In fact, over the past two years, Cen Sen and Ji Mingshu's marital life had been quite frequent, especially during the two months after Ji Mingshu gave birth and recovered—all the mischief she had caused Cen Sen while pregnant was repaid with interest.
At the time, Cen Sen had been abstinent for nearly a year and had little inclination for tenderness. Every time he made her cry, he wouldn’t stop, and he would repeatedly remind her of the torment and seduction she had subjected him to during her pregnancy.
Ji Mingshu felt that she had never apologized as much in her entire life as she did during those two months in bed. If not for Cen Sen’s busy work schedule and frequent business trips afterward, she didn’t know when she would have been freed from that misery.
After two months of retribution, their marital life had now stabilized at three times a week. As for how many times each session lasted, it was entirely up to Cen Sen’s mood.
Although she had verbally refused when her child asked about spare ribs, when the spare ribs were served at the table, Ji Mingshu couldn’t help but glance at them several times.
Yan Bao, being well-behaved and sensible, knew she liked spare ribs and clumsily tried to pick some up for her with his chopsticks, but he struggled for a while without success.
He felt a bit dejected, pouted, and then pleaded in his sweet, childish voice, "Daddy, can you get the spare ribs for Mommy? Mommy likes spare ribs, but Yan Bao can’t reach them!"
Cen Sen glanced at Ji Mingshu, who was sitting across from him, eating her greens.
Ji Mingshu deliberately avoided meeting his gaze.
Without a word, he leisurely extended his chopsticks—one piece, two pieces, three pieces… picking up the tenderest spare ribs and placing them all in her bowl.
Yan Bao’s eyes curved into happy crescents, with three little tufts of hair sticking up on his head. He looked up at Cen Sen and said, "Thank you, Daddy!"
Then, imitating the parents from cartoons, he turned to Ji Mingshu and earnestly advised, "Mommy, you have spare ribs now, so you should eat well!"
"..."
Ji Mingshu wordlessly picked up a piece and placed it in his bowl.
He shook his head seriously. "Yan Bao doesn’t have many teeth yet, so I can’t chew it!"
Ji Mingshu pinched his chubby cheek and teased him mercilessly, "So you know you’re just a little kid who hasn’t even grown all your teeth yet!"
Yan Bao nodded obediently. "Mm-hmm, I know!"
He stretched out his short little hand and pinched Ji Mingshu’s cheek in return.
Ji Mingshu was struck by his adorably silly expression and shook him gently. "You little mess, how are you so cute!"
He grinned, revealing his tiny millet-like teeth. "Mommy is cute too!"
As the mother and son played happily together, Cen Sen, who had been left out across the table, lightly tapped the edge of his bowl and said calmly, "Eat properly."
Cen Xiaoyan quickly saluted. "Okay!"
He added, "Oh, and Daddy is cute too!"
Ji Mingshu couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Cen Sen stared at him for a moment, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously lifted into a slight smile.
Thanks to Cen Xiaoyan’s antics, Ji Mingshu finally had a legitimate excuse to eat the spare ribs during the meal.
After dinner, the family of three went out for a stroll at the supermarket to help with digestion. When they returned home, they sat on the floor together, playing with Lego bricks and dinosaur puzzles.
Cen Xiaoyan was full of energy and didn’t show signs of sleepiness until ten o’clock. Before he fell asleep, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen gave him a bath, placed him in the middle of the bed, and told him a story.They were telling it in a bilingual version—Ji Mingshu speaking one line in Chinese, Cen Sen following with one in English. The hypnotic effect was immediate; in less than ten minutes, Cen Xiaoyan was sound asleep, clutching his little belly.
"Little messy, little messy?"
Ji Mingshu called softly twice, but Cen Xiaoyan didn’t stir at all.
Cen Sen gestured for silence, quietly got out of bed, carried Cen Xiaoyan back to his own room, and instructed the nanny to watch over him while he rested.
For adults, it was still early. Returning to the bedroom, Cen Sen held Ji Mingshu as they watched a movie in bed.
Of course, they didn’t pay much attention to the movie. In less than half an hour, they were engaged in the kind of activities adults do, continuing all the way until the movie ended and the credits and sponsor lists rolled by, still not finished.
At the final moment, Cen Sen murmured hoarsely into Ji Mingshu’s ear, "Is it okay inside?"
Ji Mingshu was utterly exhausted, barely able to catch her breath, her mind blank, with no energy to respond.
After waiting about five seconds, Cen Sen earnestly implemented the international customary rule of "silence means consent," making a significant personal contribution to the arrival of the little sister Yan Bao had been hoping for.
When Yan Bao turned three, it was time for him to officially start kindergarten.
Ji Mingshu carefully prepared many little outfits, shoes, and various small backpacks, determined to make Yan Bao the most stylish kid in kindergarten.
But she never expected that none of the things she prepared would be used. The kindergarten provided a uniform school outfit and backpack, even including a small watch and water cup.
Ji Mingshu felt a bit disheartened. During their nightly pillow talk, she leaned into Cen Sen’s embrace and complained about these trivial matters, even criticizing the school for stifling children’s individuality in developing their aesthetic sense.
But Cen Sen thought the school was doing a good job. "The most important thing for children is learning. Wasting energy on comparing outfits is meaningless."
At first, Ji Mingshu thought this made sense, but after a moment, she found it rather baffling.
She pulled away from Cen Sen’s embrace and questioned him, "What do you mean the most important thing for children is learning? He’s only three—what can he possibly learn? Shouldn’t he just enjoy a happy childhood? I’ve been wanting to say this to you for a while—don’t set such high expectations for your son. This is like trying to make the rice shoots grow by pulling them up!"
Cen Sen disagreed. "There’s already a lot a three-year-old can learn."
"Then tell me, what could you do when you were three?"
Cen Sen thought for a moment and replied, "When I was three, I could recite Tang poetry, hold simple conversations in English, and had already started learning taekwondo and piano."
Both An Father and An Mother were intellectuals who had always placed great importance on their child’s education from a young age. The kindergarten he attended back then was also the best public kindergarten in Star City.
After listening, Ji Mingshu fell silent, her thoughts drifting inappropriately: People with good brains are truly different—they can even remember clearly what they could do and had done at the age of three.
In the brief moment Ji Mingshu remained silent, Cen Sen had already started discussing his various cultivation plans for Cen Xiaoyan. And he had actually written a comprehensive plan that could be printed into a booklet.
For a long while, Ji Mingshu couldn’t find the words, unsure whether to bow in silent mourning for the unfortunate life awaiting little Cen Yan or to worship his father’s formidable execution skills.Cen Xiaoyan seemed to have sensed something in his sleep, lying in his little bed half-asleep when he suddenly sneezed. It felt a bit cold! Unconsciously, he turned over, wrapped himself tighter in his blanket, and shivered TvT!
The initial adjustment to kindergarten is probably a hurdle every parent and child must face.
Cen Xiaoyan had promised so earnestly before his first day of school. But when he was actually left at the kindergarten, he stomped his feet anxiously and began a heart-wrenching performance, "Waaah waaah, Mommy, Daddy, don’t you want Yan Bao anymore? Yan Bao will be good, waaah waaah!"
When the kindergarten teacher tried to comfort and hold him, he shuffled a few steps to the side, let out a loud "Waaah!", and resisted fiercely.
Seeing Cen Xiaoyan crying so desperately, Ji Mingshu’s heart ached. She immediately stepped forward to pick him up, gently patting his back and soothing him with rare tenderness, "Yan Bao is the best. How could Mommy and Daddy not want Yan Bao? Yan Bao is the cutest little kid in the whole world, right? But didn’t we agree before we left home that Yan Bao would be good and go to kindergarten? Mommy and Daddy will come pick Yan Bao up after school in the afternoon."
"No! Waaah waaah! I want... I want Mommy and Daddy to come with me, waaah, let’s all go to kindergarten together!" Cen Xiaoyan cried so hard that snot bubbles popped out. He hiccupped, and his words became fragmented.
Just as Ji Mingshu was about to comfort him further, Cen Sen called out his full name coldly, "Cen Yan."
A Siberian cold front swept through, and little Cen Yan was so startled that one of his snot bubbles popped.
Cen Sen stepped forward and ruffled his hair. "You’re a little man. You can’t go back on your word."
Ji Mingshu looked up and scolded, "Don’t be so harsh on him!"
Cen Sen paused. "I wasn’t being harsh."
"..."
If that expression that said, "If you don’t go to school today, you’re not my son anymore," wasn’t harsh, then what was?
Ji Mingshu wanted to say more, but unexpectedly, Cen Xiaoyan, this little troublemaker, actually responded to Cen Sen’s approach. Though still sniffling, he no longer showed extreme resistance toward the kindergarten teacher.
After repeatedly confirming with Ji Mingshu that they would pick him up after school, Cen Xiaoyan reluctantly, with tears in his eyes, took small steps, looking back every few paces as he followed the kindergarten teacher into the school.
Ji Mingshu breathed a sigh of relief, but on the way back, she still felt unsettled by her little one’s crying, her heart feeling a bit heavy.
She opened the classroom’s live monitoring feed, and soon, her anxiety was soothed. Because Cen Xiaoyan’s crying wasn’t an isolated case—all the children in his class were wandering around and wailing uncontrollably, with no organization or discipline.
Cen Xiaoyan, having already cried outside earlier, didn’t have the energy to join the wailing chorus in the classroom. Instead, he offered a piece of candy to comfort a little girl next to him whose pigtails were practically standing on end from crying.
Not bad—flirting at three years old.
Ji Mingshu felt not only soothed but even a little proud.
After surviving the tear-filled first week, by the second week, the kindergarten situation suddenly returned to normal. The children were also a bit pragmatic, realizing that crying wouldn’t solve anything, so they stopped wasting their energy.
And at the same time, Cen Sen’s cultivation plan for Cen Xiaoyan began.At first, Ji Mingshu was a little worried that Cen Sen's cultivation plan might have the opposite effect on Cen Xiaoyan. She always felt that exposing a three-year-old child to so many things was a bit too early.
But after observing for a while, she discovered that little Cen Xiaoyan's adaptability and learning ability were surprisingly strong.
In Cen Sen's plan, the year from three to four years old was a period for exploring Cen Xiaoyan's interests and talents. He would let Cen Xiaoyan try different things to determine which one he was most interested in and where his greatest talent lay.
Yet whether it was painting, piano, violin, running, martial arts, or taekwondo... Cen Xiaoyan always stood out among his peers. The teachers praised him endlessly, saying he was smart and talented.
When asked which one he liked, he had no particular preference and simply said he liked them all.
Thus, after finishing kindergarten's junior class, the smart and talented little Cen Xiaoyan skipped directly to the senior class.
Unlike the playful days of the past, the senior kindergarten class began teaching some preparatory content and even assigned homework to the children.
One Friday, little Cen Xiaoyan was picked up from school. After playing with him for a while, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen asked him, as usual, what homework the teacher had assigned for the day.
Little Cen Xiaoyan thought for a moment, propping his chin in his hands, and said, "The teacher asked us to think about what Mommy and Daddy are. Next week in class, Teacher Yuanyuan will call on someone to answer."
Ji Mingshu mimicked his pose, propping her chin in her hands, and asked, "So, little troublemaker, what do you think Mommy and Daddy are?"
Cen Xiaoyan tilted his head. "I want to say something different from the other kids."
Cen Sen glanced at him, seemingly curious about just how unique his answer would be.
Mischievously, he tilted his head to the other side. "Mommy and Daddy are liars."
Cen Sen: "..."
Ji Mingshu: "..."
The two exchanged a glance, and Cen Sen asked, "How are Mommy and Daddy liars?"
Lifting his little face in accusation, he said, "Daddy, you said Yan Bao would have a little sister, but it's been so, so, so long, and Yan Bao still doesn't have a little sister."
Ji Mingshu, who was eating an orange, nearly choked.
Cen Sen also paused for a moment. "Mommy and Daddy didn't lie to you. Mommy and Daddy have been trying very hard."
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