Chapter 39

Treatment and Debt

“What is the meaning of this, young lady?” The woman in red’s voice was a little hoarse, but her smile was charming. She had a dusty air about her. Although she was quite good-looking, she made others a little uncomfortable.

Ning Yue shielded Xiaochen behind her and replied calmly, “I’m sorry, my brother accidentally got lost with us. Now that I see him here, I stopped to get him.”

The woman in red’s smile faded. “Really? But your brother is one of us now.”

The man in charge of driving spoke up too. “Oh, we picked him up. He’s been eating our food and drinking our water for a while. He hasn’t even brought us back any payment, and you want to take him away? In your dreams!”

He was picked up? Did Xiaochen and First Aunt get separated?

Ning Yue couldn’t ask Xiaochen now. She had to send these people away.

“Thank you very much. Sister, why don’t you name a price? We’ll give you whatever we can afford. Take it as a thank you for taking care of my brother during this period of time.” Ning Yue spoke neither servile nor overbearingly. She was not afraid at all.

Her instincts were good. These people weren’t that dangerous. They were probably just sent here to be thieves or beggars.

They wanted money or food, not lives.

Since they could afford to raise Xiaochen, they wouldn’t kill him easily. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be better to just cook him?

The woman in red coughed twice, then stared at Ning Yue and said, “Twenty taels of silver.”

Twenty taels of silver! Even someone like Ning Yue, who was unaware of the current currency, knew that it was a large sum of money. At that time, she had only found a small amount of silver from the two people who had kidnapped her. Twenty taels of silver was simply a fantasy.

It wasn’t two tales, let alone twenty.

Ning Yue looked around. Many people were surrounding her, as if they were inquiring about her. If she could really take out twenty taels, she would probably be torn apart here.

It would also bring trouble to the other members of the Ning family.

Ning Yue’s mind raced, and then she had an idea. She smiled. “Sister, we also escaped from the wilderness. We don’t have any money on us. I only have half a dry biscuit here. Can I exchange it for my brother?”

Half a dry biscuit could indeed be exchanged for a child, but it was obvious that the woman in red found it too little!

The man behind the wheel sneered back. “Are you playing with us, you little bitch?”

“What are you doing?” Seeing that the man was about to attack, Third Brother Ning immediately shielded Ning Yue, but he was not as strong as the man.

“Our families are all there. Why don’t you give it a try?” Ning Laosan pointed at the group of people from the Ning Family Village as a form of confidence.

The man glanced in the direction of the villagers and frowned. There were so many people?

Old Master Ning and the others also stared at them. Once there was a conflict, they would immediately go forward to save them.

“Ahem… Miss, in this day and age, twenty taels of silver for your brother’s life is not considered expensive, right?” The woman in red seemed to be in poor health and coughed occasionally.

Ning Yue had an idea. “Sister, I think your throat is very uncomfortable. I know a little about medicine. How about I treat you as a reward?”

Sure enough, the woman in red asked suspiciously, “You can cure me?”

She had been coughing for years, and all kinds of medicine had failed to cure it. Sometimes she even began to cough blood.

“I’ll try. I guarantee it’ll be effective on the spot!” Ning Yue was very confident that this woman had chronic pharyngitis and it was very serious.

“Alright, I can let you try. If you don’t succeed, pay 20 taels of silver obediently.” The woman in red was a brothel woman and a courtesan. Her voice was very important, so it was worth it.

Third Brother Ning watched from the side and was very worried, but Ning Yue did not panic at all. She took out the silver needle bag she carried with her from her bag and looked at the silver needles. The woman in red frowned.

Ning Yue calmed down and began to treat the woman in red. After some time, the woman in red felt an itch in her throat. She coughed violently and finally spat out a mouthful of blood.

“You’re courting death!” The man was immediately furious, thinking that Ning Yue had done it on purpose.

“Sister, do you feel much better?” Ning Yue asked calmly.

After the woman in red spat out the blood, her voice was much clearer when she spoke, and the dry feeling in her throat had lessened a lot. Ning Yue took out some medicine for chronic pharyngitis from her space with her mind and pretended to take them out of her bag. “Take one of each of these small pills three times a day. You’ll be fine in half a month.”