Nowadays, people advocate "washing hair every three days and bathing every five days", and Qi Yun is no exception.
Although the Qi family cannot compare to the wealthy families in the city, they are considered the most affluent in the surrounding villages, with their own estate and shops. They never lack charcoal and can afford hot water.
Because Qi Yun's body sometimes feels cold and hot, and with the recent burning of charcoal making the room hot, Ye Jiao always watches over him to make sure he rests well in bed with the covers on. Sometimes when he wakes up, he is covered in cold sweat, so Qi Yun bathes more frequently.
However, Qi Yun's bathing time is different from Ye Jiao's. His delicate wife likes to bathe in the evening, but Qi Yun always chooses to bathe during the day to avoid catching a chill at night.
He also chooses times when Ye Jiao is not around. Today is the same. Originally, this would be the time when Ye Jiao takes the pot of stone bud grass to bask in the sun, but perhaps because she was tired from playing shuttlecock, she slept more soundly during her afternoon nap and did not wake up. Qi Yun took this opportunity to call for water to bathe.
Qi Yun knows his own body well. He was born weak and frail. Even though he is well-nourished and not short in stature, his body, although not shockingly thin, is still slightly slimmer compared to ordinary men.
If it were others, Qi Yun wouldn't care how they looked at him.
But when it comes to Ye Jiao, Qi Yun is particularly concerned about her opinion of him.
Up until now, Ye Jiao has never truly seen what this man looks like soaking in the bathtub.
Now, she can see it clearly, taking in everything at a glance.
When Ye Jiao uttered the exclamation "so white", Qi Yun instinctively grabbed the towel beside the bathtub and directly covered his lower abdomen.
In fact, Ye Jiao hadn't looked that closely, her eyes constantly circling around the man's chest. Only when he made that movement did she look down, and then she heard Qi Yun slightly raise his voice: "Jiao Niang!"
The little ginseng spirit doesn't understand the propriety between men and women and doesn't know why Qi Yun is covering his belly.
However, when she heard Qi Yun call her, Ye Jiao still stared at him with a pair of beautiful eyes and replied with a smile: "Husband, this is the first time I've seen you undress." As she spoke, Ye Jiao leaned over, pulled up her own sleeves, and compared them to Qi Yun's shoulders, "Look, about the same."
Qi Yun subconsciously looked over and saw a jade-like, dazzlingly white arm, but his own skin color was an unhealthy pale white.
Both are white, but his wife's is beautifully like jade, while his is as thin as paper.
Ye Jiao's focus is on how good-looking her husband's neck is, his chest is flat, very different from hers, and his ears... Huh, why are husband's ears red? Is the water too hot?
At this moment, Qi Yun turned his head to look at her, his slightly raised face directly facing Ye Jiao.
He originally thought he would see some shyness or disappointment in dissatisfaction with him on this face, but what fell into Qi Yun's eyes was only a pair of clean and bright eyes, like a pond where one could see to the bottom with a single glance.
...Yes, what wild thoughts is he having?
His own wife is pure, kind and innocent, unlike him, who has wild thoughts every day.
It was precisely Ye Jiao's pure expression that gave Qi Yun a lot more sense of security. A smile appeared on his face, and his voice was gentle, as it was only when facing Ye Jiao: "Jiao Niang, go wait for me outside, I'll be done washing soon."
Ye Jiao is used to listening to him. Upon hearing this, she immediately let go of her sleeves and turned to walk out from behind the screen.
The sound of water came from inside again, seemingly the sound of the man stepping out.
However, Ye Jiao was not curious. She reached out, took a red plum from the plate on the table, and took a bite.
Hiss, sour.
But she doesn't give up easily and must find a sweet one before she stops.
However, the little ginseng doesn't like to waste. Having eaten a lot of dirt, she has a pious and grateful heart for any food. Even if it's sour, she finishes it.
After a while, Qi Yun finished tidying up. Someone carried the water out of the room, opened the doors and windows of the outer room to ventilate and disperse the moisture. The two of them went to the inner room.
Sitting on the couch, one on the left and one on the right, Ye Jiao handed over the two plums she was holding in her hand: "Here."
Qi Yun was wearing his sleepwear with a slightly heavy robe on the outside. He sat down beside Ye Jiao, took the cup, but didn't eat it immediately. Instead, he adjusted his mood and said softly, "Was everything good at Mother's place this morning?"
Upon hearing this, Ye Jiao smiled and said, "Good, I ate a bowl of almond cream at Mother's place. It was delicious. I don't know when I can eat another bowl. I wanted to bring it back for you, but Mother said she only stewed three bowls. I'll bring it for you next time."
She remembers a bowl of almond cream so clearly. Qi Yun first smiled, but soon lost his smile.
Before Ye Jiao could discern Qi Yun's expression, she saw the man curl his lips again: "You don't need to always stay in the room to take care of me. The sun is good today. It's better to go out for a walk than to be cooped up in the room."
Ye Jiao returned a smile, her voice soft: "It's not stuffy. Even if I go out, there's nothing to do. It's boring. I might as well come back and keep you company."
Qi Yun doesn't know what ordinary women do either. He only recalls the things Madam Liu likes to do and says, "Embroidery?"
Ye Jiao is especially frank: "I don't know how to do this," her voice paused, "but I can learn."
The little ginseng spirit has always had an extraordinary enthusiasm for learning to be human.
In fact, Qi Yun regretted it as soon as he said it. Ordinary folk women are good at making clothes. Embroidery is generally not something they do. Although Madam Liu mentioned her maternal family, it can be seen that Madam Liu's family was well-off in the past, which is why she has good embroidery skills and enjoys passing the time with embroidery.
His own wife's family was poor, and she didn't have enough to eat or wear, so naturally, she never learned.
By asking this, did he hurt his wife's feelings?
This made Qi Yun quickly change the subject: "Embroidery is quite taxing on the eyes and not easy to learn. Jiao Niang, you don't need to learn this. You can do something else."
Ye Jiao didn't know that Qi Yun had thought so much, nor did she feel that she was hurt in any way. However, hearing Qi Yun's words, Ye Jiao became interested: "Do what?"
Qi Yun scanned the room and saw that there weren't many things that could be used for entertainment.
In fact, Qi Yun knows quite a bit. He has some knowledge of the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. However, none of these are easy to get started with.
After thinking carefully, Qi Yun said, "Give me some time to think. Maybe I'll think of something after dinner."
At this time, Qi Yun finally remembered the plums Ye Jiao handed to him.
Holding one of them, about to put it in his mouth, he discovered that the plum was not completely whole, but had a small bite taken out of it.
This bite was not large, breaking through the red skin and revealing the yellow flesh, looking particularly conspicuous.
Qi Yun looked at Ye Jiao in some surprise, only to see his own wife smiling and propping her chin, looking at him: "I tried it. This one is sweet and delicious."
Tried it?
Qi Yun looked down at the plum in his hand, then at her: "Why didn't you eat it?"
"I just ate three or four. They were all very sour. I only found these two sweet ones." Ye Jiao was still propping her face, looking at him with great anticipation.
Hearing these words, Qi Yun didn't move for a long time.
He needs to lower his eyelids to hide the emotions in them, needs to purse his lips to conceal his joy.
Ye Jiao blinked her eyes, a little puzzled: "Husband, is it that you can't give people things that have been bitten..." As she spoke, she wanted to reach out and take the plum from Qi Yun's hand, thinking that being human is indeed very learned.
But Qi Yun slightly dodged, avoiding Ye Jiao's hand, and gently grasped his wife's soft fingertips with his other hand, his tone gentle: "Of course, you can't take what others have bitten, but I want what my wife has bitten." After saying that, he bit off half of the plum.
Ye Jiao couldn't help but ask him, "Is it sweet?"
But Qi Yun didn't look at the plum, but looked straight at her and nodded, "Sweet."
Very sweet, like honey, sweet to the heart.
Ye Jiao smiled and stuffed her hand into Qi Yun's palm, not missing any opportunity to hold hands.
Qi Yun held her hand in return, looking at her smile, only Qi Yun himself didn't know what he was smiling about.
But after eating two plums, Qi Yun suddenly remembered: "Jiao Niang, you just ate three sour plums?"
Ye Jiao nodded.
Although Qi Yun knew that Ye Jiao meant well, he still reached out and pinched her face: "Don't eat so many next time. Eating too many plums hurts the spleen and stomach. Tell the little kitchen later, don't eat poultry meat tonight."
Although Ye Jiao knows a lot about medicinal materials, that's because she originally grew up in the deep mountains, where spiritual medicinal materials walked everywhere. As the king of nourishment, Ye Jiao naturally recognizes many.
But she knows very little about the mutual generation and restraint of these foods.
She looked at Qi Yun with bright eyes: "Husband, you know this too?" Qi Yun was about to say that he learned it from reading books, but then he heard Ye Jiao's soft voice, "Husband is really amazing."
Before, when Qi Yun heard these words, he would still humbly deny it, but now that he has heard it many times, Qi Yun has gotten used to it.
His wife praises him, he just listens, he likes to hear it.
At this time, there was a knocking sound, and Tie Zi's voice came in: "Second Young Master, Second Young Madam, Manager Song from the wine shop is here."
Although Ye Jiao knew that Qi Yun managed the business of the wine shop and the medicine shop, she had never seen the managers of these two shops come to the house.
Qi Yun was not surprised at all and said to the outside, "Tell Manager Song to wait for me in the study."
"Yes."
Ye Jiao reached out and grabbed his wrist, her fingertips gently pressing on his pulse, asking, "Can you go out?"
Qi Yun held her hand in return: "The doctor said I can go out, just not at night to avoid catching a chill. It's fine during the day."
Ye Jiao also felt that his body had gotten much better now, but she didn't dare to slack off. She went to the cabinet to get a thick robe for him to wear, and watched him tidy up the collar and cuffs before taking two steps back and thinking, "I'll go with you?"
Qi Yun rarely refuses Ye Jiao, but this time he shook his head: "No need, Jiao Niang, you rest. You don't have to accompany me."
However, Qi Yun still told Ye Jiao in detail, "I called Manager Song here. I want to discuss the wine shop business with him, just in the study. I won't go far."
The little ginseng spirit tilted her head slightly: "Did something happen at the wine shop?"
"The wine shop is doing very well, but it's not good to continue like this slowly. In the future, we need to plan carefully." As Qi Yun spoke, he gently squeezed her palm, "I married you, so I can't live like before."
After looking at the account books for so long, he finally has a plan. The things Qi Yun was too lazy to think about before, he now intends to plan more carefully.
His wife loves to eat and play, so he naturally wants to find ways to make her life better, and even better. At least she won't have to keep thinking about a bowl of almond cream.
His wife was happy to eat several sour apricots and left him the sweet ones, so he also wants to work hard to protect and nurture her.
Before leaving, Qi Yun suddenly bent down and kissed the top of Ye Jiao's head before opening the door and striding away.
Ye Jiao leaned against the doorframe, covering her head, looking at the hurriedly departing man's back with some confusion.
This... is some special way of saying goodbye?
The little ginseng spirit had a look of realization. Learning to be human is indeed a long process.

Author has something to say:
Ye Jiao: This way of parting is so peculiar, I'll remember it!
Qi Yun: ...I always feel like I taught my wife something strange.