In those eyes, however, the element of envy seemed to far exceed astonishment.

"Mr. Wang, ahem, pay attention." Sun Hang glanced at Zhong Ling, then at Wang Xiyi, and reminded softly.

"Pay attention to what? There's no minor here, and the only man is you... Besides, don't I still have scales on me?" Wang Xiyi said indifferently, suddenly giving Sun Hang a mischievous look, "Could it be that you're losing your composure?"

"You're underestimating my self-control." Sun Hang responded righteously, "I can remain composed, you can test me if you don't believe it."

"Try me when we get back." Wang Xiyi gave a sly smile, "I really want to see if you can truly stay composed."

"Ahem." The sound of coughing echoed again, but this time, it came from the person leading the way at the front, Yan Yu'an.

...

...

Celestial City, Tianfu Mysterious Creature Research Institute expansion zone staff temporary dormitory.

Yang Lian sat dazed on the toilet, her hands and feet cold, her heart a tangled mess.

Her gaze slowly shifted from the bathroom floor tiles to the trash can next to the toilet, where a recently changed sanitary pad lay, its non-woven material pristine white, with no trace of blood on it.

How long has it been... half a month? Or has it already been a month?

At first, Yang Lian thought it was due to hormonal imbalance caused by the intensity of her work, but now that the situation in Celestial City had stabilized, her routines and diet were gradually returning to normal... yet what should come, still hadn't.

Moreover, she felt she had developed a peculiar fondness for sour things lately. These past couple of days, after work, she would head to the commercial street in the park to buy two cups of lemonade to bring back to the dorm... 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

No no no... maybe I'm overthinking it... liking sour things could just be a mental suggestion I'm imposing on myself... after all, there haven't been any signs of nausea...

Just as this thought crossed Yang Lian's mind, it felt like something surged up from deep within her throat. She immediately bent over and dry retched while seated on the toilet.

Aside from the saliva dangling from her lips, nothing came out, but the feeling of nausea lingered persistently, even making her head feel somewhat woozy.

Could it really be...

Yang Lian took a deep breath, opened the delivery app, and then clicked on the pharmacy closest to the dormitory.

The first item recommended was indeed a pregnancy test kit—Yang Lian's expression momentarily froze, her thumb hovering on the screen for a few seconds.

Over the past couple of days, she had added this product to her cart several times only to remove it again... in the user profile of big data, she had probably been tagged as "pregnant" or "woman preparing for pregnancy" by now, right?

As if making a certain resolution, Yang Lian quickly clicked purchase, but just as she was about to submit the order to pay, a message unexpectedly popped up on the app saying "This item is out of stock, a request has been made to the seller to replenish it. There are 287 other similar products nearby, click to redirect."

Yang Lian was stunned for a few seconds, then let out a long sigh.

The courage she had just mustered seemed to drain away with that sigh.

She did not click the redirection link but instead shut down the delivery app directly, pulled a piece of tissue, wiped herself, and stood up after pulling up her pants.

Yang Lian placed her phone on the sink, looking at her reflection in the mirror.

Her complexion was pale, with heavy bags under her eyes and large dark circles making her look like the black-and-white treasures at the Celestial City Panda Breeding Center, with "exhausted" written all over her face.

She suddenly realized one thing—despite her haggard appearance, her skin had somehow improved greatly... the pores had shrunk, the skin texture had become finer, and even blackheads had reduced... she didn't even need makeup, the texture of her skin looked better than when she wore makeup before.

Yang Lian suddenly remembered from her childhood, during a New Year's gathering when either her mom or some other relatives were chatting idly, mentioning "If a woman is pregnant, her skin gets better... and if it's a girl, it's even more noticeable."

If it's a girl, it's even more noticeable...

Yang Lian's gaze involuntarily moved to her own abdomen in the mirror.

She gently pressed her hand against her stomach.

Her stomach was flat, showing no signs of a bulge, which made Yang Lian breathe a small sigh of relief.

Maybe this is all just an illusion... it's probably the work stress getting to me.

In a few days, everything should be back to normal... the dizziness and nausea earlier were likely just a cold...

After all, in the past couple of days, quite a few people around her had fallen ill—before Chimera 17 had been eradicated and Eternal Night had dissipated, everyone's mind had been taut as a bowstring... and now that string suddenly snapped, many had finally let go only for their bodies to collapse, falling prey to a variety of seasonal and non-seasonal illnesses.

In the workgroup Yang Lian was in alone, nearly a fifth of the people called in sick yesterday.

"I must be sick too... I'll try taking some cold medicine first." Yang Lian muttered to herself in the mirror.

Just then, her phone on the sink vibrated with a "buzz buzz buzz".

Yang Lian picked up the phone to see a colleague calling.

"Hello?"

"Yang Lian, are you available right now? It's an emergency!" the colleague said on the other end of the line.

"I... I'm available." Yang Lian originally wanted to say she was sick too, but thinking about it, her condition didn't seem serious enough to warrant a day off, and seeing her colleague in such a rush, it seemed there really was something urgent, "What's the emergency?"

"It's that documentation relating to refugee placement we handled last week, Zhou, that idiot, accidentally formatted his computer, losing all the data! As for the hard copies, they were shredded ages ago with the shredder, now we're all digging through the trash trying to piece the documents back together!"

"Uh..." Yang Lian suddenly felt darkness around her vision.

If only she had said she was sick.

"The team leader is nearly going mad. If we can't get those documents sorted by tomorrow, fourteen hundred refugees will be left on the streets!" the colleague continued, the sound of frantic paper rustling echoing in the background, "I know you just got off work and shouldn't be disturbed, but we're really short on hands! Even people from the group next door have been pulled over to help... The team leader said if you come back now, it'll count as holiday overtime, and he'll pay the overtime from his own pocket!"

"No need for overtime pay... Just helping out." Yang Lian sighed, "I'll head over now."

"I knew Lian, you're the best..." Her colleague's tone instantly turned coquettish, upon hearing that Yang Lian was willing to come back to help, "Once this is over, I'll treat you to a meal at the new Japanese restaurant on Celestial Golden Street!"

"Japanese food..." The thought of raw fish and raw eggs made that queasy feeling, which had just subsided, start to rise again.

"Let's talk about it later, gotta get the job done first." Yang Lian said, "I'll hang up now, I'll be right back."

She hung up, quickly walked into the living room, threw back on the suit she had only taken off half an hour ago, slipped on the socks discarded on the sofa, hurried to put on her shoes, grabbed the bag, and rushed out the door.

...

Fifteen minutes later, at the entrance of Building B, Tianfu Mysterious Creature Research Institute.

After Yang Lian swiped her ID card at the security turnstile and was about to walk in, the alarm fixed to one side of the turnstile suddenly began to beep.

Yang Lian froze, puzzled as to why the alarm was going off.

The two guards beside her immediately became serious.

"The device has detected a Mysterious Creature meme fluctuation." Several guards further away also approached, some even resting their hands on the holsters at their hips. "Miss... are you carrying any items related to Mysterious Creatures?"