It turned out that when Fang Lan carried Yao Rong back to their resting spot, she discovered that her little daughter had already fallen unconscious.
Terrified, she immediately picked the girl up and ran toward Songyang Village.
The day before, she had heard that there was a female doctor in Songyang Village.
She planned to use her family’s dried meat as payment and beg the doctor to save her daughter.
So before leaving, Fang Lan took all of their food supplies with her.
Meanwhile, Yang Houyao returned empty-handed after failing to find any food.
Already in a foul mood, he began asking around about Fang Lan’s whereabouts.
“Has anyone seen where Fang went?
“Wasn’t her daughter’s head injured?
“Why isn’t she resting? Did she run off with the child?”
A nearby villager who lived close to the Yao family pointed in a direction.
“We saw Fang carrying her daughter toward Songyang Village.
“She took all of their food with her too.
“She probably went to ask the female doctor there to treat the child.
“The food is likely her payment.”
The Yang family members immediately became agitated.
In their minds, that food had already been promised to them.
That meant it belonged to them.
How could it possibly be given away to someone else?
Yang Houyao immediately began persuading his elder brother, Yang Houzhao.
“Big Brother, Yao Daqiang already promised that food to me as compensation for my medical expenses.
“How can his wife give it away to someone else?
“That makes no sense.
“We should hurry over and get our food back.”
Yang Houzhao thought about the large bundle of food.
Most of it was meat.
His mouth practically watered.
Still, he was wary of Lu Yao.
After a moment of hesitation, he said,
“Second Brother, maybe we should wait until Fang returns.
“We can’t afford to offend the doctor from Songyang Village.
“We’ve got a long road ahead of us.
“It’s important to stay on good terms with a physician.”
Seeing his brother wavering, Yang Houyao became anxious.
His arm was broken.
If he didn’t get the food, he’d suffer for nothing.
How could he accept that?
So he pressed harder.
“Big Brother, what if Fang gives all the food to the doctor?
“I heard that female doctor doesn’t have any food of her own.
“Her mother-in-law threw her out with nothing.
“She’s exactly the sort of person who needs food right now.”
That argument finally worked.
Yang Houzhao glanced around.
The eyes of the others were full of greed and anticipation.
He also knew that maintaining his authority depended on keeping the Yang family satisfied.
Finally, he nodded.
“All right.
“We’ll make a trip to Songyang Village.
“But everyone listens to me.
“No acting recklessly.
“And absolutely do not offend the doctor.”
Since the village chief had agreed, nobody objected.
Soon a group of twenty to thirty men marched toward Songyang Village.
The moment they reached the outskirts, they were stopped by the patrol.
The person leading the patrol happened to be Song Qingsong.
“Which village are you from?
“What are you doing in Songyang Village?”
Standing on someone else’s territory, Yang Houzhao immediately lowered his attitude.
“We’re from Xiaoyang Village.
“I’m the village chief.
“We’ve come looking for a woman from our village named Fang.”
Song Qingsong immediately remembered.
Earlier, a woman carrying an injured little girl had come asking for the female doctor.
Feeling sorry for them, he had allowed them through.
Now, only a short while later, an entire group of men had arrived looking for the same mother and daughter.
Although he didn’t know the details, he had heard about the fighting that had broken out in Xiaoyang Village.
Looking over the crowd, he noticed that only one man seemed injured.
That made it fairly obvious who the aggressors had been.
Instantly, disgust filled him.
“You can’t enter,” he said coldly.
“If you’re looking for someone, you can wait here.”
The men behind Yang Houzhao immediately became unhappy.
The village chief had only warned them not to offend the doctor.
He had never said they couldn’t offend Songyang villagers.
Several men stepped forward, clearly intending to force their way through.
A mocking smile appeared on Song Qingsong’s face.
Slowly, he drew a long saber from behind his back.
At the same time, nearby patrol members noticed the situation.
One after another, they approached carrying gleaming sabers.
The sight of those cold, shining blades instantly crushed the Xiaoyang villagers’ courage.
Like frightened quails, they immediately backed down.
In the end, Yang Houzhao could only lead everyone back to Xiaoyang Village’s camp in humiliation.
Meanwhile, Fang Lan had finally learned where Lu Yao was staying.
Holding Yao Rong tightly, she rushed through the snow as fast as she could.
She was so anxious that she fell several times along the way.
At that moment, Lu Yao had just finished explaining how to build handcarts to Song Hongsheng.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a woman desperately running toward them while carrying a child.
Because the snow was deep, the woman stumbled repeatedly.
Lu Yao’s keen senses immediately picked up the faint scent of blood in the air.
She dropped the vine she had been holding and stood up instantly.
In her previous life, she had been a doctor.
Helping injured people had become second nature.
While most people struggled to move through the snow, Lu Yao crossed the distance in only a few strides.
Reaching Fang Lan, she immediately looked down at the child in her arms.
Fang Lan stared at the young woman before her.
She had difficulty believing that someone so young could be the famous female doctor everyone had been talking about.
But she had already searched everywhere.
There were no other women nearby.
This had to be her.
Hesitantly, she asked,
“Are you the female doctor?”
Lu Yao replied with only two words.
“Lu Yao.”
Without another explanation, she reached out and took Yao Rong from Fang Lan’s arms.
The girl’s breathing was unstable.
Until she was examined properly, there was no way to know what was wrong.
Fang Lan felt confused by the answer.
Fortunately, Song Hongsheng stepped in.
“She means her name is Lu Yao.
“She is the female doctor from Songyang Village.
“You’ve found the right person.”
Only then did Fang Lan finally relax.
Quickly, she followed after Lu Yao.
Inside the handcart, the three Song children had already woken up.
Curiously, they watched everything unfolding around them.
The moment Song Zixuan saw Lu Yao carrying another little girl, he immediately climbed out of the cart.
With his short legs working as fast as possible, he hurried over.
“Mother, do you need help?”
Seeing that Lu Yao’s hands were full, he offered immediately.
Looking at him, Lu Yao spoke quickly but calmly.
“I need hot water.
“And I need a cloth spread on the ground.
“Can you do that?”
Hot water might be difficult.
At the moment, nobody had dry firewood.
Starting a fire wasn’t easy.
But laying out a cloth was simple enough.
Song Zixuan nodded.
He hurried back to the cart and pulled out the old cloth.
When Song Ziyang saw this, he wanted to help too.
But Song Zixuan immediately stopped him.
“Ziyang, stay inside with Little Sister.
“I’ll help Mother.
“You’ll have plenty of chances to help later.
“Watching Little Sister is helping too.”
Song Ziyang pouted.
Still, he obediently stayed inside the cart.
By the time Song Zixuan returned with the cloth, Song Hongsheng had already cleared a patch of snow.
The boy spread the cloth on the ground.
Lu Yao laid Yao Rong down and began carefully examining the wound.
The injury was on the girl’s head.
The repeated falls during Fang Lan’s frantic journey had reopened the wound and worsened the bleeding.
Yao Rong had already been physically weak to begin with.
Now her face was so pale it looked like paper.
It was an alarming sight.
Gently parting the girl’s hair, Lu Yao located the wound.
It was situated on the back of the head, slightly toward the upper right side.
Relief flickered across her face.
Fortunately, only superficial capillaries appeared to be damaged.
The blood loss looked dramatic, but the injury itself wasn’t serious.
At this point, all she really needed to do was stop the bleeding and bandage the wound.
Ideally, she would have placed a couple of stitches.
That would help the wound heal faster and reduce scarring.
Unfortunately, conditions were too primitive.
Stopping the bleeding would have to do.
Watching the blood-soaked scene from nearby, Song Zixuan suddenly felt dizzy.
His face turned pale.
Staggering slightly, he set off to find hot water.
Seeing this, Song Hongsheng realized a child unfamiliar with the villagers would have trouble obtaining any.
Who would willingly hand over precious hot water?
So he followed after the boy.
Together, they searched through the camp.
Half the camp later, they still hadn’t found a single fire.
Just as they were preparing to return empty-handed, they finally spotted a family resting behind a large tree.
It was Yang Dajin’s family.