The male doctor, Dr. Shen, became familiar with the patient after a few exchanges.

Dr. Shen: “Don’t worry, young lady. Your illness isn’t serious. It’s sudden. Can you tell me what triggered it?”

He wanted to understand the cause.

Mother Lin began to explain.

Her illness was purely caused by fear.

As a child, she was frightened by her mother and brother.

Later, she was frightened by her daughter-in-law.

Recently, even though she felt a great weight lifted off her heart after her son’s divorce, strange noises kept occurring at night.

At first, she thought it was just a dream, but then she realized it wasn’t.

The first time, she woke up in the middle of the night to a grating noise that made her teeth ache, like fingernails scraping glass.

The second time, just as she fell asleep, she heard a loud “bang,” as if someone was banging a pot behind her house.

It startled her so much that her heart was racing.

She lit a lamp to check and found a skinned dead rat, bloodied and terrifying, thrown into her main room.

The next day, she told Aunt Lin and Zhou Mother, and everyone agreed that it was likely the Sun family causing trouble.

But since no one had been caught, they couldn’t directly accuse them.

They certainly wouldn’t admit to it.

Aunt Lin and Mr. Lin wanted to help catch the troublemakers, suspecting it was either Sun Er or Sun Xiaohong.

However, they waited all night but didn’t see anyone.

During the day, they had to work, so they couldn’t wait all the time and still needed to sleep.

As soon as Mother Lin fell asleep again, someone threw a broken bottle into her yard, which smashed against the window outside, startling her once more.

With several days of such incidents, her heart started to feel uncomfortable, reacting with racing beats at any noise, making her nervous.

Last night, she heard a sizzling sound, so she lit a lamp to check the main room.

She discovered that the previously closed back window was open and hanging with a yellow-green snake.

It scared her so much that she fell to the ground in shock.

Fortunately, Bao’er woke up from the noise, crying loudly and drawing Aunt Lin over.

Aunt Lin hadn’t been sleeping well either because the two families were close, and she could hear any noise from Mother Lin’s house.

The Aunt Lin was already a light sleeper, and being unable to catch the culprit made her angry.

However, her health was good, so she was fine.

Dr. Shen was speechless, “You need to call the police.”

Mother Lin: “Ah, I thought that if she made trouble for a few days, she would calm down. Calling the police might only provoke her more.”

She didn’t want to trouble anyone.

When her son’s divorce happened, everyone came to help, and she already felt uncomfortable, thinking she owed them a big favor.

If Sun Xiaohong kept causing trouble, wouldn’t she be constantly troubling them?

She thought it would be better to endure it for a while.

Who would have known that, despite her efforts to endure, she ended up falling ill herself?

Lin Shu didn’t blame her; if something went wrong, she was suffering more than anyone else.

Complaining about her wouldn’t solve anything.

Lin Shu said, “Mom, don’t worry. We’ll report it to the militia at the commune and have them investigate.

Regardless of whether it’s the Sun family or not, we need to question them since they’re the ones we have a conflict with. If not them, then who else could it be?”

Mother Lin sighed, still believing that it’s better to resolve conflicts peacefully.

The Sun family seemed like bullies who would stick to you and never let go, making it impossible to live peacefully in the future.

Dr. Shen smiled and said, “These people are just bullies. They pick on those they think are easy to bully. Once you find a way to deal with them, they’ll back off.”

He reassured Mother Lin, telling her not to worry. It wasn’t a serious issue.

Dr. Shen explained that Mother Lin wouldn’t need surgery, just a few days of intravenous drip and observation in the hospital.

She should go home, take her medicine, and rest.

The key was to relax and not be scared anymore.

Dr. Shen, with his experience, thought that half of Mother Lin’s issues were psychological and emotional.

She was on edge, startled by every little noise, and possibly prone to overthinking, which naturally affected her sleep and health.

The other half was due to malnutrition.

Since there wasn’t a major problem with Mother Lin, Lin Shu arranged for Fang Dihua to see an eye specialist.

Fang Dihua said, “I didn’t bring any change of clothes, so it’s better not to cause trouble. We can also go to the county hospital.”

Lin Shu laughed and said, “Mom, the city hospital has better medical expertise. Don’t worry about the clothes; they have patient gowns, and you can wear your own clothes back home after washing them.”

Fang Dihua replied, “I didn’t bring a referral letter either.”

Lin Shu said, “As long as you can prove your identity, a referral letter isn’t necessary for seeing the doctor; it’s only needed for staying at the hotel.”

Since they already knew Dr. Shen, the referral letter wasn’t needed.

Lin Shu accompanied her to register and have her eyes checked.

The eye department had fewer patients and the doctor wasn’t too busy, so the procedure could be done the same day.

It was a minor surgery, and the doctor said there was no need for hospitalization. However, Lin Shu still decided to have her stay for a few days.

On the day of the surgery, Fang Dihua had her left eye covered with a bandage.

She would need to change the dressings regularly and receive intravenous fluids to prevent inflammation.

That night, Lin Shu made sure both Fang Dihua and Mother Lin had a good rest while she took care of Bao’er.

Bao’er was always pampered by his grandparents, even a bit spoiled, but he wasn’t unruly.

Instead, he had inherited a good temperament.

He was calm, and as long as he saw one of his grandparents, whether near or far, he wouldn’t cry.

Lin Shu told him a few stories…

A little story: He was sleeping soundly.

Around eight o’clock, Lin Shu also wanted to lie down and rest.

At that moment, an old lady from next door quietly came in and whispered, “Girl, girl.”

Lin Shu asked, “Aunt Jiang, is something wrong?”

Previously, when Lin Shu went to fetch water, the old lady had come with two thermoses.

Lin Shu helped her a bit, so they had gotten acquainted.

Aunt Jiang smiled and said, “I heard that your purple herb ointment is very effective. Do you have any left? I’d like to buy two jars.”

Lin Shu looked through her luggage and found one jar that her mother had been carrying.

She usually carried it for her baby.

Lin Shu said, “Aunt Jiang, there’s only a small half jar left. I’ll just give it to you.”

Aunt Jiang didn’t want to take advantage.

She smiled and said, “How could I do that? I checked, and a small jar costs one yuan. A big jar costs three yuan.”

Lin Shu was surprised by the price.

But since the purple herb was hard to come by and shipping by train was expensive, the price made sense.

Such an expensive ointment wouldn’t be used by poor villagers or even regular city folks—it was more likely to be bought by people with a bit of spare money.

Aunt Jiang looked at the remaining amount and then took out three jin (a unit of weight) of grain coupons and gave them to Lin Shu.

Her family had plenty of grain coupons and didn’t use them all, so trading them for ointment was just right.

Lin Shu was happy because her family was short on grain coupons.

Everyone was pleased.

Aunt Jiang said, “Girl, if you have more in the future, please let me know. I want to trade for more next year.”

Lin Shu replied, “Aunt Jiang, that’s hard to say. Our home is far from the city, and I don’t come here often unless necessary.”

She noticed that despite Aunt Jiang’s simple clothing, it was neat, without patches, and her hair was clean and fresh, indicating she was in good financial standing.

Lin Shu suggested, “Actually, the ointment is mainly sold at our county hospital. The city hospital probably has it too. If you ask around, you’ll likely find it.”

Aunt Jiang said, “Oh, no, my son is very rigid and wouldn’t help me get it through connections.”

Lin Shu exchanged contact information with her and promised to trade grain coupons if the opportunity arose, since she would be visiting her sister-in-law in the future.

After chatting for a bit, the old lady left because her second daughter-in-law was giving birth.

The next morning, Lin Shu woke up at dawn.

In the hospital, the rooms were either for childbirth or serious illnesses, so there were always sounds of crying.

The beds were uncomfortable, so Lin Shu didn’t rest well.

Lin Shu’s mother was at ease and slept soundly because she had someone with her.

Fang Dihua also woke up and went to the bathroom.

Lin Shu wanted to stay with her, but Fang Dihua refused, “I’m fine. You go rest.”

The old lady’s heavy footsteps made a loud thumping sound on the floor, which shook the building a bit.

Lin Shu quickly washed up and took Bao’er to the bathroom.

Bao’er, a sound sleeper, found the hospital pillow uncomfortable and kept snoring lightly.

He continued to sleep soundly with no response, but when Lin Shu whistled softly, he urinated and then was snuggled back beside Mother Lin to continue sleeping.

Mother Lin woke up and said to Lin Shu, “I’m feeling better. How about we go home?”

She was worried about the expenses—checking, staying in the hospital, and injections—thinking it might cost more than ten yuan.

She only earned a few yuan this year.

Lin Shu said, “Mom, you need to follow the doctor’s advice. Both of you need to stay in the hospital for observation.”

She explained why hospitalization and observation were necessary.

Only then did Mother Lin stop insisting on leaving and let Lin Shu use her hospital bed. “Your little cot is too small, and Bao’er doesn’t like it. You sleep here, and I’ll get up and move around.”

Lin Shu responded, “I’m also awake. I’ll go get some food in a bit.”

After eating, Lin Shu checked that both Fang Dihua and Mother Lin were fine and just needed to keep up with their injections.

She decided to visit her second sister.

Fang Dihua said, “Go ahead. The tractor factory is probably very busy with training. It’s okay if they don’t come.”

Lin Shu replied, “But we should at least inform them. Even if they’re busy, they should have time to come and visit.”

Fang Dihua was also worried about her third daughter-in-law meeting trouble on the way.

Being a delicate and beautiful young woman, she used to be timid but now had become more assertive.

She noticed two men loitering around the door since last night, peering in and observing her.

The men, feeling Fang Dihua’s fierce gaze, quickly pretended to be casual and left.

Lin Shu grabbed her bag, habitually carrying her identification.

Although the introduction letter from the brigade was outdated, it still proved her identity.

She asked the nurse on the first floor about the bus route to the steel factory. She needed to transfer once and walk a bit.