The Early Spring - Extra Chapter 10

Side Story 10 - Nian Tao

When Shang Zhitao was pregnant, she gained weight very quickly.

By her second trimester, she weighed nearly 140 pounds. Being tall to begin with, packing on so much weight made her look considerably sturdier than before.

During prenatal checkups, the doctor would scold her: "Are you eating too much? You need to exercise some self-control! If you keep this up, the baby will grow too large, and you'll have to get a C-section! You need to be responsible!"

Hormone levels fluctuate wildly during pregnancy, so a woman who was usually quite tough burst into tears the moment she stepped out of the consultation room after getting chewed out by the doctor. Seeing her cry, Luan Nian asked: "What's wrong?"

Sobbing, she recounted the doctor's words, feeling deeply aggrieved: "You know I don't eat much, I eat healthily, and I walk every day! What can I do if the baby just grows fast?"

She couldn't understand it either. When Lin Chun'er, Xiao Mei, Lumi, and He Yun were pregnant, only their bellies grew while their arms and legs remained slender and beautiful. Why did she have to end up looking so disheveled?

She had also asked Doctor Liang, who told her: "Everyone's body constitution is different; you look wonderful like this. How adorable."

Doctor Liang and Da Zhai didn't care whether Shang Zhitao looked pretty or not; they cared about whether she was healthy. When it came down to it, Shang Zhitao was having a child on the older side; in a few more years, she would be considered an advanced maternal age mother. That was why Doctor Liang specially tailored a meal plan for Shang Zhitao, instructing Da Zhai and Luan Nian to feed her strictly according to the menu. It satisfied her cravings while keeping her blood pressure and blood sugar under control during pregnancy.

After becoming pregnant, Shang Zhitao became a national treasure; everyone who knew her took care of her. At the company, Sunny calculated her working hours every day, making her go downstairs for a walk whenever she worked for over an hour. Every youngster in the office turned into her walking companion, taking turns to accompany her downstairs to get some fresh air. At home, everyone yielded to her.

She felt that everything went smoothly, except for her own weight gain. Whenever she got scolded by the doctor, she was in a bad mood, and when she was in a bad mood, she would blame Luan Nian: "It's all your fault!"

...

Luan Nian let out a hum and pulled out a tissue to wipe her nose: "Aren't you embarrassed?"

"Why should I be embarrassed!" Shang Zhitao's tears welled up fiercely as she grabbed a tissue to wipe her eyes: "I'm fat and ugly right now."

"Then you're overthinking it," Luan Nian pointed out the flaw in her logic. "You're just fat, not ugly."

Luan Nian was telling the truth. Shang Zhitao actually looked fantastic right now: with her rounded belly and a fresh "first-love" bob haircut, she looked crisp, refreshed, and like an adorable penguin. But his honest remark nearly infuriated Shang Zhitao to death. She went from gentle whimpering to bursting into loud sobs all of a sudden. People were coming and going in the hospital, and many turned their heads to watch the cute pregnant woman crying right in front of her husband.

Luan Nian spent quite a long time coaxing her before she finally calmed down. When the two returned home, Shang Zhitao lay down on the sofa, thoroughly dejected.

"Want something to eat?"

"No, I don't deserve it."

"Even if you don't eat, my daughter still needs to!"

Hearing this made Shang Zhitao even angrier, so she sat up straight and began berating him: "I know why I gained weight so fast! It's all because of you! You're home four days a week, and every single day you constantly ask me if I want to eat! It's like feeding a pig!"

"When you're not around, I eat very healthily. Unsurprisingly, the frequency of my eating goes through the roof whenever you're here..."

"Also, why do you have to make food taste so good? Can't you just make something mediocre? If your cooking tasted bad, wouldn't I eat less?"

"So do you actually eat too much or too little!" Luan Nian finally couldn't resist asking her. Shang Zhitao paused, pretended not to hear him, and continued berating him.

She berated him for a long time.

Luan Nian was in a good mood and let her berate him as she pleased. Occasionally, when he couldn't hold back, he would tell her: "I can cook it, but you can choose not to eat it."

Shang Zhitao glared at him in anger, so he pinched her cheek forcefully.

During her pregnancy, Shang Zhitao was like a ripe peach, making Luan Nian feel as though he had swapped out his wife for a new one. Sometimes, seeing her round cheeks flushed red, he couldn't resist pinching her. Yet even with her large belly, she only slouched when she was at home. Once she stepped out the door, she reverted to her usual poise, sitting and standing impeccably straight.

Luan Nian thought that women possessed a strange kind of self-restraint.

When he was around, he took care of her himself; when he was away, Da Zhai and Old Shang took over. Even though she was pregnant, Shang Zhitao didn't slack off at work; she simply left the office slightly earlier than before because she needed to go home to sleep—she was exceedingly prone to drowsiness. At all other times, she was just like before.

Luan Nian felt pained by her exhaustion, but she herself was happy; working alongside her colleagues brought her joy.

When her pregnancy progressed further, Shang Zhitao dragged Luan Nian to shoot maternity photos. Luan Nian was unwilling to cooperate, acting with the same disdain as before. Shang Zhitao glared at him, and he finally relented, dropping to one knee to kiss her belly.

On the day little Nian Tao was born, Shang Zhitao was in the middle of meeting a client.

Even five days past her due date, the baby showed no sign of arriving. Shang Zhitao thus went with the younger team members to meet a major client. They had a pleasant conversation, and after the digital contract was sent over, the client prepared to request the funds and process the paperwork. Shang Zhitao stood up to shake hands with the client when she suddenly felt a gush of warmth down below.

Her water had broken.

So she found a spot to lie halfway down and dialed 120 for an ambulance.

Luan Nian had just stepped off a plane. He rushed home to pick up the hospital bag and went straight to the hospital. For the first time in his life, he discovered that his hands could shake.

On the way to the hospital, his hands trembled nonstop.

Da Zhai gave him a soothing reassurance: "She's doing great, don't worry. Her cervix is already dilating."

"Alright, thank you."

When Luan Nian arrived at the hospital, birthing partners were not allowed inside due to pandemic regulations, so he couldn't see Shang Zhitao. He could only call her. When the call went through, he heard Shang Zhitao endure the pain to give a quiet "hello." When Luan Nian asked her if it hurt, this unyielding, iron-willed man suddenly burst into tears. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he said to Shang Zhitao: "I'm right outside. I'm right here with you."

Hearing Luan Nian choke up, Shang Zhitao's eyes turned red: "Then tell me you love me."

"I love you."

"Then call me wife."

"Wife."

"Then say 'Wife, I love you.'" Shang Zhitao began having another contraction and couldn't go on. Before hanging up, she heard Luan Nian say: "Wife, I love you."

This time, Luan Nian didn't find it cheesy at all. He wished he could say every single sweet word Shang Zhitao liked to hear, as long as it could make her feel even a fraction better.

Luan Nian stood there the entire time. The elders were all a bit nervous and took turns trying to persuade him to sit down, but he remained unmoved. However long Shang Zhitao took to give birth was how long he stood. When he finally saw a frail Shang Zhitao, his eyes turned red again.

Having a baby was truly a miraculous thing.

Shang Zhitao didn't want to rest; she asked Luan Nian to bring little Nian Tao over for her to see. Luan Nian had never held a baby before; he held little Nian Tao stiffly. She was so tiny, sleeping with her eyes closed, making his heart melt completely. Touching her cheek lightly with his fingertip, the baby's skin was impossibly soft and tender, like touching cotton. Luan Nian felt that his heart had never been this soft.

"I think little Nian Tao looks a bit like you." Luan Nian squatted by Shang Zhitao's bed, placing little Nian Tao beside her hand. The two gazed at little Nian Tao, reluctant to even blink.

Shang Zhitao looked at little Nian Tao, then looked at Luan Nian, suddenly feeling that Luan Nian was spouting total nonsense just now. Little Nian Tao was clearly a carbon copy of him! Shang Zhitao felt dissatisfied: I carried you for ten arduous months and worked so hard to give birth to you, yet you don't look like me at all and take right after your father?

"You just said she looks a bit like me—where does she look like me?" Shang Zhitao asked Luan Nian.

Luan Nian thought about it carefully, a trace of smugness on his face, his perfunctory response exceedingly obvious: "Look at her... ears. They look so much like yours. Her hair is quite similar too."

Little Nian Tao's hair was shiny black and very thick. It felt as though while other babies worked hard to grow prettier in their mothers' bellies, she had put all her effort into growing hair—directing her efforts in the completely wrong direction! And looking at her ears, they hadn't even grown out properly yet! What kind of person was he!

Both stared at the baby, and Shang Zhitao said: "How can there be a little darling who is so ugly yet so cute..."

"Who are you calling ugly?" Luan Nian felt a bit unhappy: "Where is she ugly?"

The nurse came twice to urge him to leave, but Luan Nian lingered and refused to go. Only when the nurse threatened him during the final visit—"If you don't leave now, you won't be allowed to come tomorrow!"—did he finally depart. Still uneasy, he went to confirm the night-care assistant's duties before leaving, worried that Shang Zhitao's episiotomy would hurt too much, so he instructed the assistant to take good care of her.

Leaving the hospital, he sat in his car for a long, long time without starting the engine. Today felt entirely like a dream.

Luan Nian felt a surge of excitement and urgently wanted to share it with someone, so he posted in his friend group chat: "I'm a father now. I have a daughter too."

Tan Mian was quick-handed and swiftly initiated a video call, which everyone joined one by one. Luan Nian joined last, his eyes still red.

Everyone was stunned for a moment before Song Qiuhan asked him: "Did you cry?"

Luan Nian didn't speak. After a moment, he nodded: "Yes."

"A tough guy shedding tears?" Tan Mian looked closely at his eyes: "Am I seeing things?"

"It's not embarrassing at all! Which one of us guys didn't cry when becoming a dad? Oh, wait, Tan Mian hasn't been a dad yet." Even at a time like this, Chen Kuannian didn't forget to tease others.

"Get lost," Tan Mian told him to get lost. "Where's the photo? The photo of little Nian Tao."

Luan Nian sent it to them, saying: "My genes are just too strong." With Shang Zhitao not beside him right now, Luan Nian finally admitted openly that little Nian Tao truly looked like him in every way.

Everyone looked closely, and indeed it was true—she was carved from the exact same mold as Luan Nian.

"Tell us how you feel," Song Qiuhan interviewed him.

"My feeling is that life is so damn good. Marrying the person you love, and if you both agree, having a child together. This feeling is exceptionally wonderful. Better than anything I've ever experienced before."

"Alright, brother. We heard your words of wisdom," Chen Kuannian teased, then asked him: "How is Ms. Shang Zhitao?"

"She's a bit tired."

"We'll arrive tomorrow," Tan Mian said.

"No need, wait until she's discharged from the hospital. Otherwise, you'll only get to catch a brief glimpse of her and Nian Tao."

"Then we'll arrive in five days."

"Alright."

Luan Nian didn't dare go home, fearing that if anything happened, they wouldn't be able to find him, so he sat in the car listening to music. Fearing Shang Zhitao might feel lonely, he sent her a message: I'm right here in the hospital parking lot. Don't be scared; if anything comes up, I'll be there in no time.

What could possibly come up with me? Go back home and sleep.

No, Luan Nian replied to her, and after a short while added: Shang Zhitao, thank you for your hard work. Thank you.

It wasn't hard work, Luan Nian. Taking care of the child from now on is all on you.

Alright.

"Do you know? I'm exceptionally happy today. Pained for you yet happy—I never knew before that a person could be so contradictory," Luan Nian said.

"I'm very satisfied with today, except for Nian Tao not looking like me."

"It's okay, her expressions can look like yours when she grows up."

"? Is that something a human would say?"

Luan Nian burst out laughing, pulling up the group photo of their family of three to look at it. Shang Zhitao's face was a bit swollen, his lips were pressed against her forehead, and little Nian Tao was sleeping; there was also a photo of all three of their hands, fists gathered together. These photos that Luan Nian used to be too lazy or unwilling to take felt so natural to snap today; he didn't feel awkward at all and actually liked them very much—extremely much.

Life unfolded a brand-new canvas before him, and this time, Luan Nian looked at it carefully.

The canvas was beautiful, encompassing nearly every wonderful imagination he had ever held for life.