191: Chapter 191 A feeling of happiness welled up inside me.

"Didn't you say that it would only be a huge sum of money in eighteen years?" Jiang Nan looked at him, her eyes curving into crescents.

"I feel like... this huge sum of money is already in my hands now."

After saying this, Jiang Nan had no strength left. Her face was pale to the point of being translucent, and there were blood scabs on her lips from where she had bitten them.

Zhao Yang felt a pang of heartache. He leaned down and gently kissed Jiang Nan's forehead.

At the end of the corridor, the setting sun shone in obliquely through the window, dyeing the entire hallway a warm golden hue.

The moment she entered the ward, Lin Xuecen's eyes turned red on the spot.

With tears in her eyes, she turned around to wring out a hot towel.

Du Lanxin, on the other hand, straightened the quilt on the hospital bed and fluffed the pillow.

The two mothers, one wiping her face and the other her hands, moved quickly and gently, like partners who had worked together for years.

"Nannan, don't talk yet. Close your eyes and rest."

Lin Xuecen's voice was very low as she gently applied the towel to Jiang Nan's forehead.

Du Lanxin stood by with a cup of warm water, using a cotton swab to moisten Jiang Nan's chapped lips bit by bit.

"Take it slow, no rush," Du Lanxin said softly.

Jiang Nan closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling.

That feeling of being carefully held in the palm of their hands made her nose sting, and tears slid from the corners of her eyes into her hair.

Zhao Yang stood to the side, unable to find a way to help.

Watching the two mothers busy themselves around Jiang Nan, he suddenly felt that the word 'mother' was as heavy as a mountain.

The next morning, sunlight flooded the VIP ward.

The nanny, Sister Wang, stood to the side, looking at Zhao Yang with a wry smile.

"Mr. Zhao, you really don't have to do everything yourself. You hired me to do the work."

Zhao Yang was clumsily wiping Jiang Nan's face, not even turning his head.

"Sister Wang, just teach me. I'll do the work."

The caregiver, Sister Liu, shook her head with a smile and handed over a hot towel.

"Then watch your pressure; a new mother's skin is delicate."

Zhao Yang took it, his movements as gentle as if he were wiping the most precious treasure in the world.

Jiang Nan lay on the bed, feeling awkward being waited on by him like this.

"Zhao Yang, is this really necessary?"

"It is."

Zhao Yang folded the towel neatly and looked at her seriously.

"You suffered so much to give birth; what is wiping your face compared to that?"

Their daughter suddenly started whimpering in the crib.

Zhao Yang sprang over reflexively, bending down to pick her up in a series of smooth, practiced motions.

Sister Wang had taught him for a whole day, and he had practiced no less than twenty times.

"Your holding posture is already very standard," Sister Wang praised sincerely.

Zhao Yang grinned proudly and placed his daughter into Jiang Nan's arms.

Smelling her mother's scent, the baby's little mouth immediately began to nuzzle.

"Hungry again," Jiang Nan laughed as she unbuttoned her top and skillfully brought her daughter close.

The little baby latched on and began to gulp down milk.

Watching his daughter's adorable nursing face, Zhao Yang couldn't help but swallow hard.

Although his wife looked slender, her 'granaries' weren't small; the child wouldn't go hungry.

Jiang Nan heard him swallow and lowered her voice with a blush.

"There's plenty of milk, the baby can't finish it all. Do you want some too?"

Zhao Yang's neck retracted as he pulled his gaze away, quickly looking toward Sister Wang and Sister Liu.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that both were busy in the bathroom.

He ran to pour a cup of warm water and placed it by Jiang Nan's hand, then readjusted the pillow behind her back.

In the evening, the family members all left.

The ward fell quiet, with only the occasional beep from the monitor.

Zhao Yang dragged the cot between the crib and Jiang Nan's hospital bed, arranging them in a crooked triangular shape.

With his wife on the left and his daughter on the right, sleeping in the middle made him feel like the richest man in the world.

At two in the morning, his daughter started crying right on time.

Zhao Yang woke up in a second and checked the diaper first.

Changing the diaper and applying diaper cream was done in one smooth motion.

Then he brought his daughter to Jiang Nan's side and sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the scene of the mother and daughter nursing.

Moonlight leaked through the gap in the curtains, falling on Jiang Nan's profile and on his daughter's clenched little fists.

He suddenly remembered those lonely nights in his past life, in an empty house, watching TV in the dark until the early hours.

Back then, he never knew that waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a daughter's crying could be such a grounding and comforting thing.

After Jiang Nan finished nursing, she handed the daughter to him with her eyes half-closed.

Zhao Yang took her, held her upright against his shoulder, and gently patted her back to burp her.

Zhao Yang put his daughter back in the crib, turned to tuck in the corners of Jiang Nan's quilt, and checked the windows once more to ensure they were tightly shut.

Having done all this, he lay down on the cot, his left hand resting on the crib railing and his right hand on the edge of the hospital bed.

On one side was his daughter's warm little hand, and on the other was his wife's steady breathing.

He closed his eyes, a feeling rippling in his heart called happiness.

A week later, Zhao Yang brought his wife and daughter home.

As soon as the family of three arrived home, they found Lin Xuecen's assistant, Yun Shu, waiting with a top-tier maternity matron from Jiangzhou City.

His brother Zhao Ze and mother Du Lanxin had also already prepared a crib for the baby.

Once the baby was placed in the crib, Da Zhuang and Er Ni were incredibly excited, grabbing the crib and rocking it incessantly, not letting it stop for a moment.

Liu Guifang grabbed each of them by an ear.

"Stop rocking! If you keep rocking, your little sister is going to cry!"

Er Ni looked up in confusion. "Mom, is our rocking uncomfortable?"

Liu Guifang laughed. "Is riding in a car comfortable? When your young uncle picked you up to come to Jiangzhou, why did you get carsick on the way?"

A smile never left Jiang Nan's lips; she felt that having the whole family together was lively and heartwarming.

By nightfall, the room grew quiet.

Zhao Yang sat down by the bed. "Nannan, the baby needs to be registered for her household permit soon. What do you think would be a good name?"

Jiang Nan gave him a look. "Didn't you already have it planned out the first time I stayed in your bachelor dorm?"

Zhao Yang smiled sheepishly. "Back then, I thought if it was a girl, we'd call her Zhao Niannan. It meant I'm thinking of you every day. But thinking about it now, we can't name her that."

Jiang Nan's face radiated happiness. "I think so too. You thinking of me is enough if you keep it in your heart."

Zhao Yang took Jiang Nan's hand and looked at the crib.

"A child is an independent life; she shouldn't live in our shadow."

Jiang Nan nodded and looked up at Zhao Yang.

"Let the baby's nickname be Niannian then; as a family, we should always be thinking of and caring for each other. You choose the baby's formal name."

As she finished speaking, Zhao Yang's face immediately fell into a troubled expression.

Even when drafting reports for the Governor, he had never been this conflicted.

At this moment, he felt his daughter deserved all the beauty in the world.

After pondering for a long while, Zhao Yang spoke slowly.

"Nannan, 'Ling' originally refers to the clarity of water, implying the girl's soul is pure and untainted by the mundane world. How about Niannian's formal name be Zhao Ling?"

Jiang Nan rested her head on his shoulder and looked up at him seriously.

"Why not Jiang Ling? My mom is the CEO of a listed company, with tens of billions in assets waiting for our baby to inherit!"