Wen Qian hesitated for some time before reaching the pier outside the city. People had already gotten off, but no one came to pick up this basket.
Just as the crew member was wondering whether to send it directly to the orphanage, the last three women to leave the ship, one of them picked up the basket.
When she picked up this basket, the scene that flashed in her mind was her grandmother and grandfather wrapping her in their embrace.
This scene was not something she had witnessed with her own eyes, but rather something her grandparents had told her about during her upbringing.
Her grandparents had meticulously described to her their first impression of her as a baby—what she looked like, how long and how heavy she was.
They recounted how they had wrapped the infant in their thick clothes and hurried home at that time.
They talked about how they raised the child, feeding her with the rice oil they had boiled and later on, rice porridge as she grew a little older.
Back then in the countryside, there were no cans of infant formula milk.
In any case, the childhood fragments described by her grandparents about her growing up process now swept through her mind like a hurricane.
She was already forty-six years old, and time had passed for too long.
So long that her memories of the past had started to fade, but she still remembered the words her grandmother had told her.
Her heart began to swell.
Just as her grandparents had raised her, Wen Qian felt that she should also be able to raise this child.
Like herself, this was also an abandoned child, but Wen Qian seemed to have put herself in the perspective of her grandparents.
The difference was, her grandparents had formed a family at that time and had hoped for a child, while her situation was different.
At this moment, she decided to adopt the child.
Although she had no experience, she could learn.
When her grandparents had found her, they were already in their late fifties, almost sixty, but she was now in her forties and would definitely have time to raise the child to adulthood.
When Wen Qian realized that she was actually calculating the time it would take to raise the child, she knew that she had decided to keep and raise this child.
Originally, Ni Sha was supposed to go to the hospital, while Big Ning and Wen Qian were going to go shopping, and the two groups would meet at the hospital.
Now with a child added, Wen Qian went to the hospital with Ni Sha instead.
At the hospital, when the doctor saw them carrying a child in a basket, he frowned and asked, "How many days?"
If the child wasn't born in the hospital, then it must have been a home birth, but generally, people wouldn't bring a newborn to the hospital unless there was a problem.
Wen Qian had to say that she had found the child on the way, which made the doctor's expression even more serious.
An abandoned child meant there might be an issue, but after examination, the doctor found that other than having six fingers, the child was healthy.
Since Wen Qian had brought the child for a check-up and intended to raise it, the doctor instructed a nurse to administer vaccinations.
As for the child's vaccination handbook, bottles, and formula milk, Wen Qian had to pay for them herself.
Wen Qian paid for a bunch of items, and the infant slept obediently in the basket.
After Ni Sha had the child examined, she came to find Wen Qian and asked if she had thought of a name.
Wen Qian paused, wondering what name she should give the child if she were to raise it. She couldn't think of one right away and felt that she needed to go home and look through a dictionary first.
Seeing her deep in thought, Ni Sha teased, "What's the matter? Do you need to go home and think about it carefully?"
In the past, names were given casually, but for Wen Qian's generation, naming a child carried the expectations and hopes of adults—they wanted the name to be unique, meaningful, and promising.
With the advent of the calamity, names had now reverted to simplicity. People no longer had desires or a need for comparison; they only hoped to survive.
"I want to give her the little name An An," Wen Qian said.
"Peace and safety? That's a good wish for the child," Ni Sha felt there was no better hope for a child than that.
After Big Ning finished shopping, she came to the hospital to wait for them. She said that since Wen Qian had gained a child today, she even wanted to give her a gift as a celebration.
Although she had decided to raise the child, Wen Qian was still quite nervous.
She knew that despite not having experience raising children, newborn infants, especially those who had just been born, were not easy to take care of.
They needed frequent diaper changes and had to be fed many times.
And once the formula milk ran out, she would need to go to the village and buy a sheep to feed the child until at least one year old.
So Wen Qian calculated the expenses of raising the child. She remembered that her space seemed to have books on childcare, though she didn't know why she had bought such books in the first place.
She gently touched An An's little face, thinking she would treat this day as the child's birthday.
Come to think of it, wasn't her own birthday also the day she met her grandparents? Wen Qian suddenly smiled.
The three women left the city, and Big Ning found it amusing to see the basket and bags in Wen Qian's hands.
After just one trip out, they had suddenly gained a child.
Wen Qian had originally thought of letting the child call her "grandma" when she grew up, but the other two said that at over forty years old, she should just be called "old lady" instead.
Wen Qian thought it was still too early for that, so she decided she would figure it out later when the time came for the child to address her.
Now that she had a child, Wen Qian felt that she would need to re-plan her time for the next few years.
It would be difficult for one person to take care of a child and get enough rest, but with the help of her space, at least Wen Qian wouldn't have to worry about the water getting cold or the milk spoiling when feeding the child.
She just needed to prepare everything and put it in her space, and it would be like having an unlimited supply for the child.
But there were still many issues, such as changing diapers and burping the baby, which would take time.
What if the child had a fever or headache? Wen Qian shook her head, her thoughts were a tangled mess.
Ni Sha seemed to have noticed Wen Qian's worries and tried to reassure her, telling her that she would have her husband send over some of their child's old clothes when the time came.
So Wen Qian started consulting Ni Sha about what to pay attention to with a newborn baby.
At least her traveling companions were experienced in giving birth and raising children, which allowed Wen Qian to put her mind at ease a little.
When they arrived at the village, Wen Qian asked the grocery store owner to inquire if there were any lactating sheep for sale in the village.
She discussed the time and price range with the owner, who would bring one back when a neighbor went to the market next time.
She didn't bring the child to the village but instead had Big Ning and Ni Sha wait outside with the child.
Since the child belonged to her now, the fewer people who knew about it, the better. That way, no one would come looking to claim the child when she grew up.
Moreover, this child had six fingers, which would make her even more recognizable than ordinary people.
Because she had been disgusted by such situations before, Wen Qian didn't want An An to experience the same thing later on, which was why she was being so cautious.
