Actually, in these past two years, Cen Sen and Ji Mingshu’s marital life had been quite frequent, especially during the two months after Ji Mingshu had given birth and recovered her health—all the mischief she had previously gotten away with while pregnant was paid back by Cen Sen with interest.
At that time, Cen Sen had abstained for nearly a year and didn’t have much of a mind to be gentle. Each time, they would continue until she was crying, all while reminding her of how she had tormented and teased him during her pregnancy.
Ji Mingshu felt she had never apologized as much in her entire life as she did during those two months in bed. If Cen Sen hadn’t been so busy with work and frequent business trips afterward, she wouldn’t have known when she would escape this suffering.
After the two-month revenge period, their marital life now stabilized at about three times a week, with the duration and number of times per session entirely dependent on Cen Sen’s mood.
Although she verbally refused when her son asked about spare ribs, when the spare ribs were served at dinner, Ji Mingshu still couldn’t help but glance at them several times.
Yan Bao was sweet and sensible. Knowing she liked spare ribs, he awkwardly maneuvered his chopsticks, trying to pick some up for her, but couldn’t manage it after several attempts.
He became a bit dejected, pouted, and then asked Cen Sen in his milky voice, “Baba, please give Mama some ribs. Mama likes spare ribs, but Yan Bao can’t pick them up!”
Cen Sen glanced at Ji Mingshu sitting across from him, eating her vegetables.
Ji Mingshu deliberately avoided his gaze.
Who knows what he was thinking, but he extended his chopsticks methodically. One piece, two pieces, three pieces… he placed all the most tender spare ribs into her bowl.
Yan Bao’s eyes curved into crescents as he smiled, with three little cowlicks standing up on top of his head. He looked up at Cen Sen and said, “Thank you, Baba!”
Then, imitating the parents from cartoons, he turned his head and said with emphasis, “Mama, now you have spare ribs too, you should eat well!”
“…”
Ji Mingshu wordlessly picked up a piece and put it in his bowl.
He shook his head seriously, “Yan Bao doesn’t have many teethies, can’t chew it!”
Ji Mingshu pinched his chubby face and teased him mercilessly, “So you do know you’re just a little kid who doesn’t even have all his teeth yet!”
Yan Bao nodded obediently, “Mm-hmm, I know!”
He reached out his short little hands to pinch Ji Mingshu’s cheeks, too.
Ji Mingshu was struck by his adorable silliness and rocked him gently while pinching him, “Little Slob, how can you be so cute!”
He smiled, showing his tiny rice-grain teeth, “Mama is cute too!”
While mother and son were happily playing, Cen Sen, who had been neglected on the other side, suddenly lightly tapped the edge of his bowl and said calmly, “Eat properly.”
Little Cen Yan quickly made a saluting gesture, “Yes, sir!”
He didn’t forget to add: “Oh, right, right, Baba is cute too!”
Ji Mingshu couldn’t help but laugh, and Cen Sen stared at him for two seconds, his lips unconsciously curving upward.
With little Cen Yan’s intervention, Ji Mingshu finally had a legitimate reason to eat the spare ribs.
After dinner, the family of three went to the supermarket for a walk, calling it a way to aid digestion. When they returned home, the three sat on the floor and played with Lego blocks and dinosaur puzzles together.
Little Cen Yan had lots of energy and didn’t feel sleepy until ten o’clock. Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen bathed him before he fell asleep, then placed him in the middle of the bed and told him a story.
They even told it in a bilingual version, with Ji Mingshu saying one sentence in Chinese and Cen Sen following with one in English. The hypnotic effect was immediate—in less than ten minutes, little Cen Yan was sound asleep with his hands on his little belly.
“Little Slob, Little Slob?”
Ji Mingshu called softly a couple of times, but little Cen Yan didn’t move a muscle.
Cen Sen made a gesture for silence, got out of bed without a sound, carried little Cen Yan back to his room, and instructed the nanny to watch over him while he slept.
It was still early for adults, so back in the bedroom, Cen Sen embraced Ji Mingshu, and they watched a movie together on the bed.
Of course, neither of them focused on the movie. Within half an hour, they were engaged in adult activities and continued even after the movie ended and the credits were rolling with the lists of cast, crew, and sponsors.
At the crucial moment, Cen Sen hoarsely asked against Ji Mingshu’s ear, “Inside, okay?”
Ji Mingshu was exhausted, in a state where she was exhaling more than inhaling, her mind completely blank, with no energy to respond.
After waiting for about five seconds, Cen Sen earnestly implemented the internationally recognized principle that “silence means consent,” making a tremendous contribution toward the arrival of the little sister that Yan Bao had been hoping for.
When Yan Bao was three years old, it was time for him to officially attend kindergarten.
Ji Mingshu had carefully prepared many little clothes, shoes, and various backpacks, fully intending for Yan Bao to be the most dazzling child in kindergarten.
But she never expected that none of the things she prepared would be used. The kindergarten issued standardized uniforms and backpacks, and even provided little watches and water bottles, all complete.
Ji Mingshu was a bit discouraged. That night during their bedtime talk, she leaned against Cen Sen’s chest and complained about these trivial matters, even criticizing the school for suppressing the children’s aesthetic and individual development.
But Cen Sen thought the school had done well, “The most important thing for children is learning. It’s meaningless to waste energy on comparing clothes.”
At first, Ji Mingshu thought this made sense, but after thinking about it more, she found it absurd.
She pulled away from Cen Sen’s embrace and questioned, “What do you mean, ‘the most important thing for children is learning’? He’s only three years old, what can he learn? Isn’t it enough to just have a happy childhood? I’ve been meaning to say this to you—please don’t set such high expectations for your son. You’re trying to force growth!”
Cen Sen was unfazed, “There’s already a lot a three-year-old can learn.”
“Then tell me what you could do at three.”
Cen Sen pondered briefly, then answered, “At three, I could recite Tang dynasty poems, engage in simple English conversations, and had already started learning Taekwondo and piano.”
Both of An’s parents were intellectuals who highly valued children’s education from an early age. The kindergarten he attended was the best public kindergarten in Star City.
After hearing this, Ji Mingshu was silent for a moment, her thoughts wandering inappropriately: smart people are different, remembering so clearly what they could do and what they did at just three years old.
In the brief moment while Ji Mingshu was silent, Cen Sen had already begun telling her about various development plans for little Cen Yan, and he had indeed written a comprehensive plan that could be printed into a booklet.
Ji Mingshu was speechless for a while, not knowing whether to mourn silently for little Cen Yan’s future miserable life or to worship his father’s powerful execution abilities.
Little Cen Yan must have sensed something in his sleep. Lying in his little bed, drowsy and confused, he suddenly “achoo’d.” It felt a bit cold! He unconsciously turned over, wrapped himself tightly in his little blanket, shivering TvT!
The adjustment period when a child first enters kindergarten is probably something that both parents and children must go through.
Before his first day of school, little Cen Yan had made very good promises. But when they left him at kindergarten, he anxiously stamped his feet and began a heart-wrenching, theatrical performance, “Wuwuwu waaah wuwuwu Baba Mama, don’t you want Yan Bao anymore? Yan Bao will be good wuwuwu!”
When the kindergarten teacher tried to comfort and hold him, he took small steps to the side, let out a resounding “waah,” with an extremely resistant posture.
Seeing little Cen Yan crying so heartbrokenly and desperately, Ji Mingshu’s heart ached terribly. She immediately stepped forward to pick him up, gently patting his back, and comforted him with rare gentleness: “Yan Bao is the best, how could Baba and Mama not want Yan Bao? Yan Bao is the cutest little one in the whole world, right? But didn’t we agree before we left home that from now on, you would be good and attend kindergarten, and that Baba and Mama would come pick Yan Bao up in the afternoon after school?”
“No! Waah wuwuwu! I want… I want Baba and Mama to be with me, wuwuwu, let’s go to kindergarten together!” Little Cen Yan cried until snot bubbles appeared, hiccupped, and his speech became broken.
Ji Mingshu wanted to comfort him more, but Cen Sen coldly called out his full name, “Cen Yan.”
Like a Siberian cold front had arrived, little Cen Yan was so frightened that one of his snot bubbles popped.
Cen Sen stepped forward, ruffled his hair, and said, “You’re a little man. You cannot break your word.”
Ji Mingshu looked up strangely, “Don’t be harsh with him!”
Cen Sen was silent for a moment. “I’m not being harsh.”
“…”
If that face that screamed “if you don’t go to school today, you’re no longer my son” wasn’t harsh, what was?
Ji Mingshu wanted to say something more, but unexpectedly, the unenterprising little Cen Yan did respond to Cen Sen’s approach. Although he was still sniffling, he no longer showed extreme resistance to the kindergarten teacher.
After repeatedly confirming with Ji Mingshu that they would come to pick him up after school, little Cen Yan reluctantly held back tears, looking back every few steps as he waddled on his short legs with the kindergarten teacher into the school.
Ji Mingshu breathed a sigh of relief, but on the way back, she was still disturbed by her child’s crying, feeling a lump in her heart.
She opened the classroom’s synchronized surveillance, and soon, her anxiety was cured. Because Cen Yan’s crying wasn’t an isolated case—all the children in their class were wandering around, crying loudly without organization or discipline.
Little Cen Yan, probably because he had already cried outside, now didn’t have the energy to join the wailing army in the classroom. Instead, he offered a candy to comfort a little girl beside him whose pigtails had gone wild from crying.
Not bad, already knowing how to flirt with girls at three years old.
Ji Mingshu was not only comforted but even somewhat proud.
After the tearful first week, by the second week, the kindergarten situation had suddenly returned to normal. The little ones were somewhat realistic—discovering that crying couldn’t solve the problem, they immediately stopped wasting their energy.
Meanwhile, Cen Sen’s development plan for little Cen Yan also began.
At first, Ji Mingshu was a bit worried that Cen Sen’s development plan would have a counterproductive effect on little Cen Yan. She always felt that it was a bit too early for a three-year-old child to be exposed to so many things.
But after observing for a while, she discovered that little Cen Yan’s adaptability and learning ability were almost excessively strong.
In Cen Sen’s plan, the year between three and four was the period for exploring and discovering little Cen Yan’s interests and talents. He would let little Cen Yan try different things to determine which he was most interested in and which he had the most talent for.
But whether it was drawing, piano, violin, or running, martial arts, taekwondo… little Cen Yan stood out among his peers in everything. The teachers all praised him endlessly, complimenting his intelligence and talent.
When asked which he liked best, he didn’t have a particular preference and simply said he liked them all.
So after finishing junior kindergarten, the smart and talented little Cen Yan jumped directly to senior kindergarten.
Senior kindergarten was different from the previous play-all-day approach. The school would begin teaching some pre-school preparatory content and would assign homework to the little ones.
One Friday, after little Cen Yan was picked up from school, Ji Mingshu and Cen Sen played with him for a while, then, as usual, asked him what homework the teacher had assigned them.
Little Cen Yan thought for a moment, then with both hands supporting his cheeks, said, “Teacher asked us to think about what Baba and Mama are, and next week in class, Teacher Yuan will ask people to answer.”
Ji Mingshu copied his posture, supporting her cheeks with her hands, and asked, “So, Little Slob, what do you think Baba and Mama are?”
Little Cen Yan tilted his head, “I want to say something different from the other kids.”
Cen Sen glanced at him, seemingly curious about just how different his answer would be.
He playfully tilted his head to the other side, “Baba and Mama are liars.”
Cen Sen: “…”
Ji Mingshu: “…”
The two exchanged a glance, and Cen Sen asked, “How are Baba and Mama liars?”
He looked up with an accusatory face: “Baba, you said Yan Bao would have a little sister, but it’s been a long, long, long time, and Yan Bao still doesn’t have a little sister.”
Ji Mingshu, who was eating a tangerine, almost choked to death.
Cen Sen also paused for a good while, “Baba and Mama didn’t lie to you. Baba and Mama have already been trying very hard.”