Chonglou!
Not the Chonglou from some TV drama, but the medicinal herb Chonglou, also called Paris polyphylla. This herb wasn’t easy to come by, even in the modern era with its highly advanced technology, cultivating this herb cost a great deal.
Bitter in flavor, cold in nature.
Its effects were clearing heat and detoxifying, reducing swelling and relieving pain.
In ancient times, snake and insect bites were common, and this was a fine remedy that could counteract poison. Because of this, the herb was extremely valuable, and of course, not cheap either!
Li Jiaojiao carefully dug it out and put it into her basket, unable to help marveling at just how good her luck really was. Coming up the mountain today, she’d run into so many medicinal herbs, if she bought lottery tickets, she’d probably win!
Just thinking about it made her excited. Li Jiaojiao pondered, what did this era have? A gambling den?
Then she tried to put the Chonglou into the space, but it wouldn’t go in. Only then did she remember, the space could currently only hold lifeless things, so she had no choice but to give up on that.
The path down the mountain was rugged and winding. The ancients often said going up a mountain was easy, coming down was hard, and Li Jiaojiao understood this deeply now. This side already had a lot of rocks, and the small path was covered in stones too, requiring her to climb up and down constantly. With a full, heavy basket hanging on her, she walked very carefully.
Despite being so careful, Li Jiaojiao still slipped after stepping on moss on the surface of a large boulder. She hurriedly protected her basket as her whole body slid downward, and then she fell hard to the ground.
Li Jiaojiao first checked on her herbs, they were fine, and only then let out a long breath of relief. Enduring the sharp pain in a certain spot, she got up, rubbed it, and, holding her basket, prepared to climb back up and continue down the mountain.
But just then, the hair on Li Jiaojiao’s back stood up, a human instinct. She slowly turned around and saw a snake, emerald green like jade, a bamboo viper!
Li Jiaojiao couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath of air. She was so frightened she didn’t dare move at all. She’d dropped her knife and hoe when she fell from above, and while scanning the surroundings out of the corner of her eye searching for a stick, she suddenly noticed a stranger, a man sitting propped against a rock!
“There’s, there’s a snake!”
Li Jiaojiao shouted, but even after shouting for a good while, the man not far off didn’t move at all.
Fortunately, Li Jiaojiao found a stick and hurriedly picked it up and swung it around. The green snake slipped away into the grass in a flash, vanishing quickly like lightning.
Li Jiaojiao warily looked all around, and only then noticed that this dense forest was full of all kinds of plants. She spotted several kinds of medicinal herbs here, but right now, frightened until her legs went a bit weak, she didn’t dare go dig them up. She’d meant to just leave, but after calling out a few times, that man still hadn’t moved at all.
“Could he have been bitten by the snake?”
Li Jiaojiao hurried over to look. Sure enough, the man was slumped against the rock, his lips a bluish-purple. Lifting his sleeve on his arm, she saw two clear, deep fang marks.
“Hey, wake up!”
Li Jiaojiao slapped his face with one hand, while with the other she pulled out her own clean handkerchief, one she’d never been willing to use, and hurriedly wrapped it above his wound.
For a snakebite, the worst thing to do was suck the poison out with your mouth, not to mention that the venom would have already flowed into the body through the bloodstream, but sucking out venom was a foolish act on the rescuer’s part, since the venom of some poisonous snakes could pass through mucous membranes. If she tried to save him and failed, only to drag herself down with him, that would truly be tragic!
The correct method was to use a knife to cut open the wound and squeeze out as much of the poisoned blood inside as possible. At this point, the patient was best kept from moving, rushed to a hospital, and the type of snake identified so the right treatment could be given!
Of course, that was the modern way of handling it!
Here, forget it, there was nothing available!
Li Jiaojiao cut open his wound and squeezed the poisoned blood out clean. Only then, with a pang of reluctance, did she take out the Paris polyphylla she’d just obtained. She stared at it for a moment, unwilling to part with it, but in the end gritted her teeth, crushed it up, applied it to his wound, and wrapped it with her handkerchief.
“Hey, I did save you, you know! See this? My Chonglou here, this big already, and I used it on you, I definitely won’t get a good price for it anymore! And my handkerchief, it’s brand new, I couldn’t even bring myself to use it… so, do you have some kind of payment or something? Otherwise, this really pains me!”
With that, Li Jiaojiao started going through the man’s clothes.
This man was actually quite good-looking, and the muscles on his body felt hard to the touch, very satisfying.
Soon, Li Jiaojiao pulled a few taels’ worth of loose silver out of the man’s robes, along with a cream-colored silk handkerchief. Besides that, there wasn’t anything else. She weighed the pieces of loose silver in her hand, looked at the handkerchief, and muttered to herself, “Forget it, forget it, I won’t feel bad about my herbs anymore, I’ll just count this as the money you paid for my herbs, and we’ll call it even for saving your life!”
With that, Li Jiaojiao reluctantly packed away the remaining herbs, then, carrying her basket, struggled to climb back up over the boulder and headed down the mountain.
What Li Jiaojiao didn’t know was that after she left, the man who had kept his eyes shut the whole time opened his eyes. In his hand, unmistakably, he gripped an exquisite small knife, if Li Jiaojiao had shown even the slightest bit of ill intent toward him, he would likely have killed her with one strike long ago!
Still unaware of this, Li Jiaojiao foolishly carried her basket down the mountain.
The Li family were farmers and rose very early. Having just finished the autumn harvest, the Li family’s children had to go out to the fields early to gather rice stalks, the women had to busy themselves feeding the chickens, feeding the pigs, and cooking, while the men had to fetch water, chop firewood, and then go work on the mountain.
Carrying her basket, Li Jiaojiao quietly slipped into their house from the back yard, put the basket in the room, shut the door, and only then walked back out.
Li Qiao saw her and ran over to her, his voice low. “Sis, where did you go? Father and Mother couldn’t find you and were nearly worried sick!”
Li Jiaojiao made a shushing gesture at him. “I didn’t do anything! Grandmother doesn’t know I went out, does she?”
Li Qiao quickly shook his head. “None of them know!”
Just as he finished speaking, they saw Hu shi standing under the eaves. “Li Jiaojiao, do you really think of yourself as some young mistress? It’s early morning, your little sisters are so young and they’ve already gone to work, why are you still inside? Do you still want to eat today?”
Hu shi had one son and one daughter, the older girl was twelve this year, and the second child was a son, only a bit over four, the apple of Hu shi’s eye!
Seeing Deng shi behind Hu shi, Li Jiaojiao suddenly had an idea. “Auntie, you said last night you’d wash Grandmother’s clothes. You got up so early, does that mean you’re already done washing, and now you’re planning to make clothes for Grandmother?”
Hu shi froze. When had she ever said she’d get up early to do laundry? And make clothes for Deng shi too, did she have nothing better to do?
Hu shi was just about to speak when she suddenly sensed something was off. She turned around and saw Deng shi.
The Li family strictly followed the standard of men handling outside affairs and women handling household ones, all the women of the family fell under Deng shi’s management. Deng shi had a rather bad temper and loved to scold people, she kept a stern face year-round, with deep marionette lines. But right now, the look Deng shi gave Hu shi carried a bit more warmth than usual.
Hu shi immediately said, “Mother, you’re up? I, I was just about to go make you some clothes! I got a few good bolts of cloth, and I wanted to make you a pair of shoes!”