Sweet Wife in My Arms

Lei Qingyi almost had a heart attack when he heard Lu Yi’s shout. He jumped to his feet, accidentally dumping Yi Ling—who had been sleeping on top of him—to the side. Luckily for Yi Ling, the blanket cushioned her fall.

She sat up. She opened her mouth to let out a long string of curses and swear words at Lei Qingyi, but he was already running like a mad man towards the river.

Her heart almost stopped. Was that big oaf trying to drown himself in the river? She immediately forgot all about lecturing him for dumping her unceremoniously on the ground. She tossed her blanket to the side and ran after him.

As soon as Lei Qingyi reached the river and saw what was happening, he immediately slid downwards and grabbed hold of Lu Yi.

A few moments later, when he was sure everyone had climbed to safety, Lei Qingyi wiped the cold sweat that had broken out on his forehead.

Yan Huan had been the last one to climb up. She had a wooden tub in her arms.

“Huanhuan, what did you do?” Yi Ling asked. She was still reeling from shock; she had assumed that Lei Qingyi was about to commit suicide, but now it looked like Yan Huan had been the one trying to end her life.

“I pulled this from the river.” Yan Huan looked down at the tub in her arms.

Yi Ling ran over to Yan Huan and lifted the blanket covering the tub. She froze.

“Whose child is this?”

Yi Ling had expected a cat or a dog inside the small tub, but it turned out to be a baby who looked only a few months old, at most. She wondered why the baby’s parents had left it inside the tub: had they accidentally lost the child? Or had the parents perished in the mudslide? It was a miracle that Yan Huan had spotted the baby in time; otherwise, it would have floated down the river and eventually drowned or starved to death.

Yi Ling lifted the baby from the tub. “What are we going to do with such a tiny baby?”

Yan Huan shook her head: she did not know, either. All they could do now was count the days and wait to be rescued.

Lu Yi found the first aid kit and began to clean Yan Huan’s wounds. One of her palms was badly cut up; the bloody cuts were all the more horrifying against her milky white skin.

“Very brave of you,” Lu Yi said impassively. The look in his eyes was one of frosty disapproval.

“Didn’t you stop to consider you might fall into the river? How do you expect us to find you then?”

“But I didn’t fall, did I?” Yan Huan reminded Lu Yi as she obediently let him clean her wounds. “And it was worth it, wasn’t it?”

She turned around to look at the child in Yi Ling’s arms. The other survivors had also gathered around Yi Ling to see the baby.

They had saved a life. It had been dangerous, but it had been worth it to save the baby. And anyway, aside from a few tiny cuts and scratches, Yan Huan had come away mostly unscathed. It had been more than worth it.

A moment later, the child in Yi Ling’s arms woke up and began to wail at the top of its tiny lungs. Try as she might, Yi Ling could not get the baby to stop crying.

Lei Qingyi quickly wiped his hands on his clothes. He lifted the child from Yi Ling’s arms.

“What’s wrong with the baby?” Yi Ling’s arms were sore from carrying the baby, but she did not mind. She was much more concerned about the baby now—why was it crying like that?

“The baby’s hungry,” a woman standing next to Yi Ling said with a sigh. Babies get hungry quickly, and they had no way of knowing how long the child had been separated from its parents. It was most likely ravenous by now.

“Hungry?” Yi Ling repeated as she stared stupidly at the baby. “What do we do? What do babies eat?”

“Milk,” Lei Qingyi replied. “What else? It’s a baby.” He looked Yi Ling up and down as he said that.

Yi Ling immediately covered her chest with her arms, embarrassed and furious.

“What are you looking at me for? I don’t have any milk for the baby.”

“I didn’t say that, did I?” Lei Qingyi looked away awkwardly. It was the truth; the thought had not crossed his mind. Even if Yi Ling was a new mother, he was quite sure that any woman with a chest as flat as hers would not have any milk for the baby.

But he was wrong about that, of course.

A woman’s ability to produce breast milk had nothing to do with the size of her chest.

“What do we do now?” Lei Qingyi asked.

The baby was still crying up a storm. Suddenly, Lei Qingyi felt something warm and wet against his clothes.

He winced. The baby had peed on him.

Yan Huan walked over to join them. She stared at the baby for a long moment; suddenly, an idea occurred to her, and she ran to the car to rummage through the assortment of food inside. Finally, she emerged from the car with a pack of milk powder. The milk powder was meant for adults, but they could not afford to be picky now.

The milk powder was edible, and that was all that mattered.

“Hey, that’s mine.” Yi Ling’s eyes bulged out when she saw the milk powder. “I use that to make my face masks.”

“You use milk powder to make face masks?” Lei Qingyi stared at Yi Ling as though she were an alien with three heads. Women made no sense to him—what was the point of slathering perfectly edible milk powder on your face, instead of drinking it?

“You’re so out of the loop.” Yi Ling stomped on Lei Qingyi’s foot. “You can use flour to make face masks, too. Milk powder isn’t all that different.”

“Okay, we have milk powder, but what about hot water?” Yi Ling squeezed the baby’s pudgy fingers. It was impossible to resist cooing over such a tiny, adorable baby.

They had to find a way to feed the baby, and quickly.

“We’ll use this.” Lu Yi walked over with a self-heating rice meal package. They would be able to heat water with it.

They had milk powder and hot water, but they did not have a milk bottle. They would have to make do with heating the milk in a food tray and then feeding the baby with a spoon.

Yan Huan carefully fed the tiny baby with a spoon. The baby licked the milk on its lips, and then began to gurgle for more. It was probably starving.

Yi Ling got out her phone and snapped several photos in quick succession.

“Can you take a photo of me, too?” Lei Qingyi asked awkwardly from behind Yi Ling. “My phone ran out of juice.”

Yi Ling turned around and snapped a photo of his face, without giving him any time to prepare.

Lei Qingyi did not mind; he had been smiling like a goof the entire time anyway. Yi Ling inwardly rolled her eyes as she put her phone away. She walked over to the car and began to hand out food and water.

She did not hand out the self-heating rice meals this time; they would have to use those to heat the milk for the baby.

Everyone got a pack of instant noodles and a few snacks instead.

Yi Ling tossed an extra pack of biscuits to Lei Qingyi. She knew that he had a large appetite; a large bowl of instant noodles in hot soup would have satiated his appetite, but the same pack of noodles, eaten dry, would not be enough for him—not even if he ate two of them.

The chocolate-covered biscuits were high in calories, and would give him more energy to stave off the cold.

“Thank you.” Lei Qingyi sat beside her and began eating his meal. He had finished his pack of instant noodles and half a pack of biscuits when he finally began to feel a little less hungry.

He was less hungry now, but nowhere near full. For that, he would have to eat another pack of instant noodles and an entire pack of biscuits.

But he knew he had to save some food for everyone else. He could not be greedy, not under these circumstances.