Willow's second daughter-in-law hadn't intended to do this, but after hearing the rumors from Old Song's children yesterday, she suddenly acted on impulse and rushed over.

She dared not approach the main gate, stopping instead by the corner of the wall, clutching her child and kowtowing toward the courtyard, lighting three sticks of incense and praying devoutly.

The sound startled the servants. Lighting incense near someone else's property wall was a major taboo, so the servants naturally drove her away.

"Good women, good men, I truly have no other choice. Please, let me just bask in some celestial aura and give my child a chance to live," Willow's second daughter-in-law wept, repeatedly banging her head against the ground before them.

The child she held was barely two or three years old, his face deathly pale, eyes tightly shut, his body occasionally twitching twice to prove a faint breath remained.

These serving women were also poor folk, having lived in the village a long time, and they maintained good relations with their neighbors. Seeing the scene, they couldn't help but show pity.

"Willow's second daughter-in-law, the child is ill. Find a doctor to look at him," Granny Kang sighed, reaching into her pocket and pressing a few coins into her hand.

"Auntie, Auntie, your mistress is an immortal. I beg you, Auntie, let me worship her just once, let me bow down to her," Willow's second daughter-in-law knelt, kowtowing and crying, "The doctors have seen him, the medicine has been taken, but it's useless. They all say there's nothing more to be done. Auntie, Auntie, my man is dead, and this is the only thread remaining..." "But, our young mistress is not an immortal," the servants replied, somewhat awkwardly amused.

Qi Yue arrived in the back courtyard, where peach, pear, grape, and pomegranate trees were planted. More than half the fruit had been picked, but plenty remained, looking quite lovely.

For some reason, Qi Yue, who usually found peace here, seemed to keep hearing crying sounds drifting from outside the courtyard gate.

"You mean the sick one is a child?" she couldn't help but ask.

Aru seemed lost in thought, standing blankly, not having heard her question. Only when Qi Yue asked again did Aru respond.

"Yes. The gatekeeper said it's the child of a widow in the village. Her husband died last year; this is their only child," Aru replied.

After this, a silence settled between the two.

"Children are hard to keep alive, aren't they," Qi Yue remarked with a forced sentiment, twitching the corner of her mouth before turning away.

Aru said nothing. The mistress and servant stood distracted, neither noticing that their hands were clenched tightly within their sleeves.

"I wonder what we're eating today," Qi Yue said lightly, trying to change the subject. "Come, let's go take a look."

Aru responded with an 'Mhm' and followed her with her head bowed.

Qi Yue walked slowly, and Aru followed suit. Neither noticed.

Stepping into the front courtyard, the crying outside had ceased; presumably, the woman had been driven away.

Qi Yue paused there for a moment.

"Young Mistress," Aru suddenly hurried a few steps to stand before her, looking up, her eyes also red. "Didn't you say you wouldn't, couldn't stand by and watch someone die?" Qi Yue looked at her, unsure of what to say.

"Yes, your maid doesn't even know why I said that. Before, before, I didn't want you to go out healing people, but, but, I don't know what's gotten into me today," Aru mumbled, lowering her head in sudden panic. "I used to have a little brother too. Before Yuan Bao, he was also two years old when he fell ill. All the family money was spent, and we couldn't save him. I still remember holding him, watching with my own eyes as he slowly grew cold..."

Aru choked into sobs at this point, and Qi Yue's eyes also reddened.

"It's not that I don't want to save him, it's that I can't," she said through gritted teeth.

"Young Mistress, I saw with my own eyes how you brought people back from the dead. Young Mistress, please show mercy just one more time. You don't know how painful it is for a family, for a mother, to lose a child..." Aru knelt and cried.

"I know, I know, but I—" Qi Yue reached out to pull her up.

"Young Mistress, you said that life is precious. I don't understand why you insist on watching a child die without helping," Aru lifted her head, biting her lower lip as she asked.

Why? Why indeed? Qi Yue was stunned by the question. This was merely a dream she was having, and in this dream, she was just a passing spectator...

"Aru, I don't know if I can save people." Qi Yue squatted down, looking at the tear-streaked Aru. "Both times before, I still had medicine left, but as you know, I don't have that medicine now. And my ability to save people relies entirely on that medicine."

"But just try! Didn't Doctor Liu say to just try? And that person—didn't you save that person too? And the drowning child, didn't you save him as well? Even without that medicine, don't you still have yourself, Young Mistress?" Aru pleaded, clutching her hand hopefully.

Qi Yue looked at her, feeling only a lump of cotton stuffing her chest, making it impossible to breathe.

Without medicine, was she truly still useful?

Accustomed to walking with a cane, if she threw the cane away, could she still walk?

A long silence seemed to settle.

"Fine. Then we will try," Qi Yue finally said slowly.

Aru wept and laughed as she kowtowed.

Willow's second sister-in-law walked away in a daze, clutching her child, taking unsteady steps, not knowing where she was going. PS:

She could feel the life slowly draining away from the child in her arms.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Mama is with you; we'll go find Father together," Willow's second daughter-in-law murmured, walking like a walking corpse across the threshold. This house was no longer a home; the gate was gone, half the thatched roof had collapsed. Her gaze swept past, finally resting on the old tree in the yard.

"Mama will find a rope. Wait for Mama, I'm coming right back," she mumbled.

"Big Sister-in-Law!" An urgent call made the figure of Willow's second sister-in-law halt.

She turned around blankly, clutching a hemp rope she had just found, looking at the two women who had appeared before her.

"What are you doing?" The first woman to see the rope in her hand, followed by the look on Willow's second sister-in-law's face, immediately understood. She rushed forward to snatch the rope away.

"Auntie, Auntie, give it back to me!" Suddenly having the rope snatched away, Willow's second sister-in-law seemed to lose her last shred of peace and frantically lunged forward to snatch it back.

"Hurry up! The Young Mistress wants you to bring the child over!" the woman shouted loudly.

This shout struck Willow's second sister-in-law like a clap of thunder, waking her up. She raised her head in disbelief toward the woman; a glimmer of light flashed in her ashen expression.

Inside the room, in the small inner chamber, Qi Yue knew the child's condition with just one glance.

"Dehydration," she stated. "Quickly, brew some saline solution!"

"He just has diarrhea and vomiting, and he threw up all the medicine he swallowed. He has a high fever, hot as coals, and then... then he fell into a deep sleep," Willow's second daughter-in-law knelt in the room, stammering answers to Qi Yue's questions.

"When did it start?" Qi Yue asked, expertly inserting a thermometer, wrapping on a blood pressure cuff, and picking up the stethoscope. "Were there any other illnesses beforehand?"

"Seven days ago. Illness... what?" Willow's second sister-in-law replied, finding the young mistress's actions extremely strange. Why was she covering her mouth and nose? Her head was wrapped in a kerchief, and the clothes she wore outside were also odd...

"I mean, have you had a cough, fever, cold, or symptoms like typhus?" Qi Yue clarified.

Willow's second sister-in-law shook her head.

"He was perfectly fine until then. Although we are poor, I have raised the child well; he was always sturdy," she said hurriedly.

"Then it wasn't caused by other illnesses or diet," Qi Yue murmured to herself, then looked at Willow's second daughter-in-law. "Did you have a doctor look at him and prescribe medicine?"

Willow's second sister-in-law nodded.

"But it didn't work," she quickly added, then began to cry again.

"It's not that it didn't work, it's likely the child couldn't absorb it. We can't stop the vomiting and diarrhea," Qi Yue muttered, then looked at the other woman. "You go now and bring the medicine the doctor prescribed."

Willow's second daughter-in-law hesitated, but at this moment, the Young Mistress was her only hope.

"And one more thing," Qi Yue called to her before she left. "I can only try. Because I don't have—in short, I might not be able to save him. You need to be mentally prepared. We will do our utmost, and leave the rest to fate."

Willow's second daughter-in-law looked at her, crying as she nodded and kowtowed.

When Aru came in carrying the prepared liquid, Qi Yue was staring intently at something.

"Young Mistress, I've filled the wine flask," she said, walking closer. Before she finished speaking, she saw what was in Qi Yue's hand and let out a sharp cry.

It was the child's feces...

She stared blankly as the young mistress spread and closed her fingers, which were covered in excrement, examining it carefully against the bright light outside the window, then bringing it close to her nose...

Aru turned away and coughed dryly.

"Which type of diarrhea is it?" Qi Yue murmured, her brow furrowed. This used to be such a simple test—results in thirty minutes, with whatever data one needed. But now... what she learned in school... what she had seen... Damn it...

She lowered her head in frustration. Which doctor nowadays would personally examine feces? There were machines for that. "Forget it, let's do fluid replacement first." She quickly washed her hands. "Aru, you need to ensure thorough disinfection here. Find some high-concentration alcohol; if we don't have any, go buy some. And scatter quicklime here..." Aru watched from the side, anxious and worried, nodding vigorously as she listened to the instructions.

"How much does this child weigh?" Qi Yue scratched her head. Without any admission examination records, she simply lifted the child with both hands to gauge his weight.

When Willow's second sister-in-law entered the room, clutching the medicine packet tremblingly, she saw a strange tube inserted into her son's arm, leading up to a wine bottle hanging from a coat rack, and she couldn't help but cry out.

"Come, feed him the water," Qi Yue said quickly when she saw her.

Willow's second daughter-in-law nodded and walked over tremblingly, carefully bringing the water to the child's mouth.

The child was semi-comatose; the water poured in immediately ran out. Half the time, not a single mouthful went down before the child vomited again.

Willow's second daughter-in-law sat on the floor weeping.

"It's alright, take it slow. We still have time; we must find a way to replenish his fluids," Qi Yue stepped over, bending down to wipe the child herself, carefully turning him onto his side.

Willow's second daughter-in-law watched this wealthy woman meticulously wiping her filthy child, cleaning him so carefully that she even attended to his neck. She couldn't help but cover her mouth and cry.

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