"You, go get some ice water from the fridge," Yukino Yukinoshita said, smoothing her hair. "And gauze."
"Okay." Dong Yunshan got out of bed and left the bedroom.
When he returned, Yukino Yukinoshita was already holding Dong Yunxi in her arms, gently patting her to soothe the baby's agitation.
Dong Yunshan wrapped gauze around his finger, soaked it in ice water, and massaged Xixi's swollen gums.
The icy sensation calmed baby Xixi down a little. Nestled in Yukino Yukinoshita's arms, she grabbed at her hair with her tiny hand.
Noticing that Dong Yunxi was starting to drift off, Dong Yunshan gradually stopped massaging her gums and removed the gauze. "I'll hold her."
"Wait." Yukino Yukinoshita gently shook her head. "Let her sleep a little more deeply first."
When Dong Yunxi let go of Yukino Yukinoshita's hair, she was truly asleep.
Yukino Yukinoshita placed the baby in the crib and patted her for quite a while before returning to bed.
After pulling up the covers, the two looked at each other. Neither of them had the mood to say goodnight.
They did not even have the strength to turn over. Lying flat on the bed, the moment their heads touched the pillows, it felt less like falling asleep and more like passing out.
Almost as soon as they closed their eyes, they heard Xixi crying.
Xixi woke up about once every hour.
For the first two times, Dong Yunshan and Yukino Yukinoshita still exchanged a few words. After that, they were basically like robots: hold the baby, soothe her to sleep, put her down, wake up, hold the baby... repeating the same process over and over, sleeping in intervals.
Sometimes, Yukino Yukinoshita could not even tell whether she had truly woken up. The boundary between dreams and reality grew increasingly blurred