Shadow and Light: The Bride Who Clicks Her Way to Love-Chapter 332 - 345: The Baby Is Born

Su Xingyu was resting peacefully at the manor.

Outside the luxurious European-style building, there was a tall oak tree on the meticulously trimmed lawn. In her leisure time, she would bring a recliner and a cup of warm water to sit under the tree, basking in the sun and daydreaming.

Occasionally, she would fiddle with a small camera in her hand.

The small camera was a gift from Ouyang Yi, a new portable model from the Feiying Group, small and exquisite, a favorite among young girls. Su Xingyu liked it too, using it to take pictures of the sky, flowers, and grass, capturing images of small birds pecking on the lawn, gardeners trimming plants, and the comings and goings of the maids.

And, Ouyang Yi.

That day, Ouyang Yi came to accompany her for a rest. She aimed her camera at him, dressed in an open-collared silk white shirt, walking gracefully with the breeze, and took several candid shots, feeling satisfied.

Ouyang Yi smiled as he came over to look at her: "Candidly taking pictures of me again. Xingyu, your photography skills have improved, haven’t they? Or am I just more handsome now? I think you captured me looking better than before."

She also smiled, lifting her chin pridefully: "Of course, it’s because my photography skills have improved."

He lazily sat down on another recliner next to her and grabbed a handful of her small wild plums to eat: "Still pondering this even during pregnancy, huh?"

She suddenly sighed, distractedly fiddling with the camera, and said, "Ouyang, I’m about to become the mother of two children, yet I have nothing. How am I supposed to support them?"

Ouyang Yi glanced at her, still lazily: "You have me as your godfather."

"I’m already grateful for all that you’ve helped me with," Su Xingyu said, "I can’t rely on you forever, I need to find something to do on my own."

Ouyang Yi, however, was indifferent: "Xingyu, my little beauty, I don’t mind supporting you and the babies for a lifetime, really. If you’re truly touched, how about repaying me with yourself?"

She lightly glared at him: "Shut up."

She gazed at the camera in her hands thoughtfully: "The only thing I know how to do is photography. Ouyang, do you think I should start learning English and the language of Country F now? That way, after the children are born, I can find a photography job in Country F and support the babies myself."

Ouyang Yi looked at her for a long time: "You just don’t like relying on me, do you?"

"It’s not that I don’t like relying on you," Su Xingyu said, "but, you help in a crisis, not in poverty, right."

Ultimately, she still didn’t love him.

She knew it, and he knew it too.

Ouyang Yi knew it was something that couldn’t be forced, pushing too hard might backfire, so he just laughed it off, pretending to be indifferent: "Then I’ll find a language teacher for you. The photos you’ve taken recently with the Feiying camera, you can select a few you’re satisfied with and give them to me. I’ll help you submit them to the media and magazines in Country F. Change your name for the credits, okay? Xingxing and Xingyu don’t fit, how about Xingyi?"

"You..." she was both grateful and found it amusing and infuriating. Xingyi? How nicely his plans fit together.

"Brilliant, isn’t it?" He was enthusiastic, "In the future, when your babies are born, we could name one Yi and the other Yu?"

Su Xingyu: "..."

Ouyang Yi continued planning on his own: "How great, one with the father’s name, and one with the mother’s. When they go to school, the teachers will immediately know their parents love each other. Later, we could get married, no, before that, shall we get married? Then I can justifiably attend the babies’ school entrance and graduation ceremonies. If they’re boys, I could take them to fight together. If they’re girls and get bullied by clueless guys, I’ll teach those guys a lesson..."

He rambled on incessantly.

Su Xingyu listened with a smile, filled with a trace of gratitude and melancholy in her smile.

These... were all things the children’s biological father should have done.

But the biological father was far away, and could never recognize the children in this lifetime.

Even though the children had noble statuses, being the direct descendants of the Blade Group the Lu Family, and their inheritance rights from birth could drive people crazy. But she would rather not have such honor, than let the children be raised like Lu Shifeng, bearing heavy burdens without understanding joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness from a young age, never obtaining happiness in their lifetime, and destroying the happiness of their loved ones...

Her heart ached again, as if sliced by a knife.

Ouyang Yi noticed her poor complexion and asked with concern if she was feeling unwell. He also called the doctor to check on her, staying with her until late before they both settled down for the night.

Su Xingyu was well taken care of.

She was originally physically weak and had suffered inhumane torment during conception. It was already a miracle to keep both children from miscarrying.

When she was over eight months pregnant, the doctor told her, "Miss Su, you should prepare for a preterm birth. Twins are prone to early delivery, usually between 32-38 weeks, and given your weak physical condition, you must be extra careful. We’ve entered a period now where labor could start at any time."

Su Xingyu was somewhat expectant yet nervous, nodded her head, and asked, "Premature birth... will there be any problems?"

The doctor smiled, reassuring her, "You need to relax, being too nervous isn’t good for the babies."

She tried to relax, and one night at the turn of winter and spring, she suddenly felt waves of pain in her abdomen. In a flurry, she pressed the bell, and an experienced maid came in to check, joyfully telling her, "Miss Su, you’re about to give birth!"

The entire manor was stirred, and a group of servants and nurses smoothly transported her to the prepared delivery room, where doctors were quickly in position.

Ouyang Yi, who was awakened from his sleep, hurried over in a long robe and pajamas to see her, holding her hand with a smile and reassurance: "Xingyu, keep going, you and the babies will be safe and sound."

Because of the recent good recuperation at Ouyang Yi’s manor and her being only 21 years old and very young, the doctor suggested natural childbirth. But she had suffered from Lu Shifeng’s torments, made natural childbirth quite tough, as she vaguely heard the crying when the child was born, she exhausted fell into a slumber.

She woke up more than a dozen hours later.

Someone had already put her back in her soft bed in her bedroom. Ouyang Yi was by her bedside, wearing a joyful expression: "Xingyu, you’re awake."

She weakly turned her head, the first question she asked was, "Where are the two babies?"

There was an unintentional darkening in Ouyang Yi’s expression, and he gently comforted her: "Because it was a premature birth, one baby is in an incubator, and the other... died right after birth."

Died?!

Her heart wrenched violently as if stabbed mercilessly, the pain was earth-shattering.

She trembled and asked, "How could one die right after birth? I clearly heard two cries!"

"You misheard, Xingyu." Ouyang Yi grasped her hand, spoke gravely, "Only one survived initially. The other didn’t cry no matter how we tried to save it; it was stillborn right from birth."