Chapter 97 Swollen Hands and Unfinished Medicine
“They go with us?” though Qin Wanru had guessed it, she showed nothing but a slight surprise on her face.
“Yes, they’ll go with us… We owe more to Qi’s mansion!” Qin Huaiyong tightly furrowed his brow and looked pale.
Qi Ping of Magistrate Qi had got something on him for both Qin Yuru and what Madam Di had done this time. The result of their showdown was that Qi Huaiyong had to shelter Qi Rongzhi temporarily and tried to find a grand marriage for her.
“From now on, you’re just closer to your mother. As for others… don’t care too much!” Qin Huaiyong said while looking at Qin Wanru. And the words meant more than he said.
“Yes, I’ll listen to you, father!” Qin Wanru said with great respect as if she didn’t seem to catch the meaning of Qin Huaiyong’s words which told her not to care too much about Madam Di.
After Qin Huaiyong left, Qin Wanru did not immediately get ready for bed but made medicine under the lamp with great carefulness. Throwing the medicine she needed into a stone mortar, she took a small pestle to pound it carefully.
Qin Wanru had asked Shui Ruolan to take these medicines up the mountain at her convenience a few days ago. In the previous days, when Shui Ruolan sent medicines to Old Grandma, she also brought a share of medicine to Qin Wanru. Qin Wanru just got it from Old Grandma, but the medicine was also tainted with the smell of Qingqu Grass.
For ordinary people, the smell of Qingqu Grass was no harm.
This was a task that Mingqiu Nun assigned to her, which was not too difficult for her at the moment. But thanks to the medicine tainted with Qingqu Grass, she was seized by a sudden inspiration and new idea.
This time, she met many people in the capital city. In her previous life, she was calculated to suffer from being annulled engagements for marriage. Those who broke off her engagements might show up again. Therefore, she must turn down them all before they proposed to the General’s Mansion. But only Qing Yue was around her. Too few people she had!
She needed more useful people, particularly loyal ones!
She was satisfied with a person, intending to bring him to the capital city. And at the present, the medicine with the smell of Qingqu Grass served as a powerful means!
“Miss, may I help you? It’s so late. You go to sleep, please?” Qing Yue said with concern, passing her another cup of tea when she found that it was getting late.
“No, I’ll do it by myself. You don’t know when to put other medicines in!” Qin Wanru said while shaking her head, with a flicker of smile shown in her eyes.
Looking at Qin Wanru, who held the pestle vigorously, which caused a large piece of a red lump in the jaws of her white and delicate hands, even with faint signs of swelling, Qing Yue distressed to say, “Miss, I have great strength. Just let me pestle, you can guide me beside. So, you can have a rest!”
Qin Wanru had a white shin as white as snow. The place on her hands where she held the handgrip of the pestle has turned red in a large piece, which could be seen clearly.
Her delicate hands have always used to take books and adjust lines. When did she hold something so hard and do such work?
“It doesn’t matter. Qing Yue, you don’t understand it. It’s better to do it by myself!” Qin Wanru looked at the red lumps on her hands, feeling not very satisfied with her work. She continued to pestle the medicine vigorously. Although she felt very painful on her hands now, it was actually nothing serious after a night of sleep.
“Miss, please pestle it tomorrow! Haven’t you ever done it all at once?” Qin Yue was really distressed about Qin Wanru’s hands.
“That was before. There’s not much time left, just a few days. So, I have to pestle it as quickly as possible. Moreover, at this time, the medicine is different from that of the past. It’s best to get it done one time!” With her long eyelashes fluttering a few times, Qin Wanru’s white and delicate face looked nearly clear under jagged shadows of the light.
Her skin was fair and crystal clear as snow!
“Qing Yue, go to bed if you are sleepy. I’ll work a little longer!” Qin Wanru said with a smile while looking up at Qing Yue.
“I’m not sleepy. I’m here with you, Miss. If you don’t sleep, neither do I!” Qing Yue said almost in a rage. Qing Yue thought for a moment and went to the inner room to take some of the unguents, ready to apply the unguents to Qin Wanru’s hands after she finished pestling the medicine in case that her hands swelled up tomorrow.
“Qing Yue, it doesn’t matter. I just want to let my hands swell up!” Seeing the ointment in the hands of Qing Yue and her angry face, Qin Wanru laughed. Her eyes were pure and her smile was all the more simple and cherubic.
The idea that she was only a child came upon people once again.
However, the meaning of her words made Qing Yue startled. “Miss, what do you want to do? What will you do if your hands are really swollen? It will kill Old Grandma to see your hands!”
“So, I won’t go to visit my grandmother tomorrow morning. You tell her that I’m scared by Qi Rongzhi today. So, I don’t sleep well at night and get up late tomorrow morning. Apologize to her for me!” Qin Wanru lowered her head to look at her small hands where the red lumps by the pestle became more visible.
It could even be considered unsightly. Her hand was swollen and also aching!
But it meant nothing compared to the punishment of the kidney shot. Thinking of this, she wore a brilliant smile. She was very demanding of herself！
“But Miss, your hand…” Qing Yue also felt distressed that there were red bumps on her Young Madam’s small hands.
“It doesn’t matter. Just wait on me to sleep!” Qin Wanru stood up and looked at the unfinished medicinal powder, feeling that the medicine was nearly ready.
“May I put it away for you?” Qing Yue asked with misgiving while looking at a few small pieces of medicinal powder.
“Don’t do that. Just let it be!” Qin Wanru was very satisfied with her work. Although it could not be considered as the best-finished product, it was the best for herself!
That was the best thing she could do with a girl’s strength!
The next morning, Qing Yue took Qin Wanru’s place to make an apology to Old Grandma. By the time Qin Wanru got up, Qing Yue had already returned. After freshening up for Qin Wanru, she set her eyes on Qin Wanru’s hands.
Qing Yue felt that Qin Wanru’s hands weren’t much better than before after one night, and the swelling even got a little worse. Qin Wanru even had difficulty in picking up food with chopsticks when having her meals.
Qin Wanru simply put down the chopsticks in her hand, asking Qing Yue for a spoon to have some white porridge directly.
After having a bowl of white porridge, Qin Wanru stood up and told Qing Yue to pack the stone mortar, together with the medicine in it, and then carried it to Mingqiu Nun’s hut.
By the time she reached the hut at the foot of the mountain, Mingqiu Nun had already got up and was doing morning prayers. Thus, with her eyes closed, Qin Wanru knelt on one side of the rush cushion to wait for Mingqiu Nun quietly.
Although Mingqiu Nun was also a nun of the Jingxin Monastery, she usually did morning prayers alone, rarely with other nuns of the monastery. Moreover, most of the masters of the Jingxin Monastery declared that their younger sisters were not in the monastery, and Mingqiu Nun was a quiet person. Therefore, she didn’t want someone to perturb her from peace.
She was just a master of the Jingxin Monastery. For a difficult and baffling disease, she would not readily treat others unless she had no choice. And even if she helped to treat people, she was just in the capacity of an ordinary nun of the Jingxin Monastery. Even if some patients were cured, they still simply thought that the master of the Jingxin Monastery was not free and just called a nun, who used to follow her to treat people, to treat them.
Therefore, a majority of people merely knew the master of the Jingxin Monastery, but they didn’t know Mingqiu Nun!
Finally, she finished her morning prayers and slowly opened her eyes.
“Why are you coming so early today? Don’t visit Old Madam Qin?” In the past, Qin Wanru went to visit Old Madam Qin and accompany her at this time.
“My hands are swollen!” Qin Wanru said while pouting slightly, with a flicker of childish arrogance, “I’m afraid that my grandmother will be distressed to see my hands. So, I didn’t visit her!”
“What’s wrong?” After getting along with Qin Wanru these days, Mingqiu Nun was keen on the clever and well-behaved disciple of her. Hearing that her hands were swollen, Mingqiu Nun couldn’t help setting her kind eyes on Qin Wanru’s hands.
Qin Wanru hid her hands in her sleeves. Hearing what Mingqiu Nun asked her, she didn’t show her hands to Mingqiu Nun right away but say to Qing Yue with a smile, “Present the medicine powder.”
Qing Yue respectfully took out the stone mortar wrapped in a package, where most of the medicine powder seemed to be processed in a rough way.
Mingqiu Nun put on a grave expression and scolded, “Wanru, what did I tell you? These medicines matter to patients’ bodies. So, you can’t be careless. How can you make these powders like this? Look at some of the medicines here you didn’t finish. How do you give them to patients? Or even if patients take them, it’s not as effective as it should be due to the poor efficacy. And it may delay their condition!”
Without any disobedience, Qin Wanru respectfully nodded while lowering her head. “Yes, nun, I will pestle the medicine harder next time.”
When it came to pestle the medicine harder, Mingqiu Nun set her eyes on Qin Wanru’s hands. What Qin Wanru said just now set her heart pounding and reminded her of Qin Wanru’s previous words.
“Show me your hands!” Mingqiu Nun said softly.
Qin Wanru hesitated for a moment. Although she looked a little reluctant, she still put out her hand slowly.
Qin Wanru’s dangling sleeves were rolled up. Seeing the red lumps on Qi Wanru’s white and tender hands, she could not help but frown and reached out to hold Qi Wanru’s hands to press the red lumps with her thumb.
“Ah, nun, it hurts!” with her eyes drowned in tears, Qin Wanru saw Mingqiu Nun pressing the palm of her hands, and she was sweating with pain on her forehead at once.
It was really painful!
“You become like this after you pestle the medicine?” Looking at the two red lumps, Mingqiu Nun asked her with misgiving.
“Yes… I become like this after I pestle the medicine. My father said that he would go to the capital city in a few days. And I recalled that I didn’t finish pestling the medicine you assigned to me before, so I brought it when my mother sent the medicine to my grandmother. I want to do it quickly, but I failed. Nun, please forgive me!”
Qin Wanru lowered her head and eyebrows, with a flicker of embarrassment on her face on purpose.
It turned out that it was not that she was indifferent to the medicine, but she was too young to exert much strength although she tried to get it all done at once. So, it was Mingqiu Nun who wronged her.
Mingqiu Nun’s countenance relaxed while her voice was unconsciously soft. “How can you be so careless? Let someone help you next time. And there’s no need to be anxious like this…”
By here, Mingqiu Nun seemed to remember something. She raised her head and looked a little bit pale, with a pair of pretty arch eyebrows knitted. “You say, you are leaving for the capital city soon?”
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