CH 15

The next day, Mo Ling went to buy meat and vegetables. Mo Yan didn’t go with her and went to the pond to dig for medicinal herbs.

The pond was only so big, and she had already gathered all the medicinal herbs there.

When her second grandmother came to fetch water, she saw Mo Yan sitting under the willow tree and asked, “Yan’er, why aren’t you digging for medicinal herbs anymore?”

“I’ve gathered all the herbs in this pond. There’s nothing here.”

“I know where there are more herbs. I’ll take you there.”

When she heard that there were more herbs somewhere else, she stood up, ran to her second grandma and asked, “Where is it? Is it far away?”

“It’s a bit far. It’s on the west side of the village, and it’s almost outside it.”

“Can you take me there quickly?”

Mo Yan’s second grandma put down her clay jar and took her there.

After walking for a while, she raised her hand and pointed into the distance, “Look, there it is.”

Mo Yan looked at the direction she was pointing at and saw a large patch of overgrown land.

“Can medicinal herbs even grow there?” Mo Yan asked.

Her second grandma smiled and said, “Let’s see.”

We’re all the way here anyways, so why not take a look?

The two of them went into the field. The weeds grew incredibly high and kept obscuring their vision, so Mo Yan had to keep brushing them aside. Gradually, however, the weeds thinned out. When they stopped obscuring her vision, Mo Yan could not help but exclaim, “Oh my! This place is so beautiful!”

When the weeds in front of them had completely vanished, the land in front of them was filled with wildflowers of all colours. The sea of flowers was simply stunning.

She dropped her basket and darted towards the sea of flowers, running around the field in excitement.

Mo Yan’s second grandma picked up her basket and asked, “Do you still want to dig for herbs?”

“Yes, of course! Why didn’t you bring me to this place earlier?”

“It’s just a patch of land no one wanted. Some years ago, when there was a famine, all the wild vegetables nearby had been dug up, so I often gathered them here instead.”

“I’ll call this place the Garden of Hundred Flowers.”

“Call it whatever you like, it’s just an ownerless piece of land anyway.”

Aside from looking good, there were a lot of herbs here such as chinese foxgloves and dandelions. Mo Yan took her sickle out of her basket and started harvesting them.

Her second grandma didn’t have a sickle, so she plucked dandelions by hand. Mo Yan’s basket quickly became so full that there was no more room, but she didn’t want to leave yet.

“One last one,” she mumbled, grabbing the stem of a chinese foxglove with her left hand and harvesting it with her sickle.

But in her haste, it missed her target and struck her hand. When Mo Yan lifted her hand, there was a big cut and blood was pouring out. She screamed out in pain.

When Mo Yan’s second grandma heard her scream, she guessed her granddaughter had cut her hand and went to check on her. She exclaimed in surprise, “The wound’s that big?!”

She used cloth from one of her sleeves to fashion a makeshift bandage for Mo Yan’s cut.

Her second grandmother wrapped the cloth around Mo Yan’s wound, but blood still seeped out slowly.

“I can’t staunch the wound. We need to take you to Mr. Cao’s.” After saying this, she pulled on Mo Yan with one hand, grabbed the basket with the other, and ran to the village.

When they reached the pond, Mo Yan was so tired she couldn’t run anymore. The blood had already soaked through the bandage on her wound

Her second grandmother was incredibly anxious, “What should I do? It’s my fault for bringing you to that place?”

“It’s not your fault, I injured myself.”

Mo Yan was bending over to catch her breath when Lu Junming came running over, “What happened?”

As Lu Junming was from the same village as them, Mo Yan’s second grandma pleaded him for help, “Yan’er has cut her hand, please help her.” She sat down panting heavily, having exhausted herself a long time ago.

When Lu Junming saw that there was blood all over her hands, he also became worried and tried to help her walk, but Mo Yan was too exhausted to walk a single step. So Lu Junming bent down and offered her a piggyback ride.

Mo Yan felt that it was inappropriate to let a boy carry her, but she really couldn’t walk anymore. She looked around and saw that there was no one around them, so she accepted his offer.

Lu Junming carried her on his back and ran quickly towards his home, but Mo Yan stopped her anxiously, “Go to Mr. Cao’s instead.”

“We have golden sore medicine at home which is really good for healing cuts.”

Mo Yan couldn’t do anything to stop him so just decided to go along with it.

Soon they arrived at the Lu family’s small courtyard, where Sir Lu was sitting under the tree in their courtyard drinking tea.

Lu Junming put Mo Yan down and sat her down on a small stool. He brought clean water and wiped her hands gently with a handkerchief. He said, “Grandpa, could you bring the golden sore medicine? Mo Yan’s injured.”

Sir Lu went to fetch the medicine. After wiping away the dirt, Lu Junming unravelled the bandages. As Sir Lu retrieved the medicine and bandages, uncorked the small porcelain bottle containing the medicine and put the paste on Mo Yan’s wound.

“This was a deep cut. I could see the bone underneath.”

After applying the medicine, Sir Lu was changing her bandages as Mo Yan’s second grandma arrived, out of breath.

“Don’t delay any further, let’s go to Mr. Cao!”

Sir Lu finished changing the bandages as he replied calmly, “Don’t worry, we’ve already applied medicine to her wound. I’m not sure Mr. Cao even has golden sore medicine.”

“I forgot that the Lu family is a military family. Of course you have good medicine for treating wounds.”

Lu Junming gently wiped Mu Yan’s forehead with a handkerchief and poured her a cup of tea, “I haven’t seen you at the pond all morning, what have you been doing, and why are you in this state?”

“My second grandma led me to a beautiful place with lots of medicinal herbs. I’ll take you there some day.” There was no sign of pain on her face, and she even looked happy, which eased Lu Junming’s heart.

“Does it hurt?” Lu Junming asked concernedly.

“No.”

“The wound is so big. How can it not hurt? Stay here and rest for a while!”

“No, I have to earn more money so that my sister won’t have to work as hard.”

Although Lu Junming was born to a mistress, he had never worried about money in his life. He couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to not have three square meals every day.

“At least let me walk you home!”

“There’s no need. It’s my hand, not my foot that’s injured. Remember to come to my house for dinner tonight.”

When he heard that the Mo family was inviting Lu Junming to dinner, Sir Lu asked, “Why are you inviting my grandson over for dinner?”

“Because my brother offended him two days ago and my mother wanted to invite him to dinner to make amends.”

“It’s just a squabble amongst kids! You don’t need to invite them over to dinner to make amends.”

“Sir Lu, come with us! My mum’s already prepared everything.”

“I won’t go, it’s time for the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family to come and cook.” [1]

As she spoke, Mrs. Zhang entered and asked Lu Junming what he wanted to eat with a smile on her face. Lu Junming said, “You can decide. I need to take Yan’er back home first.”

Post-edit notes: This is probably a build-up to the big dinner scene in the next chapter. See you then!

[1] That’s just how Sir Lu calls Mrs. Zhang.