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Once I got pregnant, everyone said I was carrying a starving ghost.
Because my appetite was staggering. I could put away enough food for eight people in one sitting, and I snacked constantly, anywhere, anytime.
And even so, I'd still be dizzy with hunger. Eat a little less than usual, and my belly would cramp up.
The one who suffered for all this was my mother-in-law.
To take care of me, she was up before dawn and busy late into the night, always coming up with new nutritious dishes for me,
hours at a stretch, until she'd be so worn out she couldn't straighten her back.
But she never once grew tired of it. She'd only smile and reassure me:
"You married my son, so you're half a daughter to me. If I don't treat you well, who else would I treat well?"
I was so touched I couldn't help snapping a photo and sending it to my college roommates:
"What's it like to have a mother-in-law who's an absolute angel?"
Everyone in the chat was envying me, saying how lucky I was, how blessed,
until one comment popped up out of nowhere:
"Angel, my foot! This is not what nurturing a pregnancy looks like."
"The spirit-fetus in your belly is almost fully formed. If you don't get your mouth under control, get ready to lose both your life and the baby's!"
……
A jolt went through me, and the rich health tonic in my mouth suddenly lost all its flavor.
Another message came through.
"Lately, aren't you swollen all over, with the morning sickness getting worse and worse?"
"And no matter how much you eat, you still feel frantic with hunger?"
Camille Galloway's messages came one after another, and my face went dark.
"Camille, all that cultivating-immortals nonsense has finally scrambled your brain, hasn't it?"
"You can't stand seeing anyone else happy, so you deliberately say things like this. How can you be so black-hearted!"
In college, Camille and I shared a dorm room.
She was forever muttering strange things.
One minute the dorm had bad feng shui, the next somebody had a filthy thing clinging to them.
After all these years since graduation, I'd assumed she'd turned normal long ago.
Turned out she was exactly the same.
I was about to keep laying into her when the empty bowls on the dinner table caught the corner of my eye, and a guilty feeling crept in despite myself.
My appetite really had been getting more and more ridiculous lately.
At lunch today, my mother-in-law made a full five-course dinner.
Braised pork ribs, steamed sea bass, chicken soup, the rich health tonic, and a big platter of beef.
I ate nearly all of it, by myself.
Yet even so, my stomach still felt hollow and desperate, as if there were a bottomless pit in my belly.
The moment I finished, I'd throw it all back up until the world spun.
And once I was done vomiting, I'd be so hungry my vision went black, aching to sit down and eat all over again.
I'd always thought it was just the morning sickness being unusually severe.
After all, the hospital had checked me several times.
The baby was developing normally, and every one of my own readings was normal too.
The doctor even smiled and reassured me:
"Pregnant women have different constitutions. Some just eat a lot. As long as the tests come back fine, there's no need to worry too much."
My husband and my mother-in-law kept telling me the same thing.
But this was still the reason I lost my job.
Last week, HR called me into the office, wearing a look of pure resignation.
"Priscilla Simmons, you've always been one of the company's top performers. We were planning to invest heavily in you. But ever since you got pregnant, haven't you gotten a little too indulgent with yourself?"
"Pregnant or not, you can't just be gnawing on something all day, can you?"
"Do you know what your coworkers are saying about you now? They all say you're like a starving ghost reincarnated."
"During the project report the other day, you actually presented while eating. A deal worth over a million fell through because of it. The company can't take losses like that. You should just go home and focus on the pregnancy!"
I tried desperately to explain that I hadn't meant to.
In that moment, I was so hungry my stomach was seizing up.
If I didn't eat something, I felt like I'd pass out on the spot.
But not one person believed me.
They all thought I was leaning on my pregnancy, betting the company wouldn't dare fire me, and so I'd only gotten more and more shameless.
After I resigned, I just settled in at home to nurse the pregnancy.
Every day was nothing but eating and sleeping.
Everyone said how lucky I was.
A husband who adored me, and a mother-in-law who treated me like her own daughter.
Only… how could Camille possibly know my situation?
She'd taken a leave of absence back in freshman year and was never close to anyone. Who could have told her?
The chat instantly blew up:
"Camille, you starting up with the spooky act again?"
"If you're just jealous that Priscilla's got a happy life, then say so. Why the passive-aggressive cursing?"
"Who even added you to this group? Ranting like a lunatic. No wonder you dropped out freshman year. Turns out you're actually mentally ill!"
Camille didn't explain herself. Instead, she sent a photo.
"Look familiar?"
Frowning, I tapped it open, and the next second my breath froze.
The photo was unmistakably the corpse of a pregnant woman!
But what truly made my scalp crawl was the eerie, vine-like pattern spreading across her belly.
It was identical to the mark on mine… exactly the same!
