Ordinary people's rice bowl

Chapter 29 Small Trial "Sword"

From the day Mu Zhen contracted mange, she has been in good times and bad times, and the torment of itching has always accompanied him. Even so, he never gave up on studying hard. As soon as the final exam was over, Mu Zhen picked up her schoolbag and went back to school. After leaving home, the most important thing in my mind at this time is not to care about the test scores, but to try the new treatment that has been popular in the school recently, and use the brimstone given to him by his classmates during the holidays to fight a "battle of annihilation" against mange.

Just as Mu Zhen arrived home, she happened to run into her mother who was about to go out to help Wang Tiancheng's pig farm.

"Mom, I want to tell you something!" Mu Zhen stopped in front of Xiuhua and said.

"What's the matter?" Xiuhua asked.

Mu Zhen held back for a long time, Xiuhua was very surprised and asked again: "Quickly, what's the matter?"

Mu Zhen stared at her mother intently and asked, "Can I live in the room next to the kitchen?"

"Why don't you share the same bed with your brother?" Xiuhua asked in surprise at Mu Zhen's request.

"No, I just want to live in the room next to the kitchen by myself!" Mu Zhen replied.

Hearing Mu Zhen's words, Xiuhua felt that Mu Zhen in front of her had grown up a lot and reached a sensible age.

"Okay, a few days ago, there happened to be wooden planks that were just sawed and ready to add some furniture. It would be good to use these wooden planks to build a bed!" Xiuhua immediately dismissed the idea of ​​going to Wang Tiancheng's pig farm, greeted Mu Yan and Mu Bao, and moved the yard to the farm. The bricks piled up in the yard were moved into the house, and within an hour, a temporary simple plank bed was set up. Xiuhua sat on it and tried it out, and it was very firm and reliable.

For Mu Zhen, the first stage of the "war" has been prepared, and now she is looking forward to getting dark soon before entering the implementation stage of the "battle".

The newly built small wooden bed did not bring any novelty to Mu Zhen, but Mu Zhen, who was lying on the bed, tossed and turned, thinking about how the "battle" would unfold.

Mu Zhen clearly remembered that when the classmate gave herself sulfur, she repeatedly emphasized that in order to kill scabies, one must sweat first, and applying sulfur through the sweat was the most effective.

This roasting is like a bullet being loaded. It is the prelude to the battle. However, this roasting will inevitably produce light. If the family members ask, it is really difficult to explain. After all, treating this disease is not a glorious thing. This incident alarmed the family, thinking of this, I feel like a little rabbit in my arms, feeling uneasy, now at this age, I have long lost the innocence of my childhood.

Mu Zhen looked at the twinkling stars in the sky through the window, held her breath from time to time, and listened carefully to the movement outside. When she heard her father's startling snoring sound from the main room, she put on her clothes and got out of bed quietly like a thief. He opened the door leading to the kitchen without hesitation, walked into the kitchen on tiptoe, groped in the dark at the place where the ground pot was filling the fire, carefully cleared out an open space, and then quietly returned to his room, took out from under the bed the The dry branches that came and put in the pockets were lit with a match in the newly cleared space, and a few dry branches were ignited. In this way, the walls of the kitchen were bright red, and Mu Zhen lifted the draped With the cotton coat on his body, he put his body close to the flames and felt a little pain from the heat. He hurriedly took a step back, readjusted his posture, and forcibly resisted the pain caused by the flames.

At this time, the weather was [-], and the outdoor temperature was less than zero degrees Celsius. It seemed a bit of a fantasy to want to sweat. Although the skin was already roasted to the bone, the skin that was not close to the fire still felt a bit cool.

Mu Zhen tossed and tossed like this for more than ten minutes, her body showed no sign of sweating, and as all the branches she picked up were burned, the "battle" ended quietly.

Mu Zhen looked at the pile of ashes, sighed softly, and helplessly wrapped the cotton coat around her body a little tighter, then scooped water from the bucket with her free hand and splashed it on the remaining ashes, and had to go back to Lie down on the bed next door.

It was just dawn, and Xiuhua got up early to prepare breakfast for the whole family. When Xiuhua saw the ashes in front of the ground pot, she was shocked. The ashes came so suddenly, and she cleaned up the ashes every night to prevent accidents. Happened, today's ashes must have been ordered by Mu Zhen, did he steal something, thought while poking the ashes on the ground with a fire stick, but didn't see any signs of burning, so what would the fire do?

Xiuhua didn't want to disturb Mu Zhen's good sleep, and tried her best not to make any loud noises, but Mu Zhen still woke up, lying under the quilt, thinking about how to explain to Xiuhua if her mother asked about Ashes. It was something on her mind, but she didn't point it out, because Xiuhua didn't want to hurt the child's self-esteem. As for what the child did, the child didn't need to ask if he wanted to explain it. If he didn't want to say it, he wouldn't say it if he asked.She cleaned up the ashes and was busy making breakfast as if nothing had happened.

Seeing that her mother didn't ask about Ashes, Mu Zhen felt relieved.

After breakfast, Mu Zhen sat at the table and looked at the book as usual, but her mind was not on the book. What she thought of in her mind was how to get more chopping materials, how to burn such a big fire at night, how could it not affect When it came to his family, he really couldn't think of a better trick.But things still have to go on. If you give up, the itchy mange on your body will still linger. If you can't cure it during the holidays, you will have no chance to start school.

The twelfth lunar month is cold and short, but for Mu Zhen, this day is indeed a bit long, and the book in front of her is a bit blurry for Mu Zhen.After lunch, Mu Bao followed Lao Mu to school. Mu Zhen found the machete at home from under the chopping board in the kitchen, put it in a fertilizer bag, and sneaked out of the house with the fertilizer bag in hand.

Mu Zhen has long been optimistic about the rows of poplar groves by the river in the south of the village, and went straight to the river in the south of the village. This poplar grove was planted in the village in the early years, and Mu Zhen's thick two-story building would not be able to cover it. Naturally, there are more branches in winter. After a while, I picked up half of the bag, the branches are not missing, but how to find the wood for the fire?Mu Zhen sat down, thinking that it would be easier if there was a dead tree stump. He suddenly remembered that when he was a child, the children broke off the rotten wood from the dead tree stump, lit it, blew out the open flame, and the rotten wood did not go out. Wouldn't it be better if there were a pile of rotten wood like this?
Mu Zhen stood up and looked for the rotten stumps left by felling poplar trees in the woods. Her hard work paid off. On a slope, there stood quietly a section of a tree that had been broken for some reason, and it looked dry and rotten. , He felt happy for a while, dumped the branches from the fertilizer bag again, and poured out the machete that was pressed under the branches from the bottom, and he chopped it down with a single knife. Maybe the stump was dry and hard, maybe the machete was not sharp enough, maybe Mu Zhen used it. Mu Zhen looked at it and felt a little dazed, but he needed this stump so much, how could he sweat without splitting the wood? ?There is no hope of eradicating mange.He forgot everything, and he only had one thought, which was to chop off this dry pile and bring it back before dark. Although he was not strong enough, each knife carried [-] points of vigor, and he chopped like this for about ten minutes. , he felt hot on his body, felt that his clothes were already sweating, and his tiger's mouth was a little numb from the shock, and there was a dull pain. He stopped, looked at the tree stump that he had cut all over his body, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and suddenly thought of — Sweating, isn’t this already sweating?There is no need to rely on the fire to roast, wouldn't it be the same sweating, Mu Zhen immediately thought of sulfur, if you bring that sulfur, wouldn't it be smeared here?Yes, he was so excited, he was proud of the method he had discovered.

Mu Zhen looked around at the surrounding environment, the environment here is elegant, few people come to the river embankment in winter, it is quiet, like a paradise.

Mu Zhen couldn't wait to carry the machete and ran to the house, so much so that she threw the fertilizer bag on the river bank. When she was almost at the door, she suddenly felt that holding the machete would make her mother ask something, so she buried the machete on the spot. Under the small tree on the side of the road, he entered the house as if nothing had happened.

There was no one at home, so Mu Zhen went into her bedroom, opened the few packs of sulfur under the head of the bed, took one pack, wrapped the rest up and put them away again, and ran out of the house as if flying, and found the sulfur in the little tree. He took out the machete that had just been buried in the soil, and ran towards the poplar forest by the river.

Mu Zhen, who ran back to the embankment, panted heavily, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her hands from time to time, feeling a little sticky on her body.

"I can't just stop like this, I have to continue, so that I can sweat more!" Thinking like this, Mu Zhen quickly unbuttoned the Chinese festival button on the padded jacket, swung the machete in her hand and chopped vigorously at the wooden post in front of her. Fuck, at this moment, he seemed to have a grudge against the stake, and he exerted all his strength with every cut, and when he was chopping on the stake, he still didn't say "hey, hey" in his own voice.

Like crazy, Mu Zhen waved the machete in her hand, unable and unwilling to stop, what Mu Zhen needed at this time was no longer firewood, what she wanted was sweat, and what she wanted was the scabies that would haunt her for nearly three months Excret it to completely drive away the "demon" on your body.

After a while, Mu Zhen's hand wielding the machete slowed down, and the machete in his hand became a little heavy. He put the machete aside, quickly took out the bag of sulfur from his pocket, squatted down, and carefully opened the paper bag and put it on the ground , then stood up, looked around, the surroundings were quiet, no one was around, he stood at ease, quickly lifted the cotton coat, took a pinch of sulfur from the opened paper bag, and applied it to the small pimples on his body Go, the powder met the sweat, and immediately turned into a yellow syrup. Mu Zhen kept rubbing her hands on her body, smearing...

When Mu Zhen returned home with her woven bag, it was past four o'clock. Mu Yan, who was preparing dinner in the kitchen, saw Mu Zhen for the first time, and was immediately amused by Mu Zhen's painted face.

"You, where did you go to paint?" Mu Yan asked in surprise, pointing at Mu Zhen's face.

"What's the matter?" Mu Zhen didn't recover, and responded with a puzzled look.

"What's the matter! You don't need makeup to sing!" Mu Yan joked.

Mu Zhen understood that when she was sweating just now, she didn't care about washing her hands, and kept wiping her forehead with the hand that picked up the branches. There must be traces of rubbing, so she immediately ran to the main room and stood in the big room led by the old Mu from the commune education committee. In front of the mirror, there were a few gray lines on his forehead, which were already very eye-catching. Coupled with the two stripes of sulfur marks on his nose, he looked like a clown on the stage. He couldn't help laughing when he saw himself in a mess in the mirror.

Mu Zhen took the washbasin and washed it briefly, and then sat on the side of her small bed. He really didn't have the energy to do anything else, he just wanted to lie down and rest for a while, but now was not the time, if he lay down and rested, His family members would feel that he was uncomfortable. He didn't want them to know the little secret of his mange, but the sweat-soaked clothes wrapped tightly around his body like they had been washed in cold water, which was extremely uncomfortable.He had no choice but to get up and walk into the kitchen. Mu Yan, who was cooking, offered to help burn the ground pot. In front of the stove in front of the ground pot, he felt a little warmth, which was enough to resist the cold brought by the wet clothes.

Maybe, as the classmates said, mange is most afraid of sweating, and with the effect of sulfur, Mu Zhen, who was lying in bed at night, felt that the itching on her body was much lighter.

The fire cannot be contained in the paper, and Mu Zhen exercised every afternoon until she returned home sweating profusely, which did not attract too much attention from her family, but the sulfur smell smeared on her body was hard to hide.Although it is in the severe cold weather of March [-]th, the smell is the most difficult to detect, but Mu Zhen has been applying sulfur for three days, and the accumulated smell is too strong, not only on the clothes, but also on the quilt he sleeps on. The unique "fragrance" of sulfur.For this reason, as long as it is sunny, he will hang out the quilt by himself to dispel the strong sulfur smell.

One day, Mu Zhen came back from activities by the small river in the south of the village, and Mu Bao ran over to meet Mu Zhen: "Brother, everyone said you stink, let me smell it, do you really stink?" Mu Zhen was ashamed. I don't know what to say.

"Go away!" Mu Zhen angrily shouted in desperation.

Mu Zhen understood that the family members had already guessed what she was doing, but they were too embarrassed to explain it to herself.In the past few days, fortunately, I have secretly applied sulfur in the poplar forest in the south of the village, and my family has not found out about it. The medicine may have really worked. In the past two days, the original itching on my body has disappeared, and the original blisters have disappeared. Significantly reduced, it is estimated that after a few days of application, the scabies will be completely eliminated.

(End of this chapter)