Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Treatment Plan, Wild Greens

Back in her room, Gu Qinghuan bolted the door and went straight into her space.

There was no time to tidy up. Clinging to a sliver of hope, she opened her laptop—sure enough, the screen was pitch black. It seemed both her computer and phone were useless here.

That meant she had no way to look up how to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Disappointed, Gu Qinghuan closed the laptop, blaming herself for not learning more about it when she had the chance.

Now, even though she roughly understood the cause of the illness, she had no idea how to help him recover properly.

Just as she was feeling down, she caught sight of a stack of books on her desk. An idea struck her—maybe there was another way. She hurried downstairs to the vending machine to check.

She typed into the vending machine: ""Books on treating post-traumatic stress disorder.""

To her surprise, there really were such books for sale.

Gu Qinghuan immediately bought the two bestsellers:

- Guide to the Prevention and Treatment of Traumatic Stress Disorders

- Handbook of Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment

With the books in hand, Gu Qinghuan began reading voraciously.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be treated through daily care, medication, physical therapy, psychotherapy, and exercise therapy.

For daily care, the key was to create a relaxed living environment, keep the patient in a good mood, and avoid excessive stress and anxiety.

If the condition was severe, medication was necessary—mainly sertraline, paroxetine, and sometimes buspirone or estazolam.

As for physical therapy, methods like transcranial magnetic stimulation and EEG therapy could be used as adjuncts, but such technology wasn’t available in this era, so she had to give up on that.

Psychotherapy required a doctor to provide psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychoanalysis, which could help change negative thought patterns and build healthy cognition.

When the opportunity arose, she’d have to take him to a big city to see a psychologist. There should already be psychologists in this era, right?

The support and encouragement of family was also an indispensable remedy.

Appropriate exercise could help relieve stress and stabilize emotions.

Having a general understanding of the causes and treatments, Gu Qinghuan realized that being tied up for long periods, isolated from others, and unable to care for himself were all factors worsening his symptoms.

This illness was actually similar to depression, but even harder to deal with. If his trauma was triggered, he could lose control, and a single misstep could undo all progress.

To truly cure him, she’d have to slowly help him return to a normal life.

With that thought, she sat down and began drafting a treatment plan.

First, she needed to improve his quality of life—a comfortable environment was important to keep his emotions stable.

Next was medication—she could try buying it from the vending machine.

Most important was psychotherapy. Every day, she’d have the children spend more time talking with him, drawing him into their innocent world, helping him gradually regain his sanity, build healthy cognition, face his war memories correctly, and learn to process his emotions and stress.

The hardest part would be exercise therapy. In the future, she could try untying him when he was lucid, starting with his legs, then gradually untying him completely, letting him move around bit by bit.

In short, if she wanted him to get better, she couldn’t keep him tied to the bed every day.

With a simple plan in place, Gu Qinghuan went downstairs to the vending machine.

She tried typing in: ""sertraline.""

It was available, but it was a prescription drug—no prescription, no sale.

Gu Qinghuan kept scrolling and finally found a store that didn’t require a prescription, but when she saw the price, she was stunned.

Ridiculous! It was three times more expensive than the other stores—might as well be robbery.

In other stores, a box was eight yuan, barely affordable, but this one wanted twenty-four yuan a box.

Paroxetine was also a prescription drug—three yuan a box elsewhere, but this shady store wanted nine.

Together, the two drugs would cost thirty-three yuan.

And each box only had fourteen pills—one a day, enough for just two weeks.

That meant she’d need sixty-six yuan a month just for medication.

Treating PTSD was a long-term process. Doing the math, she’d need nearly eight hundred yuan a year just for medicine. Instantly, she felt like her wallet was bleeding.

Gu Qinghuan suddenly felt an urgent need to make money—otherwise, she wouldn’t even be able to afford the medicine.

Though she grumbled about the price, she still decisively placed an order for both medications, planning to start giving them to Xu Huai’an the next day.

After that, it was time for her nightly relaxation routine: a glass of spiritual spring water, wash up, put on a face mask, soak in the bath for half an hour, then go to bed.

She slept soundly all night.

Next door, the family of three also had spiritual spring water, full bellies, and warm quilts. Even Xu Huai’an, who usually spent sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, slept peacefully.

—

In the Xu family’s big tile-roofed house,

Liu Guifang stood in the courtyard, hands on her hips, cursing loudly.

“You two are both so soft-hearted! You care about your reputation, so I have to be the bad guy, is that it? If I wasn’t so thrifty, would we be living so well now?”

Xu Huaizhi came in, pushing his bicycle, and heard his mother’s voice. He said helplessly, “Mom, second brother’s already in that state. If we don’t give them food, what are they supposed to eat? Starve to death?”

Besides, all his discharge pay and allowances went to you. That was at least a few thousand yuan. Now you’ve split them off and won’t even give them some grain? That’s really too much.

Of course, Xu Huaizhi was smart enough not to say that out loud.

“You’re always siding with outsiders! If my grain is missing, it’s definitely their doing!

And that little brat dared to bite me. If you hadn’t stopped me, I’d have taught them a lesson today.

Why did you give them fine grain? And three hundred jin at that! If you were in charge, you’d know how precious grain is. In a famine year, three hundred jin could feed a whole family for a year!”

Liu Guifang was furious, ranting non-stop.

Xu Huaizhi didn’t dare say more. He shot a look at his son, who was watching the commotion nearby.

Dacheng immediately understood and ran over to hug his grandma’s leg. “Grandma, when are we eating? I’m hungry.”

“My good grandson is hungry? Wait, Grandma will make you something right now. There are some snacks in my room—I’ll get you a couple to tide you over.”

At the word “snacks,” a door in the west wing flew open. “Mom, I want snacks too!”

It was Liu Guifang’s youngest son, Xu Huaiyu.

Liu Guifang glared at him in exasperation.

“All you know is eating! You never do anything useful.”

But when she fetched the snacks, she still gave her youngest son two pieces.

She was caught red-handed by Xu Meiling, who had just come back from work.

“Mom, you’re so biased! You wouldn’t even give me one, but now you’re sneaking two to second brother.” Xu Meiling complained angrily.

Lin Xiaomeng, afraid of getting dragged in, quickly put down her hoe and slipped back to her room.

“You’re already so fat—why do you need snacks?” Xu Huaiyu mercilessly teased his sister.

Xu Meiling’s biggest insecurity was her weight—she was 120 jin. Being jabbed by her third brother hit a sore spot, and she gritted her teeth, chasing him around the courtyard.

Liu Guifang simply stuffed all the snacks into her eldest grandson’s hands and went to cook.

The Xu family courtyard was in chaos.

Dacheng hurried back to his room with the snacks. “Mom, have some.”

Lin Xiaomeng took a bite from her son’s hand. The pastries of this era didn’t taste great.

She’d been back for two days now. At first, everything felt unreal, but she was finally getting used to it.

In her past life, she abandoned her husband and son, only to die miserably on the streets, while her ex-husband Xu Huaizhi became a wealthy entrepreneur.

She never expected that the good life she’d struggled for all her life had once been hers, but she’d thrown it away herself.

Given another chance, she’d never make such a stupid mistake again. This time, she’d be a good wife and mother, patiently waiting for her husband’s family to become prosperous.

But today’s events left her puzzled. In her previous life, the wife they bought for the second son died on the road, didn’t she?

So why was she not only alive this time, but even bold enough to come ask her mother-in-law for grain?

Could she have been reborn too?

—

The next morning.

Gu Qinghuan was woken up by her 6 a.m. alarm.

She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling of the big villa, feeling like she was in a dream.

It took her a while to accept the reality—she was now in the 1970s, with a family of old, weak, sick, and young to care for.

In other words: she was the pillar of the family.

Resigned, she got up, washed, changed into her drab, ugly “work clothes,” and left her space.

There was a lot to do today—she had to keep her spirits up.

She’d brought back plenty of grain yesterday, but now she needed to solve the cooking problem by cleaning up the kitchen.

For the past two days, she’d been cooking in her space and bringing the food out, but that couldn’t go on forever.

She thought she’d gotten up early enough, but to her surprise, Dabao was up even earlier, sitting at the main room door, sorting something in his hands.

“Dabao, why are you up so early? Kids need more sleep to grow tall.”

Gu Qinghuan said as she walked over.

Dabao froze for a second. More sleep makes you grow taller?

No wonder—he’d felt like he hadn’t grown in ages, while kids his age in the village, like Erdan, were already half a head taller.

He’d have to sleep more from now on, so he could grow tall like Dad and earn more work points and grain for the family.

Gu Qinghuan had no idea that her casual remark had sparked so many thoughts in Dabao.

Right now, she was curiously eyeing the pile of wild greens in front of him.

“You picked all these yesterday?”

“Yeah, these wild greens can be made into vegetable buns—they save grain and fill you up.” But he wasn’t very good at making them; he usually just boiled them. He wondered if this new stepmother knew how to make veggie buns.

Gu Qinghuan had never eaten such primitive veggie buns before, but her predecessor had tried them in the educated youth compound.

Let’s just say, it was all about survival—otherwise, no one would eat them for the taste.

But the child deserved praise.

“Dabao, you’re amazing! You know so many wild greens. Let’s have them for lunch.”

It was the first time Dabao had ever been praised like this. To him, it was just an ordinary thing, but having someone acknowledge it made his heart soar.

He lowered his head shyly, feeling sweet inside.

“I’ll find even more wild greens in the future, and mountain goods too.”

Gu Qinghuan sifted through the pile: dandelion, cat’s paw, fiddlehead ferns, aralia sprouts, mountain celery, shepherd’s purse, and small-rooted greens.

All were common wild vegetables in the northern mountains, and quite fresh.

But there was a lot—probably several jin, maybe even ten. Fine for a change, but eating them every meal was too much, especially veggie buns—she really couldn’t stomach them.

But seeing the hopeful look in the child’s eyes, Gu Qinghuan couldn’t bring herself to refuse. Still, they really couldn’t eat wild greens every day.

After a quick brainstorm, she had an idea.

She couldn’t eat them, but there were people who loved them.

In the future, health-conscious people tired of rich foods would pay high prices for wild mountain greens like these. And these were pure, wild, organic vegetables!

No matter what, she’d try listing them on the vending machine—maybe someone would buy them.

Putting thought into action, Gu Qinghuan scooped up the pile of wild greens.

“I’ll take care of these. You go look after your sister and dad.”"

"Chapter 17: Selling Wild Greens and Egg Pancakes