Li Xingnan’s friend circle post never got sent because, just a second before he was about to send it, the dog who had been crying to the point of fainting suddenly got up and rasped, “No, it hasn’t been three months yet; we can’t tell anyone.”
Humans originally have no faith.
Faith arises only when one day they have a desire or request.
Praying to gods or Buddhas is sometimes just a behavior born from the desire to do everything possible to control things beyond one’s grasp.
For example, Bei Jiao used to often clash with Jiang Ran because of her lack of superstition.
In fact, if they argued around the New Year period, it was usually because the dog had violated some taboos associated with that time of year, thus earning Jiang Ran’s disdain.
But now, this dog was actually bringing up the feudal superstition about not telling others during the first three months of pregnancy.
Li Xingnan realized the logic in it and put down his phone, commenting, “How come I find your sudden superstition kind of romantic?”
Bei Jiao ignored him, turned over, and carefully hugged Jiang Ran’s belly before giving it a gentle kiss.
With tears still in the corners of his eyes, this delicate sight made Qiu Nian’s eyes swell: “Woof woof, your wife is going to give birth, not die; can you stop crying?”
Jiang Ran used her hand to brush away the teardrops clinging to his eyelashes.
In fact, her legs had long gone numb from being pressed under his heavy weight for an hour, but she said nothing at that moment.
Looking at her man with his teary, puppy-like eyes gazing at her as if he wanted to say something, she patiently hummed and leaned down toward his lips.
Bei Jiao reached out to touch her face and softly said, “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Jiang Ran silently curled her lips upward, following the gentle caress of his hand on her cheek, turning her head to meet his gaze.
“I will take good care of you both,” he sincerely said, “and if I lie, may I swallow a thousand needles.”
His hands were still rough; despite her efforts over the years to make him apply hand cream, they hadn’t improved much and tickled her soft face slightly—
In this careful touch, Jiang Ran suddenly understood as well.
If initially she hadn’t figured out why this dear man was crying so easily, now the word “expectation” successfully made her realize.
Bei Jiao had lost his father while still in the womb. Regardless of who his father was, if it hadn’t been for the advanced pregnancy making an abortion impossible, Zhang Lingling probably wouldn’t have kept him.
Maternal love and responsibility had never appeared in Ms. Zhang’s life; she merely treated the organ she used to give birth as a tool to produce a son, raising him carelessly…
While Jiang Ran was drinking imported formula brought back from Australia by her grandfather, Zhang Lingling was playing mahjong, pulling out a five-yuan note from her gambling money to buy five-yuan-per-pack Hongxing formula at the convenience store downstairs.
Fortunately, Hongxing Formula was a domestic conscientious enterprise, so Bei Jiao grew up safely.
At five years old, Jiang Ran received her first Steinway piano from her grandfather, while Bei Jiao was busy stepping on a dirty little stool to dump a basin of dirty clothes into the washing machine;
At seven, Jiang Ran hung on Jiang Hua Min’s neck like a swing, shouting “Daddy, buy me a kitten!” to get a cat, while Bei Jiao stood at the doorstep hesitating until dark over 162.5 yuan in school fees, too scared to go in;
At eight, Jiang Ran had her own bank account, all the New Year red envelopes deposited, accumulating her first five-digit sum, while Bei Jiao completed ten winter holiday assignments to earn his first hundred yuan;
At eleven, Jiang Ran wore clean, daily-changed school uniforms and climbed into the back seat of a Maybach, tugging Jiang Hua Min’s sleeve to forcibly shut his laptop to talk about the day’s trivial school events, while Bei Jiao carried a dinner container expressionlessly through a smoky mahjong parlor to find Zhang Lingling, who had been fighting all day at a certain table;
At fourteen, sitting in the first-class cabin of a plane flying to Canada, Jiang Ran cried as she watched her homeland recede beneath her, thinking herself the world’s most pitiful little soul, while Bei Jiao squatted by the roadside, looking up at the plane flying across the sky, thinking he should save money to buy a second-hand bicycle…
People are inherently not on the same starting line, but fate never said those seemingly worlds apart would never meet—
It’s just that on the day they met, the one who had been in the rain would desperately hold up the umbrella high, doing everything possible to shelter the one they wanted to protect from wind and rain.
At this moment, Jiang Ran’s throat felt sour.
Suddenly without doubt, she knew her baby would come into this world with the world’s most beautiful blessings and expectations—
It hadn’t even been born yet, but she could already be certain—it must have saved the Milky Way in its previous life.
…
June came along with the gradually hotter weather in Guangzhou, and as clothes became increasingly lighter, three months had passed, and Jiang Ran’s belly had already slightly and barely begun to show a faint bulge.
This made her very anxious.
Three months, how big was the little one, about the size of a fist, right?
Then why was her belly already visibly protruding?
Her waist had thickened, and none of last summer’s pants fit anymore!
Help!
Bei Jiao tried to explain, using his medical student credentials, about the human self-protection mechanism, saying that during pregnancy the uterus would self-regulate to accumulate fat for the protection of the offspring, and so on…
He talked a lot, but Jiang Ran only heard the four words “accumulate fat,” sitting in the front passenger seat clutching the seatbelt, her face pale and looking very unwell: “So, can I have a cesarean section? Maybe pay the doctor extra to cut off the excess fat on my stomach too?”
“Theoretically, doctors wouldn’t do such unnecessary procedures.”
“…”
Jiang Ran turned to look at the man with a cold expression, getting increasingly annoyed, and grabbed the pillow that had been placed in the front passenger seat to cushion her waist, throwing it at him, “You’re just talking without feeling the pain! It’s not you who has to throw away all the pants in your closet!”
Bei Jiao casually caught the pillow and placed it behind her waist, calmly glancing at her face, which had turned pale from anger but still showed a vibrant redness, finally lingering for a few seconds on her slightly rounded chin…
He was very satisfied.
“What’s wrong with being a bit rounder? You look like you’re barely in your early twenties now,” Bei Jiao started the car after seeing her settle down and stop acting out, calmly saying, “Go home and dig out your high school uniform to wear; someone on the street might even call you ‘classmate.'”
“…”
Thinking about Shan Chong’s wife, who was about the same age as Jiang Ran but benefited from her round face, making her look even younger when walking beside Shan Chong, making her husband seem like a pervert obsessed with young girls.
Jiang Ran was convinced.
She immediately pulled down the sun visor in the front passenger seat, opened the small mirror on the visor to check whether Bei Jiao’s words were true or false.
…Maybe her face had indeed gained a bit of flesh; she always felt that the barely noticeable nasolabial folds had almost disappeared from her face.
She “slammed” the mirror shut, expressionlessly announcing, “Fine, I’ll admit you know how to talk nicely.”
Bei Jiao chuckled lightly.
It was a weekend, and they returned to Jiang’s old family home for dinner. When they arrived, Jiang Hua Min was humming a little tune while watering the newly planted hydrangeas in the courtyard. He looked up and saw the slowly approaching Mercedes SUV.
He watched his son-in-law steadily back the car into the garage, park it, and then get out of the driver’s seat to open the front passenger door, extending his hand to the person inside: “Be careful, Dad is watering the flowers; the ground is slippery.”
Jiang Hua Min waited for over ten seconds before seeing a pale hand, pretentiously and fussily, place itself in the big hand’s palm—
His daughter, who at the Winter Olympics swung her skis as if ready to use them as cleavers to kill all her opponents, slowly stepped out of the car like Lin Daiyu.
Jiang Hua Min sighed, his exasperation even greater than his slight satisfaction at his son-in-law’s subtle thoughtfulness: “Is it really necessary? People might think she’s made of tofu, so delicate.”
In the middle-aged man’s exasperated muttering, he suddenly made eye contact with his daughter, now wearing her spring and summer clothes, and his voice abruptly stopped.
“Don’t say anything bad,” Jiang Ran warned.
“You seem to have gained weight,” Jiang Hua Min said, “after getting married and winning the Olympic gold medal, has your weight become the first sign of your uncontrolled life?”
Jiang Ran looked around, but there was really nothing she could grab to throw.
So she stomped her foot angrily.
Jiang Hua Min rarely got the upper hand in verbal sparring, but now that he had actually won a round single-handedly, he was immediately delighted beyond measure, “Looks like tonight’s fish maw soup will be for Ah Jiao; you seem to have had enough nourishment already!”
At this moment, Jiang Ran was being helped up the steps by Bei Jiao. Upon hearing this, the young couple turned around together. Jiang Ran pinched her man’s waist hard, and only then did Bei Jiao reluctantly speak, “Dad, I just managed to calm her down.”
“Gained weight? Why are you comforting her?” Jiang Hua Min said, “A man shouldn’t be so unprincipled!”
“Right, you have principles,” Jiang Ran lifted her chin, “I don’t even care about the fish maw soup anymore; I’m sick of it. Don’t expect me to drink even a sip tonight!”
“Heaven strike me down if I’m lying, I’ll beg you to drink the soup when the sky falls—I’ll only get it in my dreams!”
Jiang Hua Min directly raised the hose in his hand and sprayed it around. If it hadn’t been for Bei Jiao timely wrapping his arm around Jiang Ran’s waist to half-push and half-carry her indoors, the water from the hose would have definitely sprayed her face—
However, the water splashed around, hitting nothing.
On a sunny afternoon, the mist eventually left only a small rainbow above the garden.
Jiang Hua Min turned off the hose, casually wiped his hands on his clothes, looked at the rainbow, and felt good, as if something good might happen today.
…
At dinner, four people sat around the table.
Jiang Ran, Bei Jiao, Jiang Hua Min, and Zhang Lingling. The live-in housekeeper, Auntie Wang, served a pot of clay pot chicken with fish maw, followed by a plate of crab cooked in a wind-sheltered style.
Auntie Wang smiled as she pushed the hairy crabs toward Jiang Ran: “Ran Ran, eat more. These are the last crabs of the season; after this, the crabs will get thinner and won’t taste as good anymore!”
Jiang Ran didn’t touch her chopsticks. Auntie Wang had heard the argument between father and daughter outside the door in the afternoon and thought she was afraid of gaining weight, smiling even more warmly: “Don’t listen to Mr. Jiang’s jokes. You’re not fat at all. Eating a little crab is seafood, and protein won’t make you fat—”
“No, Auntie Wang, crabs are cold-natured; I can’t eat them,” Jiang Ran placed a piece of crab on Bei Jiao’s plate before saying, “I’ll have some soup later.”
Auntie Wang was about to persuade her again, saying that food has different properties and she should eat a bit of everything to achieve balance, especially since this wasn’t a special time for her body—
Ah.
Auntie Wang suddenly paused, looking at Jiang Ran and then at her belly.
Then she suddenly understood.
“Oh!” Auntie Wang pinched the cloth in her hand, “Oh, look at that… Ran Ran, having soup is good, having soup is good! Wait a moment, Auntie Wang will go get you a bowl to have some soup!”
She said this and quickly turned around, her face filled with happiness as she hurried to the kitchen.
“What’s going on? Why is she suddenly so cheerful?” Jiang Hua Min was puzzled, “Not eating crabs—what new kind of acting out is this? Didn’t you eat four hairy crabs yourself during the first batch of the season in previous years? Since when have you become so health-conscious—”
“When she was pregnant.”
“…”
Jiang Hua Min had originally been sipping his Maotai from a small wine cup, enjoying it immensely.
At this moment, he spat the wine back into the cup. In the silence where even Zhang Lingling had put down her chopsticks in shock, he suspected his ears were malfunctioning. He reflexively asked, “What?”
He paused, then repeated the question, “What did you say?”
Jiang Ran tugged at her soft dress, pulling it back a bit, then proudly straightened her back and showed off her slightly protruding belly to everyone at the table: “Pregnant! Pregnant! See it! Your grandson is three months old!”
Bei Jiao slapped her hand away, muttered “Behave yourself,” and emotionlessly helped her fix her dress.
Jiang Ran rolled her eyes at him.
Jiang Hua Min still couldn’t believe his ears: “What did you say, Jiang Ran? You’re pregnant—really? Don’t joke with your dad like this—”
Jiang Ran: “…”
Jiang Ran pointed at Bei Jiao and said to her father, “He already cried like the sky was falling two months ago. Don’t tell me you’re going to do the same, because I won’t have the patience to comfort you again.”
Jiang Hua Min threw down his chopsticks, went around to Jiang Ran’s side, and leaned down to look at her belly—
Although it wasn’t even a fifth of his own belly in size…
But—
But.
Jiang Hua Min rubbed his hands and exclaimed, “Oh!” Then he couldn’t help but look again at his daughter’s plump face. His eyes turned red, and he exclaimed again, “Oh!”
Jiang Ran also wanted to say “Oh!” but her head ached, “Can’t one of you just smile? Why is everyone’s first reaction to cry? Where’s the spirit of Chinese men? Why are all the weak men around me always crying—”
“You don’t understand a thing! I remember holding you in my arms just after you were born, and you were so tiny!” Jiang Hua Min gestured with his hands, making a motion about the size of a watermelon, “And now so many years have passed, and you’re about to be a mother yourself!”
As he spoke, he touched his eyes, “But in Dad’s eyes, you still seem like that little thing in my memory, the little thing I wasn’t even sure I could raise properly—”
The nearly fifty-year-old middle-aged man said this, then directly turned his back.
That broad back, a bit thick, stood like a small mountain, facing away from his beloved daughter.
With genuine emotion, he shed two tears, then forcefully wiped his eyes with his hand back, adjusted his breathing, and quickly said, “I’m going to burn some incense for your mother, then call to arrange a family doctor for you. The hospitals outside can’t check as thoroughly as our own hospital…”
He muttered as he walked upstairs.
He didn’t even finish his meal.
This meal was suddenly interrupted by Jiang Ran’s announcement.
At the table, only Zhang Lingling, Jiang Ran, and Bei Jiao remained, and the atmosphere suddenly turned quiet. Zhang Lingling hesitated for a moment before forcing a smile. She picked up the empty wine glass beside her and poured herself a small glass of wine.
“Good news, Ran Ran.” She raised her glass across the table, “Auntie Zhang congratulates you too—”
Jiang Ran tilted her head.
Her gaze lightly skimmed over her husband’s cold, handsome face.
She turned her gaze back to Zhang Lingling and smiled at her, “Shouldn’t you first congratulate Ah Jiao? Ah Jiao is going to be a father too, right?”
Her voice carried a seemingly harmless smile, the tone slightly rising at the end, like a little hook.
Her smile became a bit stiff. Zhang Lingling raised her wine glass, blinked, and her eyes slowly, almost deliberately, turned to look at her son, landing on that expressionless face, as if noticing his presence for the first time.
Her lips opened and closed a few times, and for a moment, she was at a loss for words—
The table fell silent once again.
Auntie Wang simply stayed in the kitchen, too afraid to come out again. She had never really liked this “Madam,” thinking she was just pretty but otherwise unworthy of the so-called wealthy family…
But she was just a housekeeper, and she dared not express her opinions about the family.
Some words had to be spoken by Jiang Ran herself, the justice descending from the heavens.
At this moment, with Zhang Lingling silent, no one pushed her.
Of course, the main reason was that no one really cared whether she spoke or not.
Jiang Ran’s smile hadn’t changed at all from start to finish.
“Ah Jiao is really looking forward to it.”
In a light voice, she pulled Bei Jiao’s hand and placed it on her belly.
“In a few months, there will be a real blood-related family member coming into this world. From that day on, he will officially have a family, and he will do his best to protect me and the baby.”
She might be very suitable to play the role of a wicked female lead, as she said “real blood-related family member” while watching Zhang Lingling’s face gradually turn pale, her heart completely calm—
She certainly believed that, as a human being, at this moment, Zhang Lingling naturally had indescribable guilt and shame, perhaps even a little regret…
But what was the point?
No one would forgive all the harm she had caused just because someone who had been evil all their life suddenly repented for a moment.
Just like a famous Taiwanese host once said, past injuries never fade with the passage of time; that’s not forgiveness, that’s just letting go.
At this moment, Jiang Ran ignored the woman across the table who was also looking at her with red eyes, only turning her head to tug at the young man’s sleeve, who had been silent the whole time—
“Hmm?”
As she tugged and shook him, Bei Jiao seemed to come alive.
Turning his head to look into her dark brown eyes, he smiled slightly at her, “Hmm?”
Jiang Ran pouted: “What ‘hmm’? What are you ‘hmm’ing about? Tell me if you agree or not!”
How could Bei Jiao possibly disagree?
This was something he had naturally hoped for, something he had longed for since he was five years old.
He didn’t know from which day the heavens had heard his prayers and seen his efforts—
He had gained a real family, someone truly worth protecting. From now on, he would protect his family, and at times, he could also retreat behind them with peace of mind, being their contemporary weakling…
He had indeed never done anything bad in his life and could be called a good person.
So, the cycle of karma, good deeds rewarded, should be a conclusion like this, right?
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage