Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn
Chapter 48 - 47: Seeking Medical Help in the Miao Village

Chapter 48: Chapter 47: Seeking Medical Help in the Miao Village

"Xiao Xian, let’s go over and have a look too," Zhu Shijun guessed from the looks of Qian family’s father and son just now that Wang Chunhua was probably faking her illness, but San Gouzi’s news was a sign that something was definitely not right.

In the time it took San Gouzi to bring the news, the villagers had already surrounded the Qian family’s house in two layers, inside and out. Ma Sisa, the neighbor of the Qian family, was the first to notice that something was amiss.

"When the Qian family mother and daughter-in-law fell ill, I happened to be in the yard slaughtering a chicken. I had just boiled a pot of water when I heard two ’thumps’ from next door and then their Dongzi started crying," Ma Sisa recounted vividly to the neighbors. She felt something was off: why wasn’t there an adult comforting the crying child? So she went over to check.

The door of the Qian family was still closed, with a pile of stripped sugarcane peels by the door. Ma Sisa knocked on the door a few times but got no response from inside. She pushed open the door and saw Wang Chunhua and her mother-in-law lying crookedly on the ground. Lifting their eyelids, she saw that their eyelids were yellow and waxy, their eyeballs looked like dead fish eyes, rolling upwards, they couldn’t stand or be steadied, leaning crookedly in the corner, unable to speak clearly. The Qian family’s only grandson, Dongzi, was in slightly better condition; after throwing up a few mouthfuls of white foam and being given some salt water by the neighbors, he could speak.

"Dongzi, tell Dad, what happened?" Qian Duoduo was really frantic; his wife and mother were both half out of breath, and there wasn’t a medical clinic or health center in Ge Village. It was also getting dark outside, and driving now, aside from the question of whether the road conditions would allow reaching the town, would leave good people worn down to exhaustion.

"Sugarcane, boo hoo," the little boy still held half of a sugarcane stick that he hadn’t finished chewing, tears brimming in his eyes. He was so young, he followed along and ate whatever the adults gave him. After biting into the sugarcane just a few times, before even tasting the sweetness, he felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

The mother and daughter-in-law of the Qian family were greedy and ate quickly, and they had consumed a whole stalk of sugarcane.

The villagers gathered outside heard everything clearly. They all said that Wang Chunhua had gotten hydrophobia and couldn’t get out of bed, so how could she start eating sugarcane.

"What’s going on? Why is a crowd gathered at the door?" The village chief, Jin Dafu, had also just returned from Miao Village. Seeing nearly a hundred people talking in three circles, he asked around and found out that there’d been an incident, "What are you waiting for? Pinch the philtrum, give some salt water, and if that doesn’t work, send them down the mountain," Jin Dafu also discerned some clues. He took a few remaining stalks of sugarcane from the Qian family and looked at their purple skins and green leaves but couldn’t discern the cause. The same sugarcane was kept bundled in every household in the village; none had fallen ill from eating it. Jin Dafu murmured, "But the reaction of this mother and daughter-in-law was just like that of their family’s pig that got sick from eating spoiled food a few years ago."

"Village chief, we can’t send them down; I just drove back and the road’s really slippery. Once it’s dark, you can hardly keep control of the steering wheel," said San Gouzi, who had been driving for seven or eight years and was very familiar with road conditions. The road to Xia Ge Village was dangerous in summer and winter out of all seasons. In winter, the road surface would freeze, and in summer, heavy rains made it prone to mudslides. Driving required extreme caution.

Even a skilled driver like San Gouzi dared not drive at night, let alone Qian Duoduo. Qian Duoduo had just gotten his driving license at the end of this year, and the second-hand Santana he had bought was mainly to show off in the village. He already scraped it driving in broad daylight, let alone at night.

Qian Duoduo was in a real dilemma: on one side was the borrowed car and his own life, and on the other side were the lives of his mother and wife.

"Village chief, the situation doesn’t look good; their hands and feet are ice cold," the women from the village were chattering as they looked at Qian family’s mother and daughter-in-law. Secretary Qian squatted at the doorway, smoking a cigarette, also uncertain of what to do.

Zhu Shijun also stepped forward to check, feeling their body temperature, both were ice-cold, any slight abnormality in body temperature could lead to serious illness. He then picked up the sugarcane stump gnawed on by Dongzi, finding the center had turned red. "The sugarcane has gone moldy, they need to be sent for medical treatment quickly." Zhu Shijun had read news reports about sugarcane poisoning before; in the most severe cases, it could be fatal.

Xiao Xian watched from the side, almost blurting out the truth, "It’s fine, it’s just mildly moldy sugarcane. Take some mung bean soup and it will be better by the next day." During the time spent behind the Qian family’s house, Xiao Xian had noticed a few specks of mold on the sugarcane and examined them: "One-year-old sugarcane with black skin has a mild mold infection at the root, which, if eaten improperly, can cause vomiting and unconsciousness."

The instructions in the Iron-Grade Space were crystal clear; it was just vomiting and unconsciousness, but Xiao Xian hadn’t expected that her spit not only revived the sugarcane but also activated its toxin. Among the three from the Qian family, Wang Chunhua was the first to eat it, consuming the most toxic part, the root, and thus exhibiting the most severe symptoms. Without three to five days of rest, it would be difficult to recover strength, but that being said, it wouldn’t be fatal.

"Or, let’s take them to Miao Village across the way," Zhu Shijun pointed in the direction of the mountains, and upon hearing this, the village chief slapped his thigh and responded: "How come I didn’t think of that? There’s no doctor in Dongnan Miao Village, but they have a Great Wizard who is even more skilled than a doctor."

Hearing that they didn’t have to go down the mountain, Qian Duoduo and San Gouzi, along with several other men from the village, found a few poles and wrapped the sick firmly with a few thick quilts, then set off towards Dongnan Miao Village.

"Grandpa, let’s follow and have a look," Xiao Xian said, remembering the unexpected changes just from spitting on the purple-skinned sugarcane.

"We should go and see," Zhu Shijun said, leading Xiao Xian and a dozen others including the Ge Village Chief, swiftly crossing over the ropeway.

When reaching the ropeway between the two mountains, Xiao Xian felt a bit scared, but fortunately, White Dragon Pond was calm today. It must have been because she used the Cloud Ascension Technique that night and coincided with the space absorbing Spiritual Power from the outside, which disturbed the creature beneath White Dragon Pond.

The Ge Village people, carrying poles and accompanied by a dozen Han men, hadn’t yet found the tower where the Dongnan Miao Village’s Great Wizard was before they were surrounded by a group of Miao family men led by Yibar.

Village chief Jin Dafu hurried forward to explain the situation, thinking that since saving lives was as urgent as putting out a fire, Yibar would allow them to pass after hearing the situation. Unexpectedly, Yibar frowned, speaking in a half-mocking tone: "No, the Great Wizard is not well, he’s not in the mood to treat people from the Han Clan."

As soon as these words were spoken, the people from Ge Village refused to accept this, and the two groups gathered at the entrance of Miao Village were on the verge of a fight.

Xiao Xian was small and short, held by Zhu Shijun without a clear view of what was happening ahead. Just as she was about to push through the crowd, she heard someone calling, "Zhu Xiaoxian." Turning around, she saw the Miao family boy Yezi standing close by, with the enthusiastic tail-wagging Dahuang beside him, and even more surprisingly, on Dahuang’s back...