Nana and Jinhai widened their eyes. She tried to get up, but Jinhai stopped her. “Nana! Don’t get up. You are still-“
“What is big brother saying! Not crying? Why isn’t he crying?” She panicked and burst into tears.
Shin quickly said, “Don’t worry, Nana,” he looked at Huian. “Huian. Rub his back. Pat his chest. The umbilical cord must have caused him a little difficulty with breathing.”
Huian rubbed his back. She nervously tried to swing him in her arms, letting him feel the air.
“Hey, hey…” She whispered. “Come on. Please cry…Everybody is waiting.”
But he didn’t respond.
As if the elder brother also understood, he stopped crying too. He silently looked at his brother, who seemed motionless.
Liu Chunhua, Grandma Liu, and Liu Hai impatiently looked at Huian. Their faces were marred with an expression of worry and fear.
Jinhai went to his son’s side and also helped Huian in helping him to breathe. He took his small body, covered in blood, in his arms, and started swinging him a little faster.
Huian tremblingly spoke, “Shin, it’s not working.”
Shin felt goosebumps crawling on his skin. The traffic was finally starting to disperse and but he was still far from Natsukashi.
“Calm down, Huian. Do one thing. Breathe air into him. Open his mouth and blow air in his lungs.”
Huian didn’t waste any time. Jinhai kept on holding him, and blew some air in his mouth. She lightly patted his chest to ease the process for him.
Nana tearfully looked at her younger son, not tearing her gaze away even for a moment.
Jinhai stared at him. It was hard for him not to panic, but he had to stay strong for Nana and his sons.
Hey, champ…you are worrying your Mama and Papa. Look, your Mama is crying so much. Boys don’t make girls cry, okay? We have waited for you for so long. Mama has worked so hard and bore so much pain to let you see this beautiful world. Please don’t this to us. Please…wake up…
Every second felt as long as a millennium.
Huian didn’t stop breathing air into him even if she felt tired.
There was dead silence. Everybody prayed and waited for his first cry so desperately.
Was it a few moments or minutes, but Huian suddenly felt him twitch. Jinhai squinted his eyes as his sharp gaze noticed that faint movement too.
The baby boy softly kicked Jinhai’s arm with his tiny, chubby leg. He softly gasped, taking a mouthful of air before he finally let out a loud cry.
“Waaaaaahhhh…waah….waahhhhh…”
After a beat of silence, Jinhai laughed amidst the falling tears. Nana heard his cry which was akin to a beautiful melody for her and this time she cried in joy.
Following the younger brother’s cry, the elder one started crying too. Both of them were now crying at the top of their voice as if to let everyone know that they are fine and healthy.
Shin finally heaved a sigh of relief. That was intense and so terrifying.
For a moment, he really thought that they lost the younger one.
“Aah, he cried!” Liu Chunhua’s eyes also glistened with tears. Everyone felt emotional, seeing the twin baby boys.
Huian felt as if a huge burden lifted off her shoulders. She constantly blamed herself that perhaps she went wrong somewhere in untangling the cord, and so that’s why he didn’t cry.
She looked at the baby boy with a complicated gaze. At the same time, it held the relief too that he was safe.
You…You really scared us all, you little rascal.
Huian didn’t know if it was her imagination, but she felt like he looked away and sheepishly smiled at her as if he was guilty of making them worry.
As Shin said, Huian cut the umbilical cord connecting him and washed him in another tub of warm water.
At first, they looked really reddish-purple, but now when they were wrapped in clean, new, and cozy blankets, their color slowly seemed to return to normal.
Jinhai washed and cleaned Nana up in her inner parts as Huian had already done a lot for her. Nana felt very embarrassed about that.
Liu Hai exclaimed in a loud booming voice. “Ho ho ho! We are grandparents now! Congratulations!”
Liu Chunhua smiled at him, but he felt an odd sense of danger in it.
“Yes, Hai. Congratulations. But don’t forget that you are going to get a very nice beating for ‘planning’ such a big surprise.”
Grandma Liu glared at him and already struck him with her stick, hard on his back.
“Ow! Mom…” He pitifully looked at her.
“Shut up! Don’t use that puppy expression on me! Chunhua is right! You are so going to be dead, Hai!”
Liu Hai could already see his sad and painful future and at least a week sleeping on the couch in the living room.
Back at Natsukashi, Nana was exhausted with the labor and delivery. But the sight of her sons filled her heart with excitement and energy.
Jinhai brought the younger son, and Huian held the elder one in her arms and brought them so that Nana could hold them too.
The two bundles of joy looked so adorable cozily wrapped up in their blankets that Nana felt that she could keep gazing at them like this forever.
She held both of them with Jinhai who was there to support her.
They simultaneously opened their eyes and stared at their parents with their big, black sparkling eyes.
They were identical twins. They looked exactly the same. And exactly like Jinhai. It was very faint but still noticeable that their nose, eyes, and hair had the same features as that of their father.
Nana’s lips lit into a brilliant smile. They were safe and healthy. That’s what it mattered to her.
“Jinhai…look, they are so cute…”
Jinhai slightly stiffened but lovingly stared at Nana. He knew that it was momentary that Nana forgot about their differences during this time. She was talking so normally to him like nothing ever happened between them. Once everything is settled down, she would realize it and would distance herself from him once again.
He looked at his two cute little champs and silently thanked them for this moment. It was because of them that he could stay near her like this once again. It was them that made her forget everything.
“En.” He softly whispered.
He slowly poked on his elder one’s cheek, and he softly giggled in response.
Nana’s heart bloomed in joy.
Shin cried. “Hey, let me see my nephews too! This is so unfair. I was the one who gave all the instructions, and now you are blocking the way!”
Liu Hai whined like a little child, too, on his end. “That is right. I want to see my grandsons clearly. Show meeeeee…”
Everybody simply rolled their eyes.
