The rain was pouring down, shrouding the entire Qinglan City in haze.

On a street in the north of the city, a girl was running as hard as she could. She looked about ten years old and was a little thin. She was wearing linen clothes that had turned white after being washed, and a pair of equally old thin cloth trousers.

The patches on her clothes clearly indicate the girl's family background.

My bare feet kept lifting and falling on the cold stone road, and the rain puddles I stepped on made waves of water splash. This is the only market in the slums of Qinglan City. There are many rice shops, butcher shops, pharmacies, etc. on both sides of the street.

etc., but compared to the hustle and bustle of Qinglan Market, this place is obviously a bit rundown and deserted.

After all, she was only a half-grown child. Accidentally, the girl tripped over a stone and fell to the ground. The pain in her feet mixed with the numbness caused by the cold made the girl's eyes well up with tears, but she seemed to have thought of it.

What? He pursed his lips that were already purple from the cold, stood up again, and ran towards the depths of the market.

Uncle Fu is already seventy-three years old this year. He has been running a drug store in the market in the north of the city for most of his life. The weather has been cold these days, the rain has not stopped, and there has been no business, so he opened the door of the drug store early.

Go up, sit alone in the back room, warm a pot of wine, serve a plate of peanuts, and enjoy it comfortably.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The hurried knock on the door interrupted the little old man's comfortable evening life. He thought that one of the neighbors was suffering from a sudden illness and needed some simple herbs. He quickly got up from the rocking chair and walked to the front hall to replace the door panel.

Open.

"Xiaoyu? Why are you here, kid? It's raining so hard, come in quickly, quickly."

Uncle Fu was stunned for a moment by the girl standing outside the door. Isn't she a girl from the old Nie family? Why did she come to him in such a heavy rain? Her clothes were all soaked, and there were obvious stains on her legs and arms.

There were a lot of scratches, and one look at it showed that the child had suffered a lot on the way here.

"Uncle Fu, please save my parents, save them... wu wu..."

Nie Xiaoyu, who had gritted her teeth and persisted all the way, finally burst into tears the moment she saw Uncle Fu. She begged the old man in front of her with tears and snot for help.

"Speak slowly, speak slowly, come in first, it's raining so heavily outside, oh, this kid has done something wrong."

Uncle Fu is quite clear about the situation of Nie Xiaoyu's family. The Nie family is not a native family in Qinglan City, but came here twenty years ago. At that time, Nie Liang and his wife traveled long distances to escape the war and experienced nine deaths.

, they just came to Qinglan City, but they never thought that this extremely luxurious and prosperous city would not be as satisfactory as they imagined.

Since he had no skills, Nie Liang had to work hard in the mines outside the city in exchange for a meager income to support his family. His wife also got a job doing laundry for a wealthy family. The couple lived frugally and spent two

Years later, I even borrowed some money from the bank, and finally settled down in the north of the city.

Such poor days passed day by day. Ten years ago, the cry of a baby could be heard in the Nie family's hut. Nie Xiaoyu was born. Even though Nie Liang was tall and thick, his daughter was born with an unusual beauty. From then on

After that, every day the neighbors would see this upright man smiling from ear to ear on the street with his daughter on his shoulders.

But years of working in the mines also eroded Nie Liang's body. First, he had a constant throat discomfort, then a long-term cough, and later he even coughed up blood. However, Nie Liang never told his wife and Xiao Yu about all this.

, he knows that he is the backbone of this family, and he must persevere no matter how difficult it is.

Nie Liang, who came back from the mine that day, finally collapsed at the door of his house. His whole body was hot, but his face was watery. After coughing violently, blood spurted out of his mouth. This frightened Xiaoyu who was alone at home and cried out.

He asked his father what was wrong, and his cries alerted the neighbors. Everyone moved Nie Liang back to the house in a hurry. But after all, they were from poor families. They didn't know what kind of disease this straightforward man had, so they could only watch helplessly.

With.

As Nie Liang continued to cough up blood, Nie Xiaoyu began to force herself to calm down. She remembered that Fu Bo, who ran a pharmacy in the market in the north of the city, was familiar with her family. Her father would often go to Fu Bo's pharmacy to buy plaster for her mother who suffered from back pain.

Perhaps he could be of help, so he entrusted Nie Liang to a group of neighbors and ran to Fu Bo's pharmacy.

After simply listening to Xiao Yu's description, Uncle Fu knew that the situation was urgent, so he didn't say anything more, just picked up the medicine box and followed the poor girl into the rain curtain.

"Everyone, please disperse. Stop crowding in this room. Lao Nie needs to rest now."

In the small room, the furnishings were simple but very neat. On the wooden plank bed, Nie Liang was lying quietly. His cough had subsided, but his face was still not good, his eyes were closed and his breathing was a little short.

When the neighbors who were watching saw that nothing happened, they dispersed, leaving Nie Xiaoyu in the house, as well as the Nie family's wife, Fu Bo and Nie Liang who had rushed back.

"Uncle Fu, what disease did dad have? Is he cured now?"

Seeing that her father no longer coughed up blood, Xiaoyu thought that her father's illness had been cured. She was grateful to Fu Bo and also became very interested in the white pills that the old man fed her father.

"Uncle Fu, what's wrong with Aliang? He's always been in good health, why are you so sick all of a sudden?"

The woman on the side knew that her husband had not been cured, but had only alleviated the symptoms by taking medicine. Seeing Uncle Fu's solemn expression, her heart tightened, and she quickly wiped away the tears on her face and asked the old man about Nie Liang.

"Well, he has lung disease, and it has been for a long time. Now I estimate that the entire lung is almost destroyed. I have temporarily alleviated his symptoms with medication, but it is impossible to cure him."

The kind old man hesitated for a long time before telling the mother and daughter the cruel bad news. The man on the bed was not going to die soon. He really couldn't bear to deceive this poor family anymore.

The old man's words made the woman unable to control her emotions anymore and she collapsed directly on the ground. She didn't understand why her family still suffered from this misfortune despite their desperate efforts. Why on earth did God punish them like this?

"Uncle Fu, is there really no way to save daddy? There must be something, right? Xiaoyu doesn't want daddy to leave."

Looking at the little girl tugging on his sleeve, Uncle Fu felt extremely uncomfortable. What kind of evil had he done? God wanted to treat this family like this. They just wanted to survive. Is this wrong?

"It's not like nothing, it's just..."

After hearing what Uncle Fu said, the little girl's eyes suddenly lit up, and she quickly pestered the old man to ask how she could save her father's life.

"Ordinary medicinal materials can no longer cure this level of lung disease, but those real elixirs can. It is said that there is a high-level elixir called Yuping Xianling Dan that specializes in curing your father's lung disease, but the price is simply too high.

The astronomical figures are simply beyond the imagination of us civilians, so I didn’t say anything about them before.”

The hope in the little girl's eyes had just risen when she was poured cold water on by Fu Bo's words. Children from poor families have already become masters. She understood very well what the astronomical figures in Fu Bo's mouth meant, which meant that even if she worked hard,

No matter how hard you work for a lifetime, you may not be able to earn this kind of money.

"Uncle Fu, where can I buy this elixir?"

The old man also had a sad look on his face at this time. He carefully checked the pulse of the slumped woman beside him, and found that it was just the shortness of breath caused by excessive sadness. Then he felt relieved, and a question came from behind.

"You should be able to buy it at Baicaotang, but that's not necessarily the case. I've never seen such a level of elixir. Oh, Xiaoyu, where are you going? Xiaoyu..."
Chapter completed!