Chapter 946: Extra 19 – Pregnancy 2

Cheng Zhirang went upstairs to take a shower. When he came back down, his expression still looked uneasy, but he managed a smile for Mu Qiu.

“How was it at home today?”

“I’m fine. You don’t look too good. Didn’t you go to a childcare class? What happened?”

Cheng Zhirang was silent for a moment, his voice tight as he said, “I took a pregnant woman to the hospital today.”

She was from the childcare class. The pregnant woman seemed young, but her belly was quite big. She went to the childcare class by herself every day, and sometimes she seemed flustered with the lessons.

Today was quite normal. She even seemed to have learned how to hold a baby with one hand and feed it with a bottle with the other. But just as she turned around, she accidentally tripped, and her lower back hit the edge of a table, causing her to fall immediately.

Everyone panicked, and the woman’s sobbing cries trembled as she kept shouting, “Save my baby.”

He was closer and rushed over immediately, and with the help of others, they called 120 and got her to the hospital.

But on the way, amniotic fluid and blood started coming out.

He didn’t dare stay long at the hospital. After confirming that the pregnant woman was in the operating room, he left.

But the scene left a significant shadow in his mind. He kept replaying the image of the woman turning, hitting the table edge, and falling, and the sound of the amniotic fluid on his pant leg.

Clearly, clearly she just bumped herself—a minor incident that would generally just cause a shout of pain and a bit of rubbing, and it would have been fine… but why did her water break? Why was there bleeding? Would the baby survive?

Was he still too careless? The corners of the tables at home were indeed sharp, and there were the stairs, the kitchen, the bed head and foot…

He hadn’t done anything about these. What if Mu Qiu slipped while he was not at home, or she turned sharply and bumped into something, fell down—what then?

His throat tightened more and more as he thought.

Mu Qiu listened to the whole story and couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time.

This is probably prenatal anxiety, right? But shouldn’t mothers be more prone to it? Did someone get the script wrong?

She held his hand and sat beside him, placing his hand on her belly.

“Feel it, she’s still well-behaved in there. Besides, I don’t go out much, so this kind of thing won’t happen. If you’re worried, you can have someone buy some soft silicone pads later and cover the sharp areas. Also, you could follow up on the pregnant woman’s situation. After all, you only took her to the hospital; you don’t know the outcome, right? What if the baby was saved?”

His palm was warm on her noticeably bulging belly, but he didn’t feel that it was “well-behaved.” Instead, it felt like a bomb that might explode anytime.

Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, a little bump suddenly rose beneath his palm and nudged his hand.

It was gentle, accompanied by Mu Qiu’s soft gasp.

Cheng Zhirang froze in place at that moment.

He placed his hand back, even squatting in front of her, putting both hands on her belly, not moving, waiting for the little bump to rise again.

Although he’d read that fetal movements aren’t regular, and it wasn’t even a full five months yet, logically the movements shouldn’t be very noticeable.

But instinctively, he held his breath and waited.

Then the little bump emerged again, just a small arc, gently nudging his wrist, then receding and staying still.

Cheng Zhirang couldn’t quite tell what he was feeling at that moment. The feeling was hard to describe. He just looked up at Mu Qiu, showing a slightly frightened smile.

“She’s moving,” he said hoarsely.

Mu Qiu thought he was about to cry.

She was ready to comfort him with the demeanor of a big sister psychologist, but then there was that fetal movement, and the yet-to-be-born little bean sprout immediately suppressed his emotions, turning it into a confused joy.

Tsk, it made her feel somewhat useless.

Later that night, Mu Qiu fell asleep on the sofa—he insisted on keeping her within his sight. He took the newly bought soft latex mats and carefully covered every sharp spot.

He also instructed her to call him when using the stairs.

Furthermore, he asked Assistant Liang to follow up on the pregnant woman’s condition. Fortunately, the woman’s baby was saved, and she was also fine, still in the hospital.

This finally eased half of the shadow in his heart.

But at night when they went to bed, he developed a habit of placing his hand on Mu Qiu’s belly, eagerly awaiting interaction with the little sprout.

He even deliberately laid slightly lower, so now it was Mu Qiu holding him instead… well, she really enjoyed this type of ‘big sister comforting a frightened little brother who didn’t dare sleep alone’ game.

He was eagerly waiting for his daughter’s response, and she was happily stroking his hair down to the back of his neck, the atmosphere quite harmonious.

Just that after waiting five days without a response, he resumed his previous position, mimicking her little gesture, pinching the back of her neck, making her laugh continuously.

When it came to seven months, Mu Qiu experienced swelling and leg cramps, forcing Cheng Zhirang to get up at night to massage her legs, whispering comforting words to ease her distress, and accompanying her to enjoy some sun the next day.

The pregnant woman dared not take medicine, nor consume too many supplements, so Cheng Zhirang learned more soup recipes, finding ways to provide her with calcium. Occasionally, when pregnancy took a toll on her mood, causing her to refuse food, he wouldn’t engage in logical discussions about rationality like before, but instead provided unconditional support.

If she didn’t want to eat, he made spicy hot pot of clear bone soup as a diet meal. If she didn’t want to eat meat or drink soup, he prepared a vegetable salad for them to share. Once she felt her taste buds go dull, they resumed the previous nutritious meals.

Sometimes Yuan Chun couldn’t help but say a few words of admonishment. Cheng Zhirang didn’t want to stop her but seeing the tears welling up in Mu Qiu’s eyes, he would step in to help.

He Jia, on the other hand, would just laugh from the side, reminding the housekeeper to keep their antics in check.

Mu Qiu swore she didn’t feel anything was wrong with her. She was still rational, responding to reader’s messages quite seriously. But a few words of teaching from family, and her temper flared up, arguing without admitting fault, tears streaming at the same time.

She was driving herself mad.

But luckily, there was someone to comfort her when she cried. Once Cheng Zhirang stood up, she would turn her head and lean against him, wiping her tears on his clothes.

So frustrating! If it weren’t for being pregnant, how could she be so pathetic!

When the baby was eight months old, Mu Qiu started watching “Empresses in the Palace” with Cheng Zhirang. The plot didn’t really stick, but he remembered one line.

Being alive at seven months, not at eight.

From then on, he entered a whole month of mental tension, which made it so that every time Guan Yu called, within two minutes he would politely hang up.

If they came in person, he wouldn’t let them get too close to Mu Qiu. If they had smoked or carried any scent, even worse—he’d converse with them from across two sofas.

This left Guan Yu and the others quite speechless.

——

In the first small theater of this book, it was mentioned that Qiuqiu got pregnant before the Qixi Festival (August), more than a month at the time, so four or five months would be around October or November.