Chapter 47: fall ill
Chapter 47 Falling Sick
More than a month later, a ruined temple on the outskirts of Yuchang Mansion in Zhongzhou was filled with skinny victims.
It is now mid-October, and winter has entered Yuchang Prefecture in Zhongzhou. Although there is no snow, the temperature in the morning and evening is very low, and there will be a kind of white frost like snow.
A white-headed frost can chill people to the core.
The victims had nothing to keep out the cold, so they could only hide in groups in the ruined temples and light fires to keep warm.
In a thatched shed under the wall of the ruined temple, Gu Jinli and his family were hiding here to keep warm.
They bypassed Yongtai Mansion and went up Chidao, then turned right and headed south to Zhongzhou, but half of the land in Zhongzhou was dry and was also affected by the disaster.
The area affected by the disaster was too large, with half of Chu suffering from famine. The court's efforts in disaster relief were too small, and the food provided for disaster relief was far from enough.
The six prefectures in Zhongzhou were too busy to take care of themselves and did not dare to help the victims fleeing from the northwest. They closed the city gates tightly and asked the guards to set up roadblocks to block the roads and prevent the victims from entering the city.
They had no choice but to spend the night on the outskirts of Yuchang Mansion.
However, along the way to escape the famine, the temperature dropped sharply, and many victims suffered from colds.
Among Gu Jinli's group, the third grandmother, Lao Yan, Cheng Geer, Tian Xiaohua, Gu Dalin's youngest son Gu Qingxi, and Gu Dewang of Gu Dagui's family all got cold and developed high fever.
Gu Jinli found a lot of medicinal materials to treat wind and cold along the way, and now he has taken them all.
"Mother, Aunt Tian, Aunt Gui, and Aunt Damu, the medicine is ready. Come and get it quickly." Gu Jinli poured the prepared medicine into the wooden bowls and said to the women in the thatched shed.
"Did you finish it?" Mrs. Chen was the first one to rush out and grab the bowl of medicine that Gu Jinli had not yet poured. She carefully protected the medicine bowl, ran into the hay shed, lifted up the sleeping Gu Dewang, and blew the medicine in the bowl a little. After it cools down a bit, give him the medicine in small sips.
Mrs. Cui, Mrs. Yan, and Aunt Tian also hurriedly came out, took the medicine into the hay shed, and gave it to their own people.
"Hui Niang, you continue to boil the medicine. When the medicine is ready, everyone will drink a bowl. It can prevent wind and cold."
They had traveled a long distance and had neither enough food nor clothing to keep them warm. The group's health was very poor and they had to take medicine to prevent wind and cold, otherwise they would become seriously ill.
"Okay." Luo Huiniang continued to cook the medicine according to the method of taking care of the Jinli sect.
Gu Jinli brought the last bowl of medicine to Third Grandma, and said to Gu Jinxiu, who was taking care of Third Grandma: "Sister, help Third Grandma up, and I'll give Third Grandma the medicine."
“Hey.” Gu Jinxiu helped the third grandma up, held her back with one hand and fixed her in place, and held her head straight with the other hand. Working together with Gu Jinli, she finally fed the medicine to the third grandma.
After taking the medicine, several patients were still drowsy. Mrs. Chen was extremely anxious and said to Gu Jinli, "Xiaoyu, is your medicine good? Don't cure our brother Wang."
Gu Jinli chuckled and replied to her: "If your aunt is worried, take Brother Wang to Fucheng to see a doctor now. The doctor in Fucheng is good at medical treatment, and he will definitely wake up Brother Wang immediately."
There were guards outside Yuchang Mansion, and the victims were not allowed in at all. Even if the victims could get in, Mrs. Chen would not have the money to pay Brother Wang to see a doctor.
Ms. Chen choked and had a stern look on her face, but she has always been thick-skinned and flexible, so she quickly said: "Don't worry, why don't you worry? Auntie believes in you the most."
Gu Dagui is working with men from several houses to tie together the branches and dead grass they found to make simple grass wooden boards. He plans to surround the entire wall with these grass wooden boards to block the cold wind for everyone. Listen. After hearing what Chen said, he said angrily: "Take good care of Brother Wang and don't make trouble."
This woman was the worst at being a good person along the way. How much the Dashan family had helped them, but she couldn’t say a few nice words? Mrs. Chen knew Gu Dagui's temper and didn't dare to speak anymore.
Gu Jinxiu looked at Third Grandma and then at Brother Cheng who was also sleeping. She was a little worried and asked Gu Jinli in a low voice: "Xiaoyu, how long will it take for Third Grandma and the others to recover?"
Gu Jinli said: "I've taken medicine and sweated. I'll be fine after a good sleep."
What she was worried about was that it would be bad if she couldn't sweat or her fever wouldn't go away.
There is also Brother Cheng, he is not yet four years old, we cannot let him burn like this, it will burn out his brain.
"Sister, please take good care of the third grandma." Gu Jinli told Gu Jinxiu, came to Brother Cheng, and put the back of his hand to his forehead. After feeling the back of his hand was hot, he rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs and began to massage his hands. Several acupuncture points on the upper body and feet.
If a child under ten years old has a high fever, continuous massage of several acupoints on the hands and feet can reduce the fever.
Gu Jinli kept repeating an action, pressing the acupuncture points on Cheng Geer's hands and feet until they turned red, and then pressing the surrounding skin until small purple-red dots appeared, then she stopped.
Not long after, I looked at Cheng Geer's forehead again and found that his fever had gone down quite a bit.
Gu Jinli breathed a sigh of relief and looked outside the hay shed. There were many hay sheds built around them, and they were all filled with victims. Some of them didn't even have hay sheds, so they were crowded next to other people's hay sheds, unable to drive them away.
There were also victims who wanted to squeeze into their thatched huts, but there were so many of them, and there were half-grown men like Qin Erlang, Gu Jinan, and Luo Wu who surrounded the thatched huts along the walls, so those victims couldn't squeeze in.
As for Qin Sanlang, he followed Mr. Qin, Third Grandpa, and Father Luo to nearby homes to buy things from those homes.
There are many villages outside the city. These villages are afraid that the victims will cause trouble and will not let them in. However, they will sell things to them, but the price is several percent higher than before.
There is no way, everyone in the house is sick. If we don’t spend money to buy things, everyone will die of illness.
When it was almost dark, Qin Sanlang and the other four finally came back with a load of things. The top layer was a pile of old clothes.
When the surrounding victims saw them coming back carrying things, their eyes flashed green, and many wanted to grab them.
Qin Erlang rushed over with a machete and stood beside Mr. Qin. He glanced at the surrounding victims with a pair of vicious eyes and sneered: "Come here if you are not afraid of death!"
Those who were able to escape the famine all the way to Yuchang Mansion without dying on the road were all people who had experienced the disaster. One look at Qin Erlang's appearance and it was clear that he had seen blood. Those victims who wanted to come up to grab things immediately shrank back.
Grandpa San and the others quickly returned to the thatched shed under the wall and placed four loads of things in the thatched shed. All the family members gathered around. Mrs. Chen was the quickest and immediately took away three old cotton coats.
Third grandfather looked at her coldly and said: "An old cotton-padded coat costs five hundred dollars. If your family wants these three old cotton-padded coats, they have to add one or two silver coins."
Five hundred big bucks is half a tael of silver. Chen Shisou thought that when everyone went to nearby farmers to buy things, she only gave them half a tael of silver.
"What? This old cotton-padded coat costs five hundred yuan a piece. Isn't this robbery!" Mrs. Chen screamed, but refused to put down the old cotton-padded coat in her hand.
Third Grandpa said: "You are right, the farmers nearby are robbing us, but can we not buy it? If we don't buy it, we will get frostbite and die of cold."
(End of this chapter)
