Chapter 49: Yuru, the children cannot grow up without a father

Zhang Xiang frowned as he looked at Gu Yuru. After a moment of deep thought, he concluded that the Gu family had no reason to deceive him. "I'll trust you once."

Zhao muttered under her breath, "A silly girl picks up some random weed and calls it medicine? Won't it kill people?"

Li Sheng had the smug look of someone waiting for a good show. "Even better if it ruins them. It has nothing to do with us anyway."

As long as the whip wasn't landing on their own backs, who cared who got beaten?

Old Madam Li and her daughter Li Rong also felt that the silly girl Li Mumu was unreliable, but they had been terrified by the beatings earlier and dared not speak out of turn. They simply waited to mock the Gu family once the remedy proved useless.

Li Mumu had not only put Aucklandia root into the water to stop diarrhea, but she had also secretly added some extra anti-diarrhea medicine. In the apocalypse, she had stockpiled plenty of supplies, and this was barely a drop in the ocean.

Soon, the water was boiled, and the few bailiffs suffering from diarrhea drank some. The hot water entered their bellies, and the spasming, painful intestines instantly felt much more comfortable.

After sitting quietly for over an hour, the frequency of their trips to relieve themselves decreased significantly. Half an hour later, everyone felt a warm sensation in their stomachs, the cramping had vanished, and the urge to go had completely disappeared.

"Boss, it's miraculous! It actually works?"

Everyone had initially adopted a wait-and-see attitude, but who would have thought the silly girl actually understood medicine?

Zhang Xiang also raised an eyebrow, a smile breaking across his fierce, menacing face. Even so, he still looked terrifying—the kind of person who could make an ordinary child burst into tears upon sight—but Li Mumu was not afraid.

"Little girl, I have to hand it to you. You really know your medicine."

Li Mumu smiled and nodded. "Mumu doesn't lie."

Zhang Xiang nodded without saying much more, though his attitude toward the Gu family and the Li family noticeably shifted.

The Li family also found it utterly bizarre. Even though it was a fact that the bailiffs had stopped having diarrhea, they stubbornly refused to admit it, insisting it was just a coincidence.

Li Mumu simply had good luck.

Li Yuan looked thoughtfully at the happy, chattering mother and daughter. Gu Yuru gently stroked her daughter's hair, her every movement radiating tenderness, while her three sons surrounded them. The corners of Li Yuan's mouth lifted unconsciously.

Lin Siyan, meanwhile, was scared ashen. Zhang Xiang's direct, naked gaze made her feel as though she had been stripped bare, despite wearing clothes.

She shrank back, but Zhang Xiang picked up his whip and stepped forward. With nowhere to hide, his large hand brushed across her face and finally gripped her chin tightly.

"I won't touch you yet," Zhang Xiang arched an eyebrow. "Such fine skin and flesh... if I ruin it with beatings, it won't be as fun to play with. Wait for me tonight, I'll deal with you properly."

Lin Siyan felt as though she had plunged into an icy abyss. Trembling all over, her legs went weak. After Zhang Xiang left, she tightly grabbed Li Yuan's arm—he was the only person she could turn to for help.

"Brother Yuan, save me! I am your woman, you absolutely cannot let Zhang Xiang touch me."

Li Yuan's expression was ice-cold as he violently shook off her hand. "My woman? Why would my woman frame me?"

Lin Siyan was on the verge of tears. "It really wasn't me! I had hidden them on someone else, how could I ever harm you? You are my husband, the pillar of support for me and our son."

"I only believe what I see. You were afraid of the fallout and trouble, so you framed me. Lin Siyan, I misjudged you."

"I didn't! I really didn't!"

Lin Siyan wept helplessly, but no matter how she explained, Li Yuan refused to listen.

She knew very well that if she were defiled by Zhang Xiang, Li Yuan would despise her even more.

To make up for the schedule lost over the past few days, Zhang Xiang shortened the midday break, giving them only a very brief window to eat.

The Gu family fared better; with the dry rations they had prepared earlier supplemented by goat's milk, they ate their fill, making it quite a decent meal.

The Li family, on the other hand, was in a miserable state. Fearing that their flatbreads would spoil, they had eagerly finished eating them the day before. With the short break today, there was no time to cook, and they could only stare in envy.

The Gu family accepted things far more readily than Li Mumu had anticipated. They calmly accepted the fact that she understood medical principles.

Zhang Yi curled her lips and took a gentle sip of goat's milk. "Our Mumu simply poured all her focus into medicine before."

"First sister-in-law, I think so too. As for worldly matters, Mumu just had a late awakening," Song Qiang smiled.

Gu Mingyu and his two brothers also nodded. They could accept Li Mumu's past foolishness, and they could even more readily accept a clever child.

"No wonder I wondered why our feet never developed blisters after soaking them at night, and why the next day felt so comfortable. I thought Mumu was just tossing random weeds into the pot," Old Madam Gu laughed.

She had assumed the child was just playing around, tossing things in anyway, and since it was just foot-soaking water, it didn't matter. She never expected those weeds to be actual medicinal herbs.

Upon hearing this, Old Madam Li was instantly filled with fury. "You wretched girl! Since you knew how to do this, why didn't you say anything and find medicine for us when we had diarrhea yesterday?"

Sun joined in, "Exactly! Mumu, you're eating with us while working for outsiders. Mother, if you ask me, it's just that some people never taught her right."

Song Qiang opened her mouth to hurl insults back, but Li Mumu spoke up in her sweet, childish voice, "But the food Mumu eats belongs to the Gu family."

A single sentence caused both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to flush brightly. Ever since their exile, Li Mumu had barely eaten a few meals provided by the Li family; whenever there was anything good to eat, it came from the Gu family.

Old Madam Gu was also indignant, unable to bear seeing her little granddaughter bullied. "Children have the cleanest hearts, free from all that filth. Whoever treats her well, she treats well. If you knew it would come to this, why act like that in the first place?"

"You... she... her surname is Li! No matter what, she is of our Li bloodline!"

Li Mumu smiled. "I can change my surname. Gu Mumu sounds very nice too."

"You unfilial wretch! Gu Yuru, is this how you teach your child? All our Li family children have been ruined by you! No way, give us back our Li family child!" Old Madam Li threw a tantrum, her objective obvious—she regretted it.

Li Mumu knew medicine; keeping her around was useful.

Gu Yuru sneered, "Did you forget about that severance agreement? You may not be literate, but neither is Li Yuan? Going back on your word, do you even still count as a man?"

"I... Yuru..." Li Yuan's tone grew gentle, unlike before when he looked at her as if harboring a deep, irreconcilable hatred. "You must have vented your anger by now. The children cannot live without a father."

Li Mumu truly never expected her deadbeat father to be so shameless.

It had only been a few days since their divorce, and he already regretted it?

"I'm three years old. I've grown up this far without a father."

Li Yuan's face instantly turned as dark as the bottom of a wok. "Mumu, your father was striving for accomplishments and building a career to provide a better life for you and your mother."

Li Mumu looked toward the woman whose eyes were burned red with jealousy and hatred. "Then what about Aunt Lin?"

"She... she's merely a concubine. If you don't like her, then..."

Li Mumu hooked the corners of her lips. "Then what?"