Liu Lian’s Possible Pregnancy

Liu Lian’s Possible Pregnancy is an uncertain disclosure that sharply changes the terms of Wu Dawang and Liu Lian’s affair. Liu Lian does not claim to know that she is pregnant: she describes a possible pregnancy, points to her period’s lateness, and notes that she has not felt ill. Yet the possibility makes their relationship more than a concealed romance. It raises questions about Wu Dawang’s existing family, the Division Commander’s response, and the future the two lovers can realistically choose.

The Disclosure and Its Uncertainty

The subject arises during a quiet meal shared by Liu Lian and Wu Dawang. After telling him that she wants to serve him while they have little time left together, Liu Lian says she thinks she might be pregnant. Wu Dawang hears her, but at first cannot take in the full implication; he asks her to repeat herself. Her answer does not settle the question. She explains that her period is due around that time but has not arrived, while also saying she does not feel pregnant and that strong flavours have not made her sick. She suggests that their frequent sex may have delayed her period, leaving the announcement as a possibility rather than confirmation.

Her reserve intensifies the uncertainty. Rather than immediately clarifying what she has said, Liu Lian looks toward the moon and appears privately triumphant; when Wu Dawang presses her, she briefly says nothing. The scene lets the disclosure remain suspended between knowledge and conjecture. Wu Dawang’s attention turns momentarily to the chives that need cutting back, but the thought does not protect him from what the announcement might mean. He recognizes that this is not a political transgression that can be answered with punishment or corrected through hard labour: it is an emotional and biological event that cuts across the moral, social, cultural, and political boundaries governing their lives.

Questions About Fear and Choice

Once Liu Lian and Wu Dawang return to a degree of intimacy, she asks him to lie beside her and answer honestly. She asks whether he would be afraid if she really were pregnant. He says no. Her questions then draw out what that answer leaves unresolved: whether he fears the Division Commander finding out, and what he would do about his marriage. The pregnancy remains unconfirmed, but it makes these consequences immediate enough to be tested aloud.

Wu Dawang imagines that discovery might end Liu Lian’s marriage to the Division Commander and allow the lovers to marry. Liu Lian does not endorse this scenario; she shifts instead to whether Wu Dawang would divorce his wife. He says he would, but makes that choice conditional on his wife and son being moved to the city, his wife receiving steady work, and his son being placed in school. The exchange shows that his commitment to Liu Lian does not erase his obligations or the bargain on which his marriage began.

Earlier Commitments and Material Stakes

The possible pregnancy therefore confronts Wu Dawang with commitments formed long before his affair. In his written premarital pledge to Zhao Ezi, he promised to earn commendations within a year, join the Party within two, and become an official within three. He tied those ambitions to moving Zhao Ezi to a city home where she could eat steamed rolls every day; if he failed, he promised not to return to Wujiagou unless she permitted it, and to serve her thereafter without complaint. The pledge makes clear that his marriage was bound up with advancement, urban relocation, and the welfare of his family, not simply with personal attachment.

Those ambitions partly came to fruition. After becoming Deputy Sergeant in the Catering Squad, Wu Dawang rose to full Sergeant, joined the Party, and received commendations and awards. But becoming an official remained out of reach, despite his hope that service in the Division Commander’s household would improve his prospects. The pregnancy question arrives against this unfinished history: the city, work, and schooling Wu Dawang invokes in discussing divorce are material conditions for his family, while the career route he expected to secure them is still uncertain.

Institutional Change and the Unsettled Future

The lovers’ private uncertainty is compounded by upheaval in the army. At a seminar in Beijing organized and directed by the Central Military Commission, the Division Commander volunteered his Division for a pilot scheme to streamline and restructure the army. The practical result was that the Division would be disbanded. Promotions were cancelled, most companies were to be demobilized, and a minority transferred; the same restructuring that undermined Wu Dawang’s hope of becoming an official also rearranged his prospects for leaving military service.

The Division Commander nevertheless arranged an exception for Wu Dawang: a city job in his native province, a move for his family, and work for his wife. At the same time, instability in the barracks and the Commander’s uncertain temper led to a request that Wu Dawang not return to his former post or visit Compound Number One unless necessary. Wu Dawang is relieved that the affair has not been discovered, but the restriction separates him from Liu Lian just as her disclosure opens questions about a shared future. No pregnancy is confirmed, and the conversation yields no settled choice. The possible child instead stands at the intersection of private desire, an existing marriage, family provision, the risk of exposure, and a military institution on the verge of disappearance.