Chapter 43 Little Bitter Gourd: He picked up the soft, steamed cake-like Ruyi and held it upright.
That was a night that Lin Wen'an would never forget.
With a little doll hanging from his arm, Ruyi, who was catching him on the tip of his nose but then complaining that the one she caught wasn't pretty enough, tossed her hand into the air and stumbled to the side: "That one, that red one is pretty..." He quickly pulled her back into his arm and held her tightly in front of him.
In the yard, the gentleman was rolling around with several puppies, his head buried under layers of fur. Lin Wen'an was startled and took two steps forward with Ruyi in hand, intending to help him up. But the gentleman had already stubbornly pushed aside the dogs and gotten up. He spotted the cat woofing ahead, which was walking unsteadily, its front paws tripping over its hind paws and falling to the ground. He stumbled over and hugged the cat in his arms.
He picked up the cat, gazed at it for a long time, then suddenly pressed his face against the fat cat's face and cried, "Old woman, how come you've grown so much fur? And your face has gotten so big too. Why...why don't you come to see me in my dreams? Don't be angry with me, I know it's because I haven't taken good care of our son, and I haven't even taken good care of Ruyi. Without you, I've accomplished nothing...Has our son gone to look for you? Are you two together? Why don't you come to see me even once? I miss you so much..."
His heart-wrenching cry caused San Cun Ding and Cong Xin, who had been singing, to also wail. One cried out, "Mother, how cruel you are! Of all my brothers and sisters, why did you sell me out?" The other clutched his chest and sobbed, "I really want to eat the golden oranges from Fuzhou! Waaah, my heart is burning, I feel so nauseous!"
He vomited all over the floor.
This is really going to be interesting.
Lin Wen'an gently lifted the Ruyi, which was burning hot and still muttering to itself, but was already dazed and sliding down, and bounced it up. At this point, he couldn't care less about the difference between men and women; he couldn't just leave the person on the ground.
With a little effort, he lifted the soft, sponge-like Ruyi upright, supporting her hips and legs with his left arm through her clothes, and gently placing her head on his shoulder with his right hand so that she could lean against him comfortably and to prevent her from vomiting and choking.
Then, he calmly instructed Uncle Cong, who was already dumbfounded and at a loss, "I'll take care of things at home, Uncle Cong. Go and fetch the doctor back first, and bring back two more..." As he spoke, he carried the person into the courtyard. After getting close to the table and seeing what was floating in the soup, he understood what was going on.
Sighing, Lin Wen'an realized this was trouble he had brought upon himself... He leaned back slightly, holding the person with one arm, barely freeing the other to remove the gold token from his waist and hand it to Cong Bo. He calmly changed his words, saying, "No need to go to the clinic. Take my token and knock on the palace gates tonight to invite Physician Wu, who specializes in treating stomach and spleen ailments and acute food poisoning. Also, invite the veterinarian who treated His Highness the Crown Prince's Tibetan fox and hunting dog. Judging from the situation, it seems vomiting is inevitable. Have the physician bring plenty of herbs like licorice, artemisia capillaris, alisma, and coptis. In addition, immediately report to the Emperor that the mushrooms are poisonous."
It was his carelessness that led him to believe that things in the palace could go wrong.
Fortunately, this box of mushrooms was picked this morning in the greenhouse. They had gathered all the mushrooms in the greenhouse and only managed to fill this palm-sized box. They were very rare, but the emperor didn't like to eat mushrooms, complaining that they always had a muddy taste. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been enough mushrooms in the greenhouse for him to eat alone.
I heard that the fungi in this greenhouse were specially cultivated for the Empress Dowager, but the Empress Dowager has been feeling unwell lately and cannot eat them. Since he happened to be there, the Emperor casually gave them to him, saying that he should also try some fresh fun.
He wasn't particularly fond of food, but thinking that his teacher was a good eater and that Ruyi would rarely get to taste such rare things outside, he casually handed it over to Liang Da Dang, who was about to leave the palace, and asked him to take it back to the Yao family.
If it weren't for this, this whole thing wouldn't have happened.
"Go, Uncle Cong, be quick." Lin Wen'an frowned slightly and gave another instruction. The girl's hot, sweaty forehead was pressed against the side of his neck, and her moist, hot breath disturbed his mind.
"Okay, okay! I'll go right away!"
Uncle Cong quickly snapped out of his daze. He had been terrified, thinking the Yao family was possessed. His legs had gone weak, and he almost went to ask the spirit medium to burn some talisman water. It was Erlang's words about food poisoning that brought him back to his senses. So it wasn't a ghost possession after all. That's good, that's good…
He hurriedly took the token, pulled the horse's head, turned the carriage around, and drove off again.
Lin Wen'an carried the person, who was as hot as a furnace, into the courtyard. He first settled Ruyi inside; she was delirious with fever and talking incomprehensibly, but thankfully she was still quite well-behaved. He gently placed her on the bed, then took her ugly rabbit doll and placed it behind her neck, laying her on her side. Afterward, he went out to help the gentleman, who was clinging to the cat and refusing to let go, into the house. Then he helped Cong Xin and Sancun Ding to a warm spot on the porch so they could lie down first.
After running around for a while, he quickly went into the general store and found some mung beans. He had no other medicine at home, and fearing the imperial physician would arrive late, he decided to boil mung beans in water to induce vomiting.
He fetched a ladle of mung beans and was about to leave when he suddenly noticed a parrot had appeared in the shop, fluttering merrily on its perch and calling out loudly:
"Damn it, damn it!"
It seems that only this bird in the whole family is still awake.
Lin Wen'an glanced at it, not daring to delay, and went into the kitchen to boil mung bean water. The mung bean water used for detoxification and vomiting does not need to be soaked, but can be directly boiled in boiling water. Although the beans do not need to be cooked until they are mushy, they must be cooked until they split open, so that the bean skins and broth that can detoxify can be obtained; the whole beans are useless.
I glanced at the fire in the stove; it would take another fifteen minutes.
"Let's keep going." Lin Wen'an came out and checked on everyone's condition one by one. Cong Xin and San Cun Ding were the least poisoned. Given their honest nature, they probably wouldn't have eaten at the same table with the teacher and Ruyi. They probably only scooped a bowl of soup to eat under the eaves, and they probably didn't drink much soup before the poisoning took effect.
At this moment, neither of them had a fever, nor were their lips purple. They were even somewhat lucid and recognized him. Holding his hand, they said, "Erlang? Why are you carrying more than a dozen mangy dogs on your back..."
Who can carry more than a dozen mangy dogs on their back? Is that even possible?
It seems he's not exactly lucid either.
The gentleman's symptoms were much more severe than the other two and Ruyi's. Perhaps he had eaten too much because of his cravings, or perhaps it was due to his advanced age. He was now gradually developing a fever and abdominal pain, and had vomited twice. However, it was good that he was able to vomit, as his complexion gradually changed from pale to slightly flushed.
Lin Wen'an fed the gentleman water, cleaned up the mess, and saw that his breathing was steady and he was covered in sweat. He then hugged the fat cat, who had also vomited, and fell asleep, still sweaty.
He breathed a sigh of relief and then hurriedly went to Ruyi's door.
Without much hesitation, for in a life-or-death situation, etiquette was irrelevant, he carried hot water and a hot towel and pushed open the door to enter the room.
Ruyi had a fever earlier, and it was the highest among them, but she hadn't vomited and was still somewhat conscious. It was hard to tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
But in the short time he had been gone, she had gone from lying on her side to lying face down by the bed, her hands flailing wildly in the air as if trying to catch something flying around, and she was still talking nonsense, saying things like "lots and lots of gold, I'm grabbing it, I'm grabbing it..."
He sat down and pulled Ruyi back from under the bed, intending to wipe her face with a handkerchief.
She staggered and, without thinking, grabbed his arm.
Lin Wen'an instinctively struggled, but she was entwined even tighter like vines, and her entire arm was pulled into her arms.
"Second Uncle, why did it take you so long to come back?" She pulled his arm tightly into her arms, her eyes lowered, and she mumbled her dissatisfaction in a very soft voice, "I've been missing you for so many days."
Lin Wen'an was forced to lean forward, using the arm she hadn't taken from him to brace himself on the edge of the bed, lest he be pulled completely onto her. But he was too close to her; the slight sweat from his fever lingered around his nose, and the candlelight cast a soft glow on her face.
He could feel her breath, and he could clearly see the fine downy hairs on her flushed cheeks, as well as her unfocused gaze as if her eyes were misty from the intense heat.
He looked at her for a while before saying, "Missing me?"
He paused, lowered his eyelashes, and asked in an even lower voice, "Why?"
A gentle night breeze drifted in from the open door, causing their clothes and hair to flutter and fall. Lin Wen'an gazed at her in the wind, his long-dormant heart feeling as if it had been plunged into warm water, slightly burning and tightening.
Unexpectedly, his words were like a floodgate opening, and Ruyi's tears suddenly welled up. Pointing at him, she sobbed, "Don't you know? It's because we're both unlucky little bitter gourds without a mother's love. Two gourds on one vine, when you're here, I feel like I have company; when you're not here, I'm all alone at home. A lonely bitter gourd is even more bitter, do you understand?"
Lin Wen'an sighed as his sleeve became damp.
The burning passion gradually cooled down.
What was he doing, seriously chatting with someone who was talking nonsense because they ate the wrong thing?
"Second Uncle," she called him again, her eyelids already heavy. Like a puppy, she lowered her head and gently rubbed her cheek against his arm. "You're better than me, unlike me..." Her voice trailed off, like a dying ember in a stove. "I miss Grandma so much... but I... can't see her anymore..."
Grandmother? Lin Wen'an was taken aback. She had been raised by her maternal grandparents for a few years when she was little, but she was only a tiny child then. He hadn't expected her to remember her so vividly and still cherish the memory. He thought for a moment, and realized that Ruyi's maternal grandmother... had indeed passed away many years ago.
It's true, we won't see them anymore.
After she finished speaking, she murmured "Grandma" and "Grandma" a few times. Finally, she had no more energy to make a fuss. She closed her eyes in sleepiness, her body went limp, and she fell asleep in his arms.
Lin Wen'an breathed a sigh of relief, quickly pulled his arm out, straightened the person properly, with his arm close to the seam of his pants and his ankles together, and then covered him with the blanket tightly.
He stood up, glanced down, and bent down to straighten her shoes.
He straightened up again and let out a soft breath; in just a short while, his back was soaked with sweat.
He stared at the large tear stain on his sleeve for a while, then heard a noise. He looked at the bed again. All the blankets he had carefully covered himself with and the proper sleeping posture he had arranged were now useless. In the blink of an eye, Yao Ruyi had rolled over on her own, not only kicking off the blankets but also trapping the long rabbit between her legs and holding its head to her chest with her arms, her fingers unconsciously stroking the rabbit's long ears.
Lin Wen'an hesitated for a moment, stood by the bed and watched for a while, then shook his head.
Never mind, whatever makes her comfortable is fine.
He turned and went out to get some mung bean water, when he suddenly heard the urgent sound of cart wheels rolling on the stone road outside the courtyard wall.
Upon hearing this, Cong Bo rushed in, shouting and yelling, leading the imperial physician and the veterinary physician in a flustered manner.
He was saved. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly went out to greet them.
Yao Ruyi had no idea it was the mushrooms that caused it. As she ate, she felt light and airy, as if she were having a long dream. She first dreamed that her second uncle had returned, but she couldn't quite remember what happened after that. She only remembered that there were many colorful little people running around on her second uncle's face and body.
They chatter away, and are quite difficult to catch.
Soon, she suddenly had a different dream, this time about her grandmother.
She found herself lying in a hospital bed again, completely bewildered.
She only realized it slowly; she must have returned to that day.
Going back to before entering the book,
That day, she died from postoperative complications. In her final moments, she was still conscious and had hearing.
The oxygen humidifier was gurgling, and Yao Ruyi, with her eyes half-closed, was breathing with difficulty, but the fog condensing on her oxygen mask was getting less and less.
She knew herself that her breathing was becoming weak. She could still clearly hear the doctor next to her rapidly ordering her to take norepinephrine, dopamine, nikethamide, sodium bicarbonate... This was supposed to be the last medication she owed in her final moments, but it was no use.
The sounds faded into the distance; whether it was the buzzing of the monitor or Grandma's anxious questioning of the doctor, they all seemed to have vanished with the wind.
She could only try her best to keep her eyes wide open, despite the excruciating pain that felt like her bones were being shattered. What was she thinking? She seemed to be thinking of nothing at all, only afraid to blink, afraid that if she blinked, she would never be able to open her eyes again. She longed to see her grandmother one last time, but even in her dream, her gaze was already half-unfocused and unable to concentrate.
"Ruyi," her grandmother called out to her.
"Yes," Yao Ruyi replied in her heart.
A sense of resentment welled up inside her. No matter how many times she experienced it, no matter whether she knew this moment was bound to come sooner or later, she would still feel resentful—she was only twenty years old.
My birthday hasn't even happened yet.
Her life was so short, and she didn't even get to enjoy it properly. She spent most of her time traveling between hospitals, and she never even had a proper education. I heard that in a few days, her neighbor, Huihui, who is two years younger than her, will be taking the college entrance exam. And her? She's going to die…
And what about Grandma? What will happen to her in the future?
Yao Ruyi began to gasp for breath in pain, as if her throat was being choked, and she could only inhale but not exhale. Her grandmother seemed to sense something was wrong and quickly bent down, tightly grasping her hand. Her voice was already trembling, but she was still trying to be strong.
"Can you hear me? Ruyi..." Grandma tried her best to hold back her sobs, stroking her thin, sallow face and forehead repeatedly, as if comforting her when she came home crying after being wronged outside as a child. "You've suffered so much in this life... but you're really amazing. You've endured so much pain all these years... If... if only Grandma had the money to send you abroad for medical treatment, but Grandma is incapable. I'm so sorry..."
"Nonsense, talking about this again..." Yao Ruyi retorted inwardly. "Will going abroad cure it?" But her grandmother kept nagging, always saying that she was useless and that this delayed her treatment. But Yao Ruyi knew in her heart that she had already relapsed twice, and had been to cancer hospitals all over the country. If it weren't for her grandmother's refusal to give up all these years, not only begging for money everywhere but also selling the house, she would have been dead long ago.
Without her grandmother, she might not have even lived to be twenty.
At that moment, Grandma's voice suddenly stopped for a moment, and only the long buzzing of the monitor remained.
Later, her grandmother, her voice trembling with tears, murmured words of comfort to the dying woman: "Don't worry, it's nothing. If the pain gets too bad, just go. Don't worry about me, I'm in good health. I can eat and sleep well, so don't fret..."
"Then it's settled. After I leave, don't eat leftovers for two days..." Yao Ruyi knew she was dreaming and wanted to agree, but even dreams were so cruel that she couldn't make a sound.
"Don't be afraid, you won't have to suffer over there... If you see your mother, remember... remember to say hello to her for Grandma, okay..."
When Yao Ruyi mentioned her mother, whose memory of her was already blurred, even though she knew she was dreaming, her heart, which had almost stopped, suddenly ached.
Filled with mixed feelings of reluctance, unwillingness, and reluctance to part, she breathed out her last breath in her dream. That blurry, small, drooping figure standing alone by the hospital bed was forever etched in her completely unfocused and vacant eyes.
A gust of wind blew open the window, and Yao Ruyi, like a veil, floated lightly out from the emaciated body gnawed away by cancer cells. She was acutely aware that she was leaving, never to return. It was time to go back to the book, as if a voice was telling her.
She was both scared and reluctant to leave, and she couldn't help but burst into tears. No, she had to leave a message for her grandmother; she couldn't just leave without saying a word!
So she desperately resisted the fate that was sweeping over her, stretching her arms forward and hugging her grandmother's neck tightly from behind.
"Grandma, I'm the one who's wronged you. I've been a burden to you for so many years! I have a new place to go, and I'm doing well now. I can even earn my own money! From now on, don't be sad for me anymore, don't always think about me. You need to be healthy and live a good life." She hugged her grandmother with all her might and gave her a final embrace.
Grandma seemed to sense something, and looked up in astonishment, searching for her everywhere. But she was still being torn into tiny pieces by the wind, and suddenly swept away into the distance.
"Be good! Be well—" Yao Ruyi was still shouting desperately.
When she suddenly woke up, Yao Ruyi was lying on the bed, the room filled with a strong, acrid smell of medicine.
My bones ached, and my body was still burning.
Yao Ruyi stared blankly at the roof beam for a long time before slowly turning her gaze away.
Before her eyes, she first saw a tuft of beard, twitching back and forth. Then she saw an elderly doctor bent over, performing acupuncture on her.
With a serious expression, he applied moxibustion to her Guanyuan and Qihai acupoints, then deeply inserted a silver needle into her Renzhong acupoint. When the doctor finished, he turned around and was startled by her appearance: "Huh! Why are you crying like this? It hurts so much? This shouldn't be happening! Did I insert the wrong needle?"
Upon hearing this, she blankly raised her hand and indeed touched her face, which was covered in tears.
The doctor was so frightened by her that he not only checked each acupuncture point one by one, but also scratched his head in confusion, saying, "I didn't insert the wrong needle." After that, he hesitated and became much more careful when inserting the needles.
After a while, Yao Ruyi's tears gradually dried.
With her face covered in trembling silver needles, she suddenly remembered something strange. Wasn't she eating hot pot? Halfway through her meal, she suddenly noticed several little figures dancing and wiggling their bottoms in the pot. When she looked up, it was snowing—golden snow, a sky full of gold flakes falling like snowflakes, hitting her head.
So much money!
She was busy picking up money everywhere, even jumping up and down to grab a handful. Then... things got even more chaotic. She suddenly turned into a bitter gourd growing on a vine and solemnly warned the bitter gourd next to her, "Don't absorb so much water or get so much sun, or you'll grow too well and get picked and eaten!"
She meant well, but the bitter gourd next to her was giving her a sideways glance.
No, how could she be bitter melon? Yao Ruyi racked her brains and finally realized the problem: she... she had eaten poisonous mushrooms! Bitter melon and gold? Those were poisonous.
But wasn't that box of mixed mushrooms from the palace? Yao Ruyi's lips twitched. Was the Emperor's eccentric temperament due to overeating poisonous mushrooms? No, no, that couldn't be it. Poisonous mushrooms were no joke; eating too many would be fatal. Something must have gone wrong, causing this calamity for her family.
"But it's good that I'm poisoned," she thought bitterly. She had seen her grandmother and said everything she had always wanted to say to her. She hadn't been able to say goodbye properly before, but she made up for it in her dream. Yao Ruyi turned her head slightly and, taking advantage of the doctor's absence, quietly wiped the tears that had welled up in her eyes onto the pillow.
The heavy burden of longing that had been weighing on my heart finally found an outlet.
The doctor came in again, bringing a bowl of dark, black medicinal soup. Yao Ruyi, caught off guard, obediently drank it all in one gulp. In the blink of an eye, she vomited violently until she brought up bile. Only then did the doctor nod in satisfaction: "Rest now. Fortunately, the poisoning wasn't severe. You'll be fine once the fever subsides."
Yao Ruyi vomited until she was covered in a cold sweat. She wanted to ask about the rest of the family, the dogs, and the cats, but before she could even open her mouth, she drifted off to sleep again. This time she had no dreams, and when she opened her eyes again, it was already dusk.
She slept for a whole day in the blink of an eye!
The room was half-lit, half-dark. A rattan curtain hung down, and the window was slightly ajar, letting in a cool breeze that made the curtain sway gently. As it fell back down, it tapped softly against the windowsill. A few beams of quiet light streamed in through the curtain, falling to the floor like molten gold and shattered jade, scattered here and there, the light spots moving with the wind.
There is a figure in this flowing, fragmented light.
The wind stirred his shadow, and light flowed across his back before returning.
His back was to her, his shoulders and back as sharp as pine branches covered in snow, yet softened by the wind. Even the wind and the sunset seemed to favor him, outlining him with brilliant gold edges, illuminating the few loose strands of hair at his temples, their golden threads gently brushing against his slender earlobes.
Yao Ruyi opened her eyes wide and stared for a very long time. When Lin Wen'an was about to turn around, she quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
She heard the unhurried footsteps approaching, and felt the edge of the bed sink slightly. Then, cool fingertips gently touched her forehead.
Her heart suddenly pounded like a cicada's song in summer, each beat more urgent and loud than the last.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door again. It seemed to be the same doctor with the mustache. As soon as he entered, he said to Lin Wen'an, "Lord Lin, Dr. Yao and the two servants have both recovered from their fevers. I will take Miss Yao's pulse again. If her pulse is stable, there is no major problem. I can then return to the Imperial Medical Bureau to report."
She withdrew her hand from her forehead at the sound, the bed creaked, and she heard Lin Wen'an stand up and say in a deep voice, "Thank you for your trouble, Physician Wu, please."
He was originally an imperial physician, not an ordinary doctor. Yao Ruyi's heart was still pounding as she closed her eyes and pondered.
Immediately afterwards, two rough, dry fingers rested on her wrist. After a moment of silence, even though Yao Ruyi was dozing, she could feel Physician Wu's two gazes fixed on her face, and she heard him murmur with doubt:
"His face is flushed, and he's sweating profusely on his forehead. How can his pulse be beating so fast? This shouldn't be! He just took some fever-reducing medicine, how could his heart suddenly become irregular?"
Yao Ruyi: "..."
Oh no, it can extract anything.
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In just one day, Physician Wu questioned his medical skills twice, despite years of experience.
Physician Wu: Is the problem with me or the problem with the patient?
Business trips are exhausting, I'm rewarding myself by writing a whole chapter of sweet couple posts! [Sprinkling flowers]
Note: Mushroom poisoning is a very serious matter. The protagonist in this story has an invincibility aura given to him by me, but please don't try it lightly!
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