"Why don’t we just..." Halfway through her sentence, Liang Qian also felt it wasn’t appropriate to tell her husband now. Knowing his temper, he would definitely go to the old man and press him for answers. If these really were things the old man had hidden, and there hadn’t been the slightest hint of anything all these years, then he really had hidden them deep.

Even the old lady didn’t know about these things, so it was obvious they weren’t anything that could be out in the open.

Once she’d thought it through and heard what her son said, Liang Qian hid away the thing she had taken out.

Right now Mei Lang Jun’s head was full of questions; he wished he could see Han Yi the very next second.

As for Han Yi, she didn’t get home until after three in the afternoon the next day. At home, Saozi and her cousin had already cleaned up the room for them and boiled hot water to wait for them.

"We got a call from Mrs. Han at noon, she said you’d already gotten home, so we figured you wouldn’t be far behind. Come on, come on, let us see little Han Xingyang." As soon as they came in, Saozi hurried to take Yangyang from Lin Wan’s arms.

They hadn’t seen Little Star for a few months; the moment she saw Lin Wan, she threw herself into Lin Wan’s arms and shed a few tears.

"Mom, I missed you so much."

"Good girl, Mom missed you too." Lin Wan held her daughter and coaxed her for quite a while, but in the end was distracted by Yangyang. With two kids in the house whose names sounded the same—different characters, but once you called them it was easy to mix them up.

Off to the side, Saozi laughed and said, "Don’t worry, the moment little Yangyang was born, our dad already picked a nickname for him, just waiting for you to come back."

"What nickname did Dad pick?" Lin Wan asked curiously.

"Dingding, as in outstanding and ’one word worth nine sacred tripods.’ He was just afraid you two wouldn’t like it, so he waited for you to come back and talk it over."

"Dingding is a great name, we’ll call him that from now on." Han Yi smiled and replied.

"Perfect, that way we won’t mix up the two kids in the future." Lin Yuan said with a smile as she teased little Dingding.

It was their own fault as a couple, picking names only with their two kids in mind and forgetting about their cousin’s child.

Saozi had driven over with Tuantuan, mainly to pick up Liang Hongmei. She knew their car had been scrapped, so in the morning, Lin Yinghui had told her to come over.

As soon as they got back, the neighbors upstairs and downstairs all came over to see little Dingding. When Sister-in-law Jiang and Gu Lin came, each of them brought over more than a dozen eggs. They all praised her good fortune.

Lin Wan neither agreed nor disagreed. Yes, in this life she was happy. Aside from the two unknown children, there was nothing much for her to worry about.

After everyone ate, Saozi took Mom back, and her cousin took Yangyang home as well. Han Yi took Little Star over to her cousin’s place to bring back Little Star’s clothes. These days they really owed her cousin a lot. By the looks of it, her cousin’s husband would be back in just a few months.

With a new baby in the house, all of them sleeping in one bed was suddenly very cramped; there was simply no room.

Han Yi and Lin Wan thought that Little Star could slowly start sleeping in her own bed. Tonight they’d first let her get used to it, have Han Yi stay in that room and coax their daughter to sleep before coming out.

Who knew their daughter would get sulky and flat-out refuse.

"I want to sleep with Mom. I missed Mom so much, wuu... Dad is bad. Dad and little brother get to sleep with Mom, why does Xingxing have to sleep alone? Dad and Mom are playing favorites now that there’s a little brother."

"We are not. Xingxing, be good. Your brother is still little, he can’t sleep alone yet. When he gets bigger he’ll have to sleep in a separate bed from Mom too, just like you did when you were small. Dad and Mom have never stopped liking Xingxing because we had a little brother, okay?" Watching her daughter cry so pitifully, Lin Wan hurriedly hugged her and soothed her.

Thinking about how her daughter hadn’t seen her for so long, and now that she was back they were making her sleep alone again, of course the child would feel wronged.

Holding her daughter, Lin Wan looked up at Han Yi. Han Yi understood instantly what his wife meant and sighed helplessly, feeling wronged himself. He also wanted to sleep with his wife.

"All right, all right, Xingxing and little brother can both sleep with Mom, and Dad will sleep alone on another bed, okay?"

Who knew that as soon as Han Yi finished talking, Little Star immediately stopped crying in Lin Wan’s arms and burst out laughing. "Thank you for your hard work, Dad. Since Xingxing won’t be by your side tonight, remember not to kick off your quilt."

In an instant, Han Yi and Lin Wan both felt like they’d been played by their daughter. Yet they had no way to refute her.

Feeling very aggrieved, Han Yi went off by himself to the other room to guard an empty bed.

He lay there for half an hour without falling asleep, and simply went back to their room to chat with them instead, mainly because he was worried Lin Wan might not be able to handle two kids by herself.

"Dad, why are you back again?"

Seeing Lin Wan holding their daughter’s workbook and checking her homework, Han Yi hurriedly found an excuse. "Your mom’s tired, so Dad’s here to test you on what you’ve been learning lately." As he spoke, he took the book from Lin Wan’s hands.

Lin Wan smiled on the side and didn’t expose his lie. She finally got to relax, lying beside her daughter and listening to what she’d been learning recently.

"Dad, Mom, after I finish this vacation and go back to school, I’ll be in first grade. Then I’ll get to go home after school together with Brother Yangyang and Sister Hanhan."

After their daughter said that, the couple finally started taking it seriously. Once the kid went to elementary school, they really couldn’t keep being so lax.

"Mm-hmm, okay, then Mom will make Xingxing a new schoolbag, how about that?"

"Okay, I want the kind with little flowers on it. Sister Yaoyao has one. I want one like that too."

"Mm."

After Little Star fell asleep, Han Yi wanted to move the child to another room so he could sleep here with his wife. But as soon as Han Yi picked her up, Little Star immediately sensed it, grunted a few times in protest, and started fussing.

Han Yi had no choice but to put her back down, then shot a resentful look at Lin Wan. Lin Wan gave a helpless smile. "She has to get used to it slowly. She hasn’t seen me for several months, of course she’s clingy. Just let her sleep with me for a few days, we’ll slowly work on the atmosphere later. Hurry up and go to sleep."

"Ai..." Han Yi, quite disgruntled, pecked Lin Wan on the lips before leaving.

Which made Lin Wan feel bad for him too, but what could she do? They had two kids now; they’d be busy for a few years at least before they could really relax.

The next day happened to be Sunday. Han Yi took Lin Wan and the kids, planning to go to his in‑laws’ place, and then swing by Second Uncle’s house. Grandpa and Grandma were still waiting to meet little Dingding.

Not having a car really was inconvenient, but fortunately Han Yi had borrowed one from the unit, so he could also give his cousin and Yangyang a ride back.

When they went out, Lin Wan ran into Liao Ye and his wife, that niece of Sister‑in‑law’s. The two had only been married a few months, and it just so happened his wife was off today, so they were going out shopping.

So they all headed into the city together. When Liao Ye saw the new member of their family, he happily held the baby the whole way, so envious he could hardly stand it.

Lin Yuan saw that and teased them, "If you’re that jealous, hurry up and have one of your own."

But as soon as Cousin finished, she saw Liao Ye scratch his head awkwardly, and his wife lower her head shyly.

The Lin sisters could tell something was up. Before they could ask, they heard Liao Ye say to Cousin, "Saozi, when should I bring Xiao Xin over to your place for a check‑up?"

Lin Yuan gave an "Eh?" and said confidently, "You two are expecting?"

Shen Xin stood off to the side, smiling bashfully as she nodded. "We just noticed something was off. My aunt said when you first get pregnant, don’t spread the news. Just be careful day to day, and wait until the baby’s a bit bigger before going for a check‑up."

"That’s the old way of thinking. But once you’re pregnant, you really should go to the hospital for a proper confirmation. Have Liao Ye bring you to the hospital to find me sometime, I’ll take a look at you."

"Sorry to trouble you, Saozi." The Liao couple smiled happily.

Han Yi, driving, raised an eyebrow at Liao Ye, silently praising him.

Liao Ye proudly shot him a grin in return. He was over the moon these days.

"How come we didn’t see you go back for the New Year?" Han Yi asked curiously.

"I wanted to go back. I just got married this year, I was planning to take my wife around to meet my relatives and friends. But damn it, all of that got ruined because of you guys."

Han Yi raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

"You got injured on a mission and took a leave of several months. Originally Your team had You Pei covering, so it didn’t affect me much. Who knew that during the New Year he’d suddenly drop off the map for a few days. There was nothing I could do—our leaders flat‑out refused to approve my leave. Said something about, ’You’re newlyweds anyway, just stay put and spend some quality time together, better than running back and forth.’ So they forced me to stay in the unit and cover for you both. You don’t know—when You Pei came back, I actually beat that kid up once."

"How come I never heard him mention that?" Han Yi hadn’t expected that extra twist. When he’d returned to the unit, You Pei hadn’t said a word.

"Hmph, that kid’s lovesick. How would he dare go around talking?"

"Eh, what happened?" Lin Wan asked, curious.

"Who knows. I asked when he came back and he wouldn’t say, just kept dragging me off to drink with him. I only heard it once when he was talking in his sleep—something about ’why’ this and ’why’ that, why that woman didn’t choose him and picked someone else instead. That’s how I knew it was because of that woman." Liao Ye knew he liked someone, but he hadn’t expected it to be this miserable. He just couldn’t understand what there was to be so hung up about.

Look at him—he liked a girl, they dated, it was a good match, and they just went ahead and got married. Why did a grown man have to act like it was life or death? It was totally unlike how he usually was.

"So devoted. That’s rare." Lin Yuan said, full of gossip‑loving interest.

"Did you figure out which girl it was?" Lin Wan laughed.

"No idea. That kid only muttered that one time, and it was all garbled. When I asked again after he sobered up, his mouth was sealed tight—wouldn’t admit a single word. But after that day, he did seem a lot more normal." Liao Ye shook his head with a smile.

"No wonder." So that was why Han Yi hadn’t noticed anything off when he got back to the unit.

"If you ask me, the problem is he doesn’t meet enough girls. One Sunday, get him to come to our place. I’ll bring some of my single coworkers over and we’ll have a get‑together. We won’t call it a blind date, just a friends’ gathering. Once he’s had more contact with different girls, his horizons will broaden and he won’t be fixated on just one anymore." Shen Xin suggested.