Chapter 48

"That taste is horrible."

Titus chewed on the "medicine," his gaze vacant. "It's my first time taking medicine. I didn't expect it to be this awful."

"Is it..." Cloudy sat cross-legged in front of Titus, curiously examining the remnants of the medicine in his hand. A few days ago, when Titus was unconscious, she had forced it into him by soaking it in water, and now Titus was taking it on his own.

After pouring out the so-called medicine, there were various colored strange small pieces, mostly green and black, with some white and yellow. On closer inspection, there was a foul animal smell, and it felt greasy to the touch. She hadn't expected Titus to find something distasteful too.

"What does it taste like?" She was a bit curious.

"Try some." Titus offered his hand to Cloudy when he saw her curiosity, gesturing for her to take a bit. "It's not good, a very unpleasant taste."

Cloudy shook her head and pushed Titus's hand back. "Medicine is precious, I can't eat it. You should finish it quickly."

"Mmm..." Titus reluctantly licked off a bit from the palm of his hand, his face contorted in bitterness. "So awful, what is this made of?"

"Whatever it's made of, you're getting better!" Cloudy was surprised that this era actually had effective medicine, but was it the medicine's effectiveness or Titus's strong body that facilitated his recovery? As he had mentioned before, during the rainy season, those who fell ill would die, so those who could survive with medication were definitely in the minority.

As Titus slowly consumed the medicine, Cloudy reached out to touch his forehead, then his hands and feet. "Feeling warm? Still feeling cold?"

"Not as cold as before, this medicine makes me feel hot after swallowing it." Titus pointed to his throat. "It starts from here and heats up to my stomach. But it's very nauseating."

After watching Titus finish the medicine, Cloudy prepared to get off the bed. It was the 10th day of the rainy season. After Titus woke up, Cloudy worked hard to get everything back on track.

Every morning, the first thing she did was to start a fire, warm some stones to wrap in animal hides for Titus, and then boil water for him to take his medicine. Once done, Cloudy would go outside to inspect the roof, either re-thatching it with leaves or reinforcing it.

Because Titus had been bedridden for the past few days, she had made a ladder out of wooden sticks to easily check the roof. However, due to its instability, from yesterday until this morning, Cloudy had fallen off the ladder a total of four times, each time prompting Titus to loudly inquire from inside the house.

But these were not major issues! In Cloudy's view, the most difficult days of the rainy season had passed, and now she would focus on taking care of Titus and planning their daily meals properly.

After inspecting the roof...
Cloudy would jump into the pool formed by the accumulated rainwater under the slope, fishing out sticks and leaves, dragging them to the shore near the stone kiln to dry them by the warmth of the fire. She thought if sticks and leaves no longer fell from outside the courtyard into the cave, she would have to drag them back from outside the cave. This wasn't a big issue, thanks to her journey to and from the settlement, her swimming skills were now quite polished.

After gathering enough branches, Cloudy sat in front of the stone kiln to dry off. Despite feeling sore all over today, her wounds were still itchy, especially the one on her collarbone where Matriarch had stabbed her. Today it had started to pus, with redness and swelling around it. The abscess was quite large, and she felt like it might burst at the slightest touch.

Busy looking after Titus the past few days, she hadn't had time to tend to some of the more serious-looking areas on her body. Today, finally having some free time, she decided to grit her teeth and properly treat the wound on her collarbone.

First, she went to the tool table to retrieve some fish spines she had saved before, then she heated a bowl.

"Cloudy—what are you doing outside? Do you need help?"

"No, you lie down and rest. I'm taking care of my wound." Cloudy picked up her phone from the tool table, brought it to the stone kiln, propped it up with stones, and used the screen's reflection to locate the wound.

The wound was a relatively neat round hole, not deep, as Matriarch hadn't been too severe, just giving her a shallow poke. The center of the wound had scabbed over, but pus had formed around the circular scab, causing the wound to swell concavely. If left untreated, it would surely get worse.

Cloudy selected a fish spine of suitable length, clamped it with a stick and heated it in the fire for a while before blowing off the black ash and holding it in her hand. After confirming the location of the abscess on the phone screen, she clenched her teeth and jabbed the fish spine in, then gently scraped downwards.

She could feel the pus flowing out as soon as the fish spine pierced in, and she used her mouth to hold the fish spine while squeezing out the pus with both hands, which was very painful... She couldn't help but make sounds of discomfort, which Titus could naturally hear.

"Cloudy! Is it painful? Come in, let me have a look!"

"I'll be done in a moment, don't worry." But it was no use; she heard the sounds of footsteps inside the wooden house, and then Titus, draped in a bearskin, shuffled towards her like a bear: "Is it the wound on your neck? Let me see."

Cloudy grimaced, tilting her head slightly. "I've... got rid of the... dirt."

"No, there's still a lot." Titus coughed a few times, squatting in front of Cloudy. "I know this. Come closer, the green stuff needs to be cleaned properly, or it will keep growing."

As the phone screen was black, she couldn't confirm if all the pus had been squeezed out, so she had to rely on Titus: "Use the fish spine, I just made a small incision."

"No need for the fish spine!"
Titus moved closer again, his hands emerging from the animal hide. One hand grabbed Cloudy's shoulder, the other her neck. "Gonna use my mouth, I'll help you. It'll hurt, but it'll be over soon!"

What? Use your mouth? Before Cloudy could react, Titus's mouth was already on the wound at her collarbone, sucking hard...

Cloudy let out a piercing scream. She felt like her entire collarbone was being sucked out. Her body instinctively tried to pull away, but Titus held her as tightly as a mouse, impossible to break free from.

This guy... how did he regain his strength so quickly? Cloudy, in pain, clawed at Titus's shoulder and pulled his ear. "Ouch! It hurts so much!"

The whole process didn't last long. Half a minute later, Titus released his mouth and spat out what he had sucked out onto the ground. Yellow, green, red... like phlegm mixed with blood vessels. Very disgusting.

"Done!" Titus shook his ear, checked the wound, the redness and green pus were all gone. "That's better. Do we have mud? We can seal it up with that."

Cloudy, still in pain, tremblingly pushed Titus away, grabbed a bowl of hot water nearby, poured it over the wound, and screamed in pain again.

"Cloudy, poor thing," Titus looked at the wounds all over her body. He remembered the first time he saw Cloudy, she had no wounds at all, her skin was soft and smooth. "Thank you for your hard work."

"It's nothing, go inside quickly." She gritted her teeth, stood up, picked up the animal hide, and wrapped it tightly around Titus. "It's warmer inside, you can't come out casually."

"Just a moment, just a moment." Titus dodged Cloudy's hand. "I need to get rid of some dirt, can't go in yet."

"Alright, be quick."

In the past few days when Titus was unconscious, some unpleasant things that were not easy to explain were all taken care of by her. Today, Titus could finally handle it himself, which made Cloudy very happy, indicating that he had truly recovered!

Titus stood up and walked towards the back of the wooden house, where there was a deep hole dug by Cloudy near the cliff edge, usually covered with leaves.

After waiting for a few minutes, a painful voice suddenly came from behind the wooden house. "Cloudy, I can't get out!"

... Could it be constipation? Cloudy was a bit worried, but she didn't want to go see. "Push harder!"

Then Titus's voice became even more agonizing.

Thinking back on Titus's diet these days, it was all liquid food... Why would he be constipated? Or was this a side effect of the medicine? Cloudy rubbed her chin, pondering. When Titus took the medicine, he mentioned that it affected his whole body.
After thinking it over, it could only be the medicine causing this. Cloudy planned to add more oil to Titus's food in the evening to help soothe him... for now, he would have to endure the discomfort for a while.

While pondering the evening's menu, a voice came from behind the wooden house.

"Cloudy! My butt is cold!"

Alright, he had no choice but to go over... Cloudy reluctantly took out a few burning sticks from the stone kiln and brought them to the back of the wooden house to warm up Titus's cold bottom.

After a while of struggling, Titus eventually gave up. This was a very strange experience for him; he had never felt so uncomfortable since birth, from a cold to now... with Cloudy's support, he staggered back into the wooden house, feeling a bit sad.

"Cloudy, why am I like this now? I miss running around everywhere before..." He nestled back into bed, showing a sad face. "I hate the rainy season, why are we afraid of the rainy season, but not you, Cloudy?"

This seems to involve biological knowledge, which I unfortunately didn't study in college. Cloudy threw some new firewood into the indoor fireplace, saying, "It won't be like this in the next rainy season, I'll figure something out." She took out a few warm stones from the side of the fire and placed them in Titus's arms for him to hold.

"But it's still best if, in the next rainy season, we don't live in the cave; it's not suitable for you to live here, it's too cold."

Hearing her say this, Titus became restless again. "Then in the rainy season, live in my house, and we live in the settlement? Nobody will come out in the rainy season, so it's safe, right?"

It seems reasonable; before the rainy season, she lived in the cave, and after entering the rainy season, she lived with Titus in the settlement... but the details would have to wait until this rainy season passed. She and Titus would discuss it with the Matriarch. What if she didn't want her to live inside?

Cloudy patted Titus's head. "Let's talk about it after the rainy season. For now, let's discuss what to eat tonight. Can you eat meat?"

"I can!"