Poor children

Chapter 32
一
At dawn the next day, Pao'er and Tiedan went to the street to buy a straw mat, and asked their neighbors to help wrap the body of the yellow worm and transport it to a mass grave to dig a hole and bury it.

That day also happened to be the memorial day for the pauper's grandmother, so Tiedan accompanied the pauper to pay homage in front of her grandmother's grave. They laid out some tributes, burned incense and burned paper. The pauper knelt in front of the grave in a daze, and Tiedan was silent. Kneel quietly with me
Suddenly, I seemed to hear someone calling for help in the nearby grass, and the voice was very low.

"Did you hear something?" Paoer asked as he stood up and walked towards the grass. Tiedan followed suit. One after another, the two of them entered the grass about half a person high and looked around. They saw a man lying deep in the grass. little man
The two hurriedly walked closer and saw a girl who was only four or five years old. She was half-clothed, with a blue complexion, shortness of breath, confusion, and a lot of vomit on the side of her head. The poor boy stepped forward to test her. Her whole body was hot, and her trembling hand touched her pulse. Seeing that her expression was not good, Tiedan asked her, "What's wrong with this child?"

"Plague, don't come closer. Her family must have left her here to die after seeing her like this."

"Then you come here quickly. Let's leave quickly. Don't infect us." Tiedan quickly covered his mouth and nose and told the poor boy to leave quickly.

"It's just that she's still breathing, how can we leave her behind?"

"What can we do if we don't leave? Which doctor would dare to treat her in this condition? What can we do to her?"

"I have read some medical books, let me try it"
After Tiedan heard what she said, he went to pull her, but Pao'er couldn't break free and was forcefully pulled out of the grass. Before she could take a few steps, Pao'er squatted down and refused to move. Tiedan pulled her again and again, unable to move, and her back was too tight. Can't carry it "Let's leave quickly and leave her alone. If we don't do it right, you and I will lose our lives..."

"She's still breathing. I can't leave. Just let me save her!"

"Even if I let you save her, how can we take her away like this? She will be stopped before entering the city. By then, she will be brought here and burned. Wouldn't it be even more painful?"

"Hey, brother! Think of a way!" Pao'er said, pulling Tiedan's sleeves.
Tiedan couldn't resist her, "I see she's not that big either. Why don't we go to the city and buy a wooden basin first, put her in the basin, cover her with a piece of cloth, and then borrow a cart to push her there." Let’s go to my house.” Tiedan arrived.
"No" poor child arrives
"What's wrong? Isn't this idea a good idea?"

"I mean we can't push it into your home. Do you know how to cure the plague? You don't know how to take care of her. We can take her to my room while no one is paying attention."

two

So the two of them followed their plan and took the girl to the poor children's house while everyone in the courtyard was working in the house. They laid her down on the kang, only to see that the child looked even more useless.
"Look at her..." Tiedan took a piece of cloth to cover the poor child's mouth and nose, tied it in a knot behind her head, and then put it on himself, "What should I do now?"

"I'll write the prescription, you go and get it." The poor boy spread out the pen and paper on the table.
"Do you still have money? I'm afraid the money given by Uncle Jin Shun'er has been used up, right?" Tiedan asked, "How can we still have money to give her medicine?"

The pauper held the pen in his mouth and thought for a while and said, "Go to Zhong'an Hall on the street to find shopkeeper Xu, tell him that I asked you to go, and ask him to ask my master for money."

"Your master? Is this... really possible?" Tiedan was still a little worried.

"Go ahead! He will give you medicine." Paoer said and handed the written prescription to him. Tiedan doubtfully went to the drug store.
three

"Is the shopkeeper here?" Tiedan began to shout loudly as he entered the medicine shop. Shopkeeper Xu immediately came to greet him.

"That's right, brother, what do you want from me?" "It was the pauper who asked me to get the medicine. She said, uh... you can ask her master for the money for the medicine." Tiedan handed the prescription to shopkeeper Xu.

"Okay, okay." Shopkeeper Xu took the prescription and saw only two. One said "Chuanqiong, Atractylodes, Angelica dahurica, and Linglingxiang in equal parts, three medicinal baths." The other wrote "Realgar, rhubarb, and hemp." Kernel, Citrus aurantium, Poria, peony, Pediculus, and Astragalus, one or two each divided into five equal parts."

"Who is this person infected with the plague?" Shopkeeper Xu asked
"I can't say it," Tiedan whispered, "I don't let others know if I'm poor."

"Okay!" Shopkeeper Xu didn't ask any more questions, and handed the prescription to the clerk to grab the medicine. After holding the incense, the boy picked up the medicine and handed it to Tiedan. Tiedan took the medicine and thanked him before hurried away.
Shopkeeper Xu saw Tiedan leaving and went out to the Sanyang Zhenzhen Gua stall. Seeing that he was dozing off, he knocked on the table and said, "Taoist Master, please stop sleeping. Two coins."

Master Sanyang was sleeping soundly and suddenly woke up when he heard someone mentioning money. He wiped his saliva and asked, "Where is the money?"

"What? Me!" Shopkeeper Xu patted himself
"You?" The Taoist priest looked disgusted. "Are you worth two coins?" After saying this, he inserted his hands into his sleeves and leaned on the back of the chair to fall asleep again.
Shopkeeper Xu sat down on the stool opposite him. "Just now, a boy took a prescription to get the medicine. He said it was called by the poor boy. I saw that the word was indeed written by the poor boy. What kind of medicine can you guess?"

The Taoist priest opened his eyes and looked at him again. The pauper hadn't come over in the past two days, but he only asked Jin Shun'er to come with a message. He was also muttering in his heart, the pauper had always been measured, something must have happened to him. Difficult thing, now I hear shopkeeper Xu say that I am getting worried
"The one who cures the plague..." Shopkeeper Xu arrived

"Have the poor children been infected with the plague?" The Taoist priest couldn't sit still.

"It's not like, I asked who it was for, and the boy said that the poor don't ask him to talk about it."

"It's good that the poor child has nothing to do. I'll just ask her when she comes in two days." The Taoist priest felt relieved after hearing this
"The poor boy has nothing to do, but you have something to do. I asked you to ask for the two coins that your apprentice took for the medicine. You hurry up and get the money, so I can go back and pay the account." Shopkeeper Xu stretched out his hand to the Taoist priest for money.

"Hey!" The Taoist priest stomped his feet angrily, "Traitor, traitor, I will expel her from the master tomorrow. Master is not remembered for good deeds, but I am the first to think of him for spending money? Oops! Shopkeeper Xu ..." The Taoist accompanied him with a smile on his face, "I don't have any income these days, how can I give you money..."

"You two masters and disciples have to talk some sense, right? How can you take someone else's medicinal materials without giving them money? If you dare to default on your debt, I will go to the Yamen and sue you." Although they say this, in fact, these two people have been friends for many years. , they are just used to bickering and jostling each other.

"How about I tell you how to pay for the medicine?"

"I only want money, who wants your fortune telling? I haven't said it accurately yet..."

"Then I'll catch a monster for you. You don't need to give me the extra money, just treat it as interest, okay?"

"First of all, there are no monsters in my house. Secondly, even if there is a monster, I don't dare to let you catch it. You don't have a few kilograms of meat in your body, which is not enough for the monster to drink. It doesn't matter if you are eaten by the monster later. If you splash It’s hard to clean up the blood in my yard.”

"You say so...Then I'll tell the monster that you have enough meat to go with the wine. Let the monster eat you and I can save two coins..." After the Taoist priest finished speaking, he retreated into his chair and closed his eyes to rest.
(End of this chapter)