The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 199 - 188: Falling Ill

Chapter 199: Chapter 188: Falling Ill

Manbao, with her little head drooping, knelt beside Zhou Liulang. Old Zhou paced back and forth in front of the four, obviously furious. The entire Zhou family, one and all, gathered in the courtyard to witness the scene.

It was the first time Manbao had been punished by Old Zhou by being made to kneel. In the past, when she made mistakes, it was Ms Qian who would punish her, and Old Zhou would plead on her behalf.

But this time, Old Zhou was quite angry and did not wait for Ms Qian to act; he took it upon himself to punish Manbao.

Of course, Ms Qian was not going to plead for them either. She sat at the doorway on a chair with a stern face, watching the four of them.

The four were utterly dejected, but knowing they were in the wrong and had no ground to argue, they knelt and listened obediently to their father’s scolding.

Life is always full of surprises, and Manbao felt that what Keke had said made a lot of sense.

For instance, they thought they had gotten away with their deception yesterday, only for everything to come to light today.

It was all Sixth Brother’s fault.

Zhou Liulang also knew that he was to blame, which was why his head hung lower than the other three, his back more bent.

But Old Zhou evidently didn’t see it that way; his main rebuke was directed at Zhou Silang, "Are your brother and sisters young? Aren’t you young too? You’re old enough to be married, yet you could actually leave your sister behind in the mountains. Only by the grace of heaven is she unharmed. If she had gotten lost or been carried off by wolves..."

Just the thought caused Old Zhou palpable heartache, and he found it hard to breathe. In his anger, he kicked Zhou Silang, sending him flying out before gasping, "How am I supposed to face your..."

"Enough," Ms Qian cut him off, her face stern, "all four of you, ten strokes each with the stick. Silang, you’re the oldest; you will get no dinner tonight and will continue to kneel here!"

Zhou Silang hung his head and said nothing.

Manbao was terrified, not expecting her parents to be so angry.

Zhou Erlang found a bamboo stick, and Zhou Dalang, disgruntled, struck Manbao lightly on the buttocks, just enough for her to feel the pain. But when he hit the other three, he did not spare his strength, leaving welts.

Clearly, he was angry too.

Manbao, frightened, began to cry and crawled over to beg Old Zhou, "Father, I know I was wrong. Please don’t beat my brothers."

Old Zhou huffed at her and said, "Manbao, you’re not so young yourself. After the new year, you’ll be seven—old enough to grow up. There are wolves in those mountains; do you think you can just run around carelessly?"

Old Zhou said, "If you’d been taken by wolves, you would never see your parents or brothers again. They’d bite off your hands and feet, gnaw and eat them. Then you would have no hands, no feet, not even a head..."

Old Zhou was as frightening in his description as he could be, and Manbao was so shocked that she momentarily forgot to plead for her three brothers.

Old Zhou reached out, pulled her up, and announced, "Tonight, none of the three of them will eat."

Manbao, filled with sorrow, found that for the first time, her meal did not taste good at all.

Since it was winter and Old Zhou did not want them to fall ill and have to spend money on medicine, he didn’t keep them kneeling for very long. As soon as it got dark, he sent them off to bed.

The three brothers, hungry, could only go to the kitchen to find some water to drink and then, with their belts tightened, returned to their rooms to sleep.

Manbao was under Old Zhou’s watchful eye all night, unable to sneak them even a couple of pieces of candy before she, crying, fell asleep in a daze.

Having sent her to bed, Old Zhou, however, remained awake and went to find his three sons.

Zhou Silang led his two younger brothers as they stood before the bed to continue receiving their chastisement.

"Your little aunt has only this one lineage," Old Zhou spoke in a lowered voice, "From her infancy, how much effort has the family expended to keep her alive? I’ve always told you to protect her, avoid dangerous places—and yet you left her in the mountains. Are you trying to take your mother’s and my lives?"

Zhou Silang wiped away tears, hanging his head silently while Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang dared not stir.

Seeing this, the anger in Old Zhou’s chest somewhat subsided.

Remembering Zhou Silang’s fearful tears from the day before, he surmised he must have been terrified.

With this in mind, his remaining anger finally dissipated. He took a puff of his pipe, and after a long silence, he said, "Never make such a mistake again. Go on, heat some water for yourself in the kitchen."

Zhou Silang, surprised by his father’s sudden change of tone, looked up.

Old Zhou glared at him and said, "Tomorrow, you’re going to the graveyard to pull weeds as penance."

Zhou Silang then nodded his head in agreement.

As soon as their father left, the three brothers sneaked into the kitchen and scrounged around. Zhou Liulang found three black steamed buns hidden at the very back of the stove, clearly left by their sister-in-law. They warmed the buns and squatted in the kitchen to eat them together.

They thought the matter was over, but in the middle of the night, Manbao developed a fever.

Ms Qian was the first to notice because Manbao had been crying in her sleep. When she got up to comfort her, she felt her forehead and realized it was burning hot. Startled, she promptly woke Old Zhou.

As Ms Qian felt her forehead, she urged Old Zhou to boil some water, unable to hold back her complaints, "The child was fine; why did you have to scare her with your words?"

Old Zhou also had regrets, "She’s always been brave; how was I to know she’d be frightened by this?"

Then he couldn’t help but blame Zhou Liulang, "It’s all that rascal Sixth’s fault. We had kept it a secret, yet somehow it still slipped out for me to find."

Zhou Liulang: ...It was wrong to hide it, and now it’s still wrong not to hide?

With many children in the Zhou family, fevers were common. They not only knew the routine methods of reducing a fever, such as drinking lots of hot water, sweating under blankets, but they also had fever-reducing herbs in stock.

After realizing that giving her water to drink didn’t help and Manbao unable to sweat out the fever, which was still scorching hot, Ms Qian asked Junior Ms Qian to prepare the medicinal herbs for decoction.

By the time dawn was breaking, Manbao still hadn’t sweated a drop, and naturally, her temperature didn’t drop either.

Tears filled Ms Qian’s eyes as high fevers can be fatal, especially at Manbao’s vulnerable age, a little over six years old.

She told Zhou Dalang, "Go and fetch the doctor. If her fever doesn’t go down by sunrise, take her to the county town."

Zhou Dalang immediately agreed and ran towards Dali Village.

It was only in the past two years that Manbao’s consumption of medicine had decreased; prior to that, she seemed to always be in its company. The doctor from Dali Village knew her well and, despite being awakened before dawn, he quickly packed his medical kit to go with Zhou Dalang.

Arriving at the Zhou residence, he saw the child’s fever had turned her face red as Ms Qian continuously wiped her forehead and palms with a warm towel.

Upon inspecting Manbao, the doctor asked, "Is it getting hotter?"

Ms Qian nodded, her eyes rimmed with red, "It wasn’t so hot at first. I’ve been giving her warm water to drink as per your advice, but her temperature keeps rising. I didn’t dare use cold towels, only warm water to wipe her."

The doctor nodded, checked Manbao’s eyes and tongue, then felt her pulse, frowning, "This is a wind-evil invading the body, compounded by shock and fright."