Chapter 8: The Warm Mother-Son Bond

As dawn broke, Jiang Banyue began to get up and wash up. She walked to the bedside, leaned down, and kissed her three babies before softly stepping downstairs. She took out some tools from her space and started making a cake.

She took six eggs, separating the egg whites from the yolks. She poured a large carton of milk into the bowl with the egg yolks, then added a bucket of vegetable oil and stirred everything together. After that, she poured in some white sugar, followed by low-gluten flour, continuing to stir until the mixture was smooth and without any lumps. Using an electric egg beater, she whipped the egg whites until they turned white and foamy, then mixed them into the batter. She prepared four cake pans, filled them with the batter, and placed them in the oven to bake the cake layers.

Jiang Banyue took strawberries from the fridge, chopped them, and cooked them into strawberry jam. She opened a can of yellow peach slices, cut them into chunks, and set them aside. When the cake layers were done, she took them out of the oven wearing thick gloves, then began making strawberry cakes and yellow peach cakes.

Once the cakes were finished, she glanced outside, and the sky was already bright. Jiang Banyue cut the cakes into pieces, neatly packing them into boxes and arranging them in the cabinet. By the time she finished, she was so tired that she could barely straighten her back.

Not bothering to rest, she quickly headed upstairs to check if the babies were awake. As soon as she reached the top of the stairs, she saw her eldest son, Jiang Huaijin, sitting on the bed, soothing his younger siblings. When the second and third babies saw their mother, they pouted and reached out for a hug, looking pitiful.

Jiang Banyue’s eyes softened, a smile spreading across her face as she went over to hug all three babies.

“Ah, my little ones are so good! You woke up without crying or making a fuss. You’re so obedient!”

Jiang Huaijin blushed in embarrassment. If his mother didn’t know he had been reborn, he might have shamelessly let her continue hugging him, but since she knew, he felt too shy to allow it any longer.

“Mom, put me down. I’m a big kid now. You can’t keep hugging me,” he said.

“Whose is this?” Jiang Banyue kissed the forehead of her eldest baby.

“In Mommy’s heart, you’ll always be my little baby. Mommy will hold you forever, and we’ll never be apart.”

Jiang Huaijin’s eyes reddened. He lay in his mother’s arms, sniffing hard, trying not to let the tears fall. His mom’s words were so cheesy, and it made him want to cry.

The second and third babies saw their mother kiss their older brother and, drooling, clung to her face, nibbling at it. Jiang Banyue smiled as she buried her face in the baby pile.

“You two little rascals, you’ve got me all covered in drool! Hurry up and wipe my face.”

Jiang Huaijin, the eldest, took a towel and carefully wiped his mother’s face. After he finished, he pressed his forehead to hers and smiled sweetly.

“Mom, the babies love you the most. You’re our favorite!”

Jiang Banyue hugged all three babies tightly.

“Mom loves you the most too. You three are my treasures. Having you makes me so happy!”

The four of them laughed joyfully, playing together. Jiang Banyue changed the babies’ clothes and carried them downstairs. After a while, two nannies arrived. Jiang Banyue asked them to watch over the babies while she went to prepare breakfast.

The babies were six months old now, and they could start eating solid food. Jiang Banyue steamed three bowls of egg custard, made herself a bowl of egg noodles, and gave some noodles to the second and third babies. They ate the noodles messily, with noodles all over their bodies. Jiang Huaijin, the eldest, distanced himself from them in disgust.

Jiang Banyue laughed and tapped his forehead, finding the sight amusing. After the egg custard was done steaming, she handed it to the nannies to feed to the second and third babies. Jiang Huaijin, holding his own spoon, ate by himself.

At 9 o’clock, customers started coming into the store to buy cakes. Jiang Banyue was too busy to look after the babies, running around in a flurry of activity. While she was focused on packing a cake for a customer, a surprised voice suddenly called out.

“Hey! You’re the wife of Team Leader Shen, right?”

Jiang Banyue paused for a moment, then finished packing the cake and handed it to the customer. She turned to look at the person who had spoken—a man in his twenties, holding the hand of a five-year-old boy. Jiang Banyue quickly recalled the man’s information from her memory.

Sun Yonghui, a soldier under Team Leader Shen, who she had met during a military gathering when she was still with the original owner.

“Hello.”

Sun Yonghui scratched his head awkwardly, giving a big grin as he looked at Jiang Banyue.

“Hello, sister-in-law! You run this cake shop? You’re really amazing!”

Jiang Banyue smiled lightly and looked down at the boy.

“What kind of cake would you like, kid? Pick one, it’s on me.”

“No, no, sister-in-law, it’s not necessary. You work hard to make money, how can I let you treat me?”

The boy pointed at a strawberry cake in the display case and looked up at his father.

“Dad, I want that strawberry cake. It looks so pretty.”

Jiang Banyue walked over, opened the case, and took out a box of strawberry cake.

“Here, little friend, this strawberry cake is on Auntie.”

“No, sister-in-law, you really shouldn’t…”

Sun Yonghui quickly took out two coins and placed them on the table, then scooped up the child and hurried out. Jiang Banyue quickly grabbed the coins and ran after him, but he had already gone far.

“He gave too much money. Forget it, I’ll return it to him next time I see him.”

After Sun Yonghui had walked away, and seeing Jiang Banyue hadn’t caught up, he let out a sigh of relief. He was puzzled, thinking to himself, wasn’t sister-in-law supposed to be with the military? Why was she back in the county running a shop? Just now, there were three babies in the shop, and they looked exactly like Team Leader Shen. Since Shen had kids, how come he hadn’t heard about it? He decided to ask Team Leader Shen about it when he got back to the army.