By the time the physician arrived, Madam Cai had truly lost consciousness.
The physician pressed his fingers to her pulse, stroking his goatee with a troubled expression. He kept muttering, “Bad, very bad.” It wasn’t that the wound on her forehead was life-threatening, but rather that Madam Cai’s constitution was utterly depleted. She was hollowed out from the inside; if things continued like this, she would be worked to death sooner or later. Being from the same village, the physician had heard plenty of rumors about the Jiang household. This Madam Liu was truly cold-blooded. It wasn’t even a year of famine or disaster—who treats a daughter-in-law with such cruelty?
Confronting Madam Liu’s wrinkled face as she hovered nearby to ask the price, the physician spoke coldly. “One tael of silver.”
Madam Liu nearly jumped out of her skin. “What kind of precious gold-leaf medicine is worth a whole tael? We live in the same village—are you trying to rob me?”
“One tael only covers the medicine for her external injury,” the physician countered. “I haven’t even charged you for the prescription yet! If you want to fix the underlying rot in your daughter-in-law’s health, ten taels wouldn’t be enough!”
Madam Liu was furious. “What rot? Stop talking nonsense just to swindle us.”
The physician didn’t bother arguing with her. He turned to the children instead. “Your mother’s body is severely depleted. She must rest; she cannot be subjected to hard labor anymore. She needs a proper regimen of medicine to recover, or she won’t have many years left to live.”
Jiang Xue burst into fresh tears. The reality hit her hard—she really was on the verge of losing her mother.
“Doctor, you have to save her!” Jiang Ming cried out in a panic. “We’ll pay whatever it costs!”
The physician shook his head and handed over a slip of paper. “I don’t have all the necessary herbs here. Take this prescription to the large pharmacy in the county seat to get her medicine. Ideally, you should have a city physician examine her as well.”
Madam Liu made a sharp, mocking sound. “Country folk aren’t made of glass. As long as her wound is healed, she’ll be fine.”
The physician, now thoroughly annoyed, refused to waste another word on her. “The money. One tael for the injury.”
With a face as dark as a thundercloud, Madam Liu begrudgingly pulled out a tael of silver and shoved it toward him.
As the physician departed and the crowd of onlookers began to disperse, Jiang Xue called out loudly to Madam Liu, “Mother is sick! The doctor said she needs medicine and rest. Grandmother hasn’t paid for the recovery herbs yet!”
Madam Liu scoffed. “What farming family can afford ten taels for medicine? Didn’t you hear him? Even ten taels might not be enough. Where am I supposed to find the money to fill that bottomless pit?”
Jiang Yue kept her head down and gave Jiang Ming’s sleeve a sharp tug. Jiang Ming understood the signal immediately. “Grandmother heard it too,” he shouted. “Mother’s body is exhausted. Since you won’t pay for the medicine to fix her, then from now on, she won’t be doing any of the chores for the main house!”
The crowd paused, heads turning back. Wait, what’s this? There’s more to the story?
Jiang Xue blinked, catching on. “Grandmother has already cut our branch off! She gave us no food, yet we’re expected to do all the work? We’re only allowed to labor, but not to eat!”
The crowd began to murmur again. “I knew it. She really isn’t the biological mother, is she?”
“No wonder those poor kids are always scavenging on the mountain.”
“How black can a heart get? It looks to me like she’s trying to starve Jiang Youshan’s whole family to death.”
Madam Liu’s face turned a sickly shade of green. Her rage had nowhere to go. “Honoring one’s parents is the natural law of heaven! How dare you use that to talk back to me?”
“Mother needs to recover. She won’t be doing your chores anymore!”
“Fine, you embarrassment! Just carry your mother back to your room to ‘recover’ then!” Madam Liu muttered vaguely. She just wanted them out of the public eye first. Once they were back inside, she wouldn’t bother arguing with these brats about chores. If Madam Cai refused to work, it was unfilial—and she had the right to demand her son divorce her.
Inside the front house, Li Shi was unhappy. She dragged Jiang Youtian into their room.
“Husband, you always say you’re the eldest son of the current wife and Mother loves you most. So why is she letting all the blame for hitting Sister-in-law fall on our heads?”
Jiang Youtian gave a smug grin. “Don’t worry. It’s just a small thing. Mother will remember we took the fall for her; she’ll make it up to us later with plenty of perks.”
Li Shi’s frown deepened. “Our two sons are nearly of age to marry. Having a reputation for beating our sister-in-law… won’t that affect their prospects?”
“Do you think people are stupid? Everyone knows…” He waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it, I can’t explain it to you.”
Back in the rear courtyard, Jiang Ming settled his mother in bed, leaving Jiang Xue and Jiang Lei to watch over her. He shouldered his hoe and followed Jiang Yue toward the mountain to dig for more taro.
“Sister, why didn’t we push Grandmother harder to pay for the medicine in the city?”
Jiang Yue sighed. “Do you really think we could have squeezed another penny out of her today?”
“We should have tried!” Jiang Ming insisted, his face set in a stubborn line.
Jiang Yue explained patiently. “Since we can’t get the money yet, we take other advantages instead. We got Mom out of doing their chores today. Next, we’ll get Dad out of them too!”
Jiang Ming’s eyes lit up. “You want Dad to split the household? But that’s hard. If a son demands to split while his parents are still alive, people will call him unfilial. Dad would never agree to it.”
“Then we make the front house bring it up themselves.”
Jiang Ming was baffled. “But they rely on Dad’s labor. Why would they ever suggest letting us go?”
“What if Dad loses his ability to work?”
“Then that old woman would definitely kick us all out. But…”
Jiang Yue didn’t elaborate; she had her ways.
The two of them found the taro patch. Jiang Ming pried them loose with the hoe while Jiang Yue followed behind, gathering them up. Before long, they had a back-basket brimming with tubers—enough to keep the family fed for several days.
After lunch, Jiang Yue began brainstorming ways to earn money. Having spent two days on the mountain, she realized that small game was scarce near the village. To truly hunt, she would need to venture into the deep woods. She was confident that her marksmanship from her previous life would translate well to hunting; all she lacked were the proper tools.
“Is Old Man Luo from the village still a hunter?” Jiang Yue asked.
Jiang Ming nodded. “He used to be. I heard he tried to change his official household status to ‘farmer’ later on, but I’m not sure of the details. He doesn’t hunt anymore; he bought a few acres of land to till.”
“Does he still have his gear?”
Jiang Ming’s eyes lit up. He glanced at Jiang Xue, who was tending to their mother, and lowered his voice. “He has a full set of hunting tools! But I don’t know if he’d be willing to lend them…”
“Let’s go find out.”
The two of them reached an immediate agreement and headed for the door. Jiang Xue jumped up. “Brother, Sister, where are you going? I want to come too!”
Jiang Ming wasn’t about to let her tag along. “We’re going up the mountain. What are you going to do there? Stay here and dig for wild greens in the back later, or we won’t have anything for dinner.”
Jiang Xue stomped her foot but didn’t push it. Her mother needed looking after anyway, and the wild patches behind the house were close enough that she could keep an eye on things.
Old Man Luo’s house sat on a solitary hillside with no neighbors nearby. As they climbed the slope, they saw his front door was slightly ajar. Jiang Ming called out a couple of times, and an old man and a teenager stepped out to greet them.
On the way over, Jiang Ming had explained the Luo family’s situation. They were a line of only sons for three generations. Old Man Luo’s son—Jiang Ming’s father’s childhood best friend—had been killed by a black bear during a hunt. After burying his son, the old man hadn’t dared let his grandson, Luo Douzi, learn the trade. He’d bought land instead, preferring a hard life of farming over the risks of the forest.
“Ming’er, what brings you here?”
Old Man Luo was surprised to see him. Years ago, the boys had played together, but after a childhood spat, they had grown distant. The last time Luo had seen the boy was when Jiang Youshan brought him to help with the funeral.
“Grandpa Luo, I was wondering if I could borrow your hunting gear,” Jiang Ming stated plainly.
“What? You want to go into the mountains? Does your father know? Hunting isn’t a game.” Old Man Luo shook his head. He knew the Jiang family’s eldest branch was struggling, but in these remote parts, everyone struggled.
“Please, Grandpa Luo,” Jiang Ming said earnestly, following Jiang Yue’s prior instructions. “I won’t use it for free. I’ll give you ten percent of whatever I catch as a fee.”
“The deep mountains are no joke. There are venomous snakes, biting insects, and man-eating beasts. One slip and you’re dead. Lending you these tools would be like sending you to your grave! That’s how your Uncle Chun lost his life.”
Beside him, Luo Douzi’s expression clouded. “Grandfather, you know their situation. If you don’t lend them the tools, do you really think he won’t go into the forest anyway?”
Jiang Ming quickly promised, “I won’t go deep. I’ll just stay in the nearby woods.”
Old Man Luo sighed. If there were any other way to survive, a child wouldn’t dream of hunting. If the boy went in without proper gear, it would be even more dangerous. The tools were just gathering dust anyway.
Leading them inside, Old Man Luo warned, “I don’t want your meat. Just stay on the outskirts for pheasants and birds. Whatever you do, do not wander into the deep forest.”
Jiang Ming nodded vigorously.
While they talked, Jiang Yue selected a bow. It was large, heavy, and possessed significant draw weight—a powerful weapon. She paired it with a quiver of thirty arrows. This will do, she thought.