Su Yi quickly took her hand, his voice magnetic, "Happy birthday."

Liu Huan's crumbling lips curled into a smile. "That's more like it. Where's the gift? Where's the red envelope?"

Su Yi took out the red envelopes he had prepared beforehand, as well as the wood carvings he had made.

"Wow, I love it! Thank you, Stone." After putting her things away, she prepared to move on to the next item.

"I'm going to ask other people for red envelopes." Just as she finished speaking and was about to leave, she heard Su's mother shouting outside.

The two exchanged a glance and quickly went outside, where they saw Su's mother anxiously shouting outside Da Shi's house.

Liu Huan ran over and asked, "Mother, what's wrong?"

Su's mother said anxiously, "Your sister-in-law is about to give birth."

Liu Huan remembered that her due date wasn't this day. "Mom, isn't it not time yet?"

Su's mother didn't know what was going on either. "I don't know either. I just heard your older brother shouting and then I realized that your sister-in-law was bleeding. Your older brother went to call a midwife."

The midwife had been contacted well in advance, and was originally supposed to come in the last few days, but she came half a month early.

Chen Lian was preparing breakfast in the kitchen, but she stopped now and started boiling water.

Liu Huan felt relieved when she went inside and saw a large pot of water.

Su Yi sent a message to Fang's mother and brought Xiao Shi back. The whole family waited at home.

They quickly tidied up the small room next door, laid out clean straw and a cotton quilt, and helped Fang Yi into that room.

To avoid worrying everyone, Fang Yi said casually, "It's nothing, just some bleeding, it doesn't hurt at all."

Chen Lian had cooked brown sugar eggs in another pot, and when it was served, she ate a big bowl of it. Right after finishing, she felt something was wrong; her stomach was tightening in waves.

She touched her stomach and frowned. Everyone looked at her anxiously, "What's wrong? Is it in pain?"

"It's nothing, I'm fine. You guys go and get something to eat."

Su's mother had no appetite and stayed by her side until Da Shi arrived with the midwife.

"It's about two weeks early, no problem."

The midwife first reassured everyone, then drew the curtain to check on them, got up to wash her hands, and said, "It's still early; we probably won't be there until dawn."

"Mrs. Su, please go and have your meal first. I'll take care of things here."

Just after finishing his meal, he heard Fang Yi shouting from the room. Da Shi put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and pushed open the door.

"Wife"

The midwife was busy at work when she saw Da Shi come in and quickly pulled the curtain closed. "Oh dear, sir, you can't come in. It's bad luck."

Ignoring the bad luck, Da Shi lifted the curtain and walked to the bedside, "Wife."

Fang Yi knew that men were not allowed to enter a woman's womb, but she couldn't resist seeing Da Shi. When the contractions came, she grabbed Da Shi's hand tightly.

"It's okay, I'm here."

By the afternoon, there was still no movement inside, but basins of bloody water were being poured out.

Liu Huan was too young, so Su's mother wouldn't let her in. She could only ask how things were going when Su's mother was out.

"It's still early. This kid just loves to cause trouble."

By evening, Fang Yi was completely exhausted and could no longer push when the midwife told her to.

"No, now is the time to push. If you don't push, the child won't come out."

Da Shi was extremely anxious beside her, "Mother, what should we do?"

"I'll go and boil some more brown sugar water."

Upon hearing this, Liu Huan hurriedly went inside and cut a slice of ginseng. "Mother, give this ginseng slice to my sister-in-law to suck on later."

After eating and sucking on ginseng slices, I regained some strength.

Fang Yi didn't want Da Shi there, so she kicked her out.

"I can see the head, madam, push slowly, it's out, it's out."

Liu Huan, who was outside, heard the baby crying and breathed a sigh of relief.

He wanted to go in, but Su Yi stopped him, saying, "Don't go in yet."

When Liu Huan saw her little niece, it was already an incense stick's time later. Da Shi went in and carried Fang Yi, who had changed her clothes, to the room.

With a smile, Su's mother gave the midwife a silver ingot and sent her away before Liu Huan was allowed to go inside.

Fang Yi was already asleep from exhaustion, while Da Shi held his daughter with a contented expression.

She leaned closer to look and saw that the baby in the swaddling clothes was all red, with vernix caseosa on its face, and was sleeping soundly with a round little face.

"So cute!"

As for the newborn, she could only say "cute" at most, but she wouldn't call it "pretty."

When Su's mother entered the room, her face was full of joy. "Go to sleep. Everyone has been busy all day. Your older brother and I will stay here and keep an eye on things."

Liu Huan was indeed tired, and since there was nothing she could do here anyway, she decided to go back first.

I was lying in bed, about to turn off the light, when there was a knock on the door.

"Enter!"

Su Yi came in carrying a bowl and said, "Get up and eat before you go to sleep."

Liu Huan rubbed her eyes and got up to find a bowl of longevity noodles with a poached egg on top. She couldn't help but sniffle, "Thank you, Shi Tou!"

"Don't talk, just eat."

The longevity noodles are a whole strand and cannot be bitten off. In the past, Su's mother would make them for her, but today, with the arrival of a new life, the whole family was so busy that they forgot.

Even she herself had forgotten, but unexpectedly, Stone still remembered.

After finishing her noodles and a poached egg, her eyes were still red when she looked up. She held Su Yi's hand affectionately and said, "Shi Tou is still the best to me."

Shi Tou patted her head and said, "Happy birthday, go to sleep."

"Okay, goodnight Stone."

"good evening"

The next morning, Su's mother prepared a large table of food. "Yesterday was Huanhuan's birthday, and everyone was so busy that they forgot. We're making up for it today."

Liu Huan was overjoyed. He accepted all the red envelopes and the little trinkets that Xiao Shi had given him, which he had saved up to buy himself.

Daishi remained in the room watching his daughter, unable to get enough of her.

Inside the room, Fang Yi watched Da Shi holding the swaddled baby and grinning foolishly, and all her worries disappeared.

I was afraid that Daishi would be disappointed, but it seems I misunderstood.

The child in her arms was probably hungry, and pouted as if she was about to cry. Da Shi panicked, "Wife, she, she's going to cry."

Fang Yi felt a slight pain in her chest when she heard the baby cry. "Give me the baby, I'll feed her."

Daishi watched from the side the whole time, and after she finished eating, he clumsily changed the baby's diaper.

He brought the child to Fang Yi's side and asked, "Wife, what do you think we should name the child?"

Fang Yi hesitated for a moment, after all, the other names were chosen by the elders. "Can I name them?"

"It's alright, just use a nickname, but we still need to consult a fortune teller to determine your formal name."

"Then let's call her Mianmian, because she's soft."

Da Shi was also very satisfied with the name: "Okay, the nickname will be Mianmian. It sounds nice. As for the formal name, Mom will go to the fortune teller to calculate it."

When Fang's mother arrived for the baby's third-day celebration, Fang's sister-in-law was very hospitable and gave Fang's mother the things she had prepared to take with her to the Su family.

Upon hearing that her daughter had given birth to a girl, she noticed her in-laws' and son-in-law's expressions softened.

Holding her granddaughter tightly, she said, "Mianmian is such a good girl."

Liu Huan also liked this niece very much and bought her a gold necklace.

In a month, she and Su Yi will go to the prefectural capital. The autumn imperial examinations will be held in August, and Qingyang County is far from the prefectural capital, so it will take at least a month to get there.

She's been checking on her niece every day lately, as if she's afraid she won't get enough of looking at her.