Chapter 36, "Seven Days of Recovery," consists of two episodes, each featuring Qiu Yu...
There are two markets every seven days. Qiu Yuru prepares meat sauce and pastries in advance for each market day, and makes more than a hundred bowls of stew on the day of the market.
As the temperature rises in spring, there are fewer people at the market. Ping An is more outgoing than Yun Che when it comes to hawking his wares. Regardless of whether he knows them or not, he is very confident in striking up a conversation with anyone who passes by his stall.
Even on days that weren't market days, whenever merchants passed by on the official road, Ping An would stand by and warmly invite them to have tea.
If Qiu Yu had seen all that he had done, she would have shed tears and received the money.
This child truly treats his own difficulties as his own, and his own affairs as his own.
Qiu Yuruo decided to take this sincere child as her apprentice, even though his talent in cooking wasn't particularly outstanding.
However, she decided not to rush into taking him as an apprentice. She planned to wait until the family's financial crisis was over and she had more money to spare before accepting him as her apprentice.
In this era, no matter what craft one learns, once the apprenticeship ceremony is performed and the master-apprentice relationship is established, the requirement for the apprentice is truly to treat the master as a father.
Then, the master would have the same power as the parents.
Some people particularly like to take on apprentices because they can exploit them at will. You have to pay a worker, but you don't have to pay an apprentice.
There are masters who exploit their apprentices, and there are masters who treat their apprentices like their own children. If you encounter such a master, the master can take care of all aspects of the apprentice's daily life, from food and clothing to their later life of starting a family and building a career.
Qiu Yuruo thought of taking Ping An as her disciple so that she would have someone who was of one mind with her in everything she did in the future, and naturally, she would want a master who would take care of everything she did.
Therefore, it's really not suitable for me to take on apprentices now that I'm still facing an economic crisis.
...
After seven days of aggressive sales efforts, the food stall earned three taels of silver during a spring of sluggish consumption!
With this money, Qiu Yuruo was no longer afraid to go to the county to get medicine for her younger sister.
After taking the younger sister's pulse, Dr. Zhang was very satisfied with her recovery. With a wave of his hand, he wrote down a prescription.
This time, the prescription lasted for half a month, but the price was only one tael of silver.
After finishing these medicines, it was time to get more medicine for Su Yunting. Doctor Zhang said to Qiu Yuruo, "Next time, we'll see how things go. If she recovers well, she won't need to continue taking the medicine."
Everyone was overjoyed to hear the news.
After paying for the medicine, Qiu Yuruo still had two taels of silver left.
She had originally planned to redeem the bracelet today, but there were only half a month left before Su Yunting came to get the medicine. Qiu Yuru was worried that if the weather was bad in the next half month, she wouldn't be able to earn enough money to get the medicine, which would be embarrassing.
So she decided not to redeem it for the time being, and even told Dr. Zhang that she was afraid he would think she didn't want it anymore and would give it away again.
Dr. Zhang reassured her, "I've saved it for you. It's okay if you switch it back next year."
Qiu Yuruo hurriedly waved her hand: "Please don't think like that. You should think that I can exchange it next time. Even if I can't exchange it next time, I can wait another month. If I have to wait until next year to exchange it, my business will be so bad!"
Dr. Zhang laughed heartily after hearing this and said, "Great, I look forward to you being able to switch back next time you come."
The patient recovered well, and the doctor and family were in a good mood. Dr. Zhang gave a few more instructions, which Qiu Yuruo carefully remembered and agreed to.
In the following two weeks, her fears were indeed realized: continuous spring rain lasted for seven or eight days!
When it was time for Su Yunting to get the medicine, before Qiu Yuru could say that she couldn't get enough for two months, Doctor Zhang, after taking her pulse, said that he wanted to change the prescription.
Qiu Yuruo's heart skipped a beat, thinking that something bad had happened.
Dr. Zhang's pulse diagnosis results were naturally good, and he would directly tell Qiu Yuruo the results of his pulse diagnosis.
However, Dr. Zhang knew very well that the medicine Su Yunting was using could not achieve the same effect. If Su Yunting had used more expensive medicine, he might have achieved such improvement.
However, Su Yunting's pulse was so strong that the recovery was so effective that Doctor Zhang was somewhat uncertain.
He himself couldn't believe the results, so naturally he wouldn't tell the patient's family.
He only said that the weather had changed and the prescription needed to be adjusted.
After thinking for half a day, he prescribed another month's worth of medicine, leaving Qiu Yuruo penniless again.
Fortunately, the weather turned sunny and breezy in the following days. Although the market days were not as good as during the autumn harvest, business was much better than before.
Merchants who frequently travel this route know that Qiu Yuruo's pastries are excellent. They stop here around noon to drink some tea and eat some pastries, and before leaving, they buy two pounds of meat sauce.
If they arrived at the food stalls around mealtime, and the caravan consisted of fewer than ten people, Qiu Yu could ensure that they could eat noodles almost simultaneously.
For groups of more than a dozen people, the first and second waves are almost always within the same timeframe.
For a small food stall with only two people, this speed is something that people wouldn't easily believe unless they saw it with their own eyes.
The rich and fragrant bone broth and smooth noodles were so delicious that caravans would buy two pounds of meat sauce separately to make their own. Once you've tasted this, you'll definitely want to come back again.
While the bone broth and noodles couldn't be taken away, the meat sauce could. Every merchant or caravan that had eaten Qiu Yuruo's noodles would buy a few pounds of meat sauce before leaving.
Many of the caravan members would also bring half a pound home with them.
So after the weather warmed up, Qiu Yuruo's empty purse quickly swelled up again.
It was another beautiful day. Although the market wasn't open today, she hadn't been idle all morning. It was almost lunchtime when Qiu Yuru kneaded enough dough to sell. She had just washed her hands when a horse-drawn carriage came along the main road.
Ping An saw this and stood by the roadside calling out, "Sir, it's noon, get off the bus, rest, and have a bowl of noodles."
The coachman pulled the reins, and the carriage stopped in front of the food stall. The carriage door opened, and Ping An was about to explain the prices of the noodles when he first heard Qiu Yuru call out, "Young Master Wang!"
Wang Bin jumped down from the carriage and said to Qiu Yuruo with a smile, "Having been here once, you can find the village, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can find your home. We were just discussing who would ask for directions once we entered the village. Now, it's great that we've seen your wife right away."
As he spoke, two more scholars descended from the carriage. Wang Bin introduced them to Qiu Yuruo: one was named Sun Chengzhao, and the other Liu Jiancheng; both were Su Yunting's classmates.
Qiu Yu greeted the group and then warmly invited them to go home.
If Qiu Yu walked back, the three of them couldn't very well get back into the carriage.
Once inside the village, you'll see people sitting and chatting by the roadside, including your neighbors from your alley.
Qiu Yu paused and said to the villagers, "These young men are Yun Ting's classmates. They have come to visit Yun Ting."
Scholars are different from peasants. The villagers, who usually chatted and boasted, became instantly reserved when they saw Wang Bin and his group.
After exchanging a few polite words, Qiu Yuruo said to her neighbor, "We have guests, but Yun Che isn't home. Uncle, could you please ask Brother Su Huai to come and keep us company?"
The neighbor immediately stood up, agreed, and hurriedly went to fetch someone.
Qiu Yuruo asked Wang Bin and the others to turn into the alley, pointing to her own front door and saying, "We're almost there."
As Qiu Yuruo passed by Su Shuncai's house, she stopped again and called out at the door, "Is Uncle Shuncai home? Yunting's classmates have come to see him. Would you like to come and help entertain them if you have time?"
Uncle Su Shun agreed, and he and his wife came out of the house together.
Normally, when there are heavy chores at home that she can't do herself, Qiu Yuruo always asks Uncle Shuncai to come and help in order to avoid suspicion, and she has never asked his son Dafei.
Today, all the guests at my house are young gentlemen. With so many people, there's no issue of avoiding suspicion. Qiu Yuruo then said to him, "If Brother Dafei is home, please let him come too."
Su Shuncai turned around and called out, "Dafei," and before he could say anything more, Dafei responded and came out.
After Qiu Yu introduced them to each other, she stopped actively talking to the young men.
From the moment Wang Bin got off the carriage, he had been carefully observing her, paying particular attention to her clothing.
When Qiu Yuruo went to the county, she wore her usual clothes. Although the material wasn't particularly good, it wasn't bad either. Moreover, she was pretty, and the style of the clothes was well-made.
Judging from her appearance alone, Wang Bin felt that Qiu Yuruo was no less beautiful than any girl he knew.
When Wang Bin saw Qiu Yuruo again today, she was dressed in coarse cloth clothes and had a scarf wrapped around her head. She was dressed no differently from the village girls Wang Bin had seen before.
Wang Bin thought Qiu Yu would be embarrassed to see him, since she was dressed quite well the last time they met, but this time she was dressed like a country girl.
As he stepped down from the carriage, he kept an eye on Qiu Yuruo, only to find that she showed no signs of embarrassment or shyness, and continued to greet him and speak to him in a very generous manner.
When they invited us to the village, they weren't embarrassed to meet the villagers and even asked their neighbors to help entertain us. Then, they were very tactful and didn't say anything more.
While Shuncai and his son were greeting Wang Bin and the others, Qiu Yuruo said to Shuncai's aunt, "We have guests at home, so please go and help out at the stall."
Aunt Shuncai said directly, "Don't worry, go back and entertain the guests. I'll go to the village entrance now."
Qiu Yu thanked Aunt Shuncai and followed the others.
Wang Bin and the others followed Su Shuncai to Su Yunting's house. When Qiu Yuru called out earlier, her two younger sisters also heard it and came out to greet them.
When Su Yunting first fell into a coma, Wang Bin and the other two had all visited Su Family Village and had met Su Yunting's two younger sisters.
After more than half a year, although the two girls are not as well-dressed as before, they are in much better spirits.
After exchanging greetings with his two younger sisters, Wang Bin entered Su Yunting's house and immediately spotted Su Yunting sunbathing on a recliner in the yard.
The spring sunshine was warm but not scorching. Su Yunting lay in the sunlight, his complexion not as deathly pale as someone who had been ill for a long time, but not too bad either. He had his hair in a high bun, and his clothes, though not flashy, were clean and tidy, and his shoes and socks were spotless.
If you didn't know he was unconscious, you would have thought he was just asleep at first glance.
Wang Bin and the other two exchanged glances. To be honest, Su Yunting looked much better this time than when he had just fallen into a coma.
On this rare beautiful spring day, Qiu Yu wanted Su Yunting to bask in the sun a little longer, so she had her two younger sisters bring over stools and invited the guests to 'talk' to Su Yunting in the courtyard.
Su Yunting accumulated strength every day to break through the cage of consciousness. Although he never saw the light again, the time he was awake each day was getting longer and longer.
This result made him even more convinced that as long as he continued, he would one day be able to break free from his cage.
Su Yunting was surprised that Wang Bin and the others came today. In his previous life, before Sun Ruimin returned, none of these classmates had ever visited Su Family Village.
Thinking of Sun Ruimin, Su Yunting, unusually, sighed for someone other than his family...
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