"Don't be afraid, I'm a doctor, let me take a look." Li Xiyue comforted the little girl and went to check on the unconscious Erniu, discovering that she had only fainted due to low blood sugar.

He took out silver needles and inserted them into Erniu's body. Erniu slowly woke up after a short while.

She took out a White Rabbit milk candy from her spatial storage, unwrapped it, and fed it to Erniu, saying, "A little candy will make you feel better."

At first, Erniu didn't know what was happening until she smelled a milky and sweet aroma in her mouth. Then she realized what was going on and began to suckle greedily.

The little girl beside her kept swallowing, her watery eyes filled with the desire to eat.

Li Xiyue gave her another one, saying, "Take this and eat it."

The little girl instinctively reached out, but then stopped herself, thinking of something. "My mom said I can't take other people's things without permission."

"It's okay, it's from my sister, it's not like I took it without permission." Li Xiyue unwrapped the candy and put it in her mouth.

The sweetness, unlike anything she had ever tasted before, was irresistible to the little girl. She held one end of the candy with her dirty little hands, licked it, and squinted her eyes happily.

Li Xiyue handed her the candy wrapper, saying, "Your hands are dirty, so wrap the candy in the wrapper before eating."

The girl timidly took the candy wrapper, wrapped the candy up, but refused to eat it, carefully putting it into her pocket.

Li Xiyue asked, "Why aren't you eating?"

"I want to save it to eat slowly." The girl lowered her head shyly.

This was her first time eating candy, and she didn't want to finish it all at once, but if she said that, would her sister laugh at her?

Li Xiyue saw that they were thin and small, their clothes were patched, their hair was dry and yellow, and their faces were sallow and haggard, clearly indicating long-term malnutrition.

"What's your name? How old are you?" Li Xiyue asked, smoothing the girl's hair.

The girl replied crisply, "My name is Lai Di, and I'm eight years old."

"I'm seven years old," Erniu said, her mouth full of candy, her words muffled.

She was so thin that her chin was pointed, making her eyes appear exceptionally large.

The seven or eight-year-old child looked like a four or five-year-old; he was so thin he was practically skin and bones.

Moreover, just by hearing the name Lai Di, you can tell what kind of family she comes from.

Looking at the two thin and pale girls, Li Xiyue felt a pang of sadness and asked about their family situation.

Erniu's family was poor. Her mother died of illness when she was very young. Her father remarried and left her with her grandparents. Her grandmother was also in poor health and had to take medicine all year round.

Under her stepmother's control, her father completely ignored her and her grandparents.

The family could only rely on Grandpa to earn work points in the fields, but Grandpa was getting old, and the work points he earned were not enough to feed the family of three.

Lai Di's family wasn't poor, but rather they favored sons over daughters. She had two older sisters and a four-year-old younger brother. All the family's resources were given to the younger brother first, and Lai Di could only barely eat half a meal each time.

Although Lai Di could eat half full, she was beaten every day at home, and her body was covered with new and old injuries, which was shocking to see.

“My brother does something wrong and blames it on me. My mom never asks anything, she just picks up a broom and hits me…” Lai Di cried, feeling wronged.

Li Xiyue was furious. This mother was too biased!

Although the preference for sons over daughters is common in this era, conscientious parents, while favoring their sons, would at least not be too harsh on their daughters. However, parents like Lai Di's family, who are heartless, don't even bother with pretense and openly abuse their daughters while favoring their sons, which is going too far.

"Don't cry." Li Xiyue wiped away the little girl's tears and coaxed her gently.

Lai Di was very good and really didn't cry anymore.

Seeing the two girls looking so pitiful, Li Xiyue felt very sorry for them and thought she should do something to help them.

After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Do you want to have a full meal?"

"Yes!" The two girls nodded emphatically.

"I have a way to feed you, but you'll have to earn the food through your own labor. Are you willing to do that?" Li Xiyue asked again.

"We are willing."

They are not afraid of working, but they are afraid of going hungry.

Li Xiyue nodded in satisfaction, "Okay, next time you're gathering pig feed, you can help me dig up some medicinal herbs, and I'll exchange them for grain, okay?"

She has neither a shortage of money nor food, and could give them money and food directly, but she can only help them once, and there is a risk that kindness might turn into enmity, and she is also afraid that they might develop a habit of depending on others.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

By allowing them to earn their own wages, they are also learning skills. With more abilities than others, they will not be bullied at will in the future.

It would be even better if they were to study medicine when they grew up; with that skill, they could at least support themselves.

"Okay!" the two children said in unison.

Lai Di, being older, thought of something and said, "But sister, we don't know any herbs."

The light in Erniu's eyes dimmed slightly. Yes, they didn't know them, so how could they dig?

"I'll teach you." Li Xiyue looked around and picked some grass. "This is called Feipeng, it's a kind of herb."

“We recognize this; it’s pig feed,” Lai Di said.

Erniu blinked her big eyes and asked, "Is this pig feed a medicinal herb?"

“Yes, many of them are medicinal herbs; you just don’t know them.” Li Xiyue showed them a few more. “You all recognize this plantain, right?”

The two children nodded. "We know each other."

"And this dandelion, too."

"By the way, you've all seen cockleburs before, they're those little green fruits covered in thorns that stick to your skin and are hard to remove."

“I saw horsetail on the ridge of the field, and also this goosegrass next to us.”

The children's eyes slowly regained their light.

They've seen all of these things that my sister mentioned, and quite a few of them at that.

In addition to herbs, Li Xiyue also told them about some common insects in rural areas. "If you have cockroaches or centipedes at home, you can bring them over, but you can't handle them with your hands. You have to use a net to catch them, or you'll get poisoned if you get bitten."

"Farting bugs, millipedes, mud gnats, earthworms, dung beetles, cow mosquitoes, crickets, and so on—you can bring all of these to me."

In traditional Chinese medicine, everything in the world can be used as medicine.

Rural areas are vast and rich in resources, with a wide variety of medicinal herbs available to anyone who knows them.

"Sister, we've got it." The two children were overjoyed. They saw these things all the time; they were everywhere. Now they could exchange them for food. Wouldn't they have an endless supply of food?

"Giggle giggle..." The two girls were young and couldn't hide their thoughts, so they burst into laughter.