Qin Xiang looked at his good friend. ’Is this man really the Jing Si I know?’ Swindling an old woman out of her money, and when she didn’t have any, forcing her to write an IOU. If word of this got back to the army, his comrades would laugh their heads off.
Jie Anlin remained silent off to the side. ’In his opinion, what damn good was an IOU? The money Granny gave him was all in ten-yuan notes.’
’Once the Fourth Wife of Jing cures his private ailnt, Granny will just renege on the debt, and those IOUs will be nothing but scrap paper.’
’Jie Jingchen was a fool too. Wouldn’t it have been better to play the long ga? He just had to try and get rich all at once. If he’d asked Granny for a few dozen yuan, or even a hundred, she would have given it to him. But asking for a thousand? Greed would only leave him empty-handed.’
"So, can you treat him now?" Granny asked, her face cold.
Jie Jingchen looked at Qin i. He didn’t want her to treat Jie Anlin’s private ailnt, but he knew full well that with Granny’s doting love for Jie Anlin, she would stop at nothing to pester Qin i into doing it. "Qin i."
"I’ll take his pulse first." Qin i never turned down easy money.
"An Lin, hurry and sit down. Let the Fourth Wife of Jing take your pulse." Granny made Jie Anlin sit, then told Grandpa to make tea for him. As for Qin Xiang’s greeting gift, it was completely forgotten by everyone. Not that Qin Xiang cared; he wasn’t short on cash.
Qin Xiang sat back down in the wicker chair, watching with great interest as Qin i took Jie Anlin’s pulse. ’He had to admit, his little sister really looked the part when she was checking a pulse.’
Granny sat beside Jie Anlin, watching Qin i with a tense expression.
After a mont, Qin i’s smooth fingertips lifted from Jie Anlin’s wrist. Seeing this, Granny asked anxiously, "How is it? Can you cure him?"
Qin i’s expression was blank. She ignored Granny’s question and said to Jie Anlin, "Your other hand."
Jie Anlin paused for a second, then placed his left hand on the table, pulling up his sleeve to expose his wrist. Qin i placed her fingertips on his pulse. This ti, it didn’t take long.
"Well?" Jie Anlin asked.
Qin i looked at him and began, "I can cure it, but..."
"As long as you can cure it, that’s all that matters." Granny breathed a sigh of relief. Her face lit up with renewed determination, and she patted Jie Anlin’s shoulder. "An Lin, see? Granny didn’t lie to you. The Fourth Wife of Jing is very skilled. She even cured the crippled Jing Qi. Your little ailnt will be a piece of cake for her."
Qin i felt no joy at Granny’s flattery. Instead, a suppressed anger surfaced in her almond-shaped eyes. ’Her dical skills didn’t need Jing Qi’s case to burnish her reputation.’
"But what?" Jie Jingchen asked, reminding Granny and Jie Anlin that there was a "but."
Qin i didn’t answer right away, but Granny had little patience. "But what?" she demanded.
Qin i cleared her throat. "I can cure it, but it’s very expensive."
"You’re Jing Si’s wife, and I’m his cousin. You want to charge for treating my private ailnt?" Jie Anlin said. In his mind, Qin i treating him should be free. After all, their Big Aunt had treated the whole family without ever charging a cent.
"Go to a hospital and see if they’ll treat you without paynt," Qin i retorted sarcastically.
"Big Aunt never charged us for treatnt," Jie Anlin said.
"Then go have your Big Aunt treat you. If you want to do it, you have to pay." Qin i had no intention of indulging them. Her mother-in-law spoiled them, and it had already made them feel entitled.
"Big Aunt can’t cure it." Jie Anlin’s head drooped. If she could have, she would have cured him long ago.
"I can cure it, but I charge money. No money, no treatnt. It’s up to you." Qin i stood up as if to leave.
Seeing this, Jie Anlin tried to grab her but was blocked by Jie Jingchen. His hand didn’t even touch the sleeve of her clothes. He couldn’t beat Jie Jingchen and didn’t dare to cause a scene, so he asked resentfully, "Did you charge money to treat Jing Qi’s leg?"
"I even charge Jie Jingchen to treat his waist." Qin i’s words left everyone speechless.
"Treat his waist?" Qin Xiang seized on the crucial information, his strange gaze fixed on Jie Jingchen’s waist. "What’s wrong with your waist?"
’The waist is crucial. An injury there could affect... Could it be that they don’t *want* kids, but that they *can’t* have them?’
"My waist is fine," Jie Jingchen said, looking speechlessly at Qin Xiang’s anxious face. ’He really jumps to conclusions.’
"Is it?" Qin Xiang was clearly unconvinced.
"What’s there to worry about? I already cured his waist," Qin i said. ’She’d personally verified it last night. His waist was very powerful.’
Qin Xiang fell silent, his expression grave as he looked at the two of them. Qin i couldn’t be bothered with him, and neither could Jie Jingchen.
"How expensive?" Granny finally asked. ’This wife of Jing Si’s is so unreasonable. Charging to treat Jing Qi’s leg, charging to treat Jing Si’s waist... She’s completely obsessed with money.’
Qin i held up a single index finger. Granny smiled. "A hundred it is."
’She had wanted to say ten yuan, but even she knew that was unrealistic. If it were only ten yuan, the Fourth Wife of Jing wouldn’t have said it was expensive.’
"One thousand." Qin i had taken Jie Anlin’s circumstances into account and hadn’t taken the opportunity to ask for an outrageous price. In this era, even "ten-thousand-yuan households" were rare. Even if Jie Jingchen’s second uncle’s family pooled all their resources, they might be able to scrape together ten thousand yuan, but they would never spend that much on Jie Anlin’s treatnt.
"A thousand again?" Granny was furious. In her eyes, a thousand yuan *was* an outrageous price.
"Granny, you’ve worried yourself sick over my cousin’s private ailnt all these years. The money you’ve spent already far exceeds a thousand," Jie Jingchen said.
Granny didn’t deny it. If not for that, she wouldn’t have failed to save any money. The money her eldest daughter-in-law gave her was either used to subsidize her grandson, Jie Anlin, or spent on treating his private ailnt.
Granny waved her hand grandly and said to the silent Grandpa, "Old man, write an IOU."
Before Grandpa could even get up, Qin i refused. "I don’t accept IOUs."
"You just accepted one," Granny reminded her.
"Was I the one who accepted it just now?" Qin i asked.
"Jing Si did." In Granny’s eyes, there was no difference between Jing Si accepting it and Qin i accepting it.
Qin i shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Then you can ask Jie Jingchen to treat his cousin."
Granny was truly at her wit’s end with Qin i. "We can’t co up with a thousand."
"A full cure costs a thousand. Or, I can write a prescription, and he can get the dicine himself. It’s one hundred for each prescription, and ten prescriptions will cure him," Qin i said.
"You only write the prescription? You don’t provide the dicine?" Granny asked.
"I don’t have the dicine," Qin i replied.
Granny gritted her teeth. "One hundred for a single prescription? Why don’t you just go rob soone?"
"If you think it’s too expensive, then don’t get it treated," Qin i shot back rcilessly.
Granny was rendered speechless. She glared at Qin i, resentful and unwilling. She pulled up her shirt, revealing a string tied around her waist. Granny tugged on the string, pulling a small pouch from her trouser pocket where it was tied. From the pouch, she took out a neatly folded handkerchief. Unfolding it, she took out the money, licked her fingertip, and counted out ten ten-yuan notes, handing them to Qin i with a pained expression.
"Here."
The corner of Qin i’s mouth twitched. She looked at the money Granny handed her, shot a sidelong glance at Jie Jingchen, took the cash, and promptly handed it over to him.
The pen and paper Grandpa had used earlier hadn’t been put away yet. Qin i sat up, picked them up, and began to write.
Qin Xiang lost his composure. He shot up from the wicker chair, staring dumbfounded as Qin i wrote the prescription. ’Is this really his family’s illiterate little sister, the one who couldn’t even recognize a single word?’
Jie Jingchen took in Qin Xiang’s reaction, his own eyes filled with complex emotions, but he remained silent.
Qin i wrote out two prescriptions, numbering them ’1’ and ’2’. The first was for an oral dication to be taken three tis a day, and the second was for a dicinal bath to be used once every three days. She added a note that they needed to co back for a new prescription every three days and that a full cure would take one month.
Granny took the prescriptions and looked at Qin i. "Is the prescription different each ti?"
"Yes." Qin i nodded. "They’re all different."
Granny’s shoulders slumped. She had been hoping one prescription would be enough, but she never imagined Qin i’s would be different each ti. Granny pointed to a nearby room and asked, "There are dicinal herbs in that room."
"Those herbs aren’t for treating infertility." Qin i knew exactly what Granny was scheming.
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