The Daily Life of a Down-on-Hard-Life Medicine Girl Supporting Her Family

Chapter 66 Old Chen Can't Walk Anymore
Seeing his wife making such a threat, Uncle Luo was both angry and amused.

In the end, I decided to take a two-week break before going back to work.

However, he spoke highly of the medicinal wine.

"When I first applied it, it stung a little, but after a while it started to itch. The itch wasn't unpleasant, but rather quite comfortable." Uncle Luo said, "Chunnuan, is your medicinal wine expensive? If it's not, I'll talk to my old friends and buy some to apply. It's good to be healthy so we can work properly. Otherwise, we'll always have aches and pains here and there."

"Uncle Luo, this is all the medicinal wine I have. If you want more, I'll make some later." Chun Nuan handed over the medicinal wine: "It can be divided among five people."

"how much is it?"

Uncle Luo thought it must be very expensive.

"This medicinal wine is a complimentary item. Since they are Uncle Luo's friends, let's just charge a token amount, twenty coins per person."

"Okay, okay, I'll go get the money for you right away."

The price was far beyond his expectations. It was effective and inexpensive. He had thought it would cost at least several hundred coins, so the price was unbelievably cheap.

"Spring warmth, isn't your price too cheap?"

Aunt Luo, however, saw through the scheme: "You absolutely mustn't lose money. Besides, such good medicinal wine, if everyone knew about it, they would definitely want to buy it from you. And you're only selling it for such a small amount of money?"

"Uncle Luo, Aunt Luo, I forgot to mention something," Chunnuan said. "This medicinal wine is only sold to your friends, Uncle. Anyone else will have to pay ten taels of silver per jar. Also, don't say I made it for you, just say..."

Aunt Luo was stunned for a long time.

The claim that it's a family recipe passed down from an elderly person in the mountains is indeed convincing.
The so-called friends of Lao Luo were the boatmen.

The brothers who pulled the boat together were truly of one mind; they would really step up when something happened.

The others are, of course, wealthy gentlemen. But would wealthy gentlemen buy this kind of medicinal wine?

"This is effective for joint pain, neck pain, dizziness, and lower back pain," Chunnuan said. "It's also suitable for some cases of chronic leg pain."

Who hasn't experienced backaches and pains as they get older?
In other words, this medicinal wine has many uses, and it's not just for boatmen.

Aunt Luo was a smart woman, and she understood that this was Chunnuan's way of showing them care.

After spring passed, the couple started talking about the Xiao family again.

“My grandfather said that when the old doctor returned to his hometown to visit relatives, he was very kind. He didn’t charge poor people in the village who came to see him for treatment. He also had a deal with the Zhao family of Baicaotang. He said that as long as he prescribed medicine, the herbs would not be too expensive, because he was afraid that they would not be able to afford the medicine if it was too expensive.”

"No wonder, the young master of the Zhao family and the Xiao family still have dealings," Aunt Luo suddenly realized. "It seems that their ancestors had a long-standing relationship. This is what they call a family friendship?"

"That's right. Back then, the Xiao family wasn't a big family at all. It was just a large number of people with the same surname. They lived by renting land and houses. It was the eldest branch of the Xiao family that produced a royal physician in the capital, who later became the head of the Imperial Medical Academy. The clan members relied on his family, and in the end, they elected the old royal physician's father as the clan leader."

"The patriarch of a family naturally has to make some contributions to the family. The old patriarch acquired several acres of ancestral land and held a Qingming Festival gathering every year. The Xiao family began to prosper. When the old imperial physician's son also became an imperial physician, he moved his entire branch of the family to the capital. However, they still sent New Year's gifts and ancestral land to the family every year. Gradually, the Xiao family became a prominent family in Changzhou. Later, even Baiyun Wharf became the Xiao family's territory..."

"But in the end, the Xiao family repaid kindness with enmity and exterminated Chunnuan and her family."

"Yes, this incident shows how ungrateful and heartless they are."

"Alas, when you're rich, even distant relatives come to visit; when you're poor, no one cares even in the bustling city," Aunt Luo said. "To be honest, I think we poor people have more conscience than the rich. We would never kick someone when they're down."

"They say if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too; if the middle beam is crooked, it will collapse. The current patriarch of the Xiao clan is no good." Uncle Luo said, "Don't be fooled by how arrogant and powerful the Xiao clan is to outsiders. In fact, things are in chaos inside. We don't even know who will be the next patriarch." "It doesn't matter who it is," Aunt Luo said, "They're all ruthless."

Uncle Luo nodded and sighed.

Every family has its own troubles; the poor have their own helplessness, and the rich have their own problems.

"Forget it, other people's business is none of our concern," Uncle Luo said. "Since Chunnuan gave me the medicinal wine, I'll send some to Old Chen. He couldn't walk for a while."

"Go ahead, and come back soon. Remember, don't go into the river to pull the boat. Your life is more important."

"I know, I know, you're not old yet and you're already being long-winded."

"You think I'm being long-winded? I can't be bothered with you. I've already told you, if anything really happens to you, I'll..."

"Yes, yes, yes, I can't let you have the chance to remarry."

The couple laughed and teased each other as they went about their own work.

Old Chen lived near Xiaojia Wharf, and when he heard that Old Luo had arrived, he could only let him into the house to talk.

"How's it going?"

"Oh, it's so difficult. I can't sleep at night because of the pain, and I can't even walk. My brother, I'm afraid I'm just going to be crippled like this." Old Chen's eyes reddened. "I'm only forty-six years old. Am I going to spend the rest of my life in this bed? There are thirteen people in my family, old and young, all of them need to eat and drink. How am I going to manage? How am I going to survive?"

"I've even been thinking, maybe one day I'll have to take a bowl to the docks and beg for food?"

"Brother, don't say that."

Seeing that Old Chen's knees were red and swollen, and that he looked much more haggard, Uncle Luo was still shaken.

Thinking about the warmth of spring, I made up my mind: I must rest for half a month and take my medicine properly.

He doesn't want to be lying in bed crying at such a young age.

"Hey bro, look what this is!"

"What?" Old Chen suddenly smelled the alcohol. "Brother, are you inviting me for a drink? Your earthenware bottle is so small, it probably doesn't even hold two ounces. You can't even drink two sips."

They also drink alcohol, especially in winter. When they start working, they'll drink a few mouthfuls of liquor to warm themselves up before jumping into the river and not feel the cold. After pulling the boat ashore, they'll drink a few more mouthfuls of liquor.

That means he survived the entire winter on alcohol!
But now that Lao Luo has brought the wine, it's pointless to drink it; we can't work anyway.

"Brother, this isn't liquor, and it's not for you to drink, it's for you to wipe yourself down."

"Was it wiped?"

"Yes, it's for rubbing your legs. Rub it wherever it hurts," Uncle Luo said mysteriously, recalling Chunnuan's words. "This is a secret recipe passed down from a hunter's family. It works very well."

"real or fake?"

(End of this chapter)