TTLJDFL chapter 19

Recognizing someone is one thing, but the shop owner’s wife wouldn’t probe too deeply into it.

After all, the person is a stranger, so why care about what someone has been through, that they suddenly went from just knowing how to misbehave to being so calm and refined?

Besides, the shop owner’s wife thought there was also the possibility that she had mistaken the person.

With this thought, she cast aside all distractions and shouted loudly again: “Steamed buns for sale, hot and juicy meat buns.”

It was just past noon, the sun beating down, and Li Jin could have found a teahouse to rest his feet before continuing.

But he was genuinely worried about his husband and child at home, so whenever he got overheated, he would find a shady spot under a tree to sit for a while before setting off again.

Walking this way—stopping and going—Li Jin spent a total of one and a half time periods, which is three hours.

When he arrived home, it was just past Shen hour (around 4 p.m.), cicadas were chirping under the persimmon tree in the corner of the courtyard, and the kitchen smelled of freshly cooked rice porridge.

Li Jin placed the basket under the eaves, and only then did he feel his shoulders freed.

He had still overestimated his own body. Yesterday he pulled a cart, and today he carried a basket. He really felt as if his shoulders were about to be torn to shreds.

The young boy stood in the kitchen, watching Li Jin rub his shoulders, his clear and bright eyes wide open, showing his concern without any concealment.

Li Jin waved to him, “Come here.”

The boy must have practiced walking a lot today; he could now walk steadily without holding onto the wall and reached him smoothly.

Before the young man could react, a warm bundle was shoved into his hands. He looked down and saw it was another meat bun from the main street of the town.

The skin was thin and the filling abundant, the meat juice delicious, with crisp lotus root pieces—it was very tasty.

Li Jin was over half a head taller than the young man. He ruffled the young man’s hair and said, “Go inside to eat; I’ll clean up here.”

But the young man helped Li Jin cook the rice porridge and goat’s milk together before he agreed to go inside.

Little baozi curled up in the swaddling clothes, and even blew bubbles while sleeping, seeming to be having a sweet dream.

The young man took bite after bite of the meat bun, watching Li Jin take the bamboo leaf paper and rough-edged paper out of the backpack and place them on the cabinet at the foot of the bed used for miscellaneous items.

Bamboo leaf paper and rough-edged paper were both relatively cheap, essential for students from poor families to practice calligraphy or write essays.

Back when Qin Muwen was still the son of a high-ranking minister, although he wasn’t favored, he used only the finest xuan paper for practicing calligraphy or painting.

He thought that A Jin is such a wonderful person that he should earn more money to buy Xuan paper for him.

Li Jin did not know what was on the young man’s mind. He arranged everything neatly and said, “I should find someone to make a small writing desk.”

Then it could be placed by the window, so practicing calligraphy during the day would not waste the oil lamp.

After the young man finished one bun, he left another for Li Jin.

Li Jin smiled and said, “I’ve already eaten. You obediently eat the bun, and I’ll go ask the villagers about making the small writing desk.”

He paused for a moment, then said, “Be good, and I’ll cook you braised pork tomorrow.”

When the boy heard the words ‘braised pork,’ he actually swallowed a mouthful of saliva, which was especially clear in the background of only summer cicadas.

This time, Li Jin didn’t laugh, but just gently pinched the boy’s cheek.

In the village, a few of the older generation knew some carpentry skills, but recently, they were too busy with the farming season, all harvesting wheat.

Only one family had many sons at home, providing ample labor. The elders were relatively free in their daily life and most enjoyed smoking dry tobacco while watching Li Daniu play chess.

Li Jin also got to know this old man earlier while playing chess with Li Daniu.

When he went to visit, the old man was sitting in the yard, a cigarette in his mouth, holding a file in one hand and a chess mold in the other.

His dim yellow eyes squinted as he carved carefully. Li Jin stood in place, waiting for him to put down the chess piece before knocking on the door.

The old man said, “That scholar kid from the Li family, come in quickly, I’ve seen you long ago. If it weren’t that this carving can’t be interrupted, I would have called you in directly.”

Li Jin cupped his hands and said, “Everyone in the village knows that Uncle Dahe is excellent at carving with a knife. Coincidentally, my matter isn’t urgent, so I’ll wait for you to finish carving before coming in.”

The old man was named Li Dahe and had once worked as an apprentice at a carpentry shop in town when he was young. “You play chess well, and you’re even better as a person than at chess.”

This could be considered quite high praise.

Li Dahe said, “The rumor in the village earlier really wasn’t to be trusted. By the way, what did you come to see me?”

Li Jin finally explained the purpose of his visit.

“Our family needs a small writing table, about five chi¹[The Chinese character 尺 (chǐ) primarily means a traditional Chinese foot (a unit of length equal to one-third of a meter)]​ long, three chi wide, and two and a half chi high. Uncle Dahe, do you have time recently?”

A writing table is a place where scholars write or paint, and they come in various heights.

Five chi long is roughly around 1.6 meters; three chi is approximately 1 meter; two and a half chi is about 0.8 meters.

Li Jin hadn’t originally planned to make it this wide, but at this time, writing tables were generally quite wide.

Because people in ancient times wrote with brushes, most Xuan paper was four chi, which is 138 centimeters long and 69 centimeters wide. The desk had to be made a bit wider to lay the paper flat.

But in that case, the bedroom, which wasn’t very big to begin with, would feel even more cramped.

Li Jin thought that practicing calligraphy was the main thing for now, especially since there were less than eight months left until the child scholar exam. He could put up with the limited space in the room for the time being.

After the villagers finished their busy farming season, he could hire a few people to help him build a study in the courtyard opposite the kitchen, which appeared somewhat empty when the door was opened.

Li Dahe said, “Sure, I have some wood here, all polished. I can prepare it in a couple of days and send it over to you.”

Li Jin hurriedly thanked him and asked about the price.

Li Dahe waved his hand, “We’re from the same village, so I’ll be honest with you. That wood is leftover from making doors for a businessman in town.

One side was polished, and the other side was originally meant for carving, but the first attempt at carving didn’t turn out well, so the businessman simply replaced it with another piece of wood.

Having the wood here was of no use to me; even if I gave it to you for free, the rest you only need to give me eighty wen.”

Li Jin first paid half of the deposit, and forty wen more went out of his pocket.

When he went out, he couldn’t help but sigh that studying really was an expensive thing.

He gave the teacher two hundred wen as the gift for studies, bought thirty-seven wen worth of cured meat, and purchased rough-edged paper, bamboo leaf paper, copybooks, rabbit hair brushes, and ink blocks totaling two hundred and fifty-five wen. Over here, crafting a small desk cost another eighty wen.

All told, he earned six hundred and forty wen, leaving only sixty-eight wen remaining.

Today he also bought buns for three wen, and not counting the forty wen deposit yet unpaid, Li Jin only had sixty-five wen left in his pocket.

After finishing all this, Li Jin returned home. Outside the bedroom, he vaguely heard someone inside gasping in pain.

He didn’t know what was happening, so he hurriedly pushed the door open.

— Inside, he saw a young boy with his clothes in disarray, holding a child against his chest, looking at him in panic.

Li Jin stood still, pretending to be calm.

In reality, his soul had no idea where it had already flown off to.

Two patches of redness quickly appeared on the boy’s face. He wanted to push the child away and adjust his clothes, but as soon as the child left him, the child cried.

In the end, he could only give up, letting himself be seen like this by Li Jin.

Li Jin cleared his throat lightly and turned his head away.

“I heard your voice from outside and thought you weren’t feeling well…”

The young man didn’t even know how to react, his movements stiff, and he didn’t know what he had answered Li Jin.

Li Jin saw there was nothing here that needed his help, so he turned and left the room, fetched some water to take a shower, and washed his hair while he was at it.

By the time the young man finished feeding the child and came out, Li Jin had already mixed the dough with coarse flour, water, and eggs.

He also chopped some scallions, sprinkled in some salt, and mixed it all together again.

The fire in the stove flared up, a layer of oil was brushed on the bottom of the pan, and a ladle of batter was poured evenly onto the bottom. Soon, the oil was absorbed by the batter, and with the pan heated by the fire, a golden pancake quickly took shape.

Before the pancake turned too brown, Li Jin quickly flipped it, and in no time, a pancake was ready. Li Jin made a total of four pancakes.

While the pan was still hot, he cut the pork belly into thin strips and stir-fried it together with shredded potatoes.

In the village, very few people would cook meat when it wasn’t a holiday, but luckily the smell of stir-fried shredded potatoes with pork belly didn’t spread too far.

Otherwise, if the village kids caught a whiff, they’d definitely come knocking to beg for a bite.

Dinner was simple, but for the young boy who had basically never touched meat since getting married into the family, it was incredibly delicious.

Plus, Li Jin was quite skilled, and with a good mix of meat and vegetables, even simple dishes could taste really good.

After eating a pancake, the young man quietly glanced at Li Jin a few times.

Li Jin said, “You’ve been taking care of the child a lot recently, eat more.”

His original intention was that these past few days, he, as the father, had been outside cutting grass or gathering herbs during the day, while feeding the child was all done by the young man.

But the young man, thinking of something, blushed, lowered his head, and withdrew the hand that was about to reach for the pancake.

Li Jin: “…”

He personally fed the last piece of pancake to the young boy.

The boy was completely shocked, never expecting Li Jin to care for him to this extent.

At this moment, all his shyness and bashfulness vanished.

In his heart, he suddenly remembered what his father had said before he passed away: “Awen, your father won’t be able to see you get married. But you have to remember, if your husband treats you well in the future, you must never get arrogant because of being favored; and if he treats you badly, you don’t need to go out of your way to win his approval. Just have a child and raise it safely. Got it?”

Qin Muwen wondered, was he just acting shy, or was he being arrogant because of being favored?

But… it seemed that Ajin didn’t seem to dislike him.

The boy looked at Li Jin’s profile bathed in the orange-red sunset and suddenly said, “Ah Jin, my name is Qin Muwen. You never asked for my name before, and I didn’t dare tell you…”

He paused here, seeming to recall some unpleasant memories, his face turning a bit pale. But he still apologized, “It’s all my fault, I should have told you myself.”

Li Jin was also slightly stunned. Over the past few days, he had gradually recalled some fragments of the original owner’s life, but they were always scattered pieces.

As for the name of the boy he most wanted to know, it never appeared in his mind. Li Jin had even been troubled by this.

But he never imagined that the truth of the matter… was that the original owner hadn’t asked for the boy’s name for two years after getting married.

The young man thought that he would try his best to do as his father said, not to be arrogant because of favoritism.

But in the situation where the husband was so good, he couldn’t help but try to please him.

He really liked his own name, and he wanted to share the things he liked with Ah Jin.

After the young man finished speaking, he nervously waited, but Li Jin did not react at all.

Qin Muwen wanted to cry, but he was afraid that tears would make Ah Jin dislike him.

So he forced himself to hold back the tears, leaving just a hint of redness at the corners of his eyes.

At that moment, the boy was embraced by an embrace that wasn’t very big, but warm enough.

Li Jin’s voice came from above: “Xiao Wen.”
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  [The Chinese character 尺 (chǐ) primarily means a traditional Chinese foot (a unit of length equal to one-third of a meter)]​