WRA CH61

Chapter 61: Giving Birth to a Baby Just Adds Trouble

“Hubby, stop asking how I gave birth. A bone injury takes a hundred days to heal.”

Xiang Zhen yielded half the hospital bed. “Hubby, hurry and get up here.”

The hospital bed was quite large—not a standard single bed—more than enough for two people to lie down comfortably.

Zhou Sicheng nodded: “I’ll stay with you for your postpartum period.”

Xiang Zhen: “What is postpartum confinement?”

Zhou Sicheng: “It means recovering your body after giving birth. You’re not allowed to leave this room for a month.”

Xiang Zhen was flabbergasted. This is blatant punishment!

“I’m a Yao! I can walk on the ground right now.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Right now, you are a human.”

Xiang Zhen muttered, “I didn’t even pick the restroom for convenience! The stairwell is spacious and quiet, what’s wrong with that?”

“The restroom?” Hearing this, Zhou Sicheng nearly fainted from anger again. His wife truly was the best painkiller; ever since his wife came to “take care” of him, he hadn’t had the spare attention to feel the pain in his foot at all.

“I was right inside the room! Why would you go near and far? Even the empty room next door would have worked! Why go to the stairwell?!” He had racked his brain trying to figure it out and completely missed the mark—never expecting them to head straight for the stairwell.

Xiang Zhen blinked: “Manning didn’t object either.”

If two people agree on something, then it can be done.

Zhou Sicheng: “I object.”

He stressed the word “I,” expressing his intense personal indignation.

“A bone injury takes a hundred days to heal. Then you can stay here and take care of me for three months,” Zhou Sicheng, infuriated by the “restroom” comment, raised the stakes.

Xiang Zhen: “…”

Zhou Sicheng called Shen Ku. Deep down, he was immensely grateful for Dou Manning’s contributions during Xiang Zhen’s delivery and intended to provide equivalent compensation.

“Engineer Shen, my wife gave birth.”

Shen Ku, who had recently gone on a business trip to a remote area, had only agreed to let Dou Manning stay at Zhou Sicheng’s house because of that. “Congratulations. Can I pick Manning up to go home now?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Thank you.”

Shen Ku: “Mutual help and support.”

Right now, since no one had gotten a vasectomy, everyone’s wife was at risk of getting pregnant.

“Have you arranged for Dou Manning to go to school?” The moment “mutual help and support” was mentioned, Zhou Sicheng couldn’t help but urge him regarding education. Right now, he cared more about the illiteracy rate than the Ministry of Education; his sense of social responsibility as an entrepreneur was growing stronger by the day.

Shen Ku: “Not yet.”

“You need to hurry up,” Zhou Sicheng complained bitterly. “Did you know they were planning to give birth in a restroom?”

Shen Ku: “…”

Zhou Sicheng sounded the alarm: “If they dare cover up security cameras now, they’ll dare to dig up fiber-optic cables in the future.”

Shen Ku: “…”

That would be quite serious.

Xiang Zhen was bewildered: “Hubby, what are fiber-optic cables?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Telecommunications infrastructure. Destroying them means prison time.”

Xiang Zhen opened his mouth slightly. Oh, so it’s a crime. He would make sure to steer clear of them in the future.

Half an hour later, Xiao Guazi (little sunflower seed)—having been bathed, fed milk, and had all its bodily measurements taken—was brought back in by Dou Manning.

Xiang Zhen spoke from the bottom of his heart: “Manning, thank you. You should rest too. You can sleep in the empty room next door.”

Dou Manning said, “Okay. Shen Ku is coming to pick me up in a bit. I’ll come visit you again tomorrow.”

Hearing that Xiang Zhen had given birth, Auntie Guihua finally decided to make a trip into the city to see her nominal grandson. Tomorrow, he and Bai Qi would accompany Li Guihua when they visited.

Li Guihua was very shrewd: before the baby was safely born, as the mother-in-law, she absolutely shouldn’t meddle. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships were notoriously tense.

At the same time, a nurse wheeled in an electric wheelchair.

Zhou Sicheng sat in the wheelchair and carefully took his son. A tiny, warm little bundle that had just been separated from his wife’s body, carrying his wife’s body temperature.

His eyes softened. This was the fruit of his and Xiang Zhen’s love.

“Wifey, you name the baby,” Zhou Sicheng said. His wife had thoroughly researched the profound meanings behind names.

Comparing the little baby to Zhou Sicheng, Xiang Zhen found many similarities: the shape of the ears, the eyebrows, the bridge of the nose, the mouth, the eyes… The little baby had inherited his features beautifully.

Xiang Zhen’s imagination took flight, ready to display his knowledge: “My name is Xiang Zhen (向蓁). ‘Zhen’ (蓁) has the ‘grass’ radical (艹) because I’m a herbaceous Yao. But our son is different; the baby has half-human blood. How about we change the ‘grass’ radical to the ‘person’ radical (亻) for his name!”

Zhou Sicheng: “…There is no such character as [亻+秦].”

Xiang Zhen: “Yes there is! I’ve seen it.”

Zhou Sicheng: “What you saw was the ‘Dai’ (傣) from the Dai ethnic minority.”

“…” Failing to show off in front of his husband, Xiang Zhen flushed with embarrassment, pulling the quilt up to cover half his face. “Hubby, you have a master’s degree, you should name him. Make sure it has the ‘person’ radical.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Let me think about it.”

Xiang Zhen: “Let him take your surname.”

He was called Xiang Zhen purely because he was a sunflower (xiang ri kui), not because he had a human surname.

If Xiao Guazi took its dad’s surname, would it save him from a couple of spankings?

Zhou Sicheng: “Why not the surname Xiang? Surnames are products of ancient matrilineal societies used to distinguish bloodlines; they were originally created from nothing anyway. Wifey, starting your own family tree isn’t a bad idea.”

Xiang Zhen’s eyes curved into crescents. As expected of his elite-university hubby—logical and highly educated! He looked at his husband with adoration: “But I want everyone to know that I gave birth to my hubby’s baby.”

Once Xiao Guazi grew up and its hair turned golden, that would be the best proof of their father-son relationship. Xiang Zhen didn’t need any other proof. He and Zhou Sicheng didn’t have a marriage certificate; Zhou Sicheng needed this.

Zhou Sicheng met his gaze for a few seconds and said, “I’ll think about it some more.”

It felt as if no name could adequately express the preciousness of Xiao Guazi; Zhou Sicheng found himself at a rare loss for words.

“Wifey, sleep for a while.” Zhou Sicheng hadn’t forgotten how pale Xiang Zhen’s lips were when he transformed back.

Xiang Zhen nodded: “I’ll hug the baby for a bit, then I’ll sleep.”

Zhou Sicheng handed their son to Xiang Zhen, supporting the little cub’s bottom to keep him from pressing against Xiang Zhen’s stomach.

Holding his very first fruit, a wave of immense satisfaction washed over Xiang Zhen.

Watching the sleeping baby, drowsiness soon overtook him as well.

Xiao Guazi was very well-behaved. When the afternoon sun slanted in through the west window, Zhou Sicheng steered the wheelchair, holding the baby and moving to the window.

“Can you photosynthesize?” Zhou Sicheng asked softly.

It would be best if you could.

Having witnessed Xiang Zhen’s delivery process, Zhou Sicheng saw for the first time the beams of light flowing from his and Dou Manning’s palms.

Without a doubt, it was something incredibly precious, stored year after year.

Every two hours, Zhou Sicheng fed his son milk. The nurse would prepare the formula, and he personally held the bottle to feed him.

Although he had previously entertained thoughts of withholding a mouthful of milk from the little brat.

But Zhou Sicheng didn’t actually go through with it. He was afraid that if Xiao Guazi grew too slowly, his illiterate wife would secretly try to “pull up the shoots to help them grow” by feeding him his own sunlight power.

“Formula is cheap. Drink as much as you want,” Zhou Sicheng told his son coolly from his wheelchair.

Xiang Zhen slept for three hours. When he woke up, it was exactly time for dinner, and he was a bit hungry.

“Hungry? I’ll order food right away.”

Zhou Sicheng’s voice drifted over from a short distance away.

Xiang Zhen rubbed his eyes and saw Zhou Sicheng standing on one leg by the changing table, rather clumsily changing Xiao Guazi’s diaper.

Zhou Sicheng’s right leg was bent backward, the swelling on his instep worsening and turning purple.

This is bad. Giving birth to the baby just added more trouble.

He had originally thought that since the sunflower seed baby could photosynthesize, it wouldn’t need much looking after, allowing him to wholeheartedly care for his hubby.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

Zhou Sicheng glanced at the video intercom—it was Fan Hao—so he called out, “Come in.”

Fan Hao, having finished work, carried a fruit basket on behalf of Zhoufu Bank to visit the big boss who had been in a car accident.

In a multi-car pileup, Zhou Sicheng was considered lucky to have escaped without major injuries.

Pushing the door open, he saw the injured man standing by the table busy with something, while the injured man’s wife lay in bed.

“It seems President Zhou is recovering quite well.”

Fan Hao placed the fruit basket on the table, caught a glimpse of the little thing in Zhou Sicheng’s hands, and was subjected to ten thousand points of pure shock.

“What is that in your hands?!”

Zhou Sicheng gave him an exasperated look: “What are you making a fuss about?”

It’s not like you’re looking at a newly sprouted sunflower seedling; it’s just a human infant.

“My son with Xiang Zhen. Congratulations, you’re an uncle now.”

Fan Hao was shocked speechless. Looking closely at the soft, white little bundle, its features actually bore traces of both Xiang Zhen and Zhou Sicheng: “How did you manage this?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Never mind how he got here. Just have a red envelope ready.”

Fan Hao stood there digesting the information for a while. Witnessing the entire process of Zhou Sicheng changing a diaper, he looked at the infant with profound reverence—the little young master who, from the moment of birth, had a trillion-dollar conglomerate to inherit.

A cub born into ultimate wealth and status.

Xiang Zhen got out of bed and earnestly asked Fan Hao, “Does my son look like my hubby?”

Fan Hao felt this was a trick question and answered cautiously: “A fifty percent resemblance.”

Remembering that Zhou Sicheng had ordered him to do postpartum confinement, Xiang Zhen cleverly brought it up with his direct superior: “Manager Fan, I can go back to work tomorrow.”

A local official on the spot is more effective than a higher authority far away.

Zhou Sicheng sneered: “Manager Fan, tell him how many days of maternity leave we provide.”

Fan Hao: “At our bank, a natural birth gets 158 days, and a cesarean section gets 175 days.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Give him the full duration.”

Fan Hao couldn’t see how Xiang Zhen met the criteria for maternity leave in the slightest, but he didn’t dare disobey the domineering boss, so he replied, “Understood.”

Xiang Zhen: “…”

The nurse brought in the hospital’s nutritional meals. Zhou Sicheng placed the baby into the crib, sat back in his wheelchair, and after feeding the small one, began feeding the big one. While Xiang Zhen chewed, he even found time to reply to work messages.

In Zhou Sicheng, Fan Hao vividly saw a man born to toil.

How magical.

He decided he’d better stick with the little young master who was born into wealth and leisure.

Afraid that if he stood there any longer, Zhou Sicheng would get the idea to dump his work onto him so he could focus entirely on his wife and kid, Fan Hao hastily took his leave.

As soon as Fan Hao left, Zhou Qingyun called. He asked why he was still in the hospital if he was supposed to be discharged today, demanding to know if he had broken a bone and was hiding it from him.

Zhou Qingyun was highly sensitive to accidents; his tone was severe, sounding almost accusatory at first listen.

Zhou Sicheng turned the camera toward Xiao Guazi: “No broken bones. I’m in the hospital taking care of my son.”

Zhou Qingyun’s presbyopic eyes widened. Wait, I was fully prepared to have my bloodline end here, how did a great-grandson suddenly pop out?! He immediately spotted the Zhou family’s signature high-bridged nose. No mistake, this is the seed of my Zhou family!

“Who gave birth to him?! Aren’t you gay?!”

Zhou Sicheng: “The child bride my mother arranged.”

Zhou Qingyun had never heard of this. Did Zheng Ai arrange a childhood betrothal for Zhou Sicheng?

“Who is it?” Zheng Ai’s taste must have been excellent.

Zhou Sicheng flipped the camera around, framing himself and Xiang Zhen together: “Is your memory that bad? Didn’t you just attend our engagement banquet?”

Zhou Qingyun wore an expression of having been utterly played.

Zhou Sicheng: “Never mind how he was born for now. Prepare gold jewelry for my son.”

He even placed an order: “I want a pure gold sunflower disc and 999 gold-wrapped jade sunflower seeds.”

Zhou Qingyun paused. It had been a very long time since his grandson had so directly asked him for anything.

Due to old wounds neither could heal, the grandfather and grandson had always been at each other’s throats. When did it start to change?

Perhaps it was the day his grandson-in-law ran away, and Zhou Sicheng came home crying bitterly.

Xiang Zhen whispered, “Hubby, isn’t pure gold too expensive? The price of gold is so high right now.”

Zhou Sicheng: “The old man has money. Letting him forge the gold jewelry is giving him face. You think I don’t have money myself?”

Hearing this incredibly arrogant remark, Zhou Qingyun felt as if he were seeing the Zhou Sicheng from before he turned twelve.

If he wants to order it, let him order it. I have plenty of money.

After notifying Zhou Qingyun, no other visitors came. The hospital room quieted down. Xiang Zhen looked down at the baby in the crib and saw that at some point, he had woken up, his round eyes wide open, listening to his two dads talk.

Yao naturally awakened a language pack, but Xiao Guazi was too young and probably wouldn’t awaken it this early. He might only display his linguistic talent at two or three years old.

Xiang Zhen couldn’t resist tapping his nose: “You’re a little illiterate.”

Zhou Sicheng coughed: “Ahem.”

Xiang Zhen seamlessly corrected himself: “Baby, you’re a little scholar star.”

The little sun born from the Sun God was also a tiny star itself.

When going to sleep that night, Xiang Zhen had Zhou Sicheng place the baby in the middle. After sunbathing in the afternoon, Xiao Guazi had grown a bit more, growing as rapidly as a newborn sprout in spring.

“He’s so well-behaved,” Xiang Zhen said.

“Mn,” Zhou Sicheng agreed. He was very honest in my hands.

Xiang Zhen: “Hubby, stretch your foot over here. I’ll massage it for you.”

Zhou Sicheng: “No need.”

Xiang Zhen: “I’ll help you disperse the blood stasis.”

Zhou Sicheng: “I’m afraid you’ll channel it somewhere it shouldn’t go and cause a blockage.”

His delicate wife teaching himself medicine was simply a surefire way to harm her husband with precision.

Xiang Zhen got angry and patted his own thigh: “Stretch your foot over!”

Zhou Sicheng silently rested his left foot onto Xiang Zhen’s leg: “Do not use magic.”

With heartache in his eyes, Xiang Zhen rubbed the left leg his husband had worked so hard to stand on today and said, “Hubby, did you notice that Chu Ren hasn’t really changed since he was twenty?”

Zhou Sicheng paused. It seemed so, but since his clothing styles and hairstyles differed across periods, he appeared different overall.

Xiang Zhen: “Because he is Bai Qi’s fated one, so he gets to grow old slowly alongside Bai Qi. Yao age very slowly; whatever state Bai Qi is in, Chu Ren shares it.”

“Hubby, you are too,” Xiang Zhen said somewhat ashamedly, “But I can’t help you avoid the minor injuries you suffer.”

Zhou Sicheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Why are you ashamed? I’ve already taken advantage of such a massive bargain.”

Chu Ren truly had incredible luck, snagging such a huge advantage without even realizing it.

Xiang Zhen: “Hubby, I want to try feeding the baby milk once.”

Zhou Sicheng’s gaze wavered, instinctively dropping to his chest: “D-Do you have milk?”

Xiang Zhen: “Didn’t you buy formula?!”

Zhou Sicheng: “…”

He pressed the call button, and a nurse brought in a small bottle of milk.

Lying on his side, Xiang Zhen held the bottle up with one hand.

Xiao Guazi ate very slowly, lacking the urgency of snatching food from beneath Zhou Sicheng’s hand. Unhurriedly, he would close his eyes for a bit, then spit out the nipple, using his tongue to poke and lick at the milk dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

Zhou Sicheng took the bottle: “He’s just playing around. My wife’s arm is getting tired.”

With a change in dad, the feeding momentum shifted completely. Like a male bird returning from a hunt, shoving the entire prey—skin, bones, and all—into the wide-open beak of a fledgling.

Xiang Zhen: “Hubby, you’re amazing! You definitely feed him faster.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Good thing he knows what’s good for him.”

…

The next day.

Li Guihua came to the city to see Xiang Zhen.

Chu Ren and Bai Qi picked her up from the high-speed rail station, while Dou Manning and Shen Ku waited downstairs at the hospital. Subsequently, the five of them went upstairs together to visit the big and little sunflowers.

The moment Li Guihua appeared, Zhou Sicheng, Chu Ren, and Shen Ku finally experienced a visceral realization that they were brothers-in-law.

A single “Mom,” multiplied by three.

—They had gotten so used to calling her Mom, even more used to it than their wives, standing there looking like three clowns.

Smiling brightly, Li Guihua picked up Xiao Guazi: “Just call me Auntie. I’m not used to having so many handsome young men calling me Mom.”

“Zhenzhen, does your stomach still hurt?”

Xiang Zhen: “It doesn’t hurt anymore, Auntie. I’m all recovered. Please help me talk to Zhou Sicheng; I don’t want to do postpartum confinement.”

Li Guihua played it off. She had humored Xiang Zhen over the phone by spouting nonsense to anger Zhou Sicheng, but face-to-face, she didn’t dare say a word. She was just a rural woman who loved playing mahjong; she couldn’t win against a major CEO.

Zhou Sicheng possessed the imposing aura of someone who would lead the police to raid a mahjong parlor.

Li Guihua: “Postpartum confinement is good! Your body won’t develop chronic ailments.”

Zhou Sicheng finally felt this nominal mother-in-law was saying something sensible.

The two Yao uncles took turns holding Xiao Guazi, generously bestowing some sunlight power upon him—a gesture far more refined than his husband, who only knew how to give money.

Shen Ku and Bai Qi thought Zhou Sicheng’s son was very cute, but they didn’t feel envious.

Li Guihua couldn’t quite figure out the pregnancy probabilities for this new batch of little Yao. Had Heaven secretly updated the rates? She asked Manning: “Are you pregnant?”

Dou Manning shook his head.

Li Guihua confirmed: “Did you transform into a coffee tree to check? Coffee trees have so many branches; what if a coffee bean sprouted on one of them?”

A single coffee bean was tiny. Hidden amidst lush branches and leaves, it would be much harder to find than a sunflower seed.

Dou Manning was stumped by the question.

Xiang Zhen said immediately, “Manning, let’s go to the stairwell—”

Zhou Sicheng: “You’ve developed path dependency now?!”

Xiang Zhen: “Let’s go to the room next door. You turn into a tree, and I’ll help you check.”

In that room, Zhou Sicheng had placed a massive square plastic tub filled with a cubic meter of nutrient soil for taking root.

Bai Qi said, “I’ll do it.”

Chu Ren teased Shen Ku: “You weren’t invited.”

Shen Ku: “Have you ever seen Bai Qi’s true form?”

Chu Ren: “…” No.

He absolutely refuses to let me see it.

Shen Ku: “The pot calling the kettle black.”

The corners of Zhou Sicheng’s mouth curled up, gaining a sense of superiority that left them far behind.

Two useless teammates not trusted by their own wives.

Xiang Zhen waited eagerly, his mind already spinning with plans: if Dou Manning had a baby, they could take their babies out together to stand in the rain and bask in the sun!

Ding-dong.

In the three-person little Yao group chat, Xiang Zhen was the first to receive the precise intel.

Dou Manning had a baby!

Shen Ku was completely oblivious. When his wife returned, he was just about to open his mouth to ask about the situation.

Xiang Zhen spoke faster than him: “Manning, you have to be very careful from now on. Enduring a Heavenly Lightning Tribulation during pregnancy is still quite dangerous.”

What???

What did you say happens during pregnancy?!

A normal human’s understanding of a Lightning Tribulation came from movies and novels, usually involving a near-death experience.

Shen Ku wore an expression as if he had just been struck by lightning himself, gritting his teeth: “Zhou Sicheng, you didn’t share this information?!”

In that case, he would rather be impotent than not get a vasectomy!

Zhou Sicheng was even more furious: “Did you think I knew?!”

Xiang Zhen: “…”

Oops, let it slip.