Chapter 245: Return to the Army — Part 2
Sheng Wanyan nodded reassuringly. Although her pregnancy occasionally made her a bit clumsy, she was far from foolish and knew how to stay safe.
Seeing that his wife understood, Gu Tingxiao picked up the travel kettle and stepped out to fetch the hot water. Sheng Wanyan quickly took advantage of his absence to pull a handful of fresh, juicy strawberries from her secret spatial dimension. She finished eating them just as the door unlocked and Gu Tingxiao returned.
For the first three days of the journey, the two of them had the train compartment entirely to themselves. This privacy allowed them to eat whatever they pleased from her spatial stash without any prying eyes.
Halfway through the trip, however, the compartment filled up when a young couple boarded. The newcomers claimed the upper berths, and everyone quickly settled into a quiet, respectful routine without any awkwardness.
The rest of the journey passed smoothly. When the train finally hissed to a halt at the Bing City station, they stepped onto the platform and immediately spotted Sheng Wanze waiting near the exit. Tall and upright in his crisp military uniform, he stood out instantly in the bustling crowd.
Sheng Wanze strode over to greet them, immediately reaching out to take their luggage. It was just past noon, the perfect time to grab a quick bite to eat before driving back to the base.
“Little Sister. Brother-in-law,” Sheng Wanze greeted them warmly. He took the smaller bags from Sheng Wanyan’s hands before taking the heaviest pieces from Gu Tingxiao to lighten his load.
“It’s freezing out here. Let’s get to the car quickly,” he urged. Then, keeping a watchful eye on his sister, he added, “Watch your step, Wanyan.”
Sheng Wanyan was now more than five months pregnant, and with the roads slicked with ice and packed snow, a single slip could be disastrous.
“Take it slow, honey,” Gu Tingxiao echoed, his hand gently supporting her elbow. Wanyan nodded, carefully navigating the slippery path beside them.
Gu Tingxiao ushered her into the warmth of the passenger seat first. Once she was safely inside, the two men walked to the back to arrange the heavy luggage in the trunk. With everything packed, they set off, making a quick detour to a local state-owned restaurant.
The drive from the city back to the secluded military base took about four hours. If they didn’t get a proper meal into their systems now, they would be absolutely starving by the time they arrived.
The three of them ordered a satisfying lunch: two hearty meat dishes, one fresh vegetable stir-fry, and a large steamed meat bun for each of them. Properly fed and rested, they officially began the final leg of their journey home.
Back at the military base, Grandma Sheng and Mother Sheng were already bustling around the kitchen, carefully preparing a grand dinner to welcome the travelers back.
In the nursery, Pan Yue was quietly looking after little Huzi. At two months old, the baby was growing beautifully, his skin fair, plump, and tender. He lay contentedly in his crib, his round eyes darting left and right as he inspected the room, before suddenly letting out a soft grunt and dirtying his diaper.
Pan Yue practiced a familiar routine, gently wiping his bottom with a warm, damp towel before pinning him into a fresh cloth diaper.
“Ah~” Huzi cooed.
At his age, his daily schedule consisted entirely of crying for milk, cooing softly, and making a mess of his diapers. Because he was exclusively breastfed, he required a fresh diaper six or seven times a day. The sheer volume of laundry meant they were constantly running low on clean cloths. To make matters worse, the freezing winter weather made it impossible to dry laundry outside, forcing Mother Sheng to constantly spread the damp diapers across the warm brick kang to dry indoors.
“Huzi, your aunt is coming home today. Aren’t you excited?” Pan Yue teased softly, her heart melting a little as she looked down at her chubby boy.
“Ah~” Huzi babbled in response. He flailed his tiny arms, successfully catching her finger and attempting to drag it straight into his mouth.
Pan Yue gently pulled her hand out of his grasp. “No, sweetie, that’s dirty. You can’t eat that.”
She chuckled, shaking her head. “I literally just finished wiping your bottom, and you don’t even care that my hands might be dirty.” The little rascal was already so unbothered by hygiene; there was no telling what kind of handful he would be when he grew up.
Finding his target suddenly moving out of reach, Huzi stared blankly at her empty hands for a moment before his tiny face puckered, and he let out a loud, dramatic wail.
“Waaah! Waaah!”
Out in the living room, Grandpa Sheng and Father Sheng heard the sudden crying and turned anxious glances toward the bedroom door. Mother Sheng, who was currently washing vegetables in the sink, quickly dried her hands on a towel and hurried into the nursery.
“What’s the matter?” she asked softly. “Oh, Grandma’s precious boy, don’t cry, don’t cry.”
It was safe to say the infant was thoroughly adored and pampered by every elder in the Sheng household; the moment he shed a single tear, someone was always there to comfort him. Mother Sheng gathered the baby into her arms, gently patting his back. A two-month-old baby could easily choke if he worked himself into a hyperventilating sob.
“He was trying to force my fingers into his mouth to chew on them again,” Pan Yue explained, looking up at her mother-in-law with a slightly weary, overwhelmed expression.
Mother Sheng noted the subtle exhaustion clouding her face. Pan Yue had only recently completed her postpartum confinement period, and her hormones were still incredibly volatile. She was stretched so thin she was practically competing with her own newborn for control.
Turning her gaze to the crying baby in her arms, Mother Sheng adopted a mock-stern tone. “You little rascal, making your poor mother upset again? Why must you be so mischievous?”
“She just finished cleaning up after you, and you go and act entirely thoughtless.” Mother Sheng smiled, gently rocking Huzi until his cries faded, before laying him back into his crib.
“We’ll let Wanze give this little troublemaker a proper lecture when he gets home. We can’t have him stressing you out.” Mother Sheng then reached down to take the soiled diaper from Pan Yue’s hands. “I’ll handle the washing. Why don’t you head into the kitchen to help Grandma with the dinner?”
Pan Yue nodded gratefully and stepped out. Internally, she was deeply relieved. She was well aware that ever since giving birth, her emotional state had been incredibly fragile, constantly teetering on the edge of a breakdown. The relentless, heavy physical demands of childcare left her so exhausted she could barely draw a full breath.
But worst of all was the lingering physical toll of labor. She was still struggling with a weak pelvic floor, and whenever she laughed, coughed, or lifted the baby, she would experience involuntary urinary leakage. It filled her with an intense, agonizing sense of shame and embarrassment, especially on the occasions when she accidentally soiled the bedsheets. As a woman who had always taken immense pride in her appearance and personal grooming, this loss of bodily control felt deeply humiliating.
Fortunately, she had been blessed with a wonderful, deeply supportive husband and an incredibly understanding mother-in-law who continuously helped her clean up and offered gentle comfort. Still, she had to constantly force her mind onto other tasks; if she allowed herself to dwell on it, she knew she would sink into a dark depression.
Pan Yue washed her hands thoroughly and slipped into the kitchen, joining Grandma Sheng to focus her energy on prepping the evening feast.
Watching her daughter-in-law walk away, Mother Sheng let out a quiet, worried sigh. Pan Yue was currently trapped in a brutal cycle of sleep deprivation, and the stress was causing her hair to thin out. It looked exactly like a textbook case of postpartum depression. Mother Sheng resolved to have a serious, private conversation with Sheng Wanze later tonight. If the exhaustion didn’t improve, they would have to arrange for the baby to sleep in her room for a few weeks to grant Pan Yue a stretch of uninterrupted sleep.
Mother Sheng waited until little Huzi fell into a deep, peaceful slumber before she quietly took the diapers to the washbasin.
At half past six in the evening, the car finally rumbled into the military compound. The moment they parked, Gu Tingxiao and Sheng Wanze quickly moved to unload the trunk, carrying the young couple’s personal belongings into their own small courtyard next door.
Next, they retrieved the heavy care package Mother Gu had explicitly prepared for the Sheng family, and Gu Tingxiao carried it across the way to the main household.
“Grandma, Dad, Mom, Sister-in-law!” Sheng Wanyan called out happily as she stepped through the front door.
The family had been gathered around the table, waiting to share the meal with them. The moment Mother Sheng saw her daughter’s rounded belly, she hurried forward, bypassing the greetings to gently guide her into a comfortable chair.
“Grandma, Dad, Mom, Sister-in-law,” Gu Tingxiao greeted them respectfully in turn. Grandpa Sheng and Father Sheng offered warm nods of approval, gesturing for him to take a seat at the table.
“Sit down, son. You’ve had an incredibly long journey.”
“It wasn’t bad at all, Dad,” Gu Tingxiao replied smoothly. He assured his father-in-law that the initial days of their leave had granted him plenty of rest, meaning he had more than enough energy to tackle the coming weeks of duty.
“It is so wonderful to finally have you back,” Mother Sheng smiled, her eyes scanning her daughter. “Tell me, how was everything in the Capital? How are your grandparents and your parents holding up?”
“And how are you feeling, Wanyan? Has the baby been giving you a difficult time?”
Sheng Wanyan smiled warmly, patting her stomach. “Everything is absolutely perfect, Mom. The baby has been incredibly well-behaved and gentle.”
“Oh, by the way, this heavy parcel is a gift my mother-in-law put together explicitly for you.” Sheng Wanyan gestured toward the massive tote bag resting by Gu Tingxiao’s boots, and her husband promptly lifted it onto the table.
Curious, Wanyan unzipped the top. Since Mother Gu had packed the case herself, Wanyan hadn’t been fully briefed on the exact contents. One by one, she extracted the premium luxury items, lining them up for her mother.
Mother Gu had packed five tins of premium malted milk powder, three canisters of fortified baby milk powder, and three elegant jars of imported vanishing cream. The remaining space was packed to the brim with high-quality provisions: five thick strips of cured bacon, five whole dried pheasants, and a substantial five-kilogram brick of pure brown sugar.
Brown sugar was a highly coveted, premium luxury tonic utilized to nourish the body and replenish blood reserves—making it an absolutely invaluable asset for Pan Yue, who was still actively recovering from childbirth. The milk powder was clearly intended to support the health of the two elderly grandparents, while the vanishing cream provided a luxury jar for each of the three women in the household.
“My goodness, why on earth did your mother-in-law prepare such an extravagant wealth of things for us?” Mother Sheng gasped, her hands flying to her chest. “The Gu family just shipped a massive crate of premium meats to our doorstep a few weeks ago!”
Confronted with such relentless, grand generosity from their in-laws, Mother Sheng truly felt overwhelmed, entirely unsure of how to properly express her gratitude.
“The items sent before were simply standard provisions brought back from the main family division, which every branch received,” Sheng Wanyan explained with a laugh. “But this specific bundle was personally curated and purchased by my mother-in-law out of her own pocket.”
Hearing this, Mother Sheng hovered between deep gratitude and politeness, looking over the mountain of high-end goods. Yet, knowing her counterpart in the Capital had poured her entire heart into organizing this welcome package, refusing the tokens was out of the question.
