Chapter 17: The Eldest Miss Names Him Ping'an

By the time Old Mrs. Qin and her party arrived at Madam Gu's room, the baby was wailing loudly. Qin Liuxi was busy manipulating golden needles to acupoint Madam Gu, whose complexion was indescribably grim.

"What happened this time?" Old Mrs. Qin's heart thudded wildly; seeing Madam Gu's deathly pale face, her hands even began to tremble.

Madam Wang instructed the wet nurse surnamed Zhou and Ju'er to each take a child aside to soothe them, lest the commotion cause further panic.

As Madam Gu slowly regained consciousness, she dazed for a moment upon seeing everyone present, then followed the sound of the baby's crying.

"Third Aunt, don't blame me for being blunt and unpleasant, but your constitution is not suited for breastfeeding. I believe the practitioners of medicine have already warned you. If you insist on trying, you will only ruin your own health." With a dark expression, Qin Liuxi withdrew the needles and looked directly at Madam Gu, saying coldly, "You were a premature twin birth, and the delivery was difficult enough. Now that mother and child are finally safe, instead of focusing on recovering your own strength, you insist on overexerting yourself. Do you think your life is too long?"

Madam Wang felt somewhat helpless and called out softly, "Xi-girl..."

Though her words were reasonable, couldn't she have been a bit more tactful?

Madam Gu forced herself up to sit, her eyes showing a hint of guilt as she said aggrievedly, "I only saw the baby crying so hard that I thought of giving him a few sips. I never expected that I..."

She lowered her head, and tears fell like broken strings of pearls.

She had never imagined that she had no milk at all to give the child. Watching him strain with all his might only to suck nothing, and then hearing his heart-wrenching cries, her heart broke. In her panic and agitation, she couldn't catch her breath and fainted.

"Your body is weak. The prescription I wrote for you contains herbs to suppress lactation; you cannot breastfeed him," Qin Liuxi said matter-of-factly.

Breast milk was like a woman's blood—precious—but Madam Gu's body could not support it. Otherwise, no amount of nourishment would be enough to offset the depletion.

The child was important, but the mother was even more important. If the mother were gone, how could the child ever truly thrive?

Madam Gu was stunned.

Old Mrs. Qin had also grasped what had happened and, seeing the situation, offered persuasion: "Gu, your priority right now is to recover your health. Leave the feeding to the wet nurses. If one isn't enough, find another. But if something happens to you, what will happen to the children, and what about the third son?"

"Mother, I'm scared!" Qin Mingbao knelt by the bed, clutching her hand and crying.

Madam Gu's heart ached intensely, and her tears flowed even more freely.

"Stop crying at once. You mustn't cry during your postpartum confinement, or your eyes won't be good in the future," Madam Wang said, wiping away her tears. "We all know you love the child, but that is exactly why you must take better care of yourself, isn't it?"

Madam Gu nodded. "I was shortsighted."

She had only thought of her heartache for the child and hadn't considered that her physical condition wouldn't allow it.

Madam Gu looked at Qin Liuxi and said, "I shall call you Xi'er, just like your sister-in-law. Xi'er, it was because you were present to help that these children were born safely. Borrowing some of your good fortune, could you perhaps give them names?"

Qin Liuxi frowned slightly and looked toward Old Mrs. Qin, saying, "It would be better to let the elders of the family decide."

"Mother..." Madam Gu immediately looked at Old Mrs. Qin, her eyes filled with pleading.

Old Mrs. Qin then said, "Your Third Aunt is right. Just give them names for now to use as nicknames. We can write a letter to your grandfather and Third Uncle later. Once the children are three years old, we can give them formal names."

Having reached this point, Qin Liuxi stopped being coy. She had a sense of the timing of the children's birth and even checked their pulses. However, since the infants were too small to make definitive judgments, she said nothing more.

"Ping'an (Peaceful)," Qin Liuxi said, looking at the swaddles in the hands of the wet nurse and Ju'er. "Let's call them Ping'an. It is neither extravagant nor lowly, and it is a name that is easy to raise."