Chen family

While eating, Chen Xiaocai puffed out his cheeks and said, "Brother Lin, your family is going to sell land. It seems like you're going to sell two acres."

"Selling land? For Lu Chengyu, this future high-ranking official, the old man is willing to give up anything." Lu Lin said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Sell the land!" Chen Xiaomi rolled her eyes, seemingly somewhat tempted.

Looking at Chen Xiaomi's expression, Lu Lin guessed that Chen Xiaomi wanted to buy land.

Lu Lin had considered buying land, but he wasn't particularly interested in the Lu family's land. Buying land there would likely lead to complicated entanglements with them.

"How much will it cost for Lu Chengyu to get married?" Chen Xiaomi asked, biting her chopsticks, somewhat puzzled.

Lu Lin thought for a moment and said, "If it costs less, we probably won't need to sell the land. It would probably cost forty or fifty taels."

Chen Xiaocai looked up and said, "Forty-odd taels?" Chen Xiaocai's eyes widened. For Chen Xiaocai, who was used to being poor and whose mindset had never changed, forty taels was undoubtedly an astronomical figure. "That's too much."

Lu Lin smiled and said, "The Lu family is still quite wealthy."

Chen Xiaomi lay on the bed and said, "The two elders of the Lu family are really good to Lu Chengyu!"

“Yes!” Lu Lin shook his head. He wasn’t the original owner of this body, so he didn’t feel anything knowing that the two elders of the Lu family had gone to such lengths for Lu Chengyu. If it were the original owner, he would probably be heartbroken. The second branch of the family had worked so hard and selflessly, only to end up like this.

Back then, the old man preferred to send his son to serve in the military rather than sell the land, but now he's planning to sell two acres just because Lu Chengyu wants to get married.

The dangers of military service are immense. The old man would rather his son take the risk than give him a single penny.

Lu Lin shook his head, banishing the thoughts from his mind. After all, he wasn't the original owner of this body, and the Lu family had no connection to him.

While the Lu family was busy preparing for the wedding, Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin still occasionally ventured into the mountains.

Lu Lin looked around with great interest. Deep in the forest, he occasionally encountered some fruit trees that he had never seen before. Most of the fruits on the trees were sour and astringent, and difficult to eat. However, Lu Lin was still willing to try them. After trying many, Lu Lin also discovered a few good fruit trees.

Chen Xiaomi frowned and said, "It seems like someone is there."

Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaomi and asked, "Is anyone here?"

Chen Xiaomi nodded and said, "Yeah, it seemed like someone was around here just now. That's really strange."

"Perhaps it's one of the hunters from the village here," Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi shook her head and said, "That shouldn't be the case. Hunters in the village usually don't go this deep. Besides, these footprints are very fresh. Someone has come here."

Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin wandered around and happened to hear a crying sound.

Lu Lin frowned. Hearing crying in the deep forest was indeed a bit eerie.

Chen Xiaomi blinked at Lu Lin's horrified expression and asked with some surprise, "Are you scared?"

Lu Lin chuckled awkwardly and said, "No, not really." He was just afraid of encountering ghosts. Having experienced something like time travel, Lu Lin still believed in supernatural and bizarre things to some extent. Looking at his little brother's fearless expression, Lu Lin felt a little embarrassed.

"They must be mountain people. Something must have happened to them, forcing them to leave their territory."

Lu Lin secretly breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Chen Xiaomi's words. The so-called mountain people were similar to hunters, but also different. Hunters mostly lived in villages and only went out to hunt during the hunting season. Mountain people were different. They were generally very poor, digging caves in the mountains, marking their territory like wild animals, and living a life of eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Living conditions in the mountains are very poor, and it is easy to feel unwell as you get older. However, there are some advantages to being a mountain dweller: you don't have to pay taxes, you can eat meat from time to time, and you don't have to serve in the military.

There are many disadvantages as well. Generally speaking, they are poor and have poor living conditions. If they get sick by accident and don't have money to see a doctor, a minor illness can easily turn into a major one and lead to death. Many children in the mountains die young.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi continued walking and saw two children, one eleven or twelve years old and the other seven or eight years old. The younger one seemed to have fallen and was crying.

Upon seeing Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi appear, the older children looked at the two with great wariness.

Lu Lin asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why are there two children here?" This is deep in the mountains; it's very dangerous.

Chen Xiaomi looked at the two children, sighed, and said, "I'm afraid something has happened."

Mountain people live a solitary life. Children like this usually live in the mountains with their parents. If the elders in the family die, it is very difficult for the children in the mountains to survive.

Looking at Chen Xiaomi's expression, Lu Lin felt a pang of emotion. In this era, survival was still a difficult thing. If something happened to Chen Xiaomi, Chen Xiaocai and Chen Xiaomai would probably not have a good ending either. Thinking of this, Lu Lin couldn't help but turn his head to look at Chen Xiaomi, feeling a little heartache.

"What are you two doing here?" Lu Lin asked.

Qin Lang blushed slightly and said, "Father is sick, so we came out to find a doctor."

Since birth, Qin Lang has always stayed in a fixed place in the mountains. A few days ago, their father, Qin Yi, was bitten by a wild animal and developed a high fever. Their mother had died of a cold two years ago.

Since there were no adults in the Qin family, Qin Lang and Qin Ming had to leave the mountains to find outside help. However, the two were still just teenagers and got lost soon after they came out. Fortunately, they had learned some hunting skills and were not in any danger. However, after wandering in the mountains for several hours, the two were exhausted and hungry.

Chen Xiaomi glanced at the two of them and said, "What you're doing is dangerous."

Doctors are relatively scarce here. Even if these two boys find one, it will probably be of no use. Even if the two children are willing to pay, it's unlikely that a doctor from the city would travel all the way to the mountains. Qin Lang gritted his teeth and said, "We must find a doctor." For the two brothers, their father was their everything, and Qin Yi's injury made them both very anxious.

Chen Xiaomi looked at the two of them for a while, then suddenly asked, "Is your father Uncle Qin Yi?"

Qin Lang looked at Chen Xiaomi with some confusion and asked, "You know my father?"

"I've met you."

Qin Yi's territory was located deep in the forest, and it was usually difficult to see him.

When Chen Xiaomi first started venturing into the forest, she would occasionally lose her way. On several occasions, she was unable to make it back and had to find a place in the mountains to spend the night.

Having spent a considerable amount of time in the mountains, Chen Xiaomi had met Qin Yi several times, and Qin Yi had even given Chen Xiaomi directions. Once, when Chen Xiaomi was chased up a tree by a wild animal, Qin Yi bumped into him and chased the animal away.

Hearing Chen Xiaomi's words, Qin Lang felt as if he had grasped a lifeline. "Can you help us? I can give you money."

Lu Lin asked with great interest, "How much money do you have?"

Qin Lang suddenly raised his head and looked at Lu Lin.

Lu Lin suddenly realized that he had been reckless. The money in the two children's hands was probably their life-saving money, and it seemed inappropriate for him to ask about it so casually.

“I have five hundred coins,” Qin Lang said.

Lu Lin sighed inwardly. Only five hundred coins! So poor! Lu Lin suddenly felt incredibly wealthy. Trying to find a doctor to go into the mountains with only five hundred coins was probably impossible.

Doctors hold a relatively high status in this world. If you encounter an honest one, all is well; but if you encounter an unethical one, even spending tens of taels of silver may not yield any improvement.

“Five hundred coins isn’t enough to hire a doctor, and even if you do find one, they won’t go into the mountains with you,” Chen Xiaomi said coolly. “My father has been bitten and can’t move.”

Qin Lang lowered his head. He had thought about bringing his father out, but he and his brother were too weak. They were lucky to even get down the mountain; they couldn't possibly take their injured father down with them.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi followed the two children to Qin Yi, who had fallen into a coma, had a fever, and his wounds were infected.

Chen Xiaomi looked at Qin Yi's condition, her brows furrowed, and said, "Oh, it's like this! Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Chen Xiaomi shook her head and said, "I've never seen it, but I've heard of it..." Chen Xiaomi lowered her voice and said, "It is said that even doctors can't cure this condition. It's best if you can pull through, but if you can't, you're doomed. Many hunters die this way."

Lu Lin: "..." The medical level is still too poor. So, in this situation, you can only leave it to fate. However, this is not surprising. A modern cold might become a terminal illness in ancient times.

Chen Xiaomi asked quietly, "What do you do if you get bitten where you live? Can it kill you?"

You won't die, but you'll inevitably suffer. "If you get bitten by a puppy on the street, nothing will necessarily happen, but just in case, you'll have to get a rabies vaccine. You need to get five shots in total, and you can't miss a single one. Getting this shot seems to be quite painful."

Chen Xiaomi said with some envy, "No one has to die! That's great."

Lu Lin sent the two Qin brothers out to fetch water. The two brothers were a little uneasy, but they still obediently went.

Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin and asked, "Do you have a solution?"

Lu Lin shook his head and said, "I roughly know how to handle it, but whether he can pull through depends on his fate."

Chen Xiaomi nodded. "There's nothing we can do if they really can't be saved. I heard that many generals were killed on the battlefield, and even the imperial physicians couldn't save them."

Lu Lin took out a bottle of baijiu (Chinese liquor). Due to the limited brewing level, the alcohol content of the liquor here is not very high, so its disinfection effect is also limited.

Lu Lin's convenience store mainly sells low-alcohol beers, but it also has some high-alcohol spirits.

Chen Xiaomi sniffed and said, "What a strong smell of alcohol!"

Lu Lin smiled and said, "That's natural."

Lu Lin cleaned Qin Yi's wounds and drained the pus and blood from his body.

The intense pain finally brought Qin Yi back to consciousness briefly.

Qin Lang and Qin Ming, who had just returned, heard their father's screams and ran in fright.

After regaining consciousness for a moment, Qin Yi fainted again.

Lu Lin cleaned and disinfected Qin Yi's wounds, and secretly mixed antibiotic tablets into the water and fed them to Qin Yi.

Fortunately, the convenience store had some commonly used medicines on hand; otherwise, Lu Lin would have been in real trouble.

Qin Ming looked at Lu Lin with some concern and said, "How is my father? He was screaming terribly just now."

Lu Lin glanced at Qin Ming and said, "I treated him according to a method I'd heard of, using a bottle of wine—the kind sold in town, you know? A bottle costs three taels of silver." In fact, the three taels of silver Lu Lin mentioned wasn't much. After all, Lu Lin's wine had an extremely high alcohol content, making it a rare commodity that could potentially sell for over ten taels.

Qin Ming and Qin Lang were taken aback by Lu Lin's high offer, and both of them blushed.

"Wow, this wine is so expensive!"

Lu Lin glanced at the two brothers and said, "The wounds have been treated. What happens next depends on the situation."

The mountain path is impassable, and it would be very troublesome to forcibly bring someone down the mountain. Moreover, Lu Lin did not think that doctors of this era would have any better treatment for this kind of wound.

Qin Ming and Qin Lang's stomachs rumbled, and Qin Ming couldn't help but blush.

Chen Xiaomi caught two rabbits. She roasted one on the spot and made soup from the other. The two brothers fed Qin Yi some of the meat soup.

Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin didn't eat much; the rabbit was given to the two children and Qin Yi.

The two children were probably very hungry, as they wolfed down their food.

Seeing that it was getting late, Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi left first.

Chen Xiaomi wandered through the woods, muttering to herself, "I wonder if Qin Yi will make it through."

If Qin Yi doesn't make it through, the two children, Qin Ming and Qin Lang, might starve to death in the mountains.

The world has been in turmoil these past few years, and many people have starved to death every year. There are just too many pitiful people.

Chen Xiaomi was thinking that he would go into the mountains again tomorrow. He couldn't do anything else, except bring some food to the two children to at least get through the next two days.

Even if Qin Yi regains consciousness, he probably won't be able to hunt for a while. And it seems that the Qin family has run out of food. If this continues, he might starve to death even if he doesn't die from illness.