"Fine, I won't brew it then. Your medicine tastes awful, I don't want to drink it. Just give my brother his money back right now!"
Chu Qiuyue reached out her hand, wanting to take the ten taels of silver back.
Once the money was in Chen Yuan's pocket, there was no reason to take it out again. She glanced coldly at Chu Qiuyue, "You like money so much that you don't even want your life? Then how about this, when you die of illness, I'll fold ten gold ingots for you and burn them for you tenfold or a hundredfold, how about that?"
"You've gone too far!" Chu Qiuyue rushed forward in a fit of rage, intending to attack Shen Yuan. But just as she raised her fist, her arm was grabbed.
Chu Qiuyue turned around and saw that the person who had stopped her was Chu Yuning. Her eyes instantly reddened.
"Brother, are you even protecting Shen Yuan? I was cursed by her because I was helping you get money. She even cursed me to die, and you're still protecting her?"
Chu Yuning glanced at Shen Yuan, who was leaning lazily against the door frame, as if she was sleepy.
Chu Yuning pulled Chu Qiuyue close and whispered, "Right now, our only hope lies in the medicine she has. It's just ten taels of silver; how can that be more important than your and my lives? Don't fight her for it!"
It's only ten taels of silver?
Chu Qiuyue's eyes widened as she looked up at Chu Yuning in disbelief. In the past, her brother had always been very careful with even a tael of silver or a string of cash, spending it very frugally. Now, he had given Shen Yuan ten taels of silver with a wave of his hand. How could he suddenly be so generous?
Chu Qiuyue's gaze unconsciously fell on Chu Yuning's bundle, with a look of inquiry.
Chu Yuning tucked the bundle into her bosom, not wanting to say anything more to Chu Qiuyue.
"It's already dark, cough cough cough, you should go to sleep!"
Chu Qiuyue followed Chu Yuning sullenly and lay down on the straw mat on the ground, the two siblings making do with one quilt.
Chu Yuning, clutching her bundle, turned her back to Chu Qiuyue.
But as soon as he closed his eyes, he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his abdomen, so painful that he sat up in bed, clutching his stomach.
"Brother, what's wrong?"
"I'm fine, it's just..." Before Chu Yuning could finish speaking, another wave of pain hit his abdomen, and he hurriedly ran to the door.
Shen Yuan was awakened by the noise, glanced at Chu Yuning's back, and went back to sleep.
But Chu Qiuyue couldn't sleep. She looked out the door, then turned back to look at the bundle hidden in the bedding, and her hand couldn't help but reach inside.
About an incense stick's time later, Chu Yuning returned, clutching her stomach, pale-faced and unsteady on her feet.
As he passed the inner courtyard gate, he saw Shen Yuan sleeping soundly against the door and was furious.
"Did you deliberately give me laxatives again?"
Hearing Chu Yuning's voice, Shen Yuan lifted her eyelids and glanced at him, "It wasn't intentional."
"Then why am I having diarrhea..." Chu Yuning said, then suddenly realized that Shen Yuan only answered whether it was intentional or not, without saying that she had given him laxatives.
So his persistent diarrhea was once again the work of Shen Yuan!
He was dying of the plague, yet Shen Yuan was still playing tricks on him at this critical moment, showing no regard for his life at all!
Chu Yuning grew angrier the more he thought about it. He kicked the threshold where Shen Yuan was sitting. "You studied medicine just to play these kinds of tricks and torment people? Just because I'm your ex-fiancé, you hold a grudge against me, and you still want to torture me at this critical moment?"
"She still has strength. It seems I didn't give her enough medicine." Shen Yuan stood up, her gaze falling on the leg that Chu Yuning had used to kick the threshold.
Chu Yuning felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet, slowly creeping up his kneecaps. He quickly lowered his clothes to cover both his legs.
Shen Yuan then looked away.
Chu Yuning stood at the door, refusing to back down, saying, "You're a herb gatherer, which makes you half a doctor. As a healer, you should save patients regardless of whether they are good or evil! But you didn't save me, and you even deliberately gave me laxatives to torture me. Isn't that treating human life like dirt? Do you deserve to be a doctor?"
"That's right! You don't deserve to be a doctor at all!" Chu Qiuyue also stepped forward and supported the weak Chu Yuning, but as soon as she supported Chu Yuning, her own stomach started to hurt.
She clutched her stomach, her face contorted in pain: "You bitch, what kind of medicine did you give me and my brother?"
Shen Yuan sneered, "Such a young age, and your mouth is full of vulgarities. How come you've already spit out excrement before even going to the toilet?"
"You...your mouth is the one..."
Chu Qiuyue was about to retort, but before she could speak, Shen Yuan interrupted her.
She stood in front of Chu Qiuyue and Chu Yuning with her arms crossed, in a good mood.
"Want to know what medicine I'm giving you? It's very simple: one qian of Wulingzhi, two qian of chicken droppings, half a qian of night-shining sand, plus three liang of croton seeds, decocted in water and taken orally."
Upon hearing this, Chu Qiuyue's face instantly turned green.
She didn't know what Wulingzhi and Yemingsha were, but people from Jishibai Village knew that they were chicken droppings!
"You actually cooked chicken poop for my brother and me! You...you're disgusting..."
"No, no, no, it's not just chicken poop!"
Shen Yuan held up three fingers and patiently explained to Chu Qiuyue, "Five-spirit dung is rat droppings, chicken droppings are chicken droppings, and night-shining sand is bat droppings. What I'm cooking for you and your brother is... Three-dung soup!"
Before Chu Qiuyue could finish listening, she covered her mouth and began to gag uncontrollably, as if she wanted to vomit up all the medicine she had drunk that night.
Chu Yuning felt a churning in his stomach. He looked at Shen Yuan with disappointment in his eyes.
"And yet I still held onto our past relationship! I was so wrong about you! You're no different from those petty, scheming women! No, you're even worse than them! You're far more vicious than them! You wicked woman!"
Chu Yuning was already weak, and after speaking such a long passage, he almost couldn't catch his breath. He leaned against the door frame, patting his chest and panting, truly resembling a sickly scholar.
What Shen Yuan liked most about Chu Yuning was his scholarly air and his eloquent and fluent writing.
But now she realizes that she had too much of a bias against scholars. What good is being well-versed in poetry and literature? Such a person can still curse like a scoundrel at the village entrance.
Fortunately, his words could no longer hurt her.
Chu Yuning and Chu Qiuyue had diarrhea all night long. Neither of them slept a wink, and by dawn they were completely exhausted and collapsed to the ground, limp and weak.
Even so, Chu Qiuyue still harbored a deep resentment.
Seeing that the old clan chief had woken up, she walked to his bedside, supported by the wall, and knelt down with a thud.
"Grandpa Chief, my brother and I are even sicker than yesterday. I'm afraid if this continues, we won't see the sun rise tomorrow!"
"My brother is the only hope of the Chu family. If he dies, the Chu family will probably never have a chance to participate in the imperial examinations again. Grandfather, you must do justice for my brother and me!"
"What are you talking about, dying so early in the morning?" The old patriarch said sternly, making Chu Qiuyue get up from the ground.
But Chu Qiuyue wouldn't get up; she just kept crying.
The old clan chief frowned and asked, "Wasn't Yuan girl saving us? Why are you crying?"
"She didn't want to save us at all! The medicinal soup she brewed for all of us was full of chicken and rat droppings!" Chu Qiuyue cried out.
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