Chapter 8 – A Man Breaking Marriage Vows with Another Man?

When he asked his subordinates if they had experienced the same symptoms, they all shook their heads and said they hadn’t.

Cao Qiuwang quickly went to the hospital to find a doctor to figure out what was going on. But when the doctor told him to take off his clothes and conducted an examination, he found nothing unusual. He told him it might be an allergy or something similar, gave him some pain relief medicine, and dismissed him.

Cao Qiuwang used the pain relief, but it was completely ineffective. His body still itched unbearably. In just a few hours, he had scratched himself raw, and fluid had already begun to ooze from his skin.

All of this, of course, was the work of Lin Banxia.

Who told this Cao Qiuwang to dare look at her with such perverted eyes, and even make advances on her?

He must have gotten tired of living!

As a master of traditional Chinese medicine, was there anything wrong with her developing some “anti-pervert weapons” while healing others?

Whoever offended her—she would make them pay.

Of course, this kind of itch powder wasn’t deadly. It would only make the person itch so badly they’d want to tear their skin off. The symptoms would disappear after three days, but by then, there would hardly be an intact patch of skin left on the body.

Let Cao Qiuwang enjoy these three days to the fullest!

⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆

“Banxia, I really do feel much better after you gave me the acupuncture. The headaches I had the past few days are gone.” Uncle Liu said in surprise, praising Lin Banxia several times in a row.

“If I had known we had a miracle doctor living next door, I wouldn’t have bothered going to the hospital for those medicines. They’re bitter and completely useless.”

Lin Banxia smiled faintly. For treating cerebral infarctions, traditional Chinese medicine was indeed more effective than Western medicine—especially since recovery after a stroke relied heavily on proper care and nourishment. Solely relying on Western drugs only treated the symptoms, not the root cause.

Even decades into the future, Western medicine would still be the same in this regard—let alone in the 1970s.

“Uncle Liu, this illness needs careful recovery. For the time being, I’ll give you and my father acupuncture every day. I’ll also prescribe an herbal remedy. Aunt Chen, please go to the herbal pharmacy with my prescription and have it filled. One dose a day, decoct and drink it.” Lin Banxia instructed.

Aunt Chen immediately agreed and turned to Xu Minzhi beside her, saying: “Minzhi, your family’s Professor Gu has the same condition as our Old Liu. I’ll just get two portions of the medicine while I’m there, so you won’t have to make another trip.”

Since Lin Banxia had treated her Old Liu, she naturally wanted to return the favor.

But Lin Banxia reminded her: “Aunt Chen, even though my father and Uncle Liu both have cerebral infarctions, their physical conditions are completely different. The herbal prescriptions I gave them are entirely separate.”

That was the cautious nature of traditional Chinese medicine.

“Oh, I see. If you hadn’t said so, I really wouldn’t have known.” Aunt Chen replied with a smile. She then took out the money she had prepared earlier, wrapped in a red envelope, and handed it to Lin Banxia.

“Banxia, this is your consultation fee. We truly owe you for this. It’s not much, so don’t look down on it.”

Xu Minzhi gave Lin Banxia a look, signaling her to accept it.

There was nothing shameful about accepting payment for treatment. Lin Banxia accepted it openly and without hesitation.

If she didn’t charge at least a small consultation fee, before long, anyone with a headache or fever would come looking for her and assume it was her duty to help—that would be far more troublesome.

Aunt Chen then recalled the gossip she had heard that morning. Lowering her voice, she said: “Did you hear about what happened this morning?”

“What happened?” Lin Banxia and Xu Minzhi asked in unison.

“They said someone saw a few naked men over by the abandoned factory this morning, all tangled up together… looked like they were breaking marriage vows. I’ve only ever heard of men and women breaking marriage vows. Tell me, how do a bunch of men break marriage vows? I even heard there was blood—oh, just the thought of it gives me chills…” Aunt Chen whispered.

Xu Minzhi inhaled sharply and broke out in goosebumps.

That was outrageous!

But as soon as Lin Banxia heard this, she immediately guessed that Aunt Chen was referring to Chen Junming and his group. Judging by the gossip, last night’s battle must’ve been especially intense.

“Banxia, now that Shiqing is back, if you have to go out, make sure he goes with you. Just in case you run into any strange people.” Xu Minzhi quickly instructed.

Her daughter-in-law was so pretty—she had to be protected well.

Little did she know that this entire incident had been orchestrated and drugged by none other than her own daughter-in-law.

Hearing Xu Minzhi’s words, Lin Banxia nodded in complete agreement. “Mm, Mom, you’re right. That’s way too scary.”

⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆

After leaving the Liu family home, Lin Banxia opened the red envelope. Inside—fifty yuan!

Fifty yuan was a considerable amount for this era. Even someone like Uncle Liu, a senior worker, only earned fifty to sixty yuan a month. Ordinary workers only made twenty to thirty.

When Aunt Chen said: “It’s not much, don’t mind it.” she had expected just a few yuan.

When she got back home, Xu Minzhi said to her: “Banxia, you must be tired today. Go rest in the room and take a nap.”

Lin Banxia had always had the habit of taking afternoon naps. She was indeed feeling drowsy now, so she answered with a soft hum and turned around to push the door open and enter the room.

As the door shut with a “bang.” Lin Banxia’s eyes landed on Gu Shiqing—who was wearing nothing but a pair of pants and rummaging through the wardrobe for clothes.

Hearing the noise, Gu Shiqing’s movements paused. He instinctively turned around and met Lin Banxia’s gaze head-on.

He had just finished his shower. His hair was still damp and dripping with water. As he moved, droplets rolled from his hair onto his chest, then slid downward—tracing over his firm, muscular torso—before finally evaporating just above his lower abdomen.

Tsk, that body… casually crushed half the thirst-trap men on that one video app.

“Ahem.” Realizing what Lin Banxia was staring at, Gu Shiqing gave an awkward cough.

Luckily, he finally found one of his few shirts in the corner drawer of the wardrobe. He grabbed one at random and quickly put it on.

Seeing how fast he threw on his clothes, Lin Banxia couldn’t help but feel speechless.

It was just a few exposed abs—what was the big deal? It wasn’t like he’d shown anything inappropriate. They had been married for so long—was there a need to act shy like a young bride?

But on second thought, the original Lin Banxia and Gu Shiqing hadn’t actually been a real couple in the physical sense.

Back then, Gu Shiqing had been forced into marrying that Lin Banxia. After they got married, he never touched her. And soon after, he left for the military. The two had been living apart ever since.

No wonder Gu Shiqing was embarrassed.

Seeing this, Lin Banxia actually felt like teasing him. She deliberately said: “Your muscles are pretty well built. They look strong.”

Gu Shiqing: “……”

He began fastening his buttons more quickly, but in his haste, his movements became clumsy and took even longer than usual.

Seeing that he wasn’t responding, Lin Banxia continued: “Don’t be so nervous. I don’t mean anything by it. It’s just that your figure really is the best I’ve ever seen on a man. I was just admiring it a little.”

She wasn’t being inappropriate—she was simply appreciating something beautiful!

Gu Shiqing’s hands froze. He looked at Lin Banxia and frowned deeply. “You’ve seen other men’s bodies?”