Dazhuang was extremely flustered, holding the sobbing Yuanyuan, and his words became incoherent:
"Could it be smallpox? That shouldn't be the case. We didn't leave the valley yesterday. Mother, come and take a look. No, if it really is smallpox, Mother can't look, I..."
It's rare to see Dazhuang so flustered.
Ye Wenxue quickly picked up Yuanyuan, lifted her clothes and examined her for a moment, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper: "Go and check if Sanyuan and Siwang have any rashes on them. Shuangshuang and I will check them ourselves."
After the earthen house was built, the family slept separately. Ye Wenxue and Shuangshuang slept in one room with Yuanyuan, while the three little boys, Dazhuang, Sanyuan, and Siwang, slept in another room.
Last night, Yuanyuan clung to Dazhuang and wouldn't let go, so Ye Wenxue told Yuanyuan to sleep with them.
Who would have thought that Yuanyuan would develop a rash overnight?
Dazhuang didn't notice Yuanyuan being carried away. He was worried that his mother had also been infected with smallpox, so he quickly ran back next door to wake up Sanyuan and Siwang and started checking them.
Ye Wenxue gently patted the sobbing Xiao Yuanyuan, woke Shuangshuang up, and carefully examined her whole body. Sure enough, she saw that Shuangshuang also had several small red rashes on her body.
Shuangshuang's expression changed, and she quickly turned around to check Ye Wenxue. She breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't see any red rash.
"Mother, could it really be smallpox?"
She remembered her father telling her that more than ten years ago, there was a smallpox outbreak in Tanzhou City, which killed countless people. Her father's parents died in that disaster.
If it really is smallpox...
Everything went black before my eyes, and I almost fell over on the spot.
She wanted to question God: why did trouble keep happening just when they were about to start living a good life?
"Mother, Sanyuan and Siwang have both developed rashes." Dazhuang had calmed down a bit. He carried Siwang on his back and pulled Sanyuan, whose eyes were red, over. "Especially Siwang, a large red patch on his belly is itchy, and he can't help but scratch it."
Ye Wenxue looked up: "Itchy?"
Siwang listlessly climbed off Dazhuang's back, lifted his shirt to reveal his fair belly, which was covered with several red bumps: "It started itching yesterday, but I thought it was insect bites, so I ignored it, but..."
Siwang burst into tears: "Mom, do you think I'll... I'll..."
Ye Wenxue quickly covered his mouth and calmly said, "Don't worry, it's not smallpox."
"Huh?" Four voices rang out in succession.
Ye Wenxue asked them one by one, "Do you have a high fever, fatigue, headache, or body aches?"
Siwang scratched his stomach and shook his head: "It's just... a little itchy, so itchy that I can't sleep soundly."
“That’s it.” Ye Wenxue looked at the heavy rain still falling outside. “It’s probably because the rain has bred insects. We’re in the mountains, surrounded by trees and weeds, so it’s normal to have mosquitoes and other insects.”
"Oh." Siwang looked up at Dazhuang, confused. "Big brother, it's not smallpox, it's alright now."
Dazhuang pondered for a moment and realized that his mother's words made sense. His tense mind relaxed: "Mom, then I'll go boil some salt water and apply it to the rash to relieve the itching?"
"Um."
After Dazhuang went to the kitchen, Ye Wenxue dragged Sanyuan and Siwang over to check again and found that the rashes were most prevalent in the tender areas, while people with thicker skin like her didn't have many rashes.
Yuanyuan was still crying loudly in Shuangshuang's arms. Ye Wenxue hesitated for a moment, then turned her head to look at Sanyuan, who was scratching Siwang's itch: "Mosquitoes are poisonous, we can't tough it out. Mother has to go outside to find some mugwort to boil in bathwater to stop the itch, and also find some herbs to repel insects."
When she lived in the cave, Ye Wenxue gathered a lot of insect-repelling herbs and put them in the cave, but she used them all up before moving into the earthen house and had to make them again.
But too many things happened after we moved into the mud house; people came down from the mountain, and a wildfire struck, so we didn't have time to think about it.
Shuangshuang glanced at the heavy rain outside, then hesitated, "But..."
"Mother, shall I go with you?" Sanyuan stopped tickling Siwang and eagerly approached Ye Wenxue. "I recognize mugwort and insect-repelling herbs."
Ye Wenxue refused: "No, it's raining heavily now, and it's inconvenient for Mother to take care of you if you go with her."
Moreover, Ye Wenxue was also worried that the red rashes on the cubs were partly caused by the rainwater mixed with black smoke, and she was unwilling to let the cubs risk leaving the valley.
San Yuan was disappointed.
Siwang, who was about to say he wanted to go, shut up.
Ye Wenxue made up her mind and quickly gave Dazhuang a few instructions.
Dazhuang reached out and caught a drop of dirty rainwater, frowning. "Several mountains around here have been burned by wildfires. Mother, where can you find medicinal herbs?"
"Several mountains around us have been burned, so we'll head towards the ones that haven't been burned. Don't worry, Mom will be back as soon as possible."
Dazhuang wasn't worried, after all, his mother was very skilled and had a weapon that could injure a tiger in one blow.
He was just worried that the rain was too heavy and his mother might run away and not be able to come back for a while, and he didn't know where she would stay that night.
Just as Dazhuang was struggling to find the right words, Ye Wenxue had already nimbly slung her basket over her shoulder, opened her bamboo umbrella, put on her raincoat, and stepped into the rain: "Give Yuanyuan a bath, try not to scratch her wound, and also, don't bully the goose."
"Gah!"
Dazhuang had no choice but to agree to each of them, his brows furrowed with worry.
Shuangshuang held Yuanyuan in her arms and watched Ye Wenxue's figure disappear into the rain. She then turned and went to the kitchen to check if the water had boiled so she could give Yuanyuan a bath and relieve her itching as soon as possible.
Yuanyuan has hardly cried since she was born.
That sudden outburst of voice broke the hearts of several older brothers and sisters.
After leaving the valley, Ye Wenxue headed directly in the opposite direction from the bandit stronghold.
The mountains over there are probably almost completely burned, but the mountains in another direction, because they are far away and the rain came in time, were not affected by the wildfire.
Large raindrops pattered down on the bamboo umbrella, dripping along the eaves onto the raincoat, and then sliding down the grass on the raincoat to the ground.
The ground was covered in mud and ash from the wildfire, making it feel unsteady to walk on.
Fortunately, it was sunny with no rain and no wind, so the mountain path wasn't too difficult to walk. Ye Wenxue walked steadily with her umbrella, but her cloth shoes got wet and felt sticky, which wasn't very comfortable.
Ye Wenxue walked very fast, and in less than two hours she arrived at the boundary between desolate darkness and vibrant life.
But reaching the foot of the lush green mountain was only the first step.
Despite the torrential rain, Ye Wenxue carefully examined the plants soaked by the rain, searching for mugwort and several other herbs to repel mosquitoes.
Before the wildfires, there was a severe drought, and there weren't many plants surviving in the mountains.
Ye Wenxue searched for a long time before finding a few clumps of mugwort. Just as she finished picking all the mugwort and was about to look for another place, she suddenly almost missed a step.
She quickly placed one hand on the hillside to steady herself, but unexpectedly, her wood-type ability was automatically activated. A small pit appeared in the ground not far away, as if something was stirring.
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