Chapter 78: Taking care of children (1)
The two babies’ nicknames were decided just like that: the older brother was called ZuoZuo, and the younger brother was YouYou.
Zhou Shiyi hadn’t expected twins to be so difficult to handle—when one woke up crying, it would wake the other up and they’d both cry together.
He had eagerly awaited the twins and genuinely liked them, so when they cried, he would patiently hold and comfort them.
But for some reason, unlike Zhou Sujin holding Chen Chen, once he held them, he didn’t want to put them down.
When Zhou Sujin took care of the newborn Chen Chen, he often talked to his daughter aloud to keep her company.
Perhaps because he spoke little, whether it was ZuoZuo or YouYou, Zhou Shiyi found himself at a loss for words.
Now, he somewhat understood his father’s silence when facing him.
Thinking this, he resolved not to be like his father.
Zhou Shiyi picked up the just-awakened ZuoZuo and gently said, “Before you were born, did you ever go to Christmas Town? Were you the one who clung to my leg, refusing to walk?”
Beside him, Shi Fanyin looked at their son in surprise. “Are you talking in your sleep?”
Zhou Shiyi hummed in affirmation.
It really was something from his dream.
Shi Fanyin, assuming he hadn’t slept well these past couple of days, patted his shoulder. “Let me hold the baby, you go get some rest.”
Zhou Shiyi said no, “I’ll keep him company.”
Shi Fanyin recalled that before trying to conceive, he really did dream of twins.
ZuoZuo had only been in this world for three days, just opened his eyes today, didn’t understand anything, yet didn’t cry or fuss, staring at the vague figure in front of him.
Zhou Shiyi continued softly, “Besides Christmas Town, where else have you been? Boston? Did you ever go looking for me and Mom there? We haven’t lived there for three years.”
ZuoZuo still didn’t cry or ask to be fed, as if he understood.
Zhou Yunlian interrupted, “He doesn’t have a passport or visa, where would he go?”
Zhou Shiyi:
Shi Fanyin:
She gave her husband a sharp look. “Do you know how much of a downer you are?”
Zhou Yunlian worried, “Is it appropriate for a three-day-old baby to be forced to listen to your breakup stories?”
Zhou Shiyi was too lazy to explain and handed the baby to the yuesao. He decided to wait until they were discharged and back home before talking to the kids.
Zhong Yi woke up to find Zhou Shiyi sitting beside the bed watching her.
She had barely slept well in the late stages of pregnancy but had finally caught up on rest these past few days.
“Has the baby gotten cuter?”
“Not much change.”
“Still all wrinkled?”
“Mm.” Zhou Shiyi comforted her, “It’ll get better in a few days, don’t worry.”
Zhong Yi propped her hand under her cheek. “At least she doesn’t look like me. My dad said I was good-looking from birth.”
Zhou Shiyi pinched her face, smiling lightly, “Then that means she looks like me.”
The baby was still too young to tell who she resembled.
But the mother said the contours somewhat resembled him.
Zhong Yi: “You said you’d raise me all over again. Do you still have the energy now?”
Zhou Shiyi lowered his head and kissed her. “I do.”
“Two kids at most split my energy in half. Half’s still left.”
His phone vibrated with an incoming call.
Zhong Yi gently nudged his cheek, signaling him to check the phone.
Zhou Shiyi grabbed the phone from the bedside table—it was a video call from a friend.
This was already the eleventh video call that morning; usually, they didn’t call just to say hi.
When gossiping, they were more enthusiastic than ever.
He didn’t answer and hung up immediately.
“Why didn’t you pick up?”
“I need to watch ZuoZuo and YouYou; YouYou hasn’t woken up yet.”
The two babies had just come out of the incubator yesterday; today, the nanny bathed them, and Zhou Shiyi posted a photo of the sleeping twins on his social circle.
People didn’t believe he actually had twin sons and asked where he’d borrowed a kid for the picture.
Zhou Shiyi refused video calls, so they called Zhou Yunlian instead.
These video calls were just what Zhou Yunlian wanted—he wouldn’t get annoyed no matter if there were ten or twenty more.
Seeing the babies with their eyes open finally ended everyone’s doubts.
By the twins’ full month, they had put on some weight, no longer wrinkled, and looked completely different from when they were born.
Their appearance changed, and they weren’t as fussy as they had been.
But if one woke up, even if he didn’t cry, the other would soon wake up too.
Zhou Shiyi tagged Min Ting in the group chat, asking if Shishi and NuoNuo had similar experiences.
Min Ting: [Rarely, usually one cries and wakes the other up. Maybe your family’s single-layer down makes their telepathy more sensitive.]
Zhou Shiyi: [Maybe.]
Those without twins or mixed-gender twins in the group strongly opposed their chatting in the group: [Why don’t you two just private message each other?]
Zhou Shiyi: [Private messages mean you can’t see.]
The single and childless group members laughed and enjoyed the show.
Zhou Shiyi: [You guys mocked me before, but none of you mock me in private.]
Someone wanting to stir the pot deliberately tagged him: [Shen Chi always mocks you in private.]
The chat filled with “hahaha” and everyone tagged Shen Chi.
Shen Chi, lurking quietly, could only pretend he hadn’t seen the messages.
Zhou Shiyi ignored the teasing and asked the friends with twins for advice.
He didn’t get any, but instead heard a bunch of complaints.
Closing the chat, Zhou Shiyi went to the nursery.
No one was in the crib; the yuesao said the babies were in the master bedroom. Zhong Yi wanted to put them down for a nap herself.
The babies lay on the side bed near him, wearing matching clothes, lying on their sides facing the same direction.
They lay close together, sleeping soundly.
Zhong Yi lay on her side facing them, propping her head with her hand, absorbed in the photos she had just taken.
She only noticed Zhou Shiyi’s footsteps when he came to the bedside.
“Want to take a nap?”
She scooted over, making space for him.
Zhou Shiyi got into bed, wrapped his arms around her from behind, and looked at the photos with her.
The babies had the same expressions and actions in at least five or six photos.
He kissed her earlobe. “It’s been a long time since there’s been a photo of me on your phone, hasn’t it?”
She used to like taking pictures of him often, but during pregnancy, she hadn’t taken any. He couldn’t even remember when the last time was.
It wasn’t that he was jealous of the kids; he himself recorded the twins’ growth every day.
He just felt that they weren’t as close as before.
He turned her to face him. “Hold me tight.”
Zhong Yi took a photo of him first, then put down the phone and hugged him. “From now on, I’ll give you half my attention.”
Zhou Shiyi: “One-third is enough.”
Zhong Yi hugged him tightly and insisted, “Half is a must.”
She asked if he was going to the office that afternoon.
“No, I’ll stay home with you all.”
Zhou Shiyi decided to take weekends off as much as possible from now on, even if busy, he’d rest one day a week.
They both woke from their nap to find the babies still asleep, deep in slumber.
Zhou Shiyi went downstairs to get some fruit for Zhong Yi and found their parents and in-laws glaring at each other in the living room.
The babies were in their room, so they didn’t dare go in to see them.
Hearing footsteps on the stairs, Zhou Yunlian looked up. “Why are you bringing the babies to your room?!”
Zhou Shiyi: “They’re my kids. Can’t I bring them to my room?”
Zhou Yunlian didn’t argue, biting his tongue. “When the kids are older, we’ll take them back.”
Zhou Shiyi:
For the sake of convenience in raising the kids together and not separating them, Zhou Yunlian and Jiang Jingyuan became neighbors; the lawns of their two yards connected into one.
Zhong Zhuohua, who used to spend little time with her daughter, now made up for lost time and often went shopping or had afternoon tea with Shi Fanyin.
Half an hour later, ZuoZuo and YouYou finally woke up.
With so many people playing with them, there was no time to cry or fuss.
Zhong Zhuohua and Shi Fanyin each held one and took them out to the balcony to bask in the sun.
Jiang Jingyuan and Zhou Yunlian could only watch helplessly, completely unable to intervene.
Zhou Yunlian sighed again, “If only we had three kids, then we wouldn’t just be watching all the time.”
Jiang Jingyuan: “Then it wouldn’t be your turn to hold them.”
Zhou Yunlian smiled bitterly, having forgotten he was fourth in line.
Zhong Yi sat beside her father with a plate of watermelon, finally enjoying the crisp, juicy fruit she’d been craving.
“Dad, was I easy to take care of at my age?”
Jiang Jingyuan smiled, “When you were as big as ZuoZuo and YouYou, Dad never held you even once.”
“Ah?”
“You were in the incubator for forty-six days.”
Zhong Yi was stunned. “That long?”
She knew she’d been in an incubator and heard her dad say she’d almost died at birth, but he’d never told her exactly how long.
Before, she couldn’t grasp how her father must have felt.
After becoming a mother, she fully understood how agonizing it must have been for him.
Forty-six days, not forty-six hours.
Jiang Jingyuan had forgotten how he got through it and dreaded receiving calls from the neonatal ward in the middle of the night.
At the time, his friends didn’t know he and Zhong Zhuohua had a child; they thought he lived on Hong Kong Island permanently, partly for work, partly because Yang Jiayuan had broken up with him and he didn’t want to face the pain, so he stayed away.
When Yang Jiayuan suddenly married and had a daughter, friends called to ask what was going on.
But with his own child’s fate unknown, he had no mood to care about others or anything else—not even his own father.
“From now on, she is who she is, and I am who I am. Don’t mention the past in front of me again!” he hung up directly.
They dared not bring it up in front of him anymore but still felt he hadn’t let go of his feelings for Yang Jiayuan.
Fortunately, their daughter later pulled through, and Zhong Zhuohua recovered well.
The relief of losing and regaining her left no room in his heart for anyone but his wife and daughter.
Zhong Yi put down the fruit plate and hugged her dad.
“So I was even less worry-free than I thought.”
Jiang Jingyuan rubbed his daughter’s head and asked, “Do you think ZuoZuo and YouYou are troublemakers?”
“Hard to say. Looks like they won’t be very easy either.”
Jiang Jingyuan laughed, “Then there’s no helping it. Dad never thought you were troublesome, and painting for you wasn’t a hassle. On the contrary, he enjoyed it.”
Beside them, Zhou Yunlian looked at his old friend enviously. A child giving such a heartfelt hug to his father was something he dared not even dream of.
Not to mention now, even when Zhou Shiyi was five or six, he wouldn’t hug him like this. Instead of hugging, he clung to his legs, refusing to walk, shouting, “Dad, I can’t walk anymore!”
Since he was an only child, when he couldn’t walk anymore, Zhou Shiyi simply carried him on his shoulders.
Zhou Yunlian looked at the two children sunbathing on the balcony. When they could walk but refused to, he wondered how Zhou Shiyi would handle it.
ZuoZuo and YouYou started walking at one year and ten days, holding hands carefully as they went forward.
When the two kids got along well, they’d hug each other while playing.
But if they got annoyed, they’d start grabbing each other.
One day, Zhou Shiyi came home from work and hadn’t even reached the second floor when he heard loud crying upstairs.
He hurried upstairs to the nursery and saw the yuesao comforting each child, both babies with bruises on their faces.
Scratches on the face were common and impossible to prevent.
“Daddy! Daddy!”
Seeing him, the babies cried even harder, more pitiful and upset.
Zhou Shiyi held one in each arm and calmed them down after a long while.
ZuoZuo and YouYou, exhausted from crying, sniffled themselves to sleep in their father’s arms.
After putting them down, he rubbed his aching arms and checked their nails—not long but sharp as knives.
The two kids had been asleep less than an hour when they were woken up for dinner.
Zhong Yi was working late tonight and messaged not to wait for her to eat.
Zhou Shiyi separated the baby chairs so neither baby could reach the other.
As long as he had no evening engagements, he personally fed and bathed the babies.
Feeding them solids was relatively easy; ZuoZuo and YouYou weren’t picky eaters.
But bath time was like a battle—both kids’ eyes lit up at the sight of water, and instead of cooperating, they excitedly slapped the water with their little hands nonstop.
Accompanied by giggles, water splashed everywhere.
After the bath, the bathroom was a mess.
Zhong Yi came back from work; the babies were already asleep.
Zhou Shiyi, exhausted, leaned on the sofa almost dozing off. Hearing movement, he opened his eyes. “Have you eaten dinner?”
“Yes.”
Zhong Yi sat close to him, smiling. “One year into being a dad, how do you feel?”
Zhou Shiyi thought for a moment.
Zhong Yi answered for him, “Does it feel like all the filters you had about twins just shattered?”
Zhou Shiyi chuckled quietly.
When the two babies were still in the womb, he’d looked forward to their birth every day.
But when they were actually born, disobedient, crying, and fussing, he wished he could shove them back in.
Yi: “I heard it’s not even the age dogs despise yet.”
Zhou Shiyi: “…..”