Chapter 135: Dysentery

Yan Yu was feeling helpless. Her father used a cat to find prey, and every time, he succeeded.

But when it was her turn, while she did manage to find something, the rabbit she found was—dead.

There were no external wounds. Had it died from the heat? Or from thirst?

She couldn’t determine the cause. After burying it properly, everyone who had touched the rabbit washed their hands one by one.

On the last day of their trip into the mountains, the Young Scouts had no harvest at all.

The rewards her father had promised still hadn’t arrived.

Fortunately, the children were all understanding. Yan Er really was busy—he had to lead the way, push the cart during rest breaks, hunt in the mountains, and search for water.

Over these past few days, Qi Wu had built six handcarts.

Not a single one was left; they were all sold.

Uncle An had bought two, while the remaining ones were divided among the first four disaster victims who paid.

They had received more orders originally, but while chopping wood was easy, transporting it was difficult. Even with the villagers helping share the load, it was still not feasible.

Qi Wu had no choice but to stop this business.

After settling the payments for those who helped, Qi Si still had over four taels of silver left in his hands.

This amount shocked the three brothers.

“Did we shortchange someone?” Qi Wu asked.

“I kept track of everything, there’s no mistake!” Qi Si said while flipping over a piece of cloth covered in notes.

“Let’s ask Yan Er,” Qi Da suggested.

When Yan Lao’er was brought over, he looked at the tattered cloth Qi Si had used for bookkeeping. After barely recognizing the various symbols representing people’s names, he confidently said, “Everything checks out. There’s no mistake! You should have earned 4,390 wen.”

Yan Lao’er swiftly counted the copper coins.

“This is 190 wen. If you have four taels and two maces of silver, then it’s correct.”

“That’s exactly right!” Qi Si exclaimed in surprise.

“Maybe we should keep making carts,” Qi Wu muttered.

It was just too profitable. In four days, they had earned this much!

“Make what carts? Look around—where’s the wood?” Yan Lao’er sighed in frustration.

Not having wood had practically become the family’s biggest concern.

Each day brought them closer to the platform’s activation date.

In the past, they would scavenge and trade for scraps, making do with whatever they could get.

But now, knowing how valuable wood was on the platform, trash… just didn’t seem appealing anymore.

“For now, let’s stop thinking about making carts,” Yan Lao’er said. “Look at this.”

He opened his hand to reveal a dull, dry little shell, cracked from dehydration.

“The kids picked these up. This whole area used to have water, and now the river clams have surfaced. We might as well collect them. People can’t eat them, but livestock can.”

“Got it!” The three Qi brothers were highly attentive when it came to their mules and donkeys.

Their mother had endured the journey well, all thanks to these animals carrying her.

The four of them carved out a few pairs of long chopsticks. When the children saw them, they imitated them.

Gradually, more and more villagers caught on and started collecting river clams.

They were still in the gathering phase.

Unexpectedly, the disaster victims following behind them jumped ahead in progress—they moved straight to eating them.

And then—trouble!

“How many people got sick?” Yan Lao’er asked seriously.

Liang Manshan sighed. “Seven or eight adults, and one child.”

Yan Lao’er immediately became anxious. “How did a child get involved? Didn’t the adults stop him?”

“Don’t even mention it. It was his parents who fed it to him,” Liang Manshan said bitterly. “We kept warning them not to eat it, but they wouldn’t listen. They claimed that if livestock could eat it, so could humans. The moment we looked away, they had already dried the meat inside and eaten it… sigh!”

He was absolutely infuriated with them.

Yan Lao’er was just as mad. “Mules and donkeys eat dry grass too—why don’t they eat that instead! There’s plenty of it around here. I’ll cut a few bundles and bring them over just to see them eat it!”

Yan Huaiwen asked solemnly, “Has Physician Cui checked on them? What are their symptoms?”

Liang Manshan replied, “Severe dysentery.”

“I’ll go take a look,” Yan Lao’er said, rushing off.

Yan Huaiwen and Liang Manshan followed closely behind.

“Cui Da-ge, how are they?” Yan Lao’er called out before even arriving.

“The adults are doing better. They had a few bouts of diarrhea, drank some licorice soup, vomited twice, and the symptoms have mostly stopped. They just need some rest to regain their strength.”

“But the child…” Physician Cui frowned. “He just vomited again and has developed a fever.”

Yan Lao’er saw that the child’s cheeks were flushed red, and he was curled up as if he were freezing.

His sister—Madam Cui—arrived, carrying their family’s cotton quilt.

With a stern expression, she covered the child with it.

When she noticed Yan Lao’er, she complained, “Second Brother, you tell me—what kind of parents are these? Their own son is in this state, yet they didn’t leave anyone here to take care of him! They just dumped him here and disappeared!”

“Weren’t they the ones who fed him the bad clams? Why aren’t they sick?” Yan Lao’er asked, puzzled.

Madam Cui thought for a moment. “Now that you mention it, the parents seem completely fine.”

“Maybe they gave the child the first bites, and he ate too much,” Yan Lao’er reasoned.

That kind of favoritism was common in families.

It wouldn’t be surprising at all.

“Make way! Please, doctor, check on my father!”

People hurriedly cleared a path as a man carrying an old man ran toward them, drenched in sweat.

A woman followed closely behind, clutching a bundle to her chest.

Madam Cui immediately recognized them.

“Aren’t those the child’s parents? Did the elder in their family also get sick?”

Physician Cui rushed over, helped the old man lie down, checked his complexion, took his pulse, and asked the man who had carried him, “Did he also eat the river clams? Why did you bring him here so late?”

“My father said he was fine at first, so we prioritized bringing Xiaobao here. But the more I thought about it, the worse it seemed. When my wife and I returned, he couldn’t even get up,” the man said, full of regret. He blamed himself for not keeping an eye on his father and letting both him and Xiaobao eat those clams.

“Wife, bring another bowl of licorice soup.”

Madam Cui quickly went to fetch it.

Moments later, she returned with the soup.

Physician Cui asked everyone to step back a little.

From somewhere, he pulled out a cloth bundle, took out a long strip of fabric, wrapped it around his finger, and instructed the man to support his father while he carefully stimulated the man’s throat.

After vomiting, the old man refused to drink the soup no matter what.

The man panicked, sweating profusely.

Yan Lao’er stepped in.

“At this point, just force it down!”

There was no time for slow spoon-feeding.

Seeing his determination, Physician Cui signaled for him to go ahead.

Yan Lao’er wasted no time.

He lifted the bowl and poured half of it down the old man’s throat in one go. The old man struggled.

“Brother-in-law, hold on,” Yan Lao’er shouted.

Physician Cui almost lost his grip at the words “brother-in-law.”

Forcing himself to remain focused, he said firmly, “Continue!”

After the entire bowl was down, Physician Cui induced vomiting again.

After repeating this process three times, he finally stopped once the vomit no longer contained any trace of the river clams.

Fortunately, the old man had not developed a fever.

———————

Author’s Note:

Be careful with what you eat, especially in summer

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—Dysentery is an intestinal infection that causes severe diarrhea with blood and mucus. It is usually caused by bacteria (such as Shigella) or parasites (such as Entamoeba histolytica). Symptoms include abdominal pain, fever, and dehydration. It spreads through contaminated food, water, or poor sanitation. If untreated, it can be dangerous, especially for young children and the elderly.