"Mom, it's okay. I was scratched by a branch when I was planting beans on the mountain. It will be fine soon..."
Li Yunmei did not dare to tell Zhou Yuqin the real situation. Her mother was getting worse and worse and she could no longer worry her.
Because she lost her burden of tofu, Yunmei did not go to town to sell tofu the next day. Instead, she went to the village chief's house early in the morning. She was deprived of the minimum living allowance for no reason. She needed an explanation.
"village head……"
When I walked into the yard of Zhang Shubao's house, I saw Zhang Shubao standing at the gate, as if waiting for someone.
"Oh, it's Sister Yun. What do you want from me?"
Zhang Shubao clasped his hands behind his back, raised his big belly, and stared at Li Yunmei's mysterious figure. This little woman was so graceful. Her family was so poor, but it didn't affect her skin at all. It was so white and tender that it made people feel itchy.
"Village Chief, I would like to ask why my mother's subsistence allowance was cancelled. My mother is paralyzed in bed. She should be the first priority..." Li Yunmei saw Zhang Shubao staring at her and was so frightened that she quickly dodged and didn't even speak. The voices became very small.
"Yunmei, I know your mother is not in good health, and I also want to take care of her, but the policy doesn't allow it. Your family is in business, and businessmen can naturally make a lot of money. You can't take care of her just because someone is sick. Living on subsistence allowance will make people gossip. As the village chief, I can't violate the rules..."
"I haven't made any money. The most I can do is to keep myself from going hungry. Why doesn't it comply with the policy..." Li Yunmei's face flushed with anxiety. It's true that she is a tofu seller, but she makes so little money every day in the town. At most, it's just enough to eat.
"It's enough. You have to know that in small mountain villages like ours, there are still many families who don't even have enough money to eat, so your family's subsistence allowance has been cancelled..."
"Unreasonable..."
Li Yunmei said with tears in her eyes, turned around and walked outside.
"Uh... Sister Yun, wait a minute..." At this time, Zhang Shubao waved to her again.
Li Yunmei came back and looked at Zhang Shubao, wondering what he was going to do.
"Yunmei, I know you are a good girl. In fact, I also want to help you. As long as you agree to one request of mine, let alone the minimum living allowance, I will help you even if it is an annual subsidy for needy households. Got it..."
"What's the request?" Li Yunmei asked warily.
"Well, you have also seen that Lin Mei suddenly regretted her marriage yesterday, which caused a serious blow to my son. Therefore, I think you are actually more suitable than Lin Mei. As long as you marry my son, your family's life will be controlled by me in the future. Be responsible, and I can spend money to take your mother to a big city for medical treatment, and maybe she can still stand up..."
This offer is very tempting, especially for Li Yunmei's mother to stand up again, which is simply hard to refuse.
"I'm sorry, I don't want to marry a fool..."
But Li Yunmei ignored him at all, turned around and left quickly.
"you……"
Zhang Shubao was so angry at Li Yunmei's words that he almost vomited blood. "You will regret it, little girl, you still dare to fight with me."
Zhang Shubao spit hard, then turned and walked into his house.
Li Yunmei returned to her door and found Zhang Tiezhu waiting on the roadside.
"Brother Tiezhu..."
Zhang Tiezhu has not been home for a long time. In the past, Lin Mei occasionally came over to check on Zhou Yuqin's illness. But with such a paralyzing disease, rural doctors like them had no choice but to prescribe some herbal soup to soak her feet and keep her alive. Blood Qi, keep these two legs from muscle atrophy.
"Yunmei, where have you been..." Tiezhu asked.
"Oh, I'll just take a walk..."
Li Yunmei was hesitant and did not dare to tell the village chief about canceling their family's subsistence allowance, because Zhang Tiezhu had just passed a difficult time, and Li Yunmei was afraid that this guy would be impulsive again and cause trouble again.
"Mei Yun, come in quickly..." Zhang Tiezhu said hurriedly at this time.
"What's wrong?" Li Yunmei looked at him strangely. Ever since the incident where he peeped at the village elder's wife taking a bath, he hadn't entered the front door of her house for a long time. What happened today?
"Let's talk after we go in, don't make any ink marks..."
Zhang Tiezhu reached out directly, grabbed Yunmei's sleeve and walked towards the house. After entering the door, Li Yunmei quickly broke away for fear of being seen by her mother.
"What happened to Brother Tiezhu?"
"Give your mother a doctor..."
"See a doctor? My mother has paralysis, didn't you say she can't see a doctor?" Li Yunmei looked at Zhang Tiezhu and asked strangely.
Zhang Tiezhu said this before, let alone him, even when his master was around, there was nothing he could do about Zhou Yuqin's paralysis.
But now Zhang Tiezhu wants to try it, because there is a magical seal on the sole of his foot. Although he is not sure, he wants to try it.
"Don't say any more, let's give it a try..." Zhang Tiezhu said.
Early this morning, he suddenly told Lin Mei that he would come to see Zhou Yuqin in person. Lin Mei thought that Zhang Tiezhu came to see Li Yunmei. Yunmei was a good girl, so Lin Mei agreed without hesitation.
"Is it just a try..." Li Yunmei was a little excited at first, but when she heard that it was just a try, she was disappointed again.
"Oh, don't waste time, go and talk to your mother..."
Seeing that Li Yunmei was still hesitating, Zhang Tiezhu pulled Li Yunmei again and walked towards Zhou Yuqin's room.
Zhou Yuqin's room was a little dark because there were patients there for a long time. The room was filled with the smell of herbs and an unpleasant smell that I didn't know what it was. In short, it made people very uncomfortable.
Even a doctor like Zhang Tiezhu, who has been treating people for a long time, frowned slightly after entering. Based on his experience, this is the smell of a seriously ill patient. This smell comes from the body because of long-term inactivity.
"Mom, Tiezhu is here to see you..." Li Yunmei walked to the bed and shouted softly.
"Iron pillar?" With the help of Li Yunmei, Zhou Yuqin turned her body slowly and strangely, looking at the young man in front of her who looked familiar but couldn't remember it.
"Mom, she is Sister Lin Mei's junior brother..."
"Oh, iron pillar, yes, it's an iron pillar..."
Zhou Yuqin finally recognized Zhang Tiezhu. This wild boy often ran to her house when she was a child, but she hadn't seen him for a long time and almost couldn't remember him.
"Tiezhu, why haven't you been here for a long time..." Zhou Yuqin asked this question, and both Zhang Tiezhu and Li Yunmei turned red at the same time.
"Auntie, I went to work in another place, and I just came back to see you..." Zhang Tiezhu walked over and quickly took Zhou Yuqin's withered hand.
Because Zhou Yuqin has been paralyzed in bed for a long time, her body has been severely weakened. Her palms are so dry that only skin and bones are left, but her arms are somewhat swollen.
Zhang Tiezhu took Zhou Yuqin's hand, originally wanting to test whether the soles of his feet would naturally react to generate heat flow, but to his disappointment, he could not feel the seal pattern on the soles of his feet at all.