Li Weihan didn't answer, just gritted his teeth and kept pushing the pole, allowing sweat to flow into his eyes without daring to wipe it away.
Finally, when the boat reached ho, Li Weihan threw down the bamboo pole, didn't bother to tie the boat up, and carried Li Zhiyuan off the boat. He was very tired, and when jumping off, his body staggered. To protect his grandson in his arms, he had to use his knees to brace against the blue brick steps.
"Hisss..."
His knee was scraped, but in the next mont, he forced himself up and carried the child into the house:
"Guiying, Guiying!"
"You're back so early?" Cui Guiying was cleaning the stove when she heard the noise. She stood up and saw her husband holding the child, imdiately she anxiously shouted, "What's wrong, what's wrong, what happened to the child?"
Li Weihan first placed the child on a mat in the inner room. There were many children in the house and beds were not enough, now that it was sumr, they all slept on the floor at night.
Cui Guiying picked up Li Zhiyuan's head, gently tapped his face, but found the child couldn't be woken up, and she imdiately cried out:
"Oh my, my child, my child, what's wrong with you?"
"Stop howling!" Li Weihan kicked Cui Guiying's leg, "Quick, change the child into dry clothes."
Cui Guiying quickly wiped the corner of her eyes and stood up to grab clothes.
"Panzi, go call Zheng Datong!"
"Okay, Grandpa."
Zheng Datong, whose real na was Zheng Huamin, was the clinic doctor of Si Yuan Village, also known as the barefoot doctor. He liked to scare children with a large syringe, which led the children to coin this nickna for him. Over ti, the adults also started calling him that.
"Leizi, go call Liu Xiazi."
"Okay, Grandpa."
Liu Xiazi, real na Liu Jinxia, was orphaned early and married over from Si'an Town by her uncle's arrangents. The first year she arrived, her in-laws died of illness one after another, making many village daughters-in-law secretly envy her.
The second year, her husband drowned in a manure pit while going to the toilet drunk at night, leaving behind a newborn daughter.
At that ti, rumors in the village claid that Liu Jinxia had an overly resilient fate.
Widowed and with a child, life was tough. Besides managing the farm work, Liu Jinxia also took up fortune-telling to supplent her inco. The more notorious the rumors about her, the more people believed in her abilities.
These days, subsistence farming barely provided enough, and to live a little more comfortable, other sources of inco were necessary. Liu Jinxia relied on this fortune-telling work and managed to get her daughter, Li Juxiang, wed through a reverse dowry.
However, the son-in-law died the very next year of a sudden heart attack while working in the fields.
Leaving Li Juxiang with a similarly newborn daughter.
After this, not just the village, but everyone in the surrounding areas was convinced of Liu Jinxia's ominous fate chart, and her business improved even more.
She straightforwardly rented out her farmland to others, had her daughter buy a tricycle from town, and wherever there was business, she had her daughter Li Juxiang take her there.
A few years ago, Liu Jinxia developed cataracts and couldn't see very clearly, which rather completed her comrcial persona.
anwhile, Cui Guiying had just changed Li Zhiyuan's wet clothes, when she saw her husband pour so well water on his knee to rinse the blood, then unlocked a cabinet and took out three packs of cigarettes.
He threw one pack to Cui Guiying, instructing: "When Zheng Datong arrives, open one in front of him and grab a cigarette, grab another one when he leaves, put the dical fees on the tab."
Subsequently, Li Weihan threw another pack over: "Give the whole pack to Liu Xiazi, don't discuss anything else."
Cui Guiying reminded him: "I heard Liu Xiazi charges a lot now for a job."
Li Weihan shook his head: "She may have lost her sight, but let's hope not her conscience."
Liu Jinxia's husband grew up playing with Li Weihan, and in the years just after he passed away when the widow and orphan were struggling, Li Weihan often brought so supplies and helped with farm labor, which also led to much gossip at the ti.
Though the two families didn't interact much anymore, if Liu Xiazi dared to take money from them, Li Weihan wouldn't hesitate to spit in her face.
He put the last pack in his own pocket.
Cui Guiying asked in surprise: "Are you going out?"
Li Weihan nodded: "I'm going to find Uncle Sanjiang."
"What! Did you hit sothing?"
Li Weihan glanced at the children around, glared at his wife: "I'll tell you when I get back."
With that, Li Weihan pushed out the gate with the 28-inch fra bicycle.
Cui Guiying sat back down by the mat, gently stroking Li Zhiyuan, continuously calling his na.
A little granddaughter curiously asked: "What happened to Yuanzi?"
Hu Zi blurted out: "I know, Yuanzi encountered a water monkey, he was dragged down to take the place of a dead person!"
Suddenly, the children around all showed expressions of fear and backed away.
"Smack!"
A slap print appeared on Hu Zi's face.
Cui Guiying scolded: "Shut up, don't spout nonsense, go outside and check if the guests have arrived, go now!"
"Alright, I'm going!"
Hu Zi wasn't fussy; though the slap was painful, he didn't take it to heart and ran outside with Shitou to look for the guests.
Cui Guiying instructed her eldest granddaughter Yingzi to bring a bowl of water and a needle. She took the needle and scratched it several tis across Li Zhiyuan's forehead and the top of his head, then laid the needle flat in the bowl.
There was a local custom that when soone had a headache or felt unwell, they used the needle to 'call' it out.
Soon, voices ca from outside: "Zheng Datong is here, Zheng Datong is here!"
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