Xu Shi's gluttony was not due to her pregnancy; she was a gluttonous woman to begin with. Any good food in the house ended up in her mouth. Only her precious son, Lin Zhiqiang, could eat alone with her. Even the head of the family, Lin Musheng, did not receive this treatment.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Doctor Ma finished taking Lin Musheng's pulse, then lifted the blanket to examine the condition of Lin Musheng's injured leg.
Seeing that there were signs of suppuration, he frowned and said coldly, "The medicine wasn't changed in time, and it's already suppurated."
Master Lin glared at Madam Lin, who had come closer, with annoyance.
There's nothing about this wife that satisfies him. After all these years, she hasn't acted like a wife at all. She doesn't do any housework, she can't do any farm work, and she can't even take good care of her husband.
Alas! It's all my fault for having such a stubborn and impulsive son who fell for this paper lantern of beauty—all show and no substance, yet he insisted on marrying her. Now he's suffering all this, and it's no wonder.
Dr. Ma instructed, "Bring clean water. I'll remove the rotten flesh and then change the dressing."
"Er Ya, bring a basin of water." Master Lin immediately turned to his granddaughter and said.
"Hot water or cold water?"
"First, fill a basin with cold water. We need to scrape off all the rotten flesh." Dr. Ma was taking tools out of his medicine box.
That means you should also wash the area with hot water when applying the medicine.
"Okay!" Lin Mo replied and turned to go to the yard to find a wooden basin.
Luckily, there was still half a bucket of water left, otherwise we would have had to fetch it from the well outside.
After scooping water and handing it to Doctor Ma, Lin Momo added two more ladles of water to the pot, preparing to heat it up for later use.
While starting the fire, Lin Momo realized that she hadn't seen Lin Sanya since she had been inside for so long.
"Mother, where did Sanya go?"
Lin Xu was taken aback by the question and said uncertainly, "Sanya? Sanya went out to play, didn't she?"
"Where's my older brother?" Lin Momo asked again. "Why hasn't he come out?"
"In the afternoon, Zhang's Erle came to find your brother, and they went out to play together," Lin Xu said casually.
Lin Zhiqiang, your father is dying, and you still have the mood to go out and have fun?
How big must his heart be?
Saying you're going out to have fun, are you just going to work for someone else for free again?
Mentioning Zhang Erle reminded Lin Momo of something.
After Lin Zhiqiang's reputation for gambling spread, the boys in the village who used to play with him were forbidden by their families from playing with the boys from Lin's second branch of the family anymore.
In addition, they were all around sixteen or seventeen years old, and one after another they got married and started families, becoming the main breadwinners in their households. They had less time to go out and play, and gradually drifted apart from Lin Zhiqiang.
Only Zhang Erle continued to hang out with Lin Zhiqiang.
Zhang Erle seems like a good friend, always loyal to his brothers, but he's actually a cunning and wicked guy.
Seeing that Lin Zhiqiang was interested in his sister, he often tricked this fool into working for the Zhang family as free labor.
Lin Zhiqiang never lifted a finger to do housework. His laziness disappeared without medicine when he was at the Zhang family's house, and he did the work quite well.
Unfortunately, seeing that her son, who was nearly seventeen, could not find a good match, Lin Xu was anxious and worried. Seeing that her son liked the daughter of the Zhang family, she set her sights on Zhang Erni.
As a result, the matchmaker who came to propose marriage was almost beaten up by the Zhang family.
Lin Xu was so angry that she scolded each member of the Zhang family at home, but she was still not satisfied. She wanted to go to their house to scold them, but her son held her tightly and threatened that if she dared to go to the Zhang family, he would jump into the river and die.
Lin Xushi became dejected.
Lin Zhiqiang was also angry.
At this moment, Zhang Erle, his good friend, came over to persuade him: "I say, Zhiqiang, this is your fault. If you hadn't gone gambling, not only would your grandfather have kicked you out of the house, but you would have also squandered almost all the family's land. How could our family refuse to marry our daughter to you?"
“I know you’re not going anymore, but you can’t do any work. If we marry our daughter to you, she’ll starve. How can my parents feel at ease?”
"We're good buddies, don't worry. I'll definitely put in a good word for you with my parents. But you also have to perform well so they know you've changed and are capable. Only then will they feel comfortable marrying my sister to you, right?"
...
After being persuaded by someone with eloquent words, Lin Zhiqiang's anger dissipated.
For the sake of his future wife, Lin Zhiqiang, that silly boy, was exceptionally obedient to advice. Every few days, he would go to the Zhang family's house to work as a free long-term laborer, hoping to make a good impression on his future in-laws.
In fact, the Zhang family never even considered marrying their daughter to him.
When he went to work for the Zhang family, they didn't stop him, and would just say something like, "How could we let you work?" But as soon as the topic of marrying off their daughter came up, they would immediately turn hostile.
Lin Zhiqiang truly lives up to his father Lin Musheng's reputation; he's got a love-struck mind from the root of everything, and stubbornly clings to Zhang Erni.
Zhang Erni is the youngest child in the Zhang family, and also the most outstanding in appearance. She has a sweet tongue, and with her two older brothers and one older sister taking care of all the household chores, she was spoiled and pampered by her family. She was chubby and fair-skinned, and even wore a red ribbon in her hair.
Speaking of Zhang Erni, she could be considered one of the most beautiful girls in Linjiazhuang.
Farm families can't raise exceptionally beautiful girls, and the Zhang family's beauty was entirely due to the contrast with the many poorly fed and clothed girls in the village who were also quite thin.
In and around the village, young men who envied her lined up from the Zhang family's door all the way to the Lin family's second house, a distance of about a kilometer.
Young men like fair-skinned and clean-cut baby girls, and their parents also think that such fair-skinned and chubby baby girls are prosperous and have big hips, which makes them easy to give birth to.
Although the sons' aesthetic tastes are not on the same level as their parents', what's rare is that they all think the girl from the Zhang family is good and that marrying her would be a good deal.
Currently, several families have come to propose marriage, but they are stuck on the issue of the bride price.
A family with a daughter is sought after by many. After raising such a highly sought-after girl, Zhang's parents, like merchants who have found a rare commodity, wanted to sell her at a high price and asked for a dowry of twenty taels of silver.
Since you all want to marry our family's beauty, to be fair, the highest bidder wins.
This makes Lin Zhiqiang's chances even slimmer.
But Lin Zhiqiang, that fool, had no self-awareness whatsoever. He used the excuse of visiting Zhang Erle to sneak into the Zhang family's house every day, only thinking about how to impress the Zhang family with his hard work.
Even when his father was so ill, he still tried to please Zhang Erni's parents.
Sigh, I've raised this son for nothing.
Lin sat quietly under the stove, tending the fire, and sighed inwardly.
The firewood at home is almost gone, and we haven't prepared any for the winter. Instead of wasting time, we should gather some firewood for ourselves.
The Lin family mother and son are so used to being hands-off managers that they don't care about anything. Even if Lin Musheng is saved now, he will be so angry at this stupid mother and son that he will die again.
It took Dr. Ma more than half an hour to clean the rotten flesh and pus from Lin Musheng's injured leg.
Then, he cleaned the wound with gauze soaked in hot water, reapplied the wound medicine he had brought, rested for a while, and then took out his acupuncture kit to perform acupuncture on the patient.
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