Returning from N country and arriving back at World Airlines headquarters, after resolving various leftover issues, the two of them arrived home when daylight was already bright.

The weather had been consistently pleasant lately. The sun appeared early, shining on the pomegranate tree that had just begun bearing fruit in the yard, making even the autumn breeze feel warm.

Fu Mingyu didn’t plan to sleep the entire day, only drawing a thin layer of gauze curtains and half-reclining against the headboard to catch some sleep.

When Ruan Sixian came out after a shower, she wasn’t sure if Fu Mingyu was asleep.

His sleeping face was always peaceful, and even his breathing was shallow.

Ruan Sixian sat on the edge of the bed and asked softly, “Are you asleep?”

There was no response.

She slowly moved closer, wanting to rest against Fu Mingyu’s chest, but afraid of waking him.

While she was hunched over battling with her thoughts, Fu Mingyu suddenly curved his lips into a smile and raised his hand to pull her to his chest.

With his eyes closed, he spoke very softly.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I don’t want to sleep.” Ruan Sixian kept her eyes open, staring at the dappled sunlight on the floor, with Fu Mingyu’s heartbeat sounding real in her ears, “I can’t sleep during the day.”

Fu Mingyu didn’t speak again. Ruan Sixian quietly leaned against his chest, listening as his breathing gradually became more steady.

Ruan Sixian looked up, her finger tracing across his chin.

“Are you asleep?”

This time Fu Mingyu gave no response.

The earthquake that occurred yesterday afternoon had resulted in him and Bai Yang being immediately taken to the embassy, and they hadn’t closed their eyes until boarding the plane at dawn.

When they returned home in the morning, Auntie Zhang had prepared breakfast, but Fu Mingyu went straight to the bedroom after showering.

Ruan Sixian knew he was exhausted and didn’t speak again.

As the autumn sunlight gradually moved from the window to the bed, she also fell asleep.

With the feeling that it had been a false alarm, that morning, Ruan Sixian slept especially soundly.

At noon, Auntie Zhang came to wake them for lunch, and both were still sluggish.

Auntie Zhang was trimming day lily branches nearby, and seeing that neither of them spoke while eating, she muttered, “Mr. Fu, it’s good you’re safe this time. You don’t know how frightened your wife was.”

Seeing Fu Mingyu look up, Ruan Sixian’s soup-drinking motion suddenly paused.

Under his inquiring gaze, Ruan Sixian raised her chin and said stiffly, “I wasn’t really…”

“How could you say that?” Auntie Zhang pointed at her face with a pink rose stem, “When she saw the news, she was crying her eyes out, and rushed out without even changing her clothes. I had to chase her to the door with a coat.”

The sound of the spoon stirring in the bowl suddenly became very grating.

Ruan Sixian forced a smile, not waiting for Fu Mingyu to speak before defending herself, “The news was too frightening.”

“Indeed it was.” Auntie Zhang added, “Your wife was crying all the way, saying what if something happened to you there.”

Ruan Sixian: “…”

Fu Mingyu stopped what he was doing and stared directly at Ruan Sixian, his eyes profound.

Ruan Sixian was afraid he would say something embarrassing, so she preemptively changed the subject, “What are we doing this afternoon?”

Fu Mingyu lowered his eyes, but his lips curled into a smile.

“Staying home with my wife.”

After lunch, Auntie Zhang left on schedule, leaving only Fu Mingyu and Ruan Sixian in the house.

This afternoon seemed just like yesterday—sunlight warming the carpet, freshly arranged flowers giving off a subtle fragrance, even the programs on TV were replaying yesterday’s shows.

But these twenty-four hours felt like a dream to Ruan Sixian.

She dared not recall her state at that time—her mind like a bomb exploding, suddenly burning hot all over, then quickly cooling down, her mind going blank, her body starting to shiver with cold.

She didn’t know how she got to World Airlines headquarters, and if Auntie Zhang hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have remembered that she had cried.

Even on this night that should have been spent in dreamland, she had traversed the stretching Qinghai-Tibet Plateau mountains, crossed the snow-covered Mount Everest, and traveled endlessly above the boundless clouds.

This night couldn’t be described as heart-stopping, yet it was more deeply imprinted in her heart, making Ruan Sixian realize how important Fu Mingyu was to her.

Fortunately, after waking from the midday dream, everything returned to normal.

Ruan Sixian leaned against Fu Mingyu, staring blankly at the TV.

But his phone kept ringing nonstop.

Twenty-four hours after the incident, people were still continuously messaging to inquire about his situation.

The current Fu Mingyu was more personable in his interactions than before. Although many in the message list weren’t close acquaintances, he still replied to each one.

After finishing his messages, he leaned forward to take the cigarette box from the table.

Ruan Sixian watched his hand, her gaze following his movement to his face.

At the moment the lighter ignited, his profile became clearer in the flickering light.

The way he lit a cigarette was very attractive to Ruan Sixian. Although he didn’t smoke often, Ruan Sixian would always discreetly watch the entire process.

But today, Ruan Sixian stared at him unblinkingly, until white smoke blurred her vision. She suddenly came to her senses and reached out to pull the cigarette from his mouth.

Fu Mingyu turned his head and raised an eyebrow, “What’s wrong?”

Ruan Sixian pressed the cigarette into a glass jar containing coffee foam, saying quietly, “Don’t smoke anymore.”

Fu Mingyu casually made an “Mm” sound, thinking Ruan Sixian was just uncomfortable with the smoke in the afternoon.

“Don’t smoke for these two years.” Ruan Sixian waved her hand to disperse the remaining smoke, lowering her head to pick at her nails, speaking so fast it was almost unclear, “Let’s have a baby.”

“Hm?”

Fu Mingyu truly hadn’t heard clearly. He turned sideways and leaned closer to her, his ear in front of her face, but his eyes still fixed on the TV, “What did you say?”

But Ruan Sixian thought he was pretending not to hear, and seeing him in this position, she felt he was hinting at something.

No, it should be more than a hint.

After giving herself a moment of psychological preparation, Ruan Sixian raised her hands to embrace Fu Mingyu’s neck, leaning in to kiss his earlobe.

Fu Mingyu thought she was still frightened from earlier, so he just smiled, holding her waist, and said, “Let’s go out for dinner tonight, to that restaurant—”

“I said,” Ruan Sixian interrupted him, cupping his face to make him look at her, “let’s have a baby.”

The autumn wind gradually warmed in the afternoon, bringing with it the clear scent of osmanthus that somehow took on a somewhat ambiguous flavor.

Ruan Sixian nervously looked at Fu Mingyu, only to see his eyes shift through layers of emotion. Finally, without saying anything, he picked her up and headed upstairs.

Ruan Sixian: “???”

The afternoon slipped away quietly. The sunset melted into gold, and autumn winds suddenly rose, blowing fallen leaves while branches unable to bear the weight dropped pomegranates onto the yard’s grass.

Ruan Sixian lay on the bed, glimpsing through a tiny gap in the curtains the moment the pomegranate fell to the ground, somehow seeing in it a resemblance to Dai Yu burying flowers.

She felt she was that pomegranate, and Fu Mingyu the merciless autumn wind.

Once they decided to have a baby, freed from external constraints, Ruan Sixian witnessed another side of Fu Mingyu different from before—his time and excitement reached another level.

She didn’t understand how a thirty-two-year-old man could still be so energetic after nearly a whole day without sleep.

As such occurrences increased, she began to suspect that this person was truly only interested in the process of making a baby.

Even before getting pregnant, Ruan Sixian started feeling indignant.

One night after they finished, Ruan Sixian had no strength left in her body. Staring at the ceiling, she said, “I’ll be the one carrying for ten months, while you just need to enjoy yourself and still get a child. How is that fair?!”

“Hm?” Fu Mingyu was puzzled, “You don’t enjoy it?”

Ruan Sixian: “…”

She touched her face and redirected the conversation, “I might have to endure a cut, or even face a brush with death. Counting it this way, I’m really at a disadvantage.”

Ruan Sixian’s tone wasn’t that serious when she said this. She was just criticizing Fu Mingyu’s bedroom behavior, but he thought about her words seriously.

“If you’re worried about these things, maybe we shouldn’t have a child after all?”

“Huh?” Ruan Sixian stammered, “I…”

Fu Mingyu looked at her very earnestly, “I can’t bear it.”

“There-there’s nothing you can’t bear.” Ruan Sixian turned over, propping herself up on her elbow, looking down at Fu Mingyu, her fingertip poking his chin, “I’m just talking. It’s not like I don’t want to have a baby.”

However, in the following months, the couple made many efforts beyond just the crucial process of babymaking.

During the preparation for pregnancy, their lifestyle habits had been improved to near perfection, and doctors also regularly examined Ruan Sixian, but the baby still didn’t come.

Before they knew it, Spring Festival arrived again.

This year, Jiang City’s temperature reached its lowest in ten years, but Ruan Sixian never wore dresses for the sake of looking pretty, dressing primarily for warmth.

Her emotions became somewhat sensitive amidst the repeated disappointments about the baby.

In the month approaching Chinese New Year’s Eve, she counted the days, and when her period was due, she constantly monitored her condition.

As soon as midnight passed and her period hadn’t arrived, she immediately got up from bed and took a pregnancy test to the bathroom.

But the result was still the same as in previous months.

She sighed, walking slowly back to the bedroom, lying down and burying her head under the covers.

“What’s wrong?” Fu Mingyu was awakened by her movement, turning on the floor lamp by the window, half-propping himself up, and leaning to her ear, “Did you have a nightmare?”

“No.” Ruan Sixian’s fingers gripped the blanket, her back to Fu Mingyu, not wanting him to see her fearful expression, “Do you think… has my exposure to high-altitude radiation affected me these years?”

A pilot’s working environment already has problems like oxygen deficiency, dryness, and noise, while also being constantly exposed to high-altitude radiation and electromagnetic fields.

Although the company had established personal annual radiation dose records for crew members, and Ruan Sixian had checked hers on time—her annual radiation dose hadn’t exceeded 1 millisievert—and she had deliberately avoided short-term gradient climbs or lateral rerouting during flights to optimize her flying method to reduce radiation.

She had never paid attention to this issue before, but when she couldn’t get pregnant, it became magnified infinitely in her mind.

“You know, most male colleagues in the company have daughters because of these influences, who knows if it means women can’t have children at all.”

With her back to the light, Fu Mingyu couldn’t see her expression, only gauging her emotions from her voice.

“Don’t worry.” Fu Mingyu held her hand resting on her abdomen, “It’s only been a few months, don’t rush. Some of my friends prepared for a year or two before getting pregnant, and they’re all healthy.”

Ruan Sixian closed her eyes, forcibly suppressing those anxious thoughts in her heart, “It will come, right?”

“Mm.” Fu Mingyu lay down again, his chin resting against the top of her head, closing his eyes and saying softly, “It definitely will come. I’ve even thought of a name for our child.”

“You don’t even know if it’s a boy or girl and you’ve already thought of a name?”

“Mm, it works for both.”

“What is it? Let me see if it sounds good.”

“Fu Guangzhi.”

In the darkness, there was a three-second silence, after which Ruan Sixian erupted, hitting him with a pillow.

“Fu Mingyu, are you crazy?!!”

After that night, the expectation in Ruan Sixian’s heart sprouted anew.

But she no longer kept herself in a perpetually cautious state, doing whatever she needed to do, and even went to the seaside for a few days during her vacation.

The following spring, as all things revived, the cherry tree in the yard bloomed. When the wind blew, the pale pink petals floated down, spreading a colorful carpet on the ground.

Later, the flowers withered and bore fruit, but Fu Mingyu’s child still hadn’t arrived, yet they had to face the departure of another life.

Doudou was a dog Fu Mingyu had brought home when he was twenty-four, already an adult dog at that time.

After so many years, it had reached the end of its life.

When Ruan Sixian visited Lake View Manor again, there was no need to confine it anymore, as it no longer had the strength to jump on Ruan Sixian, spending its days curled up in its nest, with the dog food in its bowl being consumed less and less each day.

Fu Mingyu naturally couldn’t neglect his work because of Doudou’s condition, but he and Ruan Sixian frequently returned to Lake View Manor to stay overnight during this period.

“Sigh…” Looking at Doudou sleeping in its nest, Ruan Sixian crouched in front of it, reaching out to pat its head for the first time, “If it weren’t for me, it could have lived with you all along.”

“What’s with you lately?” Fu Mingyu stroked her chin, “Has Lin Daiyu possessed you? You’re so melancholic.”

Ruan Sixian just felt somewhat apologetic toward Fu Mingyu. She rested her head on Fu Mingyu’s shoulder, murmuring, “I know you’re sad.”

The day Doudou passed away was a bright, sunny day. Fu Mingyu personally watched the vet give it a euthanasia injection.

Ruan Sixian received Fu Mingyu’s call at the hospital, and by the time she arrived at Lake View Manor, Doudou’s breathing was already as shallow as could be.

Fu Mingyu held its paw, then touched its chest, feeling its last heartbeat.

Until Fu Mingyu withdrew his hand, Ruan Sixian heard him sigh.

She had never seen Fu Mingyu like this before, with sadness in his eyes so thick it couldn’t dissolve, yet he had to accept this inevitable fact.

Ruan Sixian suddenly felt a tightness in her heart and embraced him from behind.

“Husband, don’t be sad anymore, our baby is here to keep you company.”