“Grandma, while I was away, you were talking bad about me to my wife again, weren’t you?”
Grandma said, “If you do well enough, who would have the chance to badmouth you? If you’re still worried about Grandma saying bad things about you, it means you’re not doing well enough yet. You need to keep trying.”
“Hai Tong is about to give birth. Are you ready to be a dad? You should learn from Su Nan. He’s doing a great job with the baby. The little one gained six or seven pounds during the confinement period. Gaining that much in a month is pretty good.”
Shen Xiao Jun’s son was considered chubby compared to thinner babies.
But not overly fat either.
“Xiao Jun was also well taken care of during her confinement. She looks great, clearly well looked after. Su Nan, on the other hand, seems to have lost some weight. Taking care of a baby is exhausting.”
A newborn baby eats and sleeps, wakes up to eat again. With breastfeeding, they often cry to eat again within an hour. Formula feeding is a bit easier.
In any case, they need frequent feeding. Newborns don’t distinguish between day and night; when they’re hungry, they eat.
The adults caring for them get very tired.
Zhan Yin said, “Grandma, when Tong Tong gives birth, I’ll hand over all my work to the second and third brothers. They’re married now and back from their honeymoons.”
“There’s no good news from them yet, so they can focus on managing the business for now.”
“When the time comes, I’ll do what Su Nan did, taking care of Tong Tong during her confinement and helping with the baby.”
A few years ago, even if you beat him to death, Zhan Yin wouldn’t have believed he’d say such things.
Back then, he was a workaholic. Work was the priority. Anyone who took up his work time would get an earful from him.
Today, years later, President Zhan was actually saying he’d accompany his wife during her confinement.
The change was so drastic, no one could have predicted it.
During Shen Xiao Jun’s confinement, Su Nan indeed stayed by his wife’s side, not only caring for her and the baby but also helping her eat confinement meals.
If he hadn’t helped with the confinement meals, Shen Xiao Jun might have ended up even rounder.
Occasionally, Su Nan would go to the company, but only for important meetings. After the meeting, he’d rush back home.
People at the Zhan Group were saying that President Su had lost interest in work.
Some quietly said that soon, their President Zhan would be the same.
Grandma nodded. “I’ll talk to the second and third brothers, let them take on more. The seventh and eighth have been trained well; we can give them more work too.”
“The one who’s free now is the ninth. When he’s on summer break, we’ll shove him into the company to learn and prepare for the future.”
The ninth brother, who was studying hard for his college entrance exams, shivered.
He wasn’t even an adult yet… oh, wait, he had just turned adult recently.
The school had held an adulthood ceremony for them, inviting parents to attend his ceremony.
He was already eighteen, an adult.
How did time pass so quickly? He remembered when his eldest brother and sister-in-law got married, he was only fifteen or sixteen. Now he was eighteen.
Now that he was an adult, he’d be worked like a horse. With the Zhan family’s vast business, the nine brothers shared the heavy load, yet the pressure was still immense.
Zhan Yin had no objections.
Even before he was an adult, he had to go to the company during winter and summer breaks to learn, without pay.
After becoming an adult, learning at the company meant getting a salary, but it was the lowest in the entire company.
“Darling, the bathwater is ready. Go take a bath.”
Zhan Yin helped his heavily pregnant wife up.
Grandma gestured for Hai Tong to go take her bath.
Once in the room, Zhan Yin asked, “Tong Tong, do you need my help?”
