TTLJDFL Chapter 9

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Li Jin maintained a blank expression, but inside, he was utterly shocked.

He thought about the casual remark he had made to the young boy earlier—it was meant as a joke, but now, wasn’t it a blatant act of teasing?

Li Jin was the type of person who appeared warm and courteous on the surface but was actually difficult to get close to.

To put it simply, he had a good heart—if someone asked him for help and it wasn’t too difficult, he would lend a hand.

But truly entering his heart? That was tough.

Back in university, because of his outstanding appearance and academic performance, the department’s most beautiful girl had been infatuated with him.

However, Li Jin was someone who rejected people without hesitation.

The girl was persistent. Even though Li Jin made it clear that he wasn’t interested in dating, she continued chasing him for years.

Yet, after eight years as classmates, she still failed to warm his heart and ultimately gave up.

Later, when Li Jin joined the affiliated hospital of his university, a fellow male doctor in the same department pursued him as well.

—“Back in university, the whole school knew about how the department belle chased after you. Li Jin, are you… into men? Want to give it a try with me?”

Li Jin: “…………?”

Of course, nothing ever happened. Li Jin was someone with firm principles and bottom lines that were never easily changed. That rule had never seen an exception.

So in summary, Li Jin was slow to acknowledge people as friends, and he was even more careful not to do anything that might be misinterpreted.

Among friends, harmless jokes were fine, but emotions were a line he would not cross.

Li Jin thought to himself—he had only spent one day with the young boy so far. The physical contact earlier could still be explained as necessary between a doctor and a patient.

But as a doctor, how could he tease a patient?!

Li Zhuzi saw that Li Jin’s seemingly calm expression was on the verge of cracking and laughed.

With a chuckle, he said, “Don’t worry about my wife. She just has the narrow-mindedness of a woman—she’s petty.”

“These things, just consider them a token of thanks for curing my leg. No need to talk about money between brothers.”

When Li Jin’s family had been struggling to put food on the table, Li Zhuzi had also sent them some rice. Back then, Li Zhuzi’s wife had been extremely unhappy about it.

Their family had many mouths to feed, and they were already rationing their rice tightly, making their porridge as thin as possible.

And yet, her husband had actually sent a whole bag of rice to Li Jin’s family! That was unacceptable—she had been furious.

Li Zhuzi thought Li Jin’s expression looked bad because he was recalling that past incident.

He hurriedly explained.

Li Jin sighed inwardly. There was no point in refusing now. He accepted Li Zhuzi’s offerings, thanked him, and headed home.

By the time he returned, the baby had indeed started crying from hunger.

The young boy was holding the child, trying his best to soothe him, but to no avail.

Li Jin quickly heated up some goat milk, diluted it with water, and spoon-fed it to the baby little by little.

The sky was beginning to darken. In midsummer, the sun cast long golden rays as it set.

If the scene were captured from outside the courtyard, through the window screen, one would see a young boy sitting on the bed, holding a small child in his arms.

Their silhouettes were dyed a warm orange by the setting sun. Outside the frame, someone was feeding the child, while the boy’s gentle gaze fell upon that person.

A peaceful, blissful family.

But in reality, the scene only looked peaceful—feeding a newborn was no easy task.

At this time, there were no rubber nipples or baby bottles—everything had to be fed one spoonful at a time.

The baby often failed to swallow properly and would end up spitting some milk back out.

Qin Muwen watched Li Jin with a heart full of worry.

—That gaze wasn’t one of affection or tenderness. It was pure fear—fear that Li Jin would suddenly become violent.

Qin Muwen knew that Li Jin had always looked down on the status of gērs.

Now, not only was he a gēr, but even the child…

Qin Muwen was truly anxious.

However, when Li Jin saw the baby spit out some milk, he only frowned slightly. He set down the bowl, rummaged through the items he had gotten from Li Daniu, and found some soft fabric.

With gentle movements, he tied it around the baby’s collar so that if anything spilled, it would stain the cloth first instead of the baby’s clothes.

After finishing the feeding, Li Jin was so hungry he felt like his stomach was sticking to his back.

He had been busy all day and had only eaten a single scallion pancake.

But with his responsibilities and obligations, Li Jin chose to take care of the two little ones in the house first before cooking a simple bowl of noodles for himself.

Later, Li Zhuzi had also given him another bag, saying, “This has some freshly kneaded and cut noodles, along with a few cabbage buns. Your fūláng (wife) shouldn’t go into the fields these next few days—otherwise, he’ll develop health problems that’ll make childbirth difficult in the future.”

Li Jin boiled water and made himself a bowl of noodles. After some thought, he also fried an egg for the young boy.

Noticing a small piece of yellow crystal among the supplies Li Zhuzi had given him, he took a bite—it was sugar. He broke off a bit and added it to the boy’s bowl.

Bringing the bowl to the bedside table, he looked at the young boy, who was holding the now-sleepy baby.

“If the baby falls asleep, put him down and drink some soup.”

Just as he finished speaking, Li Jin hesitated for a moment.

Meanwhile, the boy’s face had already turned completely red.

Li Jin: "……" He really didn’t mean to.

When will this soup joke finally be over?!

=

Babies can be so mischievous. Even when they are about to fall asleep, the moment you put them on the bed, they open their mouths and start crying—almost as if they instinctively know whether the adults care about them or not.

Just as Li Jin was about to take the child, Qin Muwen hurriedly held the baby in his arms and said, "I'll hold him for a while. You should hurry up and eat your meal before the noodles get sticky."

Li Jin thought for a moment and realized this was the best arrangement.

Qin Muwen carefully observed Li Jin’s expression the entire time. He noticed that Li Jin only frowned slightly when the child soiled his clothes or swaddling cloth.

Other than that, his expression didn’t change much. It seemed like he didn’t mind the child being a ger (a male who can bear children).

Instead, because this was his own biological child, Li Jin was very attentive in taking care of him—so much so that he was even willing to neglect his own meal just to hold the baby.

Qin Muwen's heart was finally at ease.

He had spent two years in the village and had seen plenty of ugly things.

For example, at the far end of the village, there was a poor family with six children.

One night, the father of that family smothered the youngest daughter with a quilt while the whole family was asleep, pretending that she had suffocated herself.

He then took her body to town to arrange a ghost marriage for a deceased young master of a wealthy family in exchange for ten taels of silver.

The mother of that child was a fierce woman, and after discovering the truth, she caused an uproar in the village, making sure everyone knew about it.

But what truly chilled Qin Muwen’s heart was that most of the villagers believed, "It’s just a girl, and she might not even survive to adulthood. Getting ten taels of silver for her is already a good deal. Besides, you still have five other kids."

Very few people sympathized with the grieving mother.

Because of this, Qin Muwen had always feared that Li Jin might be planning to sell his own child for such dirty business.

And when he realized the baby was a ger, he became even more worried.

But now, seeing how Li Jin finished his meal quickly just so he could hold the baby again, gently stroking the child's back, Qin Muwen thought—Li Jin definitely wouldn’t do something like that.

Li Jin said, "There's an egg in your soup. It's not too hot now, so eat it while it’s warm."

After childbirth, it was customary to have nourishing soups and eat small, frequent meals.

Li Jin figured that since the young man had only been drinking soup earlier, he was probably getting hungry. That was why he made sure to add an egg for him.

Qin Muwen held the bowl in his hands. It was no longer too hot, so he picked up the spoon and took a sip.

The sweet taste made his eyes light up. Back at home, he used to love eating sweets.

But ever since he married Li Jin, he hardly had any.

In this era, sugar-making techniques weren’t very advanced. People mainly extracted sugar from sweet cabbage, as the sugarcane in the north wasn’t sweet enough. Since the capital was in the north, sugarcane-based sugar production hadn’t developed yet.

It took about thirty pounds of sweet cabbage to produce just one pound of sugar.

Li Jin caught the subtle change in Qin Muwen’s expression.

"You like sweets?"

Qin Muwen immediately put down his spoon, nodded, and then quickly shook his head.

Li Jin continued holding the baby without saying anything.

But in his mind, he already took note of it.

Halfway through the soup, Qin Muwen carefully bit into the poached egg.

The yolk was soft but not runny, just right—melting instantly in his mouth.

He had to admit, Li Jin’s poached egg skills were impressive. It was clear that this single man had cooked for himself many times before.

After finishing his meal, Qin Muwen lay in bed, listening to the sounds of Li Jin fetching water and washing dishes outside. A sense of peace inexplicably settled in his heart.

If only… if only Li Jin could always be like this.

Qin Muwen glanced at the baby sleeping soundly beside his pillow and murmured softly, "Am I being too greedy?"

=

After washing the dishes, Li Jin took a cold shower. He was intentionally training his body and didn’t care whether the water was cold or warm.

However, he made sure to dry himself off before entering the room.

By then, the young man was already asleep. On the table, a dim, flickering oil lamp cast a gentle glow.

Somehow, even though he was unwell, the young man had shifted to the innermost side of the bed, occupying only a small space.

It was as if he had noticed that Li Jin seemed to like the baby. So instead of keeping the child near the wall, he left him in the middle of the bed between the two of them.

That, in itself, was a sign of trust.

Li Jin looked at the baby and suddenly remembered—he needed to prepare rice porridge. Babies tended to wake up in the middle of the night, crying for food.

Cooking rice porridge was time-consuming. If he started now, it would be soft enough for the baby to digest by the time he woke up.

With the baby sleeping in the middle, sharing a bed didn’t seem all that uncomfortable anymore.

Qin Muwen was a light sleeper, but Li Jin, as a doctor, was even more sensitive to disturbances.

So when the baby stirred, Li Jin immediately picked him up. Qin Muwen, half-asleep, felt someone gently stroking his hair.

Before he could fully wake up, he drifted back into sleep.

=

The next morning, Qin Muwen woke up to see Li Jin wearing only his inner garments.

The baby had grabbed onto the loose ties of Li Jin’s robe, accidentally pulling it open to reveal a section of his chest.

Li Jin hadn’t noticed Qin Muwen waking up. He was holding the baby with one arm while feeding him a mixture of goat milk and porridge with the other.

Just as he finished feeding the child, he turned his head—only to find himself locking eyes with Qin Muwen.

Li Jin: "……"

This is indecent!

What kind of doctor exposes his chest like this in front of a patient?!

Tl Notes:

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