Chapter 23 Human Life Has a Price

Chapter 23 Human Life Has a Price

The man was completely unyielding. Chen Lizheng tried everything he could, using both kind and harsh words, but in the end, he still couldn't persuade the man to get a doctor for the child.

However, he did promise to let the matter rest and not to threaten the child with words like "beat him to death" again.

Even so, his youngest daughter still developed a fever after nightfall.

Xie Wanniang was sleeping soundly when she and Jiang Yuan were woken up one after the other by the noise coming from outside. It turned out that the man still refused to call a doctor for his youngest daughter. His wife and children were pestering and begging him, and he couldn't help but beat and scold his wife and children again.

It was late at night, and Jiang Yuan and Xie Wanniang were awakened by the crying and cursing coming from his house without anyone having to call them.

Xie Wanniang was furious. Although she didn't go up the mountain today, she washed clothes, cleaned the house, and prepared food for tomorrow. She was very tired too.

She got up angrily and went out with Jiang Yuan to find out what was going on.

There were many people who acted even faster than them. One family alerted another, and eventually, representatives from most of the villages came out to investigate what had happened in the middle of the night.

Chen Lizheng, looking irritable, also arrived. Under his pressure of the choice between "getting a doctor for the child or going to the prefectural city to do forced labor after the autumn harvest," the man finally agreed to let his eldest son, Shuanzi, go and get Doctor Chen.

At that moment, Dr. Chen's two sons were standing outside his yard with Jiang Yuan, Xie Wanniang, and others. When they heard Shuanzi say that he wanted to invite their father over, the two of them hurriedly went back to his house with him.

Their father was getting old, and Chen Dalang, who was learning medicine from him, was still young. The old man certainly wouldn't want to wake that boy up to carry the medicine box.

The two brothers were worried about their father walking alone at night, so they simply took torches and went home with Shuanzi to ask their father for help.

Dr. Chen arrived quickly. He was awakened when his two sons went out to find out what was going on. Just in case, he put on his coat and shoes in advance, just in case someone called him to come and see him.

Just as Dr. Chen told Xie Wanniang, doctors, as long as they are not wicked, are bound to suffer and endure hardship.

Although he is quite old, he is still woken up in the middle of the night just as often as he used to be.

After hearing a brief description of his younger sister's symptoms from Shuanzi, Dr. Chen, accompanied by his two sons, went to Shuanzi's house.

After taking the pulse of the little girl, whose face was dark red and who was unconscious but occasionally twitching, Doctor Chen looked up at Shuanzi's father, the head of the family, and said, "You can all see how weak this little girl is without me telling you. Her high fever and fear are much more dangerous than those of ordinary people with the same illness."

Although Dr. Chen tried his best to be straightforward and easy to understand, Shuanzi's father still pretended that he did not hear the subtle accusation against him in Dr. Chen's words.

He rubbed his hands together and asked Dr. Chen, "Are you saying this girl is beyond cure?"

Dr. Chen and Chen the village head both frowned, and the neighbors in the house and in the yard exchanged glances, their expressions revealing their astonishment.

Dr. Chen took a deep breath. "It's treatable, but it will be more complicated than for others."

Upon hearing this, Shuanzi's father frowned as well. "Won't that cost a lot of money?"

Dr. Chen took another deep breath, maintaining his calm tone, "I can't say for sure how much."

He patiently explained, "This child's condition is quite serious. We need to use better quality medicine to calm her nerves, clear heat, and nourish her blood. How long she needs to take it depends on when her condition improves. I also need to continue giving her medicine to help her maintain her health. In addition, your family needs to provide this child with some good food."

Shuanzi's father frowned even more deeply. "Then can you estimate how much money it will cost at the very least?"

Doctor Chen glanced at him. "Five or six hundred coins."

Shuanzi's father hissed, "At least five or six hundred coins?"

Doctor Chen nodded. "This is just the price to save her life. With her current physical condition, even if she survives this, she will be prone to illness and misfortune in the future, which will affect her lifespan. If you don't want her to be as weak as she is now, you'll need to spend at least a thousand or eight hundred coins for treatment and conditioning."

Shuanzi's father waved his hand forcefully, "Too much, too much! My family doesn't even spend a thousand or eight hundred coins a year!"

His family has a total of seven or eight people!

What kind of medicine is so precious? Could this old doctor be spouting nonsense and trying to extort money from us?

While he was inwardly grumbling about this, Shuanzi's father dared not show it on his face. He only kept complaining about being poor, "You can see our situation. Our house is about to collapse. If we don't build a new house soon, our whole family will have to sleep in the open..."

Dr. Chen was impatient to listen to him talk about this in the middle of the night. "Just tell me whether you'll treat him or not."

Shuanzi's father remained silent, while Shuanzi and his younger brother uttered the word "cure" in unison.

His mother and his two younger sisters looked at his father with pleading eyes. His mother cried and called out "my husband" in a pleading tone.

However, Shuanzi's father remained unmoved. He had not forgotten that Doctor Chen had said "at least 1,800 coins."

He and his family scrimped and saved, and the money they had saved for building a house was only a little over two taels of silver. If they took out half of it to treat their youngest daughter's illness, would they still be able to build their house after the autumn harvest?

He can't possibly contribute just a little over one or two ounces and then borrow the rest from the villagers, can he? Even if he borrows from the entire village, he might not be able to borrow enough money to build a house!

Without a house, how will his second son get married? And where will his unborn grandchildren live?

After quickly weighing the pros and cons in his mind, Shuanzi's father regretfully chose to give up his youngest daughter.

Contrary to his usual behavior, he didn't scold or beat his family. Instead, he calmly and ruthlessly explained the predicament they were facing to them.

When he pressed her with questions, his wife wiped away her tears and fell silent, no longer speaking. This was tacitly agreeing that she would abandon their youngest daughter.

Shuanzi wanted to say something, but his wife tugged at the hem of his shirt. Only Shuanzi's younger brother, with red eyes, said, "I'm not getting married! I want to save my little sister!"

Shuanzi's other two younger sisters cautiously chimed in, "We'll go into the mountains more often in the future to earn back the money for our little sister's medical treatment as soon as possible."

Shuanzi's father waved his hand, "How much money can you make? If you rely on your earnings, our house won't be built in three to five years."

Besides, even without today's incident, everyone in his family has been working at full capacity, and his two daughters simply don't have the time to find mountain products to exchange for money.

Most importantly, his eldest daughter will be getting married soon, and his second daughter will be getting married soon too. No matter how hard they work in the future, it will be their husbands' families who benefit.

"Zhu Zi, stop talking nonsense. You can choose not to get married, but are we all supposed to live in the open? We can't let our whole family freeze to death in the dead of winter just because of your little sister."