Chapter 180: Mom and Dad are superhumans!

Chapter 180: Mom and Dad Are Superheroes!

"Come at me!"

Sheng Qingquan flipped open his novel. The staff switched into work mode, and the residents all perked up their ears to listen closely—after all, trouble might strike them next. They had no choice but to pay attention.

"When kids are quiet, they're definitely up to something! Thank goodness I'm committed to staying single."

Suddenly, everyone heard Sheng Qingquan’s voice, full of relief.

Everyone who had children at home immediately felt uneasy.

When something happens to you versus your child, it's a whole different story.

If it happened to yourself, you might tough it out, but if the same thing happened to your child, most just couldn’t handle it.

Over the past few years, quite a few people in the apartment building had gotten married and had kids—there were even several newborns.

You can't just put life on hold because of that, right?

Indeed, some who previously didn’t have partners chose not to look for one, thinking, *"Since we're into Immortal Cultivation now, what's the rush?"*

But there were others who were already in long-term relationships, some even in seven- or eight-year-long relationships.

Then, for no reason—no problems in the relationship, everything stable after years of working—you just wouldn’t propose. Even when the other person took the initiative, you still refused, making the other think you’d fallen out of love. Heartbroken, they ended things—only for the hesitant one to suddenly beg them to stay.

Stringing someone along like that—how messed up is that?

To address this, the authorities considered the residents’ needs and decided that if they were considering marriage, the partner could be brought in to sign a confidentiality agreement and get the full story. After that, whether to marry or not would depend entirely on the couple.

Thinking back, over all these years, nothing really bad had ever happened.

Besides, if something like Doomsday really occurred, even people outside this building wouldn’t be spared, right?

So those who wanted to marry still did, and those who wanted children had them.

Yuan Zixuan was one of them.

Without thinking, he scooped up the baby from the crib and held them tightly.

Only when the baby, clearly unhappy, rubbed its eyes open and waved its little arms, accidentally bopping him in the face, did Yuan Zixuan snap out of it. He realized the baby must be uncomfortable, so he loosened his grip slightly but still didn’t put the baby down.

Right now, only by feeling the baby’s warm body pressed against him, the soft weight of their chubby little form, could he feel a little calmer.

"While Yuan Zixuan went back to the room to fetch clothes for the baby, he came back to find the world going black before his eyes."

"Before leaving, he hadn’t dared to place the baby on the sofa, afraid they might roll off and get hurt. Instead, he carefully placed them on the baby mat on the floor."

"They wouldn’t fall, and they wouldn’t get cold."

"All movable furniture in the living room had been cleared away, and any sharp corners left were padded with foam."

"There was no way the baby could bump into anything."

"All doors and windows were securely closed, so there was no way they could crawl out."

"Most importantly, from the moment he entered the bedroom to the moment he returned with the clothes, it couldn’t have taken more than two minutes!"

"What could go wrong in just two minutes? And he was listening closely the entire time."

"Don’t underestimate a Cultivator’s hearing, alright?"

"Although he heard the sound of the child crawling, Yuan Zixuan wasn’t in a rush since he could tell the baby hadn’t left the sponge mat."

"Only when he came out with the clothes for the baby’s bath and saw the state of the living room did his vision go black."

In reality, Yuan Zixuan didn’t black out, but he was already frantic.

Great, he’d really hit the jackpot.

Was the kid even okay?

Of course it happened—the one thing he dreaded. Yuan Zixuan looked at the baby’s chubby little face—still blissfully unaware, grinning innocently at him.

His heart melted a little. Though he knew staff would likely come soon, he couldn’t wait and hurried over with the child in his arms.

Home alone with the baby, he was on edge.

"The diaper had somehow come loose in those two short minutes. The once-clean play mat was now a mess of yellow gunk."

"The baby was a mess too."

"Seeing her dad, the child rolled over and sat up, clapping her hands happily. Then she spotted gunk on her hands and went straight for a taste."

"Oh god, no!" Yuan Zixuan yelled, connecting the dots.

This time, he actually saw stars. The look he gave the child in his arms was a mix of horror and resignation.

"I don’t want a daughter who eats poop!"

Though she hadn’t managed to yet, in the novel’s plot, this kid was beyond saving!

Other child-free singles felt newfound terror (and respect) for parents.

How do parents not yeet the kid into a dumpster?

They’d have lost it on the spot.

"Yuan Zixuan lunged just in time, wrapping the baby’s hands in clean clothes. All she bit was fabric."

"Holy crap, that was close!" Yuan Zixuan gasped.

Sheng Qingquan exhaled in shared relief. Let alone everyone else.

Thank god the kid wasn’t ruined forever! Everyone felt a small wave of reassurance. At least next time they saw a baby, they wouldn’t think "this kid ate poop," but "this kid almost ate poop."

Both were gross, but ‘almost’ was less traumatic. At least they could play without flashbacks.

At least when a baby affectionately kissed their cheek, they could feel pure delight—not delight mixed with wondering whether they should wash their face afterward.

"No harm done if none got eaten. She was going to get a bath anyway. Toss the clothes and mat—easy fix," Yuan Zixuan consoled himself.

"Overall, not a big deal."

"Kids are basically chaos engines. Parenting is full of little accidents."

"Keep cool. No traumatizing the baby."

That said, Yuan Zixuan still checked the diaper on instinct. Still, Yuan Zixuan’s hands flew to check the diaper. He breathed easier once the diaper passed inspection.

Even so, he swore, "I'm done with this diaper brand. The kid wriggles out way too easily—the quality's terrible. Once this mess is over, I'm getting a different brand."

Fortunately, Yuan Zixuan's family wasn't short on money. Although the contaminated play mat and clothes were expensive since they were for kids, he'd rather toss them than bother cleaning and reusing them.

After peeling the kid out of her messy clothes, dragging her into the bathroom for a thorough wash, dressing her in fresh clothes and a diaper, and finally rocking her to sleep, Yuan Zixuan gave in and tackled the living room cleanup.

Once he had finally thrown away what needed to be tossed, run the floor cleaner over it again and again, and confirmed nothing unwanted remained, he flumped onto the couch, wiped out.

Half-watching the kid while mindlessly scrolling through his phone.

"Phew, finally some rest. Mindless scrolling sounds like heaven right now."

The thought alone had him wallowing in self-pity.

Yuan Zixuan recalled his wife mentioning that her pregnancy had no lasting side effects and that any discomfort could be managed with a treatment device. She had suggested, "What do you say we go for baby number two? That way, the two kids can support each other in life and have a trusted companion for cultivation."

At first, he thought, if his wife was willing, having a second child didn’t seem like a bad idea.

But now, just the idea made Yuan Zixuan break out in a cold sweat.

Forget it. One kid’s already sucking the life out of me. Let alone two.

If one goes for the poop buffet, I can still intercept. But if two try at the same time—the mental image alone is enough to make me pass out.

It’s simply a living nightmare.

Especially since he couldn’t hire an ordinary nanny.

When his wife was in confinement, the authorities had tried to assign someone to help. But now, decent nannies and babysitters were like gold dust—only insiders could get them.

Finding one would be even more difficult.

The previous helper had been borrowed from a leader’s household. But that leader had already been generous enough to lend her for a month—asking for more was out of the question.

If he got stuck solo-parenting two kids, Yuan Zixuan could already foresee his future mental breakdown.

He needed to nip this second-baby talk in the bud!

After deep-diving into mommy blogs and consulting moms in the neighborhood, Yuan Zixuan finally picked a new brand of diapers and placed an order.

"Can’t even zone out on my phone? No downtime at all." Yuan Zixuan groaned, then couldn’t resist gently nibbling his baby’s chubby cheek. "Being a dad is brutal!"

"Is raising a child really this exhausting?" Bystanders without kids were floored.

Especially since many had been raised primarily by their mothers, with their fathers only pitching in now and then.

"I should buy my mom a gift to thank her for not giving up on me and raising me properly!"

Everyone was wallowing in mom-guilt. After a long pause, someone suddenly realized something was off: "Though Yuan Zixuan is indeed miserable, if you truly love your child, this kind of suffering should just be a labor of love, right?"

"What does this have to do with Doomsday?"

"Could it be that the child has a hidden companion artifact inside her, and after eating poop, the artifact gets contaminated, goes out of control, and starts destroying the world?"

"Or maybe it's the same story, different packaging—the child gets possessed, but remnants of her original consciousness remain."

"After realizing what she just ate, the possessor gets triggered, vows revenge, and decides to make the world pay for this humiliation. She grows up corrupted, going full supervillain and triggering Doomsday?"

"That seems more plausible."

The crowd began discussing the possibilities.

["Strange, why am I so exhausted? It's worse than sparring for hours and getting pummeled repeatedly," Yuan Zixuan grumbled under his breath after placing the order and requesting rush delivery, then buying a new crawling mat. After finishing his shopping, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

"Looking at it this way, it does seem a bit odd."

"I knew something was off," someone suddenly realized. "Taking care of a child and doing housework is indeed tiring, especially cleaning up messes like this. It’s not just physical exhaustion—it’s the mental drain that really gets you."

"But no matter how tired, it shouldn't wipe you out this badly."

"He seems too wiped to even move a muscle."

"In the old days, this would’ve been normal." The physical fitness of young people back then was often quite poor.

Many shut-ins were weaker than half a goose in a fight. They weren’t even as strong as some elderly folks.

Forget doing chores—just running a short distance could leave them winded.

In that context, bathing the child, carrying them around to soothe them to sleep, cleaning up messes, tidying the house, taking a shower themselves, then comparing product reviews online before placing an order—one after another like that—it’d be weird if they weren’t dead on their feet.

No wonder there used to be that shady saying: “Moms are superheroes.”

But things are different now. Parents are basically superhuman.

"I remember Yuan Zixuan is at Qi Refining Stage Two, right? How can a Stage Two cultivator be this wiped from such minor tasks?" someone wondered aloud.

"Unless he’s faking his cultivation level, even alchemists or mages who don’t focus much on physical training wouldn’t be this weak."

But no one believed Yuan Zixuan had the ability to fake his cultivation.

He must genuinely be at Qi Refining Stage Two. So why was he so exhausted? They exchanged looks—something was definitely up.

Sheng Qingquan also felt something was off.

"Despite his fatigue, Yuan Zixuan was still feeling pretty pleased with himself. After collapsing for a while, even though his body still refused to budge, he honestly picked up his phone again to brag to his wife, who had returned to work."

"'I didn’t panic at all. Even though it was my first time dealing with this, I handled everything step by step—I’m a total natural at parenting!'"

"'Don’t sweat it, babe. I can take care of her all by myself.'"

"'I promise when you come back, you’ll find a fresh, sweet little girl—no stink bombs here!'"

"The texts seemed normal enough, but something about them felt off."

Sheng Qingquan went quiet, thinking.

Hearing this, the others snapped to attention.

Where was the problem? What was the issue?

Someone couldn’t help but glance at Yuan Zixuan, who was currently rocking the baby to sleep. "Wait, do you even *want* to be on dad duty? Are you just putting on a 'good dad' act to please your wife?"

"What era is this? You’re not stuck in the ‘sons over daughters’ mindset, are you?" someone suddenly grew alert. "Even the ancient folks who merged into our society don’t have such outdated ideas anymore. Don’t drag history backward!"

"No, the kid just had a blowout. You can’t seriously be disgusted by her, right?"

"Babies can’t control their bodily functions. It’s not her fault."

Yuan Zixuan held the child in his arms, shouting that he was being unfairly blamed as one accusation after another came flying at him: "I’m the one staying home with the kid because I'm a freelancer—I can save my work for the evenings. During the day, I’ve got plenty of time to look after her. Besides, I don’t trust just anyone to watch my kid."

"My parents haven’t retired yet—they’re still gung-ho about breaking into new markets!"

"My in-laws are swamped with their own stuff too. And we couldn’t find a reliable nanny—so guess who had to step in?"

"My wife’s job’s going really well, and she wants to keep working. I can’t just shackle her to the house with the baby."

"We had this child together—whether she’s on duty or I am, it’s the same. Since I have time, of course I’ll do it. If she has time, she’s got it."

"When she gets back from work in the evening, she takes over. We tag-team it."

"What 'image'? We're just being good parents, period."

"This is my own daughter—you think I don’t adore her? What are you even thinking?"

"That makes sense. Look at those pinchable cheeks, so soft and rosy—she definitely doesn’t seem neglected." Finally, someone backed Yuan Zixuan up.

After sending the message, Yuan Zixuan flung his phone down. Knowing his wife was at work and wouldn’t see the message right away, he dragged himself up lazily, glanced at the child in the crib to confirm she was still sound asleep, and decided to catch some Z’s himself.

Since he was on childcare duty, Yuan Zixuan couldn’t risk dozing off hard.

After barely a few minutes of dozing, Yuan Zixuan groggily opened his eyes again to check on the child. Assured everything was fine, he lay back down—but before he could fall asleep again, he suddenly shot up on the sofa, rubbing his head, baffled.

["Wait, why does this feel so familiar? Like I've been through it before?"]

Normally, hearing someone say this, people’s first reaction would be to chalk it up to déjà vu—the hippocampus effect.

Who hasn't had a similar experience?!

Sometimes while cooking, you suddenly feel like this exact scene is so familiar, as if you’ve done it before—even though it’s your first time making this dish.

Sometimes, when visiting an unfamiliar place, you might suddenly feel like you’ve been there before.

Other times, while browsing jewelry in a store, you might get that same eerie sense of familiarity.

It's as if a particular scene feels intensely déjà vu—like you've experienced it before, even though you haven't.

People often joke that it's your parallel-universe self who already did it, so now when you do it, it feels like a repeat.

In reality, it's scientifically explainable—just an illusion, not an actual past experience.

But the person saying this was a resident of Unit 2 in Baojing Community, and he said it in the original novel, not in real life.

That changed things entirely. You couldn’t just ignore that.

Even the most careless person would realize something was off.

"Could he really have experienced this before? In a dream, maybe?"

"No way! This actually happened before!"

Sheng Qingquan sucked in a breath sharply.

Here's the thing—don’t be fooled by thinking Yuan Zixuan only cleaned up the mess once. Actually, this was already the seventeenth or eighteenth time Yuan Zixuan had caught the kid going for the poop, dove to stop her, and then mopped up the mess afterward.

Doing the same thing over and over like that—no wonder he's wiped!

"He’d have to be superhuman not to be worn out."

What?

"That’s not food, and you keep trying to put it in your mouth? If only you put this much effort into actual work when you’re older!" Yuan Zixuan looked at the child in his arms with disgust and couldn’t resist booping her little nose.

"Talk about misdirected determination!"

"Who the hell is this determined to eat poop?"

The child remained oblivious, drooling in her sleep.

Yuan Zixuan sighed and lifted the bib around her neck, carefully wiping away the drool.

"What did I do to deserve this? To endure such a shock nearly twenty times."

Yuan Zixuan muttered to himself, "Thank goodness I’m young. If I were older, I’d probably have a stroke."

"One wrong move, and you’d be without a dad, you know? Without a dad!"

"But if I really did this so many times, how could I have no memory of it?" Yuan Zixuan was puzzled. "My memory’s sharp. Even just once, I wouldn’t forget—let alone so many times."

"Especially something like this. Normally, even just once would be unforgettable."

Indeed, most parents remember such incidents vividly even after their children grow up. Some mean parents even bring it up to tease their kids.

No way anyone forgets that.

And yet, all he feels is déjà vu.

She’s just a baby. If Yuan Zixuan had experienced this, it would have been recent. Old memories might fade, but recent events? With an Immortal Cultivator's memory, he should remember everything clearly.

"Did I black out or something?" Yuan Zixuan searched his mind. His memories were intact—nothing’s missing.

Does that mean he’ll lose his memory in the future?

"In Yuan Zixuan’s memory, he only did this once. That’s because every time this day ended, time would rewind—like hitting rewind—back to the start of the same day."

"Instead of moving forward normally."

"He kept reliving the same day."

A normal person wouldn’t catch on, but Yuan Zixuan is, after all, an Immortal Cultivator.

Once or twice, no big deal. Three or four times, still nothing. But after seventeen or eighteen times? He’s not brain-dead. He’d definitely sense something was off.

This subconscious warning made Yuan Zixuan, who should’ve felt relaxed after finishing the task, feel exhausted and oddly familiar with the situation.

Because Yuan Zixuan wasn’t just doing one day’s work—he’d lived this same day nearly twenty times.

Nineteen times snatching poop from his own daughter’s mouth. Could anyone not be exhausted?

After doing the same thing nearly twenty times in a row, even a novice would become skilled. He had it down to a science by now—no panic, no mess.

Jesus Christ, Yuan Zixuan thought. I thought doing this once was bad enough, but nearly twenty times? Good thing she’s my own flesh and blood!

Yuan Zixuan was about to lose his mind. Just imagining the workload—if she weren’t his own, he’d give her away in a heartbeat.

What a little troublemaker!

Yuan Zixuan ranted like crazy, but still clung to the child without letting go for even a second.

"Not just Yuan Zixuan—some people have tied the knot over and over again more than a dozen times, yet never actually sealed the deal."

"Some have been grinding away nonstop on houses for days, busting their ass only to realize they haven't even laid the foundation right."

"A mom barely survived childbirth at the hospital, finally catching her breath—what do you know, the damn baby came back. Time to pop it out all over again."

"After birthing the kid more than ten times, her stomach was still huge. Both doctor and mother were wiped beyond belief—for jack shit."

"Someone finally broke through in cultivation, about to call up the squad and celebrate—and boom, his power crashed right back down. Back to hunting for another chance, sharpening himself up again, forcing another breakthrough."

"One guy finally scored time in a med pod, got healed up, and walked out of the hospital feeling like a new person—only to get yeeted straight back to square one..."

"Fuck this!" Yuan Zixuan couldn't help but curse, his complaints dying in his throat.

At first he thought he was the unluckiest bastard alive.

But now, hearing all that—

"Compared to them, what've I got? Just some extra stink and hassle."