Qin i gritted her teeth and yelled defiantly at Jie Jingchen’s back. "Fine, I’ll ask! You think I’d be too embarrassed?"
’Asking her father-in-law for an allowance... she really was too embarrassed. Elders were supposed to give pocket money to the younger generation on their own accord. What kind of person asks for it? She wasn’t a child anymore.’
"Fourth Sister-in-law, are you short on cash?" Jie Jingshan asked curiously.
"I am, of course I am," Qin i nodded.
"Fourth Brother has money," Jie Jingshan said with certainty.
"Hmph!" Qin i grumbled. "I know he has money. The key is, he’s too stingy to give any."
They say the way to test if a man loves you is to see if he’s willing to spend money on you. Qin i had forgotten that just yesterday, Jie Jingchen had taken her to a departnt store and even bought her quite a few things.
"Fourth Sister-in-law, I have money. If you push back to my room, I’ll get it for you," Jie Jingshan offered generously.
Qin i was deeply touched, but she couldn’t possibly take Jing Qi’s money. "Jing Qi, a person of principle earns their money the right way. I won’t take yours. I’m going to go brew your dicine."
Qin i got up and went back to her room. She put the envelope in a cabinet and took three packets of dicine to the kitchen.
Jing Qi had received traditional Chinese dicine treatnts before, so the kitchen had clay pots for dicine and a small stove specifically for brewing it. Qin i didn’t know how to light the fire. Before she could ask Jie Jingchen for help, Jie Jingjue’s voice rang out.
"Fourth Sister-in-law, what can I do to help?" After dropping Jie You off at school, Jie Jingjue hadn’t lingered and had returned ho imdiately.
Xu Chunyan’s facial injury was quite serious, and she hadn’t returned from the hospital. Second Brother had taken ti off to look after her there, so the task of taking care of Jie You had fallen to him.
"Don’t you have work?" Qin i asked.
"Work is important, but treating Jing Qi’s leg is more important. I took a few days off." Jie Jingjue ca into the kitchen and saw that Jie Jingchen was also there. He said to him, "Fourth Brother, you’re injured. Go back to your room and lie down. Don’t worry, I’ve got this."
Jie Jingchen didn’t leave the kitchen. He ignored him and stood to the side, waiting for Qin i to assign him a task.
"Do you know how to brew dicine?" Qin i asked Jie Jingjue.
"Of course! I used to brew all of Jing Qi’s dicine," Jie Jingjue said proudly. Brewing dicine was second nature to him.
"Alright then. You can brew these two packets," Qin i said, handing the dicine to Jie Jingjue.
"Okay." Jie Jingjue took them, washed a clay pot, and poured one packet of herbs inside. Then he washed another clay pot but didn’t rush to light the fire, instead letting the herbs soak for half an hour.
Seeing his practiced movents, Qin i felt at ease entrusting the task of brewing the dicine to him.
Qin i poured the last packet of herbs into a large pot, filled it with water, and had Jie Jingchen light the fire.
"Is she having another herbal bath?" Jie Jingjue asked. When he saw Qin i nod, he beca incredibly excited. His intuition told him that Qin i could really heal Jing Qi’s leg. "Fourth Sister-in-law."
"Control your emotions. I don’t want to deal with your tears and snot," Qin i said, imdiately jumping back a step when she saw Jie Jingjue about to lunge at her. She stared at him with a wary expression.
’When this guy had an emotional outburst, she couldn’t handle it. A twenty-two-year-old man who could cry on par with any little girl.’
"Fourth Brother, Fourth Sister-in-law is disgusted with ," Jie Jingjue said to Jie Jingchen, his face crumpled as if about to cry.
"I’m disgusted with you, too," Jie Jingchen replied, offering him no sympathy whatsoever.
「One hour later.」
Jie Jingjue poured the last bucket of dicinal liquid into the large wooden tub used for Jing Qi’s baths.
"Fourth Sister-in-law, call if you need anything," Jie Jingjue said to Qin i. Only after she nodded did he leave the room.
Qin i struggled a bit to help Jing Qi into the large wooden tub. She didn’t leave, but instead stood watch. If she left and sothing happened to Jing Qi—if she drowned in the tub—then Qin i would be to bla.
In the courtyard, Jie Jingchen and Jie Jingjue sat under a tree, their gazes fixed on the door to Jing Qi’s room. They were her older brothers. If they had been her older sisters, or if Jing Qi had been a boy, they would certainly be in the room with her right now.
It wasn’t the first ti Jing Qi had taken an herbal bath, but it was the first ti they had been this nervous.
"Fourth Brother, do you think Fourth Sister-in-law can really heal Jing Qi’s leg?" Jie Jingjue couldn’t help but ask Jie Jingchen, who was beside him.
"If she says she can, she can," Jie Jingchen said with conviction. Thinking of Qin i’s promise, however, made his heart ache with a bittersweet feeling.
Jie Jingjue breathed a sigh of relief, then asked curiously, "Fourth Brother, is Fourth Sister-in-law’s family from a long line of traditional Chinese dicine doctors?"
’A long line of doctors?’ Jie Jingchen’s eyes flickered. If Qin Xiang hadn’t lied to him, the Qin family had nothing to do with dicine.
"No," Jie Jingchen said, looking up and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Then who did Fourth Sister-in-law learn her dical skills from?" Jie Jingjue asked.
"Her older sister," Jie Jingchen answered. It wasn’t sothing he made up; it was what Qin i had told him herself.
"What?" Jie Jingjue shot to his feet, his composure gone. "Her older sister is just a barefoot doctor! Her skills aren’t even as good as Mom’s. Even Mom couldn’t do anything about Jing Qi’s leg. How could a student taught by her older sister possibly heal it?"
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