A Compromise

Shut and Iliyas's troubles were, in fact, also Zhou Ming's troubles.

To carry out the "Deceive the Heavens to Cross the Sea" plan, Iliyas would certainly have to return to the Main Continent... after she gave birth.

If Iliyas went back, what would happen to Shut, who had already been declared "dead"?

And what about their child?

It was an extremely thorny problem.

Naturally, Zhou Ming, who wanted to recruit the two of them, did not rush matters. Instead, he gave Shut a long vacation, assigned him no tasks, and let him properly accompany Iliyas.

At the same time, he arranged for a large number of servants, dispatched the most skilled Imperial Physician, and even came to visit twice in person.

A month passed like this.

Amid increasingly intense waves of labor pains, Iliyas, who had been pregnant for nearly ten months, finally went into labor.

After she was moved into a temporary delivery room—

"Ah! Ah!"

After roughly five hours of agonized cries, accompanied by a loud, piercing wail, the child was successfully born.

Shut, his face full of anxiety, lifted the curtain and rushed into the delivery room.

The midwife carried a baby over to Shut and said with a smile, "Congratulations, sir. Your wife has given you a boy."

Looking at the infant in swaddling clothes, Shut murmured, "I'm a father... I'm a father!"

He carefully took the baby, grinned foolishly at his son for a while, then walked to the bed nearby and said to his pale-faced wife, "Iliyas, the child... this is our child. We have a home now!"

Iliyas smiled and nodded, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye.

After three days of recovery.

Aside from being slightly weak, Iliyas was already able to get out of bed and walk.

Zhou