The delivery night stretches into an endless dawn.
Shen Qingxu enters the birthing chamber still cracking jokes — directing his husband to dim the candles and pick osmanthus branches so their daughter won't smell blood. But as contractions intensify, his laughter fades into breathless groans. Xiao Yichen never leaves his side, his hand bruised, his shoulder bitten raw.
The eldest son is born with a booming, gong-like cry. But before Shen Qingxu can even hold him, blood floods the bed. The imperial physician's face turns pale — the second baby's amniotic sac never ruptured, trapping the child and causing a massive hemorrhage. Midwives press down on his belly. Shen Qingxu screams that he wants to die. Xiao Yichen, tears streaming, begs him to live. When the daughter finally emerges, the umbilical cord is wrapped twice around her neck, and her first cry is as fragile as a kitten's mew.
Three days later, Shen Qingxu wakes and names his children: Xiao Nian'an and Xiao Nianbai — nicknamed Mimi and Dangdang. Three months after that, he's back on the garden wall, freshly stolen melon in his arms, calling down to his husband holding their twins: "I could give you another pair — don't you believe me?"
After surviving the worst night of their lives, the sweetness is sweeter than ever. The backyard now has a swing, a patch of melon seedlings, and a chaotic, noisy, deeply loved family of four.
Tags: Labor, Difficult Birth, Hemorrhage, Twins, Sweet and Angsty, Near-Death, Family of Four, Historical BL
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