Description: Yan Mo and Zhao Qiao Yi spend time with family, as they begin their own family.

Forever Child

When her niece and nephew turned two years old, Zhao Qiao Yi traveled to Nanchuan along with her husband, Yan Mo, in order to celebrate their birthdays along with the rest of the family.  It was there that she spent one afternoon taking the twins on a stroll through the park along with their mother and her best friend, Hao Wu Yi.

When they happened upon a stretch of grass with no one else nearby, Wu Yi spread out a blanket and set her children loose on top.  She and Qiao Yi then settled themselves on a nearby bench to keep a watchful eye over them as they chatted and caught up with each other’s news. 

Even though they both lived in Beijing, now that Wu Yi was juggling a writing career on top of the raising of two children and Qiao Yi was kept busy by the continued growth of Yan Mo’s company, the two friends had little time to meet and kept tabs on each other mostly through the phone.

“I can’t believe how much they’ve grown since I last saw them!”  Qiao Yi remarked.

“You haven’t seen them in over a month!” Wu Yi pointed out.

“I’m sorry.  But you know how things have been at work.  We launched a new app recently, and everyone’s been hard at work on it.  Especially Yan Mo.  I live with him and feel like I’ve hardly seen him for the past two months.  I’m pretty sure Dao doesn’t recognize him anymore,” Qiao Yi said, referring to their dog.  “This weekend is the first break he’s had in a while.”

“Is it really a break if he stays holed up in your bedroom on his laptop?”

Qiao Yi smiled wryly.  It was true.  She might have managed to wrangle Yan Mo out of Beijing for the twins’ birthdays, but she hadn’t been able to wrangle the laptop out of him.

Just then, Wei Miao ran over to interrupt by handing them each a clump of “flowers.”  Even though the bouquets consisted primarily of bits of grass and weed, Wu Yi and Qiao Yi still showered her with smooches, gratitude, and praise, before she ran back to join her brother, Wei Xiao, for a nap under the sun.

As they watched Wei Miao toddle back to the blanket, Qiao Yi commented on how adorable the children were, which prompted Wu Yi to ask, “Don’t you want one of your own?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then when are you and Yan Mo going to . . .”

“Wu Yi,” Qiao Yi cut off her friend.  “Do you realize how much you sound like my mother right now?”

“Speaking in seriousness, I don’t understand it.  It’s not like you don’t like kids.  I’ve seen you with mine.  You love them.  Even Yan Mo.  Even though he’s got that cold act thing going on . . .”

“I wish you wouldn’t call him cold, you know he’s not.”

“You know what I’m talking about.  And I know he’s not, but that’s my point.  It’s not that he doesn’t like kids either.  He’s really good with the twins, in fact, and I think he’d make a great father.”

At that, a mental picture came to Qiao Yi’s mind and she smiled fondly.  “Yes, he would.”

“So what’s the problem?”

Qiao Yi sighed heavily.  “I just told you how I’ve barely seen my husband in two months.  How can we have children when we’re always so busy with work?  At first, we held off because we wanted Panda Company to be more stable.  Even though things are a lot better now and things are stable, it’s still a lot of work.  There just hasn’t been a good time.”

“Qiao Yi, you can’t think like that.  If you do, there will never be a good time.  If it’s not one thing, it’ll be another.  First an app, then a new product, followed by an upgrade.  The way your company works, there’s always something going on,” Wu Yi reminded her.

“I know that.  But, it’s just . . .”

“There are no ‘buts.’  Children aren’t something you have after you’ve planned your life ever so carefully.  Children are something you have and then you plan your life around them.  At least, that’s how it was for me.”

Qiao Yi smiled, remembering the detoured path of her brother and best friend’s courtship.  “Maybe you’re right.” 

~*~

When the weekend ended, Qiao Yi and Yan Mo returned to their home in Beijing. 

Sometime after that there was another late night where Yan Mo was hard at work on his laptop and Qiao Yi was sitting next to him, watching the television, while playing with Dao’s paws.  A commercial came on for diapers and a roly poly baby danced across the screen. 

“Yan Mo, what do you think?  Don’t you think our Wei Miao and Wei Xiao are cuter than that baby?”

“Mm, they are cuter,” he answered, without even looking up.

“What would you think if it was our baby?  Do you think it’d be cuter?”

At that, Yan Mo looked up and wondered what his wife was talking about.  Seeing the dog next to her, he assumed that was the baby she was referring to and answered, “Sure, although he is a little hairier.”

“Yan Mo!  I’m not talking about Dao!”  Although she quickly leaned over to reassure him, “You’re very cute too,” lest his feelings be offended. 

“Then what are you talking about?  We don’t have a baby.”

“I was talking about if we had a baby.”

“Oh.  Sure.  It would be cuter.”

Qiao Yi crossed her arms in annoyance over the sofa pillow in her lap.  “What do you know?  You don’t even want to have kids.”

Yan Mo had just started working again when his hands paused over the laptop keyboard.  He scratched at the back of his neck and thought carefully.  He had a feeling that somewhere in the last five seconds, the conversation with his wife had just completely changed directions.

“What are you talking about? 

“I said, I know you don’t want to have kids.”

“When have I ever said that?”

“You haven’t said you wanted kids.”

“That doesn’t mean I’ve said I don’t want kids.”

“Then what does it mean?”

“I thought we were both in agreement to wait before having kids.  Until we were ready.”

Qiao Yi picked at the pillow cushion.  “We were.  I was.”

“There you go, then.  I was waiting for you to signal to me that you were ready.  I didn’t want t