Since the first fetal movement, it was as if a switch had been flipped, and the baby’s movements became more frequent.

Eventually, it was very obvious when the baby moved.

They could easily find out the baby’s gender, but everyone decided not to ask.

To them, it didn’t matter whether the baby was a boy or a girl.

Keeping it a little surprise was also a joyful thing.

As the weather gradually warmed up and summer vacation arrived, Qiao Wanqing had Gu Yanqing contact General Manager Huang after the “false pregnancy” scandal involving Jiang Yi at the beginning of the year.

They managed to get Jiang Yi onto their reality show, “Let’s Rush Forward Together.”

Jiang Yi was understandably thrilled by this unexpected opportunity and didn’t cause any more trouble.

By early April, the show announced its guest list, and Jiang Yi’s participation caused a stir.

Many people didn’t know who she was and questioned why she was recording a reality show with so many big names.

However, exposure brings popularity.

Jiang Yi used this opportunity to gain attention.

With her team’s promotion and Gu Yanze’s support, her popularity quickly soared.

The increase in her Weibo followers indicated that she was beginning to gain fame.

In the summer, “Let’s Rush Forward Together” officially aired.

Although Jiang Yi usually wore heavy makeup that sometimes seemed a bit tacky, she looked quite good.

On the show, dressed in sportswear and wearing light makeup, she appeared on camera with a bit of an athletic goddess vibe.

In the book, her character is a famous actress, so her appearance was naturally impressive.

Qiao Wanqing didn’t watch the show “Let’s Rush Together” but kept up with the latest updates on Weibo.

On the night the reality show aired, the trending topics were dominated by “Let’s Rush Together” and its cast members.

Jiang Yi’s name appeared in several trending searches.

She really knew how to manage her public image; Qiao Wanqing watched several short video clips about her and found that she wasn’t annoying at all—actually, she was a bit cute.

It was clear she was destined to become famous.

Chu Shishi was very excited and asked Qiao Wanqing when they could release the scandal.

Qiao Wanqing told her to wait a bit longer.

It would be best to release the scandal after the reality show ended, when Jiang Yi was truly popular and getting offers for various dramas and commercials, reaching the peak of her career.

That way, the effect would be the most impactful.

Chu Shishi agreed with this approach, realizing it made perfect sense.

After enduring for so long, a little more time wouldn’t matter.

…

Regarding their Taobao store’s supply issues, Qiao Wanqing and her assistant had reviewed nearly every supplier on Taobao and contacted various vendors.

They compared many dried fruit and vegetable products and eventually found a very good supplier online.

They managed to contact the producer behind the scenes, acquired their production methods through purchasing, and worked with experts to make significant improvements to the production process.

The results were unexpectedly good.

However, there were still some differences, so they sold the two types of dried fruit and vegetables separately rather than combining them into one.

Fortunately, their store’s traffic had increased, and they gradually developed several links to support the store, avoiding the situation where one failing link could collapse the entire store’s revenue.

To reduce Tang Yueyue’s stress, they hired an experienced operations person.

Although not a big shot, this person had years of experience in the Taobao world and knew all the tricks of the trade.

By the time Qiao Wanqing’s baby was 35 weeks along, their studio had expanded to a small team of 8 people.

Qiao Wanqing could finally focus on giving birth with peace of mind.

However, Qiao Wanqing, used to being busy, found it extremely boring to stay at home suddenly.

She couldn’t look at her phone or computer too much, couldn’t get into books, sitting for too long was uncomfortable, standing was tiring, and lying down was difficult because she could only lie on her side.

Lying down for too long was exhausting, and if she slept too long, she couldn’t sleep at night.

Not being able to sleep at night was much worse than being bored during the day.

“I’m so bored!” Qiao Wanqing texted Gu Yanqing while sitting on the couch at home with the TV on.

Gu Yanqing: “Have the assistant take you out for a walk. I’ll come home early today.”

Qiao Wanqing: “I don’t want to move.”

Gu Yanqing: “How about playing on your phone or watching a show?”

Qiao Wanqing: “It’s boring.”

Gu Yanqing: “Play with Kouko’s toys?”

Qiao Wanqing: “No fun.”

Gu Yanqing: “…… Then what would be interesting?”

Qiao Wanqing: “Nothing seems interesting. That’s why I’m bored.”

Gu Yanqing: “……”

This was truly a cross-century problem.

He didn’t know what to do either.

There was still a month left until the due date, meaning Qiao Wanqing had to maintain this state for another month.

After chatting with Gu Yanqing for a while on WeChat and finding it uninteresting, she threw her phone aside in frustration.

She then noticed Kou Kou had brought over a toy dog.

It was a new musical pull-along dog that his father had bought for him.

The little dog triggered different functions when various parts of its body were moved, could talk and sing, and interacted with the baby, supposedly helping to develop his language skills.

Whether it actually helped or not was unclear, but Kou Kou really liked it.

He dragged it around everywhere, and the little dog would sing when pulled along, which was quite fun.

Kou Kou played with it for a while, then stopped to pat the dog’s head.

The dog immediately stopped singing, and the once noisy living room fell silent.

Qiao Wanqing heard Kou Kou plop down on the floor and play with the toy, singing along with the dog’s song in a somewhat disorganized way: “Two little tigers, love to dance, little rabbit, little rabbit be good, pull, pull… Two little tigers…”

He couldn’t remember the lyrics and only repeated these few lines incompletely, but he sang them repeatedly without being aware.

Qiao Wanqing: !!!

This was the first time she had heard Kou Kou sing!

No matter how much she had tried to teach him before, he never sang.

She didn’t know if he couldn’t sing or just didn’t want to.

“Kou Kou, come here, come to Mommy,” Qiao Wanqing called him over with surprise.

Kou Kou put down the toy and ran over quickly.

Qiao Wanqing, worried about him bumping into her belly, extended her hand to block him from crashing into her and then picked him up to sit on her lap.

She asked him, “What were you singing just now?”

“?” Kouko turned his head and completely forgot what he had just sung, looking at his mom with a confused expression.

“……”

Could you have a worse memory?

Qiao Wanqing wondered about Koko’s intelligence, but he didn’t seem dumb.

She decided to start him off: “Two little tigers love to dance.”

“!” Kouko, as if enlightened, automatically followed with, “Little bunny, be good, pull, pull… bba bba bba!”

He forgot what to pull, so he cleverly used onomatopoeia instead.

“You sang so well!” This was Kouko’s first time singing, and Qiao Wanqing praised him wholeheartedly. “You can sing now!”

Kouko shyly covered his face and added, “Kouko can also dance.”

Qiao Wanqing had never seen this skill before and looked at Kouko with anticipation. “Then can Kouko show Mommy how he dances?”

“Okay.”

Kouko got down from her lap and started stomping around on the floor, waving his little hands, with a big smile on his face, looking at his mom for praise.

Although Qiao Wanqing couldn’t really tell what kind of dance this was, she praised him generously, “Wow, that’s amazing! Who taught you to dance so well?”

“TV!” Kouko proudly said, continuing his “dance” with enthusiasm.

Qiao Wanqing was moved to tears by Kou Kou’s performance, and the baby in her belly started kicking restlessly in response.

She rubbed her belly, smiling at Kou Kou, and praised him: “Kou Kou, you danced really well, even better than the kids on TV.”

Kou Kou was delighted by the praise and danced even harder, soon sweating profusely.

Seeing this, Qiao Wanqing quickly said, “Okay, okay, Kou Kou danced wonderfully, Mommy saw it. You don’t need to dance anymore.”

Hearing her, Kou Kou stopped, panting heavily, and said, “So tired… Kou Kou is exhausted!”

Qiao Wanqing handed him a water cup with a straw.

Kou Kou took it and quickly drank almost half of it, then Qiao Wanqing wiped his sweaty forehead with a tissue, saying, “The little baby inside Mommy loves watching Kou Kou sing and dance too. It was quite active.”

Kou Kou put down the water cup and focused on his mother’s belly, saying, “I want to, touch, touch the baby!”

Qiao Wanqing allowed him to touch.

Kou Kou gently touched her round belly.

The baby inside indeed moved energetically, and the more Kou Kou entertained him, the more excited the baby seemed, almost as if it understood how to interact with the outside world.

However, whenever the baby moved, Qiao Wanqing felt uncomfortable.

Seeing his mother’s furrowed brow, Kou Kou immediately became serious, stopped smiling, and said loudly to her belly, “Naughty baby, stop moving!”

Qiao Wanqing: “……”

Interestingly, the baby inside her seemed to calm down, as if it was really intimidated.

“Really, really good!” Kou Kou mimicked Qiao Wanqing’s tone and said to the baby.

Qiao Wanqing: “……”

…

A month passed, neither slow nor fast.

Qiao Wanqing and Kou Kou built and dismantled his castle blocks many times, killed two plants on the balcony, and counted the number of tiles from the community entrance to their door several times.

But this baby seemed to be a slowpoke.

Even a few days before the due date, there was still no sign of movement.