Yuan Meng was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "The doctor said that Zhuang Yicheng's organs are rapidly failing, I'm afraid..."
She didn't finish her sentence, but everything was self-evident.
Ling Ruoke's joy at becoming a mother for the first time was instantly overshadowed by this heavy news. She felt a heavy pressure in her chest, and it was difficult to breathe. Subconsciously, she parted her lips slightly and tried to breathe.
Although Ling Ruoke hadn't turned on speakerphone, Huo Qingfeng had excellent hearing and had heard everything clearly. Seeing her stunned and sad expression, he reached out and gently ruffled her hair.
Ling Ruoke glanced at him, tried to smile, but couldn't manage a smile. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.
Yuan Meng remained silent for a long time before hanging up.
Ling Ruoke put down her phone, buried her face in her husband's neck, and nuzzled against him. "I think Yuan Meng also likes Zhuang Yicheng, otherwise she wouldn't be so sad. God is so cruel. Yuan Meng finally agreed to try to accept someone else, but this is the ending."
Huo Qingfeng simply held her, offering no words of comfort. Life is full of things that are beyond our control, and words of comfort are futile.
Ling Ruoke was sad for a while, but the baby's crying brought her back to her senses, leaving her no time for sadness. The baby was hungry and had wet herself. The newly-minted parents were still getting used to these things and were a bit flustered. In the midst of the commotion, there was no time for sadness.
After staying in the hospital for five days, Ling Ruoke was discharged and went home to recuperate.
Grandpa and her father-in-law, a general, arrived on the day she was discharged from the hospital. The three elders doted on little Ping An, with Grandpa and Grandma calling her their precious darlings. They even fought over who would hold her, and the one who got her started scolding the other. Fortunately, her father-in-law remained calm, otherwise it would have been complete chaos.
Ling Ruoke and Huo Qingfeng were quite free. The three of them took good care of the child, so they didn't need to worry about anything.
Ling Ruoke simply stayed home during her postpartum period, focusing on resting and taking care of herself, doing nothing else. Her milk supply was still very thin, so she even skipped breastfeeding. Anyway, the little guy would start crying as soon as he saw her pull up her clothes to reveal her soft, white breasts, as if he was afraid she would force him to nurse.
Huo Qingfeng was only responsible for taking care of his wife. As for that brat, he could leave him to his grandfather and the others.
The couple whispered sweet nothings to each other in the room, their heads close together, occasionally giving each other a kiss. Outside in the living room, three elders were playing with the child, their laughter mingling with their playful banter—a scene of perfect harmony.
To help Ling Ruoke produce milk, Yang Ziyun tried all sorts of supplements to nourish her. Ling Ruoke was so sick of the supplements that she felt like vomiting, but her milk supply still didn't increase much.
Huo Qingfeng always remembered what the nurse said. Whenever he had free time, and as long as the time, place, and people were right, he would rush over like a child and start his grand plan of nursing.
At first, Ling Ruoke was so angry that she beat him up, but later she simply let him be. However, every time he was teased to the point of being unable to stop, he himself would become green with envy. Yet he never learned his lesson and would repeat the same mistake next time.
Almost a week passed, and suddenly Ling Ruoke's milk supply became abundant, as if a thorn had been unsheathed. She was both surprised and excited; if the baby hadn't been asleep, she would have loved to pick him up and nurse him immediately.
After a long and hard time, Xiao Ping'an woke up from his nap, but his little tummy was hungry, and he started crying loudly for milk.
Ling Ruoke picked him up and lifted his clothes. He immediately pouted and started crying loudly. Anyone who didn't know better would think that a heartless mother was refusing to let her child drink milk.
"What should we do?" The mother was soft-hearted and couldn't bear to see her child crying. "How about I just squeeze some out and give it to him to drink?"
Yang Ziyun was more experienced. "It's okay, just keep doing it a few more times. Once he gets a taste of the sweetness, I won't do it like this anymore."
Hearing this, Ling Ruoke disregarded the little one's loud crying and put her nipple into his mouth, which was agape from sobbing. After crying for a while, the little one instinctively took it in and began to suckle. Sure enough, with plenty of milk, he immediately tasted the sweetness. He stopped crying, his little mouth moving happily as he sucked. He even stared at his mother with wide eyes, seemingly asking in surprise: "Why is there milk again?"
Huo Qingfeng's eyes turned red as he watched the little guy take over his precious things.
Ling Ruoke watched her baby drink milk with relish, her smile as radiant as a flower. The feeling of the baby suckling was a little strange, but her heart was filled with happiness. Maternal love softened her heart deeply, and she felt that this moment was the happiest time of her life.
The little one drank his fill and spat out the nipple. Unlike other children who would hold onto their milk even after they were full and cry as soon as it was taken away, he wasn't like that. Having eaten and drunk his fill, Xiao Ping'an turned his head and stared at his mother. His little lips pursed, as if he were smiling.
Ling Ruoke carefully held him and began to make noises to amuse him. Hearing the sound, the little guy's eyes were fixed, not blinking. He neither cried nor fussed, just stared at him, occasionally smiling.
However, the baby lacked energy, and breastfeeding was a very strenuous activity. Before long, the little one closed his eyes and fell asleep.
"Put him in his crib to sleep. You must be tired after holding him for so long," Huo Qingfeng suggested, reaching out to take the baby from his wife's arms. His main concern was that his woman was being taken by another man, even though that man was his son!
Ling Ruoke shook her head, looking down at the sleeping little one. She reached out and touched his rosy cheeks. Now that the child's face had grown up, he was a delicate little baby, inheriting the best features of both her and Huo Qingfeng.
Seeing his wife's tender and affectionate demeanor, Huo Qingfeng felt even more jealous. Once Ling Ruoke finally placed the baby in the crib, he pushed the crib out of the living room for the three elders to watch over it. He then ran into the room, lifted his wife's clothes, and began to snatch his son's milk.
Ling Ruoke was both amused and exasperated. She struggled a few times, but in the end, he still succeeded.
Huo Qingfeng smacked his lips, a little white liquid still dripping from the corner of his mouth, looking rather ambiguous. Fresh human milk has a somewhat fishy and pungent smell, which adults generally don't like to drink. He didn't find it particularly delicious either; he was just annoyed that the little brat was monopolizing his wife's tenderness.
From that day on, the battle between father and son officially began.
Grandpa and his father-in-law, a general, stayed for a little over a week before returning home. Yang Ziyun stayed behind to help them take care of the child. She worried that the two clumsy young people wouldn't do a good job and might mistreat her precious grandson.
Huo Qingfeng's fraudulently obtained paternity leave had long since ended, lasting only a day or two. So he started spending all his time crawling and rolling in the mud, coming home covered in dirt.
Afraid of infecting his wife and child with bacteria, he would quickly shower outside before coming home, still dripping wet. The first thing he did upon arriving home was rush into the bathroom to clean himself up. The second thing was to check if the little one was nursing again, and then he would start fighting with his son for food.
This scene plays out almost every day, and even Yang Ziyun has managed to pretend she didn't see it.
Huo Qingfeng was extremely jealous, and his behavior was so bad that he liked to disrupt the baby's feeding time. Whenever he made the baby unhappy and cried with a pout, he would slink away to the side, rubbing his nose amidst his wife's scolding, his face full of aggrieved expression.
Ling Ruoke was both amused and exasperated. Although she had scolded him fiercely at the time, she couldn't help but turn back to coax him after he had eaten and fallen asleep. Finally, after much fussing and nagging, she managed to soothe him. Ling Ruoke felt as if she suddenly had two children, and the older one was even more difficult to handle than the younger one!
Although she sometimes got so angry she wanted to grind her teeth, life was indeed quite enjoyable. The only downside was that Zhuang Yicheng's health was deteriorating. When Zhuang Yuqi called her, she cried and asked, "Mom, they said the commander is going to die. It's not true, is it?"
Ling Ruoke listened to his heart-wrenching cries, completely at a loss for words. She wanted to tell him that his father would get better. But so much time had passed, and those words, which had initially been encouraging, had become meaningless platitudes.
The child was sad and scared, so he called her every day, and would cry whenever the topic came up. Zhuang Yuqi used to hardly ever cry, but now he's realized something and can't help but cry all the time.
Ling Ruoke dared not think about it, trying to forget it by focusing on the trivial matters of the children. But Zhuang Yuqi's calls kept reminding her, and she had no way to escape them. Every time she thought about it, she felt like she couldn't breathe.
Yuan Meng went to the hospital more frequently. She wanted to spend as much of her remaining time with him as possible. Perhaps there was no love between them yet, but their meeting was already a rare blessing. Now that he was facing this ordeal, this was all she could do for him.
Zhuang Yicheng's condition was deteriorating, and everyone was mentally prepared, even though it was a difficult fact to accept. Only Zhuang Yuqi was unwilling and unable to face such a cruel reality.
Ling Ruoke sometimes wakes up in the night, and then she thinks of that lonely, weary man. He has always been so rational, always carrying a mountain on his back. Even when he was almost suffocating, he still gave her love, a silent love. She also thinks of that young child, who lost his mother at a young age, and now probably doesn't even have a father…
Most women try every possible way to regain their figure after childbirth, as losing weight is very difficult. However, Ling Ruoke kept this on her mind, often suffering from poor sleep and appetite. In addition, she hadn't gained much weight during her pregnancy, so she quickly regained her slender figure. Only, there was a faint knot between her brows.
However, fate has a habit of playing tricks on people. No, perhaps a better way to put it is: fate likes to create miracles when people are about to despair.
Just when everyone was about to despair, Zhuang Yicheng woke up. Although his body was extremely weak, and even the simplest act of walking required a long period of rehabilitation, he was still alive. That alone was enough to outweigh all other misfortunes.
The day Zhuang Yicheng woke up, Yuan Meng was by his side, massaging his body and talking to him. As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. Suddenly, she heard someone say, "Who bullied you?"
At first, she thought she was hallucinating. Slowly raising her head, through her blurry vision, she saw his open eyes. She raised her hand and forcefully wiped away her tears. Once she was sure he was really awake, she stared at him blankly, as if in a daze. After a long while, she finally mustered the courage to call out.
The wait outside the ward for the doctor's test results was agonizing. She was restless, pacing back and forth, and later started calling Ruoke, her words incoherent and her voice trembling.
The day Ling Ruoke received the news, it was raining, the sky a gloomy gray. Standing by the window with her phone in hand, she felt that this weather, usually the most annoying, was somehow more beautiful than a sunny day. Watching the raindrops outside, tears silently streamed down her face.
Fortunately, Huo Qingfeng wasn't home, otherwise he would definitely be angry to see her crying for another man.
Ling Ruoke didn't know what the future held for Zhuang Yicheng and Yuan Meng, but as long as people were alive and well, there was hope. As long as there was hope, life could go on and become better and better.
In the blink of an eye, Ling Ruoke had been pregnant for over two months. Although Yang Ziyun was reluctant to part with her grandson and worried that the two of them wouldn't be able to take good care of Xiao Ping'an, she couldn't bear to leave her husband behind, so she finally went back.
Huo Qingfeng had to train, leaving Ling Ruoke alone at home to take care of the child. Li Jun would also come over to help. However, Li Jun was quite pregnant herself, so Ruoke often felt uncomfortable asking her for help.
When Yang Ziyun was around, it seemed so easy for her to change diapers and do all sorts of things for the baby. But after she started taking care of the child alone, she realized how difficult it was. Her little Ping'an is relatively well-behaved and rarely cries; otherwise, she would definitely cry. There's another family in the residential area who just had a baby, and that child cries loudly in the middle of the night, disturbing the sleep of the neighbors.
The baby has a small stomach and gets hungry quickly, so he always wakes up two or three times a night to nurse. Sometimes Ling Ruoke can't even open her eyes; she has to nurse him while her eyes are half-closed. After the baby has had his fill, she's afraid to go back to bed because she's always worried that he'll be hungry or need a diaper change, so she can't sleep well at all. When he wakes up the next day, he's practically a panda.
Huo Qingfeng felt sorry for his wife's hard work, so he finally decided to have her express milk during the day and buy a bottle warmer. When the baby woke up hungry at night, he would get up to feed the baby, which finally allowed his wife to get a good night's sleep.
Becoming parents for the first time was both painful and joyful. Neither of us had any experience, and we stumbled along as we learned. But they are our own child, and with our hearts, even though we weren't very skilled, we did a good job.
Aside from being a loving father while his wife breastfeeds at night, Huo Qingfeng starts causing trouble the moment she tries to feed the baby herself. In the end, the baby always ends up crying loudly and the older one looks aggrieved before the drama finally ends.
When their child turned 100 days old, Yang Ziyun and Ruoke took the baby back to City B and held a grand celebration. Huo Qingfeng couldn't go back because he didn't have any vacation time. Even so, it was still a lively and joyous occasion.
Ling Ruoke decided to stay in B City for another week or so, so as to satisfy her great-grandfather's longing for his great-grandson.
Thus, Huo Qingfeng endured another half month, and the three-month ban was finally over.
The night Ling Ruoke and the child returned from B City, Huo Qingfeng took a shower early and wandered around the house in just a pair of shorts despite the cold weather. After Ling Ruoke put the child to sleep, he happily picked up his wife and headed straight for the bed.
His eagerness made Ling Ruoke blush, yet she couldn't help but laugh. Deep down, she was looking forward to it; after all, it had been over half a year since she'd enjoyed such intimacy. But when she was placed on the bed and saw the burning fire in her husband's eyes, she shrank back, a premonition that she was going to suffer a terrible fate tonight.
Sure enough, Huo Qingfeng had the same expression as a tiger that had been locked in a cage and starved for a long time, when it saw Rou Rou. He wished he could tear her apart and devour her, leaving not a single scrap.
If the baby hadn't woken up crying from hunger, this lovemaking might have continued until dawn. Even so, after his wife had fed the baby, Huo Qingfeng still insisted on having sex with her one more time before reluctantly calling it quits.
When the child woke up again, Ling Ruoke was already limp and fast asleep, completely unaware of anything.
Huo Qingfeng jumped up as soon as the child woke up, afraid that he would wake his wife. Perhaps it was the release of pent-up desire that made him happy, but he found the child much more agreeable and watched him gently as the child finished drinking his milk.
Like father, like son, and little Ping An already showed his tiger-like prowess at just three months old. At a little over three months, while other babies could only roll over once, little Ping An could roll from one end of the bed to the other, and back again. He seemed tireless, treating it like a game and thoroughly enjoying himself.
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