Ms. Liu was holding the ladder below and wiping her tears, "If your cruel father was still here, why would my son do such a dangerous thing..."
Wang Xiucai stayed indoors studying all year round and did not like to move his muscles. He was already weak and had never worked. He climbed up the ladder, his hands and feet trembling, his face pale.
This ladder was bought by his father. It has been five or six years and it is already shaky. In addition, it was freezing cold at night, making it difficult to see, and it started to snow. He accidentally slipped down the ladder without paying attention.
"boom--"
"ah--"
"My son!"
"Ms. sir!"
From Wang Xiucai's yard, first a shrill scream resounded through the quiet street, and then the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were at a loss as they looked at their son/husband-in-law who fell to the ground. They could only wipe their tears and did not dare to touch him.
Wang Xiucai was sweating profusely and felt that his leg seemed to be broken. He yelled at Liniang, "Hurry up and call the doctor!"
"Oh, yes, sir, I'll go right away!" Liniang came to her senses in panic and hurried to the hospital to knock on the door.
There is a doctor sleeping behind the hospital in case anyone gets sick during the night. You can go to see a doctor, but the consultation fee will be doubled.
Doctor Zheng was on duty today. He got dressed, walked out, and saw a scholar.
On a cold day, even a grown man like him felt his hands and feet were freezing, but the scholar's wife was wearing thin clothes and her face was blue. She was obviously very cold and wanted her to drink hot water first.
Liniang could still drink. She ignored the etiquette and pulled the doctor with tears streaming down her face. "Doctor, my husband-in-law slipped from the ladder! His legs hurt so much. Please help me!"
Dr. Zheng was surprised. Sweeping snow at night? No matter what, he brought the medicine box and the wooden board. My leg hurts, maybe it's broken.
When he arrived in a mule cart, Wang Xiucai was still lying in the cold snow. The scholar's mother did not dare to move. She only held an old oil-paper umbrella to protect him from the snow, and did not put a quilt underneath.
Dr. Zheng quickly asked his assistants to help carry the person into the room and put him on the bed. The person was shivering from the cold.
He frowned, wondering why these two people didn't know how to take care of others, "Xiu Cainiang, please go and boil a kettle of hot water."
Mrs. Liu ignored the presence of outsiders and scolded, "Go quickly! Are you going to freeze my son to death?"
Before Liniang's hands and feet could recover, she ran to boil water again.
After the examination, Dr. Zheng Xiao said, "The bruises and swelling on the body don't matter, just apply some medicine. It's just that the scholar's leg is broken, and it needs to be fixed with a board to make it easier to give birth. It will be cured in four or five months."
Mrs. Liu exclaimed, her eyes were swollen from crying, my son is suffering! If the evil neighbor next door hadn't cursed him, how could he have encountered such a thing?
When Dr. Zheng saw that they were only looking after the patient, he asked, "Do you want to cure this disease?"
"Treat! Of course!"
"Get the medicine first, and drink two doses of medicine every day. You need to put ointment on your legs. It will heal quickly. This ointment needs to be replaced every five days. Including the wooden boards for leggings, the total cost of the doctor's visit is 5 taels of silver."
"What? So expensive?" The price was like a bolt from the blue, leaving Ms. Liu stunned.
Doctor Zheng frowned, saying this as if they were blackmailing people. What is not expensive in the city nowadays? Their medical center has begun to run out of medicinal materials.
"To take good care of his leg, he must use good medicine, otherwise he will be lame. If he doesn't want to be treated, that's fine. Just pay the two hundred cents for tonight's consultation."
"Treat! I want to cure!" Wang Xiucai looked pale, lying on the bed, his voice was hoarse, and he held his mother's hand tightly.
This must be cured. His leg is lame and his appearance is damaged. How can he take the imperial examination? Doesn't this ruin his future?
Mrs. Liu is also anxious and must be cured.
She stared at Liniang.
Liniang's heart tightened, what does this mean?
Mrs. Liu asked Dr. Zheng to wait for a while, then pulled Liniang into her room and talked for a long time.
When Dr. Zheng became impatient, the two came out. Liniang bit her lips and her eyes were red.
Mrs. Liu looked happy and gave Dr. Zheng a broken silver corner and two silver bracelets.
He accepted it, but sighed in his heart, what a sin. This bracelet should be the little lady's dowry.
Men who use their wives as dowries are the most despised. But when it came to life and death, he couldn't say anything. Everyone has his own life.
The commotion at Wang Xiucai's house was so loud that it added a lot of jokes to the quiet street. Unfortunately, their family members rarely go out anymore and only treat illnesses at home. The strong smell of medicine wafts out every day.
Half a month later, seven or eight people, old and young, men and women, came to the scholar's door. Not only were those people banging on the door loudly, but their voices were also rough, and they called all the neighbors out to watch the fun.
Liniang heard the sound first, and Liu opened the door before she could stop her.
When Liniang saw them for the first time, she was frightened by how fierce they looked. She turned to look at her mother-in-law, but she didn't know that the other person's face was paler than hers.
When those people saw the door open, they pushed Liniang aside and squeezed in.
"Hey, who are you, and why are you barging in?!"
The old lady who took the lead sneered, "I am Wen'er's mother, he is Wen'er's father, these are his uncles and cousins, who do you think we are?"
After saying that, she glanced at the eldest daughter-in-law and said, "We are going to live here, so hurry up and clean up the house."
Then he went into the main room by himself, while others were running around and groping around, "This big blue brick house with tiles is so nice! It won't collapse under the weight of snow like our house!"
"I want to live in this room!"
Liniang was still confused as to why a bunch of relatives she didn't know came here. Then when she saw someone entering her husband's study, she rushed to stop them.
But Mrs. Liu was still standing there, her hands and feet were cold, and her heart was sinking, as if she had returned to the days when she was beaten by her mother-in-law in the countryside...
The neighborhood next door was "busy", but Jiang Yue's life was quite peaceful here. The food in the space has been harvested and dried, and another batch has been planted.
Jiangnian's task was to pound rice and grind flour, and use wheat bran to feed the mules. Since she had no tools to store grain, she also made a homemade rice barn out of wood.
Old Mrs. Wang looked at the porridge with few grains of rice in the bowl, her face darkened, "This porridge is thinner than what we have in the countryside!"
Ms. Liu shook her head, touched her hands that had frostbite after washing clothes for only five days, and lowered her head, "We can't buy food in the city, and we spent all the money on Wen'er's treatment, and there is no money left. .”
Before the old lady could get angry, she added, "We have more people to eat, unlike our neighbors next door, who only have two people and more rooms than we can live in. Not only do we have food, but we also have the meat of a whole pig."
Mrs. Wang's grandson rushed to say, "I ran to their corner and listened, and there was the sound of sheep!"
"There are also chickens! Chickens crow every day!"
Old Mrs. Wang's saliva was almost drooling. She rolled her cloudy eyes and had an idea.
