Chapter 701 - 362: Unwarranted Meddling
Huai Zi dried his hair and took Cong from Juhua’s arms. Seeing the little one smack her lips unhappily, clearly still hungry, he said softly, "Sweetheart, how about we go to Aunt Liu’s for some milk? Your brother drank all of Mommy’s milk. He’s such a little glutton, he eats so much."
Juhua got out of bed and walked back and forth to get her body moving. "Wait for Mom to come over before taking her," she told him. "It wouldn’t be right for you to go. Just let her sleep for a bit."
Huai Zi nodded and placed his daughter on the small bed. When he saw she wasn’t sleeping and was just staring at him with wide-open eyes, he praised her happily. "Cong is so much more obedient than her brother. She’s not even crying, even though she’s still hungry. Her brother would be making a fuss."
He turned to Juhua. "How are you feeling today? Any better?" He asked this every single day, never growing tired of it. Just because he’d asked yesterday didn’t mean he wouldn’t ask again first thing in the morning.
Juhua always gave him a detailed answer to put his mind at ease, telling him that Doctor Yun had changed her medicine or that Doctor Qin had performed acupuncture, and so on.
She continued pacing. "I feel so much warmer now," she said. "Unlike before, when my hands and feet would get cold the moment autumn set in. This postpartum confinement has really paid off. I’ve recovered well and completely rebuilt my health."
Some people with poor health use the vulnerable state of their bodies during postpartum confinement to take nourishing supplements, hoping to restore their health in one go. This is known as "rebuilding one’s constitution."
Huai Zi happily walked over, took her hand, and gave it a squeeze. It really wasn’t as icy as it used to be. He chuckled. "I don’t care, we have to send one of our kids to study medicine under Doctor Qin and Doctor Yun. With the way they treat illnesses and save lives, I can’t imagine how many people must revere them. They always say, ’Saving a single life is more meritorious than building a seven-story pagoda.’ Their profession is all about accumulating merit and doing good. It earns respect from the very bottom of one’s soul."
Juhua laughed. "You think every doctor is as dedicated as that brother and sister? Just think of that black-hearted ’doctor’ in Xiatang Market—you can’t even call him that. You’re lucky if he doesn’t kill you. He’s always swindling people and is shamelessly greedy for money. Yun Ying said she’s already seen several patients who took medicine he prescribed. It was useless stuff that wouldn’t kill you, but it wouldn’t cure you either. It just prolonged their suffering, making their conditions harder to treat by the time she saw them, which only created more work for her."
"That’s exactly why our child should learn from them," Huai Zi said. "They wouldn’t learn anything worthwhile from anyone else."
Juhua shook her head. "It doesn’t matter what profession it is; you need talent and passion for it. It’s like the saying goes: ’To know something is not as good as to love it, and to love it is not as good as to delight in it.’ If our son doesn’t like medicine and you force him to learn, won’t that just cause trouble for Yun Ying and her brother? He’ll never become skilled, and he might even tarnish their reputation."
By now, she understood that people like Master Yun and Qin Feng were extremely selective when it came to apprentices, placing great importance on aptitude and disposition. They wouldn’t just accept anyone, nor would they mass-produce disciples. The idea of training apprentices who were merely average was something they would never tolerate.
Huai Zi nodded. "That’s true. *Sigh*. I just admire and appreciate them so much, and I was hoping our son could enter the same profession and save a lot of people."
Juhua smiled. "It doesn’t have to be that way. If we truly want to show our gratitude, there will be plenty of opportunities."
Huai Zi nodded. They talked for a little while longer before he went out to eat.
The next evening, Huai Zi told Juhua that after a unanimous decision by the grandfathers and their uncle, their son’s nickname was officially Banli.
Juhua couldn’t help but laugh. ’Is Banli really that great of a name? They were going to give it to little Hulu last year but never got the chance, and now my son gets it.’ Come to think of it, they did have a couple of chestnut trees at home, though they weren’t doing too well. They’d bought them from Liu Heizi years ago, and several had already died. ’I guess I’ll have to take extra good care of them now,’ she mused. ’We are, after all, a family with a Banli.’
And so, by the time of their one-month celebration, everyone was calling them Cong and Banli.
On the day of the one-month celebration, many relatives visited the Zhang family. Thanks to Zhang Yang recently becoming a Scholar, many distant relatives with whom they had lost contact were now reappearing to reconnect. Even though He was irritated, she had to receive them. You don’t turn away people who come with a smile, after all. When they came offering congratulations, she couldn’t very well kick them out, could she?
However, there was always someone so obnoxious you wished you could do just that.
At one month old, Cong and Banli were fair-skinned and utterly adorable. Huai Zi’s maternal grandmother held one twin while his third aunt held the other. The surrounding relatives showered them with compliments as if they were free for the taking. As the grandmother, He never tired of the praise, grinning from ear to ear.
The wife of some distant relative chimed in with flattery. "Auntie He, you are truly blessed! Your daughter-in-law gave birth to two at once, and a boy and a girl at that! A son and a daughter, all in one go. It’s enough to make anyone jealous! If she has another set of twins next year, you’ll have four grandchildren, won’t you? That’s more than other women manage in several years!"