The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 34

Getting Hua Cheng to accept E'ming was more difficult than Xie Lian would have expected. Even though he could understand Hua Cheng's point of view from a purely logical perspective, he couldn't quite comprehend how his mate couldn't be completely taken in with their baby. E'ming was the cutest little thing on earth, after all, and Xie Lian himself was completely taken in by him.

However, caring for E'ming was rather time consuming; he really did need more attention and love than Ruoye had. He was a few months old by now, but he still had trouble latching on when feeding, and he was a rather messy eater because of that. He was also extremely clingy, and started crying every time Xie Lian tried to exit the nursery, though he blamed that on Hua Cheng for abandoning him. Xie Lian was still quite a bit sour about that.

At least Ruoye liked her little brother well enough, even though Xie Lian could tell she got annoyed by his nightly screaming. But apart from that, she was always curious about when E'ming would start walking or talking, and tried to animate him to do these things whenever she spent time with him.

As for Hua Cheng, well... he was trying his best, Xie Lian could tell that much. But it still pained him a little to see how much effort it took his mate to be nice to E'ming. He was improving over time though, so Xie Lian chided himself to be more patient whenever he caught signs of Hua Cheng's annoyance towards E'ming.

Still, there was progress. Hua Cheng had refused to even touch E'ming in the very beginning, but after a few weeks Xie Lian had managed to put their baby in Hua Cheng's arms, and by now, he even held him voluntarily from time to time. Sometimes Xie Lian got a little annoyed that it was taking his mate so long to accept their very own baby, but he kept reminding himself of Shi QingXuan's words whenever that happened, and tried to be understanding of the fact that Hua Cheng must have been traumatised by the way E'ming had entered the world. After all, Xie Lian himself had experienced trauma before, and knew very well that it took more than just a few months to find a way to deal with it. The important thing was that Hua Cheng was trying his best, and Xie Lian couldn't really ask for more than that.

_________________________________________________________________________

E'ming's time as a toddler seemed to pass even faster than even Ruoye's had. His first words and his first steps on his own seemed like they'd happened only a few days after his birth, which of course wasn't possible, he knew that, but it was rather startling nevertheless.

However, what really made him realise just how much time had passed since E'ming's birth, was the time Xie Lian found himself sitting in the garden pavilion, drinking tea, reading and watching over Ruoye trying to teach E'ming how to dance.

At first Xie Lian hadn't thought anything of it, but at some point during that afternoon he realised just how big E'ming had already gotten. Well, he was still small compared to other children his age, but he was already steady on his feet, and he could already hold whole conversations with Ruoye, though Xie Lian barely managed to understand half of what they were babbling about. With a shock Xie Lian realised that E'ming was already well over two years old, so of course he would be able to do those things! He couldn't help but tear up once he realised his baby had already grown so much.

Of course it was exactly at this moment that Hua Cheng entered the garden, and made his way over the pavilion to join Xie Lian. However, once he noticed Xie Lian rubbing his eyes, Hua Cheng grew visibly worried, and fastened his pace.

"Gege, what's wrong?", he asked once he arrived, crouching down beside Xie Lian.

"Nothing's wrong", Xie Lian sniffed. "But... just look at them. They're both so big already."