After My Flash Marriage with the Movie Queen - Chapter 110

The shock of receiving those two boxes of books hit Zhao Xunyin harder than anything else. So much so that, later, when she sat on her toilet at home and used a pregnancy test, she couldn’t help but exhale in relief.

She had never felt so relaxed. Over the past two or three months of preparing to conceive, the way Shi Nanbei approached the responsibilities of becoming a mother had been nothing short of astonishing.

Studying books on how to care for pregnant women and newborns was just the basic groundwork. Every morning, Nanbei would make time for a three-kilometer run to build stamina and energy. During breaks from her studies and hospital internship, she researched how to prepare nutritious meals, even seeking guidance from a professional dietitian at their hospital to make sure Zhao Xunyin would be well-fed.

“Do you realize how much pressure this puts on me?” Zhao Xunyin vented to her best friend over the phone, lying on the sofa while Nanbei was at work. It wasn’t that she wanted to complain about Nanbei specifically—it was Nanbei’s meticulous and earnest approach to everything that left Zhao Xunyin, a self-confessed academic failure, completely in awe.

An He, her friend, came from a wealthy family. Since having a child, her wife, Boss Qi, had given her a yearly bonus of half a billion in cash, pushing her ever closer to the realm of the nouveau riche. Naturally, she couldn’t understand the kind of worries that a “commoner” like Zhao Xunyin had.

“What’s so bad about that? Honestly, I didn’t expect your partner to be so reliable when it comes to this kind of thing. She’s responsible! Honestly, she’s more dependable than most men—and even more so than most women!”

Zhao Xunyin rolled her eyes. At that point, she hadn’t even confirmed she was pregnant yet. Perhaps it was her age, or maybe it was because she was talking to a long-time friend, but she kept talking:

“Even if that’s true, it still puts so much pressure on me. The good news is that I’m pregnant. But if I hadn’t been, then it would have been her. You saw what happened last time—if it was her, and I had to take care of a pregnant woman, forget reading two boxes of books; getting up every morning for a three-kilometer run would have killed me.”

Zhao Xunyin truly admired her wife.

At the very start of their marriage, she had thought Nanbei was just a naïve, carefree kid. Then she noticed a mischievous streak. Over time, she realized that beneath Nanbei’s angelic exterior lay a little devil. Now, after two or three years of marriage, Nanbei’s personality had evolved in many ways, all for the better—leaving Zhao Xunyin, the ever-critical diva, increasingly satisfied with her choice.

Could she be anything less than satisfied?

Young, talented, beautiful, devoted, straightforward, and attentive, sometimes Zhao Xunyin couldn’t help but reflect: how lucky must she have been to marry such a wonderful woman?

“Stop, stop! I called you to vent about the woes of marriage, not to have you shower me with sugar!” An He interrupted, knowing exactly where Zhao Xunyin’s conversation was heading.
Zhao Xunyin paused, phone in hand, and said seriously, “But the more I think about it, there’s nothing unhappy about my marriage.”

An He was speechless.

Damn it—nothing annoyed her more than someone showing off their happiness.

“How can there be nothing unhappy? Look at you! How are you different from a full-time housewife now? You just lie around waiting for your wife to come home and dote on you! Zhao Xunyin, you’re supposed to be a top actress! After retiring, are you really done working entirely? How can you do this to your fans?”

“I’m not exactly a housewife, am I?”

An He: “?”

“Everything is her taking care of me—cooking, looking after me. I’m almost being spoiled into a useless person,” Zhao Xunyin sighed. “Honestly, I kind of regret marrying someone so young. She’s too virtuous and considerate, and it makes me feel almost inadequate.”

An He: “Shut up.”

She hung up immediately and blocked her.

Zhao Xunyin knew that after An He had her baby, Boss Qi didn’t particularly coddle her anymore. Not that she treated her poorly—she had already spoiled her to the maximum. When she had her birthday recently, she even bought a small planet and named it after her. There was simply no way her love and attention could increase further.

An He, of course, still felt a lingering sense of deprivation over six months of missed intimacy and was plotting how to get Boss Qi to make it up to her. Zhao Xunyin, considering Boss Qi was almost forty, winced at the thought.

That night, before confirming her pregnancy, Zhao Xunyin and Nanbei had shamelessly spent over two hours driving together. After Zhao Xunyin’s week-long seduction campaign, Nanbei had tearfully accepted her role as the “driver” for her.

Those three or four nights, after showering and turning off the lights, Nanbei always took the initiative to lead.

You could say practice made perfect. Compared to the early days of their marriage, Nanbei had now become an absolute master—passionate, attentive, patient, gentle, and meticulous.

Ah, waiting for a young lover to grow into such a partner truly was a happy process.

Nanbei’s excellence extended to every aspect of life. Even Zhao Xunyin’s strict grandmother admitted that since Nanbei was about to become a mother, she had become incredibly reliable—perhaps even too reliable—causing Zhao Xunyin to gain over ten pounds since her debut. A minor annoyance, but Zhao Xunyin let it slide.

Holding the positive pregnancy test in her hand, Zhao Xunyin stared at the two lines, unsure what she was feeling—happy? Excited? Moved? Relieved?

None of it seemed quite right.

“Knock, knock, knock.” Someone knocked on the bathroom door. Zhao Xunyin had been in there for a while. Nanbei’s voice called out softly: “Are you okay?”

“Ah, okay, I’m coming out right away.” Zhao Xunyin shook herself back to reality, tidied herself up, and opened the bathroom door.

Shi Nanbei had already prepared dinner and was carrying plates from the kitchen to the dining table. There were Western dishes—steak, salad, fruit, dessert—as well as Chinese staples like rice, bone soup, and stir-fried dishes.

Ever since they had decided to start trying for a baby, Shi Nanbei had naturally taken on the role of the family cook. She prepared both Chinese and Western meals, and her skills had only improved over time.

“Sit down and eat,” Shi Nanbei said when she approached.

“Ah, okay.” Zhao Xunyin mumbled absentmindedly and sat down, one hand resting on her chin as she watched Shi Nanbei bustling around the table.

Even though she had mentally prepared herself to get pregnant, seeing those two lines on the pregnancy test still felt unreal. She never thought that one day she would actually be on the path of marriage and motherhood.

Years ago, around the age she was now when Shi Nanbei had first entered her life, she had never considered marriage, nor imagined having a child with someone she loved.

She had always been a little selfish, a little self-centered. She didn’t see herself as someone who could maintain a long-term relationship. Deep down, she had never truly believed in love, and because of that, children had never particularly appealed to her. After the whole incident with Shu Yu, her distaste for love and marriage only grew stronger. She had drifted through life alone for so many years, indifferent to whether things went well or badly.

But from the moment she had suggested marriage to Shi Nanbei, her life had slowly begun to change, gradually moving toward stability and happiness.

It wasn’t a bad thing—yet, whenever she reflected on her past, she couldn’t help but feel a flicker of disbelief.

She was actually married. She was actually going to have a child.

It felt surreal.

“What are you thinking about?” Shi Nanbei asked, breaking through her thoughts. She casually picked up a small bowl and served some soup in front of Zhao Xunyin.

“Drink some soup first to warm your stomach,” Shi Nanbei said casually. “Winter’s coming soon. Keep your socks on at home—don’t walk around barefoot. Chengdu’s going to get colder these next couple of days.”

“I know,” Zhao Xunyin replied lazily. The aroma from the table made her appetite surge, and she lifted the bowl to take a sip. The soup was delicious, leaving a lingering fragrance on her lips. Shi Nanbei had prepared it earlier during her break from school, riding her electric scooter back home to simmer it in the pot.

That was Shi Nanbei—never one for flowery words, and sometimes even irritating with the things she said, but her care was evident in every little action.

“By the way, have you thought of a name for the baby?” Zhao Xunyin asked, setting down her bowl.

Shi Nanbei placed the dishes in front of her. “You can choose it.”

“Why me?” Zhao Xunyin huffed. “You’re the mother—can’t you do it?”

Then she laughed, suddenly thinking of something amusing. “You mentioned that your family usually names people based on generational order. So, according to your family’s tradition, what would our child be called?”

“That was ages ago,” Shi Nanbei replied. “My parents didn’t even follow it when naming me. I don’t think we need to be so strict with our child.”

“Oh, then you think of a name, Dr. Shi,” Zhao Xunyin said with a smile.

Looking at her partner, the surreal feeling slowly melted into a sense of grounded peace.

No one had told her this before—not even she had thought much about the risks of loving someone younger. Young love was like the wind; once it passed, everything vanished without a trace.

She might not have waited for that person to grow up or mature, but she had chosen to believe in Shi Nanbei, to believe in that fleeting yet beautiful encounter of youth. Fortunately, she had never been let down.

No, not with Shi Nanbei. She would never be let down.

“Pick a beautiful name, one that has both you and me in it,” she said.

She looked forward to the life ahead of them.

Shi Nanbei stared at her rice bowl. She had already gotten the hang of caring for a pregnant woman and learning about raising a child, but when it came to naming the baby, she was essentially hopeless.

“You want it to have ‘you and me’?”

Shi Nanbei looked puzzled. “You’re Xunyin, I’m Nanbei, Xunyin, Nanbei.”

It had to match somehow.

She paused, then grinned. “Why not call it ‘Zhao Dongxi’? Same surname as you, and Nanbei with Dongxi—rhymes and easy to remember!”

Zhao Xunyin’s smile froze, and all the warmth from before seemed to evaporate like bubbles.

She thought to herself: perhaps Shi Nanbei didn’t deserve to know she was pregnant after all.