Chapter 74 – Hunting in the Snow (1)
Gu Ye walked into the room next door and said to her grandfather, who was sitting on top of the stove looking like he was in pain, “Grandpa, my master gave me some of the medicines that he made. I don’t know how good it is, but let me apply it for you.”
This girl dropped the name of the sage apothecary and pulled out her own ointment. She was secretly happy about it and thought to herself: Hrm, there are certainly benefits with having a master!
Had the sage apothecary learned that that all he was to his disciple, he might go look for a piece tofu and commit suicide by banging his head against it.
(T/N: It’s a Chinese saying.)
The ointment used for enhancing circulation and getting rid of blood clot, combined with her massaging technique, the pain in Gu Xiao’s leg was relieved before long. Gu Xiao thought to himself: Wow, the product of the sage apothecary was certainly no joke!
After applying the ointment, Gu Ye brought over the bag of coarse salt that she had placed above the stove earlier and placed it on top of her grandfather’s injured leg. Suddenly, her stomach growled in discontent. She had been waiting for her grandfather and brother to return from town and hadn’t have dinner yet.
Gu Ye called out to her brother and went inside the kitchen with him. There was broth cooking on the stove with large pieces of bones inside of it. The bones were from the wild hog that they had caught a few days ago. Now that the weather had turned colder, meat and vegetables could last for longer.
Gu Ye made some dough drop soup from this rich bone soup. Two bowls of dough drop soups made her felt full and warm.
Most of the pain on Gu Xiao’s leg was alleviated and he had a good night sleep. When Gu Xiao woke up in the middle of the night from being too cold, he saw his grandchild curled up and snuggled up against him. Through the cloudy paper window, he could tell it was snowy white outside. Thinking about the overcast sky at dusk, the first snow fall of this winter must be here already!
Thinking about just a few years ago, his leg would be excruciatingly painful on every snowy day and he could never get any rest at night. The old general worried a lot about him and had sought out many healers for him, but none of them were able to help him.
He moved his left leg slightly and merely felt a little bit of soreness; it was nothing compared to the grueling pain he had experienced before. Gu Xiao rolled onto his side, put his arms around his grandchild and, with a smile on him, fell back asleep.
“Mei mei, wake up! It’s snowing!” Chattering, Gu Ming pushed open the door and a gust of chilling wind rushed into Gu Ye’s room.
Gu Ye was already awake, but her clothes were simple too thin to keep her warm in the weather of the first snow so she had no choice but to curl up in her blanket and huddle above the stove to stay warm.
When Gu Ming saw that, he put his icy cold hands on his sister’s pink cheeks, eliciting loud complaints from his sister. He chuckled and said, “Luckily we bought cotton and fabric yesterday. Grandpa had already gone and asked Ninth Aunty and Third Grandma to come help, we will have new blankets tonight! Speaking of, you should put on that vest that Ninth Aunty made for you from rabbit skin. Layers will be helpful in this temperature.”
Ever since they had left the Gu’s, Gu Ming had been much more outgoing and becoming more like a normal 11-year-old boy. Gu Ye could tell the changes in her brother and truly felt that her grandfather was the savior for the both of them.
If they weren’t adopted by their grandfather, she had no idea how Mrs. Gu would be treating them right about now. She wasn’t even sure if they could make it through this long and cold winter with whatever little clothes that they had.
“Wow! This is some snow!” The snow was over the entire yard, covering all of the roof and the tree branches. The snow had stopped and the sun was out. Reflecting on the pure, white snow, it was too bright to look at directly. In her past life, the greenhouse effect continued to exacerbate and Gu Ye, who hadn’t seen snow in years, couldn’t help but be mesmerized.