She's skilled in medicine, martial arts, and even understands animal language—the abandoned dau

Busy days always fly by. In the blink of an eye, it was time for the clinic to pick up the goods.

That morning, the sun shone brightly, and a cool autumn breeze blew.

After finishing breakfast, Shen Man arrived early at the big camphor tree at the entrance of the village to wait.

She was filled with anticipation and excitement, hoping to deliver the herbs she had painstakingly collected to the clinic as soon as possible.

Shen Man stood quietly under the big camphor tree, her gaze occasionally drifting towards the distant intersection, hoping that the clinic's carriage would arrive soon.

As time went by, the sun gradually rose higher and the temperature gradually increased, but she was completely unaware of it, still staring intently ahead.

Before we knew it, it was past noon. The sun was blazing, and the intense sunlight was baking the earth.

Sweat began to bead on Shen Man's forehead, and her clothes were soaked through, but she remained standing there resolutely, unwilling to miss any possible opportunity.

As dusk fell, the setting sun, like blood, dyed half the sky red.

Shen Man grew increasingly anxious. She couldn't help but worry whether something had happened at the clinic or if they had forgotten their appointment for today.

But she suppressed her anxiety and continued to wait patiently.

However, even after nightfall, when the villagers had finished their dinner and were chatting at the village entrance, there was still no movement on the road into the village.

Shen Man finally realized that the people from the clinic probably wouldn't be coming today.

Her spirits plummeted, and she felt utterly lost and frustrated. All these days, she had poured her heart and soul into this moment.

If they don't come, all my hard work will have been for nothing.

"Man'er, it's so late, they won't come. Go home quickly!" Lanxiang stood at the door, looking at her daughter's small, lonely figure, feeling heartbroken.

Lanxiang's words were overheard by several old women sitting idly under the tree, and they immediately started discussing it amongst themselves.

“Manya, that Doctor Yu is definitely lying to you. It’s so late, no one will come!” one of the old women said.

Another old woman chimed in, "Hey, I knew this was a scam from the start, and look what happened, we fell for it!"

The third old woman continued, "It's a good thing the village head's family trusted her so much. Now look what's happened, all their hard work these past few days has been for nothing."

The fourth old woman said gloatingly, "No matter how wicked this girl is, she's still just a child. Who would do business with a child? Luckily, I kept my composure and didn't go up the mountain with them, otherwise, I would have suffered for nothing!"

Upon hearing their words, Shen Man felt a surge of anger and immediately retorted, "How do you know they're not coming? Maybe they're just delayed by something. They'll definitely come tomorrow. I trust Dr. Yu!"

"That's right. Dr. Yu is a renowned doctor, and since he promised, he will definitely come."

Lanxiang firmly believed that Doctor Yu would not lie to them. The mother and daughter turned around and went home, locking the door shut and shutting out those annoying noises.

"Tsk tsk, you still believe in Doctor Yu? If you don't believe me, we'll wait and see tomorrow and see if they come or not!"

The next day, before dawn, Shen Man went to the village entrance again to wait. However, after a whole day, she still didn't see anyone from the clinic.

As evening fell, almost the entire village gathered outside her courtyard to watch the spectacle.

The villagers who had gone up the mountain to collect herbs brought all the herbs they had gathered and demanded an explanation from Lanxiang.

Lanxiang had never encountered such a problem before and didn't know how to handle it. Faced with the villagers' accusations, she was speechless.

Seeing her mother's helpless expression, Shen Man stepped forward and addressed the crowd:

"Dear uncles and aunts, this idea of ​​going up the mountain to collect herbs was my own, and has nothing to do with my mother. If there are any problems, just tell me, there's no need to make things difficult for my mother..."

“What do you know, you little brat? Of course you should ask your mother about this!” A man named Sun Wang rudely interrupted Shen Man.

"What...what do you want?" Lanxiang was worried that they would hurt Shen Man, so even though she was scared, she still stepped forward and pulled Shen Man behind her.

"Enough with the nonsense!" a burly man snapped at Lanxiang. "You two made us come all this way for nothing, you have to give us an explanation!"

At this moment, an old man stepped out from the crowd. Shen Man recognized him; he was the village head's uncle.

He slowly began to speak: “Everyone, please don’t panic. What’s done is done. The most important thing now is to think about how to resolve this. I think it would be better if you all calculated how many days you worked and had Lanxiang and her daughter pay you your wages. This would be a way to make up for your losses.”

"Yes, pay us our wages! We work for Master Zhu in town and earn eight copper coins a day. You can compensate us based on that. These worthless herbs are all yours; we don't need them!"

Lanxiang looked troubled. Her family was not well-off to begin with, and she had finally managed to save up two taels of silver, which she had planned to use to buy Shen Man winter clothes in a while. She had no money to pay them back.

Shen Man felt that this was a last resort, so she tugged at Lanxiang's sleeve, signaling her to agree.

Actually, these people had all secretly followed her up the mountain, so Shen Man didn't need to pay any attention to their unreasonable demands.

But considering that she and her daughter would have to live here in the future, Shen Man decided to spend some money to resolve this problem.

Anyway, those herbs can be sold for money, and the selling price will definitely be much higher than their daily wage of eight coins.

Lanxiang glanced helplessly at her daughter, gritted her teeth, and nodded in agreement.

Shen Man quickly stepped forward and said to everyone, "Then let's do as Master Sun says. Everyone, please tally up your workdays now."

Seeing that their goal had been achieved, everyone began calculating their own dates for going up the mountain. The previously noisy scene immediately quieted down.

A quarter of an hour later, everyone had tallied up the work hours. Shen Man, unsure if her family had enough money, addressed the group:

"Don't worry, everyone, my mother will definitely make up the wages for everyone. It's just that our family doesn't have that much money right now. Could you give us one more night and we'll settle the accounts with you first thing tomorrow morning?"

Discussions broke out among the crowd, with some expressing acceptance and others remaining adamant.

At this moment, the old man spoke again: "How about this, those who are willing to wait can wait, and those who are not willing to wait can have Lanxiang pay you now. However, when you pay your wages, you must hand over all the herbs you have collected in the past few days to them."

Upon hearing the old man's words, everyone except the three Changsheng brothers had to settle their wages on the spot.

Lanxiang had no choice but to turn around and go back to get the money.

Fortunately, Lanxiang had saved enough money to pay the villagers their wages.

"Lanxiang, you don't need to rush to give us the money for the three of us brothers," Changsheng said to Lanxiang after everyone had left.

"Thank you so much, Brother Changsheng!" Lanxiang replied gratefully.

"It's alright, this matter is not your fault. I never expected that Doctor Yu to be so untrustworthy!"

After seeing Changsheng and the others off, Lanxiang returned home dejectedly and collapsed onto the only bed in the house, utterly exhausted.

Her eyes were vacant, as if she had lost all vitality.

Is all the money she's worked so hard to save just going to disappear like this? Winter is almost here, how is she going to feed Shen Man through the winter?

Shen Man could see her mother's sadness, but she didn't know how to comfort her, so she sat obediently to the side, thinking about her own things.

She was unwilling to give up, so she decided to go to the clinic herself the next day to find out what was going on.

"Mother, please take me to town tomorrow. I need to find Doctor Yu and ask them why they broke their promise!"

“Man’er, it’s dozens of miles from here to the town. There’s war and chaos outside. It’s really not safe for the two of us, mother and daughter, to go out.”

"But……"

“Man’er, money can be earned back, but if you lose your life, you lose everything. In this matter, you should listen to your mother.”

Having witnessed firsthand the arrogance and unreasonableness of those officials, Shen Man was quickly persuaded by Lan Xiang.

The next morning, Shen Man was still fast asleep when she heard her mother calling her from the courtyard: "Man'er, Man'er, get up quickly, Doctor Yu and the others have come to collect the medicinal herbs!"

Shen Man rubbed her still sleepy eyes and jumped out of bed.

"I'm so sorry, young lady, we're late. A couple of days ago, we happened to be passing through Qiufeng Town on our way back to the capital, and we couldn't leave the city. Yesterday, we also encountered some difficult patients, and it was too late after we finished treating them, so we decided to stay a day later." Doctor Yu hurriedly explained to Shen Man when he saw her.