Chapter 43: The Diarrhea-Inducing Version of Spiritual Spring Water
It was dark.
A new tree had appeared at Jiang Mianmian’s doorstep. One was a Red Crow fruit tree, and she didn’t know the name of the other.
Its leaves were large and thick.
The head of the household, Jiang Changtian, returned home.
He had seen The Peddler and his wife at the county government office and only then realized that his family had almost fallen apart, with two-thirds of the five-member family having gone missing.
Jiang Changtian watched The Peddler and his wife with a smile, looking at their bloody state, and listening to the crowd pointing and whispering.
“The Kidnappers are too detestable.”
“Those who steal children should all be beaten to death.”
“These two Kidnappers are miserable too, injured like this; they’re even leaking air.”
…
Jiang Changtian smiled faintly, watching and listening intently.
No one could tell that he was the victim.
He even chatted in detail with people about where these Kidnappers came from and how they kidnapped people.
He heard that a group of youths had acted chivalrously and rescued them.
If they hadn’t been rescued, they would have been sold into a brothel; it was pitiful.
Girls in brothels aren’t treated as humans; they are used like livestock.
The Kidnappers claimed they had difficulties, saying they had a foolish son who needed medicine.
The Peddler’s hometown was in He County, which wasn’t actually far. He had entrusted someone to take care of his foolish son while he himself was out committing such deeds.
How could medicine be so expensive? He must have been scammed…
…
Jiang Changtian turned and left.
He walked quickly towards home.
Along the way, he even wore a smile on his face, greeting people with extra warmth.
He was that kind of person: the more he hated inside, the more gentle his smile appeared, and his appearance became even more striking, as if he couldn’t hide it even if he tried.
He thought that his Mother was right; he was a bad person, the kind of person who was bad to the bone.
There was evil and cruelty in his very bones.
He felt like going crazy at any moment.
Just like now.
On his way home, he passed number forty-four, forty-five, forty-six, and forty-seven on West Street…
His footsteps did not falter.
Just like any other day, he walked forward, turned a corner, and bought four meat buns.
Then he walked back.
Just as usual.
He walked quickly home.
Looking like a frail scholar, he carried the meat buns on his person, along with a sharp knife.
It was small, pointed, and very sharp.
The knife was his courage.
His family was his soul.
…
Arrived home.
He saw Sister Xia planting trees.
He saw Jiang Feng with his arm hanging limp, leaning against a chair.
He saw Sister Yu holding Mianmian.
He saw that everyone was there.
He slowly let out a breath.
The hand under his sleeve still couldn’t stop trembling.
It was shaking badly.
He habitually wanted to cough, but didn’t.
It seemed the snake gall Sister Xia fed him had an excellent effect.
Otherwise, he felt he wouldn’t have been able to make it home; the closer he got to home, the more afraid he became.
Afraid that there would be no one at home.
Afraid that the news he heard was fake and that the Kidnappers had already sold them.
Now that he saw the whole family was there, he still couldn’t stop trembling.
He gave the meat buns to his second daughter and reached out to take his youngest daughter.
Feeling the slight weight in his arms, soft and smelling of milk, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It wasn’t a dream.
His family was all there.
…
For dinner, they had a hearty and satisfying meal: dried vegetables cooked with unknown cured meat (python meat) and coarse grains, plus the meat buns.
After a terrifying day, Jiang Mianmian was already able to secretly add ingredients for her family.
This living environment was too harsh; she urgently needed to improve everyone’s physical fitness.
She didn’t ask for great wealth, only to survive.
The family ate with great relish, thinking it was the aroma of the meat, and with meat buns, how could it not be delicious?
Jiang Yu ate with particular relish, wiping away tears while she ate. She thought, if she had really been sold, she certainly wouldn’t be able to eat such delicious meat soup and meat buns.
Jiang Feng ate with great relish, keeping his head down. One arm was still hanging limp, and he didn’t dare look at Father and Mother, not knowing how to explain the matter of ambushing outside the city.
Jiang Changtian ate very earnestly, bite by bite, eating the wild vegetable and meat soup with a sense of elegance.
Qin Luoxia ate a lot; she needed to breastfeed and had to eat more.
Food could not only fill an empty stomach but also soothe mental unease.
At any time, one must first be full to have the strength to survive.
After the meal.
Mother fed Mianmian.
Father washed the dishes.
Jiang Yu cleaned up.
Her older brother tried to help, but was pushed away, and he felt a bit panicked.
Mianmian gulped down her food, clinging to Mother, eating ravenously.
She had also been scared out of her wits.
Her swaddling clothes had been chewed to shreds by Little Hei, and she had dropped them along the way to leave a trail.
Mother was so smart to have actually found them.
Jiang Mianmian became even more dependent on Mother; she swore that the next time Mother went to dig for wild vegetables, she would throw a tantrum, poop, and pee if she had to, just to go with her.
Although her older sister was also very good, her sister’s brain followed her stomach…
And there was her brother; Jiang Mianmian wanted to see how Mother would deal with him if she found out he had gone to rob people.
Jiang Mianmian wanted to wait and watch the drama…
As a result, after drinking a full meal of milk, she couldn’t help but fall fast asleep.
Really, she couldn’t help it; she was too tired and sleepy.
She was sleeping so soundly she started snoring softly.
By the time Jiang Mianmian opened her eyes again, she found it was very dark; it must have been the middle of the night.
But only Father was on the bed; Mother was not there.
“Eeya yaya” (Mother, Mother), she opened her mouth and called out.
Jiang Changtian picked up the child and coaxed, “Your older sister was frightened during the day and has a bit of a fever now. Your Mother went to take care of her and will be over in a while.”
In the dark night, Father held her and rocked her gently.
She also wanted to see how her older sister was doing. No matter how much of a handful she was, she was still just a girl in her early teens—a primary schooler by modern standards—so she was surely frightened.
“Eeya yaya” (Want to go see sister), Jiang Mianmian tugged at Father’s sleeve.
Jiang Changtian actually understood; he wrapped a garment around his little daughter and carried her out.
Seeing her husband carry their daughter over, Qin Luoxia took the daughter and breastfed her.
“Husband, go back to sleep for a while. Sister Yu is fine, just a bit of a fever. It’s mainly because the water that The Peddler gave her wasn’t clean; she’s having diarrhea now and has made many trips. The young girl is shy and doesn’t want you to see,” Qin Luoxia said while breastfeeding.
Jiang Changtian yawned but didn’t go to sleep; instead, he went to the kitchen to start a fire and boil water.
Jiang Mianmian drank her milk, her eyes rolling around. She was wide awake in the middle of the night, full of energy. She figured Sister Yu’s diarrhea must have been because she added spiritual spring water to dinner.
The diarrhea-inducing version of the spiritual spring water—only Sister Yu was reacting like this.
According to her observations, after Mother drank the spiritual spring water, her strength increased, her milk tasted better, and it seemed her breasts had grown larger and her milk supply was more abundant; she hadn’t observed anything else yet.
And her brother’s strength should have also increased; otherwise, given how fierce The Peddler and his wife looked, having beaten the other brothers to a pulp, only her brother, holding a spear and stabbing at them, could have kept them from dodging.
Her brother had another change: he loved to stroke her head and was clingy with her.
After Father drank the spiritual spring water, it seemed he didn’t cough anymore. It felt like his strength hadn’t increased—he still held her as if she were light as a feather, and his hands were still a bit cold—but his appearance seemed to have improved, with obvious changes.
She didn’t know what would happen to Sister Yu. She drank her milk and watched her sister hobble over, her legs numb from squatting, and she smelled stinky. While drinking milk, she even pushed her hand out, not wanting her sister to come close.
Jiang Yu:…
She had really just seen her baby sister, who was drinking milk, roll her eyes at her and show an expression of disgust—really!
She had always been healthy since she was little, very robust, and rarely got sick. This time, she really suffered; the diarrhea was so smelly that she felt like she was going to be knocked out by her own stench. It must have been that the water from The Peddler was problematic; it had gone sour…
She swore that in the future, if she ate anything of unknown origin, she would be careful and taste it first before considering whether to finish it.
Jiang Yu, pale as a sheet, turned and ran back to the latrine…
Jiang Mianmian innocently continued drinking milk. The milk source was healthy and abundant; drink good milk, grow up tall.
