Nicole saw Wang Yi come back, set down the plate she was holding, and turned to give him a hug.
Then she gave him a kiss.
"Wang, you're finally back. I missed you so much."
Wang Yi nodded. "Me too. I missed you and our little one."
As he spoke, he gently rubbed Nicole's belly.
It was still flat, without the slight bump people talked about.
Nicole shook her head with a smile. "It's only been a month. There's no way it would show already."
Wang Yi smiled and put an arm around Nicole. "Either way, you don't have to do any of this from now on. Let's hire a housekeeper."
After getting together, the two of them hadn't hired a housekeeper, wanting to enjoy their time alone. Someone just came by every other day to clean the apartment.
But now that Nicole was pregnant, Wang Yi felt they should hire someone to look after her every day.
Nicole smiled and shook her head.
"It's only been a month. Back in your village, I heard about an older woman who was already ten months pregnant. When her family went to harvest wheat in the summer, she still had to cook for them. While she was tending the fire, she suddenly went into labor. She went to her room by herself, gave birth, cut the umbilical cord, wrapped up the baby, and then went right back to cooking."
"When her family returned from harvesting, she'd had the baby and finished cooking."
Wang Yi laughed at Nicole's story.
"That was a long time ago. Women used to have six or seven children, eight or more, and some even had over ten. My mom said that by the time she'd given birth a few times, she barely felt anything anymore. Giving birth was