Chapter 291: The Ripples of Shame
Sure enough, her plan was working. Her good days were just around the corner.
Mother Gu drew the privacy curtain closed, and Gu Tingxiao took the enamel basin to the bathroom to wash the dirty diaper his precious daughter had just soiled.
Before this, Dahua had only seen Gu Tingxiao looking disheveled and exhausted right after returning from his mission, and she had never imagined he could be so handsome. He carried himself with such a cold, unyielding demeanor, however, that she didn’t dare utter a single word to him; just looking at him terrified her.
Yet, watching this seemingly cold-blooded man tend to his wife so selflessly made her think of her own husband, who did nothing but lounge around the house and hadn’t even bothered to show up to look after his own child. The contrast sparked a dangerous new thought in Dahua’s mind.
Maybe this man… just looks cold on the outside, but is actually soft-hearted and easy to talk to?
Dahua’s heart fluttered, and she flushed as she stared at Gu Tingxiao’s tall, retreating back. If she could somehow entangle herself with a man like him, wouldn’t her future be secure? He was a soldier, and judging by the luxury meals Sheng Wanyan ate every day, he clearly earned an incredible income. He might even be a high-ranking officer!
Sheng Wanyan had no idea another woman was coveting her husband. Even if she had known, she wouldn’t have felt a shred of insecurity. Gu Tingxiao was the type of man who, outside of his wife, barely tolerated saying a single word to anyone—even his own mother. Mother Gu herself was frequently exasperated by her son’s blunt, rigid straightforwardness, let alone any other woman trying to flirt with him.
Besides, Sheng Wanyan had never relied on a man to survive. If this one ever stepped out of line, she would simply cast him aside and find someone better.
As for Gu Tingxiao, he was entirely oblivious, diligently scrubbing a diaper in the bathroom, unaware his wife had already casually decided his hypothetical fate.
When Gu Tingxiao returned from the bathroom, Dahua stole a cautious glance at him over her food. His face remained a mask of total indifference, but instead of deterring her, it only fueled Dahua’s sudden desire to conquer him.
Once Sheng Wanyan finished her meal, it was little Yi Yi’s turn to eat. Every time Mother Gu visited the hospital, her eyes never left her granddaughter. The moment Yi Yi stirred and showed signs of crying, Mother Gu scooped her up instantly.
“Oh, my sweet girl, are you hungry?”
Sheng Wanyan smiled and reached out to take the baby. Knowing it was time for her to nurse, Sheng Wanze stood up and stepped into the corridor to wait, as did Mother Gu, respecting Wanyan’s preference for privacy while breastfeeding.
Gu Tingxiao stayed behind to help adjust her clothing, sitting close to watch over her while she fed the baby. He made sure to remain fully present so his wife would never feel isolated or think he didn’t care.
Yi Yi drank greedily in large gulps. Sheng Wanyan made sure to feed her from one side at a time to keep her milk production balanced and prevent her breasts from becoming painfully engorged. After the feeding, she let the baby rest against her chest for a while to burp and prevent her from spitting up.
Yi Yi was an exceptionally good baby. Once her stomach was full, she never cried or made a fuss, remaining completely peaceful whether Sheng Wanze or Mother Gu held her. Though her vision was still too blurry to see them clearly, she had already grown deeply familiar with their voices, feeling entirely secure in their arms. She even let out a tiny, instinctive smile from time to time, melting Mother Gu’s heart completely.
Mother Gu truly hadn’t expected her stern third son to produce such a sweet, well-behaved daughter. It was something she never could have imagined in her wildest dreams. After mulling it over, she decided all the credit belonged to her third daughter-in-law; the baby had clearly inherited Sheng Wanyan’s excellent genes.
If she had inherited Gu Tingxiao’s temperament, Mother Gu thought, shuddering, she’d be glaring at me with a stone-cold face in the future, greeting me in that stiff, expressionless tone. She got goosebumps just thinking about it and was thrilled to be spared that particular torture. She had only managed to raise Gu Tingxiao because she possessed an exceptionally resilient spirit! Thank goodness her third son had been lucky enough to marry Wanyan, otherwise she would never have been blessed with this darling granddaughter.
Mother Gu doted on Yi Yi for a while longer, reluctantly heading home only after the baby drifted back into a deep sleep.
With Sheng Wanze anchoring the bedside watch, it was highly convenient for Gu Tingxiao to slip away to take a proper shower and use the restroom. He quickly washed up before wolfing down a hearty dinner, eager to return to his post and resume taking care of his wife.
Sheng Wanze sat nearby, staring down at his sleeping newborn niece. He felt another wave of envy hit him. Whenever he thought of his own son at home—who usually screamed the house down the second he woke up—his blood pressure spiked. Yet, no matter how much he complained about Huzi, he knew the boy was his own flesh and blood, and he simply had to endure the chaos. If he didn’t, the family elders would likely lose patience with him instead.
The following afternoon, Pan Yue took Huzi out for a walk. The little boy had been babbling the word “beautiful” non-stop at home, and Pan Yue knew he was demanding to go to the hospital to see his new baby cousin. Annoyed by his relentless fussing, she finally gave in and carried him to the ward.
Before leaving, she gathered a basket of fresh wild berries from the mountains, knowing Sheng Wanyan loved them. While the neighbors viewed them as mere wild fruit, Sheng Wanyan knew their true nutritional value. In the modern era of her previous life, organic wild berries could easily fetch hundreds of dollars a pound, costing far more than prime cuts of meat. She wasn’t about to turn them down.
Sheng Wanze took the berries to wash them, leaving the women to chat comfortably. Little Huzi was ecstatic to find his cousin awake for a rare change. He eagerly reached out his chubby hand to touch her, but because his movements were clumsy and strong, Pan Yue quickly intercepted his arm.
“It’s alright, sister-in-law,” Sheng Wanyan smiled, amused by his excitement. “The baby isn’t that fragile. If Huzi wants to greet his sister, let him touch her.” Children were bound by blood, and it was only natural for them to be close.
At her reassurance, Pan Yue gently guided Huzi’s hand, softening his strength so he could lightly pat Yi Yi’s soft cheek. Huzi found the texture fascinating, staring at the infant in absolute wonder. Yi Yi, however, completely ignored him, simply smacking her tiny lips before drifting right back to sleep.
Finding himself thoroughly ignored by his little cousin, Huzi’s eyes turned glossy and red with grievance, and he looked up at his mother as if he were about to cry.
Pan Yue laughed quietly, finding it hilarious that her stubborn little brat was already so attached to his cousin. “Your sister needs her sleep, sweetheart. Once she grows up a bit, she’ll be able to run around and play with you.”
Huzi looked down at his own chubby little belly, then glanced at the baby, who still looked a bit flushed and fragile. He finally cheered up, satisfied as long as she wasn’t rejecting him as a playmate. Pan Yue stayed for a short while longer before bundling Huzi up to head home, wanting to limit his exposure to hospital bacteria.
Later that afternoon, the attending physician arrived to perform a comprehensive evaluation. Four days post-delivery, Sheng Wanyan’s physical recovery was progressing beautifully.
“Your vitals look fantastic,” the doctor announced, adjusting his clipboard. “You should be fully cleared to be discharged and return home to recuperate in two days.”
Sheng Wanyan nodded, a wave of relief washing over her. She hated the sterile, suffocating hospital environment, especially with the constant, irritating mix of medicinal odors drifting through the corridor every day.
In truth, her recovery wouldn’t have been this remarkably rapid under normal circumstances. Ever since Sheng Wanze had joined the watch rotation, she had been seizing the brief windows when Gu Tingxiao went to the restroom to secretly drink the spiritual spring water from her spatial domain. The mystical water had accelerated her healing significantly, though she exercised extreme caution, never daring to drink too much at once out of fear that the medical staff would notice an unnatural anomaly in her charts. She had zero desire to challenge a specialist’s clinical curiosity; doctors loved nothing more than analyzing anomalous physical recoveries, and she refused to become a medical mystery for them to solve.
“Thank you, Doctor,” she murmured.
Standing on the opposite side of the ward, Dahua and her mother-in-law froze in sheer panic when they overheard the timeline. Discharged in two days?! How could she be leaving so soon?
Over the past forty-eight hours, they hadn’t been granted a single opportunity to even step within arm’s reach of the infant, let alone engineer a moment to switch the babies. Every single time they so much as looked toward Sheng Wanyan’s bed, they were instantly pinned by four freezing, lethal military stares that terrified them to their very souls.
