Chapter 83

Zhou Hehua watched from the side and exclaimed, "I want to hold him too. You said he's shy with strangers—how come he's fine with him?"

Zhou Qingzhu saw that Huo Jilin was holding the baby, and the heavy stone in his heart finally settled, so he teased Zhou Hehua: "How can that be the same? Brother Dalin here is the child's biological dad."

He emphasized the word "biological" to cement the blood tie, so Huo Jilin could never bring up old grievances again. Just looking at such a beautiful child, he shouldn't have any doubts.

Huo Jilin, holding the baby, didn't stoop to their level. The child was too young and needed rest, so after thanking everyone, he was ready to show them the door.

He shooed Zhou Qingzhu out first: "Please mind the shop these days. Run anything by your brother. Go home and rest early."

Chen Jue needs peace and quiet during his lying-in, so Zhou Qingzhu better not come bothering him.

Uncle Liu and the others saw that Chen's mother was staying and didn't stick around any longer.

By the time Chen Jue woke up, the infant had already been bathed, cleanly wrapped in swaddling, and was sleeping on the other side.

It was already past nine at night, Chen Jue figured. Auntie Zhang and the rest had already left.

Only Imperial Physician He and Chen's mother remained in the Huo household.

Imperial Physician He was planning to spend his retirement here, so staying a few extra days was no problem.

With fewer people around, the house got a lot quieter. Chen's mother brought over a bowl of creamy white fish soup and said softly to Chen Jue, "Come, drink some of this soup—it'll speed up your recovery."

She'd figured on stewing chicken soup to build Chen Jue's blood back up, but Imperial Physician He's prescribed diet was this kind of light broth.

He was an imperial physician who treated the emperor and consorts in the palace. Though Chen's mother didn't get it, she followed his orders to the letter.

Chen Jue said thanks to her: "Thanks, I've got it."

Chen's mother's heart ached at his thanks. Huo Jilin, standing nearby, took the bowl from her: "Mother-in-law, I've got it."

It wasn't that Chen Jue lacked the strength to hold the bowl, but seeing Huo Jilin hovering around with nothing to do, he let him have it.

Huo Jilin spooned it up for him, one scoop at a time. The fish soup was done just right—light, no fishy smell at all, and even a little sweet. It was a familiar flavor—Huo Jilin's cooking.

Chen Jue loved fish, so Huo Jilin cooked it all the time—sometimes from the folks who fished by the river, sometimes from the market in town.

He made every kind of fish taste great.

Chen Jue polished off the whole bowl of fish soup.

Huo Jilin pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the sweat off his face. He wiped it with real tenderness, and his chiseled face looked almost soft in the candlelight. Chen Jue wasn't used to it, and neither was Chen's mother, standing right there.

Huo Jilin was acting like no one else was in the room.

As the mother-in-law, Chen's mother was a bit embarrassed, not knowing whether to leave the room or do something. She was supposed to be the one taking care of Chen Jue, so how did the son-in-law keep beating her to it?

She'd never seen a man willing to step into the birthing room, or one who didn't mind the bloody mess afterward.

Luckily, the little one sleeping nearby seemed to wake up at the smell, opening his mouth and wailing.

Which saved the awkward Chen's mother, who perked right up and expertly picked up the baby: "Oh, is my little treasure awake? Come here, let Grandma see if you peed or you're hungry. Oh, you peed! Aw, what a good boy."

Even though Chen Jue had just had the baby, he hadn't gotten into the father role yet, so he watched with a weird look as Chen's mother praised the kid—even praising him for peeing.

Chen's mother had already changed the baby's diaper with practiced ease. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Chen Jue giving the baby a weird look and smiled at him: "Babies are like that—whether they pee, poop, are tired, or hungry, they cry to tell you. If you're not sure, just check his diaper. If it's wet, change it. See, he's not crying now, right? Come on, want to hold him? He's a handsome little fella."

Chen Jue had known all along that the child was a lad.

His pulse-reading skills weren't as impressive as Director Chen's, but he could still determine the child's sex.

A lad was equivalent to a daughter in later times.

That also matched the gender of Jiang Xinhe's child.

He had hinted at it to Huo Jilin before—when Huo Jilin asked if he preferred sour foods, he said he also liked spicy.

Thinking back, that was only a few months ago. He never imagined the child would be born so soon. Time really flew.

Chen's mother brought the baby to Chen Jue, and he reached out to take the little one, who weighed just over six jin.

The child's eyes were still closed, but sensing the familiar scent of Chen Jue, he instinctively nestled against his chest, tiny fists raised as if trying to embrace him, his mouth working—ah, he was looking for milk.

Unfortunately, Chen Jue had no milk to give him. In his late pregnancy, he had felt some changes in his chest, but only slightly—nothing indicating milk production. Even now, he felt nothing. Indeed, that function was gone for lads.

Huo Jilin leaned in to watch, and when he saw the baby nuzzling against Chen Jue's chest, he instinctively reached out to block him. The baby, blocked, pouted and began to cry. Huo Jilin awkwardly withdrew his hand and coughed: "He's hungry. I'll go get him some goat's milk."

Little Flower was now a great contributor—one goat feeding two babies. Fortunately, she was well-nourished, and her milk was more than enough for both.

Huo Jilin thought about buying another goat to nourish Chen Jue as well. Boiled goat's milk was quite nutritious.

The goat's milk was kept warm on the stove. Huo Jilin poured it into the small bowl prepared for the baby and fed him with his special little spoon.

Everything was ready, so it didn't take long, but the child acted as if he'd been starving for hours. The moment the spoon reached his lips, he opened his mouth wide and swallowed eagerly—one spoonful after another. Before long, the small bowl was empty.

"He's quite the eater," Huo Jilin remarked, surprised at how easy it was to feed him.

Chen's mother scolded him from the side: "Don't say he eats too much. His appetite is a good thing."

She held the baby and burped him, then told the two new fathers: "Our child is clearly healthy, so he'll be easy to raise. Otherwise, I really wouldn't feel at ease leaving him with you two."

The main issue was that the Huo family had so few members—no one to help out, no elders, no brothers or sisters-in-law, and they were both first-time fathers.

Even though many neighbors had come to help today, showing how well-liked Huo Jilin had become, raising a child was a long-term task. Even she, as the child's grandmother, couldn't stay for long, so how could they expect others to care for him indefinitely?

Chen's mother instinctively didn't trust the aloof Huo Jilin or the even more indifferent Chen Jue.

Huo Jilin assured her: "Mother-in-law, rest assured. I'll take good care of the child and Chen Jue. Stay here for a few days—if there's something at home, you can head back earlier."

Chen's mother said, "I'm here to see through the confinement period. I'll stay at least until the child completes his first month. Oh, right,"

She patted the little baby and told Huo Jilin: "I'll stay here this month. Jue Geer and I will sleep with the baby. I'm afraid you'll have to move to the medicine shop with Imperial Physician He."

A room had been specially prepared for Imperial Physician He at the medicine shop, and there was also a caretaker's room. Chen's mother felt her arrangement was perfectly reasonable.

In ordinary families, men slept separately from their wives or husbands during confinement. In common households, the mother-in-law would help care for the new mother; in wealthy families, it went without saying.

Men generally didn't stay in the confinement room, saying the blood energy of the birthing room could affect them.

The baby's frequent crying and reversed day-night schedule during the month also disrupted their sleep. So somewhere along the way, it became customary for men not to share a room with the birthing parent during the confinement month.

But Huo Jilin and Chen Jue both froze.

Huo Jilin was stunned because he had never thought about being separated from Chen Jue. He had been sharing a bed with Chen Jue for so many days now, and he wasn't about to move out just because of a postpartum month. Besides, he didn't trust anyone else to take care of Chen Jue as well as he could.

Chen Jue, on the other hand, was stunned because he hadn't expected to sleep on the same kang as a woman. Although there would be a kang table separating them, and in the northeast, it was perfectly normal for a whole family to sleep on one kang.

The problem was that he'd never slept on a kang with a woman before.

Even though this woman was now his mother, Chen Jue still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

So they both said at almost the same time, "No need."

Mother Chen went, "Ah?" and said, "What do you mean no need? And you two know how to take care of a baby?"

So in the end, the three of them and the baby all slept together.

A kang could usually fit five or six people. The three adults and one child could sleep on it comfortably.

Huo Jilin slept at the easternmost end. Next came the kang table, with Mother Chen on the other side of it. The baby was next to Mother Chen, and Chen Jue was at the innermost spot.

There were gaps between each of the three adults, and the baby also acted as a divider.

Mother Chen had no clue that Chen Jue was no longer her son, nor did she know how awkward it made Chen Jue feel when he saw the baby nuzzling at her chest and her unbuttoning her clothes to play with the child.

Director Zhou was already old when she adopted Chen Jue, so he naturally thought of her as a mother. Although the Mother Chen in front of him also looked to be of grandmotherly age, Chen Jue wasn't familiar with her.

Fortunately, Chen Jue was weak from blood and qi deficiency, so he lay flat with his eyes closed, resting, and drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

It wasn't until the middle of the night, when the baby cried to be changed and fed, that the two of them realized how important it was to have the mother-in-law around.

The baby woke up three times in one night, nursed twice, peed once while feeding, and pooped once.

He clenched his little fists, strained, turned his face red, and let out grunting noises. Chen Jue and Huo Jilin thought something was wrong with him. Chen Jue even checked his temperature, but there was no fever. After all that fuss, they finally realized he had pooped.

It was his first bowel movement of the day—dark, as thick as a thumb, the baby's first stool.

Mother Chen changed the diaper with a beaming smile and said to Chen Jue, "See, he's had a bowel movement. That's great. From now on, no matter how much he eats, he'll be fine."

"Mother-in-law, you've worked hard," Huo Jilin said to her.

Mother Chen hummed a soft, unknown tune, gently patting the baby to help him fall asleep, and said to him, "This is nothing. I used to soothe Jue Geer like this when he was little. He was just as well-behaved back then—pat him a few times and he'd fall asleep. Sometimes I still dream about him as a child."

Chen Jue opened his eyes in the darkness.

After a moment, he closed them again, falling asleep to the sound of Mother Chen's lullaby-like humming.

Author's note:

521, love you all.