After the marriage, Yan Shuyu had discussed with the boss about having a "third child".

That was right. If they were to have another child, she would see that as her third. Ever since the wedding, the little male lead had no problem changing the way he referred to her from "Aunty Yan" to Mom. With another child happily calling her Mom every day, Yan Shuyu started feeling like she truly had two sons.

The little young master might look more and more solemn when he was outside of the house, but he certainly had the youngest child feel when he was in front of Yan Shuyu. Ye Jiaheng had started grade school officially and felt that he was now a man. Slowly, he was no longer comfortable with gluing to his mother all the time like he used to. Zhou Yi, just six months younger than him, did not have the same issue. The more mature and independent Ye Jiaheng was, the more Zhou Yi seemed to be children. This had further Yan Shuyu's feel of "the older child was all grown but the younger one was still coquettish."

As such, she already had an older and younger son and they could keep each other company perfectly. She felt that even if the family own mines, this would still fall into the unnecessary hassle category.

As grand as her reasonings were, the most important one was that yay still felt like she was a baby herself, one that was forever in her early twenties. She didn't want to have another child. Not in this lifetime. She had already forgotten about giving birth the first time and she had no intention of revisiting that.

Zhou Qinhe acknowledged Yan Shuyu's excuse. Both little kiddos changed the way they referred to the two of them at the same time. Even though Ye Hengjia did not adopt his last name, but he had been referring to him as "Dad" everywhere they went. He would only refer to him as "Daddy Zhou" when Ye Rongchen was around in order to distinguish between the two of them.

Zhou Qinhe had already treated the two children equally even before they had gotten married. As such, he was a bit speechless when she used that as a reason to not have a "third." Unlike some other rich people, he would not ask his wife to have lots of children just because they were wealthy. That being said, he still wished to have a child between the two of them.

Surely, they didn't need more sons in the family. But wouldn't a girl just be perfect?

When Yan Shuyu gave him the excuse from the moral high ground, even the articulate Boss Zhou was speechless for a little while. While he was contemplating how to convince her, she, too, was working hard at it.

She had readied another perfect reason. Both children had finally grown up and even Xiao Yi was about to attend grade school. They could finally have some time to themselves instead of focusing all of their time and energy on the children. If they were to have a baby right now, that would be another 7-8 years before they would be able to have some free time from them. Wouldn't it be better to enjoy their own time instead?

Perhaps Boss Zhou was moved by the "time to themselves" part. He finally double checked with her, "You really don't want to have another?"

Yan Shuyu replied with an affirmative "yes". Zhou Qinhe felt a bit regretful about that but finally consented.

Whatever that he had promised Yan Shuyu, he pretty much never go back on his words. As such, Yan Shuyu was able to have her wish and spent over ten years with the boss without being bogged down with childcare. She did not find her days boring at all. Quite the contrary, she was quite happy every day.

Nevertheless, life has always been unpredictable. When she was at the "high risk" age of 38 and the boss was well into his forties and had pretty much given up having children, she was pregnant unexpectedly.

It was for real this time. They had run out of cond*ms one day and she figured that it was during her safe period so she didn't take the morning after pills either. After all, neither she nor the boss were spring chicks anymore and that was exactly how the accident happened.

Yan Shuyu was completely dumbfounded when the result came back. Even the three other men in the house was stupefied with the boss perhaps the one most pleasantly surprised.

Both Ye Hengjia and Zhou Yi had wondering whether their mother would bring them a little sister to play with them when they were little. Now that they were 19 and 18 years old, they were already college students at their prime. They had mixed feelings when they learned that they would be having a little brother or sister.

Granted, since it had happened, even Yan Shuyu, who didn't want to go through child birth, did not want to abort her baby. The baby was now inside of her and she should take up on the responsibility. Gritting her teeth, she prepared herself to be a "high-risk" pregnant woman. Boss Zhou and other others also quickly accepted the fact and started the preparation.

Truth was, as much as Yan Shuyu was no longer a spring chick, she wasn't exactly a high-risk pregnant woman either. Even the experts in OBGYN reassured her that there was nothing to worry about. She was healthy and, combining that with some prenatal planning, she wouldn't experience too much difficulty.

What the experts had told her were not entirely true. Even with a team of professionals taking care of her, Yan Shuyu only felt that the discomfort was tolerable. There was nothing easy about it as she was pregnant with twins.

Yan Shuyu's babies did not let her suffer for too long, instead of the full 10 months, they arrived after just 8.5 months and it was a smooth delivery at that~

The little prince and little princess that the Zhou family had been waiting for were born. The siblings looked identical and, when they were sleeping with their heads touching each other's, not even their birth mother could tell them apart.

Yan Shuyu had suffered a lot for her two babies. The pregnancy and the delivery were arguably the most difficult time in her entire life. Nevertheless, she felt very redeemed when she looked at the two super cute babies. Instead, she felt very accomplished. They two of them would be another two extremely attractive individuals when they grew up. What a contribution on her part?

Yan Shuyu was merely feeling a little bit of pride herself. The boss, who was normally low key and stable like a rock, was acting completely out of character. He was already sending out invitations to celebrate the babies' first month on the third day after their birth. Even Secretary Lu, who was tasked with sending out the invitation, was stupefied. Was her boss spellbound wanting to send out the invitations at such an early time?

Nobody knew whether Boss Zhou was spellbound but that was not the point. The point was that, once the invitations had been set, everybody, whether they had received an invitation or not, learned that Boss Zhou was still very mighty at his age. Everybody was envious that he had a pair of twins in his forties.

Yan Shuyu, who was now the respectable Madam Zhou, was once again a well talked about person in the ladies' circle. Whether it was before or after their wedding, Yan Shuyu had only showed up in public events with the boss as a vase. She never formed any bonds with anyone in this circle. After all, they were not all that compatible. These rich ladies only seemed friendly to her on the outside but would gossip about her behind her back.

Yan Shuyu had always been one who'd draw aggro to herself. With her look, there were as many people who disliked her as those who liked her. She had no background of any sort. No one could understand how this ugly duckling was able to weasel into their circle and be doted on by Boss Zhou to the extend that he did. He even saw that son of hers as his own and his own son was also as close to her as if she was his real mother.

Her son had grown up nicely as well. His real father had both money and family background and Yan Shuyu truly had it all. As such, those who were born into this circle but were not doing as well as her were unhappy. They would gossip about how she only looked like she had it all in appearance. Boss Zhou didn't cheat on her because he was a man of honor. And that if what he had for her was true love, he would have had more children with her. As it stood, the humongous business of the Zhou family would only go to the young master that was not related to her by blood.

As for her own son. His father was still young. He just might get married one day and have a son at his old age. Then he would no longer care as much about his oldest son that had grown very close with his stepfather. As such, Yan Shuyu mother and son would end up with nothing.

When everybody thought about how Madam Zhou has been living it up now but how grim her future would be, they felt a sense of comfort. Everybody was stupefied when Yan Shuyu had given the boss a pair of boy and girl without warning and, to the point that, Boss Zhou, who had always been a lowkey person, would host a massive one-month banquet for them. Ten years of nothingness and then both a boy and a girl at the same time? How could one be that lucky?

The ladies that socialized with Yan Shuyu on a regular basis had mixed emotions. Yan Shuyu, naturally, had no idea about any of those. After all, whenever they were in front of her, they were as friendly as they could be. Especially during the one-month banquet, with the smiles as bright as theirs, anyone who didn't know better would think that they were the ones who had just given birth to a pair of children.

The little prince and princess were born in deep winter and it was New Year shortly after the one-month banquet.

When Ye Hengjia and Zhou Yi were still young, their routine was the entire family visiting the capital during every summer and winter break. That way Ye Hengjia would be able to spend some time with his grandparents. This had, of course, changed after the pair of brothers attended college, as they were already attending college in the capital. Ye Hengjia could meet up with the Ye family whenever he wanted and he and Zhou Yi would return home to spend time with Yan Shuyu over the summer and winter breaks.

That way, however, Ye Hengjia would not be able to say New Year greetings to the elders. The New Year tradition was important to the Ye family and, as his great grandfather was still around, they wanted to be nice to him so they would take turns in spending New Year in the capital.

Ye Hengjia spent New Year home the previous year and was going to head to the Ye family this year. He didn't want to part with his little brother and sister so he stayed as long as he could. Now that his siblings' one-month banquet was over, he had no more reasons to stay. He said goodbye reluctantly to his cute little sister before he headed to the capital with his birth father.

That was right, Ye Rongchen attended the children's one-month banquet as well. In fact, he had given them a pair of rare and precious jade lock as gifts. It was obvious that he had this prepared a long time ago.

With the exception of her immediately family, Ye Rongchen was the next person who also cared a lot about Yan Shuyu, the "high-risk" pregnant woman. The month that the twins were born, he visited her no less than five times and even drove there on the day she had given birth.

Normally the boss would not have been too pleased with him caring so much about his wife giving birth but now things had changed. The Zhou's prince and princess, at one-month of age, looked very much like their mother between their eyes and brows but their nose and mouth looked exactly like their father. These two babies were the product of their love and Zhou Qinhe had finally moved on from the issue.

Not only did Boss Zhou, who was very pleased now that he had both sons and daughter, not mind the gift from Ye Rongchen. When he saw the little princess grabbing on the jade lock and having a lot of fun playing with it with her chubby little paw with dimples, he was genuinely pleased about Ye Rongchen's gift.

The newly born brother and sister were so much fun that Ye Hengjia, not getting his fill even after videochatting with them every day on his cellphone, rushed home on the 4th from his grandparents before he even had the chance to say New Year greetings to the other relatives and elders.

While he was gone, Zhou Yi had already mastered the skill of feeding and changing diapers for his sister. Ye Hengjia, as the older brother, was being very petty and threw himself into learning the skills of a qualified babysitter. Unfortunately, Zhou Yi had already taken over their sister, and only limited to the time when the boss was at work - once the boss was home from work, neither one of them could get their hands on their sister.

As such, Ye Hengjia had no choice but to practice on his little brother.

With the demanding tasks like feeding and changing diapers being fought over, the several nannies that Secretary Lu had hired away from others with high salary were baffled as to the reasons that they were there.

The entire family was emerged in the joy of taking care of the little babies but Ye Hengjia had a little problem of his own and he looked for an opportunity to talk about it with Yan Shuyu privately.

"Grandma complained to me over the New Year that Dad refused to go to any of the arranged dates that she had set up for him. She asked me to talk to Dad..."

Yan Shuyu asked curiously, "Why did she ask you to talk to him? Can't your grandparents talk to him themselves?"

Ye Hengjia shook his head. He wasn't exactly siding with them but he could feel their pain. "They had aged a lot in the last couple of years. Perhaps they worried too much about Dad. A few times Grandma broke down in tears when she mentioned Dad."

Now Yan Shuyu was surprised. She hadn't been seeing the Ye family a lot ever since her son had been officially added onto their genealogy. At most she had met up with Father and Mother Ye once every three - five years. It wasn't like they had a lot in common to talk about. She found that hard to believe, nevertheless, "What is going on with your dad?"

"Nothing. They just want him to be with someone. They said that his childhood was sad enough and that he would be all alone again after they have passed away without someone to even talk to. It's very sad."

Ye Hengjia had mixed feeling about this as well. He didn't fully grasp it when he was earlier and only slowly figuring out what had happened back in the days. Sometimes he thought that it was all his grandparents' fault and nobody else's. But they had always loved him unconditionally since he was a child. As soon as he was of age legally, his grandmother had transferred over all of her shares to him. Should he decide to join the board of directors, he would have as much say as his father did. Also happening when he was 18 was his performance on New Year Eve. His name had become a household name ever since then. He had been known with his

achievement in piano since he was a child and was somewhat known within the entertainment circle as well as internationally. That being said, he was aware that many more senior than him were more talented than he was. If it wasn't his grandfather's behind-the-scene effort, he probably had another six to seven more years to go to be able to get onto this stage.

The couple had made sure that his future would be as smooth as possible. Ye Hengjia felt bad for his mother on one hand but also had mixed feeling toward the old couple.

Yan Shuyu, on the other hand, didn't think that far. Lamented a little, she asked, "Well, what are you thinking?"

Ye Hengjia said with slight embarrassment, "I feel that Dad is quite fond of little sister. He is still young now. Having another little sister in another year or so isn't a bad idea at all." One could never have too many soft and cute little sisters, right?

Ye Hengjia couldn't help but looked over at Yan Shuyu, worried that she would not like that idea very much.

Yan Shuyu waved her hand without a shred of worries. "Then you really should have a good talk with him.:

"Okay." Ye Hengjia smiled and nodded, as though a burden had been lifted off of him.

What he didn't mention was that his grandmother subtly and not-so-subtly suggested for his mother to help talk to his dad. He knew as well as anyone else that if anyone could change his dad's mind on this matter, it would be his mother.

He also understood that his mother and father had been separated for many years and no longer had anything to do with each other. Anyway they look at it, his mother should be get involved in this.

What they didn't know was that her words really didn't carry as much weight as they thought. She had already told Ye Rongchen exactly that some ten years ago that he should get married and have children if the opportunities arose but he never listened. As such, it was no surprise that Ye Hengjia had failed to talk him into it as well.

Ye Rongchen remained a single, handsome man and never even dated again, never mind getting married, even after the Zhou family's little princess had gotten married.

Yan Shuyu, chic as usual, also did not partake in caring for her young grandsons and granddaughters as a young grandmother. Her second daughter-in-law was that virtuous female lead in the original novel. Without the need to be the bridge between the male lead and his father, the female lead had turned into a crazy baby-lover and loved not only her own children but also her nieces and nephews. She was short of opening up her own daycare center.

Yan Shuyu, completely freed from all responsibilities, was able to travel the world with the now retired boss.

~ The End ~