Kapitel 16: Man Sized Baby Steps

Ye hadn't been kidding about Jin not knowing how to be human. Everything he did was horribly awkward or down right strange.

When he came to the table in the back, he'd stared at the scrolls for a very long time. He'd then started crying, only to surprise himself with his own tears. When he touched his face and found water there, he'd come to them in a panic.

Ye naturally found this hilarious, so Mei Hua had to patiently explain instead. When he heard that being sad could make a person cry, he'd nodded as if this was a very deep and meaningful discovery.

While she worked on pants and a shirt, she tried teaching him how to say their names.

Ye's name was technically the shortest and easiest, but Jin refused to even try saying it. She assumed he was still upset about the earlier argument. His own name he was ambivalent about, but Mei Hua's name he was obsessive over. He made her say her own name over and over again, to the point she was starting to hate it, so he could watch her mouth movement.

"MeiMei." He finally said and then looked at her excitedly.

"Uh, yes, no, well.. That's… friends and family call me that so you—"

"MeiMei!" He said again, eyes shining at her.

Seeing him look so happy, her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"…I guess it doesn't really matter so…" She patted him on the shoulder. "Good job, Jin. Good job."

He'd been sitting very close to her, so it was easy to pat his shoulder. Besides all his other problems, he had no sense of personal space.

She'd tried getting him to give her some distance, as he was still technically half naked, by leading him to a spot and forcing him to sit there, then she'd go to a different area and continue what she'd been doing. He'd whine, literally like a dog, and then crawl awkwardly over to where ever she was and sit so close that their bodies were overlapping.

This impeded her in her sewing, so after several repeats of this behavior, she lectured him a bit about people needing enough space to get jobs done. He'd listened very carefully and then nodded. He scooted himself away, so only one part of his body was touching her. Right now he was laying down nearby, so it was his hand. Earlier it'd been a foot.

This guy was so weird!

Once she was done with her very simple hanfu shirt and pant set, she realized she'd have to help him put it on. Considering how difficult it'd been for Ye, and pants being more complicated, she doubted things would go well.

Making sure his skirt was still on, she had him put a foot in each pant leg and then pull it up. Making him hold the pulled up pants, she removed his skirt. She then taught him how to tie his pants up. Then how to untie them. She did this several times, and then had him do it several times. Once she was fairly sure he got the gist of it, she moved on to the shirt.

The hanfu shirt was a very simple short robe, with two ties on the side of the waist. She had him take it off and on, then tie and untie it, like with the pants. After he could smoothly take the entire thing off and put it on again, she could let out a sigh.

It was just a shirt and pants, but how exhausting! This was more tiring than dealing with a toddler!

She's skipped breakfast to rush through making the clothes and she was starving. Using what was already in stock in the jars, paired with her new cooking knowledge from the town, she was able to make something with relative ease. Jin naturally followed and watched everything she did.

When the food started to cook, he began sniffing around and drooling. Yes, literal drooling. Apparently she wasn't the only one who was hungry.

Too tired and hungry to care, she let him drool. Of all the problems she'd had with him today, that was the least problematic thing he'd done. When the food was done—a rice and herb based soup with vegetable—she'd poured it in a bowl.

To her astonishment, Jin had rushed over, grabbed the bowl, and attempted to eat it.

When it was boiling hot.

He dropped the bowl, hot soup flying every where, and let out a horrendous howl of pain. After a few minutes of chaos, Ye managed to calm him down while Mei Hua cleaned up the mess.

She'd initially just been really angry with him, her hunger shortening her temper. But when she saw his burned mouth and jaw and big gloppy tears falling down his cheeks, pity replaced anger.

Gently holding his jaw, she extended her own qi into his, carefully circulating it. Focusing on the areas he'd burned, she used her qi to cool the inner and outer burn and speed up the healing. After a few minutes of this, the serious burn had turned into a minor one. It still hurt, but not nearly as bad.

Jin put a big hand on her head when she was done, and said in a low, earnest voice of thanks, "MeiMei."

She chuckled. "Your welcome." And then she lightly tapped him on the head with her knuckles. "You need to learn patience. The soup is hot when it comes out of the pot, you've got to let it sit and cool down. All hot food is like that. And if you don't want to hurt yourself in the future, don't rush into things. My ability to heal is minor at best. A really serious injury I can't fix, understand?"

He looked down, repentant. Pain really was the best teacher. Jin was far more careful about things after that.

Mei Hua and Ye spent of the rest of the day trying to teach Jin the basics of living. When he could get up and down without sticking his butt in the air, Mei Hua had felt a real sense of accomplishment. (Ye had been disappointed.)

When night came, Mei Hua was ready for bed. Much to her relief, the magic of the Traveler's Cave had taken Jin into account. Another bed had been carved into the wall, big enough for him to sleep in.

The problem was he didn't want to sleep in it. When she'd climbed into her bed, he'd tried to follow. Having none of that, she forced him into the bed obviously meant for him and sternly instructed him not move. She'd then gone to her own bed, ready to sleep.

"MeiMei."

She groaned, why wouldn't he just go to sleep???

"MeiMei?" A hand grabbed her shoulder and shook it.

Annoyed she sat up and glared at him.

"What?!"

"MeiMei…" He'd already started slinking into her bed.

"I said no!" She used the leverage of the wall and pushed him out with her feet. The push was so hard he stumbled off and landed with a thump.

"MeiMei!" He'd cried out and then sniffled, apparently upset enough to cry.

"Don't think crying will do anything. I told you no and I mean it. You've got your own place to sleep so use it." She was too tired to care at this point what he wanted. She wrapped a blanket around her body and laid back down, closing her eyes.

Ye, who'd witnessed the entire thing, gave Jin an evil grin. He waved a little hand at the man, smug that he could sleep with Mei Hua and the other could not.

Jin gritted his teeth in anger, offended that MeiMei let Ye sleep with her but not him. Huffing and puffing angrily, he climbed into his bed feeling bitter.