Chapter 136
“Wow.”
This “wow” was short and crisp, different from when he was little.
The “wow~” from when he was little was drawn out, with a winding, undulating inflection at the end. It could really make anyone’s heart melt.
But for the past two or three years, Qiao Wei had barely heard that “wow~” from Yan Xiang.
The child had gradually grown up and had gradually come to recognize the world; it was difficult for anything new to make him go “wow~” anymore.
Finally, today, he went “wow” again.
Because Mom and Dad told Yan Xiang that he was going to be a big brother.
This time, it was an exclamation of awe for life.
He was actually going to be a big brother.
Yan Xiang was still looking forward to it: “We have to wait until they’re born to know if it’s a younger brother or a younger sister, right? We still have to wait that long?”
Qiao Wei only felt relieved when she saw that Yan Xiang had no negative reaction.
Her worry was unnecessary, and Yan Lei couldn’t quite understand it either—which eldest child would be unhappy about having a younger sibling? Doesn’t every family have several children? Even if they didn’t have one themselves, they saw plenty of them in other families, so why wouldn’t they be happy?
A generational gap.
However, although he couldn’t understand Qiao Wei’s unnecessary worry, one thing Yan Lei could understand was that Qiao Wei loved Yan Xiang.
That was enough.
Yan Xiang had never really had any thoughts about having a younger sibling.
He kept books as his companions and passed the time with knowledge; he didn’t feel lonely or isolated at all.
But suddenly knowing he was going to be a big brother, a novel sense of joy welled up in his heart. He went to get paper and a pen: “Are there any precautions?”
Yan Lei: “…”
Yan Lei calmly took the paper and pen from him: “Go read your books. You don’t need to worry about it.”
He was actually trying to steal his own father’s job.
Yan Lei hunched over the coffee table and wrote from memory for fifteen minutes, jotting down a whole bunch of things.
Qiao Wei leaned over to look—things like backaches, swollen legs, not being able to stand certain smells, not being able to eat certain things, and so on…
Qiao Wei chuckled and said quite naturally: “You still remember all of that?”
Yan Lei also said quite naturally and with great interest: “Yes, back then…”
But his voice came to an abrupt halt.
Qiao Wei saw a flash of confusion on this man’s face.
“Back then…” his voice dropped, “back then, it was my first time being a father…”
There were so many firsts in life back then; of course he still remembered.
He also remembered promising during their blind date that he would take good care of her for the rest of his life.
But… it seemed he had forgotten it all these years, and now he remembered it again. This was a failure in his life.
It was one of the few promises he had made but failed to keep.
How could he not be confused?
Qiao Wei reached out and held his hand. Yan Lei held her hand back.
Qiao Wei squeezed his hand tightly: “Between people, sometimes the fate just isn’t there yet.”
Yan Lei nodded.
Qiao Wei said: “How about we set up a cenotaph.”
Yan Lei knew what a cenotaph was. Many comrades-in-arms never returned, and cenotaphs were set up for them.
Qiao Wei rummaged through the bottom of the chest and managed to find two old pieces of clothing from the past.
She put them into a small jar and buried it in the corner of the yard.
A tombstone could not be erected.
Yan Lei went to the riverside and found a rock that looked right, about the size of a basketball, brought it back home, and placed it on top to replace a tombstone.
Yan Xiang soon noticed that a large rock had inexplicably appeared in the corner of their yard. From time to time, some food would be placed there. A piece of pastry, a piece of fruit, or something similar.
He asked Yan Lei, and Yan Lei didn’t know how to answer for a moment.
Qiao Wei said: “It’s a wishing stone. If you have any wishes, you can tell her.”
Yan Xiang was speechless: “I’m not a child anymore. I am a materialist, a staunch communist fighter.”
Qiao Wei said: “Even the staunchest communist fighter can have wishes.”
That was true.
Yan Xiang still quietly went to make a wish.
He put his hands together: “Let it be a younger sister.”
“Don’t let it be a younger brother, don’t let it be a younger brother.”
“If one is born like Jun Jun, it would be too distressing.”
Jun Jun had also grown up, a year older than Yan Xiang.
He had perfectly inherited the genes of those two stalwarts, Regimental Commander Zhao and Sister Yang, and was as sturdy as a little calf. He was particularly energetic when it came to causing trouble.
Regimental Commander Zhao often felt that raising this son could take ten years off his life.
Qiao Wei held a nominal position at the Revolutionary Committee and would take leave whenever she didn’t feel well.
Meng Zuoyi was still too rigid; he was even more rigid now than he had been five years ago.
It was a good opportunity to use her pregnancy as an excuse to avoid many things.
Sometimes in the afternoon, she would stroll over to the Library. After Yan Xiang finished his classes in the morning, he would go to the Residential Compound of the Revolutionary Committee to have lunch with her, and after eating, he would go to the Library to stay there.
Nowadays, Librarian Zheng Ai was the director there, and everything was as it had been.
These few people at the Library could all be considered his teachers in certain aspects; he had grown up with their companionship.
It could even be said that in some respects, these people understood Yan Xiang perhaps even better than his own father.
When Qiao Wei arrived, Little Wu was talking to Librarian Zheng Ai. Seeing her, they both stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Qiao Wei asked, puzzled.
Little Wu said: “Director, Xiangxiang, he…”
She didn’t know how to put it.
Yan Xiang was different from other children—the people at the Library had gradually come to this realization over the past few years.
Librarian Zheng Ai pushed up his glasses: “You should go see for yourself.”
Qiao Wei went over, curious. Yan Xiang was in the reading room, hunched over a large table writing and drawing something. There were many papers on the table.
Qiao Wei walked over, but he didn’t notice; he was very immersed.
Qiao Wei looked at those papers, which were filled with symbols and calculations.
Qiao Wei was silent for a moment, then quietly backed out and asked the two of them: “When did he start doing this?”
She thought it had probably been a few hours, after all, there was so much scratch paper.
But Librarian Zheng Ai said: “It’s been several days.”
Among the people at the Library, Little Wu was the one who loved mathematics. She said: “I can’t understand it at all.”
Qiao Wei sighed softly.
Librarian Zheng Ai said: “We were just discussing it, how about we tidy up the suite inside our office and let Xiangxiang stay there? That way, others won’t disturb him.”
And it would also save others from seeing him.
Sometimes, being too different from the norm isn’t necessarily seen as a good thing by ordinary people. It might even give rise to negative emotions.
Not to mention the current times, when intellectuals are not in the classroom but in cowsheds.
“Okay,” Qiao Wei said, “I’ll leave it to you.”
The people at the Library silently protected Yan Xiang.
Qiao Wei’s belly grew bigger day by day.
Sowing in spring, harvesting in autumn.
The doctors at the county hospital were not fully staffed now.
Qiao Wei went to the Military District Military Unit hospital to give birth.
Division Commander Yan and his eldest son were waiting anxiously outside the delivery room.
Even Yan Xiang was seeing his father so unsettled for the first time.
He paced back and forth in the hallway repeatedly. His military cap was almost crumpled to pieces.
“It must hurt a lot.” He was a bit anxious, “She hates pain the most.”
“Sigh, why can’t doctors think of a way to give birth without pain? Can’t this medical technology advance a bit more?”
Today, the father couldn’t stop talking.
It made Yan Xiang glance sideways at him. Yan Xiang, on the contrary, was very calm: “Dad, calm down.”
The father tapped his head: “I am very calm.”
When the delivery room door opened, both of them rushed over.
A midwife came out holding a swaddled baby, smiling to congratulate them: “Division Commander Yan, congratulations, it’s a daughter.”
The wishing stone had actually worked.
Both of them were beaming with joy.
Yan Lei asked: “Where is my wife?”
“Wait a moment, she is delivering the placenta. Let you see the baby first.” The midwife showed the newborn baby to the father, then carried it back into the delivery room.
The two, one big and one small, continued to wait anxiously, and after another half hour, the mother and baby were wheeled out together.
The hair at Qiao Wei’s roots and temples was soaking wet.
Yan Lei held her hand: “Does it hurt?”
Qiao Wei had no strength left to speak.
“Okay, don’t speak, don’t speak.”
He held her hand all the way until she was wheeled into the high-ranking cadre ward.
After feeding Qiao Wei some water and the chocolate he had prepared to replenish her energy, Qiao Wei finally had the strength to speak.
“It hurts to death.” She grimaced, “No more having children in the future!”
Yan Lei immediately agreed: “No more.”
Yan Xiang was a bit confused.
Mom had given birth to him, so she already knew the pain of childbirth.
But from Dad’s words, it was clear that whether or not to have children was actually controllable by humans.
“Since it’s possible not to have children,” he asked curiously, “why do people still get pregnant and have children?”
Even a genius has gaps in their knowledge.
The main thing was that at this time, even in the Library, there were no books on sex education, so he lacked information input in this area.
Yan Lei and Qiao Wei paused at the same time.
Yan Lei put on a stern face: “Adult matters, children shouldn’t ask.”
Qiao Wei couldn’t hold back her laughter.
But as soon as she laughed, the postpartum bleeding opened the floodgates, just like wetting the bed, so she had to hold it in hard. It was so difficult.
Yan Xiang couldn’t understand and shook his head, going to look at his younger sister.
His brows knitted together. Qiao Wei noticed something was wrong: “What’s the matter?”
Yan Xiang frowned: “Nothing.”
If he had known his sister would look like this, he wouldn’t have made the wish.
This is just too… It would be better to give birth to Jun Jun.
But this was his own younger sister, so Yan Xiang went against his conscience and said: “Sister… is quite cute.”
He said this so reluctantly, anyone could tell.
Especially Yan Lei, who understood immediately.
He chuckled: “You think your sister is ugly, right? I’m telling you, she looks exactly like you did when you were just born.”
“Ah?” Yan Xiang was shocked, “I looked like this when I was just born?”
All wrinkled, like a little monkey?
Qiao Wei at least had memories, and she laughed to death.
“All newborns look like this; in two days, she will grow into her features.” She said decisively, “Your sister, it’s impossible for her to be ugly!”
“Really?” Yan Xiang remained skeptical.
Three days later, Yan Xiang started to eat his words.
His wrinkled younger sister really did grow into her features and became good-looking!
She was so pretty!
The little baby grew fuller day by day.
Her soft little cheeks, when touched with a finger, would bounce back; Yan Xiang couldn’t get enough of playing with them!
My sister is so fun!
His younger sister was so pretty, she was worth a piece of chocolate to fulfill his vow.
Yan Xiang put his hands together: “Thank you, Wishing Stone. I have a younger sister.”
He unwrapped the paper from the chocolate and placed it on the stone.
“My sister is better-looking than other people’s sisters.”
However, naming her daughter stumped Qiao Wei.
The main thing was that she really wanted to give her daughter a nice name; she couldn’t accept the all-too-common words like Feng, Ying, Lan, or Zhen. She also didn’t want to give her daughter a name that was too politically charged or characteristic of the era, like Aihua.
But the terrible thing was that those “nice-sounding” names she came up with looked like they had a hint of political incorrectness in this era.
Yan Lei just watched as she came up with one and crossed it out, came up with another and crossed it out.
Yan Lei couldn’t help with this; if he helped, it would be names like Yan Lan, Yan Ying, or Yan Zhen.
In the end, it was Yan Xiang who contributed a character.
“My name is Xiang,” he said, “let my sister be called Fu.”
“The Xiang region is rich in hibiscus flowers, and there has been a saying since ancient times: ‘The land of hibiscus for ten thousand li in the autumn wind.'”
“Yan Fu.” His eyes and brows were filled with smiles as he kissed his sister’s face, which was like a peeled egg, “Your name is Yan Fu.”
