An Jin had been guarding the bed for almost an hour. However, no doctor had come. Instead, she had asked An Yuanzhi to come.
"Sis, how is Mother?" An Yuanzhi asked urgently as he stood by the bed and looked at the unconscious and feverish woman.
"The doctor hasn't arrived yet." An Jin's face couldn't hide the anxiousness in her heart. "I've asked Zi Yuan to go find the head housekeeper!"
An Yuanzhi was still a thirteen year old teenager. After hearing An Jinxiu's tearful words, he clenched his hands into a fist, stomped his foot hard, turned around, and walked out.
An Jinxiu was shocked and hurriedly got up. She chased after An Yuanzhi and asked, "What are you going to do?"
An Yuanzhi said, "If the head steward can't get a doctor, I'll go and get one."
An Jinxiu wanted to say, wasn't this breaking the mansion's rules? How could a concubine invite a doctor from outside to see a doctor in private? However, when she thought of her mother lying on the bed, she gritted her teeth and asked An Yuanzhi, "Do you have silver taels with you?"
An Yuanzhi's gaze darkened, then he shook his head. He was a born young master that no one asked for, and he had never received the monthly allowance on time before. He hadn't received the monthly payment yet, so An Jinxiu asked for the doctor's money. Only then did An Yuanzhi remember that he didn't even have the money to send a doctor.
An Jin took out some silver pieces from her sleeve and handed them over to An Yuanzhi. "You have to go faster. I'll stay here with mother."
An Yuanzhi nodded his head, turned around, and quickly walked out.
An Jinxiu watched An Yuanzhi walk away before she sat back down on the bed beside the empress dowager. When she heard the empress's weak voice, she quickly shouted, "Mother, Mother, I'm Jin Xiu. Wake up, Mother?"
Lady Xiu opened her eyes in a daze. She saw a person sitting in front of her bed, but did not recognize that it was An Jin.
An Jinxiu ran over to the tea table and poured a glass of water. She passed it over for Aunt Xiu to drink and said, "Mother, Yuan Zhi invited the doctor over. Wait a moment, the doctor will arrive soon."
Lady Xiu couldn't clearly hear what the girl was saying to her, so after a few sounds, she fell back into a deep slumber.
She didn't know the concubine would be sick this time. Her mother wanted to enjoy the blessings of An Yuan for decades, but now, An Jin couldn't bear to see the concubine suffer in front of her face just like that.
Zi Yuan ran in with a wronged expression. She looked at An Jinxiu and was about to cry.
An Jinxiu shook her head and said, "It's not your fault. Don't cry."
With reddened eyes, Zi Yuan accompanied An Jin to wait by the bed. She whispered to An Jin, "Miss, are we not going to Qin Manor today?"
"There are plenty of people trying to curry favor with Matriarch Qin," An Jin replied coldly. "I'm not lacking."
Zi Yuan said worriedly, "I'm afraid Madame has to blame the young mistress."
An Jinxiu laughed coldly in her heart and didn't say anything. At this time, she suddenly thought of something she had forgotten for a long time. In her previous life, when she had married out to the Qin Residence, An Yuanzhi had stood in front of her palanquin. An Jinxiu remembered that she had ignored An Yuanzhi. When she returned to her residence, she heard that An Yuanzhi had been beaten up and sent to the ancestral hall.
"So that's how it is," An Jinxiu murmured to herself. Her eyes turned sour, and she could no longer speak. It turned out that the reason An Yuanzhi had stood in front of his palanquin that time was because their mother was sick. The reason why he was being beaten was because, after being ignored by her, An Yuanzhi had gone to look for his father. With An Yuanzhi's temper, there would definitely be conflicts between father and son. In the end, the only one who could suffer would be An Yuanzhi.
"Miss?" "Ah!" Zi Yuan could feel An Jinxiu's sadness and softly called out to her.
"Did the head steward show you the face?" An Jin asked.
"It seems like guests are coming to the manor today. The main butler is busy preparing it and has no time to pay attention to me."
A guest? An Jinyi frowned again and casually asked, "Do you know who is coming?"
"I don't know," Zi Yuan shook her head. "No one in the front yard is willing to pay attention to me."
"Forget it," An Jinxiu changed the cold towel for Aunt Xiu, "Yuan Zhi has already gone to call the doctor. He should be here soon."
Zi Yuan helped An Jinxiu feed the water to Lady Xiu. The scoldings she had received in the front yard, and the weird words she had heard, all made Zi Yuan decide to rot them in her stomach.
The master and servant duo busied themselves nonstop in the room, only wanting to make the Ah Jin's mother feel better.
A short while later, An Yuanzhi called for a doctor.
An Jin and Zi Yuan moved their hands and moved a screen in front of the bed, so that the doctor could take a look at Lady Xiu pulse through the screen and hold the rope.
After the doctor had finished checking her pulse, he told An Yuanzhi that mother had a cold that had entered her body. She would need some time to recover after taking the medicine.
An Yuanzhi thanked the doctor in front of him.
"It's fine." After An Yuanzhi led the doctor out to write a prescription, An Jinxiu sat next to the embroidery aunt and said in a small voice, "Mother, you'll be fine after taking the medicine."
An Yuanzhi saw the doctor off, then took the prescription to the pharmacy to get some medicine. When he returned, he asked Granny Qian to set up a small stove under the eaves outside the house.
An Jinxiu saw that An Yuanzhi's face was covered in wood ash, and he was sweating profusely. In his hand was a palm-leaf fan, which he kept on fanning the flames with. An Jinxiu called out, "Yuan Zhi."
An Yuanzhi turned around to look at An Jinxiu and said, "Sis, please go inside. There's a lot of smoke here, so you'll choke."
An Jinxiu walked up and squatted down as well. She used her handkerchief to wipe An Yuanzhi's face.
An Yuanzhi was startled by the sight of An Jinxiu's face.
"What's there to be afraid of if you're my little brother?" An Jinxiu asked, "You often have a stove yourself?"
An Yuanzhi nodded.
"How can the mansion be short of your food?" An Jin asked again.
An Yuanzhi grinned and said indifferently, "It's easy for me to get hungry if I practice martial arts. It's always late when dinner starts."
An Jinxiu was frozen in place. She was not feeling well, and it took a long time for her to recover.
An Yuanzhi seemed to have realized something at this moment. She looked towards An Jin and said, "I don't like read or be like scholar as big brother no matter how hard I read."
"There's nothing bad about practicing martial arts," An Jinxiu said, "If you like it, then go with the martial arts."
An Yuanzhi was stunned again. "Sis, you don't object?"
"It's useless if you're a girl," An Jinxiu said with a wry smile. "You're my only hope. Joining the army is a way out, so why would I stop you?" "It's just that this road is difficult and dangerous. Elder sister doesn't feel good." An Jinxiu said. When she said this, she felt sad. An Yuanzhi had left the army at the age of 14 and suffered so much, yet she didn't know that she was the elder sister.
"No matter how hard it is to leave, it's still better than staying in this mansion." An Yuanzhi saw that An Jinxing didn't despise him at all, and felt closer to him. "In the future, even if you marry into the Shangguan family, I'll be able to take care of you."
An Jin wiped her eyes. She was just a silly little brother. She had treated him well in the past few days, and this little brother had forgotten about the past ten years. She was the same as the people in this house.