Immortal Heavenly Realm, the 2114th year of the Immortal Calendar, the winter solstice.
An unexpected light snowfall painted over a hundred peaks of the Black Star Sect white in no time. As the silver moon rose from the horizon, the mountain road became deserted, and even the disciples who liked to fly out to drink in the middle of the night vanished.
However, a three-sided courtyard on Heavenly Cloud Peak hillside was still crowded.
The medical aids summoned by Xiao Yunluo from Moon Spring Peak, were carrying basins of warm water one after another, entering and exiting the east wing door.
"Hurry up! Add some spirit stones to the stove in the yard..."
"Go and get some blood coagulation pills."
"Gauze too! The gauze is almost used up..."
...
Wearing a red brocade robe, Ye Anping stood in the middle of the yard, watching the servants running in and out the wing door with basins of water and stuff, feeling very nervous.
In the evening, he was roasting chicken for Feng Yu Die in the yard, as usual.
Suddenly, she screamed in the room, and then Xiao Tian rushed out through the wall and shouted, "Anping, Yu Die is about to give birth!!"
He felt confused when he heard this.
No matter how he thought, he didn't expect his daughter to come so soon.
It must be said that from the time he diagnosed Feng Yu Die's pregnancy pulse to today, there have been only one hundred and ninety days. Even if he added the forty days since she was pregnant and not yet diagnosed, it would be only two hundred and thirty days.
This was undoubtedly a premature birth.
It was the worst-case scenario among the many situations he had expected.
Feng Yu Die was a cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage, and she had the Spring Phase spiritual energy.
Giving birth was like a heavy fall for her. Although it would definitely hurt, it was just pain. It was almost impossible for her life to be in danger because of difficult labor.
But it was not the same for the child.
Children born by cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage were not much different from the children of ordinary people.
Premature babies were likely to die at birth.
If this child really died…
He might be sad for ten days, and then he would probably get over it.
However, this only applied to him, but what about Feng Yu Die?
If Feng Yu Die knew that her first child died, what would she do?
"Brother, don't worry."
Pei Lianxue's voice came from beside him.
Pei Lianxue walked to Ye Anping's side, reached out, and rubbed his brow, comforting him softly. "Brother, the Second Idiot and the child will be fine. Go back to the room and sit down to drink a cup of hot tea. I'll stay here for you..."
Seeing that the expressionless face of his sister also showed some worry, Ye Anping closed his eyes and let out a long breath, looked at the aids around him rushing in and out of the wing room, and simply nodded. "Well... that's right, it's useless for me to stand here. Yunluo and my mother are in the room, so I have to rely on them..."
Ye Anping sighed and gently took his sister's hand, taking her back to the main house in the courtyard.
However, just as he entered the house, he heard Yun Jiujiu's curse on the porch in the southeast of the house. "Damn it! Third Sister, what the hell did you do in your previous life? Why do you always have problems wherever you go? If I had known, we wouldn't have brought you with us!!"
Yun Yiyi took a sip from the teacup and interrupted her. "Okay, Jiujiu. This matter should have nothing to do with Third Sister... Didn't we just arrive last night? Calm down, Young Miss Xiao and Madam Kong are helping with the delivery. There will be no problem."
Yun Xi's face was full of guilt, and she had lost her usual arrogance of "my fate is in my own hands, not in the hands of God." Listlessly, she huddled up and complained in a low voice. "...How could I know... it was you who wanted to drag me here, anyway."
"Hiss– Sigh--"
Yun Jiujiu sighed heavily, and she suddenly saw Ye Anping entering the room. She stood up and asked hurriedly, "Brother-in-law!!! How is 'No-bird'? What happened?!!"
Ye Anping shook his head slightly. "I don't know yet."
Then, he couldn't help but look at Yun Xi.
Seeing him looking at her, Yun Xi shrank her neck again as if she was afraid that he would blame her, and she apologized softly, "Brother-in-law... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come."
"It has nothing to do with you. Don't think too much."
Yun Xi sniffed before replying softly, "Thank you, brother-in-law..."
Ye Anping raised his hand to indicate that she did not need to apologize. Then, he looked at the other side of the room, where Mo Chi Ling and Gu Mingxin were sitting together. Gu Mingxin seemed to be bored waiting. At this moment, she was nodding as if she was about to fall asleep.
Mo Chi Ling saw Ye Anping looking over and picked up a bamboo stick, knocking on Gu Mingxin's head.
Pah—
"Ah?" Startled, Gu Mingxin looked around, slurped the saliva from the corner of her mouth, and asked, "What's wrong?! Is the baby born?"
"Huh..."
Mo Chi Ling said, somewhat helpless, "Not yet."
"Then wake me up when the baby is born, I'm so sleepy~"
Ye Anping didn't go to talk to them. He turned around and went to Li Longling and Tong Zilan. Ye Ao, Liang Zhu, and Liang Ating were also sitting at the table, drinking tea and waiting.
Seeing his father's expression as if he was more worried than him, he walked over and called out. "Dad, don't worry. It's nothing..."
"Hiss-- your wife gave birth prematurely, aren't you worried at all?"
"Yu Die is a Nascent Soul-stage cultivator, nothing will go wrong."
"What about the child?"
"It's okay, even if something happens, I have prepared medicine, so it won't be a problem."
Although Ye Anping said so, he didn't know what medicine could work for such a thing. It was not written in the Heavenly Dao Scroll or the Heavenly Demonic Scroll. He said this just to comfort Ye Ao.
Li Longling could hear that he was just comforting them.
Having been blind for twenty years, she had long been accustomed to picking up on subtle emotional changes in other people's tones. Even though her eyes were healed now, she could still hear the worry in Ye Anping's voice.
"Master Ye, Anping has said this, don't you still believe your son?"
"...It's not that I don't believe him, I know this kid is powerful, but..." Ye Ao let out a long breath and then looked at the red-crowned crane huddled in the corner eating fresh fish. "Anping, tell me, you asked me to bring this crane here, what are you going to do with it?"
"Roast it and give it to Yu Die and her daughter to nourish their bodies?"
?
Ye Ao was stunned for a moment, then took a breath. "Hiss-- this crane is worth eight hundred and eighty thousand..."
"Eight hundred and eighty thousand, what's wrong with giving it to your granddaughter to nourish her body? Spiritual cranes are very nourishing."
Hearing this, the red-crowned crane, which was eating fish happily, turned its head, glaring at him, but after a look from Pei Lianxue, who was next to Ye Anping, it immediately lowered its head in fear, as if to say: "Don't mind me..."
On the other hand, Ye Ao suddenly realized. "Granddaughter? Is it a girl?"
"I think so."
"What do you mean by "I think so..."
At least, Xiao Tian looked into Feng Yu Die's belly last month and confirmed that there was no bird...
Ye Anping shrugged ambiguously and walked over to sit down.
He wanted to pour himself a cup of hot tea, but when he reached out, Liang Zhu, from across the table, took the initiative to pick up the teapot and poured him a cup.
"Thank you, Brother Liang."
"...Heh."
The snow outside the window kept falling while Ye Anping drank hot tea, looking at the full moon in the sky.
When the full moon crossed a trajectory of about ten degrees in the sky...
A baby's cry suddenly came from another room.
"Waaaaaa—"
The sound was as loud as a startled bird, sounding as if it could penetrate the wind and the snow curtain.
Even though there were several walls between them, it could reach the ears of everyone in the main house without any obstruction.
!!
Everyone suddenly shut up and turned their heads to look through the window at the east wing.
A touch of ecstasy appeared in Ye Anping's calm eyes.
Since he could hear the cry, it meant that!!
"Anping!! Mother and daughter are safe!!!"
Xiao Yunluo's voice came from outside the main house, and the baby’s cry became clearer and clearer.
Xiao Yunluo, wearing a purple winter skirt, held the swaddled little one in her arms and stepped over the threshold, looking around before walking straight to Ye Anping.
Seeing his overjoyed eyes, she smiled and handed the baby in her arms to him.
"Anping..."
"Waaaaa—"
Who knew if she felt he was her father or something?
When Ye Anping reached out to take the swaddled baby in his arms, the little girl who was initially crying loudly stopped instantly and opened her purple left and golden right eyes in a daze, looking at Ye Anping's face and blinking.
Unlike the wrinkled and somewhat ugly babies Ye Anping had seen before, the baby in his arms, although only had a few strands of hair on her head, was fair and cute.
Was it because she was born to a cultivator?
Ye Anping didn't know much about babies, but she looked very healthy anyway...
"Dad, was I like this when I was born?"
Ye Ao also came up and stared at his granddaughter for a long time. His old eyebrows twisted like two caterpillars, then looked at Xiao Yunluo and asked with obvious doubt, "Miss Xiao, is this just born?"
"Ah… well, Madam Kong and I saw her come out with our own eyes..."
"Hiss—"
Ye Ao took a deep breath and looked back at the baby girl with a serious face. He looked like he had seen some freak.
It seemed that this look was not normal even if she was born to a cultivator...
Ye Anping murmured in his heart, but he looked at the girl in his arms and didn't care. Instead, he said, "Dad, don't look at her like that. No matter what, she is my daughter, your granddaughter. It doesn't matter what she looks like..."
Ye Ao was stunned for a moment, as if he was relieved, and said, "Yes, after all, she is your daughter..."
her
Yun Jiujiu and Yun Yiyi also gathered around. "Brother-in-law, what's wrong? Let me see too..."
"Anping, let me hug her too!"
"I... I..." Yun Xi said halfway, then simply swallowed her words. "Forget it, I better not hold her... Sigh—"
Yun Jiujiu, who took the baby girl from Ye Anping's arms, lowered her head to look at her and immediately smiled. "Hey, I'm your goddamn aunt!!"
Pa—
Yun Yiyi slapped her on the back of her head, snatched the baby girl and hugged her, then scolded her sister. "Jiujiu! She was just born, what are you talking about... Give her to me! I don't care if you usually swear, but now restrain yourself, what goddamn aunt!"
"Oh..."
Li Longling and Gu Mingxin came behind Yun Yiyi and poked their heads out from behind her, staring at the baby girl carefully.
The bright eyes, one purple and one gold, the combined colors of Ye Anping and Feng Yu Die, looked at the faces of so many girls around her, and seemed to be a little confused. She pursed her lips, as if asking:
Which one of you is my mother?
And just when Li Longling hugged her and put her back into Ye Anping's arms...
"Pa pa~~"
An inarticulate voice made everyone present hold their breath and stare at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.
And this time, even Ye Anping couldn't hold it in, and he took a deep breath, puffing his chest.
"???"
"Papa! Papa~~ Papa~~ Ahhh..."
"..."
Ye Anping showed a helpless smile as he lowered his head and gently sniffed his daughter's forehead, smiling. "You can call me right after you were born? I'm afraid you'll be a handful in the future."
"Papa!!" Perhaps knowing that her father was praising her, the baby girl shouted even louder. "Papa!! Papa!!"
"Okay, okay, Daddy will take you to meet your mother..."
Ye Anping no longer treated her as a newborn child as he replied in a tone that would coax a three-year-old child. Then, he took out a bamboo basket from his storage bag, placed her in the basket, and brought her to the red-crowned crane that was eating fish in the corner of the room.
?
The red-crowned crane looked at the baby girl in the bamboo basket, and its eyes were instantly filled with question marks.
"Yes, hold it in your beak."
"..."
Pei Lianxue, who had been silent on the side, saw that it was disobedient, and she suddenly released a burst of killing aura, which frightened the red-crowned crane so much that it trembled all over and hurriedly obeyed Ye Anping to hold the bamboo basket in its beak. Then, Ye Anping held its neck and led it out of the main house and toward the east wing.
Ye Anping opened the door and walked into the house with the red-crowned crane.
At this moment, the servants had almost cleaned up the area around the bed. Kong Yulan was washing her hands in a basin of hot water stained with blood.
Seeing Ye Anping pulling a crane in, she was obviously stunned for a moment. "Ping, what are you doing?"
"Nothing, how is Yu Die?"
"She's a little confused. She needs to rest for a while, so she's lying down."
"Okay..."
Ye Anping nodded, then pulled the red-crowned crane's neck and led it around the screen that separated the bed, coming to the bedside.
Feng Yu Die was lying flat on the bed, covered with thick quilts. Her face was pale and her cheeks were sunken. She was staring at the ceiling with a dull look, as if she hadn't eaten roasted chicken for several months.
When Ye Anping came, it seemed that she had not yet recovered from the aftereffects of labor.
It was not until he called her that she slowly turned her head to look at him.
"Yu Die..."
"Ah..."
Looking at her dazed look, Ye Anping smiled dotingly, then took the swaddled baby from the bamboo basket in the red-crowned crane's beak and slowly placed her next to Feng Yu Die's cheek. "Yu Die, the crane has brought us a child..."
"..."
Feng Yu Die turned her head to look at the baby girl beside her ear as if she had just pulled her soul back into her body, and then suddenly chuckled, looked back at Ye Anping triumphantly, and said in a weak but mocking tone, "I said it a long time ago, babies are brought by the cranes... Young Master Ye, you are a big liar... Hehehe..."