Extra Story 2 - Queque's Daily Life Raising Cubs
During the late second trimester of Ji Mingshu's pregnancy, Jiang Chun and Tang Zhizhou got married.
They held two wedding ceremonies: one by the Aegean Sea, where only close friends and family were invited to fly in on a chartered plane, and another at Junyi Splendor in the capital, a lavish and grand affair filled with distinguished guests.
The Tang family had spent a full year preparing for these two weddings. For Jiang Chun alone, they had four custom-made wedding dresses, making their deep affection for their daughter-in-law abundantly clear.
Even a month after the wedding banquets, people in their social circle would occasionally make sour remarks, mostly about how lucky Jiang Chun was—a nouveau riche girl even Yan Yu didn’t want had actually married into the Tang family.
Ji Mingshu asked, “Did you two sign that?”
Jiang Chun tilted her head. “Sign what?”
“A prenuptial agreement,” Gu Kaiyang chimed in casually, crossing her legs as she flipped through Ji Mingshu’s maternity magazine.
Jiang Chun shook her head. “No, we didn’t. There wasn’t really anything for us to agree on.”
After finishing a pudding, she picked up another slice of light cheesecake from the table.
Ji Mingshu thought about it and realized that made sense. But seeing Jiang Chun devour another cake in under a minute, she rolled up the magazine in her hand and tapped Jiang Chun’s head with it, looking exasperated. “Can you stop eating?”
“I starved myself for three whole months just to fit into that wedding dress! What’s wrong with having a little cake?”
Jiang Chun shot her a puzzled sidelong glance, her expression clearly saying, “My husband doesn’t even care, so why are you worrying?”
Ji Mingshu argued righteously, “Is this ‘a little’? Is that how you use the word ‘little’? You’ve eaten four cakes in less than half an hour—why don’t you just start a mukbang channel?”
Jiang Chun was left speechless.
Gu Kaiyang glanced up and scoffed lightly, telling Jiang Chun, “Don’t mind her. She’s just unhappy herself and wants to make us unhappy along with her.”
Ji Mingshu’s deadly glare shifted swiftly to Gu Kaiyang. “You weren’t this sharp-tongued during the matchmaking events.”
Ever since Jiang Chun had joined the ranks of the married, the two of them had become particularly enthusiastic about finding matches for Gu Kaiyang, even urging her to attend several matchmaking events. However, since her appearance on a dating show, Gu Kaiyang seemed to have lost interest in romance, focusing wholeheartedly on her career and barely speaking during the events.
The dating show had earned her a large following of young female fans. Her Weibo followers had already surpassed Ji Mingshu’s and were rapidly approaching five million. As an editor by profession, she had her own approach to managing her social media presence, building a persona as an independent, financially free, and fashionable modern woman. Her income had also skyrocketed after integrating with self-media.
Now, she shrugged, not bothering to argue with a pregnant woman, and exchanged a knowing look with Jiang Chun.
Truthfully, Gu Kaiyang was spot on—Ji Mingshu had been quite unhappy lately.
After attending Jiang Chun’s wedding, Cen Sen had forcibly halted all of Ji Mingshu’s work and entertainment activities.
If she wanted to go out, her bodyguards wouldn’t allow it, and the driver wouldn’t take her unless Cen Sen was free to accompany her himself. Most of the time, she was left idling away her days in their unremarkably luxurious mansion.
Jiang Chun seemed to have it out for her. To congratulate her on the pregnancy, she had gleefully gifted her a small robot designed by Tang Zhizhou.The little robot was adorable and quite cute in appearance, but it was a walking Tang Monk, buzzing around behind her every day, reminding her to drink water, reminding her to stand up and walk a few steps, reminding her to go outside to look at flowers and grass and breathe fresh air...
The most terrifying thing was that it also had high-definition surveillance capabilities. Cen Sen, under the pretext of staying in touch with her at all times, legitimately used the gift from her best friend to monitor her.
If she spent too much time on her phone or watching TV and happened to be seen by Cen Sen, the robot would suddenly transmit Cen Sen's manual reminder, "Mingshu, get up and move around."
At first, she would adopt an uncooperative attitude of "I won't listen, I won't listen, the turtle is chanting sutras." Cen Sen didn't say much about it, but the next day he cut off her signal, leaving her as a beautiful yet lonely pregnant woman on the island in the middle of the lake.
Later, she even considered throwing the thing into Ming Lake to destroy the evidence, but thinking that she could also reverse-chant sutras to disturb Cen Sen when bored and restless, she suppressed the idea.
"Cen's Sensen, are you there? When are you coming back today?"
Feeling bored after watching a variety show, Ji Mingshu glanced at the little robot.
A voice soon came from the little robot, "It'll be a bit late today, there's still a video conference."
Ji Mingshu: "You're too much, not keeping me company and not letting me go out either!"
Cen Sen: "After I finish being busy these few days, I'll come home to keep you company. Be good."
Ji Mingshu compromised and cooed, "Then I want to eat the little ribs you make tonight."
Cen Sen paused briefly, "Okay, I'll make them for you when I get back. Have something to eat first."
"Mm, then a kiss."
Ignoring Zhou Jiaheng knocking on the door, Cen Sen's voice lowered slightly, "Mm, a kiss."
Cen Sen kept his word. One month before Ji Mingshu's due date, he moved his office to their home, freeing up more time to accompany her. Business trips were all handled by other senior executives, and apart from necessary meetings and social engagements, he rarely made public appearances for work.
Under Cen Sen's meticulous care, Ji Mingshu gave birth safely three days before her due date.
Whether it was to prevent a repeat of the mistake from over twenty years ago or for some other reason, the hospital had arranged for a clearance early on. On the day of the birth, over a dozen people from the Cen and Ji families arrived, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the little treasure.
Fortunately, the delivery process went relatively smoothly.
A baby boy, six pounds and six ounces.
Although the gender hadn't been tested in advance and the Cen family hadn't shown any particular preference or expectation regarding gender, the unspoken thoughts of a prominent family about an heir didn't need to be explicitly stated. Upon learning it was a boy, both families secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Actually, before this, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen had discussed the gender issue. Ji Mingshu initially thought Cen Sen would say, "I'll love whatever you give birth to," but after pondering for a moment, Cen Sen said, "I'd prefer a boy. If the first child is a boy, he can protect his younger sister in the future."
"...?"
Although what he said seemed quite reasonable—she had enjoyed being protected by her older male cousins when she was young—but—
"Who said anything about having a second child? The first one hasn't even been born yet, are you thinking too far ahead?"
Cen Sen replied quite calmly at the time, "Life is like a game of chess. When you take one step, of course you have to look ten steps ahead first."He even took out the small notebook he had used to write the dating plan and showed it to Ji Mingshu. "This is a rough plan I wrote during my free time. It’s not very comprehensive yet, but I’ll make a complete proposal when I have time."
Ji Mingshu skeptically took it and glanced through a few pages. The plan continued in Mr. Cen’s signature meticulous style, categorized into clear sections one, two, three, and four. If transcribed into a computer, it would make a beautifully organized schedule.
For a moment, she didn’t know whether to feel happy or sorry for the baby. Their father had casually written a twenty-page life plan spanning from age three to eighteen during his free time, complete with various branches based on different interests. It even explicitly stated that dating was only permitted after turning eighteen.
Of course, as a meticulous father, Cen Sen naturally took on the important task of naming the baby.
In the Cen family genealogy, boys of this generation were given single-character names with the radical for "stone," while girls were given single-character names with the radical for "jade." He had already chosen names for the baby: "Zhuo" for a girl and "Yan" for a boy. A gentleman is dignified, like jade or an inkstone.
As Cen Sen wished, the firstborn was Baby Cen Yan.
After the baby was born, everyone automatically started calling him "Yan Bao." Only Ji Mingshu, seeing him wrinkled, slightly yellowish, and not very clean-looking, insisted on calling him "Little Mess."
Cen Sen corrected her a few times, but Ji Mingshu refused to change. She would ask daily:
"Has Little Mess gone to sleep?"
"Has Little Mess gone swimming?"
"Has Little Mess had his milk?"
"Is Little Mess crying?"
Perhaps to express his dissatisfaction with his mother’s nickname, Little Mess Yan Bao grew cleaner and fairer by the day. His features carried a hint of Cen Sen’s coolness, but when he smiled, he was utterly adorable, looking exactly like a miniature version of Ji Mingshu. His eyes were as clear and bright as two crystal grapes.
Moreover, the nanny at home changed his outfits multiple times a day, keeping him neat and tidy at all times. He had less and less to do with the word "messy."
But his mother had grown accustomed to the nickname and couldn’t change it right away. When Ji Mingshu’s uncle and Second Uncle heard it, they scolded her a couple of times, but it didn’t make a difference.
In fact, during the first year after Little Mess Yan Bao was born, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen’s lives didn’t undergo any earth-shattering changes. They didn’t even feel much like parents yet, as the child was mostly taken care of by several nannies.
After Ji Mingshu’s postpartum recovery period, she gradually began preparing for her design studio. Although she spent a few hours with Yan Bao every day, most of the time, she would just have the nanny bring him over to play.
She would also take all sorts of funny photos—like putting her feet near Yan Bao’s nose, holding a chicken leg close to his mouth, or placing him on a display shelf in her walk-in closet—and add captions like "Mommy’s feet smell so good," "Want some? You don’t have teeth," or "Clearance sale, one yuan each." Then she’d post them in her group chat with her girlfriends, shamelessly trying to convince Gu Kaiyang and Jiang Chun, who had no children, that if babies weren’t meant to be played with, there would be no point in having them.
In comparison, although Cen Sen didn’t have much time to spend with Yan Bao, he was slightly more responsible when he did.He would feed Yan Bao milk, give him porridge, carry him outside for walks, and play with him using small toys.
Every time Ji Mingshu saw Cen Sen doing these things, she found it a bit incongruous and even a little amusing.
Because when Cen Sen did these things, he took on the stern father image of a CEO, as if he were training his employees on when they should do what.
When Yan Bao was three months old and still hadn’t learned to roll over, Cen Sen postponed a day’s work to stay home and practice with him.
But no matter how patiently he coached, Yan Bao remained completely still and utterly uncooperative.
Seeing Cen Sen’s patience gradually give way to a heavy, low-pressure atmosphere, Ji Mingshu couldn’t help but laugh, convinced that Cen Sen was about to coldly tell Yan Bao, “In the company, you’d be at the bottom of the performance review and should have been let go by HR long ago. If you can’t even roll over, how can you be worthy of being my son?”
Perhaps sensing the earnest expectations of his CEO father, although Yan Bao missed the mark on the “three months to roll, six months to sit, nine months to crawl” milestone, he caught up fiercely, managing to overturn expectations by excelling at sitting at six months and crawling at nine months. Moreover, he started calling “daddy” when he was just ten months old.
OpenNovel