Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1753 Abandoned Baby Tower

Liu San wanted to go down to the yard and look around the rooms, but Sun Wusao stopped on the steps and said, "I want to go in and have a look."

Sun Wusao did not move away, and said with a smile: "Master, this is the Qingjie Courtyard, where the mother and the son are the first-line mothers. Boys are not allowed to stay in the courtyard until they are seven years old. They live in a widow's house. I'm afraid... I'm afraid if the master goes in. ..." Seeing that Liu San still had a bewildered face, Mrs. Sun had no choice but to open the skylight and speak out, "...I'm afraid it will hinder Qingyu."

Only then did Liu San understand why she stopped him.He thought about it and felt that there was no need to take a closer look.It's better here than outside, but not much better.After all, Huanghua Temple itself is too dilapidated, and the management of Puji Hall is also very chaotic, and it will take a long time to rectify it.There is no rush for this moment.

"That being the case, all the people in the courtyard, no matter how old or young, come out, and I want to see them."

Sun Wusao wanted to refuse, but seeing Mao Xiuyu winking, she also felt that it was unwise to continue to disobey the newly arrived "Australian", so she could only say: "Master, please wait a moment, I will summon you right now."

After that, he knocked on the wooden clapper under the eaves of the corridor.

With the dull and desolate sound of clappers, many women came out from clean rooms everywhere, the old ones were old women with chicken skin and white hair, and the young ones were still young, some were holding children, some were dragging their children Take women.Dresses are made of indigo cloth of the same color, regardless of age.They don't care about makeup, and the white hair on the bun is their only decoration.One by one stood in the courtyard with low eyebrows and pleasing to the eye, silent.

When Liu San saw it now, he felt that this place still looks like a charity organization. At least the yard is tidy and clean, and the women are not in tatters, like beggars.

"This is the new master of classical medicine," Mrs. Sun Wu said loudly when she saw that the person was almost here, "I'm here to make an inspection."

The women bowed their knees unevenly and said, "Good luck, my lord." The voices were messy and weak.

Liu San took a closer look at these women who were "dedicated to chastity". The complexions of these women were either pale or sallow, probably because they worked in the house for a long time and rarely saw sunlight.Naturally, there are no fat people here. Although they are not skinny, they all look thin and weak. The children in the courtyard are yellow and emaciated, with dull eyes and slow movements.Looking at Mrs. Sun Wu, who has a big arm and a round waist, it is obvious that the food here will not be much better, but she will not starve to death.

According to modern nutritional standards, all the people here are chronic malnutrition patients.

Liu San frowned and said, "How many meals are served here a day?"

"Reporting to the master: two meals a day, one meal and one porridge."

"What about the child?"

"It's the same." Mrs. Sun Wu didn't know why Master Liu was so interested in the child.

"It's a pity." Liu San said with emotion.These more than 100 "frugal wives" have been locked in this living coffin-like yard for so many years, looking at the sky in all directions, and being with the loom all year round.This cruelty and waste is simply outrageous.There are so many strong and hard-working men in Hainan without wives!It is simply contrary to human relations!
He thought of the whole of Guangzhou, the whole of Guangdong, there are still many women who observe festivals like this.This kind of atmosphere of encouraging chastity needs to be severely cracked down once.

Sun Wusao didn't know where the "pity" was, and wondered in her heart whether the old man had taken a fancy to some young widow in it?This can be greatly unavoidable.Thinking about how to persuade him if he really wants to do such a thing.

Don't look at Mrs. Sun's ruthless exploitation of "fair women" to blackmail, but she takes the matter of "keeping the chastity" more seriously than the sky.It is really "starving to death is a small matter, but injustice is a major matter."It is best not to allow even one male sparrow to fall down in the courtyard.

Liu San was thinking about how to reform the entire Puji Hall, especially not to waste its human resources, when suddenly someone in the crowd screamed: "Master Dianyi! Help!"

Liu San was taken aback, and the crowd that was like a dry well also had ripples.But I saw a woman squeezed out from the crowd, knelt down at the foot of the stone steps, kowtowed repeatedly, and hit the stone slab with a loud bang.

Mrs. Sun Wu was taken aback, she jumped down and grabbed the woman by the hair, cursing, "What's your name?!" As she spoke, she was about to pull her back.

Unexpectedly, the woman resisted death and refused, and continued to cry and scream: "Master, help me!"

Seeing this, Liu San felt something strange, waved his hand and scolded: "Don't pull her, let her talk!" Then he said to the woman, "What's the matter with you? Just talk."

Sun Wusao didn't dare to be violent anymore, so she had to step aside.Only then did the woman cry and say that her child was ill, and the hospital refused to give him any medical treatment, and the child was thrown into the abandoned baby tower at the back before dying.

"...Although there is no doctor or medicine, the child is still alive," the woman wailed, "Fifth sister-in-law insisted that he had smallpox and stayed in the courtyard to spread the epidemic, so she was thrown into the tower alive! Please Master is merciful and merciful, save my son's life!"

As soon as Liu San heard this, he immediately felt his blood surging, his face flushed, and he glared angrily, "Sister-in-law Sun Wu, is this really true?!"

Mrs. Sun Wu did not expect that this gentle-looking man would become so terrifying in an instant. It is a common practice to throw seriously ill children into the abandoned baby tower. Falling to the ground, he said in a trembling voice: "Master, master, this is the practice in the courtyard. Her son has smallpox, so the courtyard absolutely cannot keep it..."

"Fart." Liu San roared angrily, "Get up and take me to the Tower of Abandoned Babies!"

Mrs. Sun Wu hurriedly got up and went out, and wanted to turn around and lock the door. Seeing Liu San's face was full of anger, and the guards' expressions were even more unkind. No longer caring about being "rigorous", they scrambled and scrambled to lead the way.

The so-called Tower of Abandoned Babies is at the back door of Huanghua Temple. It used to be the garden of the temple, but now it is desolate and dilapidated, full of bat feces and spider webs.Wild beehives, and fox tracks.The back door is open, and beside the door is the Tower of Abandoned Babies.

The Abandoned Baby Pagoda looks like a Buddhist pagoda and is less than ten feet high.There is a small door on the wall of the tower that you have to bend over to get in, and there is a filthy wooden basin in front of the tower.

Mao Xiuyu said that all the children who died in the hall were cremated here and their ashes were put into the pagoda. Children of the common people who died young could also be sent and put in this wooden basin, and cremated in the hall and put into the pagoda.

When he walked to the tower, he could already smell a rotten smell—it was the smell of rotting corpses.Liu San couldn't help but secretly frowned, took out a mask from his pocket and put it on.As soon as I lowered my head, I saw a naked corpse of a child lying on the bushes less than five or six steps away from him. He was only four or five years old, and the corpse already looked like a giant, with flies flying on it.

Among the nearby bushes and thorns, if you look around, you can see many scattered young bones.A small hand that has become boneless is exposed outside the grass, and it looks like a baby less than one year old.

Looking at this horror movie-like scene, Liu San only felt his blood surge.He supported the body of the tower to calm himself down, pointed at the bones, and said in a trembling voice: "This is... what's going on?!"

Mrs. Sun Wu didn't dare to talk to her, so Mao Xiuyu boldly said that these were all children who died in the common people's homes, and some children who were carried from the street fell down.

"...Maybe they hired a worker to bury the child. They don't have a conscience, and they don't think it's troublesome to go to the funeral. They just leave it here and it's over."

"You talk about conscience, why don't you bury the child's bones?!" Liu San was furious, "Let him die in the wilderness, I saw the word "benevolence and righteousness" hanging at the door when I entered here-I have seen all the way now, where is there half benevolence and half benevolence? Righteousness! Your benevolence and righteousness have all been eaten into the stomachs of dogs!"

Mao Xiuyu didn't dare to say much, and kept silent like a cicada.

Liu San was getting angry, when he suddenly heard the faint cry of a baby, he stopped to listen carefully, it seemed that he was in the abandoned baby tower, and put his ear close to the tower wall - this time he heard it more clearly, it really was a child Cry in the tower.

He turned to the entrance of the tower, bent down and was about to get in, but the squad leader of the guard hurriedly stopped him: "Sir, don't go, I'll go in! It's too dark inside!"

Liu San realized something was wrong when he reminded him, and said, "Prepare a torch for me, and I will go in by myself."

The squad leader insisted on refusing, and finally went in with him.

As soon as I entered the pagoda, I could smell a strong rancid smell. It was not as dark as I imagined. There were a few small skylights above the pagoda, which let in light, and I could barely see clearly without lighting a torch.

I saw that the middle layer of the tower was full of small clay pots, piled up higher than a person, and most of the bottom ones had been crushed and broken.There was a thick layer of broken pottery shards and ashes on the ground. Many of the fragmented bones had not been cremated and were obviously thrown in directly.In this horrific pile of bones, a young child in a small indigo cloth coat is crying, his voice is hoarse, and he is almost dying.Liu San quickly picked up the child, and the squad leader said: "Chief, this child is sick, I'm afraid it might be contagious, so let me carry it."

Without saying a word, Liu San carried the child out of the abandoned baby tower. Seeing that the sun was shining brightly outside, he said to the guard squad leader, "You cover him with your hat."

He used the squad leader's copper basin hat to shield the child from the sun, so as not to burn his eyes when he suddenly entered the sun in a dark place.Look carefully, this is a boy, about one year old.Although she was sallow and thin, she cleaned up well, obviously her mother was very dedicated.Liu San saw that he had no acne on his face, but also saw that there were many blisters on his small hands and arms, and pimples on his scalp. He knew that it was not smallpox, but chickenpox.

Chickenpox is not a serious disease, as long as the nursing work is done, it can usually heal on its own.But in this time and space, children are malnourished and have poor resistance, often causing high fever or complications of pneumonia-which was enough to be fatal in the 17th century.

After imitating the child's hands and feet, he really had a fever, and his body temperature was not low.But listening to the crying, the lungs were not infected, so the treatment is not difficult.He ordered: "Let's go! Go to Qingjietang!" Then he said to Sun Wusao: "You go and prepare a basin of cold water immediately! Then go to boil rice soup!"

Fifth Sister-in-Law Sun agreed and hurried to go.

(End of this chapter)