FID – Chapter 367

It was just that Xinghua Village never dealt with Xiapo Village.

The Xiapo villagers also held their breath. No matter what happened, they absolutely wouldn’t go to Xinghua Village.

So even if Xinghua Village had a well-known little devine doctor, and Xiapo villagers got sick, they would never go to Xinghua Village for medical treatment.

During this disaster, the Xiapo villagers knew very well of Xinghua villagers’ efforts.

The Xinghua villagers gathered as one to rescue and help the surrounding villages affected by the disaster, sending cotton clothes and quilts, cold medicine, and helping the injured people to build houses.

All the villages that were close by had people from Xinghua Village, except Xiapo Village.

Everyone knew that they were betting on who would hold the last breath.

If it were before, if no one wanted to communicate, nobody did, and everyone lived peacefully.

But this time, Xinghua villagers put their dislike for Xiapo Village into the open, helping all the surrounding villages except them.

This was tantamount to announcing to the surrounding area that they have no relationship with each other. In this way, who would still deal with the Xiapo villagers for the sake of Xinghua Village?

Even the villages that used to have dealings with them would probably start to alienate them and cut off their ties.

Their Xiapo Village would be isolated!

No one would offend the number one wealthy family in eight villages in ten miles for their tiny village!

People sought benefits.

This had always been the case.

Under the supervision of the county officials and the villagers’ spontaneous self-help, the victimized houses in the village had been repaired.

At the end of January, nearly a month of heavy snow had shown signs of cessation.

There was only an occasional sporadic rain at night.

But the impact of the disaster was far from over.

It tired the people and drained their treasury. Countless villagers were infected with typhoid fever, most of whom were children and the elderly.

Xiapo Village was still sad and gloomy.

A bunch of villagers, each face drooping with indignation, injustice, and deep powerlessness sat in Village Chief An Cai’s house.

“Village chief, they are openly bullying us this time.”

“Bully us if they want to. After so many years, we also accept it. After all, we have a grudge that has accumulated in the past, but how could they bear to fold their hands and see us die?”

“So many people in the village are infected with diseases. They send buckets of soup and medicine to the outside, but they do not even look at our village. Are we not humans here?” 

“What did they mean, healer’s kindness? It’s all bullshit! If you ask me, it’s just their way to gain fame!”

An Cai sat cross-legged on the bed, looking down and not saying a word. His face was half hidden in the darkness. He looked unusually gloomy, and it was hard to guess what he was thinking.

“Village Chief, why don’t we go and beg the magistrate? Isn’t he personally visiting for disaster reliefs this time? I heard that he had the town’s medical pharmacies requisition a lot of typhoid herbs, but in the end were almost unused. Shall we beg him to distribute some medicine? There are so many old people and children in the village. What can we do without medicine?”

If they were to go to a medical clinic, it would cost them several hundred Wen or taels. Where could they dig so much money?

Even if they could pay, it would also hurt them. If they could obtain free herbs and cook them by themselves, they could always cure illnesses.

“I will talk to the magistrate about this. Don’t crowd here. Be gone, all of you,”  An Cai said in a light voice, “As for Xinghua Village, we can’t control what others do. We are not going to beg, and we can’t beg. If you are unwilling, or want to save money, you can go to the Liu family courtyard.”

When An Cai said this, he raised his gloomy and sullen eyes around the crowd.

Seeing the look on his face, no one dared to squeal.

The Village Chief had the deepest stigma against Xinghua Village.

Even now, there were still a few finger scars on his neck, which that kid from the foot of Loufu Mountain left.

At that time, the entire villagers of Xiapo watched with their own eyes how that little kid did not hold back at all. He wasn’t scaring people, but he really wanted to kill the Village Chief.

Although more than ten year had now passed since that incident, the Village Chief’s scars were still visible and so was his hatred.

No one could forget.

Just like them, Xinghua villagers also couldn’t forget that grudge. Not only were they fighting them for water resources from the Qinghe river, they were also avenging the Blessed Child. 

Xiapo villagers indeed committed that crime.

They couldn’t shirk this responsibility.

Although, the majority of them originally knew nothing about it.

However, every Xiapo villager was genuinely jealous of Xinghua Village. They couldn’t bear to see the Xinghua Village better than them, climbing over their heads.

This point was clear to all.

Moreover, they also paid a huge price for Lucky Nannan’s kidnapping.

People died in their village. Not only did they die, but the two people who laid hands on Lucky Nannan also disappeared inexplicably and never appeared again.

At first, the villagers thought that those two people were afraid of being caught in jail for the crime they committed, so they escaped. Only later did the villagers begin to speculate that the two men didn’t run away, but had died.

How did they die? No further speculation was needed. The directly pointed the murderer as the kid at the foot of Luofu Mountain.

If they were to pursue the root cause, it was still related to Xinghua Village.

Later, no one mentioned that incident again. It was a deep taboo. Meanwhile, the feud between the two villages reached a deep-rooted point.

The villagers dispersed, but An Cai was still sitting on the bed, expressionless and pensive.

“Husband, our village and Xinghua Village, is there really no way to ease our relationship? Can’t you think of a way to…” Before his wife, who was sitting on the other side of the bed, finished her sentence, she was frightened by a look from An Cai and did not dare to make a sound.

Eventually, she got off the bed with a soft sigh and went to work in the kitchen.

In a while, the hall was empty. Only then did An Cai glance in the direction of Xinghua Village, his eyes obscure and difficult to understand.

How the Xiapo villagers thought, the Xinghua villagers didn’t care at all.

The Lius compound was bustling as ever.

Every day, people dropped by and left in the courtyard, all of whom were commoners who came to seek medical treatment.

When these patients were waiting to be attended to in the small consultation room, they would occasionally chat with each other about Xiapo Village, and some news reached Liu Yusheng’s ears.

Such as, the government had issued typhoid medicine, prepared by doctors in the town, to Xiapo Village.

The effect of such medicine was far less effective than the medicine that the Little Divine Doctor prescribed.

For example, people over there still suffered from recurrent typhoid fever after taking the medicine, and some children seemed to have gotten more serious infections.

Liu Yusheng listened with perked ears, but she remained silent and made no comment.

That night, she took out a packet of internal fire herbs refined into potions and handed them over to her grandfather.

Grandpa Liu immediately understood his intentions. “Nannan, do you really want to help them? Have you let go of what happened before?”

Liu Yusheng shook her head and smiled: “Grandpa, the children are innocent.”

At her reply, the wrinkles on Grandpa Liu’s face stretched out little by little. Finally, he smiled freely: “You’re right. The children are innocent. You’re a child taught by our Liu family, a child taught by me. I’m very happy.”

The old man’s pride came from his heart as he stroked his little granddaughter’s head with his big hand.

His granddaughter was open-minded and kindhearted. She could distinguish right from wrong, discriminate between love and hatred, and with a heart of great righteousness. She was the pride of their entire Liu family.