A life of two souls traveling through time

Chapter 261 Taking in the Youngest Child

"Sister Siyao, is the child okay?"

At night, in the small courtyard room of Sanxiu Pharmacy, Xiaolu looked at the unconscious child lying on the bed and asked worriedly.

The boy looked only three or four years old, but he was very thin and weak. When they brought him in during the day, his whole body was hot, and he was coughing and breathing heavily. After drinking the medicine, his breathing became stable, but his face was still flushed and he was sweating, and there was a low roar like phlegm in his throat.

"He suffers from wheezing, a disease caused by deficiency of the lungs, spleen and kidneys. Normally, he's fine, but once an attack occurs, his breathing becomes difficult and his life is in danger. Fortunately, you found him and brought him back in time." As Si Yao spoke, she sat down beside the bed with a towel and wiped the sweat off the child's head.

"Look at the tattered linen clothes he is wearing. His family must have no money to treat his illness, so they threw him outside our pharmacy. But his parents are too cruel. They threw him outside when he was sick. If we hadn't discovered it in time, he might have died!" Guo Yingwen at the side sighed and said disdainfully. At the same time, she couldn't help feeling sorry for this child who was abandoned by his family at such a young age when he was seriously ill.

Si Yao said nothing, but just looked at the poor, young, sickly child in front of her in silence. She couldn't help but sigh in her heart that children from poor families must be as tenacious as weeds since birth in order to thrive. Once they are weak and sickly, they can only leave it to fate.

"It's getting late. You should go back and rest. I'll be guarding here." Xiaolu walked to Guo Ying and said.

"His asthma may relapse late at night. You don't know how to treat him. Just in case, I'll take care of him tonight." Si Yao shook her head, stood up and continued to instruct Xiao Lu: "Come and take over after the Yin hour tomorrow morning. I'll take a break and then I'll give him acupuncture treatment at the Si hour."

After hearing Si Yao's words, Xiao Lu didn't say anything more. He agreed and walked out of the ward with Guo Ying.

At 9:00 the next day, Si Yao hurried to the courtyard room after catching up on three hours of sleep. The child was still asleep. She saw Guo Ying and Xiao Lu waiting inside and asked hurriedly, "Did you give the medicine at 9:00?"

"Yeah, hello." Xiaolu responded first.

"Let's help him up first." Si Yao nodded with confidence, then washed her hands in the basin by the door and continued.

At the same time, a peasant woman with a dark complexion but red and swollen eyes was wandering outside the medicine store worriedly. She wanted to knock on the door but didn't dare to. After struggling for a while and feeling helpless, she couldn't help crying.

Rong Fan, who was drying herbs in the front yard, heard the crying outside and hurriedly opened the gate. Seeing the peasant woman turning around to leave, he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Auntie, what's the matter?"

Seeing that she was being questioned, the peasant woman wiped her tears and nodded to Rong Fan.

After Si Yao finished giving acupuncture to the child's chest and back, Guo Ying lit a stick of incense to measure the time.

"Hold him well." Si Yao washed her hands again and instructed Xiaolu who was still sitting beside the bed holding the child.

"Miss Yao, there's someone outside who claims to be the child's mother." Without waiting for Xiaolu to respond, a medicine boy suddenly ran in and replied to Si Yao.

"What's the meaning of her coming here at this time?" Guo Ying couldn't help but frowned when she heard it.

"You guys stay here first, I'll go take a look." Si Yao understood that Guo Ying was standing up for the child, so she didn't say much. She just turned around and walked towards the front yard with the medicine boy at the door after she finished speaking to Guo Ying.

"Guo Ying!" Guo Ying was about to follow out of curiosity but was stopped by Xiaolu.

"You just stay here. I have to go to the front and watch. Don't let Sister Si Yao get bullied."

"Rong Fan and others are outside. Since Sister Si Yao asked you to stay here, you should stay here honestly and don't cause any trouble."

"Who is causing trouble? I'm worried about Sister Si Yao..." Guo Ying's eyes widened when she heard this, and she muttered towards the path inside the house. If it weren't for the fact that he still had to support the child, she would never let him off easily.

"Don't you believe Sister Si Yao?" Xiaolu smiled helplessly without waiting for Guo Ying to finish.

"That's not what I meant!" Guo Ying was choked for a moment and looked towards Xiaolu angrily.

Guo Ying didn't know the purpose of the child's mother coming to the medicine store at this time. She was afraid that she came to inquire about the child's situation. If Sister Si Yao told her the truth that the child was rescued, she might cry and take him back. Sister Si Yao looked cold but she was very honest and soft-hearted. After all, the other party was the child's mother. Her crying might arouse Sister Si Yao's sympathy. Abandoning the child when he is sick and taking him back when he is well, how can parents be like this in this world?

"After all, she is the mother of this child. There is no reason for our pharmacy to stop her from seeing her own child." Seeing Guo Ying sitting angrily on a chair by the door, Xiaolu curved his eyebrows gently and consoled her softly.

Guo Ying didn't say anything else but she didn't agree with Xiaolu's words in her heart, so she turned her face away angrily. It was obviously the mother who abandoned the child first, so why should she see the child whenever she wanted or abandon him whenever she wanted?

Si Yao followed the medicine boy to the front yard and saw from afar a peasant woman kneeling in the yard crying. Several medicine boys led by Rong Fan were standing by helplessly. They hurried forward when they saw Si Yao and the others.

"What's going on?" Si Yao stopped in the corridor and asked Rong Fan with a frown.

Si Yao naturally didn't understand what the woman was up to. She also didn't understand that if she wanted to see the child, she could just tell her directly. Sanxiu Pharmacy wouldn't stop them from meeting, right?

"We don't know either. As soon as she came in, she knelt in the yard and no matter how we persuaded her, she wouldn't get up. She kept saying that she was the mother of the child yesterday and that she was sorry for the child." Rong Fan replied, scratching his head helplessly and anxiously.

Si Yao did not ask any more questions, but walked out of the porch and came to the peasant woman, knelt down and stretched out his hand to the peasant woman and said: "The child is being treated now. If you want to see him, get up and follow me."

The peasant woman was delighted at first, but then she lowered her head and shook it, and tears as big as beans fell from her eyes to the ground.

"If you're not here to see him, why bother coming?" Si Yao was also puzzled by the other party's attitude.

"He has been a sickly child since he was born. I have to go to the town to get medicine for him every now and then. When his father was around, I could still take care of him. But some time ago, his father accidentally fell off a cliff while chopping wood in the mountains and died..." When the peasant woman said this, she was already in tears. After crying for a long time, she wiped her tears and continued sobbing, "Now there are two children to raise at home, and my parents-in-law are old and have difficulty walking... I have heard that Sanxiu Pharmacy is dedicated to saving the people and helping the needy. Yesterday, my son started to fall ill again, and I had no choice but to run here with him for more than an hour... It's because I, as a mother, am useless and can't afford to raise him. I only hope that the pharmacy can keep him and give this poor child a chance to live!" After the peasant woman finished speaking, she knelt down in front of Si Yao, crying again.

The herbalists surrounding Si Yao couldn't help but wipe away their tears of sympathy after hearing the peasant woman's crying.

Seeing the young but experienced peasant woman in front of him, Si Yao naturally couldn't bear to refuse. Moreover, given the current situation of the peasant woman's family, the child was born weak and sickly. If he was taken back, he would probably die on his own and would not live long. Although the medicine shop only accepted orphans, Si Yao firmly believed that even if it was his master, he would not leave the child to die.

"I promise you, I will keep him." After a moment's silence, Si Yao raised his hand to help the peasant woman up, and said at the same time.

“Thank you… Thank you girls… You are really the lifesaver of my youngest son…” Upon hearing this, the woman not only did not stand up, but also held Si Yao's hand tightly, kowtowed and cried.

"In that case, you should go meet him, right?" The peasant woman had been working on the farm for many years and was quite energetic, but Si Yao also practiced archery every day and was not a delicate woman, so after she kowtowed twice, she pulled her back and asked again.

The peasant woman was stunned for a moment, tears streaming down her red and swollen eyes again. She wanted to see her youngest son, but... she was afraid to see him, afraid to hear him call her mother again, and even more afraid that after seeing him again, she would not be able to let him go and would take him back, which would only hurt him... She could not repay the debt she owed to her son in this life, and could only wait until the next life to treat him well and love him.

"Girl, I have no face to face him in this life. I feel relieved knowing that he was rescued by you..." The peasant woman staggered to her feet after being pulled by Si Yao, but she still kept her head down. Her calloused hands nervously pulled at the corner of her clothes, and she choked with sobs.

"What's his name?" Si Yao could understand the helplessness and embarrassment of the peasant woman at this moment, so she couldn't bear to force her and just asked.

"This child has been weak since he was young, so we dare not give him a big name, for fear that he could not control himself. He is the youngest in the family, so we usually just call him the youngest... He will be under your protection in this medicine shop from now on, so there is no need to worry. If Mr. Sanxiu is willing to have mercy on him, please give him a name." The peasant woman continued to reply with tears in her eyes.

"Okay, when Master comes back, I will ask for a good reputation on my behalf." Si Yao nodded in response, a thin layer of mist covering her cold eyes.

Seeing Si Yao's kind-heartedness, the peasant woman was even happier for her youngest son. The people at Sanxiu Pharmacy were indeed kind-hearted as rumored. With her youngest son here, she didn't have to worry about him being bullied in the future.

After expressing her gratitude profusely, the peasant woman reluctantly left the medicine shop, wiping away her tears.