I Became a Medical Genius in the 80s

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: It’s You

Qin Hongmei was at a loss for words, stifled by Old Mrs. Luo’s reproach. In her heart, she felt aggrieved, knowing that Luo Aiguo listened to his mother in everything, and she didn’t dare to talk back, so she had to soften her attitude.

”Mother, that’s not what I meant. When did I ever secretly buy white steamed buns? If I had bought them, wouldn’t I have given you some? If I really did that, Aiguo wouldn’t agree, either!”

Old Mrs. Luo shot her a cold, hard look, making Qin Hongmei quickly lower her head, silently cursing this old woman to die soon.

In the evening, Luo Er’s family was drinking mushroom soup and eating white steamed buns, and the family was having a harmonious time.

As Beisitian replayed the events of the day in her mind, she knew what Zhang Lianqiao was up to. She wanted to stir up internal strife within the Luo Family, so she could sit back and enjoy the show and probe into her current situation.

Beisitian’s first challenge in this world was dealing with Zhang Lianqiao. Zhang Lianqiao should be noticing her transformation deeply and was probably full of doubts. Plus, the matter of white steamed buns— the old Beisitian never had the means to earn money to buy such things!

This time, Beisitian couldn’t catch Zhang Lianqiao making a mistake, so she could only let her off temporarily. Having someone constantly watching for your missteps, ready to dig pits for you to fall into at any moment, was a very unpleasant feeling.

She needed to find an opportunity to properly deal with her!

After dinner, Luo Anguo called out to Beisitian, who was heading back to her room, ”You said you wanted to learn to write with me earlier. Were you serious?”

Beisitian’s eyes lit up, ”Really! Fountain pen writing!”

”Since we’ve had dinner and there’s nothing to do, I’ll teach you now.” Luo Anguo glanced at Mrs. Qin.

Beisitian blinked in surprise as she saw Mrs. Qin take a bottle of fountain pen ink and a pen from the cabinet.

”The ink was bought with your own money,” Mrs. Qin remarked, asserting that she herself had no money.

Beisitian smiled. When she handed that money to Mrs. Qin, she hadn’t intended it to be saved for Luo Anping’s tuition, but unexpectedly, Mrs. Qin still bought her the ink.

The ink was brought over by someone, and the pen was one Luo Anguo had used before. Beisitian held the pen, with its green body and silver cap, finding it filled with a sense of novelty.

”When practicing writing, first of all, your posture must be correct. Sit upright, with level shoulders and a straight back. I don’t need to teach you this; your father must have taught you this before. We start practicing writing with regular script, then semi-cursive, and lastly cursive script. We’ll start with strokes in regular script.”

”For strokes like this ’,’, the pen should hit the paper like a stone falling to the ground. Pay attention to which parts need this stroke and remember, ’the idea leads the pen’...”

Once Luo Anguo started teaching, he was very serious and stern. Beisitian listened earnestly, thinking and mimicking as she listened.

Mrs. Qin was working on something on the side, and Luo Anping was practicing writing with a grid notebook. The flame of the oil lamp flickered occasionally, casting the four shadows softly swaying, creating a serene and warm atmosphere.

Sometimes Beisitian felt that having such a family wasn’t too bad.

Whenever she had such thoughts, she would laugh and shake her head. Her ambition lay in the vast world beyond, not constrained to a small village.

The number of morel mushrooms on the mountain wasn’t much, and Beisitian had already dried about seven to eight pounds of them. As they grew again, the numbers seemed to be dwindling.

Liu Chunyu saw Beisitian picking morel mushrooms every day, eating them herself without any issues, so she picked some to take home, only to have her mother see them as soon as she stepped in and throw them all into the manure pit. She didn’t pick them again afterward.

”Are you going to the town again tomorrow?” Liu Chunyu asked.

Beisitian nodded. Recently, Liu Chunyu had grown closer to her, especially when she herded sheep while the other dug for wild vegetables. Being together with no ill intentions brought them naturally closer.

Liu Chunyu greatly admired Beisitian; if she wanted to go to town, her family would likely not agree. Her father was busy working, her mother helped out, her brother had married and had children, and no one had time to accompany her.

”I’ll take you with me next time,” Beisitian offered.

Liu Chunyu exclaimed in surprise, ”Really? If you’re going with me, my mom might just agree.”

”If your mother agrees, will your brother agree?” Beisitian asked with a smile.

Her parents had no issue with her associating with Beisitian, but her brother and sister-in-law didn’t want her mingling with a young widow, deeming her an ill omen, saying that spending too much time with her would bring bad luck to the family, leading to misfortunes!

Especially since her brother didn’t want to inherit their father’s craft; he wanted to venture into business and was particularly superstitious about luck.

Liu Chunyu felt slightly embarrassed. Beisitian was a clever person who understood everything, so her explanation seemed weak, given her brother just didn’t like Beisitian and didn’t want her to interact with her.

”If my mom agrees, I won’t have to worry about my brother.” Liu Chunyu asserted.

”Alright, if you can make it, I’ll take you next time.”

Liu Chunyu was thrilled and went home before six to discuss the matter with her parents.

Late at night, Beisitian drank a glass of talismanic water, slept sweetly, and woke up early the next morning, walking to Qingzhou Town.

This time, it took her more than an hour to walk around ten miles. On flat land, this time might seem long, but considering it was a mountain path, it was just right.

Beisitian handed the embroidery work to Zhang Baoli— a total of ten handkerchiefs and three pillowcases, earning her 74 yuan. Adding the previous 49 yuan, she earned 123 yuan in total from both visits. After giving Mrs. Qin ten yuan and spending on steamed buns, she still had over 112 yuan left!

Earning over a hundred yuan a month was half the salary of city workers, but for a remote and impoverished place like Kao Village, it was really a lot!

As Beisitian couldn’t keep the money safe, she still deposited it into the cooperative in town, where deposits and withdrawals were convenient, safe, and discreet.

”Little Tian’er, two people have been looking for you these past days, saying they have something urgent! I asked them to leave an address, but they wouldn’t tell me, insisting on waiting for you to come.”

After the transaction, Zhang Baoli chatted as usual.

”Is it a woman?”

”Most of the time it’s a woman, sometimes accompanied by a man, both look about thirty.” Zhang Baoli thought for a moment, ”Oh, you don’t know, but they’ve been coming every day for over a week now; they’re a complete nuisance!”

Beisitian nodded; she didn’t know about the man, but the woman was likely the pharmacy clerk.

The last time when that clerk talked too much, upon leaving, Beisitian had added something to her cup, likely making her days troublesome, as Western medicine couldn’t detect it without equipment.

”Speak of the devil, there they are again!” Zhang Baoli said with a tone of helplessness, evidently aggravated by the woman.

Seeing where Zhang Baoli pointed, Beisitian turned to see the pharmacy clerk, Ma Xiaoling, but the man following her seemed very familiar.

Beisitian tilted her head, trying to recall where she had seen the man before.

The man, upon seeing Beisitian, was also startled, ”It’s you...”