Ginseng!
This was the precious medicine that could hang onto life, as Mother used to say.
Lin Chunju took the leaf, examining it carefully for a few minutes.
Nobody in the room dared to breathe heavily, though Yue Qingqing wanted to lean over for a look, her poor head just couldn't bear it.
She could only faintly see the object in Lin Chunju's hand, emitting a gentle glow.
"No mistake, it's ginseng," Lin Chunju's voice quivered slightly.
Yue Jiannan cracked a smile, "Look at our luck, a blessing in disguise. Now you know you shouldn't have hit me."
"Big brother, you can give me a good beating!"
No sooner had he spoken than Yue Jiannan felt like he was hit by a torrential downpour in his life.
In the midst of his pleas, Lin Chunju said coldly, "Today you're lucky, but you can't always be so fortunate. Without giving you a lesson today, next time you might end up a skeleton on the mountain."
Once the cries of agony ended, Yue Jiannan hung his head like a frost-bitten bok choy, looking pitiful.
"Alright, let's eat," Lin Chunju said to Zhang Ying, "Take away the third one's bowl; let him go hungry."
Yue Jiannan's voice was almost a whine, "Mother, I really know I was wrong."
Lin Chunju wasn't softened, instead, she took the braised rabbit meat to reheat it on the stove.
The rich aroma of the sauce enveloped the rabbit meat, which, after being boiled twice, was even softer and melted in the mouth.
Zhang Ying even had an extra bowl of rice just with the broth.
Yue Jiannan watched his two older brothers with a gloomy face, his mouth moving unconsciously as they chewed.
The only one as pitiful as him was Yue Qingqing.
So hungry... so wanting to eat.
Yue Qingqing gazed on eagerly, her little face scrunched up in longing.
Seeing her daughter's expression, Zhang Ying couldn't help but let out a chuckle.
All eyes then turned to her, looking at her pitiful yet adorable little figure.
Lin Chunju paused with her chopsticks, her eyes narrowing.
Seeing his niece's longing face gave Yue Jiannan a sense of solace, making him break into a grin, only to wince as it hurt his wound, uttering an "aiyo" in pain.
Lin Chunju's gaze once again drifted to the collar of her son's clothes.
The collar was open, missing a button, and there was a red mark on his chest where a branch had scraped by.
A coincidence? It seemed too much of one.
After dinner, Yue Jiandong suggested, "Mother, I'll take the ginseng to town and sell it tomorrow."
The Yue family was too poor to hold onto such good things.
Lin Chunju, however, looked at Yue Jiannan, "Tomorrow you will still go to the fields, let the third one go to town."
Yue Jiannan was taken aback, pointing with his index finger to his nose.
"Me go?"
Lin Chunju's face was stern, "Not willing?"
"Willing, willing!" Yue Jiannan hurriedly nodded, not daring to utter a word of dissent.
"That settles it then, you leave first thing tomorrow morning."
After safely storing away the ginseng, Lin Chunju went to sleep.
In the middle of the night, Yue Jiannan's stomach growled incessantly, preventing him from falling asleep.
Being at the age where he could eat the most, going hungry was even worse than getting beaten.
Then he heard a knock at the door, and Yue Jiandong came in holding a bowl.
"Big brother!" Yue Jiannan's eyes lit up, eagerly stretching out his hand to receive it.
But Yue Jiandong dodged, "Did you realize your mistake today?"
Yue Jiannan nodded frantically, his eyes riveted on the bowl like a starving wolf, "I know."
Yue Jiandong slammed the bowl down on the table with force.
"You don't know! You surely think it's no big deal, you're alive, aren't you? But have you ever considered, if something happened to you, how would Mother go on living?"
Yue Jiannan had always been afraid of his big brother and shrank his neck, saying in a small voice, "But you're still here, aren't you?"
"Nonsense, is that the same? You don't see it, but Mother has to be tough out of necessity. A widowed mother raising four children—if she wasn't tough, she'd have drowned herself long ago."
"Our father died trying to save someone and was slandered by that family. Mother was so furious she went into labor, barely managed to give birth to you, and it nearly cost her half her life."
"Though she doesn't speak of it, out of all of us, the ones she worries about the most are Qingqing and you. If something happened to you, Mother couldn't rest even in death."
Feeling both ashamed and guilty, Yue Jiannan wiped his eyes with his hand, "You're right, big brother, I'm good for nothing. At my age, I'm still making Mother worry. I won't go to the back mountain anymore."
Yue Jiandong clapped him on the shoulder, "Good that you've realized. I was a bit too harsh today, don't hold it against me."
"How could I blame you? It was I who worried everyone."
"Eat up, this is what Mother left in the pot, still warm."
Yue Jiannan finally got to eat the rabbit meat he had been longing for, and as he bit into it, he couldn't help but let tears run down his face.