Chapter 32
On the second day after the hurricane, Luo Shi and Fu An were not sick, but Yu Ying, the healthiest person in the family, was sick.
After taking a short nap in the second half of the night, Yu Ying felt dizzy, heavy and tired in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, and her body was also burning hot.
Fu Wei, who had not fallen asleep yet, heard a faint moaning sound. He turned his head and looked inside. The sky was getting slightly brighter, and he could see vague silhouettes in the house.
Fu Weiqian frowned and called out in a low voice twice: "Sixth Mother? Sixth Mother?"
Yu Ying seemed to hear Fu Wei's voice in a daze. Her mind was like a paste, and she murmured in response: "...Hmm?"
"What's wrong with you?" Fu Wei asked.
After all, she is a doctor. Although Yu Ying's mind is confused and her reaction is slow, she is also aware that there is something wrong with her.
"I feel like..." She raised her hand and touched her forehead, then said weakly, "I have a fever."
Fu Wei's face tightened slightly, and he didn't care about anything else. He reached out his hand based on his feeling and the faint light. When he touched her face, he was shocked to find that her face was very hot.
Fu Wei immediately withdrew his hand and shouted towards the next room, "Fu An, Fu An!"
The sound was masked by the sound of wind and rain, and when it reached the next room, only a faint and difficult-to-hear sound could be heard.
But Fu An had been helping his uncle for the past two months, so he heard the sound very clearly.
He sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes.
Luo asked him, "What's wrong?"
Fu An climbed over his grandmother and lay down on the bed, saying sleepily, "My uncle seems to be calling me. I'll go check..."
Luo listened to the rustling of the wind outside, feeling worried, and warned, "Be careful."
Fu An responded and opened the door.
As soon as the door opened, he could see the trees in the yard and the big trees in the distance being blown to and fro by the strong wind, and Fu An was frightened.
He felt that if he stood in the yard, his small body would definitely be blown away.
Although I was frightened, I overcame it and went to the next room holding on to the wall.
The house was blocked from the inside. After Fu An shouted for a long time, Fu Ning, who was called by Fu Wei to open the door, finally opened it with great difficulty.
Fu Ning anxiously grabbed his brother's hand and wanted to pull him to the bed, but Fu An closed the door first.
As soon as the door closed, Fu Ning hurriedly pulled his brother's hand and walked to the bed.
Fu An called out, "Uncle."
Fu Wei said to him, "Go get some cold water and bring your aunt's towel."
Upon hearing this, Fu An asked anxiously, "What happened to my aunt?"
Fu Wei said, "Go and prepare first."
Yu Ying coughed twice, then sat up on the bed and said, "I'm fine, just a little sweat will do. Also, it's windy and rainy outside, don't run around, it's dangerous."
When Fu An heard his aunt's weak voice, his face changed. He seemed to have guessed that his aunt was sick, and hurriedly said, "I'm not afraid."
After saying that, he opened the door and ran out regardless of Yu Ying's dissuasion.
Yu Ying wanted to shout but couldn't.
Fu'an directly brought the ceramic stove and ceramic pots over, and then went out to bring in a basin of water to boil.
When it got a little brighter, Yu Ying dragged her weak body out of bed and prescribed herself a dose of antipyretic medicine.
Yu Ying placed herbs in both rooms, so now it is convenient for everyone and they don’t have to brave the wind to go to the next room to look for herbs.
After preparing the medicine, just as she was about to boil it, Fu An said, "I'll do it, you just lie down!"
"You'd better lie down and don't try to be stubborn." Fu Wei also advised.
Yu Ying really didn't have the energy to boil the medicine, so she just lay back on the bed.
Fu Ning also followed her back to the bed and sat on the edge, clutching the quilt tightly with his little hands and looking at his aunt with red eyes.
Yu Ying said to her, "Don't worry, Auntie will be fine after a good sleep."
Fu Wei lowered his eyes to look at her and whispered, "Have a good rest. Don't think about anything today. I will watch the fire with Fu An."
During this period, she seemed to have endless energy every day, but even the strongest person would get tired eventually.
She might have been tired for a long time, but she was just carrying it alone without saying it out loud.
Yu Ying nodded, but she was still a little worried, so she instructed Fu An again: "Go out again later, bring your grandma to this room, and bring the rice and vegetables back in a basket. Don't go out for the time being."
"Okay, Auntie, you can take a rest. I can take good care of them."
Yu Ying hummed "hmm" and then fell asleep again in a daze. After a while, she could feel a cool cloth on her forehead.
Then, she felt someone slightly lifting her head, and then she seemed to hear Fu Wei's voice: "Open your mouth and drink some hot water."
She subconsciously opened her mouth, and the next moment hot water flowed into her mouth, the warmth entering her throat, making her feel a little more comfortable.
Half asleep and half awake, Yu Ying seemed to see her family whom she had not seen for a long time. They asked her about her recent situation with concern and told her to take good care of herself and not to work too hard.
Eat on time, remember to wear clothes when it's cold, and be wary of people with bad intentions when you go out.
When she dreamed of this, whether in a dream or in reality, Yu Ying's eyes were wet with tears.
Perhaps, Yu Ying knew that she might never be able to go back, so in her dream, she said her final goodbyes to her relatives and friends one by one.
The tears flowed even harder.
Fu An saw his aunt crying and asked in panic, "Uncle, why is my aunt crying?"
Fu Ning looked at his aunt with red eyes, wondering why his aunt, who was fine yesterday, became sick today?
Fu Wei's eyes fell on her sad and depressed expression, and he silently wiped away the tears from the corners of Yu Ying's eyes with a cloth.
After two breaths, he said, "It must be very uncomfortable."
But he knew that she must be dreaming about the past.
He didn't ask about her past, but he could guess how happy and fulfilling her past environment was. Only in such an environment could she have developed such an optimistic and tenacious character.
He didn't know what bizarre things she had experienced to become the Yu Liuniang of today, but he knew it was not what she wanted.
Now that he had fallen ill, all the buried sorrow would burst forth. Fu Wei could understand this the best.
Noon.
Yu Ying woke up for a while, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the four members of the Fu family surrounding the bed.
The concern on the faces of the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren was obvious. Fu Ning's eyes were red and swollen, obviously he had been crying.
Perhaps people are most vulnerable when they are sick, so when Yu Ying saw so many people gathered around the bed, she suddenly felt not alone anymore.
The next day, although there were still some winds, the hurricane had passed.
Because the hurricane was much stronger than any previous one, some people's houses in the village were blown down. Even if the houses did not collapse, the yards were in a mess.
The Fu family's house had been reinforced, so only some of the thatch on the roof was blown away. The hurricane did not have much impact on the house, but the yard was also in a mess.
There was a lot of thatch, dead tree branches and leaves, and weeds on the ground.
Every household began to clean up the mess in the yard, but the people of the Fu family were still busy by Yu Ying's bed.
When illness comes, it's like a mountain falling, and this is what Yu Ying is like.
Her fever had subsided, but she was still very weak. Fu An was busy running around, but the little girl Fu Ning refused to leave her aunt's side and wanted to stay with her.
By noon, the wind had died down and everyone's yard had been tidied up, except for one or two families who were still crying and wailing.
The hurricane stopped, and two men in yamen runners' clothes rode their horses towards Lingshui Village.
They escorted the prisoners from Wuling County to Lingnan and were entrusted by someone to come to Lingshui Village in Yu County to inquire about the situation.
When they entered the village, two men got off their horses. When two or three villagers saw the yamen runners, they were all frightened and avoided them from a distance.
The man stopped a woman and asked with a sullen face, "Do you know where the Fu family's family is that has been pardoned?"
Aunt Cuilan, who was stopped, said in a trembling voice, "I know, I know." Then she turned towards the Fu family and said, "It's at the very outside of the village, closest to the mountain, there are four thatched houses."
As they were about to leave, another man looked at the woman and asked, "Do you know what's going on with the Fu family?"
Aunt Cuilan thought that the Fu family must have gotten into trouble again, or that Yu, who went to the county town every day, must have offended someone.
I'm sorry for the offense...
Aunt Cuilan was secretly delighted and immediately told the story of the Fu family: "The Fu family has a blind old lady, a lame son, a mute granddaughter, and only one normal grandson. Oh, and there is also a frivolous daughter-in-law!"
When the two heard this, they looked at each other and asked, "How is it not proper?"
Aunt Cuilan swallowed her saliva and whispered, "The new bride of the Fu family has a lame husband. Perhaps she's unhappy with her husband, so she often uses selling herbs as an excuse to go to Yu County to meet other men. If she hadn't been meeting other men, where would she have the money to buy new basins and buckets? Although the new bride has dark spots on her face, she has a good figure and fair skin. Once the lights go out and she can't see, she looks the same, but the way she feels to the touch..."
Before she could finish her words, the two men were too lazy to listen to her nonsense and pulled their horses away.
After the people walked away, Aunt Cuilan spat softly, and then said to herself: "The Fu family has really committed a sin. Yu Shi is such a jinx."
The two men rode their horses to the place the woman had mentioned. They tied up their horses at a distance and one of them went to inspect it.
As I approached the yard, I saw that it was in a mess, as if it was an abandoned and uninhabited yard, and the houses were dilapidated and crumbling.
Someone came out of the house and the man hid immediately.
A child, dressed only slightly better than a beggar, came out of the house. He picked up a broom and swept the dead leaves in the yard.
But for some reason, after a while he squatted down and buried his head in his knees, his body trembling and crying vaguely, as if he had been bullied and had no place to vent his grievances.
After a while, an old lady with her eyes covered with gauze came out of the house. The old lady also looked haggard and lifeless.
This situation is nothing more than being wasted by life, which is why one is so decadent and depressed.
Seeing this, the man thought that the current situation of the Fuji family was indeed bad and unfortunate, and that this was almost enough to get away with it.
But when they thought that the person who asked them for help was the son of a high-ranking official, they also specifically asked them to confirm whether Fujia Erlang's leg was really disabled.
Thinking of this, he didn't dare to be too perfunctory.
After thinking for a while, he went back and discussed it with another person, and then he came up with an idea.
Fu An believed that his aunt fell ill because she worked too hard for the family, and the family gradually recovered because of his aunt's hard work from dawn to dusk. So now when he saw his aunt's sick and weak appearance, he remembered that he had never said anything good to her on a daily basis. He felt uncomfortable for a while, and finally couldn't hold it back and broke down in tears.
Mrs. Luo had a similar idea to her grandson. She felt that Liu Niang was exhausted because of this family. She felt guilty and had a worried look on her face.
Just as the grandfather and grandson were feeling depressed, two yamen runners suddenly appeared, armed with knives. They rushed into the courtyard with gloomy faces and shouted, "Officials are pursuing the fugitives. All outsiders, please give way!"
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