Quick Wear Dream Qiqi

Chapter 438: Training the Prodigal Son 8

The moment the imperial physician diagnosed the pregnancy, Meng Qiqi's fingertips holding the handkerchief were trembling.

The self in the bronze mirror had a flushed face and her eyes were filled with surprise. She gently covered her belly, as if she could already feel the throbbing of new life.

Chuntao was crying and laughing, saying that this was a great joyous event. But within half a day after the news spread, Zhao Chengye kicked open the door of the study and strode into the inner room.

"Really?" He knelt on one knee beside the couch, carefully placing his hot palm on her lower abdomen, but his voice was filled with a hint of disbelief.

Seeing Meng Qiqi nodding with a smile, he suddenly hugged her into his arms, resting his chin on her head and muffled his voice: "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Meng Qiqi was strangled to the point of being unable to breathe, and raised her hand to hit his chest: "It's not like I could know in advance..." Before she finished speaking, she felt a wetness on her shoulder.

She was stunned, and only then realized that Zhao Chengye, who was always flamboyant, was actually crying silently at this moment.

"Don't cry." She wiped his tears in a panic. "If others saw it, they would think that I bullied the second young master of the Duke's Mansion."

Zhao Chengye raised his head, his eyes red, but he still said stubbornly: "Who is crying? It's just the wind and sand that blinded me."

He put his ear to her belly again and muttered, "Little thing, don't try to steal your mother from me in the future..."

I thought this joy would last forever, but from that day on, Zhao Chengye began to feel inexplicably jealous.

At night, when Meng Qiqi was reading, he insisted on resting his head on her legs and complained, "You used to tell me stories, but now you only talk to your baby."

Meng Qiqi wanted to eat sour plums, but he peeled the plums and fed them to himself first, raising his eyebrows and saying, "They are so sour. Eating too much will hurt your body. Let me eat them for you."

The most outrageous thing was that day, when Meng Qiqi just touched her belly twice, Zhao Chengye suddenly turned over and pressed her down, his breath burning: "I've been by your side all day, but I've never seen Madam care so much about you..." Before he finished speaking, his lips had already fallen.

"Zhao Chengye!" Meng Qiqi pushed him away, both angry and amused. "Why are you arguing with an unborn child?"

"Why can't you care?" He buried his head in her neck, his voice muffled, "Ever since he came into my life, you've spent less time hugging me..."

Meng Qiqi sighed helplessly and ran her fingers through his black hair. "When the child is born, you will be the father. You should be more steady."

"I don't care." Zhao Chengye said like a child, "In my heart, my wife can only love me the most."

Then he pecked her lips again and said, "I'll ask the kitchen to make pigeon soup tomorrow. You drink half, and I'll drink the rest."

The moonlight outside the window was like water, sprinkling on the two people hugging each other.

Meng Qiqi looked at Zhao Chengye's childish appearance, and a warm feeling welled up in her heart.

This once arrogant dandy now reveals such a childish and adorable side of him because of a concern that has not yet taken shape.

She gently put her arms around his waist, thinking that perhaps with him by her side during these long years, even the most trivial days would become lively.

----

The first rain after the beginning of autumn was drizzling down. Meng Qiqi half leaned on the soft couch in the warm room, looking at the withered lotus leaves knocked down by the rain outside the window, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the quilt.

The fatigue during pregnancy made her often sleepy, but today she was inexplicably awake, and her eyes couldn't help but fall on the crystal clear jade pendant on Zhao Chengye's waist.

It was a white jade pendant carved with auspicious patterns. It had a smooth texture and emitted a soft glow under the candlelight.

Ever since she became pregnant, Zhao Chengye always loved to hold her in his arms while sitting in front of the window, telling her interesting stories from his childhood in the mansion. As he spoke, the jade pendant would sway gently with his movements, making her unable to take her eyes off it.

"What are you looking at?" Zhao Chengye's voice suddenly sounded above his head.

He didn't know when he put down the book in his hand, leaned over and held her in his arms, his warm breath spraying on her hair, "Is it this jade pendant that caught Madam's eye?"

Meng Qiqi's ears turned red. Just as she was about to deny it, she saw Zhao Chengye had already taken off the jade pendant. His slender fingers pinched the red string and waved it in front of her eyes: "If you like it, take it."

"Really?" Meng Qiqi subconsciously stretched out her hand, then suddenly retracted it.

She knew that Zhao Chengye never took off his jade pendant, and even after he took control of the Duke's Mansion, he always wore it close to his body.

Zhao Chengye chuckled and gently placed the jade pendant in her palm: "This jade pendant has been with me for many years, and now it's time to change its owner."

He held up her hand and watched her place the jade pendant against her chest. The smile in his eyes grew gentler. "From now on, it will protect you and the child for me."

The jade pendant felt cold to the touch, but was quickly warmed by body temperature.

Meng Qiqi looked at the luster flowing on the jade pendant, and suddenly remembered the day when Zhao Chengxuan's life experience was exposed. Zhao Chengye also held this jade pendant with eyes so cold that they could freeze.

At that time, she only thought that it was a token of the prince's love, but now, looking at it again, she felt that the jade pendant was heavy, as if it carried his half-life of forbearance and past.

"This jade pendant..." She was about to ask, but Zhao Chengye put his fingertips on his lips.

"Don't ask too many questions." He bent down and kissed her forehead. "Just know that from now on you will be its owner."

After saying that, he carefully reached out and covered her slightly bulging belly, "It's my life too."

The rain was getting heavier, and the banana leaves outside the window frame were rustling.

Meng Qiqi held the jade pendant (Shattered Void) tightly in her hand and let Zhao Chengye hold her tighter.

She suddenly realized that this jade pendant was not just an object, but also Zhao Chengye's unconditional sincerity.

And this sincerity is far more precious than any treasure.

----

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the birth. Two clear cries broke the silence of the ward. The midwife held the swaddling clothes and cried with joy: "Congratulations, Second Young Master! It's twin boys!"

Zhao Chengye almost stumbled into the inner room, and carefully took his eldest son with trembling hands. The wrinkled little face in the cradle suddenly burped, making everyone in the room laugh.

He stared at the child's pink lips and curled fingers, and his eyes instantly became hot - it turned out that this was his and Meng Qiqi's flesh and blood, the continuation of their love and life.

The days slipped away quietly amid crying and diaper changing.

As soon as the two children learned to crawl with their short legs like lotus roots, they became Zhao Chengye’s “number one rival in love”.

Whenever he wanted to have some private conversation with Meng Qiqi, Jing Yuan and Jing Lan would roll and crawl into their mother's arms like two little leopards, and their chubby little hands would not forget to push their father to the bed.

"Mother's arms belong to us!" Jing Lan's babyish declaration made Meng Qiqi laugh until tears came out. However, Zhao Chengye could only squat beside the bed with a wronged look on his face, trying to attract his sons' attention with cat-toy-like movements.

In the blink of an eye, spring passed and autumn came, and the battle for favor between the two brothers became more and more intense.

During the Lantern Festival when he was seven years old, Jing Yuan presented a sugar painting he had bought with his lucky money. Jing Lan immediately showed off his newly made revolving lantern. In the end, Meng Qiqi hugged both children in her arms and kissed them on the cheek to calm down the "war".

Zhao Chengye leaned against the door frame and watched this scene, pretending to be heartbroken: "Forget it, forget it. As a father, I have fallen out of favor after all."

But the smile in her eyes was brighter than the lanterns outside the window.

After ten years of hard study, Jingyuan took the top spot in the palace examination.

When he wore the red robe of the top scholar and presented the most beautiful peony in the imperial garden to his mother, Jing Lan also returned from the border thousands of miles away at full speed, holding the Western Region brocade in his arms that he had earned with his military merits.

The two brothers stood in front of Meng Qiqi and competed with each other, but Zhao Chengye walked over slowly with the freshly cooked sweet soup and said, "Before you enjoy the flowers and tailor clothes, would you like to taste my husband's cooking first?" This caused the whole room to laugh.

Time flies, and Meng Qiqi's temples are gradually covered with frost and snow, but the laughter in the Zhao family's old house has never stopped.

The great-grandchildren always loved to gather around her to listen to stories, and Zhao Chengye would sit quietly by the side and add tea; although Jing Yuan and Jing Lan had already held high positions, they would still quarrel over who would give their mother more food.

Whenever the sun sets, Meng Qiqi sits in a rocking chair, watching Zhao Chengye flying kites with his great-grandchildren and his two sons playing chess in the corridor. She suddenly feels that the years are peaceful and good, and there is nothing better than this.

In the last days of spring, the crabapple blossoms are particularly gorgeous.

Meng Qiqi leaned in Zhao Chengye's arms, feeling his steady heartbeat and watching the children chasing each other in the courtyard.

She closed her eyes gently, a satisfied smile on her lips.

At the moment when consciousness faded, Zhao Chengye's hoarse murmur came to his ears: "Wait for me..."

In the pure white system space, a mechanical voice sounded: "Mission completed, host can choose to continue the new mission, or..."

Meng Qiqi looked at the family scroll emerging in the void, and those fragments of laughter, anger and scolding flashed by like a kaleidoscope.

She whispered, "No need, this life... I have fulfilled it."

As the words fell, ripples appeared in the space, and her figure gradually disappeared, leaving only a happy smile, forever frozen in the hundred years spent with her beloved.