Heart Protection

Chapter extra 2

When dawn broke, Tian Yao entered from outside the courtyard, his hair a little messy. Yan Hui was guarding the courtyard door waiting for him, and upon seeing him return, she felt some slight resentment: “Where did you go last night without saying a word?”

Tian Yao took a large step forward. He embraced Yan Hui with not much of his strength, but he was still able to hug her firmly. Although Tian Yao hugging her from time to time had already become normal, Yan Hui was still faintly aware that Tian Yao’s embrace today was a bit different from the past. She asked: “Why are you acting like this?”

With a hand, Tian Yao encircled her waist, and with the other, he gently patted the back of her head: “For the upcoming few months, you need to take care of your body, and not spend your effort cultivating.”

Hearing these words, Yan Hui was even more stupefied: “Why?” From his embrace, she raised her head to look at him, “For the upcoming few months, are there any big matters in the world that will happen?”

Tian Yao glanced at her seriously, solemnly saying: “There are.”

Having not seen this serious expression of Tian Yao’s for a long time, Yan Hui’s palms tightened at once, unable to help her expression from sobering: “What’s wrong?”

“A little longren will be born.”

(TN: 龙人 – lit. dragon person, mix of dragon and human)

Yan Hui’s serious expression did not immediately retract. She continued to look at Tian Yao with the attitude of wanting to hear some earth-shattering news, looking at Tian Yao for a long time… and only then did her expression slowly reveal dumbfoundedness, her brain finally reacting to those words.

Yan Hui was dazed, lowering her head to look at her own abdomen, then used a hand to cover up her lower abdomen in disbelief: “A little longren… is inside?”

“Mn.”

Yan Hui just stood like this in that spot, blinking dazedly and lost in thought. She never thought that this day would come so suddenly, or that Tian Yao would… personally tell her himself…

“When did you know?”

“Started to guess half a month ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I’ve been confirming.”

“When did you confirm it?”

“Last night.”

“So last night you…”

Tian Yao nodded: “I was too happy.” He pressed Yan Hui into his arms once more, unable to restrain the corners of his mouth from raising slightly, “So I couldn’t help but fly a few laps.”

So happy that he went out to run wild…

Yan Hui hit his back, and laughed out loud: “Good for you!”

***

The little longren in Yan Hui’s stomach was not obedient.

It didn’t take long for Yan Hui to start throwing up. She was unable to be stained with the smallest amount of meat and fish; even if she smelled it she would throw up dizzily. It hadn’t even been a few days, but Yan Hui actually looked much thinner.

Tian Yao’s heart hurt as he watched, but apart from adjusting Yan Hui’s inner qi for her when she was throwing up dizzily, he was helpless. As time passed like this for a while, Tian Yao started to regret a little: “Without the little longren, you wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.” He said, “There won’t ever be another one.”

Yan Hui laughed at him: “I didn’t even say anything, but being his father, you already started to dislike him.”

Tian Yao hugged her and patted her back, not saying anything, as if agreeing tacitly.

To him, only Yan Hui was everything. Whether or not it was a child or anything else, it could not hurt her. And now this baby wasn’t even the slightest bit obedient, so he really started to dislike him as Yan Hui said.

After finally getting through the time of morning sickness, Yan Hui began to feel restless. She always had nightmares, in which the scenes of Zi Chen and Ling Xiao’s deaths occasionally appeared, and she would also dream of her own chest bleeding without end, and her heart that had been gouged out.

Gradually, she started not to be able to fall asleep. When she closed her eyes, her subconscious would have those terrifying images. She didn’t dare to tell Tian Yao, afraid that these shadows of the past that she saw in her dreams would cause Tian Yao to worry.

But with the person beside him unable to sleep, how could Tian Yao not know? But Yan Hui didn’t say anything, so he did not ask.

On a night where Yan Hui tossed and turned and found it extremely difficult to sleep, Tian Yao called her awake, saying: “Yan Hui, let’s go look at the stars.”

He brought Yan Hui to the top of one of Qingqiu’s mountain peaks. There, it was unobscured, and the night was windless and moonless, with only the stars twinkling quietly as far as the eye could see.

Tian Yao quietly embraced her in his arms and didn’t speak much, allowing Qingqiu’s night breeze to blow past the two of them.

Within the night sky and the night breeze, Yan Hui slowly became weary. She started to blink her eyes along with the stars in the sky, and then slowly closed them.

On the brink of being awake and falling asleep, she seemed to feel the warm chest behind her vibrating slightly. He spoke to her softly: “Yan Hui, I will always be here.”

Yan Hui then peacefully fell into a deep sleep.

From then on, Yan Hui never had nightmares anymore, except she developed a “bad” habit— she had to have Tian Yao holding her from behind to fall asleep peacefully.

Occasionally, when getting up in the morning, she even saw Tian Yao kneading his own arms, almost numb to the point of being unable to move. Originally when seeing this she felt a bit apologetic, but because the little longren in her stomach ought to be half of Tian Yao’s responsibility, she felt at ease. Feigning generosity, she patted Tian Yao’s arms: “You’ve been troubled. Wait for him to come out, and we can punish this little guy together.”

Tian Yao didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, so in the end, he had to nod to Yan Hui’s already bulging stomach: “Be more obedient.”

Not long after that, the little longren really came out.

This day went unexpectedly well. Yan Hui didn’t even feel much pain.

It was only when the little longren was wrapped up and brought in front of Yan Hui did Yan Hui take a glance at him. She blinked twice, and then glanced at Tian Yao beside her, her gaze jumping back and forth between the little longren and Tian Yao several times. At last, she opened her mouth:

“Apart from these two super cute little dragon horns, I really can’t tell where this wrinkled little old man looks like I gave birth to it?” Yan Hui asked Tian Yao, “When you were young, were you also like this?”

While Tian Yao was speechless, Huan Xiaoyan on the side immediately blocked the little longren’s ears with a cotton cloth: “Why do you husband and wife speak like this? He will be sad hearing it!”

Yan Hui pouted. She hugged the little longren and took the cotton cloth from Huan Xiaoyan’s hands, gently wiping the little longren’s eyes for him.

As Yan Hui looked again, she felt that he wasn’t as wrinkly as he was at first glance. Her heart settled down, and she lifted her head to look towards Tian Yao: “Will he become better and better in the future?”

Tian Yao nodded: “He will.”

The sunlight outside the window was just right, and Tian Yao’s voice was also warm like the sun: “Just like us.”

Becoming better and better.