The twenty-ninth of November was a monumental day for Lan Zhan and Wei Ying. They went to drop A-Yuan and JingYi off to school, who were both terribly excitable.
"Baba, when we get home, can I hold Meimei?" A-Yuan asked Wei Ying, his chubby little arms hugging him tightly.
"Absolutely!" Wei Ying was faring no better than the rest of them, just as excited as their whole family.
"A-Die! A-Die! Me too? Please?" JingYi gave Lan Zhan a big wet kiss on his cheek, giggling atrociously, and then shrieking when Lan Zhan did it back to him.
"Tonight, when you get back from school, then we'll see. It might take longer at the hospital, but by this evening, both of your meimeis will be home with us," he says, giving nothing away.
But his golden eyes were glittering with anticipation.
They were to go straight to the hospital after this, wrap up the paperwork and then they'd be allowed to take the baby girls home with them.
XiChen and MingJue had taken the afternoon off to help, and Shifu was anxiously awaiting their return.
Extra rooms upstairs and downstairs in the manor had been converted to accommodate the babies, complete with cribs and nappy changing stations, mini fridges for formula bottles and extra clothes.
Ever since Social services had contacted Wei Ying to inform them that they had been awarded temporary custody of the babies, he and Lan Zhan had gone to baby classes where they were the only gay couple aside from a lovely lesbian pair out of ten married couples, and although it was hard in the beginning, Wei Ying thought they had aced the course.
All the parents were in different stages of pregnancy, yet the growing combination of excitement and anticipation was shared by them all, uniting their efforts. Their teachers were already parents and full of encouragement for this next generation of guardians.
Now it was only a matter of time before their application to adopt both Lan Juhua and Lan Meihua was processed by the courts, and then the adoption would be finalised. In Wei Ying's mind, they were already their daughters, and nothing was going to change that.
**************
On the seventh of December, they received a surprise guest at the Manor.
Heathcliff Watford came to see them, with his lawyer, to finalise the exchange of his property. Once they signed on the bottom line, they would become the proud owners of a ranch home, and parents to countless chickens and bunnies.
He was just the same as ever, and something clicked between him and Uncle Qiren, striking up a new friendship immediately. Heathcliff also held both baby girls who were slowly spending more time awake as the days passed by.
Wei Ying was convinced that they responded better to Lan Zhan's voice but Lan Zhan was insisting that both girls went to sleep faster in his arms than anyone else's.
The days were passing by faster than they could keep track, busy with taking care of the newborns. Luckily, their support system was solid, with XiChen and MingJue uncles, and grandfather Shifu taking over babysitting duties whenever Wei Ying fell asleep rocking one or both of the babies.
Their big brothers were fascinated by the little girls, having made welcome home cards at school for them, and diligently helping their dads to look after them, asking the most interesting questions all the time.
Wei Ying kept joking that it was great that Lan Zhan didn't have to sleep during the nights, because then he could, without disturbance. They had learned and talked to many parents too familiar with not getting enough rest during the first six months of raising their kids.
Of course it wasn't a problem when one half of the parents were a vampire.
Lan Zhan had bought a super comfortable rocking chair, primarily for Wei Ying, because the soothing motion helped when easing the babies into sleeping, but it was so popular with the other caretakers, that he ended up buying a dozen of them. The majority of them stayed in the manor, but he was going to make sure Wei Ying could curl up in one no matter whether they were in their apartment, the manor, or when they finally moved into their new home.
That probably wouldn't happen for a few months yet, but he wanted to be prepared.
Winter time was always a little quiet on the business front, something XiChen was grateful for because he had more time to devote to the wedding that he'd undertaken.
Both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had insisted on keeping this event small, but even so, a few hundred people were expected to attend.
XiChen had banned them from going into the back of the manor, not that they had any time to spare, in between looking after their children.
Deliveries kept arriving and XiChen was becoming more mysterious as his deadline approached, enlisting MingJue to help him out.
Other frequent guests included Baoshan Sanren and the Jiang siblings. Jiang YanLi had been super supportive once she found out about their children and tried to visit as much as she could, sometimes with Jiang Cheng, sometimes with her husband.
By far, the most volatile relative was his grandmother.
When they told Baoshan Sanren about the girls, it was the same day that they went to invite her to the wedding, on the first Sunday after they'd first brought their soon-to-be daughters to the hospital.
She was alone at the time, and Wei Ying asked her where Song Lan and Xiao XingChen were, because he wanted to invite them both to the wedding as well.
"I didn't want you to worry, but they've gone home. Not for long, and once I tell them about the wedding, they'll want to hurry back," she explained, her silver eyes warm with love.
"Home?" Wei Ying had asked.
"Yiling. First, they're going to travel to the Chang family and present the box of evidence to them, about Xue Yang. Of what he did, and his death. I've also asked them to bring back a few things, one of which is the birthday present your grandfather mentioned, for your mother's first birthday. When they bring that back, will you be here with me?"
Wei Ying had looked deeply into her eyes then, ones that resembled his own so much, and he had nodded.
She visited her great grandchildren every day from when they first arrived home, and she was a constant thorn in Shifu's side. They both fought each other over the smallest things, stealing the babies from each other's laps without warning, all under the guise of super politeness, because both considered shouting and screaming to be beneath them.
But it was a close thing.
Wei Ying compared them to little children, privately to Lan Zhan, who agreed wholeheartedly.
"Lucky they're twins otherwise we'd never get to see our kids," he joked.
Lan Zhan took him seriously.
By far, his favourite time was at night. That's when he had his children and Wei Ying to himself. He would spend hours holding Wei Ying while he slept, and when undoubtedly either of the girls woke up, he would already be there, ready to soothe them if they needed that, or to change and feed them. His super effective hearing ensured that he didn't have to use the baby monitor at all, recognising the change in breathing as a precursor to either Juhua or Meihua getting ready to use their lungs properly.
The baby girls had adjusted to life at home in the manor remarkably well.
When the midwives visited, they were thrilled with their progress up until now. After a bumpy start in life, everyone was happy to see the babies and the children thriving so well.
****************
On Thursday the seventh of December, after Heathcliff left, Baoshan Sanren phoned Wei Ying to tell him that she was bringing his uncles to see him.
That could only mean one thing: the music box was here.
When they arrive, sure enough, his grandmother was carrying a small box covered with a red silk brocade depicting a dragon and a phoenix.
She waits until the babies are introduced to their new grand-uncles, and then there's an awkward silence between them and grandfather Shifu, who was reluctant to give them up in the first place.
Wei Ying understood that she might want some privacy when they examined the music box, so he and Lan Zhan took her to the Sun room.
"This is it..." she says, pinching the soft silk to remove it from the box.
"It's beautiful!" Wei Ying breathes out, admiring it.
It's made from lacquered cherrywood, with cherry blossoms carved out of the same wood lining the edges.
Wei Ying stares at it, imagining his grandfather carving each part, whittling away at each delicate flower until all the petals were ready. Then painting and varnishing it, what he must have been thinking as his daughter turned one year old.
He watches as Baoshan Sanren lifts up the lid, her fingers trembling on the catch.
The inside is just as beautiful. There's a dancer wearing a pink hanfu standing in the middle of the box, upon a pedestal, and when his grandmother picks out the key, Wei Ying sees that its head is a matching pink cherry blossom, just as lovely as the rest of the box.
She puts the key into the hole at the side, and winds it up.
A lullaby rings out, little pings of the notes and they quietly listen to the soothing sounds.
"My daughter loved it so much. She listened to it once every night, up until the night he never came back." Baoshan Sanren says, staring down at her hands. "She was so excited when we let her wind it up by herself, the first time."
Wei Ying reaches over to cover her cool hands with his warmer ones, wanting to comfort her.
How heartbroken must his mother have been, that night? Wei Ying wonders if she might have even known what was going to happen? What if her prophetic dreams had already informed Cangse Sanren what was going to happen, and that was why she hadn't wanted to let go of her father that night?
What a burden for a child to have to carry!
Baoshan Sanren clears her throat and tries to smile.
"I never thought about turning the key anticlockwise," she admits, doing the very same thing.
"No one would," Wei Ying replies, full of admiration for his clever grandfather. "That's probably why he did it. Will you take a guess at what he could have hidden here?"
She shakes her head, visibly finding it difficult to speak now.
The room is pindrop silent, the only sound here is of the key turning counterclockwise. It's followed by a whirring noise, and then one of the panels hiding the mechanism under the dancer pops open to reveal a hidden drawer.