While everyone was talking, two boys, one older and one younger, walked out of the back room.
Xu He recognized that these were the two sons of his uncle's family. The eldest was named Xie Xiu, one year younger than Xu He and was fourteen this year; the younger was named Xie Lan and was only 8 years old.
Perhaps it was because Xu He didn't come often, so the two of them were a little scared when they saw him.
Xu He also introduced Xie Liangcai and others, then left the things he bought and went into the back room alone to visit his aunt.
In Xu He's impression, his aunt was a very gentle and courteous Jiangnan woman. Standing next to Kong Wu's powerful uncle Xie Bin, the two were simply not compatible.
But the woman who had always had a smile on her lips was now lying on the bed, her cheeks were sunken, and she was dying.
Xu He approached the bed and whispered: "Aunt, He'er is here to see you!"
But after a while, the person on the bed made no movement except breathing.
Xie Bin stood aside and said in a deep voice: "I was still coughing for the past two days. I can't speak for the past two days. I can't even drink rice soup!"
Seeing this, Xu He sighed and retreated.
As soon as he arrived at the outer room, he took out five taels of silver from his arms and handed it to Xie Bin: "Uncle, this is what my mother asked me to give to you. You can take this money and go to the doctor. If it doesn't work, we will go to Hailing to find him." Go to Yangzhou to find it!"
Xie Bin looked at the money handed over by his nephew in surprise: "Why does your family have so much money?"
Xu He had no choice but to briefly tell Xie Bin what had happened these days.
After hearing this, Xie Bin sighed: "My brother-in-law passed away early, and no one was seen alive, and no corpse was found after he died. Up to now, the grave buried in your family's ancestral grave is still a tomb. However, even if my brother-in-law's bones are buried in a foreign land, your family's remains will still be buried." This scene will make you smile!"
At this moment, suddenly a young man dressed as a soldier from the Inspection Department hurriedly walked out. As soon as he came in, he loudly said: "Master Xie, please go to the water village quickly and have a look. Deputy Inspector Wang said there is something going on."
When Xie Bin heard this, he quickly stood up and said to Xu He and others: "You guys stay at home for a while, I'll come and take a look!"
After saying that, he left in a hurry.
After Xie Bin left, no one spoke in the hall.
Xie Liangcai coughed lightly and found a topic to ask the two Xie brothers: "When your mother is sick, which doctors did you call?"
What kind of famous doctors can be hired in a rural town? The ones on the left are just some doctors nearby who treat villagers.
However, according to Xie Xiu, in the past two days, Xie Bin specially asked someone to invite Hou Desheng, a famous doctor from Rugao, to come for diagnosis and treatment.
Langzhong Hou said that Aunt Xu He's illness was caused by wind evil invading the lungs. In addition to external symptoms, the lungs may have caused tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis was a disease that could not be cured in ancient times. Lin Daiyu in "A Dream of Red Mansions" suffered from this disease.
Xu He heard before that his aunt coughed up blood, which was indeed one of the symptoms of tuberculosis.
"Isn't there nothing that Mr. Hou can do?" Xu He asked.
Xie Xiu said with a sad expression: "Mr. Hou said that we should first take medicine to stop the progression of the disease, and then rest and eat more ginseng and deer antler, which is a great supplement! However, at home... we don't have the money to treat my mother. My father gave me the money that can help I’ve searched all over the place to borrow money, but I can’t get the money to pay for the medicine.”
Xu He really couldn't believe what Xie Xiu said.
Xie Bin still has an official status after all, but even he can't afford the money for medical treatment. Then wouldn't the common people have no choice but to wait to die?
But it makes sense to think about it, even a family like Lin Daiyu can only hang on to the illness. In the end, Xie Bin is just a small official at the township police station.
Thinking of this, Xu He quickly said: "You don't have to worry about money. Please quickly ask the doctor to come again to help diagnose and treat my aunt!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Liangcai said from the side: "Yes, as long as you can save your life, money is not an issue."
After speaking, he took out an ingot of silver from his arms, which was more than ten taels, and handed the silver to Xie Xiu.
Xie Xiu couldn't believe it and had to turn his head to look at Xu He.
Xu He nodded towards him: "We can't delay any longer. You take the money first. Brother Defu, here, wait for me to return the money to him when I get back."
When Xie Xiu heard this, he no longer dared to hesitate. He ran out and asked the old concierge to go to Rugao to invite Hou Desheng.
Tuberculosis is actually tuberculosis in later generations. Xu He suddenly remembered that the doors and windows in his uncle's room were closed, so he quickly asked Xie Lan to take a rag to cover his mouth and nose, and then went in and pushed the window for ventilation.
Xie Liangcai saw this and asked, "Xiaohe, what are you doing?"
Xu He said: "Tuberculosis can be transmitted from person to person, and the patient's room must be ventilated."
Speaking of this, he said to Xie Lan: "From now on, everyone entering and leaving your mother's room must cover their mouths and noses like me!"
Xie Lan is still young, but he is a clever child. Hearing this, he said: "I will prepare the cloth right now!"
After everything was arranged, a few people went to the drug store in the town to find some ginseng and came back.
Xu He wanted to buy a whole ginseng, but firstly, this small place didn't have it, and secondly, he didn't bring enough money.
If Xie Liangcai hadn't followed here, it would have been really difficult this time.
After returning home, Xie Xiu lit up the stove and boiled some ginseng water. Xu He personally brought it to his aunt's bed, pressed a spoon to her lips and poured it in.
At first, she took two sips but couldn't get it in. Later, when Xu He saw that this was not working, he asked Xie Xiu to help her mother to lie down half-lying. Then he opened her aunt's mouth and forcefully poured the ginseng water in.
It took me a while to finish feeding the water.
Xu He didn't know how effective it would be, but now he had the right to give it a try.
After all this work, it was already noon. Xu Peng and the others had prepared the meals, but Xie Bin, who had gone out, never came back.
Xie Xiu ran out to ask someone. After a while, he came back with a pale face.
"What's wrong?" Xu He asked.
Xie Xiu said: "In the entire water village, only the deputy inspector and two soldiers are left. The rest were all taken away by my father!"
"What happened?" Xu He frowned slightly, feeling that something big was about to happen.
It turned out that just in the morning, a salt farmer from the Dongtai Salt Farm brought the extra salt he secretly dried to the town in exchange for food.
Although the imperial court had repeatedly ordered salt workers not to sell surplus private salt, the salt workers were too hard-working and would steal some private salt every month in exchange for food.
It happened that this time a salt worker from Dongtai Salt Farm came to sell salt and saw the salt boat loading salt.
He hurried to the inspection department and found the deputy inspector on duty. He said that these days, there were no salt ships going out from the nearby salt field at all. Those ships just now were not salt transport ships from the salt field.
As soon as this statement came out, the deputy inspector was startled. The inspection department was responsible for catching thieves and generally would not inspect the Salt Division's ship because it was not within their business scope.
But if these ships are obviously not from the salt works, but are pretending to be salt transport ships, what exactly are they carrying?
It’s okay if it’s goods, but what about people?
Since the Taixing incident, the county has repeatedly issued orders to strictly inspect pedestrians passing by.
But who would have thought that there would be something fishy about the salt transport ships in the salt field?
If there were thieves in that boat, things would be serious.
So Xie Bin quickly ordered twenty soldiers to follow him.
