Chapter 6 - 006 Recovered from illness
In the days that followed, Li Xianglu was bedridden on the traditional Kang bed for an entire week. During this time, a handsome middle-aged uncle came to apply medicine on her back. He was said to be the one who had stitched her up and the very person who had doused her wound with alcohol.
Despite having cursed the doctor to death during the excruciating pain back then, she now truly felt grateful. Her injuries were not severe, having been impaled by a diagonally positioned corn stalk on her back. Because she had fallen with great force, a seven-centimeter-long laceration was torn open. Under the current medical and transportation conditions, it would have taken her at least four hours to be transported to the county town. In those four hours, her wound would probably have become infected, and without care, she could easily have developed a high fever that turned into irreparable brain damage.
Over the past few days, taking anti-inflammatory medication every four hours and being fed glucose injections had led to a speedy recovery. Hence, she was now able to sit up and eat meals.
However, Ge Sanmei didn't show much of a pleasant demeanor at the dining table, whether out of guilt or awkwardness—she always had a gloomy expression and occasionally vented her anger on the pigs, chickens, and ducks.
Li Xianglu had never had much affection for her biological mother to begin with, and the beating that nearly cost her life only deteriorated their relationship. Indifferently, she decided not to engage—after all, if she couldn't provoke her, she could at least avoid her.
By October, all the work assigned by the production brigade had been completed, even the private plots allocated to each family had been harvested. The busy farming seasons had concluded, and the weather in Guanzhong was gradually getting colder. Li Xianglu's back had healed quite well after the stitches were removed, so she started helping with chores around the house again.
Ever since Li Xianglu had caught a rabbit, Li Jianqing became crazily fond of hunting and setting up traps. Surprisingly, he proved to be adept at it, understanding the techniques after observing only a few times. He dug numerous traps in the nearby mountains and forests, and indeed managed to catch several rabbits.
Li Xianglu buried the skinned rabbit pelts in the family vegetable garden. Without the proper tools for selling pelts here, she had to resort to traditional methods instead. Burying them in the earth, utilizing the alkalinity of the loess to naturally dispel any odors and greasiness, Li Xianglu planned to make a pair of cotton shoes lined with rabbit fur for herself when winter came.
Due to her injury, Li Dafu's youngest daughter, Li Xiangwei, often brought over some porridge made by her grandmother. This allowed the two girls to become familiar with each other. Li Xiangwei was one year older than Li Xianglu and slightly taller and more developed due to her better diet. The two seemed to have quite an age difference when they were together.
Li Xiangwei had excellent needlework skills and unlike Li Xianglu, she didn't work in the fields but stayed home cooking three meals a day and helping her sister-in-law with the children. She was, therefore, seen as a more coddled young lady, with a face not as sharp-featured as Li Xianglu's but rather plump and rosy.
After watching Li Xiangwei for a few days, Li Xianglu also intended to make a pair of shoes for herself. She checked and realized she didn't even own a decent pair of cotton shoes. The thought of wearing the one-piece fur snow boots from the space was out of the question, unless she covered them with a layer of tattered cloth to disguise them.
The weather was turning colder, and today the brigade was distributing food rations. After breakfast, Li Erfu and his wife Ge Sanmei, along with their eldest son, took their household register to the brigade office to collect their food supply.