The midwife carrying the young master emerged to claim credit when she felt a whirlwind sweep past her, even lifting her hair strands.

The midwife turned her head in bewilderment, barely catching sight of a corner of clothing.

Was the Prince… going to see the Princess Consort?

The midwife looked down at the well-behaved baby in her arms with mixed feelings.

Could this child have been blown in by the wind?

Fortunately, a group of people soon surrounded the baby.

He Shi had originally wanted to go in and visit her daughter, but catching sight of her son-in-law’s figure through the door crack, she quietly changed her mind.

Let it be—better to let the couple have their moment together.

The delivery room still carried the smell of blood as the midwives methodically performed their cleanup work. Shao Mingyuan reached the bedside in a few strides, looking at the person lying on the bed with mixed emotions.

“Zhaozhao, you’ve worked hard.” He grasped Qiao Zhao’s hand and rubbed it against his chin.

The man’s chin had sprouted short, coarse stubble, and the rough texture brought Qiao Zhao a bit more alertness.

“What are you doing coming in now?”

“I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Now you’ve seen—go out quickly.”

Shao Mingyuan refused to move: “How did it turn out to be two?”

“A surprise?”

Shao Mingyuan rubbed his face and answered honestly: “More shock than surprise.”

He could hardly imagine what he would have done if he’d known from the beginning that Zhaozhao was carrying twins.

Qiao Zhao pushed him: “Go out quickly. After the maids helped me change clothes, I wanted to sleep.”

Hearing that Qiao Zhao wanted to sleep, Shao Mingyuan quickly stood up: “Good, good, you get a good rest first. I’ll have people take good care of the two children.”

Seeing that Shao Mingyuan had finally left, Qiao Zhao wearily closed her eyes.

The two newborn babies, wrapped in identical bright red embroidered swaddling clothes, lay side by side in the small bed in the adjacent warm chamber.

Chi Can finally squeeze to the front and looked down at the two children.

Hmm, looking at it this way, Chi Jiao didn’t seem so ugly when she was little.

“Big brother, I want to see too.” Chi Jiao was short and could only stand on her tiptoes to look.

Chi Can glanced at his sister without any awareness of lifting her, adding insult to injury: “Who told you to only eat meat without growing taller?”

“Big brother!” In front of so many people, the little girl felt somewhat embarrassed. She covered her face, stamped her feet, and ran out huffily.

There was a row of small stools in the corridor. The little girl randomly picked one to sit on. Just as she was feeling sorry for herself, she suddenly sensed something approaching.

The little girl quickly turned to look—it was a little child even smaller than her.

Ze Ge’er sat down next to Chi Jiao and comforted her: “It’s okay, I can’t see either.”

“What’s your name?” Facing a child smaller than herself, Chi Jiao showed great patience.

She wanted to be different from her brother, letting the baby feel spring-like warmth.

“I’m called Ze Ge’er.” Ze Ge’er answered obediently, then tilted his head in thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he finally figured out how to address the little girl before him: “Great-aunt.”

“What?” Chi Jiao was stunned.

“Great-aunt, I’m called Ze Ge’er.”

Chi Jiao jumped up, her face flushed red: “Who’s a great-aunt? Don’t call me that randomly!”

Oh my, this little fatty was even more hurtful with his words than her brother.

A low chuckle came, followed by a large hand falling on Chi Jiao’s head and ruffling it: “Little girl, our Ze Ge’er should indeed call you aunt.”

Chi Jiao tried her best to look up and saw a handsome face very similar to Ze Ge’er’s, but enlarged, causing her to bite her lip.

Shao Mingyuan crouched down and patiently explained: “Your big brother and I are brothers, you’re the younger sister, so you’re our Ze Ge’er’s aunt.”

“Oh.” Chi Jiao nodded obediently.

Shao Mingyuan felt the two little ones should be able to get along well now, smiled, and walked away.

“Great-aunt, Ze Ge’er wasn’t calling you wrong.”

The corner of Chi Jiao’s mouth twitched as she gritted her teeth: “It’s aunt, not great-aunt!”

Little kids were the most annoying.

Chi Can saw Shao Mingyuan approaching and smiled: “Tingyuan, your twins don’t look alike at all.”

Only then did Shao Mingyuan take time to carefully examine the children.

Both babies had their eyes closed at the moment—one had sparse, light eyebrows and delicate features, while the other had dark, thick eyebrows with something of a sword-browed, starry-eyed appearance.

“They’re not alike.” After studying them for a long time, Shao Mingyuan stared at the baby with thick eyebrows for several moments.

Surely this wasn’t the daughter?

He reached out wanting to open the swaddling to verify, but withdrew his hand when it touched the cloth.

Looking directly seemed somewhat inappropriate—now that one of the two children was a daughter, it was different from dealing with stinky boys.

“Ahem, which one is the young miss?”

“Your Highness, the one closer to your hand is the young miss.”

Shao Mingyuan looked down at his precious daughter with her heroic eyebrows, and his mood instantly became complicated.

A girl born with masculine features—he wondered if Zhaozhao would be upset with him when she saw him.

“Your Highness, since you’ve seen the children, please go outside with Young Master Chi. Such young children shouldn’t be constantly surrounded,” He Shi reminded them.

Naturally giving his mother-in-law due respect, Shao Mingyuan grabbed Chi Can’s arm: “Come, let’s go to the hall for tea.”

In the flower hall, maids quickly served fragrant tea, and the two men each took a cup to sip slowly.

Amid the curling tea fragrance, Chi Can sighed: “I never imagined you’d already be the father of three children so quickly.”

Shao Mingyuan’s earlier worries about his daughter immediately vanished, and he said proudly: “Exactly—twins are so rare, yet I got them.”

“Look how pleased you are.” Chi Can rolled his eyes unsympathetically, drained his cup of tea, leaned lazily against the rosewood chair back, and casually picked up pine nuts from the tea table beside him to eat. “Let your daughter be my goddaughter.”

“No, no, I only have this one daughter.” Shao Mingyuan quickly refused.

A little daughter, so delicate and soft, who would sweetly call “Daddy”—how could he let someone else benefit from that?

“Then let your younger son be my godson.” Chi Can settled for second best.

“That won’t work either.” Shao Mingyuan refused without thinking.

Hehe, this was when having a strong friendship showed its advantages.

He could refuse when he wanted to refuse, without any hesitation.

Chi Can slapped the table: “How can that not work either? You have two sons!”

“One son isn’t enough.” Shao Mingyuan sighed deeply.

Chi Can scoffed: “Fine, acting like only you can have children. If I weren’t thinking that Li Third Miss is smart and her babies might take after their mother, I wouldn’t even want them—”

His remaining words were interrupted by Shao Mingyuan’s coughing.

“What’s wrong?” Chi Can looked at him sideways.

Shao Mingyuan recovered and coughed lightly: “Alright, let’s not talk about the children. Tell me about your situation in the capital these past two years.”

Only the two men’s conversation remained in the hall. Maids refilled their tea repeatedly as the sunlight filtering through the window lattice gradually changed from pale gold to light orange.

Chi Can yawned: “I’m full just from drinking tea. Those trivial matters in the capital aren’t worth mentioning. Everyone you care about is doing fairly well, except for me.”

“Your visit this time probably won’t escape the Jinlin Guards’ notice.”

“True enough. The Jinlin Guards have become even more diligent under Jiang Eleven’s control. But it doesn’t matter—so what if they know I came to see you? Anyway, this time I’ve come, I don’t plan to leave.”

Shao Mingyuan was first stunned, then joy welled up from his heart: “Not leaving?”

“Mm, not leaving.”