"Lin Feng..."
Lu Qingxue bit her lip, turned her head toward the doorway, and a second later, her helplessness turned into annoyance: "You're still laughing!"
"Uh..."
Wiping the smile from the corners of his mouth, Lin Feng scratched the back of his head.
"Let me change it."
He had always been the one changing the diapers; Lu Qingxue had just watched, a classic case of her eyes understanding while her hands remained clueless.
Lin Feng shook his head, briskly fetching a basin of warm water, and gently washed the little bottom of Ping'an.
"Little rascal, still blowing bubbles, peeing on Mommy, shame on you."
Having grown practiced at it, Lin Feng even had the energy to interact with little Ping'an.
"Mm-mm~"
Little Ping'an wiggled his bottom, as happy as could be.
Nearby, little Xiao Ruyi sensed her brother's joy and started kicking her limbs too, chiming in, "Mm-mm~"
Lin Feng glanced at Xiao Ruyi and smiled: "You're next as soon as I finish with big brother. Be a good girl, Ruyi."
The blue indicator line on Xiao Ruyi's diaper at that very moment showed she was soaked through with pee.
After washing Ping'an's bottom, Lin Feng took out the diaper rash ointment, scooped up a dab, and smoothed it evenly over the little buttocks: "Put on the good stuff, and our bottom won't get red."
His quick movements and the gentle way he coaxed the baby brought a smile to the corners of Lu Qingxue's mouth.
Lin Feng gave her a gentle side-glance. "Not changing your clothes yet?"
Lu Qingxue snapped out of her daze. Lin Feng casually handed her pajamas and pulled the bed curtain shut.
Lin Feng had entrusted Zhou Cheng with buying these supplies, and Lu Qingxue, clutching the pajamas that were a size too large, felt a strange, inexplicable warmth in her heart.
By the time she changed her clothes and opened the bed curtain, Lin Feng had already tidied up Ruyi as well.
The two babies were cooing softly, opening their little mouths and flaring their tiny nostrils as they sniffed the air all around for the scent of their mother.
"Hungry right after finishing your business?"
Lin Feng looked at the babies and shook his head. "Such little gluttons."
Lu Qingxue stepped forward, scooped up little Xiao Ruyi, and scolded playfully:
"Bad daddy, how can you say that about the little darlings?"
"Don't listen to him, let's eat our fill."
Lin Feng crossed his arms and looked at her sideways:
"Hey, talking to them like that, aren't you corrupting the youth? Don't I have any authority to maintain?"
"Fine, I won't say it next time."
Lu Qingxue settled Ruyi securely in her arms, then motioned for Lin Feng to bring Ping'an over, latching the baby onto the other side for his meal.
Neither of them noticed that the nursing, which had previously made them both feel so terribly shy, was no longer all that awkward.
***
Meanwhile, Zhang Hui left the hospital and headed straight for Lu Qingxue's rented apartment.
Standing at the entrance of the residential complex, Zhang Hui froze.
Lu Qingxue had indeed told her that the rented place was very close to the maternity and childcare center, with a farmers' market right across the street, making daily life quite convenient.
However, she hadn't mentioned that this was an old, rundown housing estate over forty years old! Looking at the dilapidated exterior of the buildings and the security gates that were little more than decoration, Zhang Hui's expression became extremely complicated.
She didn't even need to guess: Lu Qingxue had no job and had to support two children on top of that; she definitely had no money left.
"This silly girl, if Xiao Feng hadn't taken responsibility and I, as a parent, didn't support them, I truly don't know how much hardship she would have to endure!"
Zhang Hui patted her coat pocket. When she left home this time, she had brought all the family's savings with her.
The family had run into some expenses recently and spent quite a bit, leaving just twenty thousand in the card now.
If she borrowed a little more from friends and relatives, she should be able to scrape together a down payment.
Buying a house was a major event, though; she had to discuss it with the two kids.
Besides, a newly bought apartment wasn't ready to move into right away—she might need to rent a place as a stopgap in the meantime...
Between all these things, Zhang Hui's head was spinning, so she decided to head to the farmers' market first to buy groceries and cook.
If she delayed any longer, Lu Qingxue would go hungry.
In a flurry of activity, Zhang Hui bought a whole chicken, pork ribs, crucian carp, and some seasonal vegetables, then stepped into Lu Qingxue's apartment for the very first time.
The room was clean and tidy, but half-eaten takeout sat on the dining table, and the trash can was full of takeout boxes.
"Did she spend the entire pregnancy living like this?"
Zhang Hui shook her head, feeling a pang of heartache for Lu Qingxue.
She hadn't been able to nourish herself properly during pregnancy, so she had to recuperate well during her postpartum confinement, otherwise it would leave lingering health problems! Stepping into the kitchen, Zhang Hui took a look around and found that the pots, pans, and utensils were all complete. However, most of them had never even been unsealed...
"It seems this girl doesn't know how to cook?"
Zhang Hui felt a sense of relief wash over her:
"Thank goodness Xiao Feng knows how, otherwise what would the two of them do in the future..."
As a typical virtuous wife and loving mother, Zhang Hui was thoroughly experienced in these household chores and quickly got the kitchen cleaned up.
Next, she washed the rice to steam it and started simmering the crucian carp soup.
Actually, strictly speaking, a new mother shouldn't eat rich, nourishing foods immediately after giving birth.
However, since Lu Qingxue hadn't been properly nourished during pregnancy, she was currently suffering from a deficiency of both Qi and blood, so a light fish soup was the best option.
Naturally, Zhang Hui had also considered the issue of over-supplementation, so she paired it simply with stir-fried seasonal vegetables.
Just as she was bustling about, her cell phone rang insistently. She took a look—oh no, it was Father Lin!
A flicker of hesitation crossed Zhang Hui's eyes.
Father Lin was notoriously rigid in his ways and stubborn in personality; if he found out that Lin Feng had gotten a girl pregnant out of wedlock, and that too after drinking...
Her son would probably be finished.
Clutching her phone, Zhang Hui ducked out of the kitchen.
"Hello, old man, what is it?"
"You're asking me what it is? I want to ask you what's going on—you ran out in the middle of the night and haven't come back yet!"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I'm at Xiao Feng's school. Yes."
"For no good reason, what are you running off to Xiao Feng's school for?"
"I missed my son, that's what! I can't talk right now, my son is taking me for a tour of the campus. Hanging up!"
"Hey..."
Beep, beep, beep—
Zhang Hui hung up the phone and hurried back to the kitchen to resume her work.
Once the meal was ready, she hastily swallowed a few bites herself, packed the food into a thermal container, and delivered it to the hospital.
The moment she stepped through the door, without needing a word, Lin Feng had already consciously unfolded the small table.
Zhang Hui unscrewed the thermal container and neatly arranged the food: "Qingxue, you must be hungry? Eat up."
Catching the aroma of the food, Lu Qingxue felt a wave of warmth wash over her: "Thank you, Auntie. I was getting sick to death of eating takeout this whole time."
"...Silly girl."
Thinking of that pile of takeout boxes, Zhang Hui felt a tight ache in her chest.
Yet she didn't know what else to say, so she simply looked on with maternal affection as Lu Qingxue sipped her soup and ate her vegetables in small bites...
Lin Feng, standing to the side: "..."
Never mind that there wasn't a share of the food for him; not even a single glance was coming his way. What was that supposed to mean? After a moment of hesitation, he could only try calling out tentatively, "Mom?"
"Oh!"
Zhang Hui acted as though she had only just noticed her son, giving her own forehead a slap. "Here's the key, go back and eat. Clean up the room while you're at it, and see what daily necessities need to be restocked."
"Qingxue will be discharged in a few days, so that place needs to be ready."
From yesterday until now, Lin Feng had been running around so constantly that his feet barely touched the ground, and his stomach had long been growling against his backbone.
Hearing his mother say this, he wanted to leave, but somehow his legs just wouldn't cooperate.
"...Qingxue... Mom??"
His gaze darted back and forth between Lu Qingxue and Zhang Hui.
Zhang Hui glared at him: "What? Afraid your mother won't take good care of Qingxue?"
Then, her eyes narrowed with the annoyance of someone whose trust was questioned: "Or are you afraid your mother doesn't know her limits and will treat Qingxue badly?"
Seeing that Auntie was angry with Lin Feng, Lu Qingxue hurriedly swallowed the fish soup in her mouth and tried to smooth things over.
Yet before the words could even leave her lips, she heard Lin Feng's weak voice:
"I'm afraid the two of you are teaming up behind my back..."
"Just this morning while I was out buying breakfast, the two of you already had secrets. I've been gone for so long..."
Lin Feng's eyes were filled with distrust. Lu Qingxue froze, her face flushing slightly.
Zhang Hui felt rather awkward as well:
"Mind your own business about our affairs... Now hurry, hurry, get lost!"
"Oh, I'll go, alright?"
Receiving his mother's disgusted look and then glancing at Lu Qingxue, who was wearing a hint of a smile, Lin Feng walked away, turning back every few steps.
He had no idea what he was even expecting.
Seeing this, Lu Qingxue put down her soup spoon, thought for a moment, and said:
"Lin Feng."
"Yeah!" A surge of joy ran through Lin Feng.
Lu Qingxue smiled and said: "Unpack all those packages by the entryway for me."
"They're all supplies for the babies. Take inventory, see what we're missing so we can get replacements, and make sure you don't buy duplicates."
Lin Feng: "..."
Certain that the hospital room genuinely had no use for him right now, Lin Feng strode over to Lu Qingxue's rented apartment. Standing at the gate of the complex, he experienced the exact same shock.
Old, dilapidated buildings, electric scooters darting around wildly...
Was this environment really suitable for Lu Qingxue to recuperate and raise their babies?
"She must have been strapped for cash."
Lin Feng shook his head, pondering that he needed to hurry up and find a better place as soon as he had free time.
Walking into the complex and stepping through the front door, he found the place wasn't as crude as he had imagined: a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. It was old, but not broken down.
At that moment, the rich aroma of food filling the room cast a soft glow over the place.
Lin Feng sat down at the dining table. As he ate and opened his phone at the same time, he discovered that the group chat had literally exploded, sitting at 99+ unread red dots.
Opening it up, there were over a thousand unread messages! Further up, they were still denouncing Liu Ruyan for making a bet with her girlfriends to confess her feelings to Lin Feng.
Further down, Zhou Cheng couldn't hold back anymore and let slip the news that campus belle Lu Qingxue had given birth to a child for Lin Feng.
Immediately after that came desperate pleas for their roommates not to spread the word.
After some digital red envelopes were tossed to seal everyone's lips, the others let Zhou Cheng off the hook, but they certainly didn't let Lin Feng off.
Everyone was filled with bewilderment:
They were all in the same dorm, and usually, they had never even seen Lin Feng and Lu Qingxue cross paths—how on earth did they suddenly have a baby together?!
After finishing his meal, Lin Feng sat by the entryway, unpacking packages while initiating a video call in the dorm group chat.
The four of them shared a dorm room in college—Zhou Cheng, Lin Feng, Yu Hao, and Wang Xiong—and they were all tight as brothers.
Now in their senior year, aside from Zhou Cheng and Lin Feng, the other two had both landed internships and rarely spent time in the dorms.
"Feng-ge, long story short—if my supervisor catches me slacking off at work, I'm dead meat. What's the deal with you and the campus belle?"
"Dacheng blabbered on about it and then told us not to spread it. He didn't make this up, did he?"
"Daxiong, even if I were making things up, I wouldn't make it up about our own brothers!"
"You guys take a look at the packages Feng-ge is unpacking—aren't those baby supplies?!!"
As soon as those words dropped, Lin Feng heard a synchronized chorus of sharp intakes of breath.
Organizing the items methodically, he calmly stated:
"I'll stop hiding it. Lu Qingxue and I really did have a pair of adorable fraternal twins."
On the phone screen, apart from Zhou Cheng, the other two froze as if their internet had cut out entirely.
"So you weren't swearing off romance and love at all; you just don't play around with ordinary girls??"
"What kind of talk is that? How can you call that playing around?"
"Ha! You don't even date, you just dive straight into making babies, and you call that not playing around??"
"What on earth is going on here?"
"..."
Meeting his roommates' gossipy gazes, Lin Feng felt a mild wave of awkwardness.
The main issue was that explaining this thoroughly would inevitably involve bringing up that night and Lu Qingxue's difficult labor—such private matters.
It felt a bit ungentlemanly to just broadcast all of that...
While he hesitated, the other side assumed he was just leaving them hanging and immediately tossed out digital red envelopes without another word.
"I know you've got something up your sleeve, here's your greeting gift for the kids!"
"I originally planned to give a cash gift at your wedding, but Feng-ge, you're still the slickest. Hurry up and collect the red envelope!"
Looking at the red envelopes flying across the screen, Lin Feng rubbed the bridge of his nose: "I really didn't mean it like that..."
"Alright, to put it simply: Lu Qingxue is a wonderful, wonderful girl. After she got pregnant with my child, she decided to have it on her own."
"But who would've thought the hospital required family signatures, so they had to call me."
"When I got to the hospital and saw her—such a good girl—how could I let her slip away?"
"So I shamelessly insisted on taking responsibility."
Lin Feng kept it brief and to the point, yet the other side was left with a head full of question marks.
"That's it?" "?? That's the end?!"
"That's the end!"
Lin Feng said with finality.
"If it required family signatures, why did it have to be you? When Lu Qingxue started school, her parents came along."
"Yeah, I remember everyone spreading rumors back then that her mother was elegant and beautiful, and her father tall and handsome—a top-tier family in every way!"
"..."
That was something Lin Feng knew nothing about, but now, being reminded by his bros, he found himself baffled as well.
From start to finish, Lu Qingxue had never mentioned her parents; something was definitely going on there. He'd been so busy that he hadn't thought deeply about it.
It looked like he needed to find an opportunity to talk to Lu Qingxue about this aspect of things.
He couldn't just spirit someone else's daughter away without a peep, could he? Putting himself in their shoes, if Ruyi were to be tricked by some punk in the future and have a baby out of wedlock...
Very well, Lin Feng had successfully managed to piss himself off.
Every punk with dyed hair within a radius of eight hundred miles was a dead man!! "Feng-ge? Feng-ge! What on earth are you standing there grinding your teeth for?"
Zhou Cheng's voice dragged Lin Feng back to reality.
"Do you hate Liu Ruyan that much too?! I knew it, yesterday that nonchalant attitude of yours was all an act."
Lin Feng: "?????"
"Where on earth are your minds wandering?"
Yu Hao chimed in with an indignant expression:
"We're talking about that bitch Liu Ruyan, treating you like a bet! It's a good thing I wasn't there, otherwise I would've slapped her twice across the face for sure!"
"No, no, no. When a guy gets physical with a woman, no matter the reason, he's bound to lose."
Wang Xiong shifted his phone camera around and laughed:
"Still, if Liu Ruyan finds out that Lu Qingxue gave birth to Feng-ge's baby, her face is definitely going to change colors like a chameleon!"
"What's a department belle worth in front of a campus belle?"
As soon as that was said, everyone except Lin Feng lit up with eager, restless excitement.
Lin Feng thought about it for a moment, then shook his head: "Lu Qingxue's leave of absence from school caused quite a stir back then. If word gets out now that she took that leave just to have my baby..."
"Sure, I'll look like the ultimate winner in life, but how is she supposed to face people?"
"I don't want to push Lu Qingxue into the spotlight just because of some scumbag like Liu Ruyan."
"If you guys are my brothers, don't go running your mouths about this everywhere."
"A person like Liu Ruyan has already screwed up in too many ways; she's not worth me dragging my wife and kids into it just to kick her while she's down."
Hearing this, Yu Hao and Wang Xiong simultaneously gave him thumbs up.
"Brother, you're a real man!"
Seeing that Lin Feng's attitude was resolute, the others tacitly dropped the subject and started chatting about other things.
It wasn't until Zhang Hui's call came in—"Xiao Feng, don't go buying things just yet. Find the pajamas, breast pads, and disposable underwear Qingxue prepared, and bring them over"—that Lin Feng hung up, quickly announced it in the group chat, and packed up to head to the hospital.
When he arrived at the hospital room and took a look, Lu Qingxue's chest was soaked through, while the two babies were lying on the bed, fast asleep.
"I... my... my milk supply is too much, the babies couldn't finish it, and it just ended up like this..."
Lu Qingxue looked rather embarrassed, feeling deeply chagrined.
With a completely deadpan expression, Lin Feng replied, "I was actually worried you wouldn't have enough milk. This is a good thing."
He casually handed over the pajamas and breast pads, then pulled the bed curtain shut.
Once Lu Qingxue had changed, Zhang Hui gathered up the soiled pajamas.
One set was soaked with milk, and the other had been peed on by little Ping'an, but she didn't mind at all.
"I'm going back to wash the clothes and simmer some soup while I cook."
"Xiao Feng, you take care of things here. Put the shopping on hold for now."
Watching his mother leave,
Lin Feng turned back. Before he could even open his mouth, Lu Qingxue took out a bank card.
"Um, won't we need to buy a lot of things later? There are one hundred thousand in this card, you go ahead and use it."
Lin Feng froze.
Wait a minute, they were living in a place like that, yet she still pulled out one hundred thousand just like that??
"Hold on, let me process this..."
Taking advantage of the fact that the kids weren't awake and there were no outsiders in the hospital room,
Lin Feng simply sat down opposite Lu Qingxue, striking a pose that meant they needed a serious talk.
"Qingxue, I didn't have the bandwidth for it before, but now, there are some things I'd like to discuss with you."
"Do you mind?"