Chapter 14: The Triplets Have a Fever

Sun Yonghui was utterly confused and didn’t understand why Commander Shen had that expression on his face. It seemed like he didn’t even know he had three children. Nervously, he spoke up:

“Sister-in-law opened a cake shop in the county town and also had three babies—two boys and one girl. They look about six or seven months old. The two boys look just like Commander Shen, as if they were carved from the same mold.”

Shen Yunhe was stunned, his eyes widening in shock. He quickly stepped forward, trembling as he grabbed Sun Yonghui’s arm tightly.

“What? Banyue had children? Triplets?”

“Yes! That’s right!” Sun Yonghui swallowed nervously, instinctively leaning back.

Shen Yunhe released his grip, stepping back a few paces, standing there frozen. A wave of pain surged in his chest. When they divorced, she had still been pregnant, and he couldn’t bear to think about how Jiang Banyue had managed on her own with three babies. He suddenly raised his hand and slapped himself hard across the face.

“Slap!”

“Commander Shen, what are you doing?” Sun Yonghui rushed forward in panic to stop him.

“Commander Shen, what exactly happened?”

Shen Yunhe suppressed the swelling ache in his heart and choked out:

“I divorced her. Before this, I didn’t know she was pregnant. I’m truly a despicable bastard!”

“Ah!” Sun Yonghui had been on a mission when the divorce happened, and after being injured, he had left the army to recover, so he hadn’t heard about Shen Yunhe’s divorce.

“Then Sister-in-law is running the shop alone and taking care of the three children? She must be exhausted!”

Sun Yonghui thought to himself that he shouldn’t have stopped Commander Shen earlier. He should have let him slap himself more. To have such a wonderful wife and three adorable babies—how could he just divorce her like that? This made a bachelor like him feel even worse.

Shen Yunhe couldn’t wait any longer. He was determined to go back and find her—his beloved and the children. His eyes reddened, and his heart ached intensely, like a needle pricking at it, his breathing becoming hurried.

At 5 PM, in Chuan’an County, at Sweet House on the street, Jiang’s mother, holding one of the babies in each arm, arrived at the cake shop with Jiang Qingfeng and Jiang Qingyue. Jiang’s mother gave some instructions:

“Banyue, the babies have already eaten. You don’t need to feed them dinner. I’ve already washed their dirty clothes. They’re in the bag; you can hang them up to dry.”

“Okay.” Jiang Banyue took out the washed clothes from the bag and walked to the stairs, hanging them on the railing.

Jiang’s mother, holding her eldest grandson, turned to her daughter.

“Alright, let’s put the babies down. It’s time to go home.”

Jiang Qingyue kissed the baby in her arms and pressed her cheek to its face lovingly.

“Sweetheart, Auntie will come to see you next time. Be good at home.”

Jiang Banyue took the three babies from her mother, hugging them tightly to her chest, burying her face in the pile of babies, deeply inhaling the milk scent.

“Babies, do you miss Mommy? Mommy misses you so much.”

The babies stretched their chubby, tender arms like little lotus stems, hugging her and calling out, “Ah, ah.” Jiang Huaijin, in a soft voice, said:

“Mommy, today Grandma and Uncle and Auntie took us to the park. Great-grandpa went too.”

“Did you have fun, my little one?”

“Yes! But I missed Mommy a little.”

Jiang Huaijin lovingly rubbed against her. In his past life, he had never had a mother from the moment he was born. He used to dream, crying out for his mother. When he missed her, he would wrap himself tightly in a blanket, pretending that his mother was hugging him.

Mom would protect him, shield him from all the storms in the world, not letting him be hurt in the slightest.

Jiang Huaijin had a picture of his mother, more important than his life. He always kept it in the pocket of his chest. When he died in his past life, blood stained his mother’s photo. He used his last bit of strength to take the photo out, gently caressing it while making a wish:

“In the next life, I want my mom to always be with me and never leave me!”

Unexpectedly, when he opened his eyes, he was back in his mother’s womb, and she was alive. The moment he saw her, his eyes turned red from crying, fearing that this was a dream before he died, that when he woke up, he would still be lying on the ground, bloodied, still holding his mother’s photo.

Even now, he still felt like it wasn’t real, his head resting on his mother’s shoulder.

“Mom, do you really exist? This isn’t just a dream, is it? Is all of this just something I imagined before I die?”

“Baby…” Jiang Banyue’s heart ached as she hugged him tightly, “Mommy’s here. Feel my face, is it real?”

Jiang Huaijin touched his mother’s face, his eyes blurred by tears, unable to see clearly. He cried in frustration:

“I can’t see Mommy clearly…”

Jiang Banyue couldn’t help but laugh and feel even more heartbroken. She closed the shop door, picked up the babies, and went upstairs. After putting the second and third babies down, she took the eldest and went to the bathroom to wash his face, drying it.

“Now, can you see Mommy clearly?”

“Mm.” Jiang Huaijin sniffled, his voice heavy with nasal congestion, embarrassed as he curled up in his mother’s arms.

Jiang Banyue gently laughed and kissed her baby, “You’re such a sweetheart, Mommy loves you so much.”

The mother and children played on the bed until after 9 PM. Jiang Banyue turned off the lights and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, the third baby, Jiang Huairou, kept crying nonstop. Jiang Banyue turned on the bedside lamp and looked. Jiang Huairou’s face was flushed, and her breathing was rapid. It scared Jiang Banyue. She hurriedly got up and started dressing the babies.

“Babies, wake up, your sister have a fever. Mommy will take you to the hospital!”

The second baby, Jiang Huaiyu, had been sleeping soundly but was suddenly woken up, groggily unable to open her eyes, still crying.

Jiang Huaijin sat up, comforting the second baby, his eyes filled with concern as he looked at his younger sister.

“Mommy, you take my sister to the hospital. I’ll stay here and watch over the second baby.”

“No!” Jiang Banyue was reluctant to leave the children at home alone. Although the eldest was reborn, he was still too young. What if someone bad came into the house? He wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“I’ll carry all of you. We’ll go together!”

Jiang Banyue once again regretted not installing a phone sooner. If she had one, she could call her parents to come over and watch the kids.

She wrapped the eldest and second babies tightly in blankets, tying them to her back, holding the baby who have fever, crying third baby in front.

“Baby, don’t cry, Mommy will take you to the hospital.”

Jiang Banyue grabbed all the money she had in the house and hurried downstairs. As she opened the shop door, someone walked up to her. Jiang Banyue looked closely—it was Gu Qingci.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was passing by and heard the babies crying upstairs. I was worried something happened, so I came to check.”

Gu Qingci took the baby from Jiang Banyue’s arms and felt her forehead. The child had a fever. He hurriedly picked her up and ran toward the car parked by the road.

“Come with me. I’ll drive the baby to the hospital!”

“Okay!”

Jiang Banyue adjusted the babies on her back and got into Gu Qingci’s car, holding the third baby in her arms, her face pressed against the child’s burning skin, tears of anxiety falling.

“Baby, what’s wrong? Don’t scare Mommy…”

“Ban Yue, don’t cry. It’s normal for kids to have a fever. Once we get to the hospital, they’ll give her a shot, and she’ll be fine.”

Since it was the middle of the night, there were no cars on the road. Gu Qingci drove as fast as he could. Through the rearview mirror, he saw Jiang Banyue crying as she held the baby. His chest tightened with worry. He wanted to hold her and the child, becoming their support.