Chapter 5 Weeds Repel Mosquitoes
Dinner was black noodle dumpling soup. It was called dumpling soup, but it was mostly soup with a few black noodle dumplings scattered around, and a few green vegetable leaves floating around. There was not a drop of oil, and only a little salt.
Meixiang endured the itch and brought two bowls of rice into the house. She then scratched the mosquito bites with her hands. Gu Xiyue quickly called her.
"Don't scratch it, it'll only make it itchy!"
Those who came to watch the fun at noon scratched hard after being bitten by mosquitoes, causing secondary damage. The bites were infected with each other and turned into scabies, especially on the faces and necks of children, which was shocking to see.
Afraid that Meixiang would scratch again, Gu Xiyue reminded her, "If you really can't bear it, just pinch the itchy area and leave a nail mark. It will hurt and it will feel better."
Meixiang did as she was told and pinched her fingernail hard on the place where the mosquito had bitten her. She also made a cross on it like the young lady did.
When it hurts, it really doesn't itch anymore.
Gu Xiyue braided the wild grass hair, placed it on the stove, and let it warm in the heat of the pot. She washed her hands and went into the house to eat.
Looking at the bleak black noodle dumpling soup, Gu Xiyue felt a tasteless taste in her mouth and began to miss the days when she could eat as much fruit as she wanted and choose any chicken, duck, fish, meat, or seafood. Even pork stewed with cabbage and vermicelli with rice would be fine.
Life is so sad like this, and she doesn't know when it will get better. There are only more than twenty taels of silver left in her purse. If there is no other way out, she will have to plant upland rice after harvesting the wheat, and she won't have new rice to eat until at least October.
When they first arrived here a few days ago, the military officer allocated them three acres of sloping fields and rice, barley, vegetable and radish seeds. The sloping fields were not ready-made, but only had a designated area. They actually had to open up the land themselves.
There are about twenty days left before planting upland rice, which means that this is the only time left for them to open up the land. Otherwise, if they miss the sowing time, it will affect the maturity of the rice.
What is even more speechless is that these three acres of land are jointly owned by her and Xiao Heng, which means that there are four people in total who have to rely on these three acres of sloping land to survive.
Gu Xiyue ate her meal while thinking about her worries, and then went to wash the dishes herself. Meixiang's hands and feet were slightly stiff, and she followed her with a guilty conscience.
After washing the pots and dishes, Gu Xiyue wiped his hands and went to the kitchen to touch the straw braid. It was already dry. He was looking forward to taking the straw braid back to the house, but he saw Meixiang looking at him with wide eyes and a panic on her face.
Gu Xiyue smiled and patted her shoulder, "Relax, I'm confident."
Meixiang was gloomy, but seeing that the young lady was determined to try, she nodded and said with a fearless look: "Okay, young lady, since you have decided, then I will accompany you to try."
She spoke with a very firm expression. Gu Xiyue pursed her lips, smiled and nodded, fulfilling her fearless attitude.
"Close the door."
After they finished washing up, there was no water left in the bucket, only a little boiling water in the thermos. They closed the door and went to close the window. Gu Xiyue used a tinder to light the straw braids. Meixiang stood by with her shoulders slightly raised, as if facing a great enemy, and her breathing became gasping.
The grass braid began to smoke. At first, there was a bit of dry grass smell, and then a clear and bright smell came out. It was not choking or unpleasant.
Meixiang stared at the straw braid, breathing heavily, with cold sweat rolling down her forehead.
Looking at her, Gu Xiyue couldn't help laughing out loud. Her waist bent with laughter, and the smoke rose with her shaking.
Meixiang became even more panicked, thinking that the poison of the weeds had begun to take effect, and the symptom of the attack was laughing.
She had never heard of such poison.
"Miss, are you okay?"
Meixiang was almost crying, she rushed over and hugged Gu Xiyue and cried.
Gu Xiyue really wanted to stop and persuade her, but she couldn't help laughing. The harder Meixiang cried, the harder she laughed. In the end, she simply threw her straw braid on the ground and rolled onto the bed, laughing.
Meixiang was completely panicked, and her voice was distorted.
"Miss, don't scare me, get up quickly!"
Then there was an outburst of crying.
At this time, Wei Lin, who was standing outside the door, also became anxious. He wanted to rush in to save people, but was afraid of offending them. He had no choice but to turn back and tell the wise king.
Xiao Heng was reading a book and drinking tea under the oil lamp. The laughter and crying sounds from the other side reached his ears. He rubbed his brows, put down the book, stood up and prepared to go over to take a look, but he ran into Wei Lin who came in.
"Your Highness, there seems to be something wrong with them."
"Well, I heard it. Let's go and take a look."
His eyes were complicated as he spoke, and he felt that this woman was really fond of making trouble, and would eventually cost him her life.
The two of them went out of the door. Strangely, the laughter and crying from the west room stopped. Xiao Heng's heart paused, thinking that something was wrong. He hurried over there and when he reached the door of the west room, he was about to break in when he heard voices from inside.
It was Gu Xiyue's voice.
"...Don't worry, we're all fine, aren't we? This grass is good. Look, the mosquitoes over there don't dare come over. Look over there, they can't even fly..."
Xiao Heng frowned slightly and laughed inwardly.
What is mosquito repellent grass? Isn’t it just using smoke to knock out mosquitoes?
Seeing that the person was fine, he waved goodbye and went back to his room with Wei Lin.
"Your Highness, if that wild grass is useful, I will go pick some tomorrow..."
Before he could finish, he saw His Highness looking at him with cold eyes, so he quickly shut his mouth and stopped talking about the weeds.
Gu Xiyue in the west room had completely calmed down and was pointing out the dizzy mosquito to Meixiang under the dim oil lamp.
Meixiang stared blankly, and took a few deep breaths in surprise. She felt that her brain and breathing were normal, and her stomach was not uncomfortable. She immediately relaxed, wiped away her tears, and grinned.
"Miss, it's true! This weed really won't poison people. That's great! I don't have to endure mosquito bites anymore."
"Miss, let's go to bed. I'll go blow out the oil lamp. We don't have much money left, so we have to spend it sparingly."
Gu Xiyue nodded, turned around and lay down in the quilt. The most comfortable thing in this room was the bed. When he first came here, he was willing to spend money and spent nearly five taels of silver to buy this bed and quilt.
Meixiang blew out the light and slowly lay down beside the bed, still a little uncomfortable.
When the young lady first came, she asked the military officer to find her a bed board on the ground and gave her a quilt for her to sleep on at night. After the young lady attempted to hang herself but failed, he let her sleep on the bed, saying that there were many bugs on the ground and that if she fell asleep, the bugs would crawl into her ears and nostrils and bite her, so he asked her to sleep on the bed obediently.
Meixiang didn't dare at first, but the thing the young lady said was too scary. After thinking about it, she endured the discomfort and went to sleep on the bed. After lying down, she lay straight on the edge of the bed, not daring to disturb the young lady at all.
Every time Gu Xiyue couldn't bear it, he would reach out and pull her, asking her to go inside so that she wouldn't fall under the bed while sleeping.
Meixiang felt that the young lady had really become a different person, and she was always flattered by her.
The night passed without incident. This was probably the best night's sleep they had had since arriving in the Southern Wilderness. Throughout the night, thanks to the smoke from the wild grass, not a single mosquito came to disturb them.
Unlike before, when they were asleep, mosquitoes bit them recklessly and they often woke up at night due to the itch. In order to let Gu Xiyue have a good sleep, Meixiang held a piece of clothing in her hand and waved it at Gu Xiyue, trying to drive away the mosquitoes, but it was very tiring and she could not hold on for long before she was too sleepy to hold on.
In the end, I just let the mosquitoes run rampant.
Now they could finally get a good night's sleep, so the next day, both of them overslept, and in the end they were woken up by the deafening knocking and shouting outside the door.
Meixiang sat up suddenly. She felt refreshed after a good sleep. She quickly put on her clothes and helped Gu Xiyue to put on her clothes. People outside were saying all kinds of things. Meixiang listened to them and looked at her young lady with admiration. She thought that what those people outside said was nonsense.
"Miss Gu, are you okay?"
"Could he have been poisoned?"
"It's over now. If she dies, her family will suffer."
"What's that smell? Folks, step back quickly! This smell is poisonous! Miss Gu was suffocated to death by this smell!"
“…”
"My lady, yesterday I saw that your eyes were blue, but now they are gone."
There was joy in Meixiang's voice.
Gu Xiyue tightened her belt and asked her with a smile, "Do you believe it now?"
"I believe it, I believe it. From now on, no matter what the young lady does, I will believe it."
Gu Xiyue thought of Meixiang's appearance last night, nodded with a smile, then gestured towards the door, and the two of them opened the door together.
What I saw coming towards me was Granny Liu with a face full of grief, and behind her was a group of people. There were more people than the ones who came to see her attempt to hang herself a few days ago. The yard was packed. Some people couldn't fit in, so they stood outside the yard and all the way to the roadside. The scene was quite grand, and almost everyone in the entire Southern Wilderness had come.
When those people went back yesterday, the news spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. Soon, everyone in the Southern Wilderness knew that the young lady Gu who had attempted to hang herself had brought back some wild grass and said it could repel mosquitoes. Among these people, after Granny Liu, Madam Li, and Madam Liu told others about Gu Xiyue giving them salt, many people felt that it would be a pity if Madam Gu was poisoned to death.
There were also some people who came purely to watch the fun, and they wanted to know whether Miss Gu's family would be affected after her death. They sincerely hoped that Miss Gu was poisoned to death, and they even found a witness, Wang Hu, and planned to have him go to Master Wang and say that he saw Miss Gu pulling weeds and committing suicide under the guise of repelling mosquitoes.
People with different thoughts gathered inside and outside the courtyard, waiting to see what happened to Miss Gu.
As a result, when the door opened, everyone was stunned. Everyone fell silent and looked at Miss Gu and Meixiang behind her.
Not only were both of them fine, they looked even better than yesterday.
They were not poisoned to death!
Wang Hu felt very disappointed and had a faint resentment in his heart.
Those who appreciated Miss Gu as a kind person felt relieved.
Granny Liu was so excited that she almost knelt on the ground. Her tearful eyes were enough to show that she really didn't want Gu Xiyue to die.
Most of the rest of the people were there to watch the fun, thinking that Miss Gu was really lucky and would be fine no matter what happened.
Gu Xiyue walked out of the door with a smile, holding Granny Liu's hand, and her eyes patrolled the crowd, finally landing on the three children beside Madam Li and Madam Liu.
She whispered a few words to Meixiang, and Meixiang walked over, brought the three children over, and stood next to Gu Xiyue.
Gu Xiyue squatted down and looked at the children at eye level. She checked the exposed skin of the three children from top to bottom and found that there was hardly any good skin.
Children are not like adults. They will not resist scratching when bitten by mosquitoes. If they scratch, they will be infected again, making the condition more and more serious. Their parents have no way to prevent mosquitoes and no money to buy black water to repel mosquitoes, so they can only let their children be bitten by mosquitoes.
It makes me sad just thinking about it.
"Fellow villagers, you can see that I was not poisoned by the weeds. I am standing here in front of you in good health."
Gu Xiyue stood up slowly, her eyes gentle, her tone firm, and her voice full of energy, forcing everyone to listen to her.
"Everyone can take a look at their exposed skin, especially children's. Once bitten by a mosquito, it will itch terribly and they will definitely scratch it, which will cause a secondary infection. Adults with thicker skin can be more resistant to it, but children suffer. They have delicate skin and flesh, and when bitten by a mosquito, they will scratch vigorously. You can take a good look at your children's bodies to see what the mosquito bites look like now."
Before he finished speaking, people turned their heads to look at the places on the child's body where mosquitoes had bitten him. They didn't notice it before, but after hearing what Gu Xiyue said, they felt very uncomfortable seeing that the child had already suffered with them and was now bitten by mosquitoes like this.
Wang Hu looked around. He was a bachelor and had no children. He felt a little dissatisfied when he heard this.
"It's just a mosquito bite, what's the big deal? There are mosquitoes in the capital too. Why are you all so hypocritical?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
