The fall season is refreshing, and the cicadas are chirping loudly.

I, bulging with pregnancy, stood at the front door of the villa and rang the doorbell. My slender fingers trembled significantly—today, my husband informed his mother that our baby is a girl. Allegedly, my mother-in-law dropped her bowl in shock and instructed me to return home immediately.

I had no idea what would transpire next. But the terrified image of my mother-in-law throwing a tantrum made me shiver with fear.

The door swiftly opened, revealing a usual poker-faced mother-in-law with her makeup delicately done. A bit perturbed, I meekly called out “Mom” and received a sarcastic snort, "Liability."

The smile froze on my face, but as always, I did not repudiate. I entered the main hall awkwardly and heard my mother-in-law trail behind me, ordering in a stern voice, “There is a bowl of pregnancy-nurturing medicine on the table. You should hurry up and drink it.”

Pregnancy-nurturing medicine? My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “Mom, the baby is already six months old. Why would I need to drink this medicine?”

“Just drink it!” she retorted without patience. “You are a liability, and you want to produce another liability for my Hu Family? This is a secret remedy I got from Aunt Liu next door. After drinking it for a month, the girl would turn into a boy!”

Change gender by drinking a medicine? Wasn’t this myth debunked by experts a few years ago?

I blinked incredulously, apprehensively objecting, “That isn’t possible, right? The idea of changing gender has no scientific basis. Besides, Mom, isn’t the sex of the baby largely related to the man…”

“Nonsense!” My mother-in-law's eyes bulged immediately, pointing at my nose, “The child is in your womb, how dare you blame it on my son? If you refuse to drink the medicine, then abort the child, until a boy is conceived!”

I felt a chill in my heart, taking a step back and protecting my stomach. I wondered if I had misheard, “Mom, this is, after all, a kin of yours...Besides,” I started panicking, trying hard to find reasons to persuade her, “aborting the baby might lead to infertility…”

“If you can’t get pregnant, we can find another woman who can! There are plenty of women that would want to bear a son for our Hu Family!”

My mother-in-law’s expression screamed indifference. “To put it bluntly, your belly is a mere bowl for serving rice. My son has not once complained about cooking the rice, and now you are complaining about emptying the rice bowl? Think about what we married you, a liability, for in the first place!”

A liability? The usage of this term pierced me deeply.

When my father was seriously ill, the Hu family had indeed given me money. For this reason, I married into the family and had been swallowing my pride ever since. But in these two years, my income has not been low, and all my salary was handed over to my husband. So, the debt should have been almost all repaid by now.

I take a deep breath. My fingers, hanging at my side, tightly clench into the palm of my hand, “Mother...”

“Don’t call me! Drink it!” My mother-in-law’s high cheekbones reflect a harsh light. She slams the bowl onto the table, “This won’t kill you! From now on, you stay at home and take care of the baby! You're not going anywhere until you deliver a son!”

The porcelain bowl hits the table, causing the thick, black liquid inside to spill a little, exuding a strange smell.

I sniff. The smell, tinged with a fishy scent, made me want to throw up. But my mother-in-law's piercing gaze just intensifies. I had no choice but force myself, closing my eyes and pinching my nose, to down the entire bowl of the nasty concoction.

Disgusting...

The potent smell fills my mouth. I put down the bowl, repressing the urge to dry heave, and force a weak smile to my mother-in-law.

“At least you know your place,” she finally grunts in satisfaction. She picks up her bag and walks out the door, not forgetting to command loftily, “Someone’s invited me to play mahjong, I’ll be off. Hu Qing will be back this evening, remember to cook his dinner.”

With that said, there’s a click as she locks the door from the outside.

Trembling, I watch as my mother-in-law’s figure finally disappears from my sight. I quickly dash for the bathroom, in a futile attempt to throw up the liquid from my stomach. After struggling for a while, I gain nothing. Exhausted, I collapse onto the couch and fall asleep.

By the time I wake up, the clock on the wall already points to ten o'clock at night.

My sleep was disrupted by intense abdominal pains. The baby, which has always been still inside me, seems to be triggered by something and has been trembling ceaselessly, as if it's struggling.

Baby...what happened to you?

Breaking into a cold sweat, I clutch my stomach, curl up and moan in pain. The overwhelming panic is like an intangible hand, clutching me who has nowhere to hide in the dark.

“Husband……it hurts……save me……”

The pain becomes increasingly intense. I feel my hair getting wet and clumpy. With the remnants of my consciousness, I start to fumble for my phone, spasming fingers trembling, “Help…"

My body started to lose strength, and I struggled to crawl towards the bag on the table with my pregnant and swollen body. Just then, the sound of twisting the doorknob and fumbling for keys came from outside the door.

Someone's home!

I was overjoyed to hear that, opened my mouth in unbearable pain, but couldn't make a sound. All I could do was lay on the floor, waiting anxiously and passively.

With a bang, the door slammed shut. Then, the light in the hall was turned on, and a man of average height was illuminated.

It's Hu Qing! I wiped the sweat from my eyelashes, and a spark of hope ignited in me. As I crawled towards him with all my strength, I gasped, "Husband… Hurry, save our baby…”

As I got closer, I could see that my husband's steps were unsteady, his eyes blurry, and a scent not mine lingered on him. He'd obviously been drinking heavily somewhere.

Despite my worry, I clung to his shoe and begged, “Husband, my stomach hurts so bad… Can you take me to the hospital?”

The strange pain frightened me, and the man before me was my only salvation.

I lifted my face to look at him, but all I saw was a cold, unmoving expression. My heart dropped and my grip on his shoe tightened, "Husband, I know you don't like daughters either, but you can't let her die just like this…”

"If she's gone, she's gone! She's just a costly burden!”

Hu Qing seemed to be hit by the word "daughter," his face suddenly turned fierce, and he brutally kicked me in the chest, "You bitch! If it weren't for you being so useless, my mom would've let me inherit the company! Just look at you now!"

He was drunk, and his words were full of malice, "You're bad luck! If I had known you couldn't bear me a son, why would I marry you? Why hasn't fucking you multiple times given me a son? Huh?”

His humiliating words bore into my ears like ice-cold venomous snakes. Before I could react, a rain of punches and kicks fell on me.

Drunk men hit harder than usual. I couldn't utter a single word as I took the beatings, and could only muster all my strength to protect my belly, and sobbed aloud, "Please stop… Husband… Please…”

"Shut the hell up!" My crying seemed to provoke him. Hu Qing's aura became even more violent. He grabbed my hair, and started to repeatedly smash my head into the ground, "I put up with you looking like a fat pig every day! Instead of being grateful, you give me a burden to carry?!”

Slurs swirled around in my mind, and the instinct to survive made me reach out and scratch his face. However, this only enraged him further. His grip tightened, making it seem like he wouldn't stop until he had killed me.

Am I going to die here today...?

Sharp pain flared up on my head and abdomen. I fell into a state of confusion. As a vague thought flitted across my mind, my head hit against the corner of the table with a stronger force, and then everything plunged into darkness.