The Fortunate Lady and Her Mountain Man

Chapter 250: Chapter 250: Second Nature

Widow Xie slammed the table. "What’s it to you if they don’t have money?!"

"If they don’t have money, they’ll resort to any means to get it. And me? A granddaughter who’s obviously doing better than them and has no one to rely on? Wouldn’t I be the perfect fat lamb for the slaughter?"

Ji Huan’s expression was as if she were talking about someone else’s problems.

But Widow Xie’s feelings were a complicated mess.

She’d been praying day and night for Ji the Fourth to fail his exam!

’If I change my prayers now, I wonder if the Bodhisattva will still hear me...’

"Then maybe you shouldn’t open your workshop just yet... To be honest, from the look of him, Ji the Fourth doesn’t seem like the type to be blessed with fortune."

Widow Xie’s comment struck Ji Huan as hilarious, and she doubled over with laughter.

"Be serious!" Widow Xie slapped her lightly on the arm.

"I’m serious. Maybe you should put the workshop on hold for now. Otherwise, when they see you’re not only doing well but also starting another business—your own business this time—won’t they just pounce on you and try to snatch it away?"

Ji Huan suppressed her laughter and straightened her expression.

"They wouldn’t dare snatch it by force. At most, they’d resort to some underhanded tricks... But Aunt Xie, you know what they say: a thief can strike any time, but you can’t be on guard forever. There’s another saying, ’A gentleman does not stand under a crumbling wall,’ but when others already see you as a piece of meat, every wall is a crumbling one. Nowhere is safe unless you get rid of the problem for good."

"For good?" Widow Xie was stunned, not quite understanding what ’for good’ meant in this context.

Ji Huan just smiled, pressing her lips together without elaborating. "Don’t worry, Aunt Xie. Right now, my biggest fear is that the Ji Family *doesn’t* know how well I’m doing."

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

’If the bait isn’t big enough, how can you hope to catch the biggest fish?’

「Time marched on into the eighth month, and good news began to pour in.」

First was the Cao Family.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the six stall owners from Dafeng Village, the Cao Family finally retreated from Juyong Town with their tails between their legs.

They had considered moving to the county seat, but the journey was just too far. Even if they woke up at the crack of dawn, they wouldn’t make it to Yeyang in time for the lunch rush. As for renting a place in Yeyang... they could no longer afford it.

Other towns were just as far, and they had no relatives there to turn to for help.

After trying and failing, they had no choice but to close their business for good.

And during this time, another disaster befell Cao Fugui.

Because Old Man Cao, Granny Cao, and Mrs. Wang were busy with their stall, Cao Yunyun was left at home to look after Cao Fugui.

However, Cao Yunyun was so lost in her own heartbreak she couldn’t pull herself out of it. She would lock herself in her room for half the day. The two children were so mischievous they were never around, so even when Cao Fugui shouted himself hoarse, there was no one to bring him a drink of water.

He was so thirsty he couldn’t stand it and tried to get off the kang bed by himself. But he accidentally rolled off, let out a bloodcurdling scream, and passed out on the spot.

When Granny Cao and Mrs. Wang got home, he was still lying on the floor, and Cao Yunyun hadn’t even shown her face.

The hatred in Mrs. Wang was immense! Forgetting Granny Cao was even there, she burst into Cao Yunyun’s room, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her out.

Although Granny Cao’s heart ached for her daughter, she was frantic with anger, not knowing if her son was alive or dead, so she didn’t try to soothe Cao Yunyun.

Old Man Cao frantically rushed to get a doctor. The doctor took one look, shook his head, and said the leg was ruined. It couldn’t be fixed.

The Cao Family’s world came crashing down!

Mrs. Wang and Granny Cao tearfully begged the doctor to do his best. The doctor put on a show and agreed, but instead of fixing the leg, he just scammed them out of a lot of money.

By the time the Cao Family realized what had happened, the doctor was long gone.

Under this series of blows, the Cao household was filled with either fighting or cursing every single day.

Granny Cao felt that if Mrs. Wang hadn’t been stirring up trouble from the beginning, Cao Yunyun wouldn’t have done those things, and her marriage to the Hu Family wouldn’t have fallen through.

Cao Yunyun had originally felt a little guilty toward her brother, but after hearing what Granny Cao said, she also came to believe that Mrs. Wang was the one who had ruined her.

Mrs. Wang, however, was convinced that Cao Yunyun was the main culprit. If it weren’t for her, how could her husband have ended up with a lame leg?

With the three women in the house fighting endlessly all day, Old Man Cao’s heart was filled with bitter anxiety.

’The business is gone, the money was scammed, and Cao Fugui still needs medicine... How did our perfectly good life end up like this!’

Aunt Wang and Second Sister-in-law Xu kept an eye on things in town, and whenever they got news about the Cao Family, they would run over and tell Widow Xie, who would then pass it on to Ji Huan.

"It just goes to show, people need to be decent. If they hadn’t been so malicious, they wouldn’t have ended up like this."

But sighs were just sighs; she really couldn’t muster any sympathy for the Cao Family.

’In the end, we walk different paths. We all have our own lives to live, so why worry about others?’

Especially after she heard that Mrs. Wang had tried to force Cao Yunyun to marry an old widower. Cao Yunyun refused with all her might and later somehow got involved with a traveling merchant and left with him for the Southern regions.

It’s unknown what Hu Liang thought of this, but in any case, Widow Xie never mentioned the Cao Family or Cao Yunyun again.

Ji Huan, naturally, didn’t have the spare time to ask about them either. She was too busy with her own affairs.

「On the eighth day of the eighth month, it was time for the homeless man to have his cast removed.」

The homeless man was quite calm, but Ji Huan was a little nervous.

Even Xin Ziqi had made a special trip from town to witness it firsthand.

Just like before, it took an immense amount of effort and a very long time to finally get the cast off.

After being sealed in a cast for over two months, it was almost certain he would have cast syndrome.

Although the cast served to immobilize the limb, it also put pressure on it.

She had previously asked the homeless man if he felt any sweating or itching, and he hadn’t denied it.

Now that the cast was off, she discovered that many blisters had formed on the surface of the skin, and they had already broken.

But under the current conditions, this was unavoidable.

Fortunately, the bone hadn’t deformed, and the external tendons and wounds had healed well. This was likely because she had cut a window in the cast over the corresponding area, which allowed for some air circulation and prevented any infection or festering.

Ji Huan cleaned the broken, red, and swollen areas, applied an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory powder, and then wrapped it with gauze.

Only after she finished did she realize she had left Xin Ziqi, the actual doctor, standing idly by.

"Um... I’ve just gotten used to taking care of him recently..."

Ji Huan was startled. ’What the hell? Have I actually gotten good at waiting on someone?’

Xin Ziqi didn’t take it to heart, though. He was busy examining the homeless man’s stitches.

"How is it?"

Ji Huan asked as she bent down to inspect it herself.

First, she pressed the top of the homeless man’s left foot; it was a little swollen. Moving to the back of his heel, she felt the Achilles tendon area. It was thick and hard.

She then checked his right wrist. The situation was similar, but it was in better condition than his left foot.

"This is perfectly normal, so don’t be nervous," she said, reassuring the homeless man.

Although the Achilles tendon had healed, it wasn’t normal tissue yet, but rather fibrotic scar tissue, which has poor elasticity. That’s why it felt this way.

Within six months to a year, as the tissue remodeling completes, the Achilles tendon will gradually become softer and thinner.

Ji Huan took out a new pair of deep-cut shoes, which immediately captured Xin Ziqi’s attention.

"What are these?"

"Homemade Achilles tendon shoes."

The cast had just been removed, so he was in a dangerous window where a re-rupture could occur. He couldn’t bear weight for a short period and definitely couldn’t do any strenuous exercise.

But to prevent tendon adhesion, he also needed to walk around a little.

However, since the tendon function hadn’t fully recovered, the dorsiflexion angle of the injured foot was still very limited. If he tried to walk in regular shoes, he could easily fall or pull on the newly healed tendon.

"So I made these for him. They keep the injured foot in a constant state with the heel high and the toes low. In this position, the Achilles tendon is well-protected."

The so-called Achilles tendon shoe was actually just a shoe with a three-to-four-centimeter-high heel lift inserted between the heel and the sole.

Making the heel lift was also very simple. She had specifically asked a pastry shop for some stiff cardboard boxes, cut them into the shape of a heel insert based on the size of the homeless man’s feet, stacked about twenty layers, and then glued them together with paste.

"He’ll use crutches while wearing the Achilles tendon shoes. Once he gradually finds his balance, he can get rid of the crutches and practice walking without them.

He’ll remove one layer from the heel lift each day. Since they’re stuck with paste, you can just scrape one off with a small knife, which is very convenient. Of course, you could also just not glue them and remove them layer by layer.

After about twenty days, all the layers will be removed. This gives the ankle time to adapt and regain its dorsiflexion and plantar flexion angles. Then he can start other exercises."

As Ji Huan explained this to Xin Ziqi, she knelt down and put the shoes on the homeless man.

"They might not be very comfortable at first, but once you get used to them... Hey, you!"

Ji Huan suddenly cried out in alarm.

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