Blossom through the Cloud - Extra Chapter 4
Extra Chapter 4
After returning from Country N to the Xihang Building and dealing with a mountain of miscellaneous leftover issues, the couple finally made it back home just as the sky was turning fully bright.
The weather had been a continuous string of pleasant days lately. The sun had shown its face early, baking the newly fruited pomegranate tree in the courtyard, and even the autumn breeze had grown warm.
Fu Mingyu didn't plan to sleep the entire day. He merely drew the sheer gauze curtains and half-reclined against the headboard to catch up on some rest.
When Ruan Suxian emerged from her shower, she wasn't sure whether Fu Mingyu had fallen asleep.
His sleeping expression was always peaceful, his breathing remarkably shallow.
Ruan Suxian sat down on the edge of the bed and asked softly, "Are you asleep?"
There was no response from the other end.
She inched her way upward, wanting to lean against Fu Mingyu's chest, yet hesitated for fear of waking him.
Just as she was half-bent over, locked in an internal debate with herself, Fu Mingyu suddenly curved the corners of his mouth and raised an arm to pull her against his chest.
With his eyes closed, his voice came out soft and low.
"Still not sleeping?"
"I don't want to sleep." Ruan Suxian kept her eyes wide open, staring at the mottled sunlight flickering across the floorboards while the very real sound of Fu Mingyu's heartbeat drummed in her ear. "I can't fall asleep during the day."
Fu Mingyu said nothing more. Ruan Suxian rested quietly against his chest, listening as his breathing gradually grew steady once again.
Ruan Suxian looked up, tracing her fingers lightly along his jawline.
"Are you asleep?"
This time, Fu Mingyu gave no reply.
Following the earthquake that struck the previous afternoon, he and Bai Yang had been immediately escorted to the embassy. They had not closed their eyes once until boarding the flight in the dead of night.
Upon returning home that morning, Aunt Zhang had even prepared breakfast, but Fu Mingyu went straight to their room after taking a shower.
Knowing how exhausted he was, Ruan Suxian kept quiet and didn't disturb him.
As the autumn sunlight slowly shifted from the window across the bed, she drifted off to sleep as well.
Cradling the lingering shock of a narrow escape, Ruan Suxian slept exceptionally deeply that morning.
At noon, Aunt Zhang came to wake them for lunch, and both of them moved with lazy lethargy.
While trimming the stems and leaves of the indoor floral arrangements nearby, Aunt Zhang noticed that neither of them spoke a word while eating, prompting her to chatter away. "Mr. Fu, it's a good thing you're okay this time. You have no idea how badly you scared your wife."
Seeing Fu Mingyu lift his gaze to look over, Ruan Suxian abruptly froze mid-scoop with her soup spoon.
Under his probing gaze, Ruan Suxian raised her chin and stiffly defended herself. "I didn't..."
"How could you not?" Aunt Zhang gestured toward her own face with a stalk of pink tea rose. "She was crying her eyes out the moment she saw the news, rushing out the door without even changing her clothes. I had to chase her to the entrance with her jacket just to help her put it on."
The sound of the spoon stirring against the bowl suddenly grew gratingly loud.
Ruan Suxian twitched the corners of her mouth and scrambled to save face before Fu Mingyu could say anything. "That news report was just too terrifying."
"Of course it was," Aunt Zhang added. "Your wife cried the entire way there, saying what on earth she would do if something happened to you over there."
Ruan Suxian: "......"
Fu Mingyu halted his movements, fixing his deep, unfathomable gaze straight on Ruan Suxian.
Terrified that he might open his mouth and utter something utterly mortifying, Ruan Suxian preemptively seized the initiative to change the subject. "What are we doing this afternoon?"
Fu Mingyu lowered his eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"Staying home to keep my wife company."
After lunch, Aunt Zhang left right on schedule, leaving only Fu Mingyu and Ruan Suxian in the house.
This afternoon felt much like yesterday; sunlight warmed the carpet, newly arranged fresh flowers emitted a faint, elusive fragrance, and even the television was replaying yesterday's programs.
Yet to Ruan Suxian, these past twenty-four hours felt like an ephemeral dream.
She dared not recall her state of mind at the time. Her brain had felt like a detonating bomb, roaring with a deafening blast that scorched her entire body white-hot before plunging into a rapid freeze, leaving her mind completely blank as her whole body began to tremble and freeze from the chill.
She couldn't even remember how she managed to get to the Xihang Building. Had Aunt Zhang not brought it up, she wouldn't even have remembered that she had actually cried.
Not to mention that on a night meant to be spent deep in slumber, she had traversed the endless mountain ranges of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, soared past the snow-blanketed peak of Mount Everest, and navigated a grueling voyage high above the boundless expanse of clouds.
That night could not merely be described as harrowing; it had etched itself far more deeply into her heart, making Ruan Suxian acutely and vividly aware of just how profoundly important Fu Mingyu was to her.
Fortunately, waking from the midday dream, everything had returned to its starting point.
Ruan Suxian leaned against Fu Mingyu, gazing blankly at the television screen.
Meanwhile, his phone rang incessantly.
Twenty-four hours after the incident, people were still continuously sending messages to check on his condition.
The modern Fu Mingyu treated others with considerably more human warmth than before. Even though many contacts in his chat list were mere acquaintances, he still replied to each one individually.
After finishing his replies, he leaned over to pick up the cigarette case from the table.
Ruan Suxian watched his hand, her gaze following his movement upward to his face.
The moment the lighter flickered to life, his profile sharpened against the dancing flame.
The way he lit a cigarette actually held a strong allure for Ruan Suxian. Although he rarely smoked, Ruan Suxian always found herself stealing subtle, untraceable glances to watch the entire process.
Yet today, Ruan Suxian stared unblinkingly at him until the white smoke blurred her vision, whereupon she snapped back to reality and reached out to pluck the cigarette right out of his mouth.
Fu Mingyu tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Ruan Suxian stubbed the cigarette out in a glass ashtray filled with coffee grounds, speaking in a low voice. "Stop smoking."
Fu Mingyu let out an indifferent "Mm," assuming Ruan Suxian was simply bothered by the smell of smoke in the afternoon.
"Don't smoke for the next two years either." Waving a hand to fan away the lingering smoke, Ruan Suxian lowered her head to pick at her fingernails, speaking at a pace so fast it blurred her words. "Let's have a baby."
"Huh?"
Fu Mingyu genuinely hadn't caught that. He leaned closer toward her sideways, bringing his ear near her while keeping his eyes fixed on the television. "What did you say?"
Believing he was just pretending not to hear her, Ruan Suxian saw his posture and assumed he was dropping hints.
No, it should be considered an overt declaration.
After giving herself a brief mental pep talk, Ruan Suxian raised her arms to wrap them around Fu Mingyu's neck, leaning in to kiss his earlobe.
Assuming she was still recovering from her lingering terror, Fu Mingyu simply smiled, wrapped an arm around her waist, and spoke. "Let's go out for dinner tonight, we can go to that—"
"I said," Ruan Suxian interrupted him, cupping his face to force him to lock eyes with her, "let's have a baby."
The autumn wind grew steadily warmer through the afternoon, and the refreshing fragrance of osmanthus drifting in carried an inexplicably seductive undertone.
Ruan Suxian watched Fu Mingyu with a touch of nervousness, only to see layers of shifting emotions cross his eyes before he simply scooped her up without a word and headed straight for the stairs.
Ruan Suxian: "???"
The afternoon hours slipped quietly away. The setting sun melted like gold, and a sudden autumn gale picked up, stripping away dead leaves while overburdened branches snapped, causing a pomegranate to plummet onto the grassy lawn below.
Lying in bed, Ruan Suxian caught a glimpse of that pomegranate hitting the ground through a narrow gap in the curtains, giving her the distinct sensation of Daiyu burying fallen flowers.
She felt just like that pomegranate, and Fu Mingyu was the ruthless autumn wind.
Once they committed to having a child, free from external constraints, Ruan Suxian discovered an entirely different side to Fu Mingyu. Both the duration and intensity reached a completely different echelon.
She couldn't fathom why a thirty-two-year-old veteran man could maintain such boundless stamina after going nearly a full day without sleep.
In fact, after enduring this frequency so many times, she began to suspect that this man was simply obsessed with the procreation process itself.
Before even managing to conceive, Ruan Suxian began to feel deeply resentful.
One night after the deed was done, completely drained of strength, Ruan Suxian stared up at the ceiling and complained, "I'm the one who has to endure ten months of pregnancy, while all you have to do is enjoy yourself and get a baby out of it. How is that fair?!"
"Huh?" Fu Mingyu looked thoroughly baffled. "You didn't enjoy it?"
Ruan Suxian: "......"
Rubbing her face, she hastily steered the topic back on track. "I might even have to go under the knife, perhaps even walk through the gates of hell. Looking at it that way, I'm getting thoroughly ripped off."
Ruan Suxian hadn't delivered her words with absolute solemnity; she was primarily critiquing Fu Mingyu's bedroom stamina, but he took her words with complete seriousness.
"If you're worried about all that, how about we just not have children?"
"Huh?" Ruan Suxian choked on her words. "I..."
Fu Mingyu looked at her with genuine earnestness. "I can't bear the thought of it."
"Well, t-there's no need to go that far." Ruan Suxian rolled over, propping herself up on one elbow as she looked down at Fu Mingyu, tapping her fingertip against his chin. "I was just running my mouth. It's not like I actually don't want kids."
Yet over the course of the following months, apart from the crucial process of making a baby, the couple put considerable effort into every other aspect as well.
During the preconception preparation phase, their lifestyle habits had practically been optimized to perfection, and Ruan Suxian underwent regular medical checkups, yet the baby still stubbornly refused to arrive.
In the blink of an eye, the Spring Festival arrived once again.
Temperatures in Jiangcheng hit a ten-year low that year, but Ruan Suxian didn't dare wear dresses for the sake of looking pretty, prioritizing warmth above all else.
As their hopes for a child were repeatedly dashed, her emotions grew somewhat fragile.
During the month leading up to New Year's Eve, she tracked the calendar every single day, hyper-aware of her body the moment her period was due.
The moment midnight passed and her period still hadn't arrived, she sprang out of bed, grabbed a pregnancy test kit, and hurried into the bathroom.
Yet the result remained identical to the previous few months.
Sighing softly, she trudged slowly back to the bedroom, crawled into bed, and pulled the covers over her head.
"What's wrong?" Roused by her movements, Fu Mingyu reached out to click on the bedside floor lamp, propping himself up on one elbow close to her ear. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"No." Clutching the blanket tightly with her fingers, Ruan Suxian kept her back turned to Fu Mingyu, unwilling to let him see the fear on her face. "Do you think... could it be because of high-altitude radiation exposure over the past few years?"
A pilot's working environment inherently involved problems like hypoxia, dryness, and high ambient noise, while also keeping them perpetually exposed to high-altitude radiation and electromagnetic fields.
Although the company maintained individual annual radiation exposure records for flight crew members—and Ruan Suxian faithfully checked hers, confirming her annual exposure remained well below one millisievert while also deliberately optimizing her flight profiles by avoiding short-duration gradient climbs or lateral re-routing to minimize radiation—she had never dwelled on it before.
She had never worried about it before, but now that conception proved elusive, she magnified this concern infinitely.
"You know how it is. Most of our male colleagues at the company end up having daughters because of these occupational hazards. Who knows if it makes it impossible for women to conceive."
With Ruan Suxian facing away from the light, Fu Mingyu couldn't read her expression, left to gauge her emotional state solely from her voice.
"Don't worry." Fu Mingyu clasped the hand she had rested over her lower abdomen. "It's only been a few months, don't rush. I have friends who took a year or two to conceive, and everything turned out completely healthy."
Keeping her eyes squeezed shut, Ruan Suxian forcefully suppressed the uneasy thoughts churning in her heart. "It'll happen, right?"
"Mmm." Fu Mingyu lay back down, resting his chin against the crown of her head as he closed his eyes and murmured softly, "It definitely will. I've even thought of names for our children."
"We don't even know the gender yet and you're already picking names?"
"Mmm, works for either boy or girl."
"What is it? Let me see if it sounds nice."
"Fu Guangzhi."
A heavy silence stretched across the dark room for a full three seconds, after which Ruan Suxian exploded into action, grabbing a pillow to pummel him with.
"Fu Mingyu, are you out of your damn mind?!?!"
Following that night, the embers of hope reignited deep within Ruan Suxian's heart.
Yet she refused to keep herself in a constant state of hyper-vigilance anymore. She lived her life as usual, and even spent a few days soaking in hot springs at the seaside during her break.
The following spring brought the revival of all things. The cherry tree in the courtyard burst into bloom, and when the breeze blew, drifts of pale pink petals fluttered down to pave the ground in a riot of color.
Later, the blossoms fell and yielded fruit, yet Fu Mingyu's child still hadn't arrived, while they were forced to face the departure of another life.
Doudou had been brought home by Fu Mingyu when he was twenty-four years old, at which point it was already a fully grown adult dog.
As the years marched on, it had finally reached the twilight of its life.
When Ruan Suxian visited the Lake View Mansion again, there was no longer any need to lock the dog away, for it lacked the strength to leap onto her anymore, curling up inside its kennel all day as its food bowl saw less and less consumption each day.
Naturally, Fu Mingyu couldn't let Doudou's condition derail his professional responsibilities, but both he and Ruan Suxian frequently returned to spend the night at the Lake View Mansion during this period.
"Sigh..." Watching Doudou curled up asleep in its bed, Ruan Suxian squatted down in front of it and reached out to stroke its head for the very first time. "If it weren't for me, it probably could have lived with you forever."
"What's gotten into you lately?" Fu Mingyu reached out to cup her chin. "Has Lin Daiyu possessed you? Why are you suddenly so sentimental?"
Ruan Suxian simply felt a sense of guilt toward Fu Mingyu. Resting her head against his shoulder, she murmured softly, "I know you're hurting."
The day Doudou passed away was a bright, sunny afternoon. Fu Mingyu personally watched the veterinarian administer the euthanasia injection.
Ruan Suxian received Fu Mingyu's call while still at the hospital. By the time she arrived at the Lake View Mansion, Doudou's breathing had already grown impossibly faint.
Fu Mingyu stroked its paw before resting his hand over its chest, feeling the very last beat of its heart.
Not until Fu Mingyu withdrew his hand did Ruan Suxian hear him let out a quiet sigh.
She had never seen Fu Mingyu look quite like this before; the sorrow etched across his brow was too dense to ever wash away, yet he was forced to accept this helpless reality.
A sudden ache wrenched at Ruan Suxian's heart, and she wrapped her arms around him from behind.
"Husband, don't be sad anymore. Our baby will come keep you company soon."