Chapter 39 Lice
When Brother Li returned, he only brought Li San Niang two words: "Wait."
Yes, what Mr. Bu Ke from Bad Guys meant was to wait and wait for them to contact us and handle it.
Helpless, Li San Niang could only wait obediently.
The next day, Li San Niang specially asked Li Da Sao for the invitation that Li Da Lang had bought from the bookstore last time, and carefully wrote down the reason and request that the Gao family choose a day to visit.
The Li family had no servants, so they had to trouble their young waiter, Li Gui, to make a trip to the Gao residence to deliver what looked like a letter, but was actually just a note.
Li San Niang was too busy to spend time with Lu Zhu'er, which is when the advantage of having a maid who doesn't have any chores at home became apparent. Shen Qiu Niang volunteered to help Li San Niang take care of Lu Zhu'er.
Actually, Luzhu, who is almost three years old, is very easy to take care of. Just make sure she doesn't get into any danger and make sure she eats and sleeps on time.
Li San Niang thought that she would start teaching Lu Zhu'er when she turned three. Although three years old was a bit early, Li San Niang herself only learned to write when she was four or five years old, she would teach her first, just in case Lu Zhu'er liked it.
Ah, if only there were academies specifically for young girls. Like kindergartens in modern times, it would free up women from this labor force.
There are academies in the neighborhood that teach young children, but they don't accept young women. It is hoped that Emperor Wu will soon issue a decree allowing young women to read and write as well.
However, Li San Niang only complained a little, knowing in her heart that it was difficult to achieve. Without a certain level of productivity to back it up, how could it be possible?
It's all just a mirage.
At that time, only daughters from families with a long tradition of learning or from noble families had the opportunity to receive an education.
This is one of the reasons why the older women in the neighborhood only had some sour remarks about Li San Niang after her divorce and return home, but did not look down on her.
It's rare to find a woman like Li Sanniang who can read, write, do arithmetic, prescribe medicine, diagnose pulses, and has twenty acres of land as her dowry. It wouldn't be difficult for Li Sanniang to remarry; she might even find a man who has never been married before.
However, our Third Sister doesn't have that in mind for the time being; she's focused entirely on practicing medicine.
Around noon, Li Guicai returned with a message, saying that the matriarch of the Gao family was aware of the situation and wished Li San Niang success in her alliance test. She added that she would send another invitation when she visited again.
Li Gui also took out a small string of copper coins from his pocket, saying that a servant woman had given them to him after he was called in and questioned.
"Since it's for you, then take it."
"Oh, then I'll take it myself. Please call me again next time Third Sister needs something."
In the afternoon, Li's mother was asked to leave the house because a woman was giving birth and the midwife who had been booked couldn't make it at the last minute, so Li's mother was asked to fill in.
Having nothing else to do, Li San Niang went with her mother.
They hailed a donkey cart, and after many twists and turns, finally entered the gate in an alleyway outside the city.
Before she even entered the house, Li San Niang was hit in the face by a stench mixed with the smell of blood!
Li's mother quickly took out the mask she had ordered from Qiu Niangzi and put it on herself. She turned her head and gave Li San Niang a look that indicated her affectation.
Upon entering the house, the woman was standing on the laid-out straw. Given the family's bare walls, it was understandable why they hadn't laid a mat on the straw.
The woman's grandmother brought in hot water. "Oh, this must be Third Sister. She's so pretty. I'm sorry to trouble you today, Sister Li. The midwife Wang who was supposed to come couldn't make it for some reason."
"Sure, put down the hot water. Go to the kitchen and get some easy-to-digest food for your wife to eat, so she can have the strength to give birth later."
Seeing that her mother was about to set out the utensils, Li San Niang first tied her sleeves with a handrail and put on an outer garment that Qiu Niangzi had made. Qiu Niangzi did not use the white raw cloth that was sent to make this hat, but used a piece of unevenly dyed blue cloth.
"Let me check how many centimeters dilated your cervix is."
After speaking to the woman and seeing her nod in approval, Li Sanniang lifted the woman's skirt and found that she was indeed not wearing pants.
"ah!"
"What's wrong?"
Upon hearing Li San Niang's scream, not only did Li's mother think something had happened, but the woman was also frightened and kept asking, "Is this bad?"
Li's mother was about to step forward to check what had caused Li San Niang to make that strange noise.
Li San Niang took a step back, reaching out to block Li's mother from advancing, and gestured for her to put on another set of surgical gowns, masks, and hats that Qiu Niangzi had made before she left the house.
“Mother, this lady has a lot of pubic lice, it really startled me.”
“What do you mean? This is very abnormal. I deliver babies all over the place, it’s not normal for me to have lice.”
"You're making a fuss over nothing, son. Mother should wear these instead; they're cheaper."
The woman wondered what was wrong, but it turned out that Li San Niang was frightened by the dense swarms of lice jumping around below her.
"Please don't be offended, my wife. Poor people are used to these little insects."
"It's nothing, I was just making a fuss. I'll take a closer look at your fingers now."
Finally, Li San Niang, as an assistant, helped Li's mother complete the delivery. It was a baby boy. After cutting the umbilical cord, she wiped his body clean with warm water, wrapped him in a pre-prepared blanket, and specially brought him to the woman to see first.
The old woman gave her a string of coins and ten eggs. Li San Niang then took a basket, packed her things, and went home with her mother by donkey cart.
Back in the courtyard, Li San Niang felt unbearably itchy all over.
Seeing her condition, Li's mother said that her "cleanliness disease" had returned and insisted that she go with her to deliver the baby this time.
Not all the residents in Chang'an were wealthy, let alone those in the newly built outer city. Not many could afford firewood or hot water for a bath.
In poor families, they can only wash themselves around New Year's Day, so it's not uncommon for them to have lice.
When Li San Niang was young, she went out to deliver babies with her mother. Her mother would choose families with good conditions to take her to. It wasn't that her mother wouldn't deliver babies for poor families, but rather that she would protect Li San Niang and wouldn't take her to homes that weren't very clean.
This led Li San Niang to a misconception: she forgot about lice, such a despicable parasite.
In modern times, it was only after the founding of the People's Republic of China and the popularization of hygiene knowledge that diseases such as head lice and pubic lice gradually disappeared. In fact, these parasites can also live on the human body in impoverished and remote mountainous areas, or due to a lack of attention to hygiene or accidental infection, but they are not common in modern times.
After putting the surgical gown from her bundle on the ground, Li San Niang washed her hands in the yard and couldn't help but keep scratching her head, thinking she might have caught lice.
When Lu Zhu'er saw Li San Niang return, she was about to bring Xiao Huang over to pounce on her leg when Li San Niang quickly stepped back. "My precious darling, wait a moment. Lu Zhu'er can be close to me after I've taken a bath. Qiu Niang, quick, take Lu Zhu'er away from me."
"What's wrong with Third Sister?"
"What else could be wrong with her? She's just being dramatic."
“Mother, this is not being coy. What if I get lice and then pass them on to Dewdrop?”
Hearing this, Li's mother realized it made sense and refused Lu Zhu'er's advances. She and Li San Niang went directly to the kitchen, where the mother and daughter boiled two pots of water and washed themselves before coming out.
Li's mother listened to Li San Niang's words and boiled the two sets of clothes, masks, and hats worn during childbirth in another pot with hot water.
During dinner, Sister-in-law Li noticed that Li San Niang wasn't eating properly and kept scratching her head, so she said directly, "Alright, alright, stop scratching. You're going to scratch your scalp raw. After you finish eating, I'll ask your older brother to fetch you some water, and I'll brew some of Father's herbal medicine for you. You can then wash your hair properly."
After dinner, as Li San Niang washed her scalp with the medicinal soup brought by Li Da Sao, she inevitably thought of the pubic lice from that girl in the afternoon. They were so densely packed that they were a nightmare for anyone with trypophobia. Just thinking about them made her feel extremely uncomfortable, and she felt inexplicably itchy.
Unable to resist, I scratched my scalp vigorously with my fingertips, changing the water three times and carefully washing it twice before the itch was relieved.
Li Sanniang lay in bed thinking about what had happened that afternoon, feeling that raising public awareness of hygiene was a long and arduous task.
However, improving hygiene standards cannot be explained or achieved by Li San Niang in just a few words; we need to first join the medical alliance.
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