“Where’s the child?”
Hearing that the child was convulsing, Xiao Mandong grew anxious. Big Girl was already dead, and Ma Juan was still lying in the hospital. If Second Girl got into trouble too, Ma Juan probably wouldn’t have any hope of living on at all.
“My home… at… at my house.” Aunt Xu was so frantic that she could barely speak coherently.
Xiao Mandong couldn’t be bothered to argue with Chen Guixiang any longer. She locked the door and ran outside after Aunt Xu.
Chen Guixiang still wanted to say something, but a neighbor beside her tugged at her arm.
“All right, that’s enough. Can’t you see they’re rushing to save someone’s life?”
Chen Guixiang watched their retreating figures and stamped her feet. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
“What kind of person is she? She wouldn’t even give us two pieces of meat. How stingy can someone be? One person eats their fill while the whole family goes hungry? She earns so much money that she could never spend it all. What’s wrong with helping families like ours who are struggling? It’s not as if we wanted it for free—we were going to trade potatoes for it. I’ve never seen anyone so awful.”
Another woman chimed in, “If you ask me, she’s just mean-hearted. Big Girl from next door, Ma Juan’s daughter, had only just died, and she was already stewing meat at home, as if she were celebrating some happy occasion. Someone like that is actually a doctor? She doesn’t have an ounce of compassion.”
The two women took turns gossiping about Xiao Mandong, spittle flying as they spoke.
When they arrived at Aunt Xu’s house, they saw Second Girl lying on the kang, her face flushed bright red. Every so often, her body would jerk. The child had already been running a fever, and the fright she had just suffered had made it even worse. The convulsions might have been caused by neurological damage from the high fever. If she wasn’t treated in time, she could end up like Bowen.
Xiao Mandong checked the child’s pulse first, then used a silver needle to let a little blood from the tip of her ear. She asked Aunt Xu to boil some water. While Aunt Xu was out, she gave the child a little spirit spring water and some fever medicine.
Xiao Mandong had always been confident in the effects of the spirit spring water. By the time Aunt Xu returned with a basin of hot water, Second Girl had stopped convulsing, and her face was no longer as red. Xiao Mandong used a hot towel to wipe the child’s body. After a dozen minutes, Second Girl’s breathing gradually slowed from rapid and labored to steady.
“Doctor Xiao, thank you so much. You can just call me Aunt Xu. I was absolutely terrified just now.”
Only after seeing that the child was all right did Aunt Xu finally press a hand to her chest and calm herself. She had taken pity on the child and thought that, as an old woman with nothing much to do at home, she could spend some time looking after her so Ma Juan could recover in peace. She never expected the child’s condition to suddenly worsen. She had first gone to Director Qi’s home, but Director Qi and her daughter had gone out on an errand. Fortunately, Doctor Xiao lived in the family compound.
Xiao Mandong touched the child’s forehead again. The fever had gone down. She checked her pulse once more, and after confirming that there was no immediate danger, she stood up.
“Aunt Xu, don’t worry. The child is fine now. Once she wakes up, give her some thin porridge or something similar. If anything happens, come call me anytime.”
Gu Jianghan was still chopping firewood at home. She hadn’t even had time to tell him where she was going. She needed to get back quickly. After all, he was a guest, and it really wasn’t right to leave without saying a word.
“All right, all right. I really have to thank you for the trouble.” Aunt Xu took Xiao Mandong’s hand and walked her to the door.
There was a burn scar on Aunt Xu’s face. It looked rather frightening, but she gave off the impression of being a genuinely kind person.
Xiao Mandong had only just reached home when Gu Jianghan came in through the back door from the courtyard. Even in the dead of winter, beads of sweat covered his forehead.
Looking out the window, Xiao Mandong saw that Gu Jianghan had chopped an entire cartload of firewood. He had even stacked the split logs in neat rows against the base of the wall.
He had been working outside and had no idea what had happened in the hallway.
“Um… I’ll heat up the food. Go wash your hands first.” With that, Xiao Mandong handed Gu Jianghan the thermos she had been carrying.
She reheated the dishes, and after Gu Jianghan washed his face, the two of them sat down at the table.
“Thank you for today…” Xiao Mandong took out a bottle of Moutai infused with ginseng that she had prepared for her grandfather. As she spoke, she filled Gu Jianghan’s glass, then poured a small cup for herself as well. It felt as if she hadn’t had a drink in two lifetimes.
“Have some. It’ll warm you up.”
Xiao Mandong raised her glass.
Gu Jianghan lightly clinked it against hers and took a small sip. The fragrance of the liquor burned down his throat, warming his entire body.
He rarely drank. In the army, he could be called away on a mission at any time. His tolerance was actually decent, but everyone in his family turned red when they drank, so whenever he went out drinking, he would pretend to be drunk.
After one glass, Gu Jianghan’s face had turned red, and his ears were even redder.
After a few sips, Xiao Mandong felt warm, and the alcohol emboldened her. Looking at his flushed ears, she suddenly laughed.
“Gu Jianghan, your ears are red.”
“Call me Brother Jianghan. Honestly, you have no manners.” Gu Jianghan liked hearing her call him Brother Jianghan. It made him feel as though he had truly returned to his childhood.
“All right, all right, Brother Jianghan. Do you remember stealing my grandfather’s liquor when you were little? After you drank it, you slept for an entire day and wet the new quilt Grandma had just made.”
Gu Jianghan was caught so off guard by her words that he nearly choked on his drink. Yet deep down, he felt an indescribable happiness. Ever since seeing her again this time, she had seemed weighed down by sorrow, with none of the carefree spirit she’d had as a girl. After drinking, she finally showed a trace of her former self.
The two of them drank and chatted, moving from amusing stories of their childhood to the recklessness of their youth, and then to their relationships as adults. Xiao Mandong had kept her emotions bottled up for two lifetimes. Encouraged by the alcohol, she said a great deal.
Of course, she wasn’t drunk. She simply wanted to confide her feelings in someone she trusted. It was the first time she had spoken about them to an outsider, and it felt as though she had finally shed her armor. Her whole body relaxed.
Whether in her previous life or this one, she had never truly vented her emotions like this—not even to her younger sister. There had always been too many things to consider. She was really tired.
She didn’t sob or make a scene. She told herself that she had come back, that she was lucky. Crying? That was something only fools did. She was going to make the people who had wronged her cry instead.
Gu Jianghan felt sorry for everything she had been through, and he told her about his own family. His mother had died ten years earlier. His father had later married a stepmother, who didn’t get along with his grandmother. A few months ago, she had angered his grandmother so badly that the old woman fell ill. She had then come to stay with his grandaunt to clear her mind. Worried about her, Gu Jianghan had requested a temporary reassignment from the army and come here with his younger brother to keep her company.
As Xiao Mandong continued talking, her voice gradually grew softer, and her head began to droop. This time, she was genuinely a little dizzy. The Gu Jianghan before her blurred into two figures, then slowly merged back into one.
“You’ve had too much to drink.” Gu Jianghan reached out to take her glass.
Xiao Mandong set it down. “I am a little dizzy. I can’t drink anymore. I’m going to wash my face. Take your time eating.”
She hadn’t expected her tolerance to have dropped after such a long time without drinking. Normally, she would have thought she could handle this much without any trouble.
