Chapter 4: Warming the Stomach and the Heart

The agreement was written, three copies in total, signed and sealed. One copy was given to the Lu family, one to Lu Zecheng, and one was kept by the village for record.

After the agreement was divided, Zhang Dahua immediately collected her things.

She was eager for this. Lu Da was now disabled and would no longer have an allowance. He was a burden. Now that she had finally gotten rid of him, she was overjoyed.

The Xia family was willing to take care of a cripple. She wouldn’t get involved with them. They were all fools.

“Don’t come looking for our family when you’re dragging a burden around and life gets hard,” Ma Dahua said with a malicious smile.

“Lu Zecheng was injured defending our country. Even if I have to take care of him for the rest of my life, I’m willing. His injuries are not a burden, but a testament to his selfless dedication as a soldier. They are a badge of honor for a soldier. I don’t despise him, I’m proud of him.”

Xia Ning’an’s words earned her the admiration of many villagers present.

“Xia Ya, you said it well. If you have any difficulties in the future, the village will do its best to help you,” the village head was the first to speak. He was truly impressed by this young girl.

The village head asked Lu’s second son to pack Lu Zecheng’s belongings and take them to the Xia family.

Xia Ninghao carried Lu Zecheng on his back, Xia Changhai carried the luggage, and the family returned home.

They arranged Lu Zecheng in Xia Ning’an’s older brother’s room. She looked at him, delirious with fever, and felt a little worried.

He must have been holding on to his last bit of consciousness during the division of the family. Now that it was over, he had fallen into a coma.

Xia Changhai asked Li Fang to quickly cook something. He would go and tell Lao Niutou to get the cart ready to take Lu Zecheng to the commune hospital for a check-up.

Xia Ning’an went into the room and poured a glass of warm water.

She entered the space and asked, “Xiaomiao, can I drink the tap water in the space directly?”

“Yes, the water quality has been improved. It tastes much better than the mineral water you used to drink, and it has powerful functions.” Xiaomiao’s arrogant voice sounded.

Xia Ning’an took a sip of the water. It did taste good, and it was a little sweet.

She decided to call this water “Farm Spring Water” from now on. It was a little sweet.

“Xiaomiao, how do I give Lu Zecheng the powerful healing agent in his current condition?”

“Just give him one-tenth of a person’s dose. Give it to him once every three days. When he finishes one person’s dose, his leg will be healed. With this dosage, his eyes should be healed in about a month.”

Xia Ning’an was only moderately satisfied with this time frame. It was still a bit too fast. She decided to delay it to two months.

The medicine in this era wasn’t as effective, and recovering too quickly would attract attention, especially since he was a soldier. The military would probably be monitoring his condition. Thinking about it, she should delay the healing of his eyes for a while. It would just mean taking care of him for a little longer.

She secretly put one-tenth of a person’s dose of the powerful healing agent into the water. She also found some fever medicine from the farm’s pharmacy and helped Lu Zecheng take it. He took the medicine in a daze and fell back asleep.

When Xia Changhai finished eating and was about to take him to the hospital, he found that his fever had subsided. He woke up as soon as he moved.

Seeing that he was in good condition, Xia Ning’an quickly said that when she came back, she saw that he was burning with fever, so she took the leftover fever medicine she had from her room and gave it to him.

Xia Changhai didn’t expect the medicine to be so effective. He guessed that it was because soldiers had strong physiques. He didn’t need to go to the hospital, but he should still call the village barefoot doctor to take a look.

The doctor came over and removed the gauze from his leg. He found that the wound was a little infected. He cleaned the pus, re-applied medicine, and bandaged it. He also re-applied medicine to his eyes and bandaged them. He prescribed some antibiotics.

Xia Changhai paid 2 yuan for the medical expenses and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, he heard the loud voice of his elder sister-in-law at the entrance of the courtyard, “Dahai’s family, are you home?”

Xia Ma heard her elder sister-in-law’s voice and quickly said, “Sister-in-law, you’re here. We’re all in the house. Why are you here at this time?”

Before she finished speaking, her elder sister-in-law had already pushed open the door and entered the courtyard.

“I heard you brought Lu Da back. I brought a chicken for him to replenish his body. Oh, that Lu family is really something else.”

Her elder sister-in-law carried an old hen into the courtyard, cursing the Lu family as she did.

Xia Ning’an saw that it was her elder sister-in-law and her granddaughter, Daya, who had come. She quickly went into the house and poured a glass of water for her elder sister-in-law.

Daya shyly hid behind her grandmother, calling out softly.

Xia Ning’an quickly took out a few candies from her pocket and gave them to the little girl.

“Daya, here’s some candy for you.”

“Thank you, Auntie,” Daya shyly took the candy and thanked her.

Xia Ning’an looked at the thin little girl with her big, timid eyes. She thought she was very cute and couldn’t help but reach out to touch her head. But her eyesight was too good. What was that bug crawling on the little girl’s head?

“Don’t touch her. There’s a bug on her head.”

She quickly reached out and took the bug off the little girl’s head. Her elder sister-in-law looked at it indifferently and said, “It’s nothing. She just has lice.”

Seeing her indifferent attitude, Xia Ning’an suddenly remembered that having lice seemed to be the norm in this era. She was making a fuss over nothing.

But she couldn’t blame herself. It was the first time she had seen lice in her two lifetimes.

Just thinking about it made her feel itchy all over.

Fearing that the little girl would be embarrassed, she quickly took out two colorful hair ties from her pocket and gave them to her. The little girl was immediately attracted to the pretty hair ties.

Her elder sister-in-law and Li Fang didn’t stay long before they left with Daya, as they had to go to work.

The Xia family also went to work, leaving only Xia Ning’an and Lu Zecheng at home.

Seeing that he wasn’t asleep yet, Xia Ning’an went to the kitchen and cooked him a bowl of egg noodles.

Earlier, the family had been busy eating and taking him to the hospital, so they had only eaten a simple meal. But Lu Zecheng was a patient, and he was still running a fever, so he couldn’t just eat a simple meal. He needed something easy to digest. Congee would take too long to cook.

Xia Ning’an used the water from the space to cook the noodles. This water was very good for slowly nourishing the body. She saw that there was only half a tank of water at home, so she directly took water from the space and filled the tank.

She carried the noodles in and helped him sit up. She moved the kang table next to him.

“Lu Zecheng, I’m your fiancée, Xia Ning’an. I’ll be taking care of you from now on until you recover. If you have any requests or thoughts, you can tell me. Don’t feel embarrassed.”

Lu Zecheng heard that beautiful voice again.

When she spoke up for him at the Lu family’s house, he had been wondering who that beautiful voice belonged to.

Her voice was clear and melodious, and her speech was concise and logical. It was very different from the girls he had known.

The girls he had known before spoke in a small voice, lacking confidence. But this voice was confident and energetic.

If she hadn’t introduced herself, he would have found it hard to connect this voice with the girl he knew before.

“Thank you for taking care of me. I’m causing you trouble. I don’t have any requests. I’m just a burden to you. When my leg heals, I’ll move out. Thank you for taking care of me during this time.”

He couldn’t burden such a good girl. The doctor said his retina was damaged and wouldn’t heal. He was a blind man, and he wasn’t worthy of her.

“Trust me, you’ll get better. Let’s eat first. Do you want to eat by yourself or do you want me to feed you?”

“Put the bowl on the table. I’ll eat by myself,” Lu Zecheng said, a little embarrassed.

“Okay!”

Xia Ning’an put the noodles on the table, pulled his hand to the edge of the bowl, and put the chopsticks in his other hand.

“I made noodles. There’s an egg in it. Eat slowly. I’ll go to the kitchen and boil some water. You can wash up later.”

Chapter 8: Warming the Stomach and the Heart

Xia Ning’an went to boil water. She was afraid that he would be embarrassed to eat there, so she deliberately said she was going to boil water for him.

She didn’t know that this bowl of noodles was the only meal Lu Zecheng had eaten since he returned home injured.

The bowl of noodles not only warmed his stomach but also his heart.

Since he returned home, the Lu family had ignored him after carrying him to the firewood shed. He had two flatbreads in his clothes from his journey back, and he had been eating one flatbread a day. He hadn’t had any water or food today. He was truly starving. Although he was very hungry, he ate the noodles carefully, trying not to spill the soup.

When Xia Ning’an brought the water in, Lu Zecheng had already finished the noodles. He was sitting at the table, a little dazed, not sure what he was thinking.

“Don’t think too much about it now. Get your body healthy first, then make plans.”

“Hmm.” He seemed to think his answer was inappropriate, so he added, “I wasn’t thinking about anything. And thank you.”

“You’re still thinking about it. You’ve said thank you so many times. Let me help you lie down. I’ll help you wash your hair and face. It’s easy to get water in your eyes if you sit up. Lie down, it’ll be easier for me to do it.”

“Okay.”

He was a man of few words. He seemed to be a cool guy.

She looked around and found that they didn’t have any soap for washing hair or bathing. It seemed that she would have to make some soap herself if she wanted to use it openly.

Xia Ning’an helped him lie down, with his head hanging over the edge of the kang. She moved a stool over, placed the basin on the stool, and moved it to the edge of the kang below his head. Then she took a shampoo with a faint fragrance and a towel from the farm’s supermarket and wiped his face and washed his hair.

After the second rinse, the foam was completely washed away. Xia Ning’an asked him to continue washing himself with water, telling him not to wash too many places. She would ask her second brother to help him take a bath at night.

After Lu Zecheng agreed, Xia Ning’an washed the noodle bowl, poured the boiled water into the thermos at home, cleaned up the kitchen, and came back to find that Lu Zecheng had already washed himself.

She poured out the water, washed the basin and towel, returned to the room, took out a hair dryer and dried his hair. She could use things from the space because he couldn’t see. Of course, she put everything back in the space after use. She helped him lie down and take a nap.

He was still very weak after the high fever.

Lu Zecheng, who had been in pain for several days, was now much more comfortable. As soon as his body relaxed, he felt sleepy and fell into a deep sleep.

She opened the cabinet. There were two quilts inside, which her older brother had used before. One was for winter and one was for spring and autumn. They didn’t need quilts in the summer. She took out the spring and autumn quilt and covered Lu Zecheng with it. Then she went out to the main room and saw that the old clock on the wall said it was three o’clock in the afternoon.

Xia Ning’an thought for a moment and decided to go to the river to catch fish. She would make fish for Lu Zecheng to replenish his nutrition at night.

Xia Changhai liked to fish, and their family had a lot of fishing gear. She could remember her father taking her fishing. The most common tool they used was this fishing net. It had a long stick with a semi-circular shape made of thick wire at the top. The edge of the wire was tied with a fishing net. They would just throw the net into the pond, press down on the head, and then move it close to the bottom of the water. Slowly, they would pull the net back, and the net would be full of fish. When she was younger, her father would take her with him, and she would hold a small bucket to pick up the fish. There were many small fish and shrimp in the river at this time. The villagers were reluctant to use oil, so the fish had a strong fishy smell, and everyone didn’t like to eat it. Most of the small fish and shrimp they caught were chopped up and fed to chickens and ducks, which made them lay eggs easily.

She went to the kitchen and found a handful of cornmeal. She mixed it with Farm Spring Water and made a few balls of cornmeal dough.

She carried the fishing net and a bucket and set off for the river.