Awang is currently the only farmer in the village who knows medicine. Of course, this knowledge only refers to some herbs grown in the mountains and fields. He picks some of them on a regular basis, which are said to be able to treat headaches and fevers.
It is not known whether it is effective or not. In this era, farmers either treat their illnesses themselves or take some herbal medicine. They will only go to the hospital for truly serious illnesses. However, the cost of medicine is definitely not something that an ordinary farmer's family can afford.
Since the previous rural cooperative medical system was abolished, rural medical care has taken the lead in entering the "market economy". Barefoot doctors no longer work only for work points as before, and all profits must be turned over to the collective.
In theory, now the barefoot doctor can purchase drugs from pharmaceutical companies himself, then add a little profit and sell them to farmers. No matter how much he earns, it all belongs to him personally.
But the problem is that there were too few doctors in 1980. There were so few that all medical graduates, whether college students or technical secondary school students, went to large hospitals. Few even went to town-level hospitals, let alone commune or village levels.
The rural clinics only have barefoot doctors who have received a short period of training. Even such barefoot doctors are only available in a few villages. Villages like Qingfeng Village and several nearby villages do not have real village clinics.
In fact, Awang didn’t know how to rescue drowning patients. He just followed the folk remedies passed down in the countryside.
The young man was placed horizontally on the cow's back with his belly facing down, with his head and feet hanging on both sides of the cow's back. Then the cow's back was patted continuously, hoping to make the young man spit out the water.
Hearing the loud slapping sounds of Ah Wang patting the young man's back, Chen Yigen felt a pain in his chest. He took a deep breath and cursed at Hong Lichang, the captain of the third team who was squatting next to him:
"How many times have I told you to take care of Bingkun's family in your team? The three kids are all educated, how could they know how to do farm work? Now you're forcing a good young man to commit suicide by jumping into the river. If this gets out, people in Qingfeng Village will laugh at us for being ungrateful."
The young man's father is Chen Bingkun, a doctor at Yuezhou Fourth Hospital. Whenever there is a headache or fever in the village, Chen Bingkun will help to diagnose the disease. This has brought great convenience to the villagers of Qingfeng Village and the villagers are very grateful.
But three months ago, in the middle of the night, a fire broke out in the hospital's internal medicine ward, and Chen Bingkun, who happened to be on night shift, unfortunately died while trying to put out the fire.
Chen Bingkun's wife died of illness last year.
The couple has four children. The eldest sister, Chen Chun, is 21 years old and a promising student. After the college entrance examination was resumed in 1977, she was admitted to Zhijiang Medical University and became the first college student in the village.
The second child, Chen Xia, is 18 years old and is also the protagonist of today's drowning. After his parents died, his family lost its source of income and he had to interrupt his high school studies and go home to take care of his two younger brothers and sisters.
The third child, Chen Qiu, is a girl, 14 years old this year. She is in the first grade of junior high school in the commune middle school. She has excellent grades, but her family has no source of income, so it is still a question whether she can continue to go to school in the second half of the year.
The fourth brother, Chen Dong, is the youngest brother. He is 10 years old and is studying in the village primary school.
Chen Bingkun is one of the few people in the village who eats public grain.
He learned medical knowledge in the army while serving in the military. After returning to his hometown of Yuezhou, he joined the Zhijiang Provincial Second Military Sanatorium Hospital, which was still a military hospital, and worked there until he became the director of the infectious disease department.
Later, the hospital was handed over to the local government and renamed "Yuezhou Fourth Hospital".
Therefore, the Chen family's economic conditions are among the best in the village.
Chen Bingkun earns more than 50 yuan a month, as well as various food coupons and other tickets. Although his wife has an agricultural household registration, she can also earn work points in the village.
All four children of the Chen family can go to school, which is unique in the village.
But with the passing of Chen Bingkun and his wife, the lives of the remaining four children suddenly fell into difficulties. Chen Chun was admitted to university and received a monthly subsidy of 19 yuan, which was only enough to support himself.
The second son, Chen Xia, had no choice but to drop out of school and return to the village to do farm work.
This year is the first year that the village has implemented the contract responsibility system, which is a great joy for the vast majority of farmers.
But for the Chen family, which only has three student-aged children, this was a life-threatening situation. They could no longer earn work points like before, and had to do all the work in their own fields by themselves.
This year, it is the busy farming season, and Chen Chun has a schistosomiasis prevention and control task at the university, so he cannot go home during the summer vacation.
The family's two acres of land had to be worked by Chen Xia and his two siblings. All three were students. They were good at studying but novices at farm work. It took them three days to finish harvesting the two acres of rice.
Then what happened was that at noon today, Chen Xia was hungry and tired and accidentally fell into the river.
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