The next day, Chen Liejiu went to sell charcoal.
Xu Huaqian took a few taels from his medicine my and asked Wang Wanwan to buy red paper. Unexpectedly, Chen Jinhu stepped forward first: "Second Brother, I'll go. It's cold outside; let Wanwan rest."
Hearing this, Wang Wanwan looked up and gave him a shy smile.
Xu Huaqian was so sickened by the sweet reunion of this young couple that his eyes hurt. He would rather have been blind than endure this PDA.
He didn't realize that others usually saw him and Chen Liejiu the same way.
As the saying goes,, what goes around comes around. Now it was his turn to be fed others' PDA.
Chen Jinhu might have a limp, but he was much faster than Wang Wanwan. In no time, he bought the red paper Xu Huaqian needed: "Second Brother."
Xu Huaqian looked at his uneven legs as he walked in with a limp and asked: "Has your leg been like this since birth?"
"Mm." Suddenly asked this, Chen Jinhu didn't feel inferior. He was born this way.
Over the years, he had endured countless scornful looks and was used to it. Xu Huaqian was only asking, not showing contempt.
"Take off your shoes; let me have a look." When doing poverty alleviation work in the countryside, Xu Huaqian had seen many people with uneven legs like Chen Jinhu.
Actually, if it wasn't severe at birth, it could often be treated with surgery. But in poor mountainous areas, where even basic sustenance was a problem, how could there be my for leg treatment?
Chen Jinhu was only sixteen. If it wasn't too severe, it could be treated in modern times.
Unfortunately, in this medically backward ancient era, even if there were treatment methods, the technical conditions weren't available.
But Xu Huaqian still wanted to see how severe the limp was. If it wasn't too bad, even if the technology wasn't available, they could ask famous doctors. What if?
"Hmm?" Hearing Xu Huaqian wanted to see his leg, Chen Jinhu was stunned. Although unsure what Xu Huaqian intended, seeing no strange expression on his face, he obediently took off his shoes and placed both feet flat on the ground.
Clearly, foot was suspended in the air.
Xu Huaqian felt his waist and found no movement. He showed a regretful expression—it had already set; there was no way to treat it now.
"It's fine; I'm used to it." From Xu Huaqian's regretful expression, Chen Jinhu could tell Xu Huaqian had wanted to try to treat his leg?
Unfortunately, his big brother had already taken him to all the major medical centers. The doctors said it was untreatable. If it were treatable, his big brother would never have let him become an escort.
Watching him put his shoes back on and walk with a limp, his face, so similar to Chen Liejiu's, smiling happily at him, made Xu Huaqian's heart feel stifled.
Perhaps he was loving the crow for the sake of the tree.
Seeing Chen Jinhu looked so much like Chen Liejiu, he naturally felt goodwill towards him.
Sitting at the table cutting paper, he kept thinking: wasn't there a way to correct such uneven legs?
But he had very little contact with such cases and couldn't possibly remember the correction methods.
This feeling of frustration—having the ability to help family but being unable to due to lack of exposure—welled up, making him uncomfortable.
So, while preparing for the wedding at home, he often glanced at Chen Jinhu's leg.
Chen Jinhu found Xu Huaqian's obsession with treating his leg baffling. He even wanted his often-absent big brother to return quickly, suspecting Second Brother saw him as a patient.
Then day, as Chen Jinhu was taking off his shoes, Xu Huaqian, looking at his shoes, suddenly said: "How about we make shoe higher? Make this shoe as high as your longer leg."
He measured with his hand; Chen Jinhu's limp wasn't too severe. Maybe it could be improved with elevated shoes.
"Wouldn't that look very strange too?" People nowadays wore straw shoes and cloth shoes. Imagine extra thick straw or cloth shoe and extra thin —it would look bizarre.
"Then make boots. Put the thickened insoles inside the boots so it won't be noticeable." Xu Huaqian's mind quickly found a solution.
Wang Wanwan's eyes lit up: "Maybe that could work?" She took out a pair of boots from the room.
Chen Jinhu had boots but never wore them because of his leg, sticking to cloth shoes so he wouldn't mind if they wore out quickly.
Wang Wanwan brought out the boots and took some soft cloth, cutting an insole to the height of Chen Jinhu's shorter leg.
Unfortunately, with this insole stuffed in, the foot couldn't fit.
Seeing this, Chen Jinhu wanted to tell them to stop fussing, but Xu Huaqian insisted: "Go get a pair custom-made!"
It wasn't that he was being stubborn. He felt Chen Jinhu was still young. If it could be corrected, why not? It was better than being completely disabled later.
Moreover, he worked as an escort. Walking with a limp put a lot of strain on his leg.
Boot craftsmanship was complex; Wang Wanwan couldn't make them. They had to order a pair from a shoe shop in the county.
The shop owner found their request for such boots baffling, but since they were willing to pay, he made a pair despite his reluctance.
When the boots arrived, Xu Huaqian immediately had Chen Jinhu try them on.
At first, it was a bit uncomfortable. After all, the shoes were different heights and weights. But after practicing a few times and walking slowly to stabilize, he noticed the difference.
"Level! Level! Level!" Wang Wanwan was the happiest. She watched bit by bit as Chen Jinhu went from limping to walking smoothly with every step even, just like a normal person.
If he didn't say he had a limp, no would know his leg was disabled.
"Really?" Chen Jinhu asked Wang Wanwan. Without a full-length mirror, he couldn't see himself. Perhaps out of habit, he still felt he was limping.
"Really, really, A-Hu, you're not limping!" Wang Wanwan's eyes sh. She never thought she'd see A-Hu not limping day.
"Does it look good?" Chen Jinhu, who always had a smile on his face, suddenly became nervous. He put his hands behind his back and walked a few steps pretentiously, asking Wang Wanwan.
"Good looking!" Wang Wanwan nodded vigorously like a little fangirl. "Like a modest gentleman!"
After all, he was still a kid. He said he didn't care, but when Wang Wanwan told him he wasn't limping, Chen Jinhu's always-smiling face became even more radiant.
He walked over to Xu Huaqian with bright eyes, gratefully saying: "Thank you, Second Brother!"
"We're family; no need for thanks." Xu Huaqian was also happy to see him walk like a normal person.
Finally, he wouldn't dream every night of his A-Jiu falling.
Heaven knows, seeing Chen Jinhu, with a face so similar to Chen Liejiu's, limping around was like watching his own A-Jiu limp.
It wasn't that he looked down on disabilities; he mainly thought about how his A-Jiu was always in a hurry. If he walked too fast, who knows how he might fall.
"Practice more, and get used to walking in these shoes," Xu Huaqian patted his shoulder. "Have Wanwan order more custom shoes for you from the county. Walking won't hurt your leg anymore."
"Mm." Chen Jinhu nodded emphatically, the joy on his face impossible to hide. From now on, he could also walk like a normal person.
Xu Huaqian didn't like going out, so no one in the village knew his eyes had recovered. But Chen Jinhu was out and about every day.
When he first returned, everyone saw what a handsome young man he was, limping along, and felt immense regret. Fortunately, his big brother was capable and had found him a wife early; otherwise, finding a wife in this lifetime would probably have been difficult.
Later, as they watched, just as they were getting used to it, suddenly one day, Chen Jinhu wasn't limping anymore!
This shocked the villagers! How did he suddenly stop limping?
Chen Jinhu didn't reveal the secret of the shoes, just smiled and said: "My Second Brother cured me!"
Goodness, this was incredible!
How was Xu Huaqian so capable? He could study, earn money, and even cure illnesses!
No wonder the Chen family's fortunes had been on the rise since he joined them!
If you asked who regretted it the most?!
It had to be Xu Huaiqian's birth family, the Xu family.
Grandpa Xu and Grandma Xu sat in their main room, listening to the idle chatter outside about how well Xu Huaiqian was doing. Thinking about how many villagers could buy chicks from Xu Huaiqian and earn money working on Chen Liejiu's road repair, while their own family grew poorer and poorer, left a bad taste in their mouths.
"I said back then that using Second Lang [Erlang, i.e., Xu Huaiqian] to pay off the debt was improper! Look, now all the benefits belong to others!"
The Xu family fell silent, all looking at Ma Cuifen and Xu Dalang.
This idea had been theirs.
Now, every bit of success for Xu Huaiqian made them feel worse. Especially Ma Cuifen, who day and night remembered Xu Huaiqian saying that the methods for hatching chicks and making charcoal were originally meant for her family. Hearing others talk about how much money the Chen clan made from charcoal this year made her so choked up she couldn't eat, and now she was emaciated almost beyond recognition.
Xu Dalang was fine; he was a scoundrel. He still didn't think he had done anything wrong: "If we hadn't used him to pay the debt, we couldn't afford his expensive medicine anyway."
As Chen Liejiu kept earning big money, the matchmaker Hong Po's big mouth couldn't hold it in anymore and had long since spread in the village: that sickly Xu Huaiqian wasn't easy to care for, needing to be fed ginseng and bird's nest daily to recover, which was why Chen Liejiu was working himself to death to earn money.
Only then did the villagers suddenly understand—if they earned big money, they'd definitely hire people to be lords, but Chen Liejiu, no matter how much he earned, still hadn't even bought a plot of land. Turns out the money all went to Xu Huaiqian's medicine.
But, the medicine was worth it!
A sickly person who could think of ways to earn money and had an official rank—if it were them, they'd be willing to support him too.
The Xu family fell silent thinking about Xu Huaiqian's medicine costs. Grandpa Xu said after a moment: "How about we go find Second Lang and ask him to give us a money-making idea too?"
Uncle Xu was surprised: "Would he tell us?"
"I am, after all, his grandfather," Grandpa Xu thought about how Xu Huaiqian had once respected him. " A bone broken is still connected by tendons. Just asking for a money-making method isn't asking for his life."
Ma Cuifen's eyes lit up: "Then will you go try, Elder?"
The Xu family's scheming was unknown to Xu Huaiqian. He was currently busy decorating for the wedding banquet.
Large red double-happiness knots hung on every window of the Xu house. Red paper-cut double-happiness symbols were pasted everywhere. Ropes were strung across the courtyard, covered with paper cutouts Xu Huaiqian had made of him and Chen Liejiu bowing during the wedding ceremony.
It made passersby feel it was so festive and grand, making them want to attend the wedding banquet even more.
While he was decorating for the wedding, his friends were also each making their way to his house with their own matters.