My Taoist nun girlfriend is from the Republic of China era, 1942.

Chapter 155 Naming
Inside a maternity suite at a private maternity hospital in Jiangcheng.

Chen Xiaomiao has been living here for three days.

She sat cross-legged on the large hospital bed, muttering to herself.

"Inhale...inhale...exhale..."

She tried to adjust her breathing using the Lamaze breathing technique taught in parenting books, but she just couldn't find the right rhythm. Her face turned bright red, and she looked like she was about to pass out at any moment.

"Have a piece of apple to soothe your throat."

Lu Yuan tied the cut apple pieces with toothpicks and handed them to Chen Xiaomiao's mouth.

Chen Xiaomiao shook her head and groaned weakly, "I don't want to eat, I have no appetite."

"Would you like some water?"

"I don't want to drink."

Lu Yuan put down the apple, sat down on the edge of the bed, and asked softly, "What's wrong? You've been listless since this morning. Are you feeling unwell?"

"Lu Yuan, I'm really panicking."

She had lived for almost twenty years, seen soldiers and bandits, seen dead people, suffered hunger and cold... Never before had she felt so uneasy, as if a rabbit was pounding in her heart.

Lu Yuan comforted him, "Didn't the doctor say that both your and our son's indicators are excellent? Medicine is so advanced now, it's completely different from when you had your baby. I guarantee everything will go smoothly."

“I understand the logic…” Chen Xiaomiao said with her eyes downcast, “but I just don’t feel at ease.”

Chen Xiaomiao's reaction was within Lu Yuan's expectations.

A few comforting words are clearly not enough to make a pregnant woman who is about to give birth completely relax.

He picked up the remote, turned on the huge LCD TV in the suite, and randomly tuned to a channel that was playing a period drama.

"Watch some TV to distract yourself."

The TV was showing the male and female leads confessing their feelings to each other under the flowers and moon, accompanied by tender and sentimental background music, which was incredibly cloying.

After watching for a while, Chen Xiaomiao was indeed somewhat captivated.

She rested her head on Lu Yuan's shoulder, gazing at the affectionate face of the male lead on TV, and suddenly blurted out, "Lu Yuan, tell me... what should we name our son?"

The topic came back again.

These past two days, the couple almost wore out the Xinhua Dictionary trying to come up with a name for their son.

According to Chen Xiaomiao's divination, her son's name should ideally be related to the "sun," signifying a bright and promising future.

Therefore, Lu Yuan proposed several alternatives.

Lu Ming, Lu Xu, Lu Chaoyang...

They are all common and popular words with good meanings, and they are easy to pronounce.

But after savoring it for a long time, Chen Xiaomiao still felt that something was missing.

Seeing that she was starting to struggle again, Lu Yuan teased, "You've calculated our son so well, you might as well give him a name that sounds good too."

"Something more satisfying..."

Chen Xiaomiao began to think about it very seriously.

"I've got it!" She slapped her thigh, looking quite pleased with herself. "How about Lu Ritian? It sounds domineering and gives off an air of not to be trifled with!"

"Are you...are you sure?"

Lu Yuan's smile froze.

“Absolutely!” Chen Xiaomiao, completely oblivious to Lu Yuan’s odd behavior, enthusiastically explained, “Like the sun at its zenith, what a wonderful meaning that is!”

Lu Yuan opened his mouth, feeling a bellyful of complaints stuck in his throat, not knowing where to begin.

He simply couldn't explain to someone who had traveled from the Republic of China era what this name actually meant in the online culture of later generations.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Lu Yuan categorically rejected the idea.

Why not?

Chen Xiaomiao blinked in confusion, her face clearly saying, "I think you're being unreasonable."

"Cough cough..."

Lu Yuan cleared his throat, just as he was racking his brains for a tactful reason, when there was a gentle knock on the ward door, and a gentle, smiling female voice came from outside.

"Mr. Lu, Mrs. Lu, I'm here to take your blood pressure." The nurse who came in was around thirty years old, surnamed Li, and always had a perfectly timed smile on her face, which made people feel like they were bathed in a spring breeze.

She pushed the small instrument cart in and quickly tied the sleeve on Chen Xiaomiao.

"Mrs. Lu looks radiant today, her skin is so supple."

While operating the equipment, Head Nurse Li praised her familiarly, "Young people are in good shape. She's almost due, but she doesn't have any swelling at all. She still looks like an eighteen-year-old girl."

She glanced at Lu Yuan, who had been by her side the whole time, and continued to flatter him.

"I've been in this line of work for almost 20 years and have seen all kinds of family members. But someone like Mr. Lu, who accompanies his wife like this, is really hard to find even with a lantern."

You two have such a wonderful relationship; you're a perfect match, both handsome and beautiful.

A string of flattering words poured out like they were free, making Chen Xiaomiao's cheeks burn with embarrassment.

She secretly glanced at Lu Yuan, but the man remained calm and simply nodded politely to the head nurse.

"The blood pressure is stable, and the baby is very well-behaved."

Head Nurse Li packed up the equipment, smiled and gave a few words of advice to relax, and then quietly pushed the cart away.

As soon as the door closed, Chen Xiaomiao whispered to Lu Yuan, "Lu Yuan, don't you think the nurses here... are different from the ones I saw at Grandma's hospital?"

She would occasionally bring meals to Sun Yumei, who was hospitalized for recuperation. The nurses in the public hospital were always in a hurry, with stern faces and concise speech, never as kind and gentle as she was.

"They were so nice, but you're starting to have so many ideas."

Lu Yuan explained, "This is a private hospital. To put it bluntly, the service is a commodity."

Moreover, they all know that it's a common practice for people like us to give the medical team a large red envelope after the baby is safely delivered.

They're hoping for a red envelope from you, how can you be rude?

Chen Xiaomiao listened in stunned silence, and finally sighed, "My master always said that money can make the devil turn the millstone..."

"Alright, stop thinking about that." Lu Yuan steered the conversation back on track: "Let's continue talking about our son's name... Anyway, Lu Ritian won't do, let's find another one."

"I think it sounds pretty good..."

Chen Xiaomiao protested in a low voice.

"No."

Lu Yuan's attitude was firm and brooked no argument.

Looking at Chen Xiaomiao's face, which was filled with "why?", he sighed and decided to try a different approach.

"Little Miao, aren't you a Taoist priest? You've read so many Taoist scriptures."

Lu Yuan patiently persuaded, "When we name our son, let's look for inspiration from the books of our ancestors and choose a name that has a history and significance. Isn't that much better than something like 'Ritian' (日天, meaning 'the sun')?"

She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously tracing circles on the sheet, her mind racing through the words that were already etched into her very being.

"Before dawn breaks, the Radiant Spirit lies hidden... Is it Lu Yaoling?"

"Yao Ling?"

Lu Yuan pondered the word. It was definitely a hundred thousand times more reliable than "日天" (rì tiān, meaning "to the heavens"), but it seemed too aloof and cold, lacking a touch of human warmth.

"He sounds like a very accomplished person, but... he doesn't quite look like our son."

Chen Xiaomiao nodded in agreement.

She and Lu Yuan, one simple and honest and the other steady, are neither the kind of people who float in the clouds. Their son is named "Yao Ling," which seems a bit out of touch with reality.

She frowned and continued to ponder deeply.

“‘Knowing harmony is called constancy, knowing constancy is called enlightenment’... How about calling him Lu Changming?”

"It feels like it's missing something."

“'Yun, meaning sunlight'...Where is Lu Yun?”

"It sounds soft and mushy."

The two of them talked back and forth, repeating every word they could think of, but still couldn't reach a conclusion.

Just as Chen Xiaomiao was about to look for inspiration in Zhuangzi again, the smile on her face suddenly froze.

A sharp, familiar, dragging pain suddenly struck from my lower abdomen without warning, quickly engulfing my entire body.

(End of this chapter)