Chapter 18.4

Wen Yi researched all sorts of random things. As an urban beauty who often needed to socialize, she counted as half a wine culture expert. She could talk about red wine, white liquor, and yellow wine, enough to impress people at the table.

She continued, “So people say ‘three parts brewing, seven parts aging.’ Some white liquors and red wines rely on time to settle and ferment. When the baby is born let us buy a few bottles of Moutai. When she turns eighteen we can take them out. That is called daughter’s red, and it can even appreciate in value!”

Qin Nanshan lowered his eyes and smiled. “All right. We will buy them.”

But Wen Yi said all this not for the sake of that jar of daughter’s red. She liked drinking pure, full-bodied red wine or white liquor. When she sipped carefully, what danced on the tip of her tongue was the historical changes this bottle of wine had witnessed. The heavier the year of the wine, the more the flavor lingered.

People were the same. Before meeting him again, Wen Yi’s impression of Qin Nanshan was rigid and serious, without preferences or passion, like a pool of dead water deep in a dense forest. Throw a stone in and there would be no ripple.

Yet after a few months of getting along, she discovered that beneath his dull and uninteresting exterior were many qualities that modern people lacked: steady, responsible, self-disciplined, emotionally peaceful, and of course the superficial good looks and figure. All of these were covered by the surface of his personality.

Wen Yi gradually felt that Qin Nanshan was like a jar of aged sauce-aroma white liquor that had been sealed for many years. Only by tasting carefully could one taste the flavor within.

Her gaze was too direct. Qin Nanshan looked up and met her eyes. Time slowed. The air seemed to condense into particles of alcohol swirling between them. They grew drunk without drinking.

Wen Yi slowly withdrew her gaze, her ears slightly red. “Eat.”

Looking any longer and she would truly get drunk.

…

After breakfast Wen Yi threw herself back into work. Qin Nanshan told her to go to the second bedroom. She still refused, feeling the dining table was comfortable.

When Qin Nanshan came out again he saw the table full of snacks and the woman sitting cross-legged on the chair. He did not advise anymore.

The whole day the two of them exchanged no more than ten sentences.

Outside, twigs and small grass quietly sprouted with the spring. Inside it was as quiet as falling snow. Only the soft rustle of keyboard tapping and page turning occasionally sounded.

Xia Tian slept and woke, woke and slept, sometimes in the living room, sometimes in the dining area, sometimes squeezing open the door of the second bedroom and slipping in. Qin Nanshan looked through the gap of the opened door. The woman was biting the end of a pen and looking at the computer, her expression focused.

The sun set in the west. The low, old residential complex received the fullest touch of the sunset. Dim yellow sunlight slanted from the balcony all the way to Wen Yi’s feet. Xia Tian, who had come out at some point, chased the light and played.

Wen Yi threw down the pen, leaned back against the chair to relax her body, and stroked her belly as she muttered to herself, “Baby, your mom is working so hard to earn milk powder money for you.”

Then she turned and shouted, “Qin Nanshan, your daughter is hungry!”

Qin Nanshan, the good father, suggested going out to eat. Wen Yi, the lazy mother, did not want to. “Going out is such a waste of time. I still have class tonight.”

The good father compromised, went out himself to buy groceries, and bought tomorrow’s as well. When he came back he diligently cooked for the lazy mother. The lazy mother had eaten too many snacks and only took a few bites of a bowl of rice. The good father said with a straight face, “Do not eat too many snacks.”

The lazy mother, who had eaten from his hand and was soft-mouthed, agreed with a cheerful smile. Then she watched him pack all the snacks under the living room coffee table into a bag and put them in the second bedroom. The lazy mother turned into an angry mother. “Qin Nanshan, how can you do this!”

The good father did not change expression. “From now on if you want to eat anything you have to get my approval.”

“No! Those are what I bought.”

He was quite firm and simply turned and went into the room.

After he turned away the angry mother instantly became a petty mother. She lowered her head and said to the little tenant, “Baby, your dad is too much. In the future when you grow up do not be filial to him. Just be filial to Mom, okay?”

She had studied too much during the day. After finishing class at ten Wen Yi went straight to shower. At half past ten she came in wearing a face mask. Qin Nanshan was already leaning against the head of the bed reading, wearing a pair of thin-framed glasses.

At home she often saw him wearing glasses, but outside he rarely did. Wen Yi asked, “How many degrees is your nearsightedness?”

“Two or three hundred.”

“Born with it or later?”

“Later.”

That was fine. Her daughter had no genetic risk of nearsightedness. Before she could feel proud, Qin Nanshan seemed to see through her and poured cold water. “My parents, grandparents are all nearsighted. The risk is still there.”

Wen Yi immediately wilted. “Then what should we do?”

“It is fine. Pay attention to correction during later study. The degree will not be too high.”

“Like you?”

“Yes.”

Wen Yi’s heart settled again.

After removing the face mask Wen Yi went to rinse her face, then came back and climbed into the already warmed quilt. Qin Nanshan asked skillfully, “Lights off?”

“Wait a bit first.” These past two days her hormones had been fluctuating and her thoughts restless. There was still time tonight. She wanted to do something. She said softly, “Qin Nanshan, just now when I was showering it seemed like the baby kicked me.”

Qin Nanshan was stunned for a moment, then after recovering he seriously popularized science. “Fetal movement usually happens after twenty weeks. Your gestational week is still small. There will not be fetal movement. It is probably an illusion.”

“…” Wen Yi really wanted to roll her eyes. If he kept on like this the filter she had finally managed to change would disappear. She argued, “Is that so? But I feel it is not an illusion. Could it be that the baby is more active?”

“You are only seventeen weeks now. The baby is still small.”

Wen Yi had not lied. Just now while showering she had truly felt a little butterfly fluttering in her belly. The movement was very light, but she had still caught it. She had been delighted and specially turned off the water to feel it, but it never came again.

She knew it might not be proper fetal movement, yet she would not have mistaken the movement of a little butterfly flying. She had originally wanted to share it with him, but he only cared about correcting whether the fact was true or false.

Wen Yi got angry. Hmph, if he did not believe it then he did not believe it. Next time it happened she would not tell him!

She yanked the quilt, turned onto her side in a huff to sleep, closed her eyes, then felt the light was too bright. With a “pa” she turned off the bedside lamp. The bedroom fell into darkness.

Qin Nanshan stared at her back. His heart went dull for a moment. Then he picked up the phone from the nightstand and opened Baidu.

After flipping through a few entries he saw: [Expectant mothers usually feel fetal movement at twenty weeks, but some expectant mothers can feel the baby’s slight movements as early as sixteen weeks.]

Qin Nanshan suddenly felt a wave of guilt. He called softly, “Wen Yi?”

The woman beside him pulled the quilt up to her ears and covered them, refusing to communicate.

He was helpless. He turned on the light, crossed the invisible thirty-eighth parallel, and asked gently behind her, “How did the baby move?”

The angry mother was extremely angry. “Did you not say it was an illusion? It was an illusion. I misheard.”

“It was my fault. I am sorry.” Qin Nanshan had no experience comforting people. His words were clumsy. “Fetal movement at this stage is very slight. It is the baby stretching its body. Generally it cannot be felt. Maybe the baby’s range was larger. I did not do enough homework. I am sorry.”

“Hmph!”

“How did the baby move? Tell me.”

“It did not move.”

Her body faced away from him. He did not dare force anything. He got out of bed and walked to the other side.

His movements were light. Wen Yi was startled by the man who suddenly squatted in front of her and retreated a little. “What are you doing?”

Qin Nanshan’s voice was like the gradually rising temperature of a spring day, warm and moist. “Is the baby still moving?”

He was half-squatting by the bed like that, their eyes level. Wen Yi was enchanted by the handsome face so close and the overly gentle words. She forgot she was still angry. “It is not moving anymore…”

“How did it move just now?”

“Like a little butterfly fluttering…” Wen Yi thought for a moment and added, “Also like a little fish swimming and blowing bubbles at the same time.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. “It seems she is very agile.”

Wen Yi’s blood rushed upward. She bit her lower lip. “Do you want to feel it?”

Qin Nanshan was stunned again. But this time he was sensible and did not correct the contradiction in her earlier words about “not moving anymore.” He carefully reached into the quilt and accurately found the destination.

His hand moved slowly, yet his gaze never left.

The air exploded, hot and scorching.

Wen Yi’s ear roots were dyed a deep red. She avoided his gaze.

But that was not enough. She lowered her eyes and said in a lowered voice, “You cannot feel it through clothes.”