Liu Er’s wife hadn’t originally intended to do this, but after hearing the rumors from the Song family’s child yesterday, somehow her head grew hot and she ran over.

She didn’t dare come to the front gate, only staying at the corner of the wall, holding her child while kowtowing toward the courtyard and lighting three sticks of incense for devout prayer.

The noise disturbed the servants. Burning incense by someone’s courtyard wall was a great taboo, so the servants naturally drove her away.

“Kind aunties and uncles, there’s really no other way. Please let us touch some immortal energy and give the child a way to live.” Liu Er’s wife cried, kowtowing frantically to these people.

The child wrapped in her arms was only two or three years old, with a pale complexion and tightly closed eyes. His body occasionally convulsed, proving he still had a breath of life.

These servant women were also from poor families, and having lived in this village for a long time, they had good neighborly relationships. Seeing this, their expressions showed they couldn’t bear it.

“Liu Er’s wife, if the child is sick, find a doctor to look at him.” Nanny Kang sighed and said, taking out a few coins from her bosom to give her.

“Auntie, auntie, your mistress is an immortal. Please, auntie, let me worship her, let me worship her.” Liu Er’s wife cried while kneeling and kowtowing. “We’ve seen doctors and taken medicine, but it doesn’t work. They all say it’s no use. Auntie, auntie, my husband is dead, and only this one root remains…”

“But our Young Mistress is not an immortal.” The servants said with mixed tears and laughter.

Qi Yue came to the back courtyard where peach, pear, grape, and pomegranate trees were planted. Most of the fruit had been picked, but much still remained, looking quite beautiful.

She didn’t know why, but Qi Yue, who had always felt peaceful here, seemed to constantly hear the crying from outside the courtyard gate.

“You’re saying the sick one is a child?” She couldn’t help asking.

A’Ru seemed lost in thought, standing dazedly without hearing her words until Qi Yue asked again.

“The gatekeeper said it’s a widow’s child from the village. Her husband died last year, and she only has this one child.” A’Ru answered.

After saying this, both fell somewhat silent.

“Children are indeed hard to raise.” Qi Yue sighed somewhat reluctantly, forcing a smile at the corners of her mouth as she turned around.

A’Ru didn’t speak. The master and servant each stood in a daze, not noticing that both their hands were clenched tightly in their sleeves.

“I wonder what we’ll eat today.” Qi Yue said, trying to sound relaxed, wanting to change the topic. “Come, let’s go see.”

A’Ru responded and followed her with lowered head.

Qi Yue walked very slowly, and A’Ru also walked very slowly. Neither noticed this about themselves.

Stepping into the front courtyard, the crying from outside the gate had stopped. Presumably the person had been driven away.

Qi Yue stood there in a daze.

“Young Mistress.” A’Ru suddenly quickened her steps and turned to face her, looking at her with reddened eyes. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t stand by and watch someone die without helping?”

Qi Yue looked at her, not knowing what to say.

“This servant also doesn’t know why I’m saying this. Before, before, this servant didn’t want you to treat illness and save people, but, but, this servant doesn’t know what’s wrong today…” A’Ru lowered her head in confusion, murmuring. “This servant also had a little brother before Yuan Bao. When he was two years old, he got sick. The family spent all our money but couldn’t save him. This servant still remembers holding him and watching him grow cold bit by bit…”

A’Ru was sobbing uncontrollably by this point, and Qi Yue’s eyes also reddened.

“It’s not that I don’t want to save him, but that I can’t.” She said through gritted teeth.

“Young Mistress, this servant saw with her own eyes how you brought someone back from death. Young Mistress, please show mercy again. You don’t know how painful it is for a family, for a mother, to lose a child…” A’Ru knelt and cried.

“I know, I know, but I…” Qi Yue reached out to pull her up.

“Young Mistress, you said life is precious. This servant doesn’t understand why you must watch a child die without saving him…” A’Ru raised her head, biting her lower lip as she looked at her.

Why? Why indeed? Qi Yue was stunned by her question. This was a dream she was having, and in this dream, she was just a passerby, an observer.

“A’Ru, I don’t know if I can save people.” Qi Yue crouched down, looking at the tearful A’Ru. “Those two times, I still had my medicine left, but you know I don’t have those medicines anymore, and I relied on those medicines to save people.”

“But try! Didn’t Doctor Liu say to try? Wasn’t that person saved too? And that drowning child—didn’t you save him too? Without those medicines, isn’t there still you, Young Mistress?” A’Ru grasped her hands hopefully.

Qi Yue looked at her, feeling as if a ball of cotton was stuck in her chest, making it hard to breathe.

Without medicine, was she truly still useful?

Accustomed to walking with crutches, if she threw them away, could she still walk?

There seemed to be a long silence.

“Alright, then let’s try.” Qi Yue finally said slowly.

A’Ru kowtowed with tears and laughter mixed.

Liu Er’s wife held her child and walked slowly in a daze, stumbling without knowing where to go.

She could feel her child’s life slowly ebbing away.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Mother will accompany you, and we’ll go find Father together…” Liu Er’s wife murmured, walking like a zombie into her home. This place could no longer be called a home—without a door, with half the thatched house collapsed, her gaze swept around and finally stopped on the old tree in the courtyard.

“Mother will go find a rope. Wait for Mother, Mother will come soon…” She murmured.

“Sister-in-law!” An urgent call made Liu Er’s wife freeze.

She turned around in confusion, clutching a hemp rope she had just found, looking at the two women who had appeared before her.

“What are you doing?” The woman immediately saw the rope in her hand, then looked at Liu Er’s wife’s expression. Understanding everything, she quickly stepped forward to snatch the rope away.

“Auntie, auntie, give it back to me.” Liu Er’s wife, suddenly having the rope taken away, seemed to have lost her last bit of hope. She desperately lunged forward to grab it.

“Hurry up, the Young Mistress wants you to bring the child over!” The woman shouted loudly.

This shout was like thunder from a clear sky, awakening Liu Er’s wife. She looked up at the woman in disbelief, light flickering in her previously defeated expression.

In the room, on the small bed, Qi Yue knew what was wrong with just one look at the child.

“Dehydration.” She said. “Quick, boil salt and sugar water.”

“It’s diarrhea and vomiting. The medicine he takes comes back up. High fever like burning charcoal, then… then he fell into unconscious sleep…” Liu Er’s wife knelt in the room, stammering out answers to Qi Yue’s questions.

“When did it start?” Qi Yue asked while efficiently inserting a thermometer, wrapping a blood pressure cuff, and picking up a stethoscope. “Were there any other illnesses before this?”

“Seven days ago… illness… illness…?” Liu Er’s wife answered, watching this Young Mistress’s actions, all extremely strange. Why cover mouth and nose? Her head wrapped in a cloth, and the clothes she wore outside were so peculiar…

“Did he have cough, fever, cold… that is, typhoid-like symptoms?” Qi Yue asked.

Liu Er’s wife shook her head.

“He was always fine. Though our family is poor, I’ve always taken good care of the child. He was always very sturdy.” She said hurriedly.

“Then it’s not caused by other diseases, nor by diet…” Qi Yue muttered to herself, then looked at Liu Er’s wife. “Did you see a doctor and get medicine?”

Liu Er’s wife nodded.

“But it didn’t work!” She said urgently, starting to cry again.

“It’s not that it didn’t work—the child couldn’t absorb it. Couldn’t stop the vomiting and diarrhea…” Qi Yue muttered to herself, then looked at the woman. “Go get the medicine the doctor prescribed…”

Liu Er’s wife hesitated, but at this moment, this Young Mistress was her only hope.

“Also.” Qi Yue called out to stop her. “I can only try, because I don’t have… anyway, I might not be able to save him. You must be mentally prepared. We do our human best and leave the rest to fate.”

Liu Er’s wife looked at her, nodding and kowtowing through her tears.

When A’Ru came in carrying the prepared water, Qi Yue was seriously examining something.

“Young Mistress, I found a wine pot to fill it… ah!” She approached speaking, but before finishing her words, she saw clearly what Qi Yue held and screamed.

It was the child’s feces…

She stared dumbly as the Young Mistress spread and closed her fingers, all covered with feces, examining it seriously against the light from outside, then bringing it close to her nose…

A’Ru turned away and dry-heaved.

“What type of diarrhea is this exactly…” Qi Yue murmured, frowning deeply. In the past, this was such a simple test—results in thirty minutes with whatever data needed. But now… what she had learned and seen in school… damn…

She dejectedly lowered her head. Which doctor would personally examine feces when machines were available…

“Never mind, fluid replacement first.” She quickly washed her hands. “A’Ru, you need to disinfect here. Find some high-concentration alcohol, and if there isn’t any, go buy some. Also lime… sprinkle lime here…”

A’Ru watched from the side, both anxious and worried, nodding frantically at her instructions.

“How much does this child weigh…” Qi Yue scratched her head. Without any admission examination data, she simply lifted the child with both hands to gauge his weight.

When Liu Er’s wife entered the room trembling with the medicine package, she saw her son’s arm with a strange tube inserted, extending to a wine bottle hanging from a coat rack. She couldn’t help crying out.

“Come, feed him water.” Qi Yue saw her and said quickly.

Liu Er’s wife nodded and tremblingly approached, carefully bringing water to the child’s mouth.

The child was semi-comatose. The water went in and flowed back out. After a long time, not a drop had been fed to him, and the child began vomiting again.

Liu Er’s wife sat crying on the ground.

“It’s alright, take it slowly. We still have time. We must find a way to get him to take fluids.” Qi Yue came over, bending to personally wipe the child clean, carefully positioning him on his side.

Liu Er’s wife watched this wealthy woman carefully cleaning her dirty child, wiping so attentively that she didn’t even miss his neck. She couldn’t help covering her mouth and crying.