Chapter 240: Back Home
Chapter 240: Back Home
Tang Xiu rejected Su Lingyun’s proposition. What he needed to find was medicinal herbs and silver needles. Because he came in a hurry and didn’t know what exactly happened to his grandmother, he didn’t bring anything to treat her injuries.
“Big Brother Ben, are you sleepy?” asked Tang Xiu.
Su Ben shook his head, “I’m not.”
“Alright, then come with me! I need to find some things as fast as possible and then come back to treat grandma’s injuries.”
“Alright!” Su Ben nodded.
Tang Xiu knew Su Ben very well. He was simple and honest ever since he was small until he grew up. Usually, he rarely spoke. But no matter which family faced hardships in the village, he would lend them a hand. This trait was inherited from his father, the honest and considerate Second Uncle who died young. A typical peasant who was resigned to his plot of land and toiled over it with his back to the sky.
In fact, even though Tang Xiu lived his childhood in Su family village for ten years, he didn't have the same family name. It was reasonable to say that he should address Chen Huiying as maternal Second Aunt and address the elders in the village as maternal uncles and aunts. Yet, in order to prevent Tang Xiu feel he didn’t belong, Su Lingyun made him address them in accordance with the Su family members’ names, and address everyone as paternal uncles and aunts, or paternal grandfather or grandmother. [1]
Apart from this, all of his relatives had the same surname as his maternal grandparents and maternal uncles.
Tang Xiu led Su Ben back to the car and quickly drove out of the village. To the north of the Su family village were the Yuzhou Ridge and a tens of meters wide large river. The land was considered to be located on a mountain on one side and water on the other. A typical fertile land.
Seeing Tang Xiu not going into the town nor taking the county road, instead moving toward the mountain north of the village, Su Ben was confused and suddenly asked, “Tang Xiu, why are we going there?”
Tang Xiu smiled, “Do you remember when you took us to the mountains to pick wild fruits when we were small? I saw a lot of wild medicinal herbs in the mountains before. But at that time, I didn’t know about them and thought they were weeds. Now, since I have studied medicine, I can accurately pick them out. So we’ll go the mountains to get some herbs and then come back.”
Su Ben understood in a flash. He raised his thumb and said, “You’re really good, Tang Xiu. Haven’t you gone to study in Star City for just six years? But not only did you came back driving a Land Rover SUV, you have also learned medical skills. If I knew, I would have gone to Star City earlier.”
Tang Xiu smiled faintly and no longer spoke. It was a fact that he studied in Star City. But his abilities, if not for the car accident and great fortuitous events, he’d perhaps still be an ignorant student now, studying step by step every day and waiting for his CET’s results.
Fate was truly mysterious sometimes.
After Tang Xiu became a Supreme in the Immortal World, he never believed in fate again, because he thought that he could control his destiny and the heavenly law. But fate and heavenly law did have supreme influence and power over ordinary people.
The night was pitch black.
Feeling the cool breeze of the late summer night, Tang Xiu felt that his foul mood had faded lot. He would investigate the beating of his grandmother. No matter what background the other party had, he would never forgive them, for they had hurt the people he cared about.
“I’ll park the car, and then we’ll go uphill!”
At the foot of the hill, after calming down, Tang Xiu opened the car’s door and calmly said.
Su Ben hesitated, “Tang Xiu, you’re not afraid of someone stealing the car?”
With a pale smile, Tang Xiu said, “It’s the middle of the night. Who in their right mind would run up to the mountain at this time? Besides, who would have the ability to steal it anyway! Alright, finding medicinal herbs is more important, we don’t need to think about other things.”
Su Ben nodded. It was, after all, Tang Xiu’s car. Only, he was now very curious about him, about from where had come the money to buy such a luxurious car as well as curious about how good his medical skills were.
The winding, rugged mountain pathways were as though flat land to Tang Xiu and Su Ben as they shuttled back and forth in the wooded mountain. After 20 minutes, they had already hiked halfway up the mountain.
“Tang Xiu, careful now! You too know about this wooded mountain. There are a lot of wild animals appearing, especially at night. If we bump into wolves and bears, it will be troublesome.” Sun Ben was simple and honest, but he was also a meticulous and cautious person.
“Don’t worry!” Tang Xiu nodded casually. If it was before, he would be more cautious than Su Ben. But the present him was no longer weak. He could easily get rid of ordinary wild animals with his fists and legs.
“Tang Xiu, I know that you’re smart since you were small. But now, is different from the past. A few days ago a very ferocious leopard appeared on this mountain. Genzi’s father came to this mountain to hunt game, but he died here. At that time, the villagers organized tens of people to go looking for him in the mountain and only found his clothes and his remnant gnawed bones. Furthermore, we also bumped into that cow-sized leopard. If not for me carrying a gun, perhaps dozens of our people would have died.”
Tang Xiu was astonished, “The leopard is cow-sized? Are you kidding me? If there’s really such a big leopard, wouldn’t it have successfully become a spirit?”
Su Ben forced a smile, “I suppose so. That leopard might have really become a spirit. It was at least two times faster than that tiger we saw when we were young. Furthermore, Genzi and I sneaked back in the mountain and saw that leopard easily killing a few wolves. And you must know, there were dozens of wolves besieging it!”
Tang Xiu’s eyes turned bright. Through Su Ben’s description, he was certain that the leopard was surely a fierce beast that had spiritual wisdom. Although he had no shortage of fierce beasts’ bones materials, hunting and killing it was a good thing. All in all, the more of them the better!
"Tang Xiu, we have to quickly find them. My cell phone is almost out of power, the phone’s light won’t last long.” Seeing the thoughtful expression on Tang Xiu’s face, Su Ben urged in a low voice.
Tang Xiu nodded. He actually didn’t need the cell phone’s light. His eyes could see everything in the surrounding, even in this darkness. Moreover, he didn’t rely on his eyes in finding the medicinal herbs, but his spiritual sense.
He released his perception and covered the plant and trees within the radius of 200 meters. Only in this way would he be able to find the medicinal herbs in the shortest possible time.
"Found it."
Ten minutes later, Tang Xiu’s eyes turned bright. He quickly found the needed herb in a cliff crevice. It was the Silver Dragon Grass.
“Tang Xiu, what are you looking for exactly?” Su Ben’s expression was a bit strange. He stared at the herb in Tang Xiu’s hand and observed it for a while before he asked curiously.
Tang Xiu said, “This one is a Silver Dragon Grass. Aside from eliminating silt blood, it can also nourish the bones. This herb is not easy to find. The reason I came looking for it is that I remember having seen it when we hiked up this mountain when we were small.”
Su Ben touched his nose and said with a wry smile, “If I knew that you needed this herb earlier, we wouldn’t have tired ourselves running here. A few days ago when I was cutting grass to feed the sheep, I cut a lot of these… medicinal herbs. Some of them are still in the shed now!”
"What?"
Tang Xiu looked at him with disbelief. One must know that if these medicinal herbs were to be sold in the medicinal herbs market in the city, the Silver Dragon Grass could fetch a price of 1000 yuan each. But Su Ben turned out to be feeding them to the sheep?
This… was way too extravagant and wasteful, wasn’t it?
Tang Xiu secretly shook his head and said with a dry smile, “Big Brother Ben, when we go back, quickly pick out those Silver Dragon Grasses. Bear in mind, this medicinal herb is very valuable. If you can find a lot of them, I’m willing to buy them for 1000 yuan each.”
"What?"
Su Ben stared. He was almost scared to death.
1000 yuan?
The livestock he raised at home and the wage he got from the construction team, how much money would he get for the whole year? It was only a mere 20,000 yuan! This Silver Dragon Grass is worth 1,000 yuan. With those 23 strains left, it was equal to his hard-earned annual income!
"Tang Xiu, are not you kidding me?" Sun Ben asked seriously.
“No, I’m not.” Tang Xiu said. “If you can find more Silver Dragon Grasses, I will buy them for 1,000 yuan each. However, this mountain has wild animals. If you come pick them, you would likely enter their territories and court danger.”
Su Ben said, “Don’t worry. I know a good deal about it. So after I go back, I’ll search and see how many Silver Dragon Grass are left there.”
"Alright!" Tang Xiu nodded.
The two no longer stayed on the mountain. Tang Xiu was a bit regretful since he didn’t encounter any fierce beasts, but grandma’s injuries were more important, he couldn’t delay here for too long.
Back to the place where he parked the car, Tang Xiu drove back to the Su family village and dropped Su Ben in front of his house. Su Ben told him that the village chief had silver needles, so Tang Xiu didn’t need to go elsewhere to find it.
“Xiu’er, have you found what you needed?” Seeing that Tang Xiu had come back, Su Lingyun asked.
“Yes, Mom.” Tang Xiu said. “Big Brother Ben also had some with him, so I can treat Grandmother’s injuries.”
Although Chen Huiying was very sleepy, she didn’t go home to sleep. She was concerned about Zhang Shi’s injury and her son had left with Tang Xiu, so she waited. As she heard Tang Xiu’s words, she curiously asked, “Didn’t Ben go out with you? Where’s he?”
“He went to the village chief’s. He said that the chief has silver needles.” Said Tang Xiu.
“Ah, right.” Chen Huiying nodded, “The village chief used to be a barefoot doctor. If it wasn’t because that accident several years ago, with some people dying, our village would have a senior doctor now!”
At this moment, Zhang Shi finally awaked. She also just talked to her daughter a lot. Upon seeing Tang Xiu had come back, she waved and called him, saying, “Xiu’er, grandmother is useless. That man just gently beat me twice, but my leg broke.”
Tang Xiu shook his head, “Grandma, you’re old. But in my heart, you’re actually a capable person. When I was small, what I liked the most was eating your sweet-scented Osmanthus cake.”
Although Zhang Shi was feeling pain, she still smiled, “If grandma’s leg gets better, I’ll make Osmanthus cake for you.”
Tang Xiu said laughed, “Thanks, grandma. I know that aside from Mom, you’re also very good to me.”
[1] It’s matrilineal line from Su Lingyun, while Tang Xiu should belong to the Tang family, according to the patrilineal line. The addresses for relatives for Chinese are different depending on their maternal or paternal line. In this paragraph, Tang Xiu addressed the elders of the Su family with Shushu 叔叔 (father’s younger brother) and Bobo 伯伯 (father’s elder brother). As for the aunts as Shenshen 婶婶 (wife of father's younger brother), Dainiang 大娘 (father's older brother's wife). But I include both of them as paternal uncles and aunts to shorten the line.