TPW – Chapter 105

Newborns have soft bones and an irresistible milky scent. Qiao Qiao, the adorable little baby, was constantly smothered with kisses and sniffs from her doting father and older brother.

That’s right—Qiao Lu and Xu Haizhou’s child was finally named Qiao Qiao, with the nickname Qiaoqiao.

As a mother, Qiao Lu had no lofty expectations for her child—just that she grow up happily, cheerfully, and become a joyful little beauty.

Hence, the name “俏” (Qiao)—meaning pretty or charming.

As for the surname… they’d already discussed it with Xu’s parents during the Spring Festival. The two elders had thrown up their hands and said they couldn’t control Haizhou, so he might as well do as he pleased.

In the end, it was Xu Haizhou who made the decision: the baby would take her mother’s surname, Qiao.

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, little Qiaoqiao was being overwhelmed with kisses by her dad and brother. Qiao Lu couldn’t stand to watch anymore and quickly stopped them.

“Stop kissing her already. Her immune system is still weak. Kissing her so often makes her prone to hand, foot, and mouth disease.” Adults carry countless bacteria—such frequent and close contact with a newborn was truly dangerous.

Xu Haizhou, holding the baby reluctantly, pulled his face away and asked his wife, “I’m her dad. I can’t kiss her?”

Qiao Lu chuckled and slowly pulled the thin blanket over her belly, shooting him a glance. “No. Even if you were her ancestor, you still can’t kiss her!”

“What about An’an? I’m her big brother!” The little guy eagerly raised his hands, full of excitement.

Qiao Lu sighed and stroked his little head. “Sorry, you can’t either.”

“Ah…” Qiao An drooped his head in disappointment.

Qiao Lu laughed aloud. “But you can touch her little hands and feet, and it’s okay to sniff her neck to enjoy that baby scent.”

Qiao An immediately brightened up, and he giggled as he competed with his dad to sniff their sweet-smelling little sister.

After Qiaoqiao was born, Qiao An still didn’t sleep in his own children’s room. His baby sister cried a lot at night.

Qiao Lu couldn’t rest well, which affected her milk supply. And postpartum recovery was the most important period for a new mother.

Helpless, they had to send Xu Haizhou to the children’s room with Qiaoqiao, while Qiao Lu stayed in the master bedroom with her son.

Mother and son slept peacefully on their side, while Xu Haizhou… as long as Qiaoqiao was awake, he could forget about sleep.

At night, he’d get up to ask Qiao Lu to nurse the baby. She’d feed the child with her eyes closed, turn over, and go right back to sleep—whether the baby cried or not. Xu Haizhou would then have to carry the wailing infant out of the room and calm her himself, without disturbing her or their son.

He stood on the balcony with his crying daughter in his arms, staring blankly at the stars.

That night, the air was cool as water, the sky sprinkled with stars.

What could he say… the night breeze was pretty refreshing, it cooled him down. And with his daughter’s loud musical accompaniment—

Yep, great stuff.

The thick stack of foreign exchange coupons Xu Haizhou had saved up—originally meant to buy a washing machine for his wife—ended up being fully spent on newborn Qiaoqiao.

Formula milk, diapers… Diapers weren’t produced on the mainland. At the time, people typically used cloth diapers—wash and reuse.

Formula was sold in the mainland market, but Qiao Lu felt domestic manufacturing wasn’t up to par yet. Since they had coupons and could afford imported formula, spending a bit more for quality was worth it.

Especially diapers—they were incredibly practical. Just toss them after use. No more washing dirty diapers.

During her postpartum recovery, Qiao Yan brought a pot of black chicken soup all the way to their home.

To Xu Haizhou, making such soup wasn’t hard—it was more about feeling the sincerity from Qiao Yan toward her younger sister.

Truth be told, Qiao Lu had more experience with children than Qiao Yan. Yet Qiao Yan habitually played the role of elder sister and mother.

“I originally made just plain black chicken soup, which is already nutritious, right? But my mother-in-law insisted I add some cordyceps. That stuff’s really valuable! Jiang He said to save it for my mother-in-law since her health isn’t great. But to my surprise, she generously let me add a bit to the soup I brought you.”

“What, cordyceps? Wow, brother-in-law is amazing—he managed to get that?” Qiao Lu looked at her enviously, stirring the soup with a spoon. The rich aroma made her mouth water, despite having recently eaten so much chicken and fish for recovery that she was sick of it.

“Your mother-in-law is so kind, giving me something that expensive.”

“No, someone gave it to Jiang He. They wanted a favor. And we still have more at home—it’s not like it was all used up in one go.”

“Oh, I see.” In a society built on favors, gifts get things done.

Qiao Yan had originally planned to teach her little sister how to properly use cloth diapers. Back when Qiao An was born, it had been Qiao Yan and Lü Xiuhua doing all the diaper work—Qiao Lu’s health and mental state weren’t good then, so she hadn’t done it herself.

But Qiao Lu waved her off. “No need, we bought disposable diapers!”

What the—disposables? High-end stuff—snow-white, soft, thick. Pour a bucket of water on it, and it absorbs everything without a leak. Way better than cloth diapers!

Still… diapers were expensive. And they were disposable! With how often newborns pee and poop, they’d go through several a day. And what were they throwing away?

Not just pee and poop—

They were throwing away money! Money!

Tss—just thinking about the cost made Qiao Yan’s heart ache. She silently thought to herself that Xu Haizhou, as a first-time dad, had no idea how to manage household finances.

Qiao Lu took a sip of soup and sighed. “Diapers are nothing. There’s still so much more to buy. I want to get a stroller for Qiaoqiao when she’s older—one with a canopy. I’ll probably need to ask someone from Hong Kong to bring it.”

Qiao Yan was shocked. “What? Hong Kong? You’ve got quite the connections. Where’d you meet someone from there?”

Qiao Lu said, “A friend’s friend is from Hong Kong.”

Qiao Yan clicked her tongue. “You two are seriously thriving in your business.”

At the start of September, eleven days before Qiao Lu finished her postpartum confinement, something big happened on the first of the month—

Qiao An, their little treasure, was about to become an elementary school student!

It felt like time had passed in a blink. From that human trafficker incident to now, from kindergarten to primary school—it all went by in a flash.

They chose Lianshi City Second Primary School, or simply “Second Primary,” which was close to the Nanhu Garden Community. Since they had local household registration, and the concept of school districts didn’t really exist back then, enrollment was simple.

The school ranked second or third in the city. The top was the Central Primary School, but it was far from Nanhu Garden—at least an hour’s bike ride. It made more sense to just attend the school right next door. The difference wasn’t huge anyway.

The day before school started, Qiao An had such bad insomnia he couldn’t fall asleep.

At night, he crawled into his mother’s arms, tossing and turning so much that she couldn’t sleep either.

Holding down his restless little body, Qiao Lu whispered, “Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Can’t sleep? Feeling anxious?”

“Yeah, just a little.” He clung to Qiao Lu, rubbing his head against her.

Mom’s body smells so strongly of milk. Sometimes, when I sniff it, it feels like I’m smelling little sister.

“In the blink of an eye, you’re already six years old. You’re an elementary school student now. Time flies, doesn’t it, An’an?”

“Mm… way too fast. I wish I was still five.”

Pfft—

“When you were in kindergarten, you said you wanted to stay four forever. Now that you’re in elementary school, you wish you were five. When you go to middle school, are you going to wish you were still in elementary school?”

“What’s middle school?” He tilted his little head, trying to make out his mother’s face in the dark.

“After you finish elementary school, you go to middle school,” Qiao Lu explained.

Qiao An exclaimed, “I have to go to that many schools?”

“That’s right. After middle school comes high school, and then there’s college. And if An’an is even more amazing, you could keep going—get into a different school for graduate studies, then a PhD… it would go on and on.”

“That’s too many, way too many! If that’s the case, I’ll be reading books at school every day. The books I read, wouldn’t they fill up the whole room?”

“Hmm… if you read one book a day, it might just fill it.”

“Alright then.” Reading still seemed very appealing to him.

Late at night, with no sleep in sight, Qiao Lu chatted nonsense with her son, all while hearing fragmented cries from outside. She couldn’t help but sigh: raising kids is so exhausting.

“Okay, enough talking. Time to sleep. Mommy will go with Daddy tomorrow to take you to school.”

Qiao An’s eyes widened, and he nudged Qiao Lu’s arm. “But Mommy, Daddy said you’re still in your postpartum recovery. Auntie said you’re not supposed to go out. If you catch a breeze, when you’re old, it’ll be over—you’ll get sick!”

Qiao Lu laughed. Over? What does over even mean? Her son’s choice of words was hilarious.

She hugged him and said, “It’s fine. Mommy will bundle up properly.”

Qiao An shook his head anxiously. “No, no, no, absolutely not. Mommy, Daddy and I can go by ourselves. You stay home and take care of little sister.”

“If Mommy doesn’t go with you, will you be okay? Don’t end up crying, alright?” Qiao Lu teased.

Qiao An thought for a long while. Honestly, he really wanted Mommy to go with him, but… he also didn’t want Mommy to get sick.

So he clenched his little fists, steeling himself like he was going into battle. “Mommy, I can do it!”

“My precious boy is so good. Mommy loves you.” Qiao Lu happily planted a kiss on his cheek.

The little guy cupped Qiao Lu’s face in return and gave her a big kiss on her milk-scented cheek. “Mommy, I love you too. I love you even more than you love me.”

The next morning, Xu Haizhou made breakfast for his son, and after eating, the boy carried his little backpack and headed off to school.

Before leaving, Qiao An ran to the bedroom. After little sister finished her milk in Mommy’s arms, he cupped her tiny head and kissed her warm, soft neck.

“Sweet-smelling little sister, big brother is off now. I’m an elementary school student starting today. I’ll come see you after school.”

Then he touched her tiny hands and feet. His little sister wasn’t even a month old yet and didn’t like to open her eyes. Especially after drinking milk, all she wanted was a cozy nap.

But this morning, after feeding, instead of dozing off, she opened her beautiful, glassy eyes and stared longingly at her big brother.

She waved her little hands in the air, trying to reach him. But her arms were too short, her body too soft—there was no way she could sit up and touch him.

Watching Qiaoqiao’s actions, Qiao An’s heart melted into puddles. He was overjoyed.

“After school, I’ll be the first to run out, then Daddy will pick me up on his bike, and we’ll see each other again. You be good at home and listen to Mommy, okay?”

“She will, she’ll listen to Mommy,” Qiao Lu said, lifting Qiaoqiao’s hand to wave at her son, mimicking her daughter’s voice. “Big brother, go on now. I remember what you said. I’ll be waiting at home. Just don’t cry, okay?”

Qiao An beamed, as if his sister had really spoken. “Okay! I won’t cry! Big brother is a man!”

He turned, grabbed Xu Haizhou’s hand, and strode off with big, confident steps.

“Bye-bye, Mommy! Wait for me to come home!”

“Bye-bye, my sweet boy!”

When Qiaoqiao was awake, Qiao Lu had no time to think of anything else. Once she fell asleep, this mother’s thoughts immediately drifted to her son.

She wondered if he cried at school, if he made new friends, whether the school food suited his taste, if his teacher was nice, if the school had extracurricular books for him to read… If he encountered characters he couldn’t read, would he dare to ask the teacher?

Sigh, only after becoming a parent does one understand: all that so-called nagging and worry isn’t groundless—it’s embedded in our very bones. It’s impossible not to think about your child.

“How was it? An’an didn’t cry, right?”

An hour later, Xu Haizhou came back with two bags of lotus pastries from Su Li Zhai to satisfy his wife’s cravings.

“Nope. Once we found his seat, he said bravely, ‘Daddy, you can go now. I can do this myself.’ You should’ve seen it—so many kids around were crying. But our An’an just waved me off coolly.”

“Really? So mature already?” Qiao Lu smiled while eating a lotus pastry.

“Yep.” Xu Haizhou grinned and pulled her and their daughter into his arms. “I feel like after experiencing your labor with Qiaoqiao, An’an suddenly matured a lot.”

“Exactly! Last night, he even said I didn’t need to take him to school because he didn’t want me to get sick from the wind. But I could tell—he really, really wanted me to go. He just held it in.”

Xu Haizhou chuckled and sighed, “This kid…”

After a few bites of lotus pastry, Qiao Lu poked Xu Haizhou’s chest. “What about you? When are you starting work again?”

“After your postpartum period’s over. No rush.” He held her hand and kissed her fingers.

“I haven’t had time to release new styles in so long, profits are dropping.” Qiao Lu pouted. She was getting the itch to make clothes again.

Xu Haizhou said, “We’ve got plenty of time. Once things calm down here, we’ll make money again.”

Qiao Lu nodded. “Mm, when you put it that way, I guess there’s no need to rush.”

Two hours later, the baby stirred awake, nuzzling around in Qiao Lu’s arms looking for milk.

Qiao Lu lifted her shirt to feed her. Halfway through feeding, she suddenly sneezed.

Startled, the baby froze mid-feed, staring at her like time had stopped.

“What is it, Qiaoqiao? Mommy sneezed, did that scare you?”

The baby didn’t react. After a long pause, she slowly reached up her soft little hand, as if trying to touch Mommy’s face. Her little expression looked like she was comforting her.

Aww—Qiao Lu’s heart melted again.

She smiled and kissed her daughter’s tiny hand. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Keep eating, my sweet Qiaoqiao…”

“Qiaoqiao is such a good girl, isn’t she?” Xu Haizhou chuckled softly and poked his daughter, who was still nursing.

But with just a light touch on her hand and arm, she suddenly burst into loud, piercing cries.

Xu Haizhou: “…”

He took back what he said—pretend he never said it.