An Ning had a fever.
At Lin Cuihua’s shout, An Sancheng ca running over, barefoot and in just his long johns.
"What is it?"
"She has a fever! She’s burning up! What do we do?"
Lin Cuihua was frantic, tears streaming down her face.
"She had a fever when she was little, and then she couldn’t speak..."
Hearing Lin Cuihua say that, An Sancheng’s heart ached, and he grew even more afraid.
"It’s okay. It won’t happen again. She was just a little girl back then!"
"I’ll go get our oldest son. Have him fetch the village doctor first. You find so alcohol and wipe her down."
An Sancheng was scared too, his hands and feet trembling. ’Nothing else can happen to her.’
In a frantic hurry, An Sancheng ran out barefoot and banged on the window of his eldest son’s room.
"Eldest! Eldest! Your little sister has a fever! Go find the doctor!"
Inside the room, Gao Guifen heard it first and quickly shook An Guoqing.
"Guoqing! An Guoqing, hurry!"
An Guoqing was sleeping like a log, so Gao Guifen slapped him.
SMACK!
"Get up, now! Your little sister has a fever!"
"Go find the doctor!"
Gao Guifen pulled out An Guoqing’s clothes and urged him to get dressed quickly.
She also hurriedly got dressed herself and got out of bed to help Lin Cuihua. The first priority was to bring the fever down.
Everyone in the An family woke up. An Guoping, and Li Chengze who was also staying over, got up anxiously.
Gao Guifen was in the kitchen, and she shooed them all out.
"Go on, get out! We need to wipe your little sister down."
Several of the n waited anxiously outside. An Guoqing had already torn off running to fetch the village doctor.
The commotion at the An family’s ho was loud enough that even Da Huang heard it.
Da Huang woke up Grandpa Jiang Xia. The old man threw on so clothes and ca over with Da Huang.
"What’s going on?"
The old man let himself in through the main gate, saw several people standing outside, and asked the question.
"Uncle Jiang, An Ning has a fever."
As soon as the old man heard that, he understood why the An family was so frantic.
"Wait a mont. I have so dicine."
Grandpa Jiang Xia hurried back ho, and An Sancheng had An Guoping follow him.
At almost the exact sa ti, the village doctor and Grandpa Jiang Xia returned.
The village doctor brought a thermoter. He took An Ning’s temperature: 40.7 degrees Celsius.
That temperature nearly made Lin Cuihua faint from fright.
"Mom, you have to hold it together. Who’s going to take care of Little Sister otherwise?"
A word from her sister-in-law was like a shot of adrenaline, and Lin Cuihua sat up on her own.
"Yes, yes. I’m okay, I’m okay."
The village doctor was anxious too. But taking soone with a high fever out into the wind could make things worse.
"Let’s give her so fever dicine first and wait a bit. I’ll go to town, find a doctor to prescribe sothing, and co back to put her on an IV drip."
As soon as the village doctor finished speaking, An Sancheng imdiately arranged for An Guoping and An Guoqing to go with him.
After the three of them left, everyone waited for a while longer, but An Ning’s temperature still hadn’t co down.
In fact, not only had it not gone down, it had even gone up a little.
"An Sancheng! An Sancheng, what are we going to do?!"
"Should we just go to the hospital?!"
An Sancheng was beside himself with worry.
"Let’s go! We’re going!"
Just as An Sancheng made the decision, Grandpa Jiang Xia stopped him.
"I have a pill here. Give it to An Ning first. I wanted to wait and see if the other fever reducer would work."
The old man handed over a small, golden, square-shaped box. One look at it and An Sancheng knew it was sothing special.
"Uncle Jiang—"
"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and give it to her."
An Sancheng nodded, opened the small box, and found a wax-sealed pill inside.
On the kang bed, Lin Cuihua pried open An Ning’s mouth and fed her the pill.
The whole family waited nervously in the room.
Half an hour later, they took her temperature again.
39.6 degrees.
"It’s gone down a little! It’s gone down!"
An Sancheng took the thermoter and looked again. It really had gone down.
Lin Cuihua and An Sancheng were on the verge of breaking down and crying in each other’s arms.
The experience with An Ning in her childhood, that heart-wrenching pain, was sothing they could only bear to go through once.
"Uncle Jiang, thank you. Thank you."
An Sancheng’s eyes welled with tears. The 1.8-ter-tall farr’s nose felt stuffy with emotion.
"It’s nothing. There’s one more pill here, but you have to wait at least twelve hours between doses. If her fever doesn’t get that high again, don’t give it to her yet."
"It’s good dicine, but you can’t take too much of it."
"Also, when she has a fever, don’t feed her eggs, milk powder, or things like that. Cut back on at, too. Give her sothing light to eat. Once the fever is gone, you can start building her nutrition back up."
"And if she wakes up, give her so salt water with a little sugar in it. Don’t just give her plain boiled water."
Grandpa Jiang Xia was very experienced and knowledgeable, and he shared everything he knew with them.
Lin Cuihua and Gao Guifen committed every word to mory, rembering it all firmly.
The small dicine box felt heavy in An Sancheng’s palm as he walked Grandpa Jiang Xia to the door.
Before they even reached the main gate, Grandpa Jiang Xia told An Sancheng to go back inside. It was only a few steps; there was no need to see him out.
"Hurry back inside. The room is warm, but don’t make it too hot. Let the child sleep on the cooler end of the kang. If her hands and feet are cold, let her body temperature rise naturally. Whatever you do, don’t try to force a sweat by bundling her up."
"I’ll rember. I’ll rember all of it, Uncle Jiang."
Grandpa Jiang Xia headed back ho with Da Huang.
Another hour and a half passed. An Ning’s temperature dropped a little more, to just over 38 degrees. She even got up and drank a lot of water.
But after drinking, she groggily fell asleep again.
Her temperature continued to drop until it reached 38.6 degrees, where it plateaued. It wasn’t moving, but it was much better than before.
It was at this ti that An Guoqing, An Guoping, and the village doctor, who had run all the way with them, returned.
The n had taken turns holding the dicine bottle against their chests, keeping it warm on the entire journey back.
When the village doctor ca inside, his hands were stiff with cold.
The three of them huddled by the stove pit in the kitchen, warming themselves by the fire to chase away the deep chill.
The village doctor said, rubbing his hands together:
"Third Brother, give a minute. I’ll give An Ning the injection in a bit."
An Sancheng and Lin Cuihua both ca out. One poured him so water, while the other went to make hot noodle soup.
"There’s no rush. Uncle Jiang gave us a pill. Her temperature has co down quite a bit. She even got up to drink so water, and now she’s asleep again."
HUFF... HUFF...
The village doctor blew on his hands. Hearing this, he felt a sense of relief.
"That’s good, that’s good."
"What kind of dicine was it? Can I see?"
An Sancheng took the remaining pill out of his pocket and handed it to the village doctor.
"This is it."
The village doctor took one look and understood.
"Put it away carefully. This stuff isn’t easy to get. It’s specially made."
An Sancheng put it away and asked, "What kind of dicine is it?"
"Angong Niuhuang Wan. This batch doesn’t have a na on the box because it’s specially prepared by the higher-ups for certain people. It’s life-saving dicine for critical monts."
An Sancheng’s palm tightened subconsciously. ’This is a huge debt of gratitude.’
"Here, here, have sothing to eat. We’ve really put you through a lot today, my brother."
Lin Cuihua brought over a steaming bowl of noodles, piled high with slices of cured at and two poached eggs.
"Third Sister-in-law, this is too much. Give so to these two."
The village doctor tried to share so with An Guoping and An Guoqing.
"You eat yours. There’s more in the pot, there’s more in the pot."
"Go on and eat. Warm yourself up."
An Sancheng also urged him to eat. The village doctor really was hungry, so he sat down on a stool and began to eat the noodles.
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