Chapter 301 Departure
Sheng An gave birth to a healthy baby. Xu Cuilian and her family of four achieved their goal of coming to the capital. Before Sheng An finished her postpartum confinement, they decided to set off back to Qingzhou.
Sheng An was very reluctant to part, her eyes slightly red: "Aunt, Uncle, you must come again when you have time."
Xu Cuilian quickly wiped away her tears: "You can't cry while you're in postpartum confinement."
As she spoke, her voice was clearly choked with emotion: "We will definitely come again if we have the chance. You, Jin Nian, and the children should also come back to Qingzhou whenever you have time."
Sheng An nodded repeatedly: "Mm."
Fearing that she would feel upset, Xu Cuilian did not stay in the room for long, but asked Zhang Zhaodi to keep her company and talk for a while.
Just then, Zhuozhuo woke up hungry, and Zhang Zhaodi quickly picked up the little one and handed her to Sheng An:
“Our Zhuozhuo has a good appetite, eats a lot and grows fast. When she was born she weighed a little over six pounds, and now she probably weighs seven or eight pounds.”
In this day and age, a newborn weighing over six pounds is considered a chubby boy or a chubby girl.
"The faster she grows, the more she eats. Right now, we have enough breast milk, but I don't know if it will be enough later."
While feeding her daughter, Sheng An expressed her concerns: "Jin Nian was worried that I would get tired, so she initially wanted to find a wet nurse, but she gave up because she was worried about it."
Putting aside whether the wet nurse had any hidden illnesses, the mere presence of Princess Shanmin, who could kill her and her daughter at any moment, lurking in the shadows, made her afraid to hire a wet nurse.
Otherwise, if the wet nurse makes even the slightest mistake, the infant Zhuozhuo could die.
Back then, the teacher and his wife's child was already eight years old, yet he still fell victim to the cruelty of Princess Pingyuan.
Since Zhuozhuo's safety was at stake, she couldn't be more careful than necessary.
"A child will always be attached to whoever feeds her. If you, as her mother, take care of her, she will always be close to you."
Looking at Zhuozhuo, who was drinking milk heartily, Zhang Zhaodi shared her experience in breastfeeding:
“You’re a good cook. If you don’t have enough breast milk later, you can make food for Zhuozhuo separately. Usually, if she’s full during the day, you can just feed her one more time at night.”
When Yu Bao was only six months old, her breast milk was no longer enough, so she fed him rice cereal during the day. The little guy grew up well and became as strong as a child who had been breastfed until he was over a year old.
"Yes, I'll make her complementary foods when she's old enough to eat them. I don't plan to breastfeed her for too long."
Sheng An is very confident in her amazing abilities and is already planning to wean the little one when she is six months old.
It wasn't that she was heartless; it's just that her six-month-old baby was teething and would bite, and she didn't want to suffer that pain.
"Weaning at six months is fine, just make sure the child isn't hungry."
Zhang Zhaodi had breastfed two children, so she naturally knew how much suffering adults endured when breastfeeding a six-month-old baby, and she didn't think there was anything wrong with her good friend weaning her six-month-old daughter.
The two chatted about parenting for a while, and Zhuozhuo, having eaten and drunk her fill, even peed in Sheng'an's arms.
Zhang Zhaodi changed the little one's diaper, and after putting her to sleep, she put her in bed.
"This child is easy to take care of. As long as he is fed and his diapers are changed frequently, he won't cry. He's much easier to take care of than my two boys."
Seeing her best friend gazing at her daughter with such affection, Sheng An couldn't help but laugh and say, "When Huanbao gets a little older, you should also have a daughter who's easy to take care of, so you won't have to envy me anymore."
Zhang Zhaodi said helplessly, "Who can decide whether a child is a boy or a girl? I'm afraid I'll end up like my mother-in-law, having another son and then not being able to conceive a daughter later."
Her mother-in-law has been longing for her daughter for over a decade. Now that she has three daughters-in-law, she hopes that she and her two sisters-in-law will give her a granddaughter to take care of.
Sheng An joked, "The Buddhist temple on Shenhu Mountain is quite efficacious. When you get back, go up the mountain to pray, and maybe you'll be able to conceive a daughter."
Zhang Zhaodi's eyes lit up: "Okay, I'll bring Da Kui along to pay our respects!"
Da Kui also longs for a daughter. Yesterday, he asked her to take Zhuozhuo to the outer room, and he held her for a long time, reluctant to let go. Last night, he made a fuss about wanting a daughter.
The family of four will be leaving tomorrow. The two sisters didn't say any goodbyes, but promised to write to each other often and not lose touch.
The next morning, Xu Cuilian and her family of four headed to the pier with their luggage and gifts.
Xu Jinnian and his son saw them off together, watching the passenger ship disappear into the end of the river.
With only four people missing from the house, it became much quieter. Sheng An was in a bad mood for several days in a row, and everything about Qingzhou kept popping into his mind.
Xu Jinnian wanted to ask for two days off, but Sheng An refused without hesitation: "If you ask for leave to stay home with your wife, aren't you afraid your colleagues will laugh at you?"
"What's wrong with loving your wife? They only laugh at me because they can't do it themselves. Let them laugh at such mediocre people."
Xu Jinnian's words were always logical and reasonable, completely disregarding the opinions of others.
Sheng An glanced at him sideways: "That won't do either. You have to perform well in officialdom, otherwise you won't get any promotions or salary increases."
At this point, she suddenly felt that she was just like the older generation who were complaining about by netizens on the internet in her previous life, suffering from both work and life's double torment.
Sheng An shook his head and quickly changed his words: "Don't work too hard. Just do your job. Our family doesn't have any survival pressure. We won't be waiting for your salary to buy rice every month."
Xu Jinnian wanted to laugh inside, but pretended to be serious and gently pinched her cheek: "Is An'an disgusted with me?"
Sheng An slapped the man's hand away and looked at him with utter sincerity in her eyes:
"As long as your face is there, the country is there. With your face that no one can compare to for the time being, even if you don't bring home a single penny, I'm still willing to support you."
Xu Jinnian: "..."
Something feels off.
Sheng An also found it strange, and quickly realized what was wrong, so she spoke up to interrupt the man's thoughts:
"In short, we have plenty of money at home. The most important thing is for you to stay in a good mood at the Hanlin Academy. Zhuozhuo and I don't want to face a bitter and resentful face every day."
Xu Jinnian was both amused and exasperated, but she took his words to heart: "Okay."
From now on, he should smile more in front of An'an and Zhuozhuo, so as not to make them worry.
After Zhang Zhaodi left, Tan Qingrou, fearing that Sheng An would be bored, would often come over to keep her company and chat, while also teasing the increasingly beautiful Zhuozhuo.
Unfortunately, Zhuozhuo spends most of her time sleeping and hardly needs to be coaxed, which makes Tan Qingrou feel frustrated that she has no way to use her strength.
After her setback, she started looking for some interesting little gadgets to send over, so that Sheng An could keep them for Zhuo Zhuo to play with when she grew up, determined to occupy a place in Zhuo Zhuo's heart.
With the addition of all the little trinkets woven by Zhang Zhaodi, Zhuozhuo, who was not even a month old, already had toys filling half the room, which made Sheng'an, her mother, envious.
As Sheng'an was about to finish her postpartum confinement, the rumors and gossip in the city that were detrimental to Princess Shanmin gradually subsided.
Princess Shanmin felt that the storm had passed, so she started to have wicked thoughts again, planning to cause trouble for Sheng An and sow discord between her and Xu Jinnian.
However, her injured leg had not yet fully healed, making it inconvenient for her to personally take action. She was also unwilling to let other women get close to Xu Jinnian, so she temporarily abandoned the idea and summoned Xu Huaining, whom she had neglected for many days.
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