Chapter 14: Applying Medicine

Grandma Bai brought a lot of medicine—bottles and jars piled high.

“Go fetch a bucket of water from the backyard well,” Qin Zheng said as soon as he put down the medicine, but Grandma Bai immediately had him go get water.

Qin Zheng came back with water along with a towel and a flashlight.

“The candlelight is too dim. Use this to treat her,” Qin Zheng handed the flashlight to Grandma Bai.

Grandma Bai took the flashlight, turned it on, positioned it just right, and carefully examined the wounds on Tang Wan’s body. When she saw the injuries on Tang Wan’s face, her heart ached.

“I’ll find you the best medicine to make sure no scars are left on your face,” she promised.

While speaking, Grandma Bai rummaged through the pile of medicine, muttering complaints about Qin Zheng.

“What exactly happened?” she asked.

“It’s partly my fault and Dongzi’s. I’ll explain everything to you later. For now, just focus on her wounds. Dongzi is still waiting for me up on the mountain—I’m going to get him down,” Qin Zheng said with a heavy voice.

“Go ahead,” Grandma Bai replied, focused on carefully cleaning Tang Wan’s wounds without paying more attention to Qin Zheng.

After Qin Zheng left, only Tang Wan and Grandma Bai remained.

“Thank you for your trouble, Grandma,” Tang Wan said, her face pale. The medicine stung when applied.

“Bear with it. It hurts a bit when it’s first applied, but the medicine is good—it won’t leave scars. A girl’s face is very important,” Grandma Bai said seriously as she applied the medicine.

Besides the face, there were also wounds on Tang Wan’s arm and hand.

“What happened? How did you get all these wounds out of nowhere?” Grandma Bai looked at the injuries on Tang Wan’s palm with concern.

Half her palm was covered in dried blood, and yet the girl hadn’t made a sound.

“I ran into wild boars. These injuries are from dodging them—I don’t know exactly what I bumped into,” Tang Wan forced a smile.

Feeling Grandma Bai’s concern, she didn’t want to worry her more than necessary.

“What!” Grandma Bai immediately got anxious when she heard about the wild boar. “Did the boar hit you? Are you hurt anywhere? If a wild boar hits you, it’s serious. It might even break bones. Let me see when you take off your clothes.”

Grandma Bai was really worried. A wild boar’s impact could easily break bones, and seeing Tang Wan’s battered state, she was afraid she might have been seriously hurt.

“No, it just charged at me and knocked me around a bit. My arm aches,” Tang Wan reassured her.

“I’ll check you and massage you with some medicated oil later,” Grandma Bai said, still uneasy. The force of a wild boar could throw a person far away—being ‘knocked around’ was no small matter.

After finishing treating the visible wounds, Grandma Bai examined Tang Wan’s arm carefully. Once she confirmed no bones were affected, she relaxed.

“Your ankle sprain is quite severe. You probably won’t be able to work for several days. You should rest well these days,” Grandma Bai said, pointing to Tang Wan’s swollen ankle.

“Okay, then I won’t work for a few days,” Tang Wan obediently replied.

Seeing how well-behaved Tang Wan was, Grandma Bai’s mood improved a little.

This girl wasn’t trying to be tough or stubborn. Good.

Tang Wan looked at her foot, wrapped up like a dumpling, feeling a bit worried but also somewhat glad.

Glad because now she had a legitimate reason to skip work.

Tang Wan didn’t have strong resistance to working, but she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic either. She had enough property to last years, no need to prove herself by working hard.

But such feelings must not be shown—sending educated youth to the countryside was to support rural construction. Showing this kind of mindset now would be very bad.

Now Tang Wan had a legitimate reason not to work, but one problem remained: her injured foot made walking very difficult.

No one at the youth camp could take care of her, so she guessed she’d have to stay in bed for a few days.

Grandma Bai noticed the expression on Tang Wan’s face but thought Tang Wan was worried about not being able to return to the youth camp because of her injury.

“Don’t worry. You’ll stay at my house tonight. Later I’ll tell the youth camp that your foot is injured and you can’t walk. You’ll stay with me for a few days,” Grandma Bai said, patting Tang Wan’s hand to reassure her.

“That won’t do. I’d better go back to the youth camp. Staying here would be too much trouble for you,” Tang Wan truly felt this way.

In these times, not only was food scarce, but other things were also tight. Though the Qin family had many houses, there weren’t always enough beds. Staying here would be troublesome.

“What trouble? You’re like this already; it’s not good for you to go back. Grandma’s house has everything—clean sheets and blankets. If you’re not used to it, I can bring your things over when I go to the youth camp,” Grandma Bai said.

Tang Wan still shook her head, refusing. She really didn’t want to bother others.

“Tomorrow you need your wounds dressed again. If you go back, I’d have to make the trip to the youth camp and back to change your medicine. To save myself the trouble, just stay here,” Grandma Bai said persuasively, giving Tang Wan no room to refuse.

What Grandma Bai said made sense. Tang Wan also felt bad asking her to go back and forth.

“All right, then I’ll trouble you,” Tang Wan said, a little embarrassed.

“It’s nothing. A Zheng is often not home. If you stay here, you can keep me company,” Grandma Bai smiled, packing away the medicine.

“I’m going to the youth camp to get your things now,” Grandma Bai said, flashlight in hand, and went out.

Tang Wan sat alone in the Qin family’s main room, feeling unreal. She had just brushed with death, and now, muddled, she was staying here.

But no matter what, Grandma Bai was very kind to her—the most sincere care she had felt since coming here.

Tang Wan thought to herself, staying here for a few days wouldn’t be so bad. When there’s a chance, she could add some spring water from her space into Grandma Bai’s drinking water to help improve her health—that would be a little token of gratitude.

Thinking this way, Tang Wan’s heart settled.

At that moment, noises came from the backyard.

Tang Wan couldn’t move easily but knew it must be Qin Zheng and the others returning.

Just as she thought, Qin Zheng and the others came back, bringing two wild boars with them.

Dongzi dropped the boars and lay on the ground groaning, “Luckily I listened and stayed up in a tree. I don’t know when the wild boar came, but if I hadn’t been up there, I might not have been able to kill it alone.”

“I saw one in that area, so I climbed up just to be safe,” Qin Zheng said.

“Two wild boars, that’s good. We can make more money now,” Dongzi said, obviously experienced with this kind of thing. “We should cover the medical expenses for that girl. Even if Grandma Bai treats her wounds, we should buy some gifts to comfort her. She must have been really scared.”

“This time, give her a third of the boar-selling money,” Qin Zheng said darkly.

“Will she find out about selling the boars?”

“She probably already knows,” Qin Zheng said expressionlessly.

On the way back, he mentioned the trap. With Tang Wan’s intelligence, she must have guessed already.