TTLJDFL chapter 7

“Weren’t there only six of us coming to do laundry today? How come there’s an extra person at the back?”

“Ah, I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t mentioned it. Is this person actually male or a ger’er ?”

“Are you stupid or what? That’s obviously that loser Li Jin!”

“He’s holding a basin and a mallet , is he going to do laundry too?”

“Who knows? Didn’t her husband just give birth recently? I didn’t notice, but Li Jin is still someone who can be compassionate.”

Li Jin followed them at a moderate distance; although his legs were long, each of his strides covered a large distance.

In this era , to avoid giving the wrong impression between a man and a woman, it’s best not to get too close.

There is a river at the head of the village, and the water is about as deep as a grown man’s knees.

There are small stones and crabs at the bottom of the water, which is clear enough to see through, and the girls and ger’er in the village all come here to do laundry.

However, the villagers also had a verbal agreement, which was that every time six households would go to wash.

After all, it’s a river, with upstream and downstream, so the people washing clothes upstream inevitably have a slight advantage.

To be fair, everyone takes one of the six stone piles and washes clothes at the upstream pile in turn.

By the time Li Jin got to the river, everyone was already in their places.

When they saw Li Jin really come to do the laundry, the lady at the very end took her own basin and went to the stone stool of the lady in front of her.

“Li Jin, you actually came to do the laundry! I’ll give you my spot!”

After speaking, she said to the woman beside her, ”Sister, I have fewer clothes today, let me squeeze in with you, I’ll be done washing in a moment.”

“Sure.”

Li Jin still didn’t know about these customs in the village. Seeing this scene, all he could do was touch his nose and then say thanks.

The wives and girls listened to his words, each efficiently doing the laundry while quietly observing Li Jin.

In fact, this laundry spot has one belonging to Qin Muwen, but it is not for today.

There are so many households in the village, and everyone is lined up in order.

It’s just that Li Jin couldn’t stand letting dirty clothes sit for too long, so without asking Qin Muwen, he went ahead and washed them himself.

Li Jin had never used a wooden mallet to do laundry before, and on top of that, the soapberries of this era were still a bit different from modern soap, so at first, Li Jin’s movements were a bit clumsy when washing.

The unmarried girls felt embarrassed to talk to Li Jin, each one only occasionally sneaking a glance at Li Jin.

The married wives also began to greet Li Jin, and later it was not appropriate to say much more.

After all, in the context of this era, men and women have to be extra strict about keeping their distance.

This river is right on the inevitable path back to the village. In the morning, the strong man who had brought Li Jin back from the town in an ox cart is now driving the cart back, and from a long distance away, he already finds the person washing clothes by the river very familiar.

As he approached closer, it became more familiar.

The more he look at it, the more it looks like Li Jin.

But he didn’t dare admit it. Li Jin, that person, would go out to do the laundry? This sun must be rising in the west.

So the ox cart had all gone by the riverside, and after half a minute, the big man turned back again.

He shouted loudly, ”Li Jin, it’s really you, kid!”

Fortunately, Li Jin is not face-blind and recognized that this person was the one who brought him back in the morning.

This person should be the village’s kind-hearted man, a label that Li Jin mentally attached to him.

“Mm.” Li Jin responded.

This person tied the ox to a stone by the roadside, then walked over to Li Jin’s side and leaned forward to take a careful look.

He is indeed doing the laundry.

Not to mention, it looks like it has been washed quite properly.

Li Jin kept a straight face. Doing the laundry wasn’t hard, it was just that ancient clothes had a lot of fabric, which made hand-washing inconvenient.

With soapberries and a mallet, washing becomes more effortless.

Moreover, he also watched historical dramas when he was young, so he will gradually get the hang of it.

The big man laughed: “Haha, you actually can do laundry. I really wish there was an artist to paint this scene for you, so I could frame it and give it to your husband.”

“Next time you dare to bully him, just let him use this painting to threaten you.”

Li Jin: “……” Well, that’s actually reasonable advice.

The big man looked around twenty-four or twenty-five, in the prime of his life. Considering how early people used to marry and have kids back then, his child could probably already be out running errands.

Li Jin also looked at his own appearance through the water, which was largely very similar to his appearance in his previous life.

But unlike the mature and steady demeanor of a twenty-nine-year-old… he, like Qin Muwen, carries the vigor of youth. Li Jin thought that his body is probably only about seventeen or eighteen years old now.

The big man saw Li Jin still washing clothes, felt amused, and planned to watch a little longer. After all, he had twisted his ankle earlier, so he was too lazy to walk now.

“Did your husband give birth? Did he give you one with a handle? You’re so happy you came out to do the laundry yourself.”

Li Jin frowned and said, ”As long as father and son are safe, that’s all that matters.”

That little kid was so adorable. Whether he was a boy or a ger’er, he was still the child of his and the young man’s.

The burly man laughed even more heartily: “Li Jin, you now have an heir; from now on, you are a father, and you must be the pillar of your family.

This morning I went to the market to sell firewood, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to you much.

It’s the same if we talk about it now—before your mom died, she promised her relative’s daughter to my brother as a wife, and now they’re together. Our whole family still remembers this.”

Li Jin nodded subtly. It turned out that this burly man was not simply a good-natured person; rather, he was willing to help Li Jin in this way because Li Jin’s family had some complicated connections with his own.

“Before your mother passed away, she worried about you the most and asked me to take good care of you.

I can’t be chasing after you all day either. I was actually thinking that today your husband is giving birth, and you’re still out drinking—this is really too much.

I was planning to give you a proper talking-to once I got back from the marker. Now it seems that you have become much more sensible after becoming a father.”

Just then, Li Jin finished washing the clothes. He wrung out the water and put the clothes into the basin.

“Thanks for taking care of me before, I won’t mess up again in the future.”

The two walked back together, and the girl who had previously given up her seat to Li Jin had also finished washing the clothes.. √

After saying goodbye to her sisters, she also carried the laundry basin and walked off quickly.

The burly man beside him walked with uneven steps, occasionally frowning.

Li Jin paused, just thinking that he still did not know this person’s name.

As a result, a name immediately came to his mind—’Li Zhuzi’.

Li family really pick names randomly, huh.

Li Daniu, Li Zhuzi…..

(大牛 (dà niú) means expert, guru, or superstar
“柱子” (zhù zi) means pillar, column, or post)

Li Jin thinks that in the future, there will probably be names like Li Tiezhu as well.

(Tiezhu (铁柱) literally means “iron pillar” or “iron pole”)

“Brother Zhuzi, you have sprained your ankle.”

Li Zhuzi said, ”It’s no problem. I’ll go back and clamp it with a wooden board myself, then take another nap.”

The people in the village have many of their own traditional remedies, simple and practical.

Li Jin, however, said, ”You find a flat stone to sit on, and I will adjust your bones.”

Li Zhuzi originally thought he didn’t need to worry about it, but the next step he took landed right in a pit, and this time it really hurt, making him gasp for air.

If the bone is not set soon, this leg will become useless.

Li Jin held his ankle, and Li Daniu looked at Li Jin’s well-defined hands, thinking to himself, ‘Goodness, this scholar is really different from the men in their village.’

This hand looks even more delicate than that woman’s hand. It’s not that it’s feminine, it’s just… you can tell this hand writes with a pen, and it has an indescribable beauty.

Li Zhuzi thought that once the family had money, he should let his son go to school.

Look at Li Jin, even though he hasn’t learned much knowledge, his aura is just different from ordinary people.

Li Jinze didn’t have time to look at his own hands. To be honest, these hands were probably the part of his body he was most satisfied with.

His ten fingers are long and slender like jade, each nail is smooth like a seashell, and there are no calluses on her palms—it’s obvious just by looking that these are hands pampered with care.

Of course, they haven’t really practiced writing either.

Without so much as a warning to Li Zhuzi, Li Jin located the right spot and, with both hands, pulled and twisted firmly in one motion.

Li Zhuzi wasn’t mentally prepared and cried out ‘Ow’ in pain.

Startled, the girls nearby who were doing laundry looked up.

“What are you doing? Don’t fight, our village forbids fighting!”

Li Zhuzi almost cried from the pain, but hoarsely replied.

“I didn’t fight, I sprained my foot, Li Jin set the bones for me.”

Li Jin helped him stand up: “Try walking on the ground now.”

Li Zhuzi thought stepping on the ground would bring that piercing pain again.

But it turned out Li Jin’s bone-setting seemed like it worked some kind of magic—he didn’t feel a thing.

Li Jin just looked at his expression and knew it was perfectly healed.

So he went back to wash his hands again, and then lifted the washbasin.

Li Zhuzi’s ox cart was nearby; he had Li Jin place the basin on it, and he himself walked beside Li Jin.

”What a talented young man, your skill in bone-setting surpasses even the doctors in the town’s clinic.”

Li Jin didn’t say anything. His strongest skill wasn’t bone-setting, but performing surgery.

He had spent half a year rotating in the surgical department back then, so he hadn’t lost his touch.

Li Zhuzi, grateful to Li Jin, got more talkative. He said, ”Are you still going to take the Xiucai exam this year? If you fail, you can work as an apprentice in a clinic, that way you can at least still support the family.

Your husband looks so thin and weak that he couldn’t earn even a few copper coins sewing clothes all day.

I heard that the medical clinic has great benefits. If you go there to work as a doctor, you could have every meal at the clinic, and earn three taels of silver a month!”

Li Jin thought that he really needed to consider the issue of making money to support the family.

According to Li Zhuzi’s words, a doctor in this era could earn three taels of silver a month, which is three strings of copper coins, that is, three thousand wen.

Then this dynasty is probably similar to the Qing Dynasty.

A copper coin is equal to one wen, and a string of coins is a thousand wen, equal to one tael of silver.

Li Jin asked, ”A chicken can be sold for forty wen?”

Li Zhuzi said, ”Yes, that’s the price in town. If you want to buy a chicken to raise, it’s best to buy directly in the village. You can go to buy from Li Daniu; it could be as low as thirty-five wen.”

Li Jin nodded, and he probably gained a certain understanding of the purchasing power of money in this era.

Thinking about the seven or eight cents left at home, it would probably only be enough to buy ten buns.

They were really so poor that they could barely put food on the table.

The river wasn’t far from the village, and Li Zhuzi kept talking endlessly to Li Jin about the ways to save money.

Anyway, he thought Li Jin had now become sensible and knew how to care for her husband, which was a good thing.

He has to make sure Li Jin can’t spend money on alcohol anymore.

If he makes more money, he should first use it to fix the roof of the house.

Otherwise, with leaks in summer and drafts in winter, how could the kids possibly endure it?

By the way, in ancient times, the infant mortality rate was really high—every family had kids who didn’t make it.

Setting aside diseases like smallpox and chickenpox, even basic matters such as having enough to eat and having good food are significant issues, not to mention the problem of having clothes to wear.

Li Jin thought that it was indeed necessary to first repair the house; otherwise, during the upcoming continuous rainy season, everything in the home would mold, which would be harmful to the children.

Seeing that he had taken this to heart, Li Zhuzi also felt quite relived .

At this moment, it was exactly the time when every household in the village had finished their farm work and was having their meal. Some people had also gone to the market and happened to know that Li Zhuzi had injured his foot. Seeing Li Zhuzi now walking swiftly, there was no sign of a sprained foot.

“Li Zhuzi, did you make a lot of money today? Did you go to the clinic?”

Li Zhuzi laughed heartily and said, “We have a miraculous doctor right by our side!”

Everyone else: “???”​