The bathing tub had been filled more than halfway with hot water, steam billowing up in thick clouds. The medicinal herbs had already been steeped inside, and the sharp scent of ginger rose with the vapor, making Jian Ru cough twice.
The room was swelteringly warm. Even dressed in nothing more than a light short jacket and thin trousers, Jian Ru was sweating. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and shouted toward the small kitchen, “Xiao Ning, stop adding firewood! It’s hot enough already!”
From outside came Xiao Ning’s reply: “Got it, Young Master Jian! Just this last batch!”
Jian Ru hung the large towels for drying hair and wiping the body over the screen nearby. He folded the clean change of clothes and placed them neatly on a chair. Once everything was prepared, there was little left to do.
After finishing, he rolled up his sleeves and headed straight for the person reading in bed.
Earlier, while he and Xiao Ning had been heating water, the Second Young Master had actually tried to get up and help carry it. Jian Ru had been so alarmed that he immediately pushed him back onto the bed and tucked the blankets firmly around him.
This handsome young master looked like an immortal descended to earth, yet he seemed as fragile as paper. Jian Ru had finally nursed him back to health after so much effort. If he fell sick again from overexertion or from catching a cold, Jian Ru didn’t mind caring for him all over again, but he certainly didn’t want Madam Li glaring at him.
More importantly, being sick was miserable. The Second Young Master had only just managed to pull through, and he absolutely could not be made to suffer through it again so soon.
Seeing him approach, Li Jintong set aside the book in his hands and lifted the blanket, preparing to get out of bed.
Jian Ru hurried forward, placing both shoes neatly before him. Once Li Jintong had slipped them on, Jian Ru reached up with both hands and began undoing the hidden buttons at his collar.
Li Jintong’s body stiffened.
By the time several buttons had been undone and his straight, prominent collarbones exposed, his Adam’s apple bobbed. He lifted a hand and lightly blocked Jian Ru’s, stopping those hands from continuing downward.
Jian Ru had been entirely focused on the clothing. Only then did he look up at the young man’s face. Their eyes met, and Jian Ru froze.
The Second Young Master’s face was very red, but…
It was not the redness of illness.
“I’ll do it myself,” Li Jintong said softly, his voice slightly hoarse. Even someone as straightforward as Jian Ru felt a little embarrassed now. While Li Jintong had been feverish and barely conscious, he had long since gotten used to wiping him down and changing his clothes. At the time, he had been too worried to think about anything else. But now, in the stillness of the night, with only the two of them together, Jian Ru’s usually blunt senses finally became sharp again.
He took a step backward, lowered his head, and bit his lip. His hands suddenly felt awkward, as though they had nowhere to go, so he clasped them behind his back. Standing there obediently like a child, he asked in a small voice, “Then… you don’t need me to help bathe you?”
Li Jintong’s gaze swept quickly over him before he awkwardly looked away again. Yet the image he had just seen remained in his mind.
Jian Ru’s clothing was thin. With his hands tucked behind his back, the loose front of his jacket had been pulled taut across his frame, outlining his narrow waist with startling clarity. Even the slight curve of his modest abdomen beneath it was plainly visible.
Both of them looked as though they had done something wrong, and neither dared look directly at the other.
Jian Ru hit the floor with the tip of his shoe, mumbling, “Th-then… I’ll go outside first. Y-you take your time bathing!” With that, he turned to flee.
“Wait,” the Second Young Master stopped him, and Jian Ru turned back.
Li Jintong rose, took the padded coat hanging on the clothes rack, and draped it over Jian Ru’s shoulders. “Put this on before you go out,” he said gently. “Don’t catch a chill.”
Jian Ru hurriedly slipped into the coat. Then he darted a quick glance at Li Jintong before limping out of the room with rapid thumping steps. He didn’t forget to shut the door tightly behind him.
………………………
There was still a full pot of hot water left in the small kitchen. It was for Jian Ru’s own bath later.
After burning through the last load of firewood, Xiao Ning mounded the stove with coal ash, leaving the water to simmer gently on its own. The two of them sat facing each other on little stools, sharing the leftover cornmeal steamed cakes from dinner.
Jian Ru had made them that afternoon. When kneading the dough, he’d added red dates picked from the tree growing in the courtyard. The corn had been freshly harvested that autumn and ground into a fine meal, carrying the natural sweetness and fragrance of new grain. With the addition of the dates, the cakes not only gained a rich aroma, but the steamed fruit became soft, sticky, and even sweeter. At dinner, even the Second Young Master had eaten a few bites more than usual.
Xiao Ning was still at the age where he loved to eat. As he chewed, his eyes narrowed with delight.
Jian Ru broke off more than half of his own piece and stuffed it into the boy’s hand, and Xiao Ning immediately grinned foolishly and polished it off in a few bites.
Afterward, the two chatted idly while keeping an ear on the sounds from the inner room. Occasionally, they could hear the splash of water. Another half stick of incense’s worth of time passed, and just as Jian Ru estimated the bathwater would soon start cooling, the person inside finally called for him.
“Xiao Ru.”
“Coming!”
Jian Ru got up and walked to the door. For ritual’s sake, he gave it a light knock before pushing it open and entering.
Much of the steam had dissipated.
The Second Young Master was already fully dressed, his long hair neatly tied back. Jian Ru took one look and immediately didn’t dare look any longer.
After bathing, Li Jintong’s face, neck, and hands… every bit of exposed skin looked fair and smooth. His hair was glossy black, and he was simply too beautiful.
Back when his parents were still alive, Jian Ru had once accompanied them to watch an opera before the New Year. He remembered hearing phrases like “a lotus rising from the water” and “beautiful as an immortal maiden” sung on stage. Looking at Li Jintong now, he felt those flowery lines were the most fitting descriptions imaginable.
As for Li Jintong, he sat on the edge of the bed, drying his hair with a cloth. When Jian Ru approached, he caught the clean scent of soapberry and the familiar fragrance Li Jintong often used, but he still didn’t dare look directly at him.His eyes wandered instead to the bed curtains and bedding as he lowered the curtains on both sides. Faking a casual tone, he said, “We’ll need to keep carrying hot water in and out for a while. Don’t come outside. No point letting yourself get hit by the cold.”
“Mhm,” Li Jintong responded softly.
Jian Ru immediately lifted a corner of the curtain and hurried out as though being chased. Inside the curtained bed, there was no candlelight, only the dim glow filtering through from outside.
Jian Ru and Xiao Ning carried basin after basin of used water outside, then brought in fresh hot water from the kitchen. As Li Jintong slowly dried his hair, he could hear their quiet conversation, their footsteps, and the constant sound of splashing water.
After a while, the room fell silent.
Xiao Ning left, and the door closed. Soon enough, a faint rustling sound drifted into the bed curtains, and Li Jintong’s hand paused in the middle of drying his hair.
For some reason, the air suddenly seemed warmer.
Then, accompanied by the soft sound of someone entering the water, that warmth took on an oddly lingering quality. His newly married husband was bathing just beyond a thin layer of curtain, in the room where Li Jintong had grown up.
Since childhood, Li Jintong had been plagued by illness, so more than once, he had nearly stepped through the gates of the Underworld. His parents and older siblings pitied his frail health and doted on him, but when he was little, he still had his mischievous moments.
There were times when he cried and fussed until he got what he wanted. But as he grew older, even the most spirited temperament was gradually worn away by his weak constitution and his constant struggle between life and death.
To outsiders, the Second Young Master of the Li family was humble and courteous, gentle as jade, a man so detached from worldly concerns that he seemed like an immortal who lived on wind and dew alone. Li Jintong himself knew that wasn’t true, for he was not nearly so transcendent.
Still, he had thought he had long since become a man without desires.
That morning in the cave, when he awoke to find himself being held in someone’s embrace, he had merely been surprised. Soon afterward, confused footsteps sounded outside, and people began calling his name. He hurriedly answered, telling them not to come in.
When repeated attempts to wake the young man failed, and he realized Jian Ru was unconscious with a fever, he quickly dressed him and carried him out.
During the entire process, he had inevitably seen and touched things. Yet at the time, his heart had held nothing but worry and urgency. Later, when he met Jian Ru again at the estate, he found him direct and easy to get along with, decisive, honest, and refreshingly sincere. And after that…
He straight up married him.
Only then did Li Jintong realize that perhaps he was not as free of desires as he had believed. Now that he and Jian Ru were husbands, his poor health left him unable to help with household matters. Instead, he needed to be cared for himself.
Deep down, he felt that in this lifetime, he was destined to owe Jian Ru more than he could ever repay. And since he could not make up for it in one way, he resolved that he would never shortchange him in any other.
Everything ordinary married couples did, they would do, and whatever other little husbands possessed, Jian Ru should have as well.
More than that, Jian Ru deserved even better.
Two days before the wedding, his brother had given him a book and, somewhat awkwardly, explained certain matters. But in truth, he hardly needed the explanation, for he was a physician himself. Li Jintong had planned everything carefully.
Yet on the night of the wedding, he had disgracefully collapsed.
During these ten-odd days confined to bed recovering, he had been frustrated with himself. At times, he had even felt too ashamed to face his husband, but Jian Ru seemed not to resent him at all.
He hadn’t even mentioned it once.
Yet when Jian Ru slept soundly at night, and Li Jintong lay awake with fever and discomfort, he would spend hours staring at the sleeping figure beside him, until the frustration in his heart slowly changed. Night after night, it transformed into something he could neither describe nor fully understand, a kind of obsession.
Every day, he found himself wishing more fervently for a full recovery.
And hidden within that wish was something else that had quietly taken root during these days.
He truly didn’t care about appearances, and whether Jian Ru was handsome or plain genuinely made no difference to him.
But…
Outside the bed curtains came the faint sound of water being stirred, and Li Jintong set down the cloth in his hands. He lay down and closed his eyes, trying to sleep. Yet after turning over several times, he still couldn’t fall asleep.
After all, he was still young.
And he was, in the end, just an ordinary man.
T.N: There will be no updates next week; I need to prepare for an important exam. Thank you!
T.N: If you like his novel, you can read up to chapter 23 on my Patreon, with new updates coming every week!
Leave a Reply