A crowd of reporters were gathered outside the Army Hospital. Thankfully, the swarm of eager reporters were halted by the police and Special Forces from barging into the premises. Xia Lei was an important asset to China. It was only natural for the government to pose heavy security on him and his family.
The hospital board had even made it compulsory for their staff to keep mum about Xia Lei, his wives and his children. Anyone caught in breach of this was to be fired without notice and punished severely. After all, four specially approved marriage certificates were bound to garner plenty of backfires if the media makes this known to the mass public.
In the luxurious VIP ward that looked more like a presidential suite, Xia Lei watched his sleeping children in their respective bassinets. Typically, newborns would be wheeled away to the neonatal intensive care unit but Xia Lei’s children had possessed bodies far beyond that of a newborn. There was no need for them to be in the NICU. Plus, Xia Lei was worried that his babies would face troubles there. The man had requested specifically to let his babies stay with their mothers.
The ward was a soothing silence. His four wives were snoring away after their intense battle in the theatres. Their postnatal bodies seemed rather weak, which was completely understandable after the agony they went through. They promptly fell asleep as soon as they were settled in this ward.
Xia Lei locked his eyes on Xia Long and used his X-ray vision to peer into his brain carefully. His brain seemed normal for his age. A thorough scan across the organ had shown no floating mineral-like substance inside.
This finding brought him relief. It would’ve been bad if his children too possessed the mysterious energy in their bodies. Worse if they were built like Zhu Xuanyue.
He had no qualms over his babies inheriting his refined genes. However, he didn’t wish for them to live a life like his. While he was the most advanced human to date, the black-robed man wished to kill him and the Americans and Japanese were ever so eager to assassinate him. He did not want that kind of hardship for his children. Two years would be over before anyone notices. If Xia Lei should cease to exist, who would be there to protect his children? Their mothers wouldn’t be able to protect them from those formidable foes.
Making sure that Xia Long was alright, Xia Lei placed his gaze on Xia Jianghe, Xia Fan and Liang Jiayu. They were no different from Xia Long.
Xia Lei couldn’t help but laugh to himself, thinking about how Xia Fan had slapped her palms against his face. He was merely mocking how Fan Fan had gone stupid with her swelling boobs and Xia Fan had mercilessly smacked him. The event earlier had led him to believe that Xia Fan was capable of detecting his thoughts and feelings, which was why she felt the need to protect her mother. However, pondering further about the matter made it seem like a coincidence instead. Sloppy flailing of limbs was typical of a baby. There was literally nothing deep about it.
Despite that, he couldn’t help but wrack his mind over one detail. The time of their births stated on their respective birth certificates was the same. They were born at the same minute and only about thirty seconds apart. Was this a coincidence too?
All in all, these kids may look normal but Xia Lei had a gut feeling they were equally mysterious as him.
The slight differences in seconds had at least offered him some basis to arrange his children’s lineup.
Liang Jiayu was the firstborn. He was the eldest brother.
Xia Long was second. So he was the second child.
Xia Fan was the third to follow. She was the third child.
And Xia Jianghe was the last of them all. She was the youngest child.
Honestly, the standard he has based this off was hazy. They were born within seconds of each other.
Xia Lei picked up Xia Jianghe and kissed her soft cheeks again. He cooed adoringly, “Little Jianghe, you’re my youngest daughter. I promise I’ll love you the most, okay?”
The emperor would love his eldest son while the people would tend to gravitate to the youngest child. Xia Lei was merely joking. As a proud father, he would love all four of his children equally. He was adamant on not playing favourites.
Xia Jianghe fixed her shiny eyes on her father and giggled cutely. She looked like an overlaying image of him and Jiang Ruyi. Xia Fan too looked like a balanced combination of her parent’s features, face dainty and gorgeous.
Suddenly, a voice rang from behind the door. “Sir, you can’t go in.”
It was the voice of a female nurse.
Liang Zhengchun’s reply came soon after. “I’m the baby’s grandfather. Why can’t I go in?”
“I’m terribly sorry about this, sir. This is our hospital director’s request. Please kindly give us your cooperation,” the nurse pleaded.
“I’m not trying to trouble you but you are the one troubling me! Move away! I want to see my grandson!” Liang Zhengchun was fuming.
Xia Lei carefully placed Xia Jianghe back to her bassinet, picked up Liang Jiayu and headed for the door. If Liang Siyao was the only patient in this room, he would gladly welcome Liang Zhengchun. Sadly, the ward was shared by Fan Fan, Jiang Ruyi and Long Bing. It would be very awkward with the older man inside. Breastfeeding them in the presence of another man was awkward. Xia Lei knew that Liang Zhengchun wished to see Liang Jiayu the most, hence he had decided to bring the child to him.
“Master.” Xia Lei greeted him. Then, he turned to mutter to the nurse, “I can take it from here. You may come back later.”
“Understood, Mister Xia.” The nurse walked away.
“Master, this little guy here is Liang Jiayu.” Xia Lei passed the bundled baby into Liang Zhengchun’s arms. Xia Lei smiled and cooed, “Jiayu, this is your grandfather. Say ‘yéye’.”
Liang Zhengchun secured his arms around the baby. As soon as he heard Xia Lei regarding him as ‘yéye’, the older man couldn’t help but tear up with emotions. He was supposed to be Liang Jiayu’s grandfather on his mother’s side but Xia Lei had placed him as the grandfather on the father’s side. He has always been lacking a proper successor, which was why he was desperate enough to plead to have Liang Siyao’s first son with Xia Lei to take on his mother’s surname. Now, Xia Lei had fulfilled his dream and Liang Zhengchun was made the ‘yéye’ instead of ‘wài gōng’.
“Lei Zi… I…” Liang Zhengchun was so overwhelmed with emotions that he didn’t know how to word his gratitude.
Xia Lei grinned. “Master, we’re family.”
Liang Zhengchun reciprocated the smile. The older man lowered his head to kiss Liang Jiayu’s face. “Hello, Jiayu. I’m your grandfather! Your yéye.”
Liang Jiayu stared at Liang Zhengchun and parted his lips. “Ya ya.”
The pronunciation shocked Xia Lei and Liang Zhengchun. The noises that escaped his little lips were almost spot-on. How on earth was this baby able to make almost tangible noises? It also seemed that he knew to respond on cue!
Liang Zhengchun was the first to recover. He guffawed. “Oh my god! As expected from your child, he’s a prodigy! I will teach him everything I know about Wing Chun and his mother will cultivate him in literature. He will dominate this world with both brains and brawn!”
Xia Lei uttered, “Master, I too have another son and two more daughters. Please teach them too.”
“Hahaha…” Liang Zhengchun chuckled. “I knew you would say that. No problem, any child of yours will be treated equally!”
“Thank you, master.” Xia Lei smiled widely.
“Waaahhhhh…” The sharp wails of a baby pierced through the air.
Fan Fan’s voice was heard next. “Hubby, can you please bring her to me? It’s time to feed her.”
Long Bing too spoke up, “Hubby, Little Long is crying too. Please bring him over quickly, I need to breastfeed him.”
Perhaps his siblings’ cries had gotten to him, Liang Jiayu broke down in tears and began to wail. Liang Zhengchun attempted to soothe the baby but to no avail. He quickly passed the boy back to Xia Lei. “Jiayu is probably hungry now. Quick, head inside and let his mother feed him some milk.”
“Alright. I’ll be heading in first, Master.” Xia Lei brought Liang Jiayu into the ward.
The other three babies in the room wailed loudly, each of them louder than the next. It felt too much like a contest.
Liang Siyao weakly clambered to sit atop her bed. “Hubby, is my father outside?”
Xia Lei placed Liang Jiayu in her arms. “Yeah. He was very happy.”
Liang Siyao returned him a smile as she lifted the corner of her hospital gown to expose a pale breast. She placed it inside her son’s lips, effectively silencing him and turning those cries into sloppy sucking.
Xia Lei paced around like a manager. Fixing his burning gazes on one breast to another.
Fan Fan rolled her eyes at him. “Jeez, won’t you control your lust a little? Look at you, you look like you want to suck on my breasts too.”
Xia Lei snickered. “If there are leftovers, I would gladly lap it clean for you.”
“Ptui, I can’t believe you’re thinking of fighting your daughter for breastmilk.” Fan Fan chastised teasingly and reached over for the other corner of her hospital gown. She showed him her other unoccupied breast. “If you really dare to latch onto my breast, come on over.”
There was only a brief moment of hesitation before Xia Lei really went for it.
Liang Siyao snorted, “Jeez, hubby. You really are out of your mind.”
“I’m gonna say this first. I have no extras to feed you,” announced Long Bing coolly.
Jiang Ruyi quickly covered her daughter’s eyes. “Darling, close your eyes. Your father is about to be disgusting.”
Xia Lei ignored their teases and laid himself on Fan Fan’s side. He really inched his face closer to her other pale, full and enticing breast. He parted his lips. But before his lips could even close around the perimeter of her nipple, Xia Fan extended her arm and stuck a finger into his nostril. She began to dig around.
“Hahaha…” Fan Fan laughed so hard that she ran out of breath. “Look! Even your daughter has no plans to spare you!”
Xia Lei pulled out the cheeky finger and kissed her little knuckle. He was an absolute sucker for her. “Little darling, papa is really hungry. Could you spare me some milk?”
Weirdly, Xia Fan retracted her arms away.
“Haha! She said yes! You’re such a good girl!” With that, Xia Lei pressed his face forward.
Fan Fan abruptly pulled the corner of her gown back in place and covered her bosom. “Nope. I’m not about to feed a giant baby like you.”
The ward was filled with mirth laughter and jokes.
Doot doot doot… Doot doot doot…
In the midst of sweet normality, Xia Lei’s satellite phone began to ring.
He brought out the device, spared the screen a glance and began walking towards the door.
As soon as he was out of the room, his four wives shared a grim look.