Jinjin blinked her big eyes, looked around the dark room in a daze, crept over to the window, gently poked a small hole in the window paper, and looked outside.
She saw several people in the courtyard and identified them one by one.
There was a man sitting against a big tree, with one pant leg rolled up and his leg stretched out straight. Was that man the father of this world?
“Liuliu, what happened to the father in this world?” Jinjin asked Liuliu.
[Your father’s leg is injured…] Liuliu explained the general situation to Jinjin.
Jinjin’s little brows knitted together. It turned out that her father had gone into the mountains to hunt the night before in order to sell wolf skins to buy medicine for Jinjin.
He had been mauled by a wolf precisely to save his own daughter.
That old hag was too terrible! She even claimed she paid for it herself—how shameless!
In the courtyard, Jingao sat in silence, staring blankly at his injured leg.
At this moment, his right calf was red and swollen, and a purulent blood blister had suddenly appeared on the wound today. He hadn’t expected it to suddenly become so severe; while working in the morning, his leg had lost all sensation, causing him to collapse to the ground.
After walking back, he had regained a little sensation. What kind of situation was this?
It seemed he had to find a doctor to take a look.
Listening to Wang, who opened her mouth only to hurl vicious verbal abuse at Liu Duchuan, Jingao lowered his eyes, concealing the coldness within them.
Liu Duchuan hurried over and squatted down beside Jingao. Looking at his red and swollen leg, she started shedding tears drop by drop again.
“Husband, does it hurt very much? How did it end up like this?”
Jingao reached out to wipe away her tears and said softly, “Don’t cry, it will get better. Help me call Dr. Qiao.”
“I’m going right now. Husband, our Jinjin has woken up, her fever has broken, and she is much more spirited.” Liu Duchuan raised her head while wiping her tears, looking softly at Jingao.
“Good, that’s good! It’s heaven blessing our Jinjin to be safe!” A faint smile appeared in Jingao’s eyes.
Liu Duchuan stood up, intending to go fetch the doctor, but Wang blocked her path and said coldly, “Liu, where are you going?”
Liu Duchuan stopped in her tracks, looked at her mother-in-law, and lowered her voice timidly, “Mother, Husband’s leg needs Dr. Qiao to come and take a look.”
“No way! Where is there any extra silver in this family for him to see a doctor?”
“It’s all because of that money-losing asset’s making a fuss! I said we should have just thrown her away when she was about to die of sickness, but you guys insisted on saving her. Look at that—you saved the little one, and now you’ve dragged the big one down with her!” Wang put her hands on her hips, widened her eyes, and cursed at Liu Duchuan with spittle flying everywhere.
Seeing that the old lady wouldn’t let her go, Liu Duchuan’s eyes instantly turned red. With a thud, she knelt before Wang again and kowtowed, begging her to let her go and fetch a doctor to treat her husband.
“Mother, I beg you, let me go invite the doctor! Husband can hunt; once he gets better, all the silver he earns from hunting will be handed over to you!”
“See a doctor? Do you know how much silver it takes to heal that leg? Does this whole family not need to eat or drink every day? Should we just sew our mouths shut and wait to die?”
“You wicked woman, are you hoping my son and precious grandson will be starved to death? Why are you so vicious?” Wang’s curses grew increasingly harsh.
“Duchuan, get up. Don’t kneel to her. Come help me back to the room to rest first. You go boil some hot water and get some salt!”
Seeing his wife kneeling to beg his mother for his sake, only to receive not a single kind word in return, Jingao felt a pang of heartache for his wife and completely lost all remaining warmth toward Wang. He hurriedly stood up, intending to go over and help Liu Duchuan up.
“Husband, if me kneeling can make Mother cough up the silver to treat your leg, it’s worth it. I don’t mind!” Liu Duchuan turned back to look at Jingao, her nose stinging with emotion.
“Duchuan, get up!” Jingao’s face darkened as he limped over to her, reaching out to pull her up.
Seeing the old lady just watching them coldly, Liu Duchuan sighed inwardly, got up with tears streaming down her face, and helped Jingao slowly back into the room.
Inside the room, seeing them walking this way, Jinjin quickly lay back down on the kang and pretended to be asleep.
She had seen and heard everything just now. Grandma was scolding people again, and Mother had even cried and knelt for her.
That stinky old hag was too terrible! Ah, ah, ah, she really wanted to beat the crap out of that big villain.
The door was pushed open, and Liu Duchuan helped Jingao inside.
Jinjin quickly scrambled up, retreated to the corner of the wall, and fixed her eyes on the two of them.
Duchuan helped Jingao over to sit on the edge of the bed, rolled up his pant leg, looked at his wound, and choked out, “Mother is too biased. How can she treat our second branch like this? What are you going to do about this injury?”
Jinjin remained silent as she pulled off her shoes and sat back on the bed, saying in a deep voice, “You go prepare hot water and salt first. I’ll clean it up, and we’ll figure something out later!”
“Okay!” Liu Duchuan hurriedly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and turned to go out.
Jingao looked up at Jinjin and reached out a hand. “Come here, let Daddy see if you’re all better!”
Hesitating for a moment, Jinjin slowly crawled over, sat down beside him, and silently stared in a daze at the wound on his leg.
This dad looked somewhat like her real dad—both had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and were quite tall, but this dad wasn’t as fair or handsome as her real dad!
“Daddy, was your leg injured because you went to find medicine for Jinjin?”
Jingao reached out to stroke her head and said softly, “More or less. As long as our good baby is better, Daddy is fine. This is just a small injury, it will get better, don’t worry!”
Feeling the warmth from the large hand on top of her head, Jinjin gave a soft “mm,” looked up at Jingao with a bright smile, and said, “Mm, thank you, Daddy, for saving Jinjin. Daddy will definitely get better, Jinjin will cure your leg!”
Just now, Liuliu had told her that as long as she went into the mountains to find a herb called *Di-ding cao* (violet), she could cure Daddy’s leg.
Jingao smiled, taking it simply as a child’s comforting words, and gave a soft “mm” in response.
Whether it could be healed or not didn’t matter much, but his daughter was sensible and obedient, which made him very happy; no matter how hard things were, it was worth it.
Liu Duchuan went back with a basin of hot water. When she went to get the salt, she was pointed at and scolded by the old lady once more, being told she didn’t run the household and had no idea how expensive salt was, and that using such precious stuff to treat an injury was a waste.
It wasn’t until the grandfather opened the door and glanced at the old lady that she finally quieted down and said no more.
Liu Duchuan successfully got the salt and hurried back into the room amidst her eldest sister-in-law’s rolling eyes.
Jingao first dissolved the salt in a bowl of clear water to wash the wound, then applied a hot cloth compress. When the purulent blood began to ooze out, he washed it again with the saltwater, causing cold sweat to break out on his forehead from the excruciating pain.
Liu Duchuan watched with a heartache that brought on another round of teardrops. After the cleaning, the wound needed to be dressed with medicine, but there was no medicine at home. What could they do?
Seeing her father turn pale with pain, Jinjin knew how much it hurt.
“Jinjin will blow on it for Daddy, and it won’t hurt anymore!” Jinjin leaned over and gently blew on Jingao’s injury, trying to comfort him.
“Be a good girl, Daddy really doesn’t hurt anymore!”
Jingao forced a smile, though it carried suppressed agony.
Jinjin saw it, but she didn’t say anything, simply sitting beside him and continuing to gently blow on it to alleviate his pain.
She decided that at noon, while the family was taking a nap, she would go into the mountains by herself to find the herb Liuliu had mentioned.
“Liu, did you die inside that room? It’s already noon, why aren’t you coming out to make lunch?” The old lady started yelling in the courtyard again!