Chapter 19: The Woman Who Had an Abortion Is Really Bold

Jiang Nian counted, there were about a dozen children.

“Are you all from the same village?”

“Three of us are from the same village, the others are not, but there are still children in our village who need deworming medicine. Their families don’t have time to come now, they will come in a couple of days when they have time.”

After understanding the situation, Jiang Nian said, “Okay, you have to prepare the deworming medicine one by one and then boil it one by one, which is very troublesome. Why don’t you go back first, count how many children in your village need deworming medicine, and then have the village head come here to register and get the medicine. This way, you can boil the medicine and let all the children drink a bowl, which will save me the trouble of you coming back and forth.”

“Then our trip was in vain?” It wasn’t easy to come all this way, and some people were unhappy.

Jiang Nian said, “One dose of deworming medicine costs one dime, ten doses cost only five dimes, the larger the amount, the cheaper it is. You decide for yourselves. If anyone wants to take a single dose, you can, but I don’t have much medicine here, I estimate it’s only enough for ten people. If you want to take a large amount, come back in two days. I’ll be taking a day off tomorrow, not seeing patients, I need to prepare the medicine. Those who need deworming medicine the day after tomorrow can come.”

“Oh, okay!” When it came to money, people started to haggle. “Then we’ll come back the day after tomorrow, count all the children in the village, and save a lot of money.”

“That’s right.”

Most of the people with children left, leaving about a dozen people in the yard.

“Let’s start seeing patients. Everyone line up, one by one. That’s it for today. Go back and tell everyone that if it’s not an emergency, you don’t have to come so early in the future. We’ll start seeing patients after six o’clock.”

They had been up for half a day, but the sky was still foggy. Who could stand getting up so early every day?

The first patient was the woman with a stomachache. She said that her period had been going on for more than ten days and hadn’t stopped yet. The flow was not heavy, but it was not clean. It had increased yesterday, and she had even passed blood clots. She had heard that Jiang Nian was starting to see patients today, so she endured another night and came over, just to save some money.

Jiang Nian observed her condition and took her pulse.

Good heavens, this wasn’t her period, this was clearly a miscarriage.

As for the blood clots she passed yesterday, it was probably the undeveloped baby!

Jiang Nian quickly asked her to lie down, closed the door, and pressed on her abdomen to help her expel the dirty things in her belly.

This woman was really bold, she had a miscarriage and thought it was her period. She was in so much pain, and she came all this way alone, without even a companion.

Jiang Nian prescribed some medicine for her, and didn’t let her leave. Da Wang ran over to watch the fun, and she pulled him over to watch the fire and boil the medicine, letting the woman drink the medicine and observe her before going back.

Several elderly people had backaches and leg pains. The severe ones were given acupuncture, and the less severe ones were given plasters to apply themselves. Some people had been coughing for two months and hadn’t gotten better, and some people had diarrhea with blood but were still enduring it.

In short, as long as they could save money, they could still hold on as long as they had breath.

This also showed how difficult life was for the poor.

As the people in front left, more people came. There were few people from the village itself, because the people from other villages were far away, and they didn’t need to see a doctor for some of the minor ailments they had accumulated over the years, so they tacitly saw the outsiders first.

Jiang Nian thought that the herbs she had prepared would last for a while, but she didn’t expect that they would run out in a day. Several kinds of herbs were gone, and she used up all the herbs in her space that were processed and ready to use.

The woman who had a miscarriage was the last to leave. After drinking the medicine, she lay down on the bed that Jiang Nian had specially prepared for patients and slept for a while. When she woke up, she felt much better. There was a lot of dirty stuff coming out from below, and her stomach didn’t hurt as much.

But thinking that she had a miscarriage and didn’t even know it, she couldn’t help but feel sad.

She had been too busy recently. When her stomach started to hurt, she didn’t take it seriously. Because she had always had dysmenorrhea, she had been in pain for several days, and she only thought that this time was more severe than usual, but she didn’t expect it to be so serious.

Jiang Nian asked her to finish the medicine and come back for a follow-up appointment before letting her leave.

Looking at her harvest for the past half day, she had earned about two yuan in consultation fees, as well as some grains, eggs… She had given acupuncture to a few people with minor ailments without charging them.

It was just too tiring.

She hoped that there wouldn’t be so many people tomorrow. She wasn’t short of money or food and clothing. If she kept this up, she would be exhausted to death.

Who could understand that the once cold and proud heir of the Poison Doctor Valley, someone who countless people had spent their fortunes to seek a single treatment from, was now working like a cow or a horse in this small mountain village, even treating people for minor ailments like colds and fevers?

She had to treat them with all her heart and soul, and not for money.

If her old man knew, he would definitely laugh her to death. She was really getting more and more decadent.

However, thinking about how those people thanked her profusely, it didn’t seem so bad.

Taking advantage of the fact that there were few people during mealtime, she quickly went up the mountain with her backpack.

The herbs that could be planted in the Poison Doctor Valley were all extremely precious varieties. These common herbs could only be dug up in the mountains.

On the outskirts of the mountain slope, she saw the little girl who picked mushrooms again. Her thin and frail body was carrying firewood taller than her. Every step she took gave the impression that she was about to be crushed.

“You can leave the firewood for the next trip. Doing heavy work that exceeds your body’s capacity for a long time is like overdrawing your body. Besides, you’re not old yet, you’re still growing. This will make you more easily exhausted.”

Zhou Xiaoju paused, “But carrying it twice will waste a lot of time. I still have to cut grass to feed the pigs and chickens. We don’t have much food at home, so I have to take advantage of the fact that there are many wild vegetables now to dry more vegetables for winter. There are many things to do.”

“What about your family?”

Jiang Nian felt that she might have touched a sore spot, because a look of sorrow flashed in the little girl’s eyes.

But it only lasted for a moment, and then she became firm again, “My father doesn’t want us anymore. My grandmother is paralyzed in bed, and my grandfather is also old. The whole family is supported by my mother alone. I have to help her.”

It was such a strange thing.

“Your father ran away, your mother raised you because of maternal love, but she also has to shoulder the responsibility for your grandparents. What does she think?”

Zhou Xiaoju didn’t know what her mother thought. Every time she talked about it, she would break down. She said that she didn’t want to leave her siblings, so she didn’t want to leave this home. She said that no one cared about her or understood her.

She also always felt that she and her brother were a burden to her mother.

Zhou Xiaoju didn’t want to see her mother suffer so much. She finally mustered up the courage to let her find her own happiness, but her mother broke down and said that she would even drive her away!

She felt that her mother might not have stayed for her and her brother, but because she was unwilling to be abandoned like this, unwilling to have given her youth and have nothing to show for it, and be driven away like this, so she was clinging on to life and had to stay.

Seeing Zhou Xiaoju’s stunned look, Jiang Nian didn’t stay long. Seeing that the other party was somewhat to her liking, she reminded her to take care of her health, advising her from a doctor’s perspective that if she continued like this, she would eventually wear her body down.

This time, Jiang Nian was very serious about collecting herbs. Besides what was in her backpack and what she was carrying in her hands, there was also a lot in her space.

These common herbs were not difficult to find, they grew in large patches in the deep mountains and forests, but it was quite time-consuming to collect them, especially the processing and drying after they were brought back. If you weren’t careful, they were prone to mold and insects.

She didn’t stop until late at night.

She grabbed a wild chicken from her space, skillfully skinned it, chopped it up, and threw it into the pot to stew. This was the simplest way to cook it.

Not far away, Pomegranate sniffed her nose and said, “Doctor Jiang is eating meat again.”