Lu Dahai's high fever raged on and off all night, and it only subsided when the sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn.
In the middle of the night, Lu Qiqi almost wanted to give Lu Dahai acupuncture, but unexpectedly, Lu Dahai endured it on his own.
Lu Qiqi brought over two bowls of spiritual spring water, giving one to Li Changlong, who was going to accompany the village chief to escort Li Nianzi to the government office this morning.
She gave a bowl to her third aunt, Li, whose eyes were red and swollen from crying, with a dark spot under her eyes. Lu Qiqi was afraid that by the time her third uncle woke up, her third aunt would collapse.
After drinking the spiritual spring water, Li Changlong instantly felt refreshed, perhaps because his father's high fever had subsided, which put his mind at ease.
Li Changlong handed the bowl back to Lu Qiqi and said, "Thank you, Qiqi. I'll go see the village chief later. I'll leave my father, mother, and Xibao in your care."
Lu Qiqi nodded and said, "We're all family, so let's not be so formal. I'll take good care of them. Second brother, we're the aggrieved ones at the government office, so just tell the truth. Since the village chief said he'd personally deliver the case to the authorities, he probably won't speak well of Li Nianzi anymore. Let's just wait and see how the magistrate decides."
Li Changlong never expected that Lu Qiqi, who was a few years younger than him, would turn around and teach him how to do it. For a moment, he didn't know what to say and just nodded blankly.
Li Changlong left the tent, and Li Qingshan, worried about him going alone, followed him out of the tent.
Lu Qiqi handed the prescription she had written the night before to Zhu Zi and asked him to go to the pharmacy to get the medicine.
Almost all the adults in the family had gone out, leaving only the women and the little ones. Liu Tong didn't take the Zhou brothers up the mountain to cut down trees; instead, he tended to the timber not far from the tent.
Lu Qiqi asked Madam Lu to persuade her third aunt to go and rest, while she stayed with Lu Dahai.
Yesterday, Xi Bao saw that Lu Dahai was being carried into the tent and was quite frightened. She saw that Lu Dahai's face was covered in blood and he was being comforted by Lu Yao in her arms.
Zhu Zi rode a horse into the city. He can now ride a horse by himself without any problem, thanks to Lu Qiqi for teaching him.
After returning from getting the medicine, Zhu Zi said to Lu Qi Qi, "Luzhou Prefecture is still taking in refugees, and the garrison in Qingshui Town has also withdrawn. Does that mean we can set up our stall every day from now on?"
Lu Qiqi was surprised that the guards retreated so quickly; she thought it would take much longer.
Lu Changping, who had just been released from prison by the officers, did not expect to be released so quickly.
They escaped from the bandit stronghold with nothing on them, and fled towards Luzhou Prefecture by eating tree bark and drinking muddy water.
When Lu Changping and Lu Dazhuang fled to the border between Yuan and Qu, they had been hungry for two days and two nights and had not had a drop of water.
And so, Lu Changping was sold by Lu Dazhuang to Liu Dali as his wife for a small bag of bran and half a bamboo jar of water.
Liu Dali was in his thirties when his wife died, and he also had a mentally challenged younger brother who was just over twenty years old.
Lu Changping only found out after being sold to his family that Liu Dali's parents were no good either, and that Liu Dali's deceased wife had been driven to her death by them.
Knowing the truth, Lu Changping was filled with hatred. Just because she was a girl, she was traded for food.
Her father and mother, who once said they loved her dearly, didn't even blink an eye when they traded her for food.
If she has the chance, she will definitely repay Lu Dazhuang and the others for their kindness in raising her.
"You brat, you jinx! If it weren't for you, my Dali wouldn't have died so young."
Lu Changping's mother-in-law, Yuan, raised her hand and twisted Lu Changping's ear. Yuan had a strong grip and was filled with hatred for Lu Changping, so she naturally didn't hold back.
The emaciated Lu Changping was no match for Yuan Shi and could only cry and beg for mercy, "Mother, I was wrong, I was wrong."
"Stop, old woman! Stop! She's carrying Dali's child, don't hurt her!" Old man Liu Tiezhu saw Yuan Shi trying to kill his daughter-in-law and immediately stopped her. If it weren't for the fact that the child in her belly was his son's, he would have wanted to beat this jinx to death with a stick.
When Yuan thought of the child in Lu Changping's belly, she let go, but her anger hadn't subsided at all. She thought that once the child was born, she would see how Lu Changping would wear down this jinx.
Lu Changping was released by Yuan Shi, covered her ears and hid to the side. When she saw Liu Dali's mentally challenged younger brother standing aside and clapping and cheering, her hatred intensified.
At this moment, Lu Changping was extremely grateful that Liu Dali had been beheaded by the government. If he hadn't led his men to rob and smash things in the city, she wouldn't have been imprisoned there. It was dark and damp, and the rats were bigger than cats, which terrified her so much that she didn't dare to sit on the ground.
After pausing for a while, Old Master Liu said, "Let's go."
Lu Changping and her group were assigned to the village at the very bottom of the veterans' village, which was also the most mixed and impoverished place.
Otherwise, Liu Dali wouldn't have harbored resentment, led his men to vandalize the city, and killed several people.
If Lu Changping knew that her two cousins, Lu Qiqi and Lu Yao, whom she used to look down on the most, were sitting in a tent eating meat soup noodles, she wondered how many pieces of handkerchiefs they would have torn to shreds.
Lu Yao finished the last sip of soup in her bowl, put the bowl on the table, and made a satisfying sound.
Lu Qiqi pinched Lu Yao's rounder face, which she had made plump over the past few days, and smiled faintly, "I said I would make sure you could eat meat every day from now on, and I kept my promise, didn't I?"
Lu Yao nodded, then shook her head and said, "Sister, our lives are getting better and better, and I also want to contribute to the family. Mother taught me how to embroider handkerchiefs, and I want to embroider handkerchiefs and sell them in the city."
Lu Qiqi knew that Lu Yao wanted to contribute to the family. Zhou Liu was only one year older than her and went up the mountain with Lu Dahai and the others to cut down trees and haul timber every day, while Lu Yao spent her days playing with Xibao.
Xi Bao is too young to do anything, so it seems like Lu Yao is the only one in the family who gets nothing out of the house.
Lu Qiqi patted Lu Yao's head and said, "I don't need you to earn money to supplement the family income. If you like, sew a bigger money bag for your sister and embroider some small designs. After the New Year, I will find a tutor to teach you and the Zhou brothers to read."
Lu Yao looked up, her eyes fixed on Lu Qiqi, and asked, "Can I really go to school? Is the teacher willing to teach girls?"
Lu Qiqi pinched her little nose and said, "In the grand mansions of the city, even the maids and servants who serve others can read and write, let alone the young ladies of noble families. They are trained in poetry, calligraphy and painting from a young age. Why is there no teacher willing to take on girls?"
Lu Yao nodded happily. She believed her sister's words. Her sister had never lied to her. She had promised to let her eat meat every day before, and now she was saying that she would go to school with the Zhou brothers, which was sure to be true as well.
Lu Yao's current feelings are indescribable. It's as if the days of being bullied by her older cousin after her parents died were a thing of the past.
Lu Yao ran out of Lu Qiqi's arms. She was going to feed Wangcai a piece of meat and share her joy at being able to go to school with it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com