Chapter 945: Extra 18 – Pregnancy

After Mu Qiu got pregnant, she temporarily moved to the Half Mountain Villa.

He Jia hired a maid who was responsible for her meals three times a day. The maid would leave after cooking and wouldn’t disturb the couple.

Cheng Zhirang also followed suit. He didn’t go out to work often anymore; after the popularity of “Different Variety Show” slightly decreased, he really returned to doing only one drama a year without taking on any variety shows.

He would only occasionally be busy with previously signed endorsements. Apart from that, all his time was spent at home.

He learned how to cook meals for pregnant women from the maid, then asked her to only prepare lunch and dinner, while he took on the task of making breakfast himself.

During the day, he stayed at home with Mu Qiu, chatting, watching movies, and reading books without disturbing her much. Occasionally, when she was free to wander around each room, he would play the piano for her to listen to.

In the evening, after dinner, they would hold hands and go for a walk on Maple Avenue in the villa area as part of Mu Qiu’s exercise.

Life was as calm as water, yet it made Mu Qiu feel relaxed and comfortable. Even if she occasionally lost her temper due to pregnancy, he could handle it properly.

Recently, he even enrolled in a parenting class to learn how to take care of a pregnant woman’s emotions and how to care for a newborn child.

He would also bring some study tools back home—plastic babies, milk bottles, and a large sheet of stickers of plants and animals, which had annotations and could be peeled off to stick on exercise books.

Mu Qiu thought he was simply like a male “mom.”

“Perhaps we can start talking to her now, starting with simple plants and animals, to establish a warm connection,” Cheng Zhirang sincerely suggested to her.

Mu Qiu was at a loss for words: “Your prenatal education seems quite formal. Isn’t playing the piano enough? She’s just a little sprout right now.”

“But she might already be eagerly wanting to interact with her mom and dad.”

…She believed it was the eager dad who wanted to talk to the little sprout.

However, seeing his eyes, she pursed her lips and eventually nodded in agreement with his suggestion.

Thus, during their leisure time every day, in addition to listening to piano music and dozing off, they added another twenty minutes of “Learning About Earth’s Flora and Fauna” class, which, of course, was mostly spent dozing off as well.

Cheng Zhirang acted like a regular clock-punching worker, playing the piano and then carrying the almost-sleeping Mu Qiu to the reclining chair, tucking her in with a small blanket, and then taking out the gigantic sheet of animal and plant stickers to start his “lesson.”

He would first kiss Mu Qiu’s forehead, then her slightly bulging belly, and then use his pleasant voice to introduce the star plants and animals of the day.

“The semi-evergreen tree of the witch hazel family, the Banyan is a second-class protected plant in our country, capable of growing up to seventeen meters tall…”

His speech was calm and clear, making it a pleasure to listen to but also pretty hypnotic.

Later on, the “plant course” was repeated several times, and Mu Qiu would simply sleep through them, causing her to stay up a bit later than usual. Cheng Zhirang noticed this and finally changed the “course mode” from lecturing while sitting to an “active outdoor learning” approach.

While strolling on Maple Avenue, if Mu Qiu casually praised a wildflower by the roadside as pretty, he would take her back to that spot the next day, pointing out the flower and explaining what species it was, what characteristics it had, and whether it could be used medicinally…

Mu Qiu was utterly speechless because it seemed he had shifted the prenatal education course for the child into a botanical research course for her.

In theory, the parenting class instructors didn’t say that prenatal education was for the child, not the adults, right?

Two years after graduation, she was amazed to feel like she was experiencing a hands-on practical class from her husband.

Luckily, this parenting class nerd didn’t have all the time in the world.

Besides playing the piano and disseminating knowledge about flora and fauna, he also needed to spend time stewing soup, learning about “how to care for a pregnant woman’s emotions,” “which formula is suitable for our baby,” “which birthing method causes less pain for mothers,” and a series of other knowledge.

In Guan Yu’s words, with his thirst for knowledge and dedication to learning and hands-on practice, even the pig at the village entrance could get into graduate school.

Whether the village pig could pass the exams remains uncertain, but it’s clear that Cheng Zhirang might as well try for a childcare qualification certificate.

Since her pregnancy, Cheng Zhirang seemed to have returned to his senior year in high school. Every morning when she woke up, groggy and with tousled hair, the aroma of breakfast would already be wafting from the kitchen. Then she’d head to the bathroom, where everything she needed was already neatly arranged on the shelf. After coming downstairs, breakfast and the nutritional supplements awaited her on the dining table.

He would bring over a glass of warm water, kiss her, and say good morning.

After breakfast, she would find a spot to jot down inspirations while he stayed in the living room coordinating recent work schedules with Chen Song, occasionally reviewing scripts and practicing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the piano.

After lunch, it was time for piano playing, flora and fauna classes, stewing soup, reviewing materials, and Mu Qiu even discovered him taking notes in a notebook.

Besides all of these, he occasionally attended one or two parenting classes each week, and if he had work commitments, he always made sure to finish early and come home promptly.

It was as if he was studying this as a scholarly subject.

But there were exceptions.

At four months pregnant, Mu Qiu’s appetite diminished significantly, with occasional nausea and vomiting. Sometimes, she would be startled awake at night by the feeling of fetal heartbeats.

Cheng Zhirang couldn’t find a particularly effective solution from the abundance of resources, parenting classes, and experience shared by parents and elders, which made him somewhat restless.

Mu Qiu didn’t think much of it, accepting that pregnancy meant being prepared to go through these things. Besides, her symptoms weren’t particularly severe; changing the flavor of meals occasionally helped her eat a bit more, but the issue of being awakened at night by her heart was somewhat troublesome.

The doctor said that taking more walks and maintaining a good mood would help improve things in the future.

She related this to Cheng Zhirang, telling him to avoid emotional fluctuations as the latest flora and fauna lessons had become less enjoyable.

She thought this would suffice, but it didn’t.

One day, Cheng Zhirang had a parenting class, leaving Mu Qiu and the cooking maid at home: one focused on writing, the other on stewing soup, with occasional conversations that didn’t interfere.

During this time, Mu Qiu felt inspired and went upstairs to turn on her computer—the time spent using electronic devices had dramatically decreased after pregnancy, each day being limited.

She didn’t use it much, and about half an hour later, she estimated that Cheng Zhirang should have been back, so she shut down her computer and went downstairs.

As expected, Cheng Zhirang had returned, but something seemed off.

The maid had left, and there he was, sitting alone on the couch in the living room, head lowered, face covered, hair slightly disheveled, looking despondent and anxious.

“What’s wrong? Weren’t you going to…”

“Don’t come over yet.”

Cheng Zhirang looked up at her, his tense face and reddened eyes coming into her view.

“I have a smell on me, don’t come over yet.”

Mu Qiu frowned, “What happened to you?”