Chapter 19.1

When Jiang Rou woke up, the sky outside was already bright. 

After a good night’s sleep, she felt much more refreshed.

Her eyes instinctively scanned her surroundings and then fell on Li Xiao, who was standing at the foot of the bed.

Li Xiao was bending over the crib, clumsily changing the baby’s diaper.

The baby drank milk in the morning, and after following the nurse’s advice and giving her some water, she peed.

Li Xiao wasn’t very skilled at changing diapers. Earlier, when he had noticed that the woman in the middle bed was about to change her baby’s diaper, he had gone over to observe.

The woman in the middle bed had given birth two days ago and was leaving today. Before leaving, her husband, a retired soldier, had gone to complete the discharge procedures, so she was waiting here with her baby. While waiting, she took the opportunity to feed her child and change the diaper, talking about how they still had a three-hour drive home.

This woman was kind-hearted. Seeing Li Xiao earnestly learning, she demonstrated while explaining a few key points to him.

Li Xiao watched and believed he had learned, but when it came time to do it himself, he felt completely lost. He couldn’t even lift the baby’s tiny legs, let alone dare to touch her. He was really afraid that he might hurt her.

In the end, the diaper was put on crookedly, and when he finished dressing her, her left leg had a noticeable bulge. He had no idea what had gone wrong.

Fortunately, Jiang Rou woke up. She watched for a while and finally couldn’t take it anymore. She told him to bring the baby over.

Hearing her voice, Li Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. He turned his head to look at her, then carefully carried the baby over.

Now he wasn’t afraid of holding the baby, but his movements were still stiff, as if he were carrying a precious offering.

Jiang Rou couldn’t help but laugh. She slowly sat up in bed and then took the baby from Li Xiao’s hands.

Her movements were much more skilled than Li Xiao’s. When her sister-in-law (in her previous life) gave birth, the nurse handed the baby to Jiang Rou first, saying that since she was a prospective police officer, she had a righteous aura that could ward off evil spirits.

It wasn’t superstition, but rather a beautiful blessing for the new life in the family.

Perhaps because she was the first to hold her nephew, he had been close to her since he was a child.

So when it came to taking care of babies, Jiang Rou was quite experienced.

For example, she knew how to change diapers and clothes.

She gently laid the baby on her lap and then untied her little pants.

The little one was wearing a onesie that Jiang Rou had specially ordered before. It was starting to get a bit chilly, so before giving birth, she had worried that she would sleep for a long time, and Li Xiao wouldn’t know what to do. So she had prepared the clothes in advance, stacking them together—an inner layer of thermal wear and an outer, thin cotton-padded jacket. When winter really set in, she planned to add a thick cotton coat on top.

The thin cotton-padded jacket was tied with straps, and the thermal wear had buttons.

After removing the two little pants, she saw that the diaper inside had bunched up into a lump on the right leg, not covering anything.

Li Xiao stood aside and watched Jiang Rou’s movements with an embarrassed look on his face.

This was the first time he had felt a little stupid.

Jiang Rou couldn’t help but laugh. She regretted not having a phone at that moment; otherwise, she would have taken a picture to keep as a memory.

This was, after all, the first time Li Xiao had changed their daughter’s diaper.

Jiang Rou removed the diaper, then gently held the baby’s tiny ankles, lifted them, and quickly placed the diaper under her little bottom. She then carefully tied the diaper straps.

The little one slept soundly with her eyes closed, her tiny fists loosely clenched by her head, not even making a sound. Unlike when Li Xiao was changing her when her little brows were furrowed tightly as if she were enduring something.

After Jiang Rou finished, she didn’t let Li Xiao return the baby to the crib but instead carefully held her in her arms. Perhaps sensing that this was her mother, the little one instinctively snuggled closer.

Jiang Rou’s heart softened. Suddenly something came through her mind. She looked up and asked Li Xiao about the specifics of the baby’s birth time and weight.

Childbirth had been so painful that she hadn’t known when exactly she had given birth. When she woke up in the morning, her body felt completely drained, and after eating, she had fallen asleep again.

It was only now that her mind thought about these details.

Although Li Xiao wasn’t skilled at changing diapers, he remembered everything the nurse had told him. Their daughter had been born at 2:17 in the morning, weighing 6.12 pounds. Although she wasn’t very big, she was within the standard weight range, very healthy, and had spared her mother a lot of pain—a sign of filial piety.

Whether a baby could show filial piety at such a young age, Li Xiao didn’t know. Even though his child didn’t look very beautiful, with her red, wrinkled skin and slightly pointed head, all he knew was that from the moment he laid eyes on this little being, he couldn’t help but feel a deep affection towards his and Jiang Rou’s child.

Jiang Rou gently touched her daughter’s tiny fists with her fingers and then poked her little cheeks.

Seeing this, Li Xiao relaxed as well.

He took a nearby chair, sat down, and pulled out an old, worn-out dictionary from his pocket. Leaning lazily against the wall, he began to flip through the dictionary, then wrote something in a notebook.

He was cramming at the last minute.

Jiang Rou glanced at him and couldn’t help but pursed her lips, silently thinking that he deserved it.

Ever since Li Xiao returned from out of town, he has frequently been flipping through the dictionary. Jiang Rou had peeked at it a couple of times and noticed that he was looking up boy names like Wei and Hai. He was fixated on having a son. She had even reminded him at the time, but he refused to believe her, insisting that their family always had sons.

It was as if not having a son would somehow reflect poorly on him.

But now, she couldn’t resist adding, “Just don’t pick some name like ‘Mei’ or ‘Hua’—too old-fashioned, it’ll be embarrassing to say it out loud.”

The hospital room was very quiet. The family in the middle bed had moved out, and the woman on the bed near the door was sleeping with her back to them, so they didn’t dare to speak too loudly.

Li Xiao was silent for a while, glanced at her, and didn’t say anything.

However, he did cross out a few words he had written in the notebook.

Jiang Rou: “…”

With his taste, she knew better than to have any high expectations.

Li Xiao sat there for a while before heading home to cook. Before leaving, he prepared the baby’s formula and moved the crib next to her, making it easier for her to lay the baby down if she got tired.

Jiang Rou noticed that the baby was still sleeping. Worried that the prepared formula would get cold by the time the baby woke up, she tucked the bottle into the bed to keep it warm.

Shortly after Li Xiao left, the door to the hospital room was pushed open from the outside, and a large group of people came bustling in.

The noise startled the little one in Jiang Rou’s arms, making her let out a few soft whimpers.

Jiang Rou leaned toward the window to avoid the source of the noisy sound and then gently patted the little butt of the child in her arms.

The little one, not particularly sensitive to disturbances, quickly fell asleep.

However, the baby on the first bed was woken up by the commotion and began crying loudly.

The woman had to get up and soothe the child.

The two nurses who had wheeled in the pregnant woman were not pleased and said to the accompanying family members, “Can you keep your voices down? There are others here, too.”

One of the family members who had come in was a middle-aged man Jiang Rou recognized. She had previously encountered him and his wife when they were temporarily sharing a room while waiting for the baby to be born.

Judging by this, the person lying on the wheeled bed was likely his wife.

This time, the middle-aged man wasn’t alone. He was accompanied by four girls, the tallest of whom was almost as tall as he was, looking around seventeen or eighteen years old. The youngest was on the eldest back and seemed to be about four or five.

The children’s clothes were patched, and they didn’t look well-nourished. Their skin was sallow, and their hair was dry and brittle.

It was obvious that they were not well taken care of.

The newborn was being held by an elderly woman who looked energetic. She smiled so broadly that her face was full of wrinkles, and she cooed, “My dear grandson, grandma has been waiting for you for a long time.”

The middle-aged man stood by eagerly, clearly wanting to hold the baby, and said with a smile, “This child takes after me.”

The girls stood silently to the side, showing no signs of happiness.

The two nurses pushed the bed to the middle spot, glanced at the family, and were not surprised by the situation. They merely frowned and said, “Come over and help lift the mother.”

The man acted as if he hadn’t heard.

The two nurses, who were quite young, looked displeased. Seeing this, the girls, concerned for their mother, ran over to help.

One of them lifted the quilt, while the other two helped the nurses lift their mother. One supported her upper body, and the other supported her lower body. They were so busy that they were sweating nonstop.

Jiang Rou couldn’t help but turn her head to look, catching a glimpse of the mother’s face, which was so pale and even a little blue.

Before leaving, the nurses gave instructions to the family: “She had a lot of blood loss during delivery and used quite a few blood bags, so you’ll need to pay the balance. Also, make sure to keep the mother clean and change her clothes regularly, or she might get an infection.”

Upon hearing they needed to pay more, the old woman and the middle-aged man immediately looked displeased. The man hesitated, clearly pained by the thought of spending money, while the old woman angrily retorted, “It’s because of your poor medical skills! Why are you asking us for more money? You should be compensating us instead! What if something happens to my grandson? Can you afford to pay for that?”

The two nurses didn’t seem to be surprised by the family’s attitude. They were too lazy to get entangled with them. They exchanged a glance and left without bothering to argue further.

Jiang Rou guessed that they had probably gone to find their supervisor.

The old woman and the middle-aged man, thinking that they had frightened Jiang Rou, showed smug expressions. The old woman even took two steps forward and shouted loudly, “You better pay up, or I’ll report this to the police!”

The voice was so sharp and loud that it echoed through the entire corridor outside.

On the other side of the room, the child, who had just stopped crying, started wailing again in fear upon hearing the loud shout.

The woman by the bed looked dissatisfied but held back her anger as she patted and comforted her child.

But the old woman, being unreasonable, turned her head and said to her rudely, “Make your child quiet down; my grandson is still sleeping.”

The woman trembled with anger, probably having never encountered such a person before.

The middle-aged man, holding his son nervously, shouted, “Mom, his mouth is moving. Is he hungry?”

The old woman, too busy to scold anyone further, rushed over to check on her grandson.

After picking up the child, she said, “Hurry, wake up your wife and have her nurse my grandson.”

It seemed that the middle-aged man had only just remembered he had a wife and quickly went to wake the woman lying on the bed. In the end, it was the girls who couldn’t stand it anymore and said weakly, “Mom is sleeping.”

The middle-aged man acted as if he hadn’t heard and continued shouting, even pushing her a couple of times. The old woman cursed and, holding the child, went directly over to lift the woman’s clothes. Seeing the shriveled chest, not to mention the milk, it seemed like there wasn’t even water.

Nevertheless, she handed the baby over, who instinctively took a couple of suckers, then wrinkled his nose and started to cry.

The old woman scowled. “Useless thing.”

She turned around and scolded the girls, “Why don’t you go home quickly to get rice porridge for your brother? If he starves, I’ll beat you to death!”

The four girls’ eyes reddened, and they quickly turned and ran out. Even the little girl on the eldest child’s back seemed to sense something, hanging her head in grievance.

The old woman and the middle-aged man began pacing the ward, trying to soothe the baby. The old woman’s eyes flickered with a greedy light as she noticed the two large, bulging sacks at the head of Jiang Rou’s bed.

Fortunately, Jiang Rou’s bed was by the window, with over half a meter of space between it and the wall. The sacks were placed there, along with a crib and a stool.

Noticing the old woman’s gaze, Jiang Rou lowered her head, hoping to avoid getting involved with such people. However, she thought about telling Li Xiao about this when he returned.

Luckily, the little one in her arms was sleeping soundly. Though she heard the commotion, she simply buried her face in Jiang Rou’s chest and wasn’t disturbed at all.

Jiang Rou couldn’t help but smile, thinking that this child was indeed incredibly well-behaved.

But then the middle-aged man seemed to notice something and tugged at his mother’s clothes, signaling her to look at the other woman in the ward.

It turned out that the woman in the first bed was lying on her side, nursing her child to keep him from crying.

The old woman’s eyes were sharp. She carried the baby over, saying bluntly, “My grandson hasn’t eaten since he was born. Feed him too.”

(T/N: How can they be so shameless?)

The middle-aged man followed.

Hearing the noise, the woman turned her head and, seeing the middle-aged man approaching, flushed with anger, said, “Don’t come any closer. I’m nursing my child!”

The old woman said domineeringly, “Why are you shouting? You’re scaring my grandson.”

The middle-aged man behind her was ogling the woman as well.

“You…”

The woman was so furious she couldn’t speak. The child in her arms was frightened again, started crying again, and vomited a mouthful of milk.

Jiang Rou couldn’t bear it any longer. She covered the little one’s ears and shouted towards the door, “Nurse.”

The woman, as if suddenly realizing something, immediately joined in, shouting even louder, “Nurse! Nurse—”

Her voice grew increasingly shrill.

The old woman frowned in dissatisfaction. “What are you yelling so loudly for?”

Soon a nurse came over, frowned, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

The woman, with reddened eyes, pointed at the old woman and the middle-aged man and said, “Can you make them leave? This man kept staring at me while I was nursing, and they even tried to force me to nurse their child, which scared my baby into spitting up milk.”

The old woman, hearing this, became upset. “Who’s looking at you? Do you think you’re special just because you have two breasts? Everyone’s got them! Letting you nurse my grandson was giving you face, but you don’t appreciate it.”

The scolding became more and more unpleasant.

The woman, wiping her tears, tried to soothe her child as she listened.

The nurse frowned at the troublemaking old woman and the middle-aged man. “This is a hospital, not your home. If you want to make a scene, do it at home. As family members accompanying the patient, you are welcome here, but please don’t disturb the other mothers and babies. During breastfeeding, men should also step outside. If you continue this behavior, I’ll call the head nurse.”

It was clear to her that this family was a bunch of scoundrels.

The middle-aged man blushed with embarrassment.

The old woman was not convinced. “What do you mean? Who would stare at you? She was just being overly sensitive. She couldn’t even watch her breastfeeding. Women in our village breastfeed openly in front of others.”

Before she could finish, the head nurse arrived with another nurse. The younger nurse pointed at the middle-aged man and the old woman, saying, “They’re the ones who refuse to pay and are demanding compensation from the hospital.”

The head nurse, a stern-looking middle-aged woman, walked straight over to them and, with just a few words, escorted the mother and son out.

Finally, the room fell silent.