Li Man helped Li Mo back inside, took off the outer upper garment that was draped over his shoulders, and pointed at the bed. “Quickly, lie back down. I’ll change the medicine for you.”
After a brief hesitation, Li Mo obediently lied down on the bed.
Li Man picked up the medicine. She saw that scabs had already formed on his back, but this made the deep gouges appear even more prominent. Recollecting his struggle with the wolf yesterday, she couldn’t help feeling a bit scared.
“Does this hurt?” She poured out a bit of medicinal powder onto his injury, then gently spread out the medicine with her fingers.
Li Mo shook his head. It was only that the areas touched by her fingers felt itchy, so he unfortably stiffened.
Once that unfortable ordeal was finally over, Li Mo wanted to put on his upper garment, but Li Man stopped him. “What will you do if your clothes catches on the injury and tears it open? Fortunately, it isn’t too cold. If it feels too unfortable to lie on your stomach, how about lying on your side instead?”
“Oh.” Li Mo stealthily pulled up his thin quilt.
Li Man picked up the worn, stained bandage. It needed to be washed. “If you’re feeling anxious, Little Five can stay and chat with you. I’ll go wash this.”
After saying this, she turned and left the hut.
Other than yesterday’s mishap, she wasn’t behaving any differently today than the previous days. Li Mo slightly relaxed, but he still called Little Five over to ask, “Did you guys really go look for fourth brother?”
“En.” Little Five was a clever child. He knew what his oldest brother wanted to know. “Older sister wanted fourth brother to buy medicine.”
“Medicine? What kind of medicine?” Li Mo curiously asked.
Little Five shook his head. “I didn’t understand older sister’s words, but fourth brother understood. He said third brother will bring it back after he buys it.”
“That’s it?” If it was only that, there was nothing to worry about.
“En.” Little Five dawdled by the bed and scooted closer to his oldest brother. He closed his eyes and smiled. “Oldest brother, don’t worry. Older sister said that she wouldn’t leave.”
Seeing that Little Five was rolling his eyes, Li Mo blushed. He gently ruffled his younger brother’s hair. Smiling, he asked, “Alright, you know more than me. Go on, go see if she needs help with anything.”
“En.” Once Little Five went outside, he saw Li Man crouched down and washing the bandage.
—
Li Yan had left early this morning. Little Five had heard that he was going to someone’s home to do work.
At noon, there were only three people at home. Li Man prepared a simple meal that consisted of only noodles and two cucumbers.
—
In the afternoon, Li Mo was sleeping, and Little Five was trying to play with Big Black and Little Yellow in the courtyard. Li Man had been leaning over the windowsill watching him. Feeling quite bored, she walked over to him, “Little Five, want me to teach you how to read and write?”
Little Five was feeling bored too. Other than Li Mo, Big Black ignored everyone else in their family. Hearing Li Man’s suggestion, he excitedly stood up. “En.”
Li Man looked around. Although yesterday had been sunny, the mud hadn’t fully dried out yet. In the end, she chose a spot by the corner. It was a bit drier here. “e, let’s go over there.” She picked up a stick to write.
“I’ll teach you how to write your name first.” Li Man crouched down and skillfully wrote out, ‘Little Five’. “Try writing this.”
Little Five picked up a stick too. He crookedly scratched out a few lines. Even if you squinted, it still looked more like “three” than “five.”
(T/N: Chinese characters for five and three is 五 and 三, respectively.)
T/N: This author is so lazy with naming the characters ^^;;. Even if his brothers refer to him as Little Five normally, it’s strange that he doesn’t have an actual name.
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