Little Five was using a towel to dry his hair. As soon as he saw Li Man coming over, he shrunk back in panic. He wished that he could hide his entire body in the bathtub.
Li Man couldn’t resist the urge to smile when she saw him. She crouched down, grabbed his arm, and start using a wet towel to scrub his body.
“Even if you hide, I’m still going to scrub you clean. Don’t think about coming out until you’re completely clean.”
Little Five’s tender little face immediately flushed. His face was red enough that it looked as if blood could drip from it. He didn’t dare to look at Li Man, and his head was hanging low enough that it could touch the edge of the bathtub.
Li Man didn’t care. He was only a young child. If they were in modern-day, she would be old enough to be his mother. Actually, in her heart, she really thought of him as her own child.
She scrubbed most of the mud from his body with the towel, then she used her hand to clean the rest of the dirt off.
Little Five felt very itchy and couldn’t resist giggling. His little body started to squirm around in the bathtub.
Li Man held him down with one hand and quickly washed him with the other hand. After she felt that she had cleaned enough, she had Li Hua bring over the hot water and poured it over Little Five to rinse him off. Then, she dried him off with another towel, wrapped him up in a bed sheet, and had Li Hua carry him to the eastern hut so that Little Five could slowly get dressed there.
As for Li Man, she decided that she would wash Little Five’s dirty clothes later and dumped them into the bathtub to soak for now. The wood was still burning in the stove, so now was a good time to cook some ginger soup. Little Five definitely had to drink some of it. When Li Mo and Li Shu returned, it would be good for them to drink some ginger soup too.
She found a piece of old ginger, washed it, sliced it into thin pieces, and put into the pot of water. After bringing the soup to a boil, Li Man brought over a small bowl of soup to the eastern hut.
At this time, Li Yan had already gotten up and was sitting in the bed. Li Hua put a folded quilt behind his brother’s back so that he would feel more comfortable.
Li Hua had lectured little Five, so he was now obediently curled up in own bedding with only his little head poking out. When Li Man came inside, Little Five spooked and pulled his head back into his quilt.
“Not afraid of suffocating?” Li Hua lightly looked at Little Five in askance.
Li Yan seemed to be doing much better, and his gaze seemed more lucid too. “Hmm, is that for me?”
“Are you thirsty? Do you want to drink some water?” Li Man asked before calling to Little Five, "Come on, get up and drink some ginger soup. It’ll be troublesome if you end up getting sick too.”
Little Five only poked his little face out. He looked very embarrassed.
Li Hua pulled Little Five out of his quilt, took the bowl of soup from Li Man, and handed it over to his younger brother. “Drink this while it’s still hot.”
“Oh.” Little Five snuck a glance at Li Man and obediently drank the ginger soup with a blushing face.
Observing this from the side, Li Yan quietly looked at Li Man and asked, “Where’s mine?”
“I’ll bring you some water.” Li Man wasn’t bothered by his entitled tone. It was okay to deal with him however she liked when he was healthy, but if he was sick, it would trouble the entire family, not just her.
Seeing that she was being obediently cute, Li Yan felt satisfied.
Li Man went back to the kitchen and poured a bowl of water. Just as she was coming out, she saw Li Mo and Li Yan rushing home with worried expressions.
Standing under the eaves, Li Man asked, “Did the doctor not come?”
Li Mo’s expression was solemn, but Li Shu couldn’t wait to complain, “Don’t mention it. The doctor wasn’t home, so we went to look for the wise woman, but she wasn’t home either. That’s why we ended up being delayed with coming home until now.”
Li Mo didn’t bother with Li Shu. He approached Li Man and asked, "How’s second brother?”
“Much better,” Li Man said, “Oh, there’s still ginger soup in the pot. The two of you should drink some while it’s still hot.”