TFWYH – Chapter 96 The Widow Asks for Help

Widow Hong’s reputation was already in tatters, and Jiang-shi had no wish for Tang Wan to get entangled with such a woman.

Ling Yue understood her mother’s thinking, and Widow Hong understood it as well.

The only one who didn’t know was Tang Wan.

Tang Wan had no sense of such worldly matters; she only knew this didn’t sound like something the gentle and kind Jiang-shi would normally say.

Widow Hong’s expression turned stricken, but then she gritted her teeth and suddenly dropped to her knees before Jiang-shi.

Startled, Jiang-shi hurried to help her up.
“Auntie Hong, what are you doing? Get up quickly!”

What was with today—one after another people kept kneeling to her. Didn’t they worry they’d bring misfortune down on her?

But Widow Hong wouldn’t rise, only shook her head, sobbing:
“I know… no one in the village thinks well of me. They think I’m filthy, and no one wants anything to do with me. But Sister Jiang, if I had had any other path to live, how could I have done such shameful things? I was once a pure, innocent girl too!”

Jiang-shi had always been soft-hearted. Hearing that, she felt there was truth in it. Her tone softened:
“Get up first, then we can talk. What do you think this looks like? Anyone who saw would think I was bullying you.”

Widow Hong nodded and stood.

Jiang-shi sighed.
“Sit down, take your time to explain. Yue’er, pour Auntie Hong a bowl of water.”

Ling Yue hurried into the house and returned with a bowl of water—she had even added sugar.

Widow Hong thanked her, then began to tell her story.

She had once lived in the capital, but as a child she was kidnapped by traffickers and sold to the Yi Hong Yuan brothel in Xiangxi Town.

There, she gave birth to a daughter—without even knowing who the father was.

The cruel madam tricked her, saying the baby had died. In truth, she had sold the girl to another brothel.

It was only many years later, after Widow Hong had left that life, that she discovered the truth.

But by then, it was too late—her daughter had contracted a vile disease. In desperation to pay for treatment, Widow Hong had returned to her old trade, becoming entangled with men in the village.

Knowing that Zhang the Butcher had some medical skill, she had even clung to him.

But despite everything, her daughter’s condition never improved.

Now, after she had fallen out with Zhang the Butcher, he refused to treat her daughter at all. Hearing that Tang Wan’s medical skills were excellent, she had come here to beg.

“They all say Zhang the Butcher ‘keeps’ me. How could that be? That beast only ever gave me two pieces of jewelry. Most of the time he was taking my money, claiming it was for medicine to treat my daughter. But my daughter never got better! A while back, when Zhang the Butcher was humiliated by Wan-niang and ended up owing many villagers, he came to demand those two pieces of jewelry back. I was so furious I struck him!”

At this point, Widow Hong looked straight at Tang Wan, eyes filled with desperate pleading.
“Wan-niang, I have no other choice. My daughter is my very life—I can’t just watch her die!”

Both Jiang-shi and Ling Yue’s faces softened with sympathy, though they still couldn’t quite understand.

Ling Yue even blurted:
“There are so many doctors in town—why don’t you go to them? My sister-in-law is a respectable woman. You’d have her treat such a disease? What if… what if something happens?”

Widow Hong’s face was full of bitterness.
“The doctors in town all look down on my daughter for having a filthy disease. None of them will treat her. Otherwise, why would I have endured that beast Zhang the Butcher’s bullying? I really have no other way. If anything happens to my daughter, I won’t go on living either.”

At that, Jiang-shi and Ling Yue were at a complete loss, and both turned their eyes toward Tang Wan.

Tang Wan was silent for a few seconds, then walked to the side and shouldered her little medicine basket.
“Lead the way!”

Widow Hong’s face lit up with joy.

But Jiang-shi anxiously protested:
“Wan-niang, wait… you won’t catch it, will you?”