Old Liu drove the cart close to the courtyard gate and stopped. He climbed down from the cart and knocked on the door. As usual, it was Ah Xu who came to open it. After calling out “Old Liu,” he walked ahead to lead the way.
“Is Doctor Xu all ready?” Old Liu asked from behind.
This wasn’t his first time coming to the Xu family courtyard, yet he was still captivated by the thriving chrysanthemums in the yard.
On this visit, many of the chrysanthemums had bloomed. White ones and yellow ones interspersed together in full glory, looking quite beautiful.
Ah Xu replied, “All set! He’s waiting for you inside. Old Liu, rest here for a moment. I’ll go get the clothes and then we can set off.”
“What clothes?” Old Liu asked.
Ah Xu explained, “They’re old clothes the young master wants us to bring to Baili Village. We’ll give them to Village Chief Zhang’s family later.”
After saying this, he turned toward the house and called out to Ah Jin inside:
“Sister, are you ready?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he ran into the house to tell Xu Yi that Old Liu had arrived.
Xu Yi was making his final preparations. He wrapped the medicinal herbs he was bringing to Village Chief Zhang’s house separately in yellow hemp paper, placed them in his medicine box, slung it over his shoulder, and was ready to go.
Ah Xu and Ah Jin quickly moved a bundle containing several sets of clothes onto the cart.
When Xu Yi came out, he noticed significant changes to the wooden cart. Touching the straw and mat spread on top, he was somewhat surprised.
“How did it get changed like this?” Xu Yi asked with a light laugh.
Old Liu’s weathered face also broke into a smile. “Doctor Xu has rented my ox cart, so this old fellow is essentially working for you now. Working for someone is different from taking random passengers. How could I be so careless?”
Such a good boss was rare even in a hundred years. Having lived this long, he understood this principle well.
“Old Liu is thoughtful.” Xu Yi’s expression remained composed. This time, instead of sitting in the back, he sat at the front of the cart.
Shoulder to shoulder with Old Liu, so to speak.
Only then did Old Liu notice that for this trip to Baili Village, Xu Yi wasn’t wearing wide-sleeved robes but rather narrow-sleeved, tight-legged cloth garments.
He didn’t ask much and drove the ox cart out onto South Street, heading toward the city gate.
After two days of spreading, the case of the kidnapper Old Lady Li had already circulated throughout the marketplace of Yanting County.
As soon as the ox cart carrying Xu Yi and the others entered the marketplace, they heard vendors and passersby discussing the matter in twos and threes.
In an instant, everyone on the ox cart fell silent, listening intently to what people were saying.
At this moment, Old Liu suddenly asked, “Doctor Xu, have you heard about this?”
Xu Yi gazed ahead and said calmly, “I’ve heard. I just don’t know if the case has been judged yet.”
“It has been judged!”
Old Liu said this, unable to contain his desire to share the news he’d heard when entering the city. “The yamen posted a notice early this morning saying they’ve arrested a gang of kidnappers and rescued three children. The whole gang was sentenced by the magistrate to public execution in five days.”
Public execution meant carrying out the death penalty in the marketplace.
This matched Xu Yi’s expected outcome. After transmigrating here, he had reread the Song Code using the original body’s memories. For this type of kidnapping crime, the heavy punishment was death, while lighter sentences involved exile or penal servitude.
For someone like Old Lady Li, a veteran kidnapper who had abducted numerous children, beheading was the only outcome.
Old Liu enthusiastically invited him, “Doctor Xu, would you like to go watch the public execution together in five days?”
Xu Yi: “…”
Facing his eager gaze, Xu Yi had no choice but to politely decline with an explanation, saying he wasn’t interested in such bloody scenes as beheadings.
Old Liu felt somewhat regretful. “Our Yanting County rarely has such major cases. It’s hard to see the excitement of a public execution even once in several years.”
If other criminals were sentenced to public execution, common people would feel fearful and anxious, worried about suffering the same fate. But since this Old Lady Li and her gang were kidnappers, the situation was different. They were rats crossing the street that everyone wanted to beat. People were most pleased to see such heinous criminals lose their heads.
No wonder Old Liu, despite his age, was so enthusiastic about it.
Seeing that the two children were also afraid of beheading scenes, Xu Yi didn’t continue this topic.
…
After leaving the city gate, the road became less smooth.
Once the city gate was some distance away, Xu Yi started a new topic, asking Old Liu if he could teach him how to drive the cart.
Having many skills was never a burden. Xu Yi had wanted to learn how to drive a cart for a long time but hadn’t found the opportunity.
His question to Old Liu was also exploratory. If Old Liu was unwilling to share all his knowledge, Xu Yi would understand.
“Of course I can! If Doctor Xu wants to learn, this old fellow will teach you.”
Old Liu answered quite readily.
“There’s a technique to driving a cart. Once you learn this technique, you’ll be able to handle not just ox carts but also donkey carts and horse carts in the future.” After Old Liu finished speaking, his eyes immediately became sharp, and his hands and feet moved with an agility unbefitting someone his age. After all, driving carts was something he’d been familiar with for decades.
Old Liu explained that the rope loop fastened to the ox’s nose couldn’t be gripped too tightly. If it was too tight, the ox would feel uncomfortable and wouldn’t obey obediently.
Ox carts moved relatively slowly and weren’t suitable for urging on with the rope loop, as this easily made the ox lose its temper. If it went off course, one should make a long “whoa” sound to make it stop, then pull the rope loop in the other direction to bring it back.
The rest was practice making perfect.
After Old Liu finished explaining, he let Xu Yi try.
Xu Yi took the rope loop from his hand, took a deep breath, sat up straight, placed one foot on the crossbeam, and steadied the other foot on the cart’s edge.
He raised the hand holding the rope and waved it lightly, causing the rope to strike the ox’s rump.
The ox’s tail swatted its thigh back and forth, then began moving forward slowly again.
For the rest of the journey, it was Xu Yi driving the ox cart.
After learning how, Xu Yi experienced the difficulty of driving. The ox walking ahead would occasionally misbehave, wanting to stop and eat the lush grass by the roadside or be drawn to the verdant scenery on either side of the path.
At such times, the techniques Old Liu mentioned came in handy.
One couldn’t use forceful methods to pull it back. Instead, one had to change the driving calls, making “giddy-up” whistling sounds while pulling it back to the main road with appropriate force.
These sounds were essentially commands that required the driver and ox to work in harmony; something that couldn’t be achieved overnight.
Each time, Xu Yi had to call out several times before the old ox would reluctantly abandon its grass-eating thoughts and resume the journey.
After an extended tug-of-war with the ox, Xu Yi finally drove the cart to the entrance of Baili Village.
Next, Old Liu took over driving again.
They first stopped at the village chief’s house.
The village chief’s young grandchildren saw them and excitedly shouted loudly, “Doctor Xu is here~ Doctor Xu is here~”
Before long, several little kids surrounded the ox cart.
Each of their mouths was as sweet as honey, calling out “Doctor Xu” affectionately.
Xu Yi gave each child a piece of candy. Only after distributing them did these children happily leave, holding their candy beans.
Watching from the side, Old Liu felt warmth in his eyes and said sincerely, “Doctor Xu always has a kind heart, no matter when. He can’t bear to see others suffer.”
Xu Yi smiled.
He gave Ah Xu and Ah Jin a few instructions. The task of delivering the old clothes would be left to the two of them.
They were more suitable for this than he was.
Xu Yi watched as Ah Xu and the others went to find Old Lady Zhang, while he headed to the main room.
At this moment, Village Chief Zhang, hearing the commotion, came to welcome him inside. Several days ago, he’d already known that Xu Yi would come today, so he’d bought tea cakes in advance. Water had been kept boiling on the stove, and as soon as Xu Yi sat down, tea could be brewed.
Brewing tea in the countryside was simple, without complicated steps.
Using a stone mortar, the tea cake was crushed into small pieces. A few pieces were placed in the ceramic pot used for boiling water, and once boiled, it was ready to drink.
The poured tea still had some broken tea leaves floating in it.
Not aesthetically pleasing, but it had the fragrant aroma of green tea.
After drinking tea and chatting for a bit, Xu Yi, knowing what Village Chief Zhang was anxious about, went straight to the main topic.
The follow-up examination.
For the follow-up examination, Old Lady Zhang needed to come. Village Chief Zhang said, “I’ll go call her.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he got up and went out. Just as he walked out the door of the main room, he saw his old wife hurrying over with a bundle. After asking, he learned that Xu Yi had also had those two children pack several sets of old clothes.
Although they were old clothes, each piece was in good, nearly new condition with barely any signs of washing. After Old Lady Zhang examined them, she knew these were all new clothes from this year. How could they accept them?
Not knowing what to do, she wanted to find Village Chief Zhang to make the decision.
Village Chief Zhang pondered for a moment, then sighed and said, “Accept them. Since Doctor Xu had the children look for you, he wants us to accept them. This is Doctor Xu’s kindness. Old woman, go to the kitchen and pick out twelve eggs, and have Big Girl go to Butcher Ma in the neighboring village to ask if he has good meat and cut a portion.”
Holding the clothes, Old Lady Zhang nodded and said, “I’ll go right now.”
She put away the clothes, then went to the kitchen to pick out twelve eggs. These eggs were supposed to be saved to sell for money, but now she willingly took them all to give to Xu Yi.
After finishing these tasks, Old Lady Zhang wiped her hands and went to the main room to see Xu Yi.
As a peasant woman and grandmother managing a large household, Old Lady Zhang showed no signs of being mean-spirited, shrewd, or calculating. She was known throughout Baili Village as an honest person.
Fortunately, she had married someone like Village Chief Zhang. Had it been someone else’s family, she would have been eaten down to the bones long ago.
Xu Yi saw that the red tumor on her face had shrunk considerably. After taking her pulse, he found it steady and strong, no longer floating and slippery.
“Doctor Xu, how is it?” Village Chief Zhang sat up straight and asked Xu Yi urgently.
Xu Yi released her wrist. “Take the medicine for another ten days, then you can stop.”
Receiving this answer, both Village Chief Zhang and Old Lady Zhang visibly relaxed.
“After stopping the medicine, will it never recur?”
Looking at their expectant gazes, Xu Yi rolled the words around in his mouth before saying, “It won’t.”
“That’s good, that’s good.”
“In daily life, eat more winter melon, Chinese yam, and lily bulbs. Remember to eat less spicy food.”
After instructing them about dietary precautions, Xu Yi prepared to leave.
As for the eggs and meat that Village Chief Zhang’s family had prepared, Xu Yi only accepted the eggs, leaving the meat for them to eat themselves.
Xu Yi, along with Ah Xu and the others, returned to the ox cart and bid farewell to the children who came to see them off. The children ran and jumped, following behind them until the ox cart bumped along the winding path and gradually traveled far. Only then did they stop.
When they arrived at Zhang Tiegou’s house, Xu Yi jumped down from the cart and tossed him a package of tea cakes.
Zhang Tiegou looked at the tea cakes in his hand with a confused expression and asked, “Why are you giving me this?”
Xu Yi said, “It’s a thank-you gift.”
“Huh?” Zhang Tiegou thought he’d heard wrong and asked again.
Xu Yi explained slowly, “Eating so much meat requires drinking more hot tea. As the weather turns cold, don’t throw away used tea leaves. Use them to boil water, add dried mugwort, and soak your feet. It can dispel cold and promote blood circulation. You go up the mountain year-round, where the cold dew is heavy. Soaking your feet in this will be good for your body.”
At this point, he paused.
“As for why it’s a thank-you gift… you’ll know very soon.”