The next morning, when the cocks were about to crow, Xiao Yi put on his clothes and went out without even having breakfast, heading straight for the town.
Er Mazi, the ox-cart driver, was very puzzled. What was going on with the Xiao family recently? Why did they keep running to the town or county every day?
He couldn't help but ask, but Xiao Yi said nothing and just covered it up with vague answers.
When we arrived in the town, we went to Qingshui Lane according to the address given by Su Yanqing and found Zeng's house.
Zeng's house is a small house with two courtyards, where Mr. Zeng and his wife live.
Xiao Yi knocked on the door and a lady about the same age as Xiao's mother opened the door. When she heard that he was looking for her husband, she frowned and looked at Xiao Yi for a few times. After hesitating for a moment, she went to greet her husband.
When Mr. Zeng came, he looked Xiao Yi up and down first, and Xiao Yi conveyed to him what Su Yanqing had taught him.
Sure enough, when he heard that Lin Xu was in trouble, Mr. Zeng became visibly nervous.
"Where is he? What happened?" Mr. Zeng asked anxiously.
So Xiao Yi told him about Su Yanqing's current situation. Mr. Zeng went back to prepare things without saying a word. He took his medicine box and tool box that he hadn't used for several years. He also asked his wife to prepare enough silver. They would go to the pharmacy in the town to prepare medicinal materials to take with them.
For fear of wasting time, he also pulled out the family's carriage.
Mrs. Zeng also prepared some supplements for Xiao Yi to take with him. After everything was ready, she and Xiao Yi drove a carriage out of the town to Xianhe Village.
Xiao's mother was not idle at home either. She went to the village to buy two roosters and collected dozens of eggs. She planned to slaughter one rooster and stew it for Su Yan to nourish his body so that her family could also have some meat. The other one would be sent to her third daughter-in-law who was still pregnant in two days.
When Hechuan held a wedding, he kept a few laying hens at home, and the rest had been slaughtered. So there was no supply of eggs, and they had to go to the village to collect them.
Su Yanqing was in so much pain that he couldn't sleep the whole night, and he had a fever again in the middle of the night. He kept holding on, but fortunately there were still some herbs for reducing fever and inflammation, so he boiled some and gave them to him to drink in the middle of the night, and he felt better.
I finally got Uncle Zeng here and I finally saw hope.
When Mr. Zeng arrived and saw Su Yanqing's appearance, his eyes turned red with heartache.
Mr. Zeng looked to be in his forties. Unlike the doctors one might imagine, he had a beard and was a rather burly man. He looked more like a warrior than a doctor.
Su Yanqing saw his uncle and tried to bow to him, but was stopped:
"Don't say anything. Let's talk about it later. The most important thing now is to set your bones." Mr. Zeng knew very well that setting bones was not a trivial matter and could not be delayed.
Everyone in the Xiao family was waiting outside. Only the two junior-disciple brothers were in the room. From time to time, Su Yanqing's painful groans could be heard from the window.
It took two hours for him to come out. Su Yanqing was wrapped like a mummy and had boards on his feet.
Su Yanqing's hair was soaked with sweat, his palms were scratched by his fingers, and his mouth was bitten with blood marks, which showed how painful the process was.
After Mr. Zeng came out, he first found Xiao's mother and bowed to her, thanking her for saving Su Yanqing. Then he took out a purse containing thirty taels of silver.
"Madam Xiao, this is just a small token of my appreciation. Compared to the kindness your family has shown to Yan Qing in saving his life, it is really insignificant. This is also Yan Qing's intention. He has just had his bones fixed and cannot move around for the time being. I will have to bother you for a while. During this time, I will also be here with him to take care of him at any time. This silver is a reward for your hard work for him, as well as the accommodation and food expenses for bothering him during this period of time. Please accept it."
When Xiao's mother saw it, she gave him thirty taels of silver. Her generosity was really scary.
"Oh, Mr. Zeng, why would you need so much money? It's too much!"
I only spent three taels of silver to hire a doctor before, and I haven't eaten anything from their house these days, so there's no need for thirty taels. Ten taels is already considered a lot.
"Madam, you must accept it, otherwise Yan Qing and I will not feel at ease. This is what we should give. Your life-saving grace cannot be repaid with just thirty taels. Yan Qing said that he owes your family a debt that he will never be able to repay in his lifetime. If you need help in the future, we will definitely help you."
Just like Su Yanqing said, the grace of saving a life is like rebirth, which is not something that can be explained by these silver and white things. This is also the good karma established by the Xiao family.
Xiao's mother still felt it was a pain to accept the silver, but Mr. Zeng refused to take it back no matter how hard he tried, so Xiao's mother had no choice but to accept it.
In that case, she would have to entertain them well during this period of time and serve them delicious food and drinks.
She asked Xiao Yi to go to the town again and buy dozens of kilograms of rice, fine white flour, and pork fat. They had paid for it, so she couldn't let them live on simple meals, right?
She also prepared all the supplements that Mr. Zeng brought and sent them to Su Yanqing. No one in their family would worry about it.
From then on, the room of Xiao Qin, the eldest son of the Xiao family, became the place where Su Yanqing temporarily recuperated, and Mrs. Zeng later sent clean clothes and shoes and socks.
It takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone. The first month is especially important. You cannot move casually for fear that the bone will become crooked.
Xiao Lanlan took the initiative to take on the task of delivering meals to Su Yanqing and Mr. Zeng, which included chicken, fish, meat, vegetables, and fragrant white rice.
Every time Xiao Lanlan came in, she was embarrassed to look Su Yanqing in the eye, but she couldn't help but peek at him. As a result, she found that Su Yanqing was also peeking at her. When their eyes met, they both became flustered and blushed.
Although they didn't say a word, the ambiguous look in their eyes was almost breaking.
Mr. Zeng didn't notice it at all. He ate several bowls of rice at every meal and kept praising Xiao's mother for her good cooking skills.
In the kitchen, Goudan looked at the few mouthfuls of rice left in the pot and swallowed. He mustered up the courage to go find his grandmother and tugged at her clothes:
"Grandma, I want to eat white rice, too."
Xiao's mother asked Xiao Yi to buy japonica rice, which is white, fragrant and glutinous when cooked. It tastes sweet just by smelling it.
When Xiao's mother heard her child say this, she looked greedy and felt uncomfortable.
Not only did the children want to eat it, she herself wanted to eat it too. However, this was for entertaining guests. This japonica rice was expensive, one dou cost one tael of silver, and one dou only weighed twelve pounds. She bought three dou in one go and spent three taels of silver.
Country people have little income, how can they afford such good rice?
It's simply wishful thinking.
But the remaining few bites in the pot were also the leftovers of Mr. Zeng and his friends. Xiao's mother thought that the food would go bad after overnight and could not be wasted, so she asked Goudan to serve it.
When Goudan saw that his grandmother agreed, he was so happy that he scooped out all the rice in the pot, leaving not a single grain.
He also did not forget his uncle and happily shared it with Xiao Hechuan.
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