“Hubby, don’t worry about how I gave birth. A bone and tendon injury takes a hundred days to heal.”

Xiang Zhen made room on half of the hospital bed. “Hubby, hurry up and get in.”

The hospital bed was quite large—not a standard single bed—and had more than enough space for two people.

Zhou Sicheng nodded. “I’ll stay and do the postpartum confinement with you.”

Xiang Zhen: “What is postpartum confinement?”

Zhou Sicheng: “It means recovering your body after giving birth. You can’t leave this room for a month.”

Xiang Zhen was stunned. This was an outright punishment!

“I’m a spirit! I can get out of bed right now.”

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

Xiang Zhen muttered, “I didn’t even take the easy route and give birth in the bathroom. The corridor was spacious and quiet, so why not?”

“The bathroom?” Zhou Sicheng almost passed out from anger upon hearing this. His wife truly was the best painkiller; ever since his arrival to “take care” of him, Zhou Sicheng no longer had the mental capacity to focus on the pain in his injured foot.

“I was right here in the room, why would you go out of your way? The room next door is empty too, what were you doing going to the corridor?” Even if he racked his brain, he never would have imagined the two of them would head straight for the corridor—they had gone in completely the wrong direction.

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

If two people agreed on something, then it was a go.

Zhou Sicheng: “I object.”

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

“A bone and tendon injury takes a hundred days to heal, so you can stay here and take care of me for three months.” Angered by the mention of the “bathroom,” Zhou Sicheng upped the ante.

Xiang Zhen: “…”

Zhou Sicheng called Shen Ku. Deep down, he was very grateful for Dou Manning’s efforts during Xiang Zhen’s delivery, and he intended to compensate him equally.

“Engineer Shen, my wife gave birth.”

Shen Ku had recently gone on a business trip to a remote area, which was the only reason he had agreed to let Dou Manning stay at Zhou Sicheng’s house. “Congratulations. Can I bring Manning home now?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Thank you.”

Shen Ku: “Happy to help each other out.”

No one had gotten a vasectomy yet, so everyone’s “wives” had the potential to get pregnant.

“Have you enrolled Dou Manning in school yet?” Speaking of helping each other out, Zhou Sicheng couldn’t resist urging education. He cared more about the illiteracy rate than the Ministry of Education at this point; his sense of corporate social responsibility was growing stronger by the day.

Shen Ku: “Not yet.”

“You need to hurry.” Zhou Sicheng vented bitterly. “Did you know those two were planning to give birth in the bathroom?”

Shen Ku: “…”

Zhou Sicheng said alarmingly, “Today they dare to cover up security cameras, tomorrow they’ll dare to dig up fiber optic cables.”

Shen Ku: “…”

That was indeed quite serious.

Xiang Zhen asked blankly, “Hubby, what are fiber optic cables?”

Zhou Sicheng: “Communication facilities. Destroying them means jail time.”

Xiang Zhen opened his mouth slightly. So it was a crime. He would make sure to steer clear of them in the future.

Half an hour later, Little Sunflower Seed, having been bathed, fed, and had his vitals measured, was carried back by Dou Manning.

Xiang Zhen said sincerely, “Manning, thank you. You should rest too; you can sleep in any of the empty rooms next door.”

Dou Manning replied, “Okay. Shen Ku is coming to pick me up soon. I’ll come visit you again tomorrow.”

Auntie Guihua, upon hearing that Xiang Zhen had given birth, finally decided to make a trip into the city to see her nominal grandson. Tomorrow, he and Bai Qi would accompany Li Guihua to visit again.

Li Guihua was shrewd; before the child was safely delivered, she, as the mother-in-law, absolutely couldn’t push herself to the front. The relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law was tense enough.

Meanwhile, a nurse brought in an electric wheelchair.

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

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

“Wifey, give the baby a name,” Zhou Sicheng said. His wife was very knowledgeable about the meanings of names.

Xiang Zhen looked back and forth between the little baby and Zhou Sicheng, finding many similarities—the ears, eyebrows, nose bridge, mouth, eyes… The little baby knew exactly how to inherit the best traits.

Xiang Zhen began to unleash his ingenuity and display his knowledge: “My name is Xiang Zhen, and ‘Zhen’ has the grass radical because I’m an herbaceous plant spirit. Our son is different. The baby has half-human blood, so why don’t we change the grass radical to a person radical for his name!”

Zhou Sicheng: “…There is no such character.”

Xiang Zhen: “There is! I’ve seen it.”

Zhou Sicheng: “What you saw was the ‘Dai’ in the Dai ethnic group.”

“…” Having failed to show off in front of his husband, Xiang Zhen blushed in slight embarrassment. He pulled up the blanket to cover half his face. “Hubby, you’re the one with a master’s degree, you should name him. It has to be a character with the single-person radical.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Let me think about it.”

Xiang Zhen: “Let him take your surname.”

He was named Xiang Zhen simply because he was a sunflower (xiangrikui), not because he had a human surname.

If Little Sunflower Seed took his father’s surname, would he be spared a couple of beatings?

Zhou Sicheng: “Why not take the surname Xiang? Surnames are a product of ancient matriarchal societies used to distinguish bloodlines. They came from nothing anyway, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to start your own family tree, wifey.”

Xiang Zhen’s eyes curved in a smile. As expected of his top-tier husband: clear-headed and full of knowledge. He looked at his husband adoringly. “But, I want everyone to know that I gave birth to my hubby’s baby.”

When Little Sunflower Seed grew up and his 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, so Zhou Sicheng needed one.

Zhou Sicheng met his eyes for a few seconds and said, “Let me think about it some more.”

It seemed as though no name could fully capture Little Sunflower Seed’s preciousness. For once, Zhou Sicheng was at a loss for words.

“Wifey, get some sleep.” Zhou Sicheng hadn’t forgotten that Xiang Zhen’s lips were slightly pale when he transformed back.

Xiang Zhen nodded. “I’ll hold the baby for a moment, and then I’ll sleep.”

Zhou Sicheng handed his son over to Xiang Zhen, supporting the little cub’s bottom so he wouldn’t press against Xiang Zhen’s stomach.

Holding his very first fruit, a wave of contentment washed over Xiang Zhen’s heart.

Looking at the sleeping baby, drowsiness soon crept in.

Little Sunflower Seed was very well-behaved. When the afternoon sunlight slanted in through the west window, Zhou Sicheng turned his wheelchair and moved over to the window with the baby in his arms.

“Can you photosynthesize?” Zhou Sicheng asked softly.

Hopefully, he could.

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

It went without saying that this was something incredibly precious, something that needed to be stored away year after year.

Every two hours, Zhou Sicheng fed his son. The nurse prepared the formula, and he held the bottle to feed the baby himself.

Although he had once considered deducting a mouthful of milk from the little brat.

But Zhou Sicheng didn’t actually do it, fearing that if Little Sunflower Seed grew too slowly, his illiterate wife would secretly “pull up the seedlings to help them grow” and feed him using his own sun energy.

“Formula is cheap. You can drink as much as you want,” Zhou Sicheng said faintly to his son from the wheelchair.

Xiang Zhen slept for three hours. By the time he woke up, it was just in time for dinner, and he was feeling a bit hungry.

“Hungry? I’ll order food right away.”

Zhou Sicheng’s voice came from a distance away.

Xiang Zhen rubbed his eyes and saw Zhou Sicheng standing on one leg by the changing table, clumsily changing Little Sunflower Seed’s diaper.

Zhou Sicheng’s right leg was bent backward, and the top of his foot was swelling worse and worse, turning a bruised purple-blue.

Oh no, having a baby had just caused more trouble for him.

He had originally thought that Baby Sunflower Seed could just photosynthesize and wouldn’t need much looking after, leaving him free to wholeheartedly take care of his husband.

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

Zhou Sicheng glanced up at the door monitor; it was Fan Hao, so he called out, “Come in.”

Fan Hao had just gotten off work. Carrying a fruit basket, he had come on behalf of Zhoufu Bank to check in on the big boss after his car accident.

In the multi-car pileup, Zhou Sicheng had been quite lucky to escape without serious injury.

He pushed open the door, only to see the injured boss standing by a table fussing with something, while the boss’s wife was lying in bed.

“It looks like CEO Zhou is recovering very well.”

Fan Hao set the fruit basket on the table. He caught a sudden glimpse of the little thing in Zhou Sicheng’s hands and was frightened out of his wits.

“What is that in your hands?!”

Zhou Sicheng shot him an unimpressed look. “What are you making a fuss about?”

It wasn’t like he was looking at a freshly sprouted little sunflower; it was just a human infant.

“It’s my and Xiang Zhen’s son. Congratulations, you’re an uncle now.”

Fan Hao was so shocked he lost his voice. Looking closely at that soft, pale little bundle, its features actually did bear a resemblance to both Xiang Zhen and Zhou Sicheng. “How did you manage this?”

Zhou Sicheng said, “Don’t worry about how he got here. Just have your red envelope ready.”

Fan Hao stood there processing this for a moment. Watching Zhou Sicheng go through the entire process of changing a diaper, he looked at the infant with deep reverence—the little young master who, straight out of the womb, already had a trillion-dollar corporate empire waiting for him to inherit.

A baby born into true wealth and nobility.

Xiang Zhen got out of bed and earnestly asked Fan Hao, “Doesn’t my son look just like my hubby?”

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

Thinking of Zhou Sicheng ordering him to do postpartum confinement, Xiang Zhen cleverly brought it up to his direct superior: “Manager Fan, I can go back to work tomorrow.” As the saying goes, the immediate boss holds the real power.

Zhou Sicheng sneered. “Manager Fan, tell him how many days of maternity leave there are.”

Fan Hao: “Our bank gives 158 days for a natural birth and 175 days for a C-section.”

Zhou Sicheng: “Give him the maximum time off.”

Fan Hao couldn’t see how Xiang Zhen met any of the conditions for maternity leave, but he didn’t dare defy his domineering boss. “Understood.”

Xiang Zhen: “…”

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

Fan Hao vividly saw the embodiment of someone born to toil in Zhou Sicheng. It was incredibly surreal. From now on, he decided he’d be better off hanging around the young master who was genuinely born to wealth and privilege.

Afraid that if he stood there any longer, Zhou Sicheng would get the idea to dump his work on him so he could focus on being a family man, Fan Hao hastily took his leave.

As soon as Fan Hao left, Zhou Qingyun called, asking why he was still in the hospital when he was supposed to be discharged today, and whether he was hiding a fracture from him.

Zhou Qingyun was very sensitive to accidents. His tone was stern, and at first listen, it sounded like an accusation.

Zhou Sicheng pointed the camera at Little Sunflower Seed. “No fractures. I’m in the hospital taking care of my son.”

Zhou Qingyun’s presbyopic eyes widened. Wait, he had already prepared himself for his family line to end—how did a great-grandson suddenly pop up? He immediately spotted the Zhou family’s signature high nose bridge. There was no mistake; this was a descendant of his Zhou family!

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

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

Zhou Qingyun had never heard of this. Did Zheng Ai really arrange a child marriage for Zhou Sicheng? “Who?” Zheng Ai usually had a good eye for people.

Zhou Sicheng flipped the camera, framing himself and Xiang Zhen together. “Your memory is that bad? Didn’t you just attend our engagement banquet?”

Zhou Qingyun wore an expression of having been played.

Zhou Sicheng: “Never mind how he was born for now, just get gold jewelry ready for my son.”

He even placed an order: “I want a pure gold large sunflower seed plate, with 999 jade-inlaid-gold sunflower seeds.”

Zhou Qingyun froze. It had been a long time since his grandson had asked him for something so bluntly.

Because of old, unhealed wounds on both sides, the grandfather and grandson had always been at each other’s throats. When did things start to change?

It seemed to be the day his grandson-in-law ran away, and Zhou Sicheng came home crying his eyes out.

Xiang Zhen said softly, “Hubby, won’t pure gold be too expensive? The price of gold is so high right now.”

Zhou Sicheng: “The old man is rich. Letting him forge the gold jewelry is giving him face. It’s not like I don’t have money myself.”

Hearing these arrogant words, Zhou Qingyun felt as if he were seeing the Zhou Sicheng from before he turned twelve.

If he wants it forged, then I’ll forge it. I have plenty of money.

After notifying Zhou Qingyun, there were no more visitors. The hospital room quieted down. Xiang Zhen looked down at the baby in the crib; at some point, he had woken up and was listening to his two fathers talk with wide, round eyes.

Spirits would naturally awaken a language pack, but Little Sunflower Seed was so small that he probably wouldn’t awaken it this early. He might only display his language talent when he was two or three years old.

Xiang Zhen couldn’t help but tap his nose. “You’re a little illiterate.”

Zhou Sicheng coughed.

Xiang Zhen smoothly changed his tune, “Baby, you are a little God of Literature.”

A little sun born to a Sun God is still a tiny star, after all.

When going to sleep at night, Xiang Zhen had Zhou Sicheng place the baby between them. After soaking up the sun in the afternoon, Little Sunflower Seed had grown a bit more, like a newly sprouted shoot growing rapidly in the spring.

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

“Mm,” Zhou Sicheng agreed. He was very well-behaved in his 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 clot.”

Zhou Sicheng: “I’m afraid you’ll guide it to somewhere it shouldn’t go and block something.”

His pampered wife teaching himself medicine was simply a targeted hazard to his husband.

Xiang Zhen got angry and patted his own thigh. “Bring your foot over!”

Zhou Sicheng silently rested his left foot on Xiang Zhen’s leg. “Don’t use any spells.”

Xiang Zhen rubbed the left leg his husband had worked so hard to support his weight on today, his eyes filled with heartache. “Hubby, did you notice that Chu Ren hasn’t really changed since he turned twenty?”

Zhou Sicheng paused. It seemed so, but his clothing style and hairstyle changed with each period, making him look different.

Xiang Zhen: “Because he is Bai Qi’s destined one, he can slowly grow old alongside Bai Qi. Spirits age very slowly; whatever state Bai Qi is in, he will be in the same state.”

“Hubby, you are the same,” Xiang Zhen said, somewhat ashamed. “But I have no way to help you avoid these minor injuries you suffer.”

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

Chu Ren was also lucky, benefiting so much without knowing a thing.

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

Zhou Sicheng’s gaze wavered, unconsciously drifting to his chest. “Do you… have milk?”

Xiang Zhen: “Didn’t you buy formula?”

Zhou Sicheng: “…”

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

Xiang Zhen lay on his side, holding up one hand to support the bottle.

Little Sunflower Seed ate very slowly, lacking the urgency of snatching food when Zhou Sicheng fed him. He took his sweet time, sometimes closing his eyes, sometimes spitting out the nipple, and using his tongue to lick away the little bit of milk that spilled from the corner of his mouth.

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

With a different father, the feeding dynamic completely changed. It was like a male bird returning from a hunt, stuffing an entire prey—skin, bones, and all—into the wide-open mouth of a fledgling.

Xiang Zhen: “Hubby, you’re amazing, you still feed him faster.”

Zhou Sicheng: “At least 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 at the high-speed rail station, while Dou Manning and Shen Ku waited downstairs at the hospital. Then, the five of them went upstairs together to visit the large and small sunflowers.

As soon as Li Guihua appeared, Zhou Sicheng, Chu Ren, and Shen Ku finally felt the firsthand realization that they were brothers-in-law.

One call of “Mom,” multiplied by three.

—They had gotten so used to calling her Mom, even more so than their “wives” were, looking like three clowns.

Li Guihua smiled and picked up Little Sunflower Seed. “Just call me Auntie. Having so many handsome young men calling me Mom takes some getting used to.”

“Zhenzhen, does your stomach still hurt?”

Xiang Zhen: “It doesn’t hurt anymore, Auntie. I’m all healed. Could you talk to Zhou Sicheng for me and tell him I’m not doing postpartum confinement?”

Li Guihua just chuckled evasively. She might have played along with Xiang Zhen’s nonsense on the phone and angered Zhou Sicheng, but she didn’t dare say it to his face. She was just a rural woman who loved playing mahjong; she was no match for a major CEO.

Zhou Sicheng had the intimidating aura of someone who would bring the police to raid a mahjong parlor.

Li Guihua: “Postpartum confinement is good; it prevents lingering health issues.”

Zhou Sicheng finally felt this nominal mother-in-law was saying something worth listening to.

The two spirit uncles took turns holding Little Sunflower Seed, generously gifting him some sun energy—much more elegant 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 were not envious.

Li Guihua couldn’t quite understand the pregnancy odds for this new batch of little spirits. Had the heavens secretly updated the system? She asked Manning, “Are you pregnant?”

Dou Manning shook his head.

Li Guihua verified, “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 is very small. Hidden among the lush foliage, it would be even harder to find than a sunflower seed.

Dou Manning was stunned by the question.

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

Zhou Sicheng: “You’ve really developed path dependency, haven’t you.”

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

In there, Zhou Sicheng had set up a massive square plastic tub filled with a cubic meter of nutrient soil for taking root.

Bai Qi said, “Let me 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 wouldn’t show him even if his life depended on it.

Shen Ku: “The pot shouldn’t call the kettle black.”

The corners of Zhou Sicheng’s lips curled up, filled with a sense of superiority from being far ahead of the pack.

Two useless teammates not trusted by their own wives.

Xiang Zhen waited eagerly, having already planned it out in his head: if Dou Manning had a baby, they could take their babies to bask in the rain and sun together.

Ding-dong.

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

Dou Manning was having a baby!

Shen Ku remained completely in the dark. Waiting for his wife to return, he had just opened his mouth to ask about the situation.

Xiang Zhen spoke even faster than him, “Manning, you have to be careful from now on. Enduring a lightning tribulation while pregnant is quite dangerous.”

What??? What did you say you go through during pregnancy?

A normal human’s understanding of lightning tribulations came from movies or novels—generally speaking, it was 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?”

If he had known, he would have gotten a vasectomy even if it meant risking impotence.

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

Xiang Zhen: “…”

Oops, let the cat out of the bag.