Between sleep and wakefulness, Qin Yi vaguely heard someone speaking. The voice was very faint, as if separated by a thick wall. The language sounded unfamiliar, unlike any language he had ever known.
At that moment, Qin Yi thought he was dreaming. He even sighed inwardly.
"I didn't expect that even in my dreams I could invent an entirely new language."
However, at a certain moment, his consciousness suddenly became clear, and he realized something was wrong.
"Huh? Why can't I open my eyes? Wait… why does it feel like I'm soaking in water?"
Then a thought suddenly struck him.
"Right… I had just finished the college entrance exam. I was walking back to the orphanage when someone accidentally fell into the water. I jumped in to save them, and then…"
Fragments of broken memories flashed through his mind. He could only vaguely recall some common knowledge and a few important memories. Most of his memories seemed to have sunk to the bottom of a lake—visible in the distance, yet impossible to retrieve.
However, the memory right before his death was extremely clear.
The suffocating feeling in his body…
The sensation of his soul being pulled away…
Even now, Qin Yi still felt lingering fear when recalling it.
"Did I… die?"
"No… that can't be right. I didn't die?"
"But I've been underwater for so long. Why haven't I suffocated? Why can I still think? What… what is going on?"
After calming down, Qin Yi—unable to open his eyes and surrounded by complete darkness—began exploring his situation. Combined with a vague instinctive feeling, he reached an unbelievable conclusion.
"I might have transmigrated…"
"And not just that… I was reborn in the womb."
Right now, he was still inside his mother's womb. He hadn't even been born yet.
Just as he arrived at this conclusion, something suddenly appeared before his "eyes."
It was as if an old television with poor signal had been turned on. After a brief flicker of static, a rectangular screen appeared.
"A game interface?"
At the top-left corner of the screen was his character portrait.
At the top-right corner was a circular icon labeled "Map."
The bottom-left corner contained a message box, while the bottom-right corner displayed a row of function icons.
However…
"It's a broken game interface."
Although it looked like a game panel, it was covered with countless cracks.
Aside from the portrait and the skill bar—both emitting faint colorful light—the rest of the interface was completely gray.
With a thought, Qin Yi opened the character portrait. An information window appeared.
Name: Qin Yi
Race: Human
Status: Unborn
The information was extremely limited. It was obvious that there should have been more details below, but due to the severe damage to the interface, they could not be displayed.
"At least I can confirm that I reincarnated as a human. That's not the worst outcome."
Qin Yi closed the character window and opened the only other accessible section—the Skill Bar.
A dialogue box appeared.
There was only a single line inside.
Language (Current World): LV0
Note: The game interface only records skills from the current world. Future skills will no longer be specially labeled.
Aside from these two sections, the other gray areas could not be opened at all.
Clearly, the interface was too badly damaged to function.
"The game interface is broken this badly… I wonder if it can ever recover."
Just as this thought crossed his mind, Qin Yi suddenly felt exhausted. A powerful wave of drowsiness washed over him.
Unable to resist it, and carrying a faint expectation for the future, he fell asleep once again.
He woke up several times afterward, but since he couldn't understand the language outside, and the game interface showed no changes, he could only pass the boring time by recalling the past and imagining the future.
He didn't know how much time had passed.
When Qin Yi woke up again, something had finally changed.
"Huh? The message box in the lower-left corner… it's lit up?"
There was only one message inside.
After prolonged listening, the skill "Language" has upgraded from LV0 to LV1.
Qin Yi immediately opened the skill bar.
Sure enough, the only skill—Language—had changed from LV0 to LV1.
At that moment, footsteps sounded from outside, followed by voices.
This time…
He could actually understand them.
Apparently, this was the effect of the Language skill reaching LV1.
A man's voice rang out—loud and anxious.
"Auntie, please take a look. Something doesn't seem right with this pregnancy. Ever since Zhenniang became pregnant with our third child, her health has been getting worse and worse. And it's only been seven months, yet the baby is already this big. It doesn't look any smaller than an eight- or nine-month pregnancy…"
An elderly woman's voice interrupted impatiently.
"That's enough. Don't disturb me. Let me carefully check the pulse."
Then she added,
"Lift your clothes and expose your belly. Let me examine the fetal signs."
Soon after, Qin Yi felt pressure squeezing him from several directions.
After a moment, the pressure disappeared.
The elderly woman spoke again.
"Zhenniang's pregnancy is indeed a bit dangerous. Not only is the baby unusually large, but the fetal position is also incorrect…"
"Ah—this… what should we do?" The middle-aged man instantly panicked.
A gentle voice comforted him.
"Husband, let Auntie finish speaking first."
Hearing this, Qin Yi roughly guessed their identities.
The only man present should be his biological father in this life.
The elderly woman called "Auntie" was probably something like a midwife.
And the woman with the gentle voice… should be his mother in this life.
"Hmph. Look at Zhenniang, then look at you. You panic over the slightest thing—what kind of behavior is that…" Auntie scolded him bluntly before speaking confidently. "Relax. As long as this old woman is here, nothing will happen."
The middle-aged man immediately chuckled awkwardly.
"In all the surrounding villages, who doesn't know how capable you are, Auntie? Especially here in Qin Family Village—among our generation, who wasn't delivered by you? I might not trust others, but how could I not trust you? Auntie, I'll leave Zhenniang and the child in your care."
"Alright, there's nothing for you to do here. Go outside first. I need to speak with Zhenniang."
"Okay, okay."
Soon, the sound of footsteps faded away.
After he left, Auntie spoke softly.
"The issue with the fetal position is easy to solve. Over the next few days, I can adjust it for you. However…"
"Auntie, I'm fine. I can endure it. Please go ahead," Zhenniang said after taking a deep breath, trying to sound calm.
"It's just that this pregnancy of yours is truly too fierce. The danger isn't the abnormal fetal position… it's that the child consumes nutrients far too aggressively. To be honest, I've never seen such a case before."
Auntie sighed before continuing.
"The reason your body has been getting weaker is because this child is constantly taking nutrients from you. Without enough nourishment to maintain your body, it naturally becomes weaker. And…"
"The further along the pregnancy gets, the bigger the child becomes. The bigger it grows, the more fiercely it takes nourishment from you. Your body will only become weaker…"
"If your body becomes too weak… I'm afraid you might not even have the strength to give birth…"
Qin Yi suddenly felt an intense contraction. Clearly, Auntie's words had made his mother extremely nervous.
Then he heard her ask cautiously,
"Auntie… what do you mean?"
Hearing this, Qin Yi's heart tightened.
Could it be…
They were going to abort him?
He hadn't even been born yet…
Was he already going to die?
No… please don't…
(End of Chapter)