The next day.
As both Xiaoyun's wives had fallen asleep beside him in the master's bedroom, the same scenario happened again.
Yuqi woke up in the middle of the night in pain. But this time it was much more severe, as she could barely move at all.
Xiaoyun had to carry her all the way to the car, then drove to the hospital and carried her all the way to the emergency room.
This time, the doctors and the nurses instantly recognized who they were. They were sent instantly into a delivery room rather than an emergency room like last time.
Everyone in the hospital, including Xiaoyun, thought it was going to be a relatively smooth process since the one yesterday went so well.
Unfortunately, Yuqi was having trouble.
The baby wasn't coming out even as Yuqi tried her hardest to push. It was a completely different story compared to Leyan's zero-difficulty childbirth.
Soon, the doctor and Xiaoyun stepped out of the room to talk. A talk that shook Xiaoyun in disbelief.
"Mr. Mayor, I need to ask this before we do one last check for an emergency C-section... Do you want the mother or the baby?"
"The mother, of course! What kind of question is this?" Xiaoyun immediately questioned, his face looking insulted by the question.
"Sorry."
---
As the sun was already rising from the horizon, Yuqi was finally able to overcome the challenge as she gave birth naturally in the end.
It was a healthy girl, quietly resting in her arms as Xiaoyun pushed the bed out of the emergency room and into the hallway.
"I'm never giving birth again, Xiaoyun. That was the worst experience I ever had." Yuqi warned.
"Even better."
After pushing Yuqi's bed down the hall, the two of them finally arrived at the same room where Leyan had been resting.
"Mom! How do you act like it's nothing? This hurt so much! I can't imagine giving birth to three of us."
As Yuqi immediately pressed Leyan for an answer, she only shrugged before turning her attention back to Yongyi in her arms.
"I don't know. It's different for everyone. For me it was perfectly smooth... Anyway, stop scaring Yueyue; she's all afraid now."
Looking over to the right, she had completely missed Yueyue, who had been sitting there with her body visibly shaking.
Nami and Lily were there as well, their eyes full of curiosity as they sat still, seemingly too scared to walk up, as if someone had lectured them earlier.
"I-I'm fine. I-I think Yuqi had an issue because her b-body shape is a lot s-skinnier than both of us."
Seeing Yueyue stuttering over and over again, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh as it became abundantly clear that last night had left a scar in her mind.
"Hey! That's not my fault! It's a shame I only inherited mom's top part... Mom's is so lucky to have a perfect body."
As Yuqi jealously stared at Leyan, Xiaoyun tried to step in and break it up as he gently patted her on the head.
"You're fine, darling. I love you all either way." Xiaoyun comforted.
"Change 'All' to 'Me,' and that would be more comforting," Yuqi murmured as she finally shifted her attention back to her baby in her arms.
Xiaoyun awkwardly lifted his hands away, scratching his head as he couldn't change his answer with all three of his wives in the same room.
"Your baby's name is Lianrong, right?" Leyan suddenly asked as she looked over to the two of them in bed.
"Yeah, since she's a girl, her name is going to be Lianrong." Yuqi quietly whispered and patted her on the head.
"Can I hold it?" Yueyue curiously asked as she walked over to the other side of Yuqi's bed, her eyes glancing constantly.
"Sure, but Nami can only look," Yuqi warned.
"Why! That's not fair. I won't hurt it." Nami protested.
"You know why."
Nami looked a little annoyed by the decision, but she had no choice as she watched Yuqi gently put Lianrong into her older sister's arms.
As Yueyue gently touched the baby's face, she noticed how similar it looked to Yuqi—a surprisingly sharp face with small cheeks.
"Looks like this baby inherited most of her mom's genes. It looks so similar to Qiqi and mom."
Yueyue murmured as she swapped the baby over to Leyan, letting her mom hold onto it while she held Yongyi.
"Yeah, it really does. It kind of looks like you too." Leyan commented as she gently handed Lianrong back to Yueyue.
"Duh, that's because all three of you looked so similar. If someone put all three next to each other, they would think all three of you are sisters."
Nami pointed out the obvious, which didn't make any of them feel offended. Instead, they felt a little happy as they chuckled a little.
"Yeah yeah, you aren't wrong," Yuqi murmured as she accepted her own daughter back into her arms.
"I'm so tired... I'm going home now. Lily, let's go."
As Nami yawned and left the room with Lily, Yueyue soon got up as well as she stretched out her arms.
"Ahhh, I'm so tired as well. I'm gonna go home too. I need to catch up on some sleep before work." Yueyue yawned.
"You don't have to go to work, just sleep in as late as you want... Actually, let me drive you back first."
"Okay."
With Yueyue out of the room, Xiaoyun turned around and headed towards the exit. Until a voice suddenly called him back.
"Wait! Xiaoyun, I need you to share—"
"Yuqi, you stay in the hospital, okay? You don't need to worry about anything. I'm not letting you go back to the office for at least a month."
The sudden raised voice shook her a little, but she accepted it in the end as she looked down at Lianrong in her arms.
"Fine, whatever, just more break for me." Yuqi quietly whispered as Leyan let out a small chuckle.
"Xiaoyun, you might want to leave. Yueyue is waiting, and work is about to start soon." Leyan reminded.
"Oh snap."
As Xiaoyun left the room immediately, Leyan and Yuqi both looked at each other, along with the baby looking at each other as well.
"Hey mom... is it just me or is our baby a little odd?" Yuqi suddenly asked as the two babies kept staring at each other.
"What are you talking about? They are perfectly healthy." Leyan questioned as she seemingly had misunderstood Yuqi's point.
"No, I'm not talking about us being related to Xiaoyun... I'm talking about the aura that the baby gives off."
Yuqi thought about it for a second, then continued.
"They are so quiet... It's like the opposite of what you told us when we were a kid. It's calming, isn't it?" Yuqi restated her question.
"Um, I guess? It's probably just some hormone that is affecting your brain when you are next to your baby.
Don't overthink it. I've seen a lot of babies who were just as quiet and behaved. It really depends on luck." Leyan murmured.
"Maybe you're right..."
Just as Yuqi disregarded her worry, both babies suddenly started crying.
"M-mom, what s-should I do?" Yuqi questioned as she started to panic a little, looking a little lost on what to do.
"They are just hungry."
Seeing Leyan lower her clothes and start breastfeeding her baby, Yuqi lowered her clothes and raised her arms to help the baby up.
Right before her eyes, the baby started sucking her nips. The crying had completely stopped as the room fell into near silence.
"M-mom d-do you get turned on a little by this?" Yuqi shyly asked as she felt a weird tingle in the back of her head.
"It's normal, don't think too much about it... It's a human body part that has a lot of sensitive nerves." Leyan replied, her face not flinching in the slightest.
Eventually, the two babies fell asleep. Yuqi herself was starting to get sleepy as she let out a loud yawn.
"Mom, where can I put the baby? I don't want to drop it by accident or crush it."
"Just press that button over there."
Leyan pressed her hand onto the button on the wall, and then waited. A minute later, the nurse came in with a whole tray.
"Mrs. Leyan, do you have any issues?" The nurse asked.
"No, but can you bring a crib to my daughter's side? Yuqi wants to put her baby down now."
"No problem, we will do that right away."
----
As Xiaoyun dropped off Yueyue back at home and drove into the office, everyone was already inside the office working.
"Everyone, please go to the meeting room now, including the people working at the booth and all the heads of other departments.
If you know anyone who's currently outside, tell them to come back in. I repeat, everyone who works for the civilian government in the office is to attend and get here in an hour."
After saying it out loud, Xiaoyun quickly realized something.
"Wait, don't call the agriculture department or the construction department. They are excluded from this reform... Dismissed."
Half of the office immediately headed towards the meeting room, while the other half headed outside.
Meanwhile, Xiaoyun himself went inside Yuqi's office.
The moment he sat down on the sofa, drowsiness began to set in. He couldn't resist it at all as his eyelids closed on their own.
Only when someone knocked on the door did Xiaoyun immediately wake up again. His face still looked a little sleepy as he opened it.
To his surprise, the entire main office was full of people, with the meeting room door fully open as well in the distance.
There was not a single bit of room for anyone to move around—zero room for him to even walk out of Yuqi's office.
Not wasting any more time, he cleared his throat before speaking up again.
"Everyone! Please go to the training field. This place is too small for us."
Within seconds, people began walking towards the exit one by one, allowing Xiaoyun actually to walk out of the office.
By the time he arrived at the training field, everyone was already there. Slowly, he walked up to the stage.
Looking around at the podium stand, Xiaoyun could see men and women all looking up to him in silence, waiting for him to start.
"Good morning, everyone. I have you all here today to give a very important announcement about new civilian reforms."
Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.
"From now on, there will be eight departments in total. Each of them will have its own head and headquarters separate from the main office.
This reform is to help delegate and differentiate responsibility for each worker. You should not feel an increase in your workload.
Some might even feel a decrease in their workload, as the new individual will be hired to fill the mini-department established in the new department's system."
Xiaoyun could see some of the workers' faces starting to look a little excited, while most of them looked more confused and lost than anything.
"The Agriculture and Construction Department will stay the same. There will be mostly no changes to these two departments.
Outside of it, there will be a newly established trade department. Their task will be purely to work with outside trade.
Next is the store department that manages all the sales of goods in government stores. They will continue with the current accounting system for now.
Then there is the economic department that will be managing the newly established commercial districts as well as the industrial district.
For education and health, they will be their own department as well. They will be directly integrated into the schools and the hospital, respectively.
Lastly, there will be the department of internal affairs. This will serve as the main department of all seven other departments.
They will manage the resource distribution as well as the currency of food stamps. It will continue to stay at the main administrative building.
Their role will be managing payroll, serving and answering the citizens' needs. It will be heavily reshuffled based on past performance and prior experience."
The moment Xiaoyun announced the last part of the sentence, he could feel the flame in the workers' eyes.
It wasn't anger or anything. Rather, it was the drive—a motivation to climb the ladder that had been mostly flat until now.
"Ahem, in total, there will be eight departments. All of them will still be under me as the mayor and co-mayor with Yuqi.
We will be working as the internal affairs department to ease the transition between everyone with their newly assigned department."
Xiaoyun hesitated for a second as the next part was a hard choice. In the end, he chose to keep it a secret for now.
"Due to some circumstances, the co-mayor will be back after a month or so. I will be working in the office for the next month.
Now the important part, the promotion for each department...."
As Xiaoyun started announcing which people go to which department one by one out loud, some workers were overjoyed upon hearing their name,
Meanwhile, some looked a little disappointed. But none of them dared to throw a tantrum as they saw the pistol strapped to his waist.
"All the department locations are still the same for now, as their building aren't constructed yet, except for trade and store.
They will have their department moved to the commercial district. Just as a reminder, none of the newly announced jobs are set in stone.
The role of the department and individual job can change over time, and there will be ways to request changes to different departments."
The worried look on some of the workers' faces disappeared as Xiaoyun started wrapping up his speech with the last few words.
"Thank you all for your cooperation... You're all dismissed."