Chapter 122: Sick
Su Yaoguang pushed the door open and entered, catching a whiff of the overpowering stench that nearly knocked her out.
She covered her nose and walked to the bedside, looking at Zhou Wangshu lying there gasping for breath, her eyes full of shock.
“How did it turn out like this?”
She first moved the things inside, then checked Zhou Wangshu’s condition.
From the moment she stepped in here, she hadn’t stopped underfoot, from decocting medicine for Zhou Wangshu to cleaning the entire room inside and out, and finally fumigating it with mugwort. By the time she finished all this, it was already afternoon.
She covered her mouth and nose with a cloth and went to the kitchen.
“Uncle, could you help me boil some hot water and send it to the room?” Su Yaoguang said as she handed over two taels of silver ingots. “I know you’ll be very busy during this time, sorry for the trouble.”
The shop assistant in the kitchen immediately agreed upon seeing this.
They were originally responsible for serving these scholars; even without money, they had to do the work well. Now with so many sick scholars, after serving this one they had to serve that one; the scholars were even harder to serve than usual because they were sick. Meeting someone so polite who was even willing to give them a hardship fee, they only wished they could grow two extra hands to serve this little ancestor well.
After Su Yaoguang gave her instructions, she went back to take care of Zhou Wangshu.
On the other side, Jiang Yihuan regretted it as soon as she stepped into Xiao Yanci’s room.
She crouched nearby and vomited nonstop.
Xiao Yanci’s condition was a bit better than Zhou Wangshu’s. Although he lay there weakly, burning like a furnace, he was conscious, so he clearly saw Jiang Yihuan’s disgusted movements.
Jiang Yihuan dry-heaved for a long time before finally recovering. She went out the door, found a servant in the academy, and asked the servant to clean Xiao Yanci’s room.
“Sorry, we’re busy taking care of patients right now. Since you’ve come to take care of Xiao Scholar, please work a bit harder. We don’t have enough manpower here and must prioritize those with no one to care for them.”
“My body is delicate; I really can’t do any work.” Jiang Yihuan wiped nonexistent sweat from her forehead.
“Then what’s the use of you being here?” the ill-tempered servant nearby said fiercely.
“Enough, say a few less words.” Another person quickly stopped him.
“I… I also know I’m useless.” Jiang Yihuan’s eyes reddened, and she covered her face as she sobbed. “Sorry for causing you trouble, but I don’t know who else to ask.”
“You’re Jiang Scholar’s younger sister, right?” the servant said. “Why don’t you ask Jiang Scholar to help take care of him? They’re both men, and men have more strength.”
“Yeah, you’re family; how can you not take care of each other? Jiang Scholar is lively and jumping around; isn’t it inappropriate for you to ask us, who are serving over a dozen patients at once?”
A flash of impatience crossed Jiang Yihuan’s eyes.
If Jiang Yihui were willing to do these things, would she need to ask them? Besides, serving the scholars was their job in the first place, and they were trying to push it off like this—did they really think she was easy to bully?
Jiang Yihuan inwardly cursed these ‘lazy’ servants a dozen times before reluctantly pulling out a string of copper coins and stuffing it over. “Sorry for the trouble. My brother is a frail scholar and really doesn’t know how to take care of people.”
“Alright then!” The accommodating servant took it. “We’ll clean up Xiao Scholar’s room after we finish here. But young lady, even if we clean it today, it’ll be the same tomorrow, so you have to clean it yourself. As you’ve seen, we have to decoct medicine for so many people and be on call at all times; we really can’t take care of everything that thoroughly.”
“I understand.” Jiang Yihuan frowned and turned to leave.
Xiao Yanci waited and waited until the servants arrived to clean the room.
Jiang Yihuan hadn’t returned; no one knew where she went.
The two servants grumbled while cleaning, saying, “They’re both women, but you really can’t compare. The one from Zhou Scholar’s family has been busy the whole time: first decocting medicine for Zhou Scholar, then cleaning the entire room inside and out, and even fumigating the house with mugwort. I took a look just now, and the room was so clean, just like a new house.”
“I just came from the kitchen. Old Liu in the kitchen said Zhou Scholar’s older sister gave them two taels of silver to help boil water and carry it over so she could bathe him!”
“Two taels of silver? My god, that’s too generous. Just for boiling water, and she gave two taels of silver—why couldn’t I be helping in the kitchen?”
“This Su young lady originally volunteered to come take care of Zhou Scholar. Unlike the one from Xiao Scholar’s family—she was unwilling to come at first; it was the one from Zhou Scholar’s family who persuaded her, and that’s why she came.”
Xiao Yanci coughed violently.
In his previous life, he hadn’t left the academy and hadn’t gotten sick, so he didn’t know such things would happen.
If he’d known this would happen, he would have behaved himself. Unfortunately, there’s no ‘if only I’d known’ in this world, nor any regret medicine.
Huan’er, she…
Was she really as unwilling to come take care of him as they said?
No! Huan’er was so kind; she couldn’t possibly ignore him. It could only be said that the current Huan’er hadn’t fully fallen in love with him yet, so she still kept the boundaries between men and women in mind at all times. Once she loved him to the bone like in her previous life, she would give everything for him just like before.
It wasn’t Huan’er’s fault; it was that he hadn’t made her fall in love with him sooner.
“By the way, I need to correct you on one thing: that Su young lady isn’t Zhou Scholar’s older sister, but his wife.”
“What? But she said publicly that she’s Zhou Scholar’s older sister.”
“I heard Zhou Scholar is too young; they’ve only written a marriage certificate and haven’t held the wedding banquet yet. They might wait two years to hold the banquet before changing how they address each other!”
Xiao Yanci let out a light hum.
In her previous life, Su Yaoguang wished the whole world knew they were husband and wife and never said anything like brother and sister to outsiders. It showed she didn’t have much true heart for Zhou Wangshu either.
Jiang Yihuan finally returned.
She carried a basin of clear water in her hands and wiped Xiao Yanci’s body with a wrung-out towel.
“Two little brothers, please help him take a bath.” Jiang Yihuan said softly.
“Sorry, we really don’t have time; you wipe him down!” The two servants finished cleaning the room more or less and hurriedly left.
They’d only received fifty copper coins from her; she couldn’t expect them to be slaves just for Xiao Scholar, right?
Jiang Yihuan saw them run off so quickly that she turned red with anger. She turned around and met Xiao Yanci’s disappointed gaze.
“I just went to check on my brother. My mother was worried about him and told me to check on him first after coming in; I had to give her a report, so I went to see him. Luckily my brother is fine; otherwise, it really would’ve been hard to explain. Xiao Gege, are you feeling better?”
Xiao Yanci forced an ugly smile.
Jiang Yihuan truly regretted stepping into this academy. That bitch Su Yaoguang had schemed against her on purpose. Now that she was in, if she left again, this big fish Xiao Yanci might slip away.
