The Villain Vomited Blood

"Do you have Chinese prickly ash and star anise in your store?" Lu Jiao asked Manager Li, who was walking beside her.

Manager Li looked over in surprise and said, "Yes, what is the lady going to buy these for?"

"I have some use for them." Lu Jiao said with a smile.

In these times, Chinese prickly ash and star anise were both used to make medicine. She couldn't say that she'd take it back to add it to food, otherwise people would think she was insane.

After walking for a few steps, Lu Jiao asked, "Is there any gypsum?"

Gypsum was also used as a plaster medicine in ancient times. She wasn't sure if the Medical Hall had it.

She wanted to make tofu using gypsum. In fact, she had always intended to find a way to support the Lu family financially, and then she wanted to teach them how to make tofu, but making tofu requires brine or gypsum. Because the salt field isn't here, she'll have to make tofu with gypsum. She's not certain if this store has it.

The manager turned to face Lu Jiao, only to think that this country lady was pretty strange. Why did she always ask about unusual medicinal materials that were rarely used?

"Yes, Madam," he replied.

Lu Jiao grinned and cheerfully took out the medicine list that Dr. Zhou had prescribed earlier.

"As per this prescription, give me enough for ten doses. In addition to that, please weigh half a catty of each of Chinese prickly ash, star anise, and fennel leaves for me. You can weigh as much gypsum as you have in your store."

When the manager heard she wanted to buy all the gypsum available in the store, he was perplexed for a moment before asking, "Madam, what is it for?"

"For preparing medicine."

Manager Li wondered what kind of medicine could be prepared by mixing these things, but because Lu Jiao didn't want to reveal anything, his asking was all in vain.

Lu Jiao took this opportunity to ask him one more thing, "Does your Medical Hall accept all kinds of medicinal materials?"

Manager Li nodded. "Well, we accept all kinds of medicinal materials, but the price of the prepared ones is set slightly higher, while the raw materials are charged at a much cheaper price. Is this lady looking to sell some medicinal materials?"

"Well, in the future," Lu Jiao said with a nod.

Manager Li smiled as he remembered the fifty-year-old Ganoderma lucidum that Lu Jiao had just sold, and then said, "All right."

The two of them proceeded towards the counter, where the Manager personally dispensed the medicine for Lu Jiao while at the same time he beat around the bush to inquire about what Lu Jiao wanted the Chinese prickly ash and star anise for. Lu Jiao was taken aback, but she still didn't divulge any information.

The Manager also admired her. This lady looks fat and stupid, but she is quite astute.

"A total of seventy-two, that is, six dozen copper coins. Let's count it at seventy, after rounding off two."

"Thank you, Manager Li." Lu Jiao sighed again at the preciousness of the medicinal materials in ancient times as she looked at the seventy taels which she had lost in the blink of an eye.

With a smile, Lu Jiao placed the medicine for Xie Yunjin's doses in her basket and then collected the 132 taels of silver settled by the Manager. Originally, the Manager wanted to give her a 100 tael bill.

However, Lu Jiao refused. She wasn't afraid to carry more coins because she had the space. Manager Li gave her a worried look, but in the end, he didn't say much.

While placing the medicinal herbs in the space, Lu Jiao stowed even the money in the space.

She packed her things, carried the basket, and left, knowing that she still had a lot of shopping to do.

She went all out to buy 30 catties of rice, 30 catties of white noodles, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar because she had money in her pocket. Don't be afraid, buy it! Clothes, buy!

However, the clothing store did not have any children's ready-made clothes, so she could only buy unstitched fabrics, but she did buy two sets of clothes for Xie Yunjin.

As for herself, she didn't buy even a single piece of clothing. She still had to wait till she had lost some weight before she would buy it. Now that she's so fat, she doesn't look good in anything she wears.

In the end, she bought the candy and pastries that the little boy liked, as well as a hatchet and a hoe from the blacksmith shop. She didn't expect these two things to be that expensive, but even if they were, Lu Jiao gritted her teeth and bought them.

After buying it, she had lost more than a dozen taels of silver from her pocket, but still, Lu Jiao was pleased with the purchase. It was really cool to just 'Buy this! Buy that! Buy it! Buy!'

Seeing that it was getting late, she packed up and went straight to the spot where the bullock cart had been parked earlier.

By this time, everyone had already arrived, and they were only waiting for her.

When Xie Lan saw her coming, she immediately grew irritated at the mere sight of her. "I don't know what kind of messy things she's bought again. That's my third brother's money for buying medicine. She's not going to spend all of it, right?"

Lu Jiao immediately sneered sarcastically, "Depending on your family's five taels of silver, your third brother would have died a long time ago. You keep on talking about giving us those five taels of silver every day. Shame on you! This time I bought ten doses. Why don't you pay for it?"

Lu Jiao had put all the rice, noodles, candies, and pastries into the space. In the basket slung over her back, there were only medicinal herbs enough for ten doses of Xie Yunjin's medicine, as well as other items such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and so on. The people in the cart could see it at a glance.

Xie Erzhu said before that buying medicine enough to last three days costs five taels of silver, and if you want to buy good medicine, per pair of medicine could cost more than five taels of silver. So wouldn't these ten doses of medicine cost more than ten taels of silver?

In fact, they didn't know that she had spent fifty taels to buy those ten doses.

The people on the bullock cart couldn't help but sigh. People in the countryside can't afford to get sick. Xie Lan didn't say a word, instead staring Lu Jiao down with her eyes.

Lu Jiao, on the other hand, paid no attention to her. Xie Xiaojuan, sitting beside her, stretched out her hand and squeezed Lu Jiao's hand, signalling that she should ignore Xie Lan, that moron. Her elder brother now depends on her sister-in-law to take care of him, and she still keeps on going against her sister-in-law every time. Isn't she stupid?

Because Qili Town was not that far from the village, the bullock cart arrived back at the village quite soon. It had just reached the entrance of the village when a small figure ran in front of it and shouted.

"Third Grandma, my grandma told you to go home immediately. Something happened at your house."

Lu Jiao looked around quickly and found that it was Datou who was running over, and she immediately asked impatiently, "Datou, what happened?"

"Daniu... rob... Wenyao and the others... beaten..." For a while, Datou couldn't speak, because he had run all the way there and was out of breath.

Xie Tieniu looked at the anxious Lu Jiao and said, "I'll take you home first."

Lu Jiao nodded quickly, and there was no objection from the others on the bullock cart either. Only Shen Xiu's face was a little unsightly. Earlier, she heard Datou say, "Daniu, rob..." It wasn't her brother's eldest daughter fighting with Third Brother Xie's child, right?

Shen Xiu was inexplicably anxious. Her fingers clenched subconsciously.

The cart quickly arrived at the west end of the village. Lu Jiao didn't even wait for the bullock cart to come to a halt before she jumped down from the cart.

"Slow down," Xie Tieniu said, startled.

Lu Jiao couldn't care less about it. She went straight to the door with the basket slung over her back. She noticed a lot of people standing inside and outside her house's fence, as well as the faint sounds of children crying.

Lu Jiao dashed towards the house's front door. Before she could get there, she first heard the angry cries of children coming from the courtyard.

"Shen Daniu, you're a thief. You come to my house to steal things and let people beat us. You shameless bitch, you'll lose money, you little bitch without a mother. When I grow up, I will rip off your skin and cramp your muscles, so that you can't close your eyes even if you die."

"My God, we can't get over this day. Everyone comes to bully us. We might as well just bump into each other to death."

As soon as these two cries and scoldings fell, another cold but clear shout rang out, "Widow Li, are you bullying my family? I'm not dead yet."

Lu Jiao was on her way towards the door. When the people in front of the courtyard saw that it was her, they quickly stepped aside. Some of them shouted, "Yunjin's wife is back."

"This woman is very strong now. I don't know how she'll deal with Widow Li's family."

Ignoring the villagers who were talking about her, Lu Jiao looked at the people standing in front of her in the yard.

Xie Yunjin was lying on the threshold, supporting his body with both hands, his eyes fixed on Widow Li, as if he wanted to kill Widow Li.

However, his face was utterly devoid of blood. Not only was there no blood on his face, but as he fell to the ground with a thud, a mouthful of blood spurted out from his mouth.