Dad, see if we can track down that itinerant priest."
"Senior," Zhou Benxin pleaded, turning desperately to Yun Jianyue, clearly wanting to avoid involving his parents. "You know how to fix this, right? Please?" He dreaded their inevitable reaction: 'You're the only boy!' 'How could you do this to us!' 'We told you to listen!'
Yun Jianyue raised an eyebrow. "I'm not an expert, but I know people who are."
Zhou Benxin's mind instantly conjured the supremely confident image of Si Wuming. "The Pose King? He can save me?"
"The Pose King is on assignment near the North Pole," Yun Jianyue countered. "But his Master-Nephew should suffice."
Zhou Ruyan looked utterly lost. "What on earth are you two talking about?"
"Jie," Zhou Benxin seized the lifeline. "Please, leave it to Senior! She's an expert in this stuff. Now that she knows what happened, she will save me!" He begged. "Don't tell Mom and Dad!"
Yun Jianyue: Did I say 'will'? I believe I said 'knows people'.
"Regardless, you're both just children," Zhou Ruyan insisted, unconvinced. While Yun Jianyue had handled their grandmother's spirit, this involved her brother's life.
"Please, Jie!" Zhou Benxin doubled down. "Give us three days! If we don't fix it in three days, then you tell them! Please?"
Zhou Ruyan hesitated silently for a long moment.
Seeing his chance, Zhou Benxin added, "Mom and Dad are still abroad. Even if you called now, they couldn't get back tomorrow. Let us try first. If it doesn't work, you tell them." He frantically signaled Yun Jianyue with his eyes. Help me out!
Yun Jianyue slowly raised three fingers, mouthing soundlessly: "Three hotpot meals. Minimum."
"DEAL!" Zhou Benxin agreed instantly.
Finally, swayed by Yun Jianyue's calm confidence and Zhou Benxin's desperate bargaining, Zhou Ruyan reluctantly acquiesced. "Fine. Forty-eight hours. If this isn't resolved in forty-eight hours, I'm calling Mom and Dad immediately."