Return to the small mountain village in 1986

"Old Man Gao, are you bringing your sick cow to sell again? I think you should take it back! At the previous fairs, no one was willing to buy this sick cow. Today is not a market day, and there are not many in the town. Personally, if you bring the sick cow here, who do you want to sell it to?"

The voice of a middle-aged man rang out. He was sitting on a stool repairing an old bicycle. Looking at the signboard behind him, it could be seen that this was a bicycle repair shop.

The old man Gao he mentioned was an old man who looked to be about 70 years old. The old man was holding an old ox in his hand. The ox was old and thin, unable to walk, had red eyes, and howled from time to time, acting extremely abnormally.

You don’t need to know much about cows. As long as you take a look at it, everyone will know that it is a sick cow.

As soon as Gao Mingcheng arrived here, he witnessed this scene, so he looked curiously at the old man Gao and the old scalper.

Old Man Gao was weather-beaten, with wrinkles all over his face, sunken eyes, and gray hair. He looked no better than the old scalpers around him.

Hearing what the bicycle repair boss said, he murmured: "I...my grandson is sick, and the family has no money to treat him."

The implication is that he wants to sell the sick cow to treat his grandson.

The man repairing the bicycle shook his head and sighed: "Hey, everyone sympathizes with you, but no one will buy this sick cow! If you are really in a hurry for money, then go to the county town and have a look. Maybe there is one The dealer will buy it cheap.”

Old Man Gao didn't speak for a long time, and after a while, he hesitated.

He froze in place and didn't move, as if he was a little afraid of going to the county town to sell cattle.

But in the end, he led the cow step by step toward the county farmer's market.

The farmer's market also has fixed stalls selling vegetables and meat on weekdays. If it is a market, it will be more lively, and some open spaces will be filled with stalls.

Today is not a market day in the county town. Even if Old Man Gao takes the sick cow to the farmer's market, it will probably be difficult to sell the cow.

It's only morning in July, and the heat is already unbearable.

Old Man Gao was wearing old clothes that had been washed until they turned white, and a pair of straw sandals on his feet. The trouser legs were not rolled up, but were broken directly at the knees.

Judging from his clothes and expression, we knew that he must have come from a poor background.

Gao Mingcheng witnessed this scene from the side and was not interested at first, but after staring at the sick cow for a while, he suddenly remembered something.

Seeing the old man Gao walking out of the crowded street, Gao Mingcheng stepped forward to talk.

"Old man, I heard the owner of the repair shop call you just now. Is your surname Gao?"

Old Man Gao nodded and admitted, and said: "I am from Xiaoyuan Village. Little brother, do you want to buy a cow?"

Old Man Gao's voice trembled, and hope surged in his dim eyes.

Xiaoyuan Village, surnamed Gao!

Two pieces of information matched!
Gao Mingcheng was secretly happy, looking at the sick cow with a hint of joy in his eyes.

He never expected that a piece of news he heard that year would happen to happen to him!

Gao Mingcheng immediately said: "That's a coincidence! My surname is also Gao, and I am from Gaojia Village over Junling. Have you heard of it?"

"I have an impression of Xiaoyuan Village. I heard that the ancestors of our two villages had some kind of relationship."

Old Man Gao's eyes lit up. After meeting someone with the same surname, his expression numbed by suffering became richer: "We are the descendants of the third room who moved out. Young man, are you from the first room, the second room or the third room?" ?”

Gao Mingcheng said: "I am from Dafang, my name is Gao Mingcheng."

It is said that when a fellow countryman sees a fellow countryman, his eyes are full of tears.

The two of them can be regarded as descendants of the same ancestor. Although they are quite far apart whether it is blood or something else, they have an indescribable feeling of closeness to each other after they started talking.

Gao Mingcheng pointed to a tree and motioned for the two of them to go to the shade to talk.

Then he asked: "I just heard that your grandson is sick? What disease does he have?"

Old Man Gao said: "I don't know what disease he has. He often has stomachaches. I took some medicine for him, but it always didn't work. The pain has been severe these days. I wanted to take him to the hospital for a checkup, but at home... No money."

Old Man Gao sighed, looked at the sick cow next to him, and said with a choked voice: "This old man has been with me for twelve years. Since two years ago, it has been unable to eat. I thought it was about to die of old age. Some people advised me to kill cows for meat, but I was reluctant." "A year ago, my son went to herd cows in the mountains. He was gored by a cow, rolled down the hillside, and broke his leg. Some people advised me to kill cows. I still can’t bear to eat meat.”

"My grandson is sick this year. No matter how reluctant I am to part with it, I have to sell it to get some money for my grandson's medical treatment."

As Old Man Gao talked, he actually started crying.

The two met by chance, but because they had the same surname, they had a subtle feeling of closeness. Old Man Gao took the opportunity to speak out some of the things he had hidden in his heart.

When Gao Mingcheng heard this, he was already sure that the sick cow was the cow he heard about in his previous life.

All the information was correct, so he didn't show any pretense and said immediately: "I opened a clothing store in the county and I still made some money. Let's do this. For the sake of our same surname, this end Cow, I want it!”

Old Man Gao was here to sell cattle. When Gao Mingcheng talked to him before, he hoped that Gao Mingcheng would buy a cow. But now that Gao Mingcheng said he wanted to buy a cow, he hesitated and said stumblingly: "This cow... is old and sick. forget it."

Old Man Gao obviously couldn't bear to cheat Gao Mingcheng.

Seeing this, Gao Mingcheng felt even deeper sympathy for their family.

In his last life, he overheard something about the Gao clan in Xiaoyuan Village. He said that there was an old man there whose grandson often had stomachaches. Later, while taking a bath in a reservoir, he suddenly fell ill and drowned. It's in the reservoir.

After his grandson died, Old Man Gao killed the sick cow at home out of grief and anger. When he was cleaning up the sick cow, someone found some hard lumps in the gallbladder of the sick cow. When the local barefoot doctor learned about it, he said it was Bezoar.

Later, Old Man Gao's family sold bezoars and lived a good life, but his grandson was gone forever. A year later, Old Man Gao died of depression.

Because they are members of the same tribe and the story has a certain legendary color, even though Gao Mingcheng was still struggling outside at this time in his previous life, when he came back occasionally, someone would talk to him about it.

Gao Mingcheng stepped forward and touched the sick cow, and found that the body temperature of the sick cow was very high, and it was very repulsive to his approach. It howled repeatedly and struggled uneasily.

Now that he was sure that there was a bezoar in it, Gao Mingcheng didn't hesitate and said directly: "Your grandson's illness is serious. Let's do this. I'll buy this cow for the price of a bullock. What do you think? I guess it's just that." It weighs about 800 kilograms, and it’s not even weighed on a scale. The price is about [-] yuan.”

With that said, Gao Mingcheng opened the wallet he carried with him.

Money at home has been tight recently, and all the money he earns from the clothing store every day is used to collect used items.

But as long as he sells these old things, they can be resold five or six times!
Besides, in the process of collecting old things, you might even find a super big leak!

But today, he didn't pick up the antique big leak, but he picked up the bezoar big leak!

The reason why he paid 800 yuan was because he only had so much cash on him. Besides, even if he bought the sick cow for the price of a bullock, [-] yuan was still too much.

Just because he knew in advance that there was bezoar in the body of the sick cow, and because both parties had the same surname, Gao Mingcheng could not afford to bid too low.

Old Man Gao was shocked by the price, his mouth opened and his eyes widened.

"This... this is too much..."

"It's not much. It's important to treat your grandson! Come on, here's 800 yuan. Count it. If the number is right, this cow will be mine!"

Gao Mingcheng handed the money directly to Old Man Gao.

When a large amount of money was stuffed into Old Man Gao's hand, his body began to shake violently.

He expected in his heart that if the sick cow could be sold for 200 yuan, he would be satisfied!
Because the cow was too old and too thin, it was almost skin and bones. After killing the cow and skinning it, there would probably be no meat at all.

Moreover, the meat of old beef is rough and not tasty.

"Too much! Too much!" Old Man Gao has been kind all his life, and he really can't accept so much money without conscience.

But Gao Mingcheng was not willing to give too little, so he kept urging him to accept it.

The buyer and seller seem to have fallen apart, which is quite ridiculous.

Fortunately, there were no other spectators to this absurd scene.

Gao Mingcheng urged Old Man Gao to accept the money, and then said: "After you get the money, you should take your child to the hospital for medical treatment. If your child is sick, you can't delay it! Furthermore, since he often has stomachaches, he can no longer go to the reservoir. You should take a bath in the water, otherwise it would be bad if your stomach hurts when you are in the water." (End of Chapter)