Chapter 72 – Grandpa’s Foot Injury (2)
“Oh yeah! Mei mei, guess who I ran into in town?” Gu Ming asked Gu Ye secretively when they were alone in the house.
“Who? The brothers who gave us silver?” They were the only two person they have ran into during their trip in town, was that supposed to be difficult to guess?
Gu Ming was stunned and have a “my sister was so smart!” look, “Oh my god! Mei mei, that was incredible! You figured it out right away!”
“So, did they find their sister?” Asked Gu Ye casually. Truth was, the town wasn’t all that big. Even if they were to knock on every single door it would have only taken them a few days. If their sister was really in town, they would have found her by now. If they still haven’t found her, the news was probably grim.
Sure enough, she saw Gu Ming shook his head and said, “No. They said they had some leads, but they were dead ended. They are about to take off to look for her elsewhere! Both of them are such nice people. I tried to pay them back but they won’t accept it…. I hope they will find their sister soon!”
As it turned out, the brothers Chu Mubai and Chu Mufeng were finally able to locate the female human trafficker and asked her about Lan Xiang. It had already been some twenty odd years, they didn’t expect the trafficker to actually remember Lan Xiang, but she did. That because that was the only time in her entire career as a human trafficker, she was able to sell a girl into the Jun’s of Yian, a wealthy family in the city. She bragged about that incident for years to come.
That being said, she might remember the incident, but she still couldn’t tell them where Lan Xiang was from. All she remembered was an older couple of refugees form the South, their son and daughter in law had died on the way and his way was severely ill. Back then, when Lan Xiang’s name was still Erya (“second girl”), offered herself up to the trafficker in exchange for 3 taels for her grandmother to see a doctor.
Unfortunately, the old lady didn’t make it anyway. After that, Lan Xiang’s grandfather fell ill as well and left with his wife. The trafficker helped her paid for funeral matters under Lan Xiang’s crying and pleading.
The fat human trafficker only knew that Lan Xiang and her family was from the South. Beyond that, she couldn’t provide them with a more exact location, or whether she still has relatives back home.
The lead to finding their sister ended again. The Chu’s brothers were disappointed. They asked around in a few villages nearby but when they came up empty-handed, they had no choice but to leave town and headed toward the more affected vassal states back in the days in search of new leads.
When the two siblings were sighing for the good brothers in their room, they suddenly heard a loud thud as thought something heavy had fallen onto the ground. They both ran outside and saw their grandfather fell on the ground in the courtyard and wasn’t able to get back up after struggling for a few times. The two of the ran up to him immediately and helped him up. Concerned, Gu Ming asked, “Grandpa, what happened? Did you hurt yourself when you fall?”
“No, I am fine. Just my same old issue. Every time the weather changes, it was so painful I could hardly put any weight on it.” Gu Xiao’s left leg was injured on the battlefield. When he was excided to the Northwestern district with the old general, he had sustained permanent injuries due to the harsh condition. He was fine during regular days, but when it come to rainy or snowy days, it would become swollen and painful.
Gu Ye and her brother together helped their grandfather onto the stove in the main house. They have already lit the fire in the stove during dusk. Gu Xiao put his leg up and the pain immediately lessened from the heat. As Gu Ming ran over to add more wooden into the stove, Gu Ye rolled up her grandfather’s pant legs and took a look. She noticed that his knee was swollen and a little out of it’s original form. Luckily, it wasn’t completely deformed yet.
She touched the bones around the joint and felt that one of the bones wasn’t lined up correctly, most likely it wasn’t stabilized properly after the injury. It wasn’t a big deal, nothing that a small surgery couldn’t fix. But, right now, the most important part is to relieve her grandfather’s arthritis symptoms and lesson his pain. As for the surgery, she’d need to wait for the appropriate time.
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