It was the height of summer, the hottest time of the year.
Jiang Ning knew she would welcome her child during these sweltering summer days. She and Liu Ming'an were filled with anticipation and had made all the necessary preparations.
A month before the due date, both the midwife and wet nurse had been selected and moved into the residence.
Lan Xu accompanied Jiang Ning daily, meticulously inquiring about her health condition. Mother and daughter were practically inseparable except when Liu Ming'an was present.
Finally, on a stuffy afternoon, the baby was born successfully.
"Congratulations, Princess! Congratulations, My Lord! It's a baby girl!" the midwife announced eagerly.
Jiang Ning managed a weak smile and looked toward Liu Ming'an, who was still holding her hand. She noticed he seemed not to have heard, his eyes fixed on her with concern.
"Liu Ming'an, we have a daughter. Did you hear that?" Jiang Ning spoke slowly, tears welling up in her eyes without her realizing it.
Liu Ming'an knelt beside the bed, nodded, and pressed her hand against his cheek.
"Ning'er, I heard. We have a daughter. I heard."
When he spoke, Jiang Ning realized his voice was choked with emotion.
The midwife brought the cleaned baby to Jiang Ning's side for her to see. The wrinkled little bundle hadn't even opened her eyes yet, with just a few wisps of hair on her head, looking quite ugly.
Jiang Ning felt somewhat devastated at the time, unable to understand how she and Liu Ming'an, both good-looking people, could have such an ugly baby.
But since it was her own child, Jiang Ning didn't reject her too harshly, and still dutifully learned to be a good mother.
However, the ugly little baby gradually began to change. On the fourth day after birth, she opened her eyes, which were beautiful - bright and sparkling like two black grapes, taking after her father.
By one month, the ugly baby had completely transformed. The face that had resembled a little old man at birth had become fair and smooth. Her face was round, she rarely cried, and loved to smile with drool running down her cheeks, making her quite endearing.
Lan Xu couldn't bear to put her little granddaughter down. Except for letting the wet nurse feed her, she insisted on doing everything else herself, refusing to let others help.
Jiang Ning knew Lan Xu was making up for the regret of being separated from her own daughter years ago.
After the baby was born, Liu Ming'an barely had a good night's sleep. On one hand, he needed to care for Jiang Ning during her confinement period; on the other hand, he was preoccupied with choosing a name for their daughter.
He pored through historical texts and classics, wanting to give his daughter a beautiful, meaningful, and unique name. He came up with hundreds, even thousands of names, only to reject them one by one, feeling none were worthy of his precious daughter. The process left him noticeably thinner.
Finally, they named her Liu Jinxing.
"To know you is the fortune of my life."
This child, carrying the love of Jiang Ning and Liu Ming'an, grew day by day.
As Liu Ming'an had promised earlier, he drew a picture of Liu Jinxing every day. These drawings were carefully stored in a box, which the couple would often take out to look at during their leisure time.
Jiang Ning eagerly counted down the days until her baby's first full month, when she could finally end her confinement period.
Thanks to the spiritual spring water, Jiang Ning hadn't suffered much during childbirth. She even felt she could get out of bed the same day she gave birth, but Liu Ming'an and Lan Xu wouldn't allow such recklessness.
Though Liu Ming'an knew little about women giving birth, Lan Xu had experience, so he followed her guidance completely.
These two worked together to keep Jiang Ning strictly confined, insisting she complete the full month of postpartum confinement properly.
Under these circumstances, Jiang Ning was nearly moved to tears of joy when the confinement period finally ended.
Liu Jinxing's full-month celebration was kept simple, with just one table of guests at their residence, inviting only the Zhou Yi and Zhang Shun families.
Everyone gathered around the red wooden crib, gazing at the fair and tender baby, chattering away.
"Aunt Liu, little sister is so cute!" Zhang Haozhi stared at Liu Jinxing with envious eyes.
"Haha... Cousin, why don't you have another daughter for Haozhi? Look how eager he is," Zhou Yi teased.
"He already has three sisters - your two and Liu's one. That's plenty enough," Zhang Shun brushed it off.
Nangong Muyan stared for a while before musing, "Oh, she looks just like my two. Do all babies look the same?"
Su Hui laughed, "Well, you and Sister Liu are like sisters after all..."
Liu Ming'an lifted the baby up so they could see her better. Liu Jinxing wasn't shy at all, her eyes darting around curiously as she made baby sounds.
"Little Jinxing, I'm your Uncle Zhou!"
Zhou Yi extended his finger, which was grabbed by the soft little hand, making him laugh heartily.
"Brother Liu, your daughter is quite bold, unlike my two who cry at the sight of strangers."
Jiang Ning smiled, remembering when she visited Zhou's house to see Nangong Muyan's children.
When she approached their crib back then, the two previously quiet babies immediately changed expression and started wailing, giving her quite a fright.
When Liu Jinxing reached her hundredth day, the family visited Fuling Temple.
Of course, as a man, Liu Ming'an couldn't enter the nunnery as it would be taboo.
He only escorted the three generations of women to the foot of the mountain, bowed three times toward the temple gate, then returned to wait patiently in the carriage.
The nuns at Fuling Temple made a "hundred blessings" garment for Liu Jinxing, sewn from a hundred pieces of monastic cloth. Each piece was meticulously embroidered with the character for "blessing," and once completed, the garment was placed before Buddha for forty-nine days of sutra chanting and blessings, showing their sincere devotion.
Jiang Ning was deeply moved and bowed repeatedly to the nuns. Lan Xu told her that she too had worn such a garment as a child.
"When I took you to the Chancellor's mansion, you were wearing a hundred blessings garment. I wonder where that garment is now. What a pity - it had lily-of-the-valley flowers that I embroidered on it."
As Lan Xu spoke, there was a hint of melancholy in her eyes, but seeing the nuns happily playing with Liu Jinxing, she found peace.
"Even after Jinxing outgrows this hundred blessings garment, we must keep it safe for her."
Jiang Ning nodded solemnly, "Mother, don't worry."
As first-time parents, Jiang Ning and Liu Ming'an were enthusiastic about every change in Liu Jinxing's development.
Liu Jinxing could lift her head at two months, roll over at three months, and at five months, her first tooth appeared. Though it was just a tiny white speck, Liu Ming'an was overjoyed. While fishing with Zhou Yi and Zhang Shun, he would smile every time he thought about it, not even noticing when fish bit his hook.
His two brothers wanted to tease him about it, but thinking back to when they first became fathers, they realized they hadn't been much better.
By seven months, Liu Jinxing could sit up by herself.
Liu Ming'an kept his promise to Jiang Ning, teaching her calligraphy and painting throughout her pregnancy. Unfortunately, the deeply in love couple often got distracted - one teaching half-heartedly, the other learning absent-mindedly. They would often write just a few characters before their eyes would meet, and the next moment they would be kissing.
As a result, after more than half a year, Jiang Ning's calligraphy showed no improvement.
Today, Liu Ming'an was again drawing Liu Jinxing's portrait while Jiang Ning ground ink for him.
Since learning to sit, Liu Jinxing no longer liked lying down. She now sat in her little bed wearing a tiger-head cap sewn by Lan Xu, looking around curiously.
"Jinxing, be good, look at Father!"
Liu Ming'an was about to draw her eyes, but saw she was looking down at her blanket. He called out to her gently.
The child looked over at his voice, smiling to reveal two tiny front teeth. Seeing drool about to drop, Jiang Ning grabbed a handkerchief and walked to her side. Just as she bent down, the baby uttered a few unclear words that were no longer just "yi" or "ya."
"Look... look... look..."
Jiang Ning froze - it was the last word from Liu Ming'an's previous sentence.
While wiping the drool, she tried coaxing Liu Jinxing: "Jinxing, say 'Mother!'"
Liu Jinxing looked at her with bright black eyes, opened her mouth, and spoke unclearly: "Mother..."
Liu Ming'an immediately dropped his brush and rushed to the little bed, lifting Liu Jinxing high with a broad smile: "Good Jinxing, now say 'Father,' say 'Father.'"
The little mouth opened again and called out: "Father..."
"Haha... my good daughter! You're daddy and mommy's good girl!"
Liu Ming'an was so excited that he lifted the tiny person up and spun her around several times. Liu Jinxing held onto his hair without any fear, laughing even more joyfully.
Finally, Jiang Ning noticed she was about to drool again and had Liu Ming'an put her down.
"Ning, Jinxing can call us daddy and mommy now!" Liu Ming'an could barely contain his surging emotions as he pulled Jiang Ning tightly into his embrace. "Our daughter can call us daddy and mommy!"
"I heard it, I heard it with both ears."
Jiang Ning hadn't been quite so excited at first, but infected by Liu Ming'an's passionate emotions, she couldn't keep the smile off her face.
That day, the couple didn't go anywhere. They just stayed by the bed, continuously encouraging Liu Jinxing to call them daddy and mommy until the usually energetic child was so tired she fell asleep.
Liu Jinxing learned to crawl at eight months, and she was also weaned at eight months.
By her first birthday, she had grown into a delicately beautiful baby girl. She no longer just unconsciously repeated single words like before; now she could speak simple phrases on her own. Of course, the words she said most often were "daddy," "mommy," and "grandmother."
In Great Liang's customs, children had to participate in the Zhuazhou ceremony on their first birthday.
Lan Xu had been talking about it several days in advance. Jiang Ning had seen it on television before, and she had also attended when Nangong Muyan's twins had their first birthday celebration with the same ceremony. It involved placing meaningful objects in a circle on the ground, putting the child in the middle, and letting them grab something. Then everyone would playfully speculate about the child's future.
It was mainly for entertainment.
She remembered that of the Zhou family's twin girls, the older sister had grabbed an abacus, suggesting she would be meticulous with calculations and expand the Zhou family business. The younger sister had grabbed a steamed bun, making everyone laugh until they were bent over.
"Grabbing a bun means you'll never want for food or clothing. Yueer knows how to enjoy life, while Xinger will earn the family fortune. So you're just going to live an easy life at home, aren't you?"
Zhou Yi held one child in each arm and then pretended to sigh: "Why didn't either of you grab the fishing rod? Don't you want to go fishing with daddy? Ah..."
Zhou Yi's father immediately gave him a smack on the back, looking disapproving: "What's a young girl doing fishing? She'll get tanned and won't look pretty. Just have another child, a son this time."
"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhou Yi agreed repeatedly. "I'll work hard with Muyan later—ouch!"
Before he could finish speaking, Nangong Muyan pinched his waist, making Zhou Yi grimace in pain.
Jiang Ning chuckled softly at the memory of the Zhou family's lively scene as she helped Lan Xu prepare for Liu Jinxing's Zhuazhou ceremony.
The first birthday celebration was still kept intimate, with only Zhou Yi and Zhang Shun's families attending, making it a small gathering of friends.
There were only a few traditional items for a girl's Zhuazhou ceremony, but Lan Xu prepared each one with great care.
"Grabbing needle and thread shows she'll be virtuous, grabbing books means she'll be a talented lady, grabbing an abacus means she'll be clever with calculations, grabbing a bun means she'll never want for food or clothing, grabbing a ruler means she'll have good judgment, grabbing gold ingots means endless wealth, grabbing jewelry means she'll be a great beauty..."
As Jiang Ning listened to Lan Xu explaining the meaning of each item, she had a thought and placed a dagger among them.
"Oh no, Ning, this won't do! Knives and swords carry too much negative energy; girls shouldn't touch them."
Lan Xu tried to remove the dagger, but Jiang Ning stopped her: "Mother, have you forgotten how I became a princess?"
"Grabbing a dagger represents good health and not being bullied by others," Jiang Ning declared, following the same pattern of explanation while forcing her logic.
"You silly girl!"
Lan Xu poked Jiang Ning's forehead but ultimately gave in, though she wasn't too worried.
Children are usually attracted to bright colors and items with scents, so Lan Xu assumed the dull-colored dagger was just there for show.
The same few people attended: Zhou Yi and Zhang Shun's families, plus Zhang Haozhi who wanted to see his little sister.
Lan Xu laid out a thick quilt on the ground, covered it with a red circular cloth, and arranged all the Zhuazhou items on it.
When everyone had arrived, Lan Xu placed Liu Jinxing in the center of the red cloth and pushed Jiang Ning and Liu Ming'an back a bit to prevent them from influencing the outcome.
Aliali: 6747c480c4f3f33ac46fd021"Grandmother... Daddy..."
Liu Jinxing babbled these words as she crawled toward one side under the watchful eyes of everyone.
"Oh, is little Jinxing going for the abacus too?" Zhou Yi crouched down and whispered. "Then she could make a pair with our Xinger."
"Shh!" Nangong Muyan put a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.
The others also thought Liu Jinxing was going for the abacus, but she crawled between the abacus and the dagger, reached out to grab Zhang Haozhi's sleeve who was crouching down watching, and then giggled as she tried to put the sleeve in her mouth.
"This..." Everyone fell silent for a moment.
"Sister Jinxing grabbed me, what does that mean?" Zhang Haozhi allowed Liu Jinxing to hold onto him as he looked up at his parents.
Su Hui quickly crouched down and gently stopped Liu Jinxing from biting the sleeve, then picked up Zhang Haozhi and handed him to Zhang Shun. She smiled softly and said, "Little Jinxing made a mistake, that doesn't count. Let's try again."
"Cousin is right, let's do it again," Zhou Yi agreed.
This time went more smoothly, and Liu Jinxing grabbed the dagger.