By the time Xu Ye got to the hospital, Yang Lin had already been wheeled into the delivery room.

Jiang Meilin was sitting outside. She looked a little flustered.

Xu Ye sat down beside her. "How long has she been in there?" He kept it light.

"She just went in."

Jiang Meilin's voice was soft. "Having a baby isn't easy. When Qingqing was born, I was in the delivery room for fifteen straight hours."

"Medicine's come a long way. Nothing's going to go wrong."

"Mm." Jiang Meilin nodded. "The doctor said a natural birth might be difficult, so it'll most likely be a C-section. If they do a C-section, she should be out in about an hour."

"I didn't tell Qingqing. She has class this afternoon. I figured even if she came, there wasn't much she could do, and I can handle the running around here."

At Yang Lin's age, there was definitely some risk in having a baby. She'd lost her mother while she was still in school and grown up with just her father, and not long after she started working, her father had died of an illness too. As Yang Lin's only close friend, Jiang Meilin was very worried about her.

She couldn't sit still. Every few minutes she looked up at the delivery room doors. When Xu Ye saw that, he went downstairs and bought two bottles of yogurt drink. He handed her one. Then, to take her mind off things, he smiled. "Auntie Jiang, do you think Auntie Yang Lin's having a boy or a girl?"

"They're not allowed to tell you the sex anymore."

"Isn't there that saying? Sour cravings mean a boy, spicy cravings mean a girl."

Jiang Meilin smiled. "If you go by that, it's probably a boy."

"Really?"

"Xiao Xu, would you rather have a boy or a girl?" Jiang Meilin figured talking might ease her nerves too, so she turned the question back on him. It felt more like she was feeling him out.

Chen Qingqing had asked Xu Ye the same question before, and he hadn't gone into it.…