"Why would I fool you? My daughter and son are indeed my daughter and son, absolutely. But what you said doesn’t sound very nice, and it gives me the urge to have our big brother give you a good beating! I bet our big brother, who loves me so much, would definitely fulfill this small wish of mine, right?" Shuzhen gave her second brother a fierce glare and looked at her big brother with a coquettish air.
The always sister-loving Liu Shouren nodded at her words: "Of course, I’ll find some time later to thrash him. Little sister, you’re still in your confinement period; don’t stoop to the level of this brainless moron of a second brother. Otherwise, if you get irritated, even tearing this loose-tongued fool apart wouldn’t be enough to compensate for a hair strand."
Shouyi widened his eyes: To say such things, are they truly biological brothers? It was just an unintentional slip out of shock! Do you really want to throw your brother under the bus just to please the little sister, big brother? Even if I’m not as gentle and lovable as little sister, we’re still blood brothers!
Unfortunately, Liu Shouren was busy chatting with his precious sister and admiring the newborn twin nephew and niece, having no time to feel his silly brother’s grievances, as deep as the sea and as high as a mountain.
Lianshan, on the other hand, noticed but agreed with his brother-in-law. This foul-mouthed second brother-in-law really did deserve a beating. As the kids’ father, he refrained from pouring gasoline on the fire but wouldn’t speak up for him either. An unintentional mistake is still a mistake!
After a brief inquiry about the family situation, Shuzhen, once assured all was well, started to brag about her daughter to her big brother.
Obviously small and wrinkled, with eyes not yet open and a head shaped a bit long and pointy from the birth canal pressure. No matter how you look, the little one doesn’t seem anywhere near pretty, yet she’s somehow deeply favored by little sister and brother-in-law. Though the child now seems frail, with sparse hair and a less rosy complexion than her second brother’s, she’ll grow!
With almond eyes, willow-leaf eyebrows, a tiny cherry mouth, and an oval face, a petite nose so straight and proper, she combines all the best features of both her and Lianshan. Take good care, and in a few months, she’ll become the most adorable little darling, and in a decade, a beauty surpassing all predecessors.
This was boasting with such confidence that Shouyi couldn’t help but chuckle. It’s difficult not to laugh when big brother and Lianshan earnestly nod in full agreement. Their abilities as team leaders and breed research specialists deserve applause—especially for this strong ability to talk nonsense with eyes wide open.
In the midst of sharing imaginings of her daughter’s extraordinary beauty in over ten years, an ill-timed interruption from her second brother made Shuzhen’s eyes fill with daggers, aimed right at him: "Laugh, laugh, laugh, why is what I’m saying so funny to you?"
Seeing his little sister’s eyes almost spitting fire, Shouyi chorused along with his heart, but on the surface, he dared not nod honestly, right?
Otherwise, the staring big brother and the glaring brother-in-law would team up in a second and smite him!
Rubbing his head awkwardly, Liu Shouren swiftly denied, "No, no, little sister, you’ve got it wrong, second brother didn’t mean it."
Shuzhen frowned, filled with suspicion.
Quick-thinking, Shouyi suddenly blurted an excuse: "Really, as true as pearls! I was just wondering, with such great nephew and niece, have little sister and brother-in-law thought of good names for them? If not, second brother here can do the job!"
As for naming them, that truly is a serious task, but Shuzhen and her husband quickly rejected the idea of letting her second brother handle it.
No other reason, his naming skills just aren’t commendable!
Just look at how "Jiandang," "Jianguo," and "Jianjun" rolled out, at best they’re era-appropriate, at worst they’re names that filled the streets. When Jiandang, who was already attending school, returned with the story, his teacher called out Jiandang in first-grade roll call, and boy, did six or seven kids stand up all at once! Wow, that was just a small village like Liu family’s production brigade!
To prevent her second son’s and eldest daughter’s names from becoming commonplace, Shuzhen quickly excused, "Well, Lian En’s name was picked by me, and back then your brother-in-law didn’t get the chance and has been resentful. I said then, I get to choose the first child’s name, and if we have a second child, the name is all his. One should keep one’s word, and since the second birth is twins, well, that’s just their luck."
To save her second son and eldest daughter’s names from the name-waste-loving second brother, Shuzhen maintained her shameless insistence on truth-bending.
Fortunately, Lianshan was good at supporting the lie, his eyes shining bright as he responded excitedly, "Isn’t it? Ever since it was confirmed Shuzhen was expecting twins, I’ve been actively preparing. Mulling over it day and night, nearly flipping through the whole dictionary, all just to find unique, meaningful, yet catchy names for my daughter and son!
But after a thorough search, no matter how many possibilities arose, none matched Lian En’s name. That wouldn’t do; even the best options were discarded. With brothers, connection must be evident in all aspects, like big brother being Liu Shouren and second brother Liu Shouyi; ’Renyi’ (Benevolence and Righteousness), it’s obvious they’re as close as can be.
So our second son with Lian En too must have this. I thought maybe another idiom sequence: like ’En Shen Ai Zhong,’ ’En Wei Bing Xing,’ ’En En Ai Ai,’ ’En Gao Yi Hou,’ ’En You Chong Bao,’ I think they’re all pretty good."
Upon saying this, the room fell silent.
Honestly, Lianshan’s suggestion wasn’t that bad.
But, Idioms starting with ’En’ don’t exactly roll off the tongue in a pleasant way!
Even amongst Lianshan’s painstaking picks of these few grandstandings among mediocres, Shuzhen still found herself unable to accept them. Considering the unexpected second son, she estimated she’d need to have two more sons to get her cherished young son—Yanzi, the cherished last child—and naming them within a single idiom? Imagining her cherished youngest titled Lian Chong, Lian Hou, or Lian Bao, Shuzhen felt uneasy.
Forget it, mentioning even more idioms with ’Lian’ suffixes is unnecessary. Who could reason with brothers named Lian Wei and Lian Bing?
Not wanting her earlier bragging to immediately backfire, Shuzhen quickly switched the topic to name her daughter. All she could hope was that her silly husband didn’t waste his Worker Peasant Soldier University years and could come up with a brilliant name. Something not overly common like Hongmei, Lamei, or Meilifangfang, causing her daughter to grow up wiping tears and snot over its tackiness.
As it turns out, the lad has some ability in naming. However, doesn’t this name sound a little too familiar?
Indeed, the moment he mentioned the two characters "Xinzhi," big brother’s expression changed immediately: "Brother-in-law, that’s not cool, Liu Wu, Wu Liu, and little Xinzhi were names given by my father-in-law and your sister-in-law for our three kids. You’ve taken them without notifying us, which isn’t quite fair!"