In the room.
Granny Lin propped her husband's upper body up with a pillow, then scooped up some of the cooled medicinal broth with a spoon and fed it to him. "It's almost New Year's, and the snow keeps falling day after day—it's freezing outside. Once spring comes after the New Year and the weather turns good, we'll have the eldest and second sons carry you out to the courtyard to soak up some sun. For now, you just lie still and bear with it. Open up—drink the medicine first."
"No need to feed me. Give me the bowl—I'll down it in one go." Old Man Lin took the bowl, and sure enough, gulped it all down in one breath. The bitter taste slid down his throat without so much as a furrow of his brow. When he finished, he even turned the bowl upside down to show he hadn't wasted a single drop.
That got a chuckle out of Granny Lin. She took the empty bowl, shot him a sideways glare, and casually wiped the medicinal residue from the corner of his mouth. "Aren't you something. Not bitter?"
"Not bitter." Compared to the bitterness his wife had endured these past few years, he had no right to call anything bitter.
Nor did he dare waste it.
Every single drop of that small bowl of medicine had been earned for him through the blood and sweat of his wife and children.
Old Man Lin's gaze roamed over his wife's face. When it passed over the fine lines at the corners of her eyes and the inconspicuous grey at her temples, his chest flooded with heartache and guilt.
Seizing the moment while his wife was in good spirits, he deliberately moved his elbow a bit and tested the waters. "Old woman, I feel like I've been in much better spirits lately. Look—I can raise my arm without much effort. This means I'm starting to recover, right? I was thinking we could cut back on the medicine—"
Before he could finish, Granny Lin's face darkened. "Let me tell you, don't you dare pull any tricks with me. I can still scrape together the money for your medicine! As long as you're still breathing, this family has its backbone! If you ever go back to that old way of thinking, dead set on charging toward the gates of hell, I'll bash my head against the wall and follow you right after! If you want to think about something, think about that!"
"…" His wife's momentum was formidable, which made Old Man Lin's all the more lacking.
Two years ago, he had sought death—refusing food and water, thinking that dying would spare his family the burden.
Back then, his wife had slammed her head against the wall right in front of him. That fierce temper of hers—even now, thinking about it made him shudder.
He hadn't dared think about death since.
"Look at that temper of yours… Just hear me out first. I really do feel like my spirits have improved lately." Old Man Lin explained in a weak voice. "Think about it carefully—haven't I been coughing less lately? Isn't my breathing smoother? Isn't my voice stronger? Look at me, I just said all that in one breath without getting choked up on phlegm, didn't I? It was never this easy before."
Granny Lin calmed down. Thinking about it, it did seem to be true.
Before, day or night, whenever they were home, they'd hear the old man's uncontrollable coughing every so often. When it got bad, it was terrifying—like he was about to cough out his very organs.
But recently, the coughing in the house really did seem to have decreased a lot.
She leaned in closer and studied her husband's complexion carefully. A moment later, joy she couldn't contain burst forth in her heart, making her eyes go hot.
It wasn't obvious, but she could still tell that her husband's complexion had improved considerably. The dark hue on his lips had faded, and his eyes were clearer than before.
"You—move your arm again, let me see!" Granny Lin's voice choked up. Her hands unconsciously rubbed back and forth on her trouser legs, and she began to ramble. "Old man, you'd better not be fooling me—you really do feel your spirits are much better? Are you hungry? Should I make you some porridge? Does your throat itch? I—the eldest and second sons aren't home, but Sulan and Cuie are outside, and Jiang'er is here too—I need to go tell them! Wait, wait—let me turn you over and rub your back first, I, I, sob!"
"Don't rush, don't rush—hey now, don't cry, old woman!" Old Man Lin's eyes reddened right along with hers at the sight.
These past few years, his wife had shouldered the family's burdens. No matter how much hardship or difficulty, she'd never uttered a single complaint. Only that just-now sob had finally torn open the toughness she'd been forcing herself to maintain, spilling out all the bitterness and exhaustion she'd carried through the mud.
Just then, a woman's loud voice came from outside the house, growing closer as it approached.
"Lin family! Lin family! Everyone inside?"
Without even looking, Granny Lin recognized the voice as Granny Li's from next door.
"Auntie Li's here—I'll go see what she wants." She quickly wiped the moisture from the corners of her eyes, pulled out the pillow to let her husband lie flat, then picked up the empty medicine bowl and headed out.
Before leaving, she turned back to warn him, "Now that you're improving, you need to keep taking the medicine even more. Don't even think about reducing or stopping it—put those clever ideas away!"
Old Man Lin, "…" The way she said that—what clever ideas did he have?
By the time Granny Lin came out to the main room, Granny Li was already seated by the fire, chatting away.
She was a woman in her forties with high cheekbones, about the same age as Granny Lin. Her complexion was sallow, and she wore a patched jacket and skirt. When she spoke, her voice was loud.
"This cold is something else—even my chickens won't eat." Seeing Granny Lin come out, Granny Li handed over the misshapen bamboo basket she'd set at her feet, then lifted the basket's cover to reveal its contents.
Half a basket of raw sweet potatoes, a few boiled corn cobs wrapped in reed leaves, several fresh radishes, and a small sack of coarse flour.
"I'd been meaning to come by for a visit for a while now, but one thing after another kept delaying me until today. What's in this basket is a little something we all chipped in for—me, the Zhangs, the Wangs, and your Third Sister-in-law Lin's family. It's nothing fancy, so don't turn your nose up at it," Granny Li said, reaching out to pinch the cheek of the little girl sitting obediently on the other side. Her voice unconsciously softened when addressing such a tiny, adorable child. "This little girl is just lovely—like a little jade dumpling. She has an air of nobility about her. For such a fine child to have chosen your family, you're bound to have good fortune ahead."
Granny Lin accepted the basket without protest. In the village, neighbors got along well, and it was common practice to share food with one another.
Everyone loved hearing auspicious words, and with her mood already lifted, her smile grew more genuine. "If you think I'd turn my nose up at this, you'd be doing me wrong. These days, every household in the village is struggling to get by, and food is precious. It's no small thing to send all this over. Right now, my family truly lacks for everything, so I won't stand on ceremony with you—I'll repay the kindness another day."
"Tsk, talking about repaying kindness—who's doing who wrong here?"
The two old women looked at each other and both burst into laughter, and the others listening along joined in as well.
But after the laughter came worry.
Granny Li brought up what was happening outside the village, her smile fading. "My Fu Gui came back from town at noon and said things are even more tense there. The yamen has made no progress at all in suppressing the bandits, and they've put up another reward notice—whoever can wipe out the bandits north of the mountain gets thirty silver taels. What do you make of that? The yamen runners with their big swords can't handle it, so they offer some silver and tell ordinary folks to go do it—isn't that just sending common people to their deaths? If common folk want a bit of peace, they have to gamble with their own lives. Thirty taels is certainly a lot—I've never seen that much silver in my life—but when I think again, it's blood money… It chills my heart."
Suddenly hearing this news, the Lin family members were speechless for a long while.
A chill ran through their hearts.
The mountain bandits were just five li away to the north of the mountain. Folks living in the surrounding area were practically living with their heads on the line, their only hope being that the yamen would soon deal with the bandits and restore peace to their days.
But now, the yamen couldn't be counted on.