Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL] Chapter 160: Extra 5. City of helior 5

"She has your eyes," Yan Cijin whispered.

"She has your mouth."

"She looks very serious."

Bai Li laughed, then bent and kissed Yan Cijin’s forehead. "She got the best parts."

Yan Cijin, exhausted and glowing and impossible, reached out with the hand that was not holding Lili and touched Bai Li’s cheek. "Say hello to your daughter."

Bai Li looked down and, because she was the kind of woman who could face high wind and steel and not blink, but could not remain calm in front of a newborn, she said the first thing that ca to her heart.

"Hello, little Lili. Your mother is very beautiful. Please forgive her for making this emotional."

Yan Cijin laughed weakly. "You are hopeless."

Lili made a small offended noise as if agreeing.

And that was the end of the waiting.

The beginning after that was the kind of beginning that makes people understand why love stories never really end. They only change shape.

The apartnt they had once shared as two lovers beca a ho full of tiny sounds. Soft alarms for feeding. Gentle warming lights at night. Little shoes by the door. Tiny folded clothes in drawers that sohow never stayed folded for long. Lili grew quickly in the careful world that had been built for her. She had her mother’s bright eyes and her other mother’s stubborn brow. She loved to stare at Bai Li with deep solemn focus, then grin suddenly when Bai Li made a funny face. She adored Yan Cijin from the beginning, because Yan Cijin sang to her in a soft voice that made the whole room quiet. She also adored Bai Li, because Bai Li had hands that could build and fix and also lift a child straight into the air until she squealed.

The three of them settled into a rhythm that felt both new and ancient.

Bai Li handled the early morning routines when she could. Yan Cijin handled the calr evening ones. Lili learned to recognize both of them by sound. Bai Li’s footsteps were steady and sure. Yan Cijin’s were soft and asured. When Bai Li ca in from work, Lili would kick her legs and gurgle from the play mat as if she had been counting the minutes. Yan Cijin would watch from the sofa, smiling behind her cup, looking prettier every day in the ordinary dostic light.

They took family walks through the old cultural quarter when weather allowed. Bai Li pushed the cradle stroller with one hand and held Yan Cijin’s fingers with the other. People smiled when they passed. A few nodded in recognition. Everyone in Helior knew families like theirs were ordinary now, but that did not an they were treated carelessly. The city had learned, slowly and imperfectly, that love built stronger neighborhoods than judgnt ever had.

On market days, Yan Cijin would stop at the flower stalls and pick up one small bundle of white blossoms to tuck in Lili’s room. Bai Li would complain that they already had too many flowers and that the baby only tried to eat them. Yan Cijin would say that babies appreciated beauty. Bai Li would answer that babies appreciated eating things they were not supposed to eat. Then Yan Cijin would laugh and kiss the side of her jaw in public just to watch Bai Li pretend not to be flustered.

At ho, the teasing never really stopped. It just beca part of how they loved each other.

Bai Li would lean over Yan Cijin while she was reading and kiss her once on the forehead, once on the nose, once on the mouth, until Yan Cijin sighed and said she was trying to concentrate. Bai Li would tell her that she was concentrating too hard anyway and needed to relax. Yan Cijin would narrow her eyes and ask whether Bai Li was flirting. Bai Li would reply, very seriously, that she was only doing her civic duty by caring for her spouse. Yan Cijin would laugh and shove her shoulder, which usually ended with Bai Li catching her around the waist and kissing her until she forgot what they had been talking about.

When Lili was asleep, the house belonged to them again in a quieter way.

They would sit on the sofa with their legs tangled together, the cradle monitor glowing softly in the corner. Sotis Yan Cijin would lean against Bai Li’s chest and let herself be held without saying anything. Bai Li liked those monts most, when the world had gone still enough for her to feel the shape of their life all at once. She could hear Lili breathing over the monitor. She could feel Yan Cijin warm against her. She could sll tea, soap, and the faint clean scent of the child they had made together.

"I still cannot believe this is real," Bai Li said one night.

Yan Cijin turned her face up. "The baby?"

"Everything."

Yan Cijin touched her chin. "It is real because you are here."

Bai Li kissed her palm. "That is a very pretty thing to say."

"It is also true."

Bai Li smiled and shifted so she could kiss Yan Cijin properly. Not hurried. Not greedy. Just slow enough to make them both soft. Yan Cijin’s fingers slid into Bai Li’s hair, and Bai Li let herself be guided deeper into the kiss until the whole apartnt felt smaller and warr around them. When they parted, Yan Cijin’s eyes were sleepy and bright at the sa ti.

Bai Li looked at her for a long second, then kissed her cheek and said, "You are still the most beautiful woman in the city."

Yan Cijin gave her a look that was half smug and half pleased. "You are saying that because I am holding your heart hostage."

Bai Li laughed. "Yes."

That honesty always made Yan Cijin look at her like she had been given sothing precious.

Their love did not depend on perfect days. It survived the ssy ones too.

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TO BE CONTINUED.