Uncle Xia and Uncle Xia each have a son and a daughter. They always hang out together, and the two families have a very good relationship.
Right now, the two of them were eating the pig's head meat that his wife had just served, drinking cheap, muddy wine that cost a few coins a pot, occasionally popping a couple of peanuts into their mouths, drunkenly cursing.
"This brat, who's barely out of his teens, has learned medicine from books on his own. He's definitely not good enough to treat patients! I'll wait until he's in trouble! The Sun family has sold all their fields, and he still hasn't managed to get them to buy medicine. Humph, I'm afraid they'll have to sell the remaining two acres too!"
"Exactly! Xia Qingzhai said he'd take three doses of medicine, which means three days, right? I'll wait and see after three days; it definitely won't have any effect!"
The two families eagerly awaited the arrival of the three days, which passed in the blink of an eye.
Around noon, the children playing at the village entrance started shouting:
Sun Tiehu and his mother returned on the path outside the village!
"Uncle Sun is back!"
"He came back with Grandma Sun, carrying lots of food—"
"I saw the pastries wrapped in oil paper... Slurp, they're so sweet..."
Hearing the noise, the village chief came out of his house and saw the Sun family mother and son. With a grateful smile on his face, he hurried towards Qingzhai's house, carrying a lot of things, including candy, snacks, and cured meat. A group of children followed him, biting their fingers and looking at the snacks.
"Qingzhai! Qingzhai, thank you so much! After taking that medicine, I haven't been going out at night these past few days, and the anxiety I felt has subsided!"
"Yes, yes, it's all thanks to you. The doctor in the city was so good at treating him, spending over a hundred taels of silver, and he still didn't get better! If it weren't for you, my son and I would be finished. You must accept these gifts..."
"Don't think the gift is too small. It's just that we don't have any extra money at home right now. Next spring, we'll have Hu Zi go and cultivate some land for the ancestors. I'll only give you a proper gift after we've lost the grain!"
The village chief stood at his own door, watching as the Xia family's door opened. Qingzhai greeted them with a smile, saying, "Grandma Sun, you're too kind. It was nothing, why are you so grateful? You can take three more doses of that medicine to consolidate your recovery, and you won't be able to go out at night anymore."
"Yes, yes, we absolutely need it! You gave us a second life!"
The children cheered, "Uncle Sun is cured?"
Many people stuck their heads out of the windows: "Was he really cured? Xia Qingzhai is amazing!"
“I didn’t believe them when they went to see him last time, but I’m going to go see him too. My back has been hurting for years, and the plasters from the doctors in the city never work! I wish Qingzhai could cure me…”
The village chief couldn't help but smile, shaking his head and sighing, "Having a doctor in the village saves a lot of trouble. Sun Tiehu's illness is cured, which is a good outcome for both him and his mother."
His wife asked, "If it's a good thing, why are you frowning?"
The village chief said, "I think it would have been so much better if he had been cured earlier! Sun Tiehu is a skilled farmer. He worked hard and bought so much land, but then he got sick and had to sell it all to pay for his treatment! He's cured, but how will he eat next year? He doesn't have any land left!"
The village chief's wife also thought it made a lot of sense and nodded, saying, "That makes sense. Didn't he say he wanted to rent a landlord's land? Where are there any landlords nearby who are hiring tenants? You could ask around for him."
That's my plan.
The village chief said that he was still thinking about this while eating, but after Sun Tiehu and his mother left the Xia family, he still couldn't remember it. So he simply stood up and went to find them, intending to ask them what he wanted to do.
When they arrived at the Sun family's house, they heard a joyful atmosphere inside. The village chief was surprised and knocked on the door to go in. Before he could even speak, he heard Sun Tiehu loudly praising him.
"Village Chief! Qingzhai is such a good boy! You have no idea what a wonderful idea he came up with after he heard that my family was poor and had no land to farm!"
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