The child was full, and Yi Roujing was also having her meal, steaming millet porridge and light dishes, without much salt. Yi Roujing looked at Li Hongying with a hint of grievance.

"Mom, did you forget to add salt?"

Li Hongying placed the sleeping child in the cradle nearby, "Didn’t forget, you shouldn’t eat too salty while in postpartum confinement. You’ve had it hard. Once the month is over, I’ll make you something with more flavor."

Xu Ancheng was originally eating his noodles with his head down. Hearing this, he looked at Yi Roujing and said, "Have some milk sugar and canned food later. Just eat less of the dishes."

Yi Roujing nodded with a smile.

After finishing nursing, the woken-up child let out a long "puh——" sound and then started crying loudly.

"Oh dear, he pooped, that’s good." Li Hongying took out a hot water bottle, poured it into a new enamel basin, and cleaned and changed the diaper for the child with a clean new cloth towel. She had prepared everything well ahead of time for the child’s arrival.

Li Hongying took out the changed items to wash, letting Xu Ancheng hold the child to comfort him.

Xu Ancheng held the child in his hands, his whole body stiff, it was his first time holding a baby, also the first time seeing his son up close, filling his heart with complex emotions.

Even without much coaxing, the child soon fell asleep in Xu Ancheng’s hands, having eaten and released, dressed comfortably, this child was easy to care for.

"Place the child next to me." Yi Roujing lifted the blanket to make room, and Xu Ancheng shifted direction, placing the child beside Yi Roujing.

"I’ll fetch some hot water, you should get some rest too. Just say if you want to eat something, whatever is permissible, we will eat it." Xu Ancheng ruffled Yi Roujing’s hair and then left with the hot water bottle.

"Ah, the same people lead different lives indeed."

A voice suddenly came from the ward. Yi Roujing looked up and saw a woman in her twenties, holding a child in her arms, looking at her with envy, but mostly jealousy.

"Truly, giving birth to a son makes a world of difference, they’re practically being worshipped." The woman said while looking down at her child with a touch of disdain in her gaze.

Yi Roujing raised an eyebrow, but before she could say anything, an older woman dressed in a gray tunic and matching pants walked in, holding a half-worn enamel cup.

"Eat quickly, see if you can leave the hospital tomorrow, nobody else makes such a fuss about giving birth." The older woman shoved the enamel cup in front of the woman.

The woman put down the child in her hands, opened the lid of the enamel cup, and saw the vegetable dumplings inside, feeling no appetite, especially with the aroma of chicken soup and cooked food lingering at the tip of her nose.

"Mom, eating dry like this won’t produce milk, how will the child eat?" The woman said slightly discontented.

"This isn’t your first child, why so fussy? Feed as you did before, it’s just a girl, what more do you want?" The older woman barked with her hands on her hips, "To serve you, I can’t even go to work, our family is out of food. Would your in-laws provide me with grains or white flour, when we don’t even have coarse grains."

"Really, you’ve already had the first, second, and third, with three sons already enough leverage. Why bother having more, and a girl at that? Look at your in-laws, no one has come, at least they used to send eggs before." The older woman complained.

"What smells so good?" The older woman sniffed around, then turned to meet Yi Roujing’s eyes.

"Ah, so she’s given birth already. I heard from the nurse that you work at the hospital. It’s different with a job, you can have anything." The older woman swallowed, her eyes darting around, and when she saw a bunch of milk candies on the table, her eyes lit up.

"Our girl hasn’t had anything good to eat, she barely has enough milk for the child. If she could eat a few milk candies, it might help some." The older woman said with a smile.

"Young lady, you seem well-fed and satisfied, could you spare two milk candies for my daughter?" The older woman asked directly.

Yi Roujing reached out and took two, the older woman immediately went over to take them, thanking repeatedly.

"Young lady, you have good fortune ahead. I saw so many family members come to accompany you before, such good fortune, and blessed with a bouncing baby boy, impressive, impressive." The older woman said a lot of nice things after getting the candy.

Yi Roujing smiled without speaking, watching the woman who had just given birth take the candies, stuffing both into her own mouth, and then rolling her eyes at Yi Roujing.

"What are you doing?" The older woman knew her daughter’s temperament too well and gave her a pat, then turned to Yi Roujing with an apologetic smile.

Having both given birth, Yi Roujing had no intention of arguing with the woman.

At eight in the evening, another woman returned to the ward, although tired, her face wore a smile. She appeared about thirty years old, accompanied by a man with gold-rimmed glasses in a Zhongshan suit, her husband.

Soon after, a woman around fifty led a boy about ten years old in, carrying a lunch box and a thermos.

"Asu, have something to eat."

"Mom, are you alright? Is this the little sister?" The boy carefully touched the baby in the woman’s arms.

Yi Roujing immediately sensed a gaze, although not directed at her.

The woman who had just eaten the milk candies looked at the woman holding the daughter called Asu, her gaze shifting as if pondering something, her eyes full of calculation, envy, and resentment.

"Mom, I need to use the bathroom, help me."

"So many things." Although the older woman said this, she supported her daughter to walk out.

"Eat the red eggs." The woman in her fifties, dressed in a long dress, with a wool scarf over her shoulders, placed two red eggs on Yi Roujing’s table.

"Thank you." Yi Roujing smiled and thanked, "My name is Yi Roujing."

"Hello, that is my daughter-in-law Shen Su, please take care of her in the coming days, you can call me Mrs. Chen." Mrs. Chen smiled warmly.

"Hello, Mrs. Chen."

Mrs. Chen introduced her family briefly, and when Ding Ancheng and Li Hongying returned, both sides exchanged greetings. Li Hongying even went to see Shen Su’s daughter, commenting a couple of times about the child’s distinctive red birthmark on her foot.

Mrs. Chen also placed two red eggs on the table of the other woman, and Li Hongying took out a small oil paper package from the items she brought, gave one to Mrs. Chen, and placed an envelope on the other woman’s table too.

The oil paper pack contained half a jin of brown sugar, considered a generous gift.

"Wah wah——" A feeble baby’s cry rang out, drawing the gaze of everyone in the ward to the bed closest to the door. The people realized the mother-daughter pair had been in the bathroom for half an hour and the baby had woken up.

Li Hongying, recently a new grandmother, couldn’t stand seeing the baby cry in front of her and hurried to pick up the child to gently soothe him.

Five minutes later, the mother-daughter pair returned, who knows where they went, but judging by their somewhat glossy lips, Yi Roujing thought they might have gone to eat.