Chapter 10: CH 10

As Mrs. Liang kept calling him a concubine’s son, Mo Ling interjected, “Who said he was a concubine’s son? Lu Junming is the Lu family’s rightful heir in their family genealogy.”

“A son born to a mistress is a concubine’s son. So what if he’s been added to their family genealogy? The blood of a mistress still runs in his veins!”

No wonder Mo Feng had the audacity to call Lu Junming a bastard.

Mo Yan wanted to say something else, but Mo Ling pulled her behind her back to stop her. She knew that if this continued the topic of Mo Feng would be brought up, and Mo Yan would suffer because of this.

“Tomorrow, go to the fields with your sister. Replant the sorghum and plant some green beans!” After saying that, Mrs. Liang went back to taking care of her son’s injuries.

Neither of them could disobey Mrs. Liang’s orders. The next morning, after a quick meal, Mo Ling pushed Mo Yan and a shovel into the field with the cart they bought.

The sorghum plants in the field were already almost a foot high. Mo Ling dug up the ones which had grown in large clumps and planted them somewhere else. Then, Mo Yan dug up the soil, placed some seeds in it, and flattened the soil again.

The work was much easier than harvesting wheat and tilling the ground, but the summer sun was so hot, especially during noon, that it felt like it was going to cook people alive.

“Sis…I…I want to throw up!”

As soon as she said that, she bent over and threw up. She had only had half a bowl of porridge this morning, and so there wasn’t much to throw up. Luckily it was in the open fields, so it didn’t smell as bad.

Mo Ling made her sit down under the shade of a tree. Mo Yan leaned against her sister and didn’t want to move at all. Mo Ling grabbed the towel on her shoulder, wanting to use it to wipe her sister’s sweat, but she realised something. There wasn’t a single drop of sweat on Mo Yan’s forehead at all.

She was suffering from a heat stroke! Mo Ling touched her sister’s forehead, which was indeed a little warm.

Mo Ling pushed her to the village using the hand cart and went straight to the Cao family’s home, which wasn’t far from the school.

Da Qiang was pushing animal manure out of the courtyard. When he saw Mo Ling carrying Mo Yan inside, he immediately asked, “Mo Ling, is Mo Yan sick again?”

Remembering what happened last night at the threshing field, Mo Ling decided to ignore him and went inside with her sister in her arms.

“Mr. Cao hasn’t come back yet!”

Mo Ling thought, If Mr. Cao wasn’t here, what could be done?

Mo Ling was still worrying when Cao Zhang, who had just come home from school on lunch break, entered from the doorway.

“What’s wrong with Yan’er?”

“I think she has a heat stroke. Mr. Cao isn’t here, what can we do?”

“Come inside. I know what to do.”

Cao Zhang immediately led Mo Ling to the innermost room of their home’s north wing, which was where his father’s in-home clinic was situated.

As Mo Ling sat down on a stool with Mo Yan in her arms, Cao Zhang ran to the medicine cabinet where his father kept his medicine and quickly grabbed a small porcelain bottle with a label that read “Cooling Pills”.

He uncorked the bottle, poured out two pills and gave them to Mo Yan, “Yan’er, take this. These are cooling pills and they’re used to treat heat stroke.”

Mo Yan obediently swallowed the pills, and Cao Zhang ran out to give her some water, “Drink some water! You need to drink more water to cure your heat stroke!”

After drinking the water and taking the pills, Mo Yan felt less uncomfortable, so she sat down on her own. Meanwhile, Cao Zhang sat in the seat where his father always sat.

Cao Zhang’s mother probably heard the sound of talking and thought that Mr. Cao had returned, but it turned out to only be Cao Zhang and the Mo sisters .

“It’s you two? Are you here to see a doctor?”

Mo Ling hurriedly stood up and bowed low, “Madam, my sister was suffering from heatstroke. Young Mr. Cao administered some medicine to make her better.”

Mrs. Cao looked at her son, “Zhang’er, you don’t know anything about medicine. What if you gave someone the wrong type of medicine?”

Cao Zhang said disgruntledly, “I just gave her a couple of cooling pills.”

“It’s fine as long as no one is hurt. Don’t touch your father’s stuff in future.”

Mo Ling asked what many people in the village wanted to ask, “Madam, why isn’t young Mr. Cao studying medicine?”

Mrs. Cao fanned herself with a paper fan as she replied, “There’s no future in being a doctor. I want my son to pass the imperial examination and become a scholar.”

After resting for a few moments, Mo Yan felt less uncomfortable, so went home with her sister. Mo Ling asked how much the pills cost, but Cao Zhang declined her offer.

“There’s no need. My father makes these pills himself.”

“The herbs cost money too! I have to pay for the cost.”

“I really don’t know how much they cost. We can talk about it when my father returns.”

Mrs. Cao urged Cao Zhang to return to school, implying that the Mo sisters shouldn’t affect his studies.

The two sisters excused themselves and left. When they left, they could hear Mrs. Cao scolding Cao Zhang, but they didn’t hear what was being said.

When they returned home so early, Mrs. Liang knew without asking that they weren’t done with their work yet. When she saw how listless Mo Yan looked, she also knew that she wasn’t feeling well again.

“Why do you get sick so often? You don’t look like Xi Shi, but your body is so delicate!”

Mo Ling put her sister to rest in bed, then opened a jar of white flour and poured the contents into a bowl. Then, she started to knead the dough.

Mrs. Liang followed her in and asked sullenly, “What are you doing with white flour now?”

Mo Ling replied while still kneading the dough, “I’m making some dough soup for Yan’er.” [1]

Mrs. Liang kicked the broom which laid behind the door with her foot as she scolded Mo Ling “Are you trying to bankrupt us! She does nothing all day, and now you want to give her an extra meal!”

Mo Ling ignored her and continued kneading the dough. Mrs. Liang became even angrier and pushed the bowl with the dough to the ground, “She won’t be able to eat this now!”

The bowl broke in half, but the dough did not fall to the ground and landed perfectly in a half of the bowl. Mo Ling bent down to pick up the dough, put it on the counter and kneaded it, saying slowly, “If Yan’er can’t eat this today, then no one can!”

“If Mo Yan can’t eat the dough soup, no one can? Just who do you think she is!”

With that, she tried to grab the dough. Mo Ling dodged and glared angrily at her, “She’s your own daughter! If you can’t raise her properly, why did you give birth to her at all? Aren’t you afraid of suffering retribution in your next life!”

“We’re poor! I can’t afford to raise a sick child!”

“Then why doesn’t your son work in the fields? Who is he more valuable than?”

“He’s the only one who’s holding this family together! If it’s not for him ……”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but Mo Ling could fill in the gaps. If it wasn’t for Mo Feng, her son, Mo Zhenian would’ve retired or divorced her a long time ago, and their family wouldn’t exist in the first place.

Post-edit notes: So Mrs. Liang isn’t the current antagonist, but rather her husband…this is shaping up to be very interesting.I also just realised I mischaptered Chapter 8 as Chapter 9, so there are two Chapter 9s…oops. Sorry!

[1]: Dough soup is just a soup with hand-torn pieces of dough and various pieces of vegetables. It’s also a traditional Korean soup called Sujebi.