Globe Trekker

Chapter 6 Dead Horses as Living Horse Doctors

The shadow of the lingering winter has not yet left, and the footsteps of spring are coming silently. Pieces of red leaves and clumps of buds are dotted among the forests, and life in the mountains and plains is slowly awakening.

Squinting at the setting sun, Chengzong carried the basket containing pots, pans and pans into Wu Ming's newly built wooden house, and Xiao Chengyuan threw the quilt on his shoulders onto the solid wooden bed, ran to the stone fireplace and squatted down for a while, He ran to the back of the wooden house and looked curiously at the clear mountain spring that Wu Ming had brought in with moso bamboo.

The exquisite wooden houses two feet above the ground are all built with bamboo and wood on the mountain, and the roof is covered with pieces of neatly stripped pine and cypress bark. During the construction that lasted nearly three months, Wu Ming received great help from Chengzong and Chengyuan. The brothers came to help almost every day.

I remember that on the day when the hut was completed, Taoist Bingzhen, who took a disregarded attitude towards it, came unexpectedly, watched it for a while and left without saying a word.

Wu Ming was full of gratitude. He knew that since the day he proposed to Chengzong to build a wooden house, he had received tacit approval from Taoist Master Bingzhen. Otherwise, Master Chengzong and his brothers would not have come to help every day, and they would not have taken the initiative to go down the mountain to borrow saws and ink fountains. , chisels and other tools.During this period, Wu Ming followed Chengzong down the mountain to the city many times to buy things. He was wearing the Taoist robes he was used to and a green cloth priest hat on his head. No one doubted his identity after going back and forth seven or eight times.

For several months, every few days, Wu Ming would take the initiative to go to the middle hall to greet Taoist Priest Bingzhen, but this expert Fangwai cherished his words like gold, and every time he just nodded kindly, and at most he hummed twice to let Wu Ming take care of himself. .

Regarding this, Wu Ming asked Chengzong suspiciously. Chengzong explained that his uncle had such a temperament. He was obsessed with self-cultivation every day and didn't like talking. Just get used to it.

Chengzong walked out of the wooden house, leaned on the solid pine fence, looked at the vast mountains in front of him and said in a low voice: "Brother Wu, my uncle said that your fate is not complete, even though you build houses and open roads, but this small land No place can keep you, you may leave at any time."

Wu Ming hesitated for a moment, leaned against the fence and asked in a low voice: "What do you think?"

"I can't tell. I thought you would stay, but after going down the mountain with you a few times, I felt that you would always leave. These days, this premonition has become more and more serious."

Chengzong paused and turned to Wu Ming with a complicated expression: "Brother Wu, I find it hard to believe that you are a native who has never traveled far. Although you never speak your mind, I feel that you seem to be very familiar with the outside world." , I know so many things that people can’t see through them. I grew up in the Taoist sect. To put it bluntly, after the age of seven, among the [-] disciples of our generation, I have always been recognized by the elders as the best, but I have never read I have seen who can go from not being able to hold a pen to learning good handwriting in just half a year, and can finish learning the "Tao Te Ching" and have their own opinions, and even practice martial arts at such an old age and achieve little success."

Speaking of this, Chengzong raised his hand and pointed: "There is also the rapid construction method of this house, as well as the interior and exterior layout of the novel shape, all of which are unexpected, even the uncle was surprised after seeing it. I have seen you The calculation symbols drawn on the ground with a bamboo stick. Once you scratched a part of the symbol and didn’t remember to erase it. Although I can’t understand it, I know that you wrote it in foreign language. I don’t know where you learned it, but I I feel more and more that my uncle's words are correct, the world here is too small to keep you."

Wu Ming smiled guiltily, thought for a while and said in a low voice: "Until now, I still don't know what I should do. The outside world is too chaotic, warlords separatist regimes are everywhere, and I don't know if I can live well after I go out. Uneasy, alas! Even if I really have to leave one day, I will tell you in advance."

"Where are you going?" Cheng Zong asked.

Wu Ming shook his head: "I don't know, maybe go to Shanghai, maybe go to Guangzhou, after saving some money, see if I can go abroad to gain some insight."

Chengzong nodded silently: "After the Qinglong Festival, my uncle will return to the ancestral court of Longhu Mountain to serve. There will be a new abbot of Qizhen Temple, and I will follow my uncle back to Longhu Mountain. I will almost be able to become a teacher. After graduation, I usually need to leave the ancestral courtyard and travel down the mountain for a while, alas! I really want to go out with you, but I’m afraid I don’t have the fate.”

"How can there be no fate? If you want, I'd rather not cut off this long hair and walk around with you in Taoist robes." Wu Ming laughed happily.

Chengzong was a little moved, Chengyuan came to the side of the two and stood there for a long time, he couldn't help crying out anxiously: "Senior Brother, Brother Wu, if you all leave, what should I do?"

Wu Ming laughed, and Cheng Zong shook his head with a smile: "Junior brother, you are the closed disciple of my uncle, and you will only be 12 years old next year. How can the teacher allow you to go down the mountain? It is illegal. Besides, you have just laid down the foundation and need There are still many things to practice, and you should not have delusional thoughts before you become a teacher, understand?"

"But..." Cheng Yuan's eyes were full of disappointment.

Cheng Zong was happy, looked at the sky and suggested: "The sun is setting, let's go back together, there is no oil, salt, sauce and vinegar here, and you will start the fire tomorrow."

The three of them went back to Qizhen Temple together to light a fire and cook. Chengzong deliberately took down a hang of smoked venison, and ordered Chengyuan to go to the warehouse to get a jar of cooking wine.

At night, the lights in the abode in the backyard were bright, Wu Ming and Chengzong were still whispering wine, and the mellow wine dispelled the slight sadness in each other's hearts.Chengzong Junxiu's face was slightly rosy after drinking half a catty of soju. He told Wu Ming that he was full last month and could drink. He had secretly drank his uncle's wine before, but he didn't dare to drink too much because he didn't know how much he could drink. how.

Wu Ming didn't know how much he had drunk so he wouldn't get drunk with his body. Fortunately, after drinking half a catty of alcohol, his eyes didn't dazzle, his hands didn't shake, and he didn't feel any obvious discomfort. It seemed that he still had a lot of potential.

Cheng Yuan, who secretly drank a few sips of wine, climbed onto the low couch and fell into a deep sleep. Wu Ming got up and opened the quilt to cover Cheng Yuan. Cheng Zong watched silently without saying a word. a cup.

Chengzong put down his wine glass and stood up: "Don't drink anymore, Brother Ang, let's go out and sweat through the wine. In the past six months, your skills have improved rapidly, and the foundation is already established. Let me give you another set of boxing techniques. "

Wu Ming was overjoyed. He stood up and followed Chengzong out of the room. Before he entered the courtyard, he heard a rapid knock on the door. The two looked at each other and ran to the front hall almost at the same time. He called out and immediately went up to open the courtyard door.

Under the bright torches outside the door, three men from Tianjia Village saw Chengzong, and immediately told loudly that a group of wild boars broke into the village and hurt people. Master Chengzong went to help.

Hearing this, Chengzong ordered Wu Ming to accompany the folks and trot to report to his uncle.In less than a quarter of an hour, Daoist Bingzhen led Chengzong out in a hurry, comforted the villagers, and then ordered Chengzong, who was carrying a sandalwood medicine box, to go down the mountain immediately to rescue people.Wu Ming asked for a walk with Chengzong, Taoist priest Bingzhen thought for a while and agreed, and waved everyone to hurry up.

The stone step road down the mountain is winding but not difficult to walk. A group of people hurry up with torches. It usually takes an hour to finish the road. The crowd arrived at Tianjia Village in less than half an hour. Seeing the shadows of people and hearing the sound of crying, it was obvious that the whole village was shaken.

Sweating profusely, Wu Ming and Chengzong followed the three men into a relatively spacious room. The bright room was full of men, women and children, and the crying villagers suppressed their voices when they saw Chengzong and a strange Taoist priest come in.

On a row of door panels in the center of the room, five bloody men were lying, two of them had their faces covered with white cloth, and they were obviously dead.

Chengzong showed a calmness that didn't match his age, put down the medicine box without saying a word, squatted down to check the injuries of the three living people one by one, then gave up on the seriously injured lying in the middle who was unconscious, opened the medicine box and started to rescue the other .

Wu Ming was at a loss on the sidelines, wanted to help but didn't know how to help.The atmosphere in the room was tense and depressing, and the crying became much quieter. Almost everyone was watching Chengzong's hands nervously.

The family members of the seriously injured person in the middle saw that Chengzong gave up the treatment of their relatives, and immediately realized that there was no way to save them. The whole family burst into tears in grief. : "My son's father, why do you have the heart to leave our family behind..."

The villagers on the side also started to cry, and the whole house was in chaos.

However, Wu Ming clearly saw that the seriously injured person under the village woman was still alive, his feet were shaking disorderly, his Adam's apple was still wriggling slightly, and there was a half-foot-long wound on the lower inner side of his right thigh, which was randomly tied with hemp rope. Bone is visible deep, broken blood vessels are still bleeding, and the pale face and naked body are covered with scars.

After a little hesitation, Wu Ming stepped over in two steps, put his hand on the seriously injured man's neck, stopped for a while and immediately pulled the village woman away: "Don't cry, the man is not dead yet, if you keep pressing him like this, I'm afraid he will die sooner." .”

The village woman was so frightened that she forgot to cry, and the surrounding villagers became quiet one after another, staring at the stranger Wu Ming in astonishment. A wounded wound was healed.

Wu Ming had no idea in his heart, but he just couldn't bear to watch a wounded person who might be saved die, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and go into battle, relying on the poor theoretical knowledge of first aid in his mind to do his duty and die. The horse is regarded as a living horse doctor.

Pulling back the ragged clothes covering the lower body of the wounded, untied the hemp rope that was randomly tied around the base of the thigh, a bloody arrow shot out from the broken blood vessel at the wound, Wu Ming hastily tightened the hemp rope, and shouted "Take a root!" Bring the cloth," a man next to him immediately untied his cloth belt and handed it over.

Wu Ming took the belt, fastened the wounded's thigh tightly, untied the hemp rope and carefully observed the wound and the broken blood vessel. Seeing that the blood flowed out a little and soon stopped, he raised his head and ordered again loudly: "I want the strongest shochu, Scissors, cotton gauze, and tweezers... If you don't have tweezers, you need a new pair of chopsticks, and a needle and thread!"

The two men in the crowd agreed loudly, and quickly got what Wu Ming needed.

Wu Ming poured half a jug of spirits into a clean wooden basin, then threw everything into the spirits to soak, soaked his hands in the spirits for a long time, wrung out a ball of cotton and began to wipe the wound, then carefully touched the wound A curved tube in a large wound.

A quarter of an hour later, Wu Ming tied up the broken blood vessel with a thread, his hands trembled slightly, and his whole body was sweating profusely.After working cautiously, I picked up the chopsticks and clamped the cotton yarn to start debridement, which took another half an hour.Chengzong had already treated the two wounded, so he asked someone to carry them away and immediately squatted down next to Wu Ming, watching curiously as Wu Ming treated the wound with unfamiliar movements.

More than half an hour later, Wu Ming completed the stitching of the wound in full view, and then wiped the wound and the surrounding skin with cotton gauze. Daomen's secret medicine ointment was applied to the seams, and then he sat down on the ground:

"That's the only way to go. If you can't wake up, or if you get infected and die after waking up, you can resign yourself to fate..."

(End of this chapter)