"What chicken droppings and rat droppings?" the old clan chief asked, puzzled.
Chu Qiuyue gritted her teeth and said, "The medicine we drank last night was laced with chicken droppings, rat droppings, and bat droppings. She deliberately added these disgusting things, causing my brother and me to have diarrhea all night!"
“We were already sick and so weak, we had no energy and hadn’t been eating properly for days. Now, she’s disgusting us and made us have diarrhea all night. I feel like I’ve been skinned alive. I’m not going to be tormented to death by the disease, but by her!”
Upon hearing Chu Qiuyue's words, the villagers in the ancestral hall all turned their gazes to Shen Yuan. Thinking of the things she had added to the medicinal soup, everyone's expressions became somewhat uneasy.
"Yuan girl, what exactly happened?" the old clan chief asked.
Shen Yuan said in a flat tone: "She's right. I did add chicken droppings, rat droppings, and bat droppings to your medicine."
Upon hearing this, the villagers inside the ancestral hall changed their expressions, showing signs of anger.
Chu Qiuyue raised the corners of her mouth and proudly gestured with her chin towards Chen Yuan.
"You finally admitted it! Now let's see how you explain this to everyone!"
Shen Yuan's expression remained unchanged as she continued, "Chicken droppings, also known as chicken excrement, have the effects of dispelling wind and dampness, relieving cough and resolving phlegm. Rat droppings, also known as five-spirit dung, have the effects of promoting blood circulation, relieving pain, eliminating stagnation and detoxifying. Bat droppings, also known as night-shining sand, have the effects of clearing the liver and improving eyesight, and removing blockages. What I'm giving you are all genuine medicinal materials, and these materials are recorded in ancient books! These auxiliary medicines are also needed to treat epidemics!"
Upon hearing Shen Yuan's words, a villager immediately stood up to agree: "Miss Yuan is right. Some animal excrement can indeed be used as medicine. Chu Er Ya, you're making a big fuss over nothing! Didn't you eat sugar chicken droppings when you had a stomachache as a child?"
"Yes! Er Ya, you've never been to school, you can't read, and you don't know anything about medicinal properties, so don't talk nonsense here! You should ask Miss Yuan for more advice, so you don't make a fool of yourself in the future because you're illiterate and become a laughingstock!"
Hearing the villagers talk about her like that, Chu Qiuyue's face grew increasingly grim.
She ran to the clan chief to complain, hoping to expose Shen Yuan's true colors to the villagers and let Shen Yuan taste what it's like to be condemned by everyone!
Unexpectedly, he was ridiculed by the villagers for being uneducated and lacking common sense!
She said unwillingly, "But my brother and I took the medicine you prescribed, and we had terrible diarrhea and couldn't sleep all night. How do you explain that?"
"You two were the first to get sick and are also the most seriously ill. If you want to live, we can only give you a strong medicine to clear the toxins from your body, make you urinate more and have more diarrhea, which will help cure the disease."
Shen Yuan stood outside the door, her tone confident and certain: "Although you two had diarrhea all night, you should be able to tell that your fever has gone down. Continue taking the medicine for another day, and if you can hold on, your condition will improve."
"You mean, the 'three-excrement soup' mixed with laxatives that you gave us was actually treating our illness?"
Chu Yuning found it hard to accept, but after a night of diarrhea, his high fever, which had been refusing to subside for the past few days, actually went down this morning.
The physical sensations were very direct; Chu Yuning couldn't lie to herself.
So, he misunderstood Shen Yuan?
Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan stared at Chu Yuning with a half-smile and retorted, "Otherwise what? Among so many people, you're the only one who's special. Why would I bother targeting you? Scholar Chu, you're being far too presumptuous!"
"I..." Chu Yuning's face flushed slightly. Recalling what he had said to Shen Yuan last night, he suddenly felt his face burning, as if he had been slapped in public, making him extremely embarrassed.
Who is the one who judges others by their own petty standards?
He's overthinking it!
Chu Yuning was too embarrassed to speak, and he couldn't bring himself to say sorry.
The old clan chief, with a stern face, spoke: "Chu Erya, Miss Yuan is the savior of our village! She is also the only one who genuinely wants to save the people in the village!"
"As the saying goes, only by trusting the doctor can you get a cure. If you don't even trust the doctor who treats you, how can you expect to get better?"
"If you continue to gossip and slander her like you did today, then you can go back to your own home, so she won't have to treat you and prepare medicine for you!"
Seeing that the clan chief intended to drive her out of the village, Chu Qiuyue turned pale with fright and didn't dare to say a word in rebuttal. She only mumbled, "Clan chief, I'm not called Er Ya. I have a name. My name is Qiuyue!"
The old patriarch's expression was indifferent. With so many descendants in the Chu family, how could he possibly remember the names of every child at his age?
He could only remember the names of a few successful children.
After breakfast, Shen Yuan brewed a new batch of medicine.
Chu Qiuyue and Chu Yuning knew what was in the medicine, so drinking it was very painful for them, but they had no choice but to finish it all.
After all, they're more afraid of dying than eating shit!
Shen Yuan's attention was focused on the old patriarch. The old patriarch was in much better condition today than yesterday. His old and thin face was glowing with a rosy light, making him look several years younger.
He even had the energy to sit on the doorstep and chat with Shen Yuan.
“Yuan’s daughter, you are truly a lucky star for our Chu Family Village! I still remember the year your grandmother brought you to Chu Family Village. The village suffered a severe drought, and the rice paddies dried up, but as soon as you came here, it rained in the village! It turns out that Chu Family Village has been under your protection ever since then!”
Shen Yuan smiled faintly: "I have never believed in the saying of lucky stars and calamities. So-called lucky stars and calamities are just ordinary people who appear at different times. Fortune and misfortune exist in themselves and are not brought about by them."
"Yuan'er, you are so humble and composed, you are truly a rare and wonderful child! I heard that you opened an affordable pharmacy in Jian'an City, making medicine accessible to the poor. With such a kind heart, you will surely be blessed in the future!"
At this point, the old patriarch suddenly changed the subject: "Unlike that boy from the Chu family, who, after studying for a few years, has become somewhat arrogant and conceited, always thinking that he is knowledgeable and capable, and his eyes have gradually grown on the top of his head!"
"But I remember he wasn't like this when he was little. You two used to play together all the time, and he took you everywhere he went. You were like his little shadow, always following him around! You two were so close, like a family!"
“I remember one year our peaches were growing exceptionally well, and he secretly ran into our orchard. I thought he wanted to pick some peaches to take home for his two younger sisters. I never imagined he would risk getting a beating from me to steal peaches from our house just because you love peaches! The peaches he picked were for you to eat!”
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