Shi Fugui slightly surprised, nodded his head and rubbed his wrist.
"You're quite young, but you have sharp eyes!"
Seeing that Shi Fugui didn't want to talk much, Lin Anning didn't ask further.
She could tell that this person was reasonable.
There was no need to take out her anger at Jia San on him, more friends meant more paths.
"I need two quilts weighing eight jin each, but I don't have cotton coupons. You can just charge me the going rate here."
"In exchange, I'll treat this hand for you, how about that?"
After hearing her proposal, Shi Fugui laughed.
"You, young comrade, if you want to bargain, at least say something credible. My hand's injury is older than you, and countless barefoot doctors couldn't cure it. You think you can?"
Lin Anning nodded her head, "Yes, I can!"
That calm attitude made Shi Fugui somewhat incredulous.
Moments later, he adopted the attitude of a drowning man clutching at straws.
"Fine, I'll trust you once."
"But let's get this straight, if you can't cure it, you won't get what you want without three Da Tuanjie coupons."
"Deal!"
Lin Anning gestured for Shi Fugui to find a quiet place, and Shi Fugui led her to a small side room at the end of the alley.
He offered Lin Anning a chair to sit on, then opened the door before gesturing for Lin Anning to start.
Lin Anning took out her silver needles and sterilized them, then inserted them into the Waiguan acupoint, Yangxi acupoint, and Yanglao acupoint.
Oddly enough, the wrist that usually ached terribly with even a little movement,
started to feel warm and numb after a few needles were inserted.
When Lin Anning removed the needles, Shi Fugui tried moving his wrist, and indeed, the pain had significantly lessened.
This time, he believed in Lin Anning.
"In three days, let's meet here again, young comrade. Don't fail to show up!"
Lin Anning packed up her things and took out a box of Shujing Huoluo cream for him.
"Don't worry, I will come."
Shi Fugui glanced at Jia San pacing outside and asked tentatively.
"Uh, young comrade, his hand injury isn't serious, right? If something really goes wrong, his entire family might starve."
Lin Anning knew he was pleading on Jia San's behalf, so she gathered her things and stood up to leave.
"It's nothing, he'll be fine in a couple of days. Just tell him to behave himself."
Shi Fugui, hearing this, felt relieved.
"Alright, it's good for him to learn a lesson."
————————
While Lin Anning was busy in the black market, Huo Tiantian wasn't idle either.
She had been queuing up to make a phone call, and finally, it was her turn.
She dialed the Huo Family's phone, and before anyone could speak on the other end, she hurriedly began speaking.
"Grandpa, it's Tiantian! Do you know about Little Anning? She's now here with me in the brigade!"
"Aiyo, you don't know, Little Anning is in a bad way."
"She's covered in injuries and has become as thin as a rail. It's so cold in the mountains, and her quilt is as thin as paper."
"At night, I hear her cough so hard it breaks your heart. It's so pitiful."
"Also, she hasn't had a full meal since she's been here for so many days."
It had been two years since Huo Tiantian had gone down to the countryside, and every month her family would send some money and coupons to support her, but she was careless.
Unwilling to let herself suffer, she would occasionally buy some meat and vegetables for a treat.
As a result, others in the youth brigade could also benefit from her generosity. Unfortunately, this month she had splurged more often, and had run out of money and coupons.
She had already asked her parents for more recently, so it was hard to ask again.
She had no choice but to muster the courage to ask her grandfather, who was willing to let her endure hardship but not Anning.
"Grandpa, I really don't have anything left."
"Just send me a few tens of yuan, and some coupons for meat, oil, rice or whatever…"
Huo Tiantian was in the middle of her enthusiastic explanation when she was abruptly interrupted by the person on the other end of the phone.
"Where are you?"
Huo Tiantian paused, a bit slow to respond.
"Big brother? Are you back home?"
"Where are you?"
"Oh, I'm at Hubottle Town in Hongqigou…"
"Wait there!"
Before she could finish speaking, the phone was hung up.
Huo Tiantian thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure out what her big brother meant by "wait there."
It wasn't until the people queued up behind her urged her on that she hung up the receiver and left.
When she arrived at the place where she had agreed to meet Lin Anning, she found that Lin Anning was already waiting there.
"Bought quite a bit, huh? What about the quilt?"
Lin Anning handed Huo Tiantian a handful of milk candies, unwrapped one, and popped it into her mouth.
"The quilt isn't easy to come by; we'll get it next time. Let's go, head back!"
The two got on Li Youbao's ox cart, and Lin Anning, looking down, noticed there were several plastic bags with some medicine inside them.
"Village chief, are you sick? Why buy so much medicine?"
"These medicines have conflicting effects, you can't just take them indiscriminately!"
Li Youbao took a drag from his dry pipe and looked at Lin Anning with slight surprise.
"Comrade Lin, you know about this too?"
"These aren't for me; it's what the villagers asked for."
"Our village's barefoot doctor has been back in the city for half a year, and we haven't been able to find a replacement."
"It's inconvenient for folks to go back and forth to town, so I buy some medicine to have on hand for minor ailments."
Huo Tiantian, without waiting for Lin Anning to speak, puffed out her chest with pride.
"Village chief, don't look at Little Anning's young age; she has been studying medicine for quite some time."
"Her grandfather, he was a famous traditional Chinese doctor whom even the Beijing Hospital wanted to recruit."
"I'm not bragging, but she's much better than the average barefoot doctor."
"Why don't you just let her be the village doctor?"
Li Youbao frowned and waved his hand indecisively.
"This isn't for me to decide; one must undergo training at the town's hospital."
"Moreover, there's already a candidate."
"It's Zhang Fenglan's niece, Su Shuixian."
As soon as it involved Zhang Fenglan, Huo Tiantian immediately fell silent, scared.
Lin Anning wrapped an arm around Huo Tiantian, smiling unconcernedly.
"It's fine, there's an order to these things. If the village needs me in the future, I'm always available."
The ox cart slowly made its way to Hongqigou, and it was already pitch-dark.
Today was a day off, and all the educated youth had finished their meals and gone to the brigade headquarters to watch TV.
Huo Tiantian, rubbing her almost empty stomach, jumped down from the ox cart and rushed inside with the groceries.
"Little Anning, come quick, I'm starving."
Lin Anning responded and first took the groceries inside.
Picking up some items, she told Huo Tiantian she was stepping out.
"Sister Tiantian, you eat first, I'll be back soon."
Panting, she arrived at the door of Zhang Fenglan's house, saw the oil lamp lit inside, and gently tapped on the door.
"Hello!"
"What is it?"
Suddenly, Zhang Fenglan's voice came from behind her, startling Lin Anning.
Turning around, she saw Zhang Fenglan holding a hoe, apparently just back from the vegetable field.
She stepped aside and, with a smile, handed the items she held over to her.
"Thank you for looking after things these past few days. You refused to take money, so I bought some items for you. I hope you don't mind."
Zhang Fenglan, about to ask Lin Anning to take the items back with a stern face, changed her mind as the words reached her lips, seeing Lin Anning's cautious and respectful demeanor.
"Have you eaten?"
Zhang Fenglan opened the door and glanced back at Lin Anning.
"Uh? Not yet…"
Lin Anning lifted her head, her eyes showing unguarded joy.
Zhang Fenglan frowned, and with a stern face, turned around.
"Come in, close the door!"
"Right away!"
Lin Anning responded and entered the house with the items.
She obediently sat at the table, watching Zhang Fenglan busy herself.
Zhang Fenglan took out a piece of meat from the cupboard and began chopping it.
Before long, a scolding voice came from the room next door.
"Chop chop chop, chop your mother's leg. Your man died because of your chopping, you Star of Calamity."
Zhang Fenglan seemed accustomed to it; her hands didn't stop moving.
In the stove, a fire was kindling, and she started cooking meatball soup with poached eggs.
Soon after, there came a knock on the front door.
"Auntie, grandma says she's not feeling well, what delicious thing have you cooked? Serve her a bowl!"