"Old ailments, why spend that money? I know what’s wrong with me. You’ve been busy all day, you must be exhausted. Don’t worry about me, hurry up and rest."
"I’m not tired. Let me heat some water for you to take a bath, it might make you feel better."
Han Ying didn’t like to trouble others, especially the younger ones. But Lin Wan couldn’t be stopped.
After the elder and second sibling split the family, they only came to see her during the holidays. Usually, it was just her and Xiao Yi living together. Xiao Yi’s been in the army these years, and she’s gotten used to being alone.
Ever since her niece-in-law married into the family, she didn’t have to worry about anything at all, even the daily expenses were taken care of by Xiao Wan.
Xiao Wan was better than her two daughters-in-law.
Especially in the past few months, when her legs were unwell, no matter how late Xiao Wan came home, she would always massage her for half an hour before she went to sleep, and then quietly return to her own room.
Lin Wan heated a pot of hot water, there wasn’t a wooden bathtub for bathing at home, just a large wooden basin, quite shallow. But Grandma could still sit inside.
After adjusting the water, Lin Wan helped Grandma to the bathing room, washed her, and let her soak for a while before coming out.
"A friend of Mom opened a small shop, I’ll go check it out tomorrow, and bring her some soap to put there and have her help us sell it."
"Will it work having someone help sell it?"
"Why wouldn’t it? Look at Aunt Wu, she takes our soap to their small store, and the sales volume is quite large. Plus, we don’t owe them anything, they take the goods, and we give them quite a discount, they earn a lot in between. They’re quite happy about it. We’re going for small profits but large sales, the more that goes out, the more we earn."
"Alright, I’ll listen to you, there’s plenty of soap in stock, take some over tomorrow."
After soaking in hot water, Han Ying felt much more relaxed, enjoying Lin Wan’s massage, she fell asleep soon after.
The next day, Lin Wan had breakfast and went to the warehouse to pick up some soap, rode her bike straight back to her mother’s home.
Liang Hongmei had just finished the morning market, seeing her daughter arrived, hurried to put down what she was doing and prepared the things she took from the shop yesterday.
"Xiao Wan, yesterday your brother said, Cong Nan found us a house, when you have time, let’s go see it together with your brother."
"Really? Where is it?"
"In the north of the city, near your brother’s school. The owners were intellectuals before but suffered persecution, they only got the house back last year. Because of bad memories of the old house, they decided the old residence was unlucky, and want to sell it and buy a new place."
"Sure, let’s go have a look the day after tomorrow. Grandma’s leg is hurting badly, I want to take her to hospital today for a check-up."
"It’s summer already, is it hurting badly?" Liang Hongmei had heard Xiao Wan mention it before.
"Grandma said normally it’s only serious in winter, after winter it’s like nothing happened, but don’t know what’s wrong this year, it hasn’t gotten better."
"There’s an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor in the neighboring village of our hometown, very effective for treating old cold legs and rheumatism, but it’s too far."
"Mom, how could I forget this person. Distance isn’t a problem, I’ll write Uncle a letter tomorrow, ask him for a favor, tell him Grandma’s situation and ship the medicine over. At most it’ll just cost some postage."
"Letting your uncle make a trip is also fine."
The mother and daughter checked the time, picked up the things and went to Grandma Wang’s house.
Their home is close to Nanqiao, just a few hundred meters away, it didn’t take long to get there.
It was Lin Wan’s first time at Grandma Wang’s house, and you couldn’t say the location wasn’t convenient; being a street-side property, it was definitely advantageous. The courtyard door was open, and a west wing room in the courtyard was refurbished, already stocked full of goods.
Everyday items like oil, salt, vinegar, towels, cups, and toothbrushes were quite common.
Grandma Wang’s sons all went to work, leaving only Grandpa Wang and Grandma Wang at home. In the yard, there was a child around two to three years old, just right for babysitting while earning money.