CH 14

The Su family had no plans to use the kitchen tonight since they had run out of food after cooking that last bag of corn grits in the afternoon.

Qin Shi originally planned to make a trip to her parents’ house early the next morning to borrow some food, but who would have known that there would be such a huge surprise tonight.

They had meat now!

Everyone looked at the mountain of meat with longing eyes. Even the two children were drooling with their mouths open. The adults gave in. After all, eating the meat now was not much different from eating it tomorrow. They could just think of it as satisfying the cravings of the children after a prolonged period of hardship.

Old lady Zhang took Qin Shi and Lu Shi with her, lit up a candle and went into the kitchen to prepare a meal.

All three of them were good at cooking. In no time, the smell of cooked meat drifted out of the kitchen.

Su Jin took a good whiff and her stomach began to growl. She was reminded of the fact that she had not eaten a good meal ever since her transmigration and felt slightly dejected. The gruel she had in the afternoon had already been digested.

Niu Niu lost interest in the horse and trotted into the kitchen. She leaned over and fawned. “Mom, I’m hungry. I want to eat…”

“Are you the embodiment of a hungry ghost? Did the bowl of porridge you ate this afternoon enter the stomach of a ghost instead?”

Qin Shi looked at the greedy little granddaughter and scolded her with a half-hearted smile.

Niu Niu pursed a smile on her mouth. Although her grandmother had reprimanded her, she did not hit her. She was not afraid of a mere telling-off.

It was supper time when the whole family gathered at the dining table, but no one was sleepy. All eyes were fixed on the pot of stew on the table.

Qin Shi scooped a bowl of soup for everyone. Su Dalang’s share was separated out and brought to his room by Lu Shi.

“All ready, let’s start eating. Mother should eat more…”

As she said that, Qin Shi stuffed the best piece of fatty meat into her mother’s bowl.

After that, everyone began to move their chopsticks without reservations, and the whole table was swept away by hungry mouths.

Even without any seasoning, the natural flavor and freshness of the ingredients made the dish taste heavenly.

……

While the Su family was enjoying their warm and comfortable late night supper, the atmosphere over the side in the second branch of the Su family was dark and gloomy.

Ever since Su Liang was carried home, he had never stopped moaning. He was in such pain that he wished he could lose consciousness instead.

The doctor invited by Wang Shi only gave him some medicine, bandaged his legs with a simple bandage, and then shook his head and left.

There was no hope for his legs. When Su Liang realized this, he despaired. He hated Su Jin to the core, but his sense of despair overwhelmed his hatred.

Hardening his resolve, he banged his head at the hard edges of the bed. Wang Shi heard the sudden commotion from her son’s room and rushed over to stop her son from his acts of self-harming.

Tears rolled down her eyes uncontrollably. Her unfortunate son! She vowed that she would never let that vicious bitch go!

Su Liang slapped his mother’s hand off and started screaming like an insane person. After some time, he burst into tears as his body collapsed like a puppet with the strings to its limbs cut off…

……

Su Jin requested the system to wake her up before dawn the next day. It would be a long day, since she had to travel to the county to explore and purchase medicine for her eldest brother.

Lu Shi was awake by then. It was part of her usual daily routine to wipe her husband’s body in the morning, before taking the tub full of dirty clothes to the yard for washing. She skillfully hand-washed the clothes with powdered soap bark and water.

When she saw Su Jin, she looked up, brushed aside her sideburns and offered to help her. “Pass your laundry to me, Xiao Jin. Sister-in-law will wash all of them for you.”

Su Jin hesitated at first, but after recalling that she did save up a pile of clothes to wash, she welcomed the offer.

“Thanks a lot, sister-in-law! I’ll be going to the county later. Please relay the message to mother for me.”

“Washing a few more clothes is a piece of cake for me! There is no need for thanks. I’ll let mom know when she wakes up.”

Lu Shi knew that she had no extraordinary skills and there was nothing she could do to repay Su Jin. She continued doing the laundry in high spirits, relieved that she could do something for Su Jin, even if it was just some menial labour.

It takes around 2 hours to get to the nearest town from Shangxi village. However, Su Jin’s destination was way further than that. If travelling by foot, one could not reach Fengyuan County even after half a day.

Su Jin patted the black horse that she got from the bandit’s hideout.

(Whew, thanks for my great foresight. Otherwise… god knows how long I would have to walk for.)

It was mid-morning when she arrived in Fengyuan County. She stopped by a roadside eatery, ordered a bowl of plain noodles as she scanned the surrounding shops.

The streets were wide and spacious. Some shops had already opened, while others were in the midst of preparation. A few shops even had long queues formed early in the morning.

Su Jin glanced at the signboard of one of the popular establishments, and it turned out to be the medical hall she was looking for. The business there seems to be thriving.

After she finished up her meal, she tipped the waiter as thanks for taking care of her horse and proceeded towards the medical hall.

“Hall assistant, do you sell the herbs in this prescription?”

“Okay, give me a moment.”

The apprentice doctor took the list with him to the warehouse and realized that most of the herbs on the list were not cheap. He glanced at the girl dressed like a peasant and hesitated for a while, but still wrapped up a dose of medicine and brought it out.

“Lady customer, I have prepared one dose for you. It costs 50 casted coins per dosage. Will that be fine for you? Looking at the prescription, the medicine must have been prescribed for external application to treat broken bones, and it will be pricey. “

Su Jin immediately understood the meaning behind the words of the hall assistant. He must have been afraid that she could not afford it, and asked with good intentions without trying to embarrass her.

“That’s fine, I’ll take it. Prepare 20 doses of medicine for me.”

The doctor had advised them to apply this medicine for more than two weeks, after which he would conduct a medical review before adjusting the prescription according to the situation. 20 doses should be sufficient for now.

The man was surprised at the unexpected response and enthusiastically replied, “Got it, I’ll prepare it right away.”

At that moment, an exquisite carriage gradually came to halt at the entrance of the medical hall. The interior of the carriage was decorated with satin curtains to hide the identity of the passenger inside. The passenger gently lifted the edge of a curtain, and a woman wearing a hat and face mask came into view.

The maid sitting beside the driver got off the horse carriage and went to the carriage door to assist her lady down from the carriage and gave an order to the hall attendant

“Prepare a private room for us and call doctor Feng.”

With these words, she walked into the medical hall with her head held high together with her young lady.

“Milady, will Dr. Feng accept your request for a consultation this time? If I may speak frankly, I suggest that we abduct him to our manor. Why should someone of milady’s status visit personally for a consultation? You are the magistrate’s daughter!”

The maid dressed in green voiced her complaints of injustice on behalf of her young lady.

Jiang Ru Yan reproached in annoyance, “That’s enough. Since we are already here, let’s just wait patiently. Since he dares to refuse our invitation and is not afraid of offending the magistrate, he must be a capable doctor. He is my only hope of treating my face. Do not offend him at all cost.”

After all, she had received better upbringing as the daughter of the administrator of the county and was more knowledgeable and insightful as compared to a maid.

She touched her face gently with a downhearted feeling. If even Dr. Feng, who came from the royal capital, could not treat her, then there would be no hope…

After a while, a middle-aged man who seemed to be around 30 years old with a refined face was guided into the room by an apprentice, and he bowed towards the lady.

“This humble doctor greets Miss Jiang. May I know the purpose of your esteemed lady’s visit?”

In fact, Feng Chuan clearly knew the purpose of her visit, because he had turned down the invitation from the magistrate’s house twice in the past.

Truth to be told, the reason for his refusal was not that he was unwilling to go, but there was nothing he could do to treat her. Dr. Feng’s ancestors had served as imperial doctor in the royal palace until his father’s generation. His father was forced to resign because he offended an authority figure, and the whole family eventually settled in this county far from the royal capital.

Dr. Feng had learned about the condition of young lady Jiang’s face from other doctors who had diagnosed her. He flatly refused the request, because he knew immediately that this was the same condition that the present Princess Xu Yang was suffering from.

The condition caused an outburst of endless black spots on the face, in contrast to the fair skin which made one’s face seem like a checkerboard. It was an almost impossible task to administer the treatment with needles.

At that time, his father was ordered by the chief imperial physician to treat Princess Xu Yang and almost lost his head. That was why his father had to leave his position and return to his hometown.

He learned from his father’s lesson and vowed that he would never get involved with this disease again. As he had no confidence to cure it, refusing the request was the next best option.

TL Corner: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you liked my translation and wish to support me, you could leave a comment below or in novelupdates, or send me a Ko-Fi. Thank you!