Trouble
The big-eyed boy didn't say anything, but stuffed the divided medicine packets into her hands and turned to pack the next batch.
He moved quickly, his thin but powerful hands precisely selecting and grabbing from the medicine baskets that Lin Yi saw as indistinguishable.
Lin swallowed the words of help he wanted to say.
The boy quickly sorted out dozens of medicine packets, gathered them together, draped them over his shoulder, and looked at her with a puzzled expression that seemed to say: Why are you still here?
Lin Yi gave a friendly smile: "Can I come with you?"
“If you don’t like to talk, I can help explain.”
The boy strode out of the pharmacy, tacitly allowing her to follow behind.
The boy's footsteps were swift; they had walked for quite some time, about two miles. Even though she wasn't talkative, Lin Yi felt the atmosphere was a bit too quiet.
"May I have your name?"
The boy stopped, a hint of...resentment in his eyes?
Lin Yixin understood. Poor families might not be good at naming their children, so he smoothed things over by saying, "Look at your big eyes, how about I call you Big-Eyed Little Brother?"
The boy paused for a moment, then sparingly uttered two words: "Whatever you want."
Lin Yi followed her big-eyed brother onto the country road and dirt road. Only then did she realize that in the capital city of Mingzhou, there were not only bustling streets and alleys, but also quiet villages like this.
The people living in the village are not wealthy, only slightly better off than those in the slums.
They first went to a house near the village entrance, where a woman opened the door.
The bamboo fence makes the courtyard look warmer and more welcoming than the cold, imposing mansion.
Lin Yi glanced at it quickly, then listened attentively to the back-and-forth between the two.
Although the big-eyed younger brother wasn't good with words, he could still concisely explain what happened when it was time to speak.
"The disease is contagious. This was given to me by my master. I boil it and drink it to prevent illness."
It must have been really tough on him to say so many words at once.
The woman was stunned for a moment, and then, combining what she had seen at Xinglin Garden at noon that day, she realized what had happened.
The woman rubbed her fingers together, took the medicine packet, and thanked him profusely. Finally, she asked him with some difficulty, "Is this medicine expensive?"
"It's free."
Upon hearing this, the woman objected: "How can you say it's free? Your master's shop doesn't make any money to begin with. Are you two going to starve?"
She took a dirty purse from the wooden cabinet by the entrance, took out a few copper coins, and then, as if feeling it was inappropriate, gritted her teeth and counted out twenty more, blushing: "I know this money is not enough, but it's just a token of my appreciation, take it."
The boy shook his head, refusing to accept the coin. "No...no need." With that, he dodged the coin she was trying to put in his hand, turned, and ran away.
Dozens of copper coins were scattered on the ground.
Lin bent down to help the woman pick up the coins one by one, counted them again, and found 28 coins, not one missing. Then he stood up and wanted to return them to their rightful owner.
The woman swiftly grabbed her wrist, the force so strong that Lin Yi felt a slight pain.
“Young lady, you’re with him, right? I know this money is definitely not enough, but take it first, and I’ll give it to Doctor Wang when the child’s father comes home from work.”
Lin Yi raised his wrist, both amused and exasperated, still holding the 28 copper coins in his hand, but the woman refused to take any more. "Listen to me, take them."
"Auntie, I can't accept this money. You should give it to him yourself."
The two struggled several times, but couldn't reach a conclusion.
Lin Yi took a deep breath and decided to follow suit.
She verbally agreed to take the money, and under the old woman's kind gaze, she walked to the door. Then, with lightning speed, she placed the coin on the ground, waved, turned, and ran, shouting as she ran, "Auntie, I really don't know him! Please keep this money safe, Doctor Wang won't take it—"
The woman hurriedly picked up the money and ran after him, but it was too late. She could only watch helplessly as Lin Yi ran onto the path.
Lin Yi was already panting heavily when she reached the country road. This body, which had never taken a university physical education class, probably rarely even stepped outside the manor gates, let alone ran. It was a wonder that she consistently achieved excellent results in the 800-meter dash during physical tests, yet she was already out of breath after just a few steps. Once she returned to the Xie manor, she would definitely find a prescription to properly treat her condition.
She had been distracted by her tug-of-war with the lady and couldn't find her big-eyed brother anywhere.
"This person has no sense of loyalty at all." Lin Yi patted his chest to calm his breathing. "He didn't even say anything before running away." He should at least have asked her to come along. She's a research student who hasn't graduated yet. She spends her days either in the lab or in the library. How would she know anything about these social niceties?
She wasn't worried if she couldn't find him right away. The village wasn't big, and the road went straight through without many twists and turns. If she just kept walking, she would eventually meet him.
She met the big-eyed boy at the south end of the village. Well, "met" isn't quite right, because that was where the commotion was the loudest. Lin Yi went straight there and found him right away by following the sound.
It was that same old man in front of Xinglin Garden at noon, the most difficult one to deal with, grabbing the big-eyed boy by the collar and refusing to let go, glaring and blustering, looking quite formidable.
The big-eyed boy's face turned red, and he raised his hand and then lowered it again. Lin Yi could tell that he was trying his best to restrain himself from hitting this person.
"What are you doing! Let go!" Lin Yi rushed forward and separated the two.
"How are you? Are you alright?"
The big-eyed little brother shook his head.
Lin Yi pulled the person over to look again, and only after confirming that the collar had been wrinkled did he breathe a sigh of relief. "What happened?"
"What happened?!" The old man's aged voice sounded rough and harsh. "You have the nerve to ask what happened? I went to Xinglin Garden for treatment, but I didn't get the treatment I needed, and now I've caught some other weird diseases. This is ridiculous!"
Lin Yi sneered inwardly. It's true that bad people get old. Someone as unreasonable as him is actually shamelessly trying to reason with others.
"I didn't ask you." Lin Yi didn't even look at him.
The old man was so angry that his beard trembled, but he was helpless against a young girl like her, and he pointed at Lin Yi and stomped his feet.
Lin pretended not to see it, "Tell me, what happened?"
The big-eyed younger brother was clearly furious, his eyes widening even more: "He took all the medicine."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yi turned her head and stared indifferently at the old man. Qiu Qingye's appearance was delicate, but not particularly sweet; rather, it was rather plain. The original owner of the body usually made sarcastic or contemptuous expressions, so it wasn't very noticeable. However, Lin Yi had a cold personality since childhood, and when she wasn't smiling, she brought out the coldness and indifference on her face to the extreme.
The old woman, upon seeing this, inexplicably felt a little guilty, and her rebuttal lacked some of its force. "What's wrong with me taking a few extra packets? If I've been infected by your clinic's 'illness energy,' aren't you responsible? There are two of us in my family; three packets aren't enough for anyone!"
The big-eyed younger brother bluntly exposed him, speaking fluently: "He only has himself and a yellow dog at home."
"What's wrong with the yellow dog? It's been with me for so many years, like my child. If it dies from illness, will you compensate me?"
"You...!" This old man is really something, he never stops taking advantage of people. No wonder the big-eyed brother was speechless, Lin Yi patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.
“I don’t care how many people are in your family. Doctor Wang made it very clear that everyone who went to Xinglinyuan received three doses of medicine. Not a single one more. Return all the remaining medicine.”
Lin Yi appeared to be extremely tough, but only she knew that it was the first time she had confronted someone, and she was so nervous that her palms were sweating. It was just an act. But with this kind of person, it was useless to persuade her with kind words. She had to fight fire with fire and she could not lose in terms of momentum.
Lin Yi stood with one hand on her hip and the other outstretched, her face so serious it could drip water: "Give it back."
The old man's face flushed red and then turned pale, but he remained stubbornly unyielding: "I won't return it!"
"The medicine is limited. If you take more than you need, there won't be any left for others. Give it back."
"Why should I care what they do? I'm not paying them back, what can you little brat do to me?"
Lin Yi sneered. It wasn't that she was pretending; she had genuinely never seen anyone so unyielding. "I can't do anything about it, but do your family members know about your disrespectful behavior towards your elders? Aren't you afraid of retribution later?!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Lin Yi knew that she had spoken without thinking.
Upon hearing her mention her family, the old woman's face turned ashen, and her fingertips trembled uncontrollably with emotion.
Big Eyes had just said that he only had one person at home, with only his yellow dog for company. This suggests he had no family and that something must have happened to him. In her haste, she hadn't considered this. Words spoken are like water spilled; they can wound like sharp swords. She could only feel remorse and regret.
The old man was so angry that he was out of breath. He leaned against the doorpost and slid down, trembling.
Upon seeing this, the big-eyed younger brother quickly went forward to check on him.
Lin Yi reached out and grabbed him, trying to appear calm, and said, "It's okay, he's just trying to scam me."
"A staged accident...?"
"That's right, that's how it's portrayed in the show."
"Grandpa, stop pretending. If you keep this up, we'll just take the medicine and leave."
The old man clutched his chest, his face contorted in pain, looking extremely distressed.
This didn't seem like an act. Lin Yi finally panicked.
Rescue people.
That was the only word left in her mind, but she didn't know how to save him.
Lin Yi looked at his trembling hands and bit down hard. Blood slowly seeped out from the deep teeth marks.
The pain brought a brief moment of clarity to Lin Yi's chaotic and panicked mind. He gripped the small opening tightly and forced himself to calm down.
"What ailments does he usually have, and what medicine does he take?" The voice was unsteady at first, but the dry tone finally returned to normal at the end of the sentence.
"Chest pain! Take styrax!"
Heart disease. Lin Yi quickly made up her mind. She laid the old man flat on the ground and gently stroked his chest from top to bottom to help slow his heart rate. "Go and fetch Doctor Wang right away and explain the situation to him."
Then she softened her tone, afraid of upsetting the old man further: "Grandpa, can you hear me? I misspoke just now... Where do you usually keep your styrax incense?"
The old man's brows were furrowed, and he was in so much pain that he couldn't open his eyes, but he seemed to hear her words, and his fingers struggled to move.
Lin Yi couldn't tell which direction he was referring to, and in the confusion, he guessed blindly. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. Heart patients often find it difficult to predict when an attack will occur, so they usually carry nitroglycerin tablets with them at all times.
She gently touched the old man's left chest, where it was flat and empty. She then reached to the right side of his clothes and, sure enough, pulled out a small porcelain bottle.
Lin Yi took a sniff and smelled the aroma of plant oils.
Pour out two pills and feed them to the elderly person.
At this point, she didn't know what else she could do.
Although she had the help of the system's classic texts, she had nothing at hand and no cure. All she could do was count the old man's irregular heartbeats and pray that her big-eyed brother would bring Wang Chunsheng soon.
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