Before going to where Su Mulan and the others lived, Xu Huaigu took the little girl back to the Chen Mansion to get some medicinal materials.
This was Shen Hanguang's personal order. After Xu Huaigu told Butler Shi, Butler Shi quickly returned with the medicinal materials, and then Xu Huaigu and Su Mulan walked back together.
Passing through the criss-crossing alleys, the two of them took twists and turns in the huge Hemen City. Su Mulan walked in front, still holding the bowl of porridge carefully, looking obviously very nervous and not daring to say a word.
Xu Huaigu was depressed and not in the mood to talk, so the two of them walked in silence. Finally, they came to a dilapidated house near the outskirts of the city.
Xu Huaigu took a quick look and saw that although it was dilapidated, the house was indeed quite large and there should be many refugees living there.
There were several uniformed officers and soldiers at the door of the house who were busy using stretchers to carry something from inside the house to a carriage outside.
Xu Huaigu glanced attentively. There was a human figure on the stretcher, but it was covered with a white cloth. The style of the carriage was exactly the same as the carriage transporting dead people he saw at the city gate when he entered the city. It seemed that someone in the house had died of the epidemic again.
Su Mulan stopped and turned to Xu Huaigu and said: "People die every day in this house because of the epidemic. They come to check every morning. I have seen many. Brother, please give me the medicinal materials. It's not safe, you'd better not go in." Xu Huaigu shook his head slightly and said seriously: "It's okay, I'm not afraid of getting sick. By the way, my surname is Xu, you can call me Brother Xu." Su Mulan could only nod and said: " Okay, Brother Xu." Xu Huaigu slowly walked into the house following her footsteps.
When passing by the door, he took a look into the carriage transporting the dead. There were about eight or nine pieces of white cloth inside, some of which were speckled with bits of blood, which looked a bit scary.
The officers and soldiers responsible for transporting the dead complained and drove the carriage away in a hurry. Although the house looks big, there are more disaster victims living inside.
Some are with families, and some are alone. There are not that many rooms to allocate, so they are often separated by a rag or a broken cabinet, creating two spaces for two families to live in.
Xu Huaigu counted and found that five families could live in one living room. Although there were many people, there were not many voices. Xu Huaigu could only hear the sound of dead coughs and see empty and blank eyes.
There is no hope for the people living here. Most of them are sick and just struggling on the precipice of death.
Xu Huaigu was a little doubtful for a moment, whether the government deliberately gathered all these sick people here, just waiting for them to all die and burn down the house in this hell with a fire.
But Su Mulan and her mother are not sick, but if they continue like this, they will get sick sooner or later.
Xu Huaigu frowned and had to find a way to take them out and find another place to live.
"Mom, I'm back." Su Mulan walked to a dark corner of a small room and handed the porridge carefully held in her hand to her mother.
The woman's face was familiar. Xu Huaigu had seen her in the drug store before.
"Why is it cold!" The woman gave her a hard look, and the hand that took the porridge shook angrily.
"Your brother is already sick, how can he drink cold food! The porridge will be cold next time, so don't come back again, get out of here!"
"Mom, I'm sorry. I took a long detour today, so the porridge is cold. But I found some medicinal materials, and I'm going to make some medicine for my brother now." Su Mulan felt aggrieved, and immediately pulled Xu Huaigu's sleeves and walked out of the room. went.
From the beginning to the end, the woman's eyes were always on the white quilt in her arms, never leaving.
Even when Xu Huaigu walked into the room with her daughter, she didn't ask a word about Xu Huaigu, as if nothing in the world existed except that quilt.
"Life is too hard, so my mother's temper is a little strange. Don't be surprised." Su Mulan explained for her and walked out of the room and walked to the earthen pot where the medicine was cooked.
There are only a few places in this house where you can cook medicine, and everyone can use them together. In fact, not many people can get medicine in such a situation, so the earthen pot for decoction is quite free.
She lit a fire, took out a crumpled prescription, and held it in front of her eyes, carefully trying to distinguish the words.
One coin for Atractylodes, two coins for lily, one coin for Fritillaria, one coin for Poria... Xu Huaigu handed her the medicines blindly. She put her face close to her and carefully added them into the earthen pot, fearing that they would fall to the ground.
"Mulan, where did you get this medicine?" Xu Huaigu looked towards the source of the voice and saw a short and fat woman asking her.
Her eyes seemed to light up a little when she saw the steaming medicine in the jar.
"Go back to Aunt Li, a kind lady gave it to me."
"Kind Madam?" The woman glanced at Xu Huaigu beside her suspiciously, sneered and stopped talking.
Xu Huaigu knew exactly what the woman was thinking. More whispering sounds came from the distance: "That little bitch from the Su family is really a born fox. She hooked up with a man from nowhere and even got some medicine for her dead brother. What a waste! Look at her horrible appearance, and she doesn't even urinate to look at herself. I wonder if that man is blind or something."
"That's right, their family is so weird. There's a lunatic, a dead man, and a half-dead one. Don't associate with them in the future."
"Haha, it's just that you are jealous when you see someone else with the medicine. Who is not a dying person? You are not ashamed to say that you are like a golden branch and a jade leaf!"
"Damn bitch, who are you talking about! Did I offend you? You are sick!"
"Hey, you're talking like no one is sick?"
"Then you will die first, you dead whore!"
"Who are you calling a whore? You are the damn slut, and so is your whole family!" The bickering ended, and then came the sound of a fight.
Xu Huaigu looked at Su Mulan who was decoction. She was carefully controlling the heat. Her eyes didn't move. She probably didn't hear the distant noises.
When people are desperate, all their bad habits will show up. It's hard to say how bad they are. Maybe before the floods came in, when everyone could find their own place, they were just ordinary families with men farming and women weaving, living their small lives.
But now, everything has changed. After all, it's still the rain's fault. Fortunately, the rain has stopped. I believe that Master Bai He will soon have a cure for the disease, and everything will be on track again.
I just hope that day comes soon so that fewer people will die. The medicine was still churning, but Su Mulan's mother was heard shouting her name over there.
Su Mulan heard this and hurried over to find her mother, with Xu Huaigu following behind her. Walking to the room where her mother was staying, Xu Huaigu saw that her mother was carefully taking a wooden spoon and slowly feeding her child porridge, but of course the child couldn't drink it, and the soup flowed from the corners of his cold mouth.
The woman took a rag and wiped it anxiously for him, and then fed him porridge again until the porridge bowl reached the bottom and she didn't take a bite.
Su Mulan had seen this scene many times. She was already numb and asked: "Mom, what's the matter?" The woman said eagerly: "Hurry up and bring your brother's medicine. The doctor said he just has a cold." That’s all, just drink a few drinks and take some medicine.”
"Yes, mother." Su Mulan ran to cook the medicine again, but when she passed by, she was stunned.
The earthen pot for decoction was knocked over to the ground, and the medicinal materials and soup were scattered all over the floor, steaming like mist.
Su Mulan was so distressed that she hurried to pick up the jar, but the jar was so hot that she not only didn't pick it up, she also burned her hands.
The short and fat woman next to her said in a joking tone: "Just when you were leaving, a big mouse ran over and knocked it over in one fell swoop." After that, she glanced at Xu Huaigu, her eyes There was a hint of unspeakable pride in her, as if Xu Huaigu and Su Mulan had been defeated by her.
Xu Huaigu was a little angry. If it had been before, he wouldn't have had to show off his sword to show this woman some color.
But now, he didn't take action. After all, although this woman is hateful, she will not die, and she still has to take Su Mulan's feelings into consideration.
If Xu Huaigu draws his sword, there will definitely be blood. Su Mulan stared at the earthen pot on the ground for a long time, then squatted down and covered her face and started crying.
Xu Huaigu walked to the earthen pot, took off the sword from his waist and put it aside. Then he sat down on the ground, picked up the earthen pot, lit the fire again, and took out some medicinal materials and put them in to fry.
He said calmly: "Don't cry, it's okay. I'll fry another one for you. If the medicine is not enough, I'll help you get it again, and you won't miss this one." Su Mulan still covered her face and sobbed softly. The short and fat woman next to him looked at Xu Huaigu with wide eyes.
Xu Huaigu ignored her and didn't even look at her. Perhaps Xu Huaigu's indifferent expression annoyed her, and the woman suddenly sneered and said, "I think you don't know the situation in her family at all. Her brother is already dead, and her mother is also a lunatic. In his case, Why are you wasting medicine on your body? I advise you to get out of this house as soon as possible, go to where you belong, and stay out of here!" Su Mulan's cries that had just subsided became heavier again, and she was so heart-wrenching.
Xu Huaigu's face remained calm, he took out the sword from its scabbard, put it flat on his knees, and said softly: "Just say another thing and try." The woman's expression suddenly became panicked, and she shouted loudly: "What are you going to do? Killing requires a life!" Xu Huaigu shook his head and said: "Anyway, getting sick is a death, and being killed by a sword is also a death. Do you think the officers and soldiers who come to collect the corpses tomorrow morning will care? What's more, if I killed them, they will only be more open-minded. Just close one eye. If I were you, I would keep my mouth shut." The woman seemed to be really frightened by Xu Huaigu, and she suddenly became silent and did not dare to speak.
Xu Huaigu put the sword back into its scabbard and continued to cook the medicine. Su Mulan still covered her face. Although she stopped crying, she still did not raise her head.
Xu Huaigu sighed, comforted her softly and said: "Don't feel guilty, you have done a good job. In fact, I know everything about your mother and your brother. I saw them both last time in the drug store. . I just feel sorry for you and have suffered too much." The medicine in the jar was boiling and steaming, gurgling, gurgling, as if it was muttering something in a language that no one could understand.
Xu Huaigu lowered his face and blew gently into the stove, which made the fire burn even brighter.
