Chapter 215: Father and Mother Sheng Are Here
The very next day, the moment Sheng Wanze received his parents’ confirmation telegram, he immediately threw himself into tidying up their guest room. He submitted an advance requisition to his unit to secure a military vehicle, preparing to personally fetch them from the station.
No one was more ecstatic about Mr. and Mrs. Sheng’s impending arrival than Grandma Sheng. She had missed her son and daughter-in-law fiercely. If it hadn’t been for Pan Yue’s pregnancy, the old matriarch would never have been willing to separate from them in the first place.
Sheng Wanze handled every logistical detail flawlessly, leaving nothing to do but wait for the train to pull in. Sheng Wanyan shared in the excitement; after all, it had been a full six months since she last saw her parents. She missed them dearly, and this visit provided the perfect opportunity for an absolute family reunion.
A few days later, Sheng Wanze and Gu Tingxiao drove out to greet the incoming travelers. The moment Father and Mother Sheng stepped off the train carriage, the brutal, biting northern wind hit them full force. The weather here was leagues colder than the damp chill of Chengdu, prompting them to immediately cinch their heavy coats tight against their bodies.
Scanning the bustling platform, they instantly spotted their son and son-in-law waiting in the crowd. Sheng Wanze and Gu Tingxiao caught sight of them at the exact same moment, striding forward to relieve them of their heavy luggage before steering them rapidly toward the waiting vehicle.
“Mom, Dad, hurry and get inside the car,” Wanze urged.
The chaotic, freezing train station was no place to linger and reminisce, so Father and Mother Sheng stomped the thick snow from their boots and scrambled gratefully into the warmth of the cabin.
“Goodness, the cold out here is no joke,” Mother Sheng shivered, staring out the window at the heavy, swirling flakes. The winter in this northern Bing City was truly formidable.
“Mom, Dad, have some hot water to thaw out,” Sheng Wanze said, handing over a steaming thermos. They accepted it eagerly, taking several deep drafts. Within a few minutes, the heat spread through their chests, and their bodies finally began to thaw.
“Xiao Ze, Xiao Gu, how are your injuries healing?” Mother Sheng inquired anxiously. Grandpa Sheng’s previous letter had detailed their harrowing ordeal, and she knew it was a sheer miracle both young men had survived.
“We’re perfectly fine now, Mom,” Sheng Wanze replied, confidently patting his chest to demonstrate his robust health. “We just need about another month of standard rest before we’re at one hundred percent.”
Mother Sheng shot him a sharp, unimpressed glare. “Did I ask you? I was asking Xiao Gu.”
This foolish son of hers was entirely too blockheaded. Couldn’t he see she was trying to extend proper parental concern to her son-in-law?
Behind the wheel, Gu Tingxiao offered a warm, respectful reply as he navigated the slick roads. “I’m in excellent health, Mom. I’ve already been cleared to return to active duty with my regiment.”
“Ah, that’s wonderful. Truly wonderful,” Mother Sheng sighed, her shoulders finally dropping in relief.
Sheng Wanze, however, felt a sudden, comical sting of neglect. “Mom, aren’t you even going to ask about me?”
Refusing to let the matter drop, he stared at her expectantly. Mother Sheng simply spared her son a brief, dry glance. “Didn’t you just finish bragging about yourself?”
Besides, she wasn’t blind. Her son’s complexion was perfectly ruddy and healthy, and all his limbs were entirely intact; he was clearly out of danger. As a mother, seeing her child whole and breathing was enough to satisfy her heart.
Furthermore, she hadn’t even begun to settle the score with him for his sheer recklessness on that deployment. He had been so incredibly careless that he had nearly left his wife a widow. She vividly recalled a period a few weeks back where she had been plagued by intense, suffocating nightmares every single night; it turned out this unfilial boy had been actively hovering on the brink of death the entire time.
“I see how it is, Mom,” Sheng Wanze teased, shaking his head. “Now that you have a stellar son-in-law, you have absolutely no use for your own son.” He had fully anticipated that his mother would burst into tears and throw her arms around him the moment they reunited. Who could have guessed she would be this pragmatic?
“Be quiet and let me rest. Stop your chattering,” Mother Sheng grumbled, entirely unbothered. Beside her, Father Sheng had already leaned his head against the frost-rimed window, his eyes closed as he drifted off to sleep.
Seeing his parents’ profound exhaustion, Sheng Wanze wisely clamped his mouth shut, determined not to disturb them further. Though the couple had managed to eat decent meals on the train, they hadn’t slept a wink during the multi-day journey, terrified that their luggage might be pilfered. Father Sheng, in particular, had pulled grueling night watches, only daring to catch a few fitful blinks during the daylight hours. The crates they carried were packed with scarce, invaluable goods that were nearly impossible to replace, alongside toys and clothes they had spent months crafting with their own hands. Mother Sheng had eventually insisted on splitting the night shifts with him, otherwise his health would have collapsed entirely before they reached the base.
By the time the military vehicle rumbled into the family compound, dusk had fallen, and dinner was well underway. Inside the warm house, Sheng Wanyan and Pan Yue kept cricking their necks toward the window, straining for a glimpse of the headlights.
The moment the rumble of the engine cut through the quiet lane, Grandma Sheng bolted out the front door to greet them, pausing just long enough to bark a strict order at the two pregnant women. “You two stay put inside! It’s freezing and snowing out there!”
Before either could protest, the old woman vanished down the path in a flash, moving with a speed that defied her advanced age. Grandpa Sheng hurried right after her, leaving Sheng Wanyan and Pan Yue to exchange a helpless, amused look as they obediently waited on the stools.
A few moments later, the front door swung open, and Grandma Sheng guided the travelers into the warmth, holding both of their hands tightly. “Hurry inside, hurry inside! Get close to the stove and warm your bones.”
“Mom, Dad,” Wanyan and Pan Yue called out in unison.
Hearing their voices, Father and Mother Sheng looked up. The sight of Pan Yue rising to greet them with her massive, protruding belly gave Mother Sheng a sudden fright.
“Oh, goodness! Sit right back down, don’t stand on ceremony!” she gasped, rushing forward to help support her daughter-in-law’s waist. “Look how beautifully large your belly has grown!”
She carefully guided Pan Yue back onto the stool.
“I’m perfectly fine, Mom,” Pan Yue smiled, her face radiant.
Mother Sheng fixated on her son’s unborn children for a long, adoring moment, before turning her gaze to Sheng Wanyan’s stomach, which had yet to show any visible sign of the pregnancy. The sheer, overwhelming happiness of the double blessing filled her chest; she felt as though she could stare at her daughter and daughter-in-law forever.
“Two little monkeys arriving in our family line at the exact same time,” Mother Sheng beamed, her eyes sparkling. “This household is going to be incredibly lively. How are you both feeling? Are the babies giving you a difficult time?”
Wanyan was only at the two-month mark, so she had escaped the worst of the physical discomforts aside from her intense sleepiness. Pan Yue, however, was due in a little over a month, making her experience entirely different.
“No, the little one is actually being quite well-behaved,” Pan Yue lied smoothly.
In truth, she and her husband knew best just how relentlessly active the baby inside her truly was. Over the past two weeks, ever since Sheng Wanze had returned to bed rest, the baby seemed to deliberately pick fights with its father. The moment Wanze laid his head down for the night, the baby would launch into a frenzy of heavy kicking and tumbling, keeping Pan Yue awake for hours. Its internal clock was completely inverted—perfectly still and quiet during the day, but a absolute terror the second the house went dark. Because of the constant midnight movement, Pan Yue suffered from frequent, agonizing leg cramps, forcing a sleep-deprived Sheng Wanze to scramble out of bed to vigorously massage her feet.
Ultimately, the child was executing a flawless campaign of psychological warfare against its father. Sheng Wanze had already grumbled that if it turned out to be a boy, he was going to administer a severe, military-grade lecture the moment he was old enough; but if it were a daughter, he would just have to swallow his grievances, pamper her, and wait until she reached adulthood before attempting to reason with her.
Hearing about the baby’s vibrant energy, Mother Sheng chuckled happily. In her mind, it was far better for a child to be spirited and dynamic than dull or passive. A child with a sharp, active disposition would never allow themselves to be easily pushed around or taken advantage of in the future. “A little troublemaker in the making, then.”
“You have no idea,” Pan Yue laughed, resting her palms over her heavy stomach, her voice laced with a beautiful blend of maternal exhaustion and pure bliss.
“Alright, let’s pause the chatter for now,” Grandma Sheng interrupted, carrying a heavy tray from the kitchen. “Come to the table and eat your fill. You can have a proper, deep rest once your stomachs are full. You’ve endured a grueling journey.”
Father and Mother Sheng nodded gratefully, quickly setting their personal satchels inside the designated guest room before joining the family around the spread.
Once dinner concluded, Sheng Wanyan and Gu Tingxiao prepared to take their leave. Wanyan’s intense evening sleepiness was beginning to pull at her eyelids, and seeing her yawn, Mother Sheng immediately urged her toward the door.
“Hurry back to your own courtyard and get into bed, Wanyan. You must be incredibly cautious during these early weeks.” She turned a stern look on her son-in-law. “She hasn’t even cleared the three-month threshold yet; you must protect her health above all else.”
Gu Tingxiao nodded with absolute, rigid discipline. Helping Wanyan to her feet, he offered a respectful nod to his in-laws. “Mom, Dad, we shall head back first.”
The couple waved them off warmly. “Go on, go on. We’ll have a long talk tomorrow once everyone is fully rested.”
The moment they stepped back across their own threshold, Gu Tingxiao swung into motion. He knew his wife was incredibly fastidious about her hygiene and maintained a strict routine of bathing every evening. Anticipating her needs, he had slipped back to the courtyard prior to dinner to set a large cauldron of water to boil.
He swiftly carried the steaming buckets into the washroom, ensuring the space was perfectly insulated against the draft, before gently guiding her to the tub to let the warm water soothe her tired muscles.
