"You've already paid me."
Gu An'an shook the delicate little basket in her hand. In fact, she had collected many such exquisite little things, and it was hard to imagine that he could still find time to make these things despite being so busy.
"This can't be considered compensation."
Wang Laonian stuffed the money directly into the small basket, and as if afraid that Gu An'an would refuse, he closed the door behind him.
"Young Gu, if you don't take this, how will my wife and I ever have the face to show up in front of you again?"
Looking at the tightly closed door, Gu An'an chuckled, took out ten yuan, and stuffed the rest back through the crack in the door. "Ten yuan is fine. Keep the rest for your aunt to nourish her body."
Wang Laonian quickly picked up the money on the ground, opened the door, and chased after her, but Gu An'an had already gone far away.
"daughter in law."
Holding the crumpled money in his hand, even after being smoothed out, Wang Laonian almost burst into tears.
He took out all of his family's savings. Without this money, it would be difficult for them to buy anything, but with food at home, they had nothing to worry about, so they just rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
The couple knew very well that this amount of money wouldn't be enough to cure them at a major hospital, otherwise they wouldn't have waited until now.
"Little Gu is indeed a good educated youth. Let's help her out whenever we can. Sigh, I just don't know what kind of help someone as capable as her would need from us."
“Every time I see her, I think of my dog, Gou Dan. If he hadn’t been lost, he wouldn’t be much younger than Gu Zhiqing now. I have no other thoughts now, I just hope he can live well and wait for us to go find him.”
When talking about their son, the couple felt a little disappointed, but seeing that things were getting better day by day, they rekindled their hope.
Qiaomei had been practicing walking at home, and apart from the village chief's wife who discovered it by chance, no one really knew that she could move around.
That day, she had just started exercising when she heard a child crying next door.
"Help! Sister, save me!"
"Grandma, Grandma, come back quickly! Is anyone there? My little brother fell into the water."
The child's cries instantly transported Qiaomei back to the day she lost her child. It was a similar afternoon, and by the time she heard the crying and ran out, it was too late.
With a surge of energy she didn't know she possessed, Qiaomei rushed to the next house at twice the speed she used during training. Fortunately, her recent rehabilitation was progressing very well; otherwise, let alone being able to save the child, she herself would probably have fallen several times before reaching the next house.
Pushing open the gate to the neighboring courtyard, Qiaomei saw a boy of about four years old hanging upside down on the edge of a water vat, with a stool next to him that he was using for support having been kicked over.
Fortunately, a little girl with a ponytail was holding onto the boy's collar tightly. Otherwise, given the height of that water tank, the child would have been dead in just a few minutes if he had fallen in.
Seeing someone rush in, the little girl, who was on the verge of collapse, instantly found her pillar of support, "Grandma, help me."
Without saying a word, Qiaomei stepped forward, dropped her crutch, braced herself on the edge of the water vat with one hand, and grabbed the boy by the collar with the other. For someone who had just recovered from a serious illness, lifting a person weighing more than 20 kilograms with one hand was a challenge.
Once the little boy landed safely, she could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground.
"Grandma, what's wrong?"
This was the first time Qiaomei had left home, so even though they lived next door, the two children had never seen her before. But they weren't stupid; they knew that anyone who reached out to save them must be a good person, so they quickly went forward to try and pull Qiaomei up from the ground.
Qiaomei, panting, waved her hand and said, "Grandma is fine, but my brother was frightened. Go and call the family back."
Seeing that she really didn't need help, the little girl ran out in a flash.
About ten minutes later, several simply dressed people rushed into the yard. They took the frightened child in their arms and comforted her. When their eyes fell on Qiaomei, their faces showed obvious surprise.
"Qiao Mei?"
Qiaomei loved seeing this expression; it meant that all the hardships they had endured over the past few months hadn't been in vain. "Sister Qin, can you help me up?"
She was worried that she might hurt herself if she got up too quickly and with too much force, and that she would have to trouble Gu An'an again.
"Hey, hey."
The woman who was called over quickly went to help, and her son and daughter-in-law picked up Qiaomei's cane, which gave them time to gossip.
"Qiaomei, you're all better now? When did this happen? I've never heard Lao Nian mention it before?"
"That's right! Uncle Nian didn't even mention it when I delivered dumplings to him a couple of days ago, this is such a pleasant surprise."
The whole family gathered around Qiaomei, looking at her like she was a monkey. "Qiaomei, did you walk here by yourself?"
Before Qiaomei could speak, the little girl said, "Of course, Grandma came by herself. I was holding onto my little brother and didn't have time to help her."
The child's innocent words made everyone burst into laughter.
"No, Aunt Qiao, we didn't see Uncle take you to the hospital. How come you're all better all of a sudden?"
I just can't understand this. It's paralysis. If it were so easy to get better, people would still die these days.
Qiaomei thought for a moment, but instead of directly mentioning Gu An'an's name, she only said that she had met a benefactor.
But he was also thinking about this. Everyone knew he had never left the village. These people in the village might not have any other great skills, but it would be easy for them to find out about things in the village. It seemed he would have to ask Lao Nian to talk to Gu Zhiqing.
"It's alright, Uncle Nian. I just don't want to be too high-profile. If they really guessed it, then so be it."
This kind of thing might not be able to be kept secret even in the city, let alone in a village where people are connected by blood.
"Okay, I understand."
Sure enough, the fact that Qiaomei was no longer paralyzed attracted a lot of attention in Xiaowang Village. Every day, people would run to Wang Laonian's house to watch, just wanting to see for themselves if it was really that strange.
"How did it suddenly get better? How could someone who was paralyzed stand up on their own?"
"I heard that someone important has come to our aid. Have you heard who has visited our village recently?"
"No! Our village is always full of these people. Besides the villagers, there are only the educated youth. There are no outsiders coming. Besides, her illness can't be cured in one or two visits. If she comes a few more times, how could we not see any of them?"
"Who could it be? With this medical skill, he's on par with Hua Tuo."
Just then, someone said, "Do you think it's possible they were sent-down youth?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible! If they had that ability, how could they possibly end up here with us?"
"That's not impossible. Isn't Gu Zhiqing very capable? And she saved Gousheng last time. Maybe she was the one who did it."
Zhou Xiulan was just saying it casually, but she didn't really think Gu An'an had that ability. On the contrary, the person listening to the laughter suddenly thought of something.
"Aunt Xiulan, do you know something?"
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