Chapter 19.2

After the old woman and middle-aged man left, the mother in the first bed looked gratefully at Jiang Rou, thinking that if it hadn’t been for her reminder, she wouldn’t have remembered to call the nurse.

Jiang Rou, who was alone, had spoken up to help her, and this touched her heart.

After some time, the old woman returned with the baby, her face looking sour. It was unclear what the head nurse had said to her.

Just then, the little one in Jiang Rou’s arms woke up, gave a delicate yawn, and stretched out her tiny fists, as if she had slept well.

Her previously closed eyes fluttered open briefly before closing again.

Seeing this melted Jiang Rou’s heart.

She took out the milk she had kept warm under the blanket, tested the temperature on the back of her hand, and found it just right. The milk, which had been a bit too hot earlier, was now perfect.

Jiang Rou placed the nipple of the bottle near the baby’s mouth. The little one turned her head, instinctively opened her mouth, and began to suck.

The old woman, who had just coaxed the child to sleep and put him in the crib, was furious when she saw this scene. 

When her grandson had no milk to drink, this woman didn’t say a word, but this woman had kept quiet, and now she was interfering when they had to ask the neighboring mother for milk. 

She charged angrily toward Jiang Rou, raising her hand as if to strike her, and cursed, “You little wretch, keep the milk to yourself until now!”

It was the first time Jiang Rou had encountered someone so aggressive. She frowned, looked up, and glared at the old woman, her tone turning cold. “What are you doing? I’ll call the nurse.”

But the old woman wasn’t scared at all; her expression was fierce.

It seemed she thought that since Jiang Rou was alone, no one would stand up for her even if she was bullied.

Jiang Rou, still not fully recovered, knew she would suffer if she confronted the woman head-on. Quickly, she set down the bottle and grabbed the scissors from the bedside table.

These were the scissors Li Xiao used to peel pomegranates.

Raising the scissors high, she looked at the old woman with an icy stare and threatened, “Take one more step, and you’ll see what happens.”

The old woman hesitated when she saw the scissors in Jiang Rou’s hand, her steps faltering.

If it had been the mother in the first bed, the old woman might not have been as intimidated. That woman appeared weak and timid, unlike Jiang Rou, whose gaze was fierce and stubborn.

It seemed that if she took another step forward, Jiang Rou would dare to stab her with scissors.

But the old woman was still angry and couldn’t resist cursing, “You must have given birth to a girl; otherwise, you wouldn’t be all alone. You let that waste of a girl drink milk! You are clearly wasting it! She might as well drink urine! She will grow up to be a little tramp.”

The more she cursed, the more vulgar she became. Jiang Rou kept her composure; what was the point of arguing with someone like her?

However, the mother in the first bed had tears in her eyes again.

Jiang Rou looked at the old woman expressionlessly and retorted, “You’re a woman too, so you must have grown up drinking urine. How does it taste?”

The old woman choked on her words.

The woman in the first bed, who had been feeling sad, couldn’t help but burst out laughing at this.

The old woman, her chest heaving with anger, blackened her face and tried to curse again: “You shameless fox, giving birth to another little fox, both growing up to be seducers…”

Jiang Rou’s expression immediately darkened.

She was about to fight back when she saw a figure appear at the door of the ward. She didn’t know when he arrived, but his face was extremely grim as he walked in with long strides.

The old woman, hearing the footsteps, turned around to look. Seeing the intimidating expression on Li Xiao’s face, she felt a pang of fear. “Who are you?”

Before she could finish, Li Xiao kicked her in the stomach, his voice as cold as ice. “Say that again; I dare you.”

The old woman screamed “Ouch” as she was caught off guard and fell backward.

(T/N: Man, that was so satisfying; do it again!)

This incident happened so suddenly that not only the old woman couldn’t react, but also Jiang Rou and the other mother in the ward were momentarily stunned.

Li Xiao, who was holding things in both hands, slowly walked toward the old woman. She had been clutching her stomach in pain, crying out “Ouch, ouch,” but as he got closer, she immediately stopped making any noise, only whimpering quietly.

Seeing this unfold, Jiang Rou let out a sigh of relief. Noticing that Li Xiao was about to kick the old woman again, she hurriedly stopped him. “Let’s worry about her later; the child has peed.”

She wasn’t worried about the old woman out of sympathy but rather concerned that Li Xiao might accidentally injure her, and they would be blamed for it.

Hearing Jiang Rou’s words, Li Xiao finally stopped, though his expression remained grim. He cast a cold glance at the old woman, saying, “Stay right there.”

The old woman’s face twitched with fear, and she dared not cause any more trouble.

She quickly scrambled to her feet and, without waiting for Li Xiao to say anything further, hurried out of the room.

Finally, the ward fell silent again.

Jiang Rou picked up the bottle again and continued to feed the little one in her arms.

The little one, seemingly curious, craned her neck to look around, either watching the commotion or looking for her father.

Jiang Rou felt a bit embarrassed and gently patted the baby’s little bottom, urging her not to get distracted and to focus on drinking her milk.

Li Xiao placed the small dining table on Jiang Rou’s bed and then began setting out the dishes he had brought from home: shredded lettuce, stir-fried bean sprouts, stir-fried pork with wood ear mushrooms, and a large enamel jug of pigeon soup.

To prevent the soup from spilling, he had wrapped the large enamel jug in several layers of scarves, and it took him quite some time to unwrap it.

As he unwrapped it, he said quietly, “I managed to get some wild red ginseng from a friend. I’ll cook it for you tomorrow.”

Jiang Rou, after handing the baby to him and starting to drink the soup, couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t that expensive?”

The baby had finished her milk, leaving just a little bit. Li Xiao unscrewed the bottle and drank the remaining milk himself, not wasting a drop.

Hearing Jiang Rou’s question, he said without thinking, “It’s not expensive. I met a friend who used to deliver goods. I helped him out before, so he gave it to me.”

Jiang Rou didn’t press the matter further.

The pigeon soup smelled quite fragrant, but it tasted rather bland.

After drinking a few sips of the soup to warm her stomach, Jiang Rou started on the dishes.

Li Xiao carefully replaced the lid on the enamel jug and wrapped it up again with the scarf, worried that the soup might get cold.

As Jiang Rou ate, she began to complain, recounting what had just happened. Li Xiao listened with a furrowed brow, especially when she mentioned how the middle-aged man from the neighboring bed had stared at the breastfeeding mother. He didn’t care much about others, but Jiang Rou was staying here too.

He couldn’t be there to protect her all the time.

But dealing with troublemakers was his specialty. With a calm expression, he said, “Don’t worry, leave this to me.”

With his assurance, Jiang Rou felt at ease. She smiled, lowered her head, and obediently continued eating her meal.

Li Xiao glanced at her, and a faint smile touched his eyes.

Then he lowered his head to look at the little one in his arms. She fell asleep again after drinking milk. The little hand on her cheek was raised, with one tiny finger pointing up next to her cheek. His smile deepened at the sight, and then he suddenly said to Jiang Rou, “Let’s call her Ping’an, Li Ping’an.”

He hoped she would have a life of peace and health.

Jiang Rou paused in her eating and looked up at him with some hesitation. While the name “Ping’an” had a good meaning, it didn’t sound very nice.

Of course, it was certainly better than the name the little one had in her previous life. Back then, she had been called Li Feng, which, when reversed, was like the word for “pineapple.”

“Ping’an is too plain. Look how beautiful our daughter is. She’ll definitely grow up to be very pretty. I feel like that name doesn’t suit her. How about this? I’ll choose her formal name—Li Qingshu. Her nickname is An’an. What do you think?”

After saying this, she nodded with satisfaction and said, “Li Qingshu—just hearing it makes you think of a beautiful person. It’s so poetic.”

Li Xiao asked, “What, Qing and Shu?”

Jiang Rou traced the characters on the table with her finger: “Qing as in pure, Shu as in a beautiful lady. Isn’t it nice?”

Li Xiao glanced at her writing and then raised an eyebrow, quickly seeing through her. “You just put two pretty characters together, didn’t you?”

“…”

Jiang Rou rolled her eyes at him. Did he have to be so blunt?

Li Xiao chuckled. “Okay, I’ll listen to you. The full name is Li Qingshu, and the nickname is An An.”

He repeated in a low voice, “An An, not bad.”

Jiang Rou rolled her eyes secretly.

As she turned her head, she accidentally made eye contact with the other mother in the room. Thinking they might have disturbed her, Jiang Rou smiled apologetically. “Were we too loud?”

The mother smiled and shook her head; a trace of envy flashed in her eyes, and she said with emotion, “You two have a really good relationship.”

Jiang Rou blushed at the comment.

She wasn’t sure where the woman got that impression.

She turned her head and secretly glanced at Li Xiao, but he didn’t seem to react much. He simply placed the baby gently in the small bed next to them.

Then he began eating the leftovers from Jiang Rou’s meal, not even bothering to use a different spoon. Seeing this, Jiang Rou didn’t know what to say. She felt that he was sometimes very diligent and did things in an orderly manner, but sometimes he was very lazy. How lazy was he? Sometimes he was unwilling to wash an extra pair of chopsticks or a pair of socks.