Chapter 4: Intestinal Habit

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  When they arrived at Zhao Er's home in a car, Li Anran was surprised to find that after pushing the car for so long, he didn't feel tired at all.

  It's not easy for an ordinary motorcycle to be pushed all the way up this mountain road. With a sidecar, it's even more troublesome.

  Before Li An could ponder what was going on, his thoughts were interrupted by Zhao Er and Zhao Er's wife who had just come out to greet them.

  Facing the couple's polite yet reverent attitude, Li Anran, who lived in modern society, felt very uncomfortable, but also knew that there was no way around it.

  As soon as the three-wheeled cart stopped in the yard, Li Anran was welcomed into the house by Zhao Er and his wife. Soon a bowl of coarse tea emitting a strange smell was placed in front of him.

  Under the enthusiastic hospitality of Zhao Er and his wife, Li Anran picked up a coarse ceramic tea bowl and took a sip. A burst of ginger spice, saltiness, and tangerine peel flavor suddenly filled her mouth.

  "I've long heard that ancient people liked to add seasonings when drinking tea, and now I've personally experienced it. I have to admit that the flavor is really special."

  Li Anran didn't understand history, but he had some basic common sense. After being hit by this strange tea flavor and frowning, he tried two more sips before getting used to it.

  The frowning action fell into the eyes of Zhao Er and his wife, naturally knowing that the coarse tea at home was not good enough. But for ordinary people, it's already very good.

  In those villagers' homes where they can't even afford a full meal, how could they possibly have such a luxury as tea? The little tea in Zhao Er's home was left over from when the couple got married.

  "This tea tastes quite special, by the way Zhao Er, go get a few bowls and plates, I have use for them."

  Feeling the expressions on the couple's faces, Li Anran somewhat reluctantly praised them and then opened the plastic bag he had just picked up from the house.

  While Zhao Er's wife went to fetch something, Li Anran took out all the cooked food she had bought at the supermarket earlier.

  In addition to these cooked dishes, there were also two strings of sausages and two quite large and fat pieces of cured meat. These two things weren't bought, but were given by previous clients who had done business with us.

  Whether it's sausage or salted meat, they all use their own home-raised stupid pig meat, and it's fragrant pig. They don't feed any feed at all, only feeding pigs grass, bean cakes and other natural foods.

  It takes a whole year to raise them from the beginning of the year to the end, and the taste of this stupid pig meat is not comparable to that of feed pigs or hormone pigs that can be sold in just three or four months.

  For Li Anran, those vacuum-packed cooked foods were just ordinary. But for the Zhao Er brothers' two families, they were the most delicious.

  Many years later, even though Zhao Er's family had lived a life that many rich people envied, they still couldn't forget this meal and savored the memory endlessly.

  Under Li Anran's arrangement, the cooked foods such as roasted chicken, braised duck and stewed beef that were bought from the supermarket before crossing over had their packaging torn open, cut up and placed on plates.

  As for the sausages and cured meats, they were sufficient in salt content and durable enough to be stored, so only a small portion was cut and stewed with Chinese cabbage and other vegetables in a large pot.

  Even though the vegetables and wild greens occupied the majority of the dish, after adding the sausage and cured meat, the aroma still made Zhao Er's family swallow their saliva continuously.

  Seeing Li Anran bring out so many delicious meat dishes, Zhao Er, as the host, couldn't be stingy and also brought out quite a few things.

  Eggs, mother chicken, millet dry rice, white noodles and so on, for Li Anran, it's nothing, but for Zhao Erjia, it's already everything they have.

  While his wife was cooking, Zhao Er also specially cleaned up a storage room in their house and borrowed a wooden bed.

  Looking at this honest man busy back and forth, Li Anran came forward to advise that it was not necessary, but after advising several times, it was useless, and in the end, he had to let him go.

  The Zhao family is considered to be in the middle to upper class in the whole village, although not the richest. The earth and wood structure house is simple, but better than a thatched cottage.

  There were two vegetable plots in front of the house. Li Anran took a glance and found they were all common household vegetables like scallions and leeks. At the back of the house, there was a pigpen and a chicken coop with a heavier smell.

  It's strange that Zhao Er's family didn't have an ox. In ancient times, an ox was a big deal, and whoever had one was absolutely prestigious.

  Upon reflection, it's understandable. At present, it's the first year of the Zhenguan era, and due to the aftermath of the war at the end of the Sui dynasty, prices have risen sharply, a head of oxen costs quite a bit of money.

  Like Zhao Er, villagers with a large labor force at home, not those with a strong family background, generally rarely buy cattle and rely on manpower to cultivate the land.

  Or it's when the villagers who have cows use them up and then spend some cost to borrow them back. It's not that anyone can borrow, only those with very close relationships can do so.

  After Li Anran wandered around Zhao Erjia's home, apart from the poverty here, he also felt a kind of tranquility different from modern rural areas.

  What Li Anran likes most is the air of this era. Even if his own home was originally in a rural area, it's completely incomparable. Next is that blue sky.

  Li An had long been accustomed to the smog produced by environmental pollution, and even in his childhood memories, he had never seen such a pure and blue sky.

  Just as Li Anran decided to put aside his thoughts and think carefully about how to live in this era and live a good life, Zhao Erjia came with guests.

  It's not suitable to call them guests, they are Zhao Er's older brother Zhao Da and his family, also dressed in traditional farmer attire, with two boys and one girl following behind.

  "Grandpa, I'm back."

  Dog egg rushed into the yard first, took a sneak peek at someone and shouted loudly, then was attracted to the kitchen by the aroma of stir-fried meat in the air.

  Then Zhao Da and his wife naturally knew that this must be the noble guest mentioned by Dog Egg when they saw Li An standing in the courtyard wearing a Taoist robe.

  Li Anran was previously unconscious after crossing over and lay down, getting some mud on her. Fortunately, the temperature wasn't low, so she found a place to wash up and dried off quickly.

  Just from the appearance, Li Anran is much better than those Taoist priests wearing traditional Taoist robes. The only drawback is that the treasure sword and the feather duster are not in hand at this moment.

  "Brother, sister-in-law, you're here! What's going on with you two?"

  Hearing the cry of his own son, Zhao Er hurriedly came out of the room, but found that his brother and sister-in-law's expressions were not quite right, especially the latter's eyes were still red.

  "Alas... this is all because of my greed. I went to the town early today and ran into someone selling a cow at a very low price, so I bought it back. Who would have thought that it's a sick cow."

  Zhaoda's face was gloomy and he hung his head in despair, forcing a bitter expression as he recounted the whole story from start to finish.

  "Sick cow, what's wrong with it? Hurry up and treat it!"

  Zhao Er never thought it would be like this and was stunned for a moment before also becoming anxious.

  "I also wanted to be cured, and after seeing a doctor, they said it was... they said it was intestinal neurosis."

  Zhao Da, who had a bitter face to begin with, stuttered as he finished speaking, his expression even more despondent.

  "What?! Intestine disease! Go find that cattle seller quickly!"

  Hearing this, Zhao Er's face suddenly turned even more urgent.

  "I wanted to too, but he ran away early and can't be found."

  As Zhao Da spoke, his wife, who was standing beside him, also began to shed tears, and the younger children started wailing loudly.

  "Is dysentery? Isn't it just diarrhea? This disease isn't hard to cure either."

  As soon as Zhao's family became gloomy and depressing, Li Anran, who was standing not far away, thought for a moment and then walked forward.

  "Zhao Da is right, you're really good at buying things, aren't you?"

  "It is indeed." Zhao Da replied subconsciously with a worried face.

  "If it's really a case of intestinal worms, then it's not impossible to cure. However, this illness can't be delayed, hurry up and bring the cow over for me to take a look first."

  "What?! Divine... Daozhang, can you cure this illness?!"

  Zhao Er, who was anxiously worried about his brother's affairs, was like a drowning man grasping at a straw.

  "It depends on the situation whether it can be cured or not; if it's just a habitual bowel movement, then there's no big problem."

  Li Anran said this not to comfort the other party, nor was it to show off.

  Although this disease was as fatal as cancer in ancient times, it is not hopeless to treat it in modern society.

  Especially since the physical condition of this animal is different from that of humans, if treated in time, no special medicine is needed, and it can be solved with local methods.

  Compared to Zhao Da's incredulity, Zhao Er, who had seen the immortal family's mount before, was quite confident and immediately knelt down on both knees.

  "Master Dao, please, help my brother."

  "Ah!" Knowing that saying anything else would be useless at this point, Li Anran quickly pulled Zhao Er up and said: "Hurry up and bring the cow over! If we're late, I won't be able to do anything either."

  "Alright, alright! Let's go, let's go!" Zhao Er replied repeatedly, grabbing his older brother's hand and pulling him out while shouting: "Brother, hurry up and lead the cow, Dao Zhang has spoken so there must be a way to save it."

  "Right, right! I'll go get him! I'll go get him!" With his understanding of his younger brother, Zhao knew that things had taken a turn for the better. He finished speaking and ran off in a flash.

  "Zhao Er, first settle down the little ones, then prepare more garlic for me. If there's wine, get some ready; if not, bring some tea leaves."

  Li Anran, who was very unaccustomed to such a crying scene, didn't wait for Zhao Er to speak again and directly ordered the other party to prepare things that would be used to treat the cow's illness in a while.

  Zhao Er also knew that taking care of the cattle was a big deal, and he also knew that the person in front of him didn't like trouble, so he immediately arranged for his sister-in-law to take the little ones into the house first.

  Then he went under the eaves to take down a string of garlic that had been tied up, and then went into the kitchen to say a few words to his wife, taking out the last bit of tea leaves.