Mrs. Xue returned to the main courtyard happily. The old lady's maid had been waiting at the door for a long time. When she saw her coming, she immediately went to ask, "Madam, the old lady is still waiting for you. Did you chase Lin Dan away?"
"Well, let's talk about this later." Mrs. Xue then remembered the purpose of her rushing to Xiaofeng Pavilion, and her expression became a little embarrassed.
The head maid seemed very disappointed, but forced a smile and invited her into the old lady's room. Due to the original owner's tyranny, ninety-nine percent of the Xue family's servants disliked her and were waiting for her to become a lost cause.
"Has that girl Tan'er left? If she wants to come to the main courtyard to ask for an audience, please help me stop her. I never want to see her again." The old lady was lying on the couch, with a wet cloth covering her forehead for heat dissipation, looking extremely uncomfortable. After her grandson became paralyzed, she also fell seriously ill and has not recovered yet. Previously, she thought Lin Dan had changed and was happy for a while, but she didn't expect to be slapped in the face by Lin Dan right away. She couldn't bear it mentally and lay down again.
"Mom, I didn't chase Lin Dan away. When I went there, Boyong was eating by himself, as if he disliked Lin Dan's service. Mom, you did the right thing. You sent Lin Dan away, and Boyong really reacted like a normal person." When mentioning this, Mrs. Xue immediately showed a happy expression.
"Can Boyong eat by himself?" The old lady immediately got up and said anxiously, "No, I have to go and see for myself."
Madam Xue hurried to stop her and said, "Don't move. Lie down quickly. Boyong is fine. You can go see him anytime you want. It doesn't matter a moment. You haven't recovered yet, and Boyong is weak. You two might infect each other with the disease. What will we do then?"
When the old lady heard this, she dared not move and agreed repeatedly: "Okay, okay, I won't go. It doesn't matter if my old bones die of illness, but I will regret it if I kill my darling grandson! How much food did he eat? What dishes did he have? Does he look better?"
"After eating a bowl of porridge, a few pieces of braised tofu and a little bit of minced meat, he looked much better. I asked Lin Dan to feed him, but he firmly disagreed and even started talking to me."
"What did he say?"
"He said: Mom, I eat by myself, I don't want anyone to feed me."
"Oh, this child is still as shy as he was when he was little! If he is willing to talk, everything will be fine!" The old lady's eyes were already filled with tears as she spoke.
"Yes! The master is looking for famous doctors everywhere. If there is no doctor in Qin, he will go to Wu. If there is no doctor in Wu, he will go to Chu. The Central Plains is so big, there will always be someone who can cure this disease. As long as Boyong gets over the hurdle in his heart and is willing to cheer up again, everything will be fine." Mrs. Xue lowered her head and wiped her tears, her voice choked with sobs.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law sat opposite each other, crying and laughing, leaving all the maids dumbfounded. As for "driving Lin Dan away", no one dared to say it anymore.
…………
Lin Dan had no idea that he was almost kicked out, and was now rummaging through boxes and cabinets looking for something. The book “Lin’s Acupuncture” clearly states that all the family acupuncture techniques must use the needles specially made by the Lin family’s ancestor, and they cannot be mixed with gold or silver needles from outside, otherwise there will be no effect. But she searched everywhere and couldn't find the needles, nor did she remember seeing Father Lin using them.
Could it be that it was lost too? As soon as she thought of this, she slapped her forehead and cursed herself for being stupid. Since the bottom of the box can hide things, the lid can naturally do so as well. After a while, she found a set of acupuncture equipment in the lid of the box. There were needles as thin as ox hairs, needles as thick as bamboo sticks, needles half a foot long, and needles as short as two inches. There were also Bian stones and metal sheets of various shapes, all wrapped in cloth and well preserved.
However, without the method of cultivating internal strength, these instruments are equivalent to waste. No wonder the ancestors of the Lin family have sealed them up since the ninth generation and never saw the light of day again.
Lin Dan took the needles in his hand and identified them one by one according to the pictures in the book. Just at this moment, a muffled sound came from the next room, as if something heavy had fallen to the ground. She immediately put the needle back where it belonged and hurried over to check. In order to take better care of Xue Boyong, she completely disregarded the distinction between men and women and moved her things directly into the room next to his. Living so close, she could hear the slightest movement over there immediately.
When she arrived, the servant who was responsible for serving Xue Boyong had already fallen asleep, lying on the soft couch in the outer room. Xue Boyong rolled off the bed and was trying to support his upper body and try to crawl back.
"Brother, don't move. I'll help you." Lin Dan easily picked up the eight-foot-tall man and gently placed him on the couch. He asked softly, "Brother, do you want to drink some water? Why don't you just ask someone to pour it for you? Why do you have to do it yourself?"
This was the second time Xue Boyong was hugged by Lin Dan. He closed his eyes at the moment and didn't want to look at the other person at all.
Lin Dan poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to him.
He clenched his teeth tightly, showing a passive resistance.
Lin Dan sighed, pinched his cheeks, pried open his teeth, and forced him to drink a glass of water.
Xue Boyong choked and coughed repeatedly, and a blush appeared on his pale cheeks, making him look quite handsome. He looked straight at Lin Dan, his eyes were extremely cold.
Lin Dan said slowly, "Brother, what are you looking at? You can't deal with me no matter how much you look at me. You'd better drink the water obediently, otherwise you will choke later. In fact, brother, you had the opportunity to drive me away. As long as you said you didn't like me and wanted me to leave at the first sight of me, the old lady and the lady would have driven me away immediately. But you were stubborn and didn't say anything, so I stayed."
As she spoke, she poured a second glass of water and tried to force it down her throat, but Xue Boyong took it over and drank it up bit by bit. After drinking, he looked up, his dark eyes flashing with light.
Lin Dan smiled slightly, breaking his hope, "Brother, it's too late for you to say it now. You despised me and didn't want me to take care of you, so you took the initiative to eat and drink water, and also talked to the lady. Now, they must think that I stimulated you to cheer you up. If you say you want to drive me away again, they will never listen. So brother, you are now completely in my hands, so you'd better eat, drink water, sleep honestly, and take good care of your body."
At this point, she said seriously: "Brother, look at you now, how weak and powerless you are? Don't you feel aggrieved?"
Xue Boyong drank the water expressionlessly, as if he didn't hear her words at all. However, after drinking it, he didn't return the cup to her, but threw it directly on the ground. Maybe he originally wanted to smash it, but his hands were too weak to do it.
The cup fell vertically onto the woolen carpet-covered footstool, and it didn't even make a sound, let alone break.
Lin Dan picked up the intact teacup, wiped it clean, and said nonchalantly: "Brother, do you want to vent your anger or to show off to me? If you have the strength, you can smash the cup on my face, that would be fun. But look, your show of strength didn't even make a splash. If you don't know, you might think your hand slipped."
Xue Boyong closed his eyes and breathed heavily, with blue veins popping out on his forehead.
The servant, who had already been awakened by the noise of the two people, stood in the corner and dared not say a word.
"Brother, have a good rest. I won't disturb you." Lin Dan put the cup back to its place and walked out. When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped and said to the servant, "Brother drank a lot of water. Use the urinal to collect some urine for him before laying him down. Otherwise, he will be woken up at night and it will affect his sleep."
She didn't think there was anything wrong with her words, but the servant's cheeks turned red, his eyes were evasive, and he looked very shy.
Xue Boyong could no longer bear it, he suddenly opened his eyes, gnashed his teeth and said, "Why don't you leave?"
"I'm leaving now. Good night, big brother." She stepped out of the door and said seriously, "If you need anything, just give me a shout and I'll come right over. I live next door, very close."
"You are a girl, not yet married, but you live in the yard of a grown man and even set up your room next to his. Don't you think it's inappropriate?" Xue Boyong scolded in a hoarse voice.
Lin Dan counted on his fingers and said, "Brother, you said thirty-eight words to me in one breath. I have been in the Xue family for twelve years, and this is the longest sentence I have ever heard you say. Brother, you are so awesome." After he finished speaking, he closed the door and ordered through the door, "Midnight is almost here, brother, go to bed." He completely ignored what the other person had just said.
Xue Boyong stared at the door fiercely, as if he wanted to stare two holes in it. His lifeless eyes were now frighteningly bright.
The servant brought the urinal in fear, but was almost forced to kneel down and kowtow when he was glanced at by the eldest master's deathly gaze. In the Xue Mansion, Miss Lin is indeed the most powerful one, daring enough to tease even the tiger's whiskers.
Lin Dan returned to her room and continued to study medical books. She lay down to sleep when she felt sleepy. She fell asleep in a second, completely unaware of how angry she had made Xue Boyong.
The next day, she went to the kitchen early to get two bowls of porridge and a few side dishes, and sent them to her eldest brother's room. After serving her elder brother breakfast, she prepared to formally study medicine. Other people learned to recite soup recipe songs at the age of four or five, and learned to take a pulse at the age of seven or eight, but she started at the age of seventeen, which was a bit late after all.
This time she didn't need to say a word. As soon as he put down the food box, Xue Boyong took the initiative to speak, "I can do it myself. You don't need to feed me."
Mrs. Xue came to visit her son every morning. She happened to hear him say this when she pushed the door open. She also saw him lying on the table drinking porridge seriously, trying hard not to spill the porridge in the spoon with his trembling hands, as if he was back to the time when he had just learned to eat by himself as a child.
Many memories came to Mrs. Xue's mind and made her eyes wet. She was afraid that her arrival would spoil her son's appetite, so she quickly retreated and hid outside the window to peek. Lin Dan was seen frequently putting food into his son's bowl, sometimes scrambled eggs, sometimes finely chopped pickled cabbage, and his son swallowed them all without showing any resistance. In the past, if any woman dared to get so close to him or even touch his food, he would have given her the cold shoulder.
"Madam, aren't you going in?" A maid who was in charge of serving the eldest master but was stopped outside the door by Lin Dan asked in a low voice.
"I won't go in. Boyong couldn't even hold the spoon firmly. He spilled half of his mouthful of soup. He was in a mess. If I went in, he would be too shy to eat." Mrs. Xue knew her son very well. She waved her hand and said with relief, "Go back. We'll come back at noon."
"But Miss Lin is also in there, and isn't the eldest master eating well?" the maid said unwillingly.
"Lin Dan is an outsider, and I am his mother. How can this be the same? He can ignore Lin Dan's opinion, but he cannot ignore his family's opinion. He doesn't want us to see his weak appearance, so let's just pretend we don't see it." Madam Xue wiped her eyes, stared at the maid before leaving, and said coldly, "You talk too much."
The maid quickly bowed her head to admit her mistake, then timidly sent the group away.
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