Chapter 32: The Dirty Little Boy is So Handsome

Chapter 32: Chapter 32: The Dirty Little Boy is So Handsome

Ji Huan hauled Dabao into the middle of the courtyard, stood him up straight, and looked at him, trying to reason with him in earnest.

"You have to take this bath today. Just smell yourself—you reek! Do you know how much you reek?" Ji Huan pinched her nose, feigning being overwhelmed by the smell. "If you don’t wash up, you get nothing to eat. You don’t want to go hungry again, do you?"

The two of them had been in a standoff all night again, and in the end, the little boy had fallen asleep in the corner. Ji Huan felt she couldn’t keep indulging this habit of his.

After observing him for the past two days, she could basically determine that his autistic symptoms weren’t too severe.

When she spoke to him, he could understand. When she demonstrated actions for him, he could comprehend and even learn to copy them. He was fully capable of communicating with the outside world; he just wasn’t willing to open his mouth.

If he were a patient with severe autism, where both social and intellectual development were seriously affected, that would be truly difficult. She would have to consider the psychological impact of every word and action, treading on eggshells, and would probably have no choice but to coddle him like a little king.

Now that she was sure that wasn’t the case, Ji Huan didn’t feel so constrained.

For a child with mild autism, on the contrary, it was important to increase communication and interaction. As long as she was patient enough to make him feel truly safe, the shell enveloping him would one day crack, and his antennae would cautiously extend to sense the world around him.

’Let the little stinker ignore people if he wants,’ she thought. ’But he absolutely has to take a bath.’

The night she brought him back, Ji Huan had wanted to give him a bath, especially since the bed had a new cotton quilt. But at the time, she wasn’t sure of his condition and was afraid of overstimulating him. She had to resort to spreading a layer of clean old clothes over the quilt, but he, in turn, flat-out refused to sleep on it.

Now, she could smell him from several paces away. Not bathing was no longer an option.

Ji Huan laid out the facts and reasoned with him until her throat was dry.

Meanwhile, Dacheng had already helped boil the water.

The wooden bathtub was placed in the courtyard. Ji Huan had discovered that Dabao would involuntarily grow tense in enclosed spaces. In the courtyard, the sun was shining down, making it a bit warmer.

Hu Ximei led Xiao’an and Hua to knock jujubes off the tree behind the shed. Hu Dacheng wanted to stay and help; he was afraid the little kid would have another fit and bite Miss Wan.

Ji Huan sent him to the back to play as well.

Right now, Dabao only tolerated her presence without rejecting it. Earlier, when Dacheng had tried to tease him, he had been bitten hard for his troubles.

Only two people and a steaming bathtub were left in the courtyard.

Ji Huan bent down to undress Dabao and noticed his little fists starting to clench again, his pupils darting about. She started making small talk to distract him.

"Look at this bathtub. I had Liangzi go to town just to buy it for you. I never got this kind of treatment when I was staying at Aunt Xie’s; they all use wooden basins. Do you know who Aunt Xie is? She’s Dacheng’s mother. You definitely know Dacheng. You just bit him a little while ago..."

With her rambling on, Dabao’s tension did indeed begin to ease.

Ji Huan seized the opportunity, stripped him bare in a few swift moves, and quickly picked him up and placed him in the tub.

The moment he hit the water, Dabao was clearly startled. He flailed his arms and legs, and a few hoarse, meaningless syllables escaped his tightly pursed lips.

He grabbed her arm desperately, his small fingernails digging into her flesh. She sucked in a sharp breath from the pain but used her other hand to gently stroke his shoulder and back, murmuring reassurances without pause.

After a good while, Dabao finally calmed down, though he still refused to let go of her arm.

Ji Huan let him cling to her. While continuing to talk to him, she used her free hand to gently splash water on his body. Gradually, his attention shifted to the spreading ripples, and his grip slowly loosened.

The tub had a built-in seat, but Dabao was much smaller and thinner than a normal five-year-old and couldn’t use it. Ji Huan had him stand instead, which brought the water level up to his little chest.

She gave him a quick scrub and found layers of old grime caked on his body, especially behind his ears. It was impossible to rub off. ’It makes sense, though,’ she thought. ’How clean could a child be when raised by an elderly man?’

Ji Huan had no choice but to scoop out some of the soap beans she had crushed earlier in a stone mortar and use them as a substitute for body wash. Unprocessed soap beans weren’t really suitable for direct contact with large areas of skin, but she couldn’t worry about that now. It was her own fault for forgetting to buy soap in town last time.

Fortunately, the soap beans were powerful de-greasers, and the soaked-in grime came off quickly.

Ji Huan then loosened his hair and rubbed the rest of the soap beans from the mortar into it.

This time, he didn’t react much. His eyes were fixated on the bubbles swirling on the water’s surface, making him look surprisingly cute and dazed.

Seeing her chance, Ji Huan quickened her pace. After rinsing him off, she lifted him out, stood him on a nearby stool, and wrapped him snugly in a towel she had cut for him herself.

Then she called Hu Dacheng over to help her change the water in the tub.

Hu Dacheng grimaced at the murky, black water in the tub. "And my mom says *I’m* dirty! She should come see this. Here’s someone even dirtier than me!"

He shot Dabao a gloating smile, clearly still holding a grudge.

But Dabao, with his little eyelids lowered, didn’t even look his way. Dacheng’s taunt was like punching a cotton ball, and he huffed in frustration. "Miss Wan, why’d you name him Dabao? What’s so precious about him? He’s just a little mudball... Yeah, that’s it, a little mudball!"

He was extremely pleased with this nickname he’d come up with on the spot. He circled Dabao, chanting "Little Mudball, Little Mudball," happier than if he’d found money on the ground.

After changing the water and washing him a second time, when he was lifted out again, the dirty little mudball had transformed into a handsome little boy.

It was only then that Ji Huan realized just how good-looking the child was.

His features were impossibly delicate, and his eyes were like blackberries. His long eyelashes were especially enviable; when he blinked, all you could see were two tiny fans fluttering. Even Ji Huan couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy.

He was truly handsome, but he was also truly thin. The bones on both sides of his chest protruded, making him look like he had come from a refugee camp.

Ji Huan couldn’t know what kind of life Dabao had lived with his grandfather—whether poverty had starved him to this state, or if he had suffered inhumane abuse...

In her heart, she felt that a man who would give a bowl of water to a strange girl in the middle of the night was probably not the type to abuse a child.

Besides, on the night she found the old man’s body, he was lying on the floor. Judging by his direction and posture, he had likely been trying to open the door. He was probably afraid his little grandson would starve to death inside the house after he passed away.

She took a fresh towel and dried Dabao’s body and hair before dressing him in clean clothes.

His new clothes weren’t finished yet, so he was wearing Dacheng’s old ones. The sleeves and pant legs were rolled up several times, but they were still too big, making him look like he was wearing a Daoist robe.

Ji Huan picked Dabao up, walked into the house, and placed him directly on the bed. He glanced up at her quickly, his long lashes fluttering down again. This time, there was no resistance.

That night, the two of them slept at opposite ends of the bed, each with their own quilt. She didn’t know when Dabao fell asleep, but Ji Huan, at last, got a good night’s rest.

The next morning, when Ji Huan woke up, Dabao was still asleep on the inner side of the bed, his little cheeks a rare, rosy pink.

She got out of bed quietly. After washing up, she didn’t rush to make breakfast but went to Widow Xie’s house first.

When she had bought fabric before, she had been given a pile of remnants, some of which were good quality. Widow Xie had been piecing them together to make shoes for them. When Hu Ximei came to play yesterday, she had mentioned they could be picked up today, along with Dabao’s new clothes.