The incident at the Su family's old house caused quite a stir in the village. For several days, the people living in the old house stayed indoors, afraid to go out. At this time, the old house still smelled bad, but it was much better than the first day; the stench had faded considerably.
Old Man Su and Old Woman Su sat listlessly in the house. That night, they went to the river to wash themselves, but it was too cold, and when they came back, they caught a cold, had a fever, and felt unwell. The next day, they still had to drag themselves around cleaning the house, and after cleaning, they had to fetch water to wash the floor. The house smelled so bad that they didn't even have the appetite to eat. For the past few days, they had been surviving on thin corn porridge and sweet potato porridge.
Old Su sat there with a dark face. He couldn't understand why everyone in his family had diarrhea. He recalled that day; his stomach started hurting not long after breakfast, and he urgently needed to go to the toilet.
The thought of that day, when the stomach pain felt like a knife cutting into his abdomen, sent a shiver down his spine. In his fifty-plus years of life, this was the first time he'd ever experienced such severe stomach pain. "Eldest daughter-in-law, what did you make for breakfast that day?"
Zhao Xiaohua, who had been listless, began to speak weakly to her father-in-law's questions, recounting what had happened that day while making breakfast. "Dad," she said, "that day I got up and made breakfast as usual. I chopped some corn, made corn porridge, and then made some cornbread. Isn't this how we always eat at home? I don't understand why the whole family behaved like this after breakfast."
"Did you not clean it properly? Did you not wash the corn properly? Or did you not wash your hands properly when you were kneading the dough to make the cornbread?" Old Su asked several times in a row. He also wanted to know why this was happening. He had diarrhea occasionally before, but never like this, with such pain and discomfort.
No, this isn't the first time I've done this. You guys usually eat the breakfast I make, right? And you've never seen anything like this happen after eating it!
That's true. The eldest son's wife has been making breakfast for years, and they've always eaten it without any problems. They can't figure out what's wrong. Actually, they were lucky. They didn't use the water from the water tank on the day they had diarrhea. The next day, they didn't have an appetite, so they didn't make breakfast. They used the water from the water tank to wash the floor. Otherwise, if they had drunk the water from the water tank, they would have had diarrhea for another day.
Su Wenli hid in her room and wouldn't come out. The house was smelly and dirty, and she didn't want to clean up the mess or wash the floor, so she stayed in her room. Actually, her room smelled bad too. That day, she took a foot-washing basin into her room to relieve herself. After using up more than half of the basin, she endured the nausea and took the half-basin, which was full of filth, to the outhouse to throw away. She didn't even wash the basin and just left it on the ground in the yard.
As for Su Xingran, although she hadn't witnessed the tragic state of those people at the old house firsthand, she knew from the power of the medicinal powder that they couldn't be much better off. She felt fortunate that her master had gone to town to treat patients and hadn't returned home for two days.
The next day at the Su family's old house, Su's eldest son's second son came to invite Doctor Huang to come and treat the patient. Su Xingran happened to be there. Upon seeing Su Xingran, Su Wenye, the second cousin, looked very displeased, because of this cousin, his own sister Su Wenli. Her reputation in the village had plummeted; people pointed and gossiped about her when she went out, saying she was a habitual liar.
Now he felt disgusted with his cousin, his second uncle and aunt, and even more so when he thought about how he had come to invite Dr. Huang to treat his grandparents and parents. He suppressed his emotions and put on a smiling face. "Cousin, is Dr. Huang home? I've come to invite him to treat Grandpa and Grandma."
Su Xingran glanced at Su Wenye, whose expression shifted repeatedly. She knew without a doubt what he was thinking: that their family wasn't as exploitative as before, and that she had exposed Su Wenli's lies and pretense. This family really was like that; birds of a feather flock together.
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