"If it gets numb, just stomp it! You don't need to stay with me, you carry Zhong Zhiqing back, I'm not afraid!"
Su Ruyi finished speaking hastily and left.
Holding a flashlight, we made our way to the educated youth compound.
Shen Heping's fever spiked again.
His eyes were tightly closed, his skin was flushed, and he could not be woken up.
Ji Xuchang kept changing the cold towels for him: "Sigh, I've wanted to come to you for a long time, but Heping said it would be too embarrassing for a grown man to get sick from exhaustion, so he wouldn't let me go! Now, after hearing about your situation, he insisted on going to be with you even though he's sick. He went through all that trouble, and I guess he caught a chill, so it's gotten worse! He'll probably have a fever all night again!"
"What symptoms does he have?" Su Ruyi flipped his eyelids and shone a flashlight on them.
"First, he had a headache! A really bad one, so bad he was rolling around in bed! Then he started vomiting and having diarrhea! Even so, he still managed to work half a day!" Ji Xuchang shook his head and said, "Then he collapsed. My thermometer only showed 41 degrees Celsius, which was the highest reading!"
While listening, Su Ruyi manipulated Shen Heping's body, performing several examinations.
“Brother Changzi, Brother Heping is dying!” Su Ruyi said, tears streaming down her face again. “We have to get him to Tieshi Hospital right away! Brudzinski’s and Kernig’s symptoms are both positive! He has tick-borne encephalitis!”
"What? Encephalitis? How could he get encephalitis?" Ji Xuchang was very puzzled. "He kept saying he was exhausted from the harvest!"
"Look, this is the wound left by the serrated mouthparts!" Su Ruyi pointed to the small hole on Shen Heping's ear. "This mosquito that bit him is the culprit!"
"What?!" Ji Xuchang was so shocked his glasses almost fell off. "What about mine?!"
As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves, revealing a string of large and small bags on his arm.
"..." Su Ruyi was speechless for a moment, then took out a small porcelain bottle. "I don't know, but you're not having an attack right now. If you're scared, take one of these pills every day for 14 days!"
Ji Xuchang took it and immediately popped one into his mouth.
"Should we send Heping to Tieshi first thing tomorrow morning?" Ji Xuchang asked, his words slightly slurred, after taking a sip of water.
"Let's go now," Su Ruyi said, pushing her bicycle out of the yard.
She didn't take this bicycle with her when she left the educated youth compound, and now it comes in handy.
Ji Xuchang helped Su Ruyi tie Shen Heping to the back seat and was about to ride on it.
Su Ruyi quickly said, "Don't go, I'll go by myself!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Ji Xuchang was a little angry. "You, a girl, riding your bike to Tieshi in the middle of the night?"
Su Ruyi had already tied the flashlight to the bike: "Yeah, I ride fast. Brother Changzi, stop arguing, let go!"
Ji Xuchang gripped the handlebars tightly: "Your fourth brother entrusted me with taking care of you before he passed away. I can't just stand by and watch something happen to you!"
Su Ruyi was so entangled that she had no choice but to produce golden needles in her palm.
After the injection, Ji Xuchang collapsed.
Su Ruyi helped him back into the house, put him on the kang (a heated brick bed), and put away the needles.
He then picked up the bicycle, which had fallen to the ground, along with Shen Heping, and pushed the bike out the door.
Sun Shengtian peered out the window for a long time, but ultimately didn't come out.
As for Li Wang, he was truly asleep—he was in poor health and never worked, and he hadn't been this tired since he went to the countryside.
He stayed up all night last night and got up early this morning, so he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Su Ruyi pushed Shen Heping a short distance before disappearing into the space along with the cart.
After placing Shen Ping on the floor of the hall, she first gave him an injection to prevent him from waking up suddenly.
Next, they brought out the Marrow Cleansing Soup and poured it down his throat without leaving a drop.
The heat surrounding Shen Heping subsided after a few minutes.
Su Ruyi breathed a sigh of relief, pondering whether she should call Shen Guoliang or take Shen Heping to Tieshi herself.
After thinking about it, the two methods would take about the same amount of time, but getting the key to the brigade headquarters from Ding Youliang would also take time.
Su Ruyi decided to take him there herself.
Let's do it!
She took out another bicycle from her storage space and rode towards Tieshi.
As soon as we left Dingjiatun, a strong wind suddenly started blowing!
Su Ruyi squinted her eyes and rode her bike in silence.
About an hour later, she finally arrived at the entrance of the First People's Hospital of Tieshi.
There was no one there. In the shadows of the courtyard wall, she switched the two bicycles, pushed Shen Heping inside, removed the needle from the back of his head, and asked, "Doctor! Is anyone home?"
The ER doctor, yawning, came out.
This is a middle-aged woman with sleepy eyes. Perhaps because she didn't get enough rest from working the night shift, her face is a little puffy, but you can still see the radiance she had in her youth.
Her opening line was laced with an overbearing arrogance: "What's wrong?!"
"Hello doctor, I am a village doctor from Dingjiatun Village in Sanhe County. This is a former educated youth from my village. I suspect he has encephalitis!" Su Ruyi said, helping the female doctor place Shen Heping on the examination bed.
"You have doubts? You think whatever you doubt is true? Who do you think you are?" The female doctor, who was sleeping on the night shift, was woken up and was already full of anger. When she heard that this little village doctor had made a diagnosis, she immediately became sarcastic and aggressive.
"I said I have a suspicion! Because the patient's condition was critical, that's why they were brought here overnight!" Su Ruyi didn't argue with her.
She suddenly remembered what Shen Guoliang had once said: the doctors at this hospital were all incompetent...
"Wait!" The female doctor shook the thermometer and tucked it under Shen Heping's armpit.
Then, she lay face down on the chair and buried her head in her arms.
Su Ruyi glanced at her watch.
Five minutes later, she gently reminded him, "Doctor, it's been five minutes!"
The female doctor looked up and glanced at her watch: "You said five minutes, so it's five minutes? It's only been three minutes!"
After saying that, he lowered his head again.
"Doctor!" Su Ruyi walked up to her. "Where can I make a phone call?"
Why are you shouting so loudly?!
The female doctor said irritably, "It costs one yuan per minute to make a phone call on the other end!"
This was almost an astronomical price, but it was the normal price at the time.
Because telephones are a scarce resource, and in any era, scarce resources are always in the hands of a few.
The money was obviously taken by the female doctor who was overcharging, because she put the money in her pocket right in front of Su Ruyi.
Seeing that she had accepted the money, Su Ru didn't say anything more and walked towards the office across the street.
The female doctor carefully put the money away, then reluctantly took out the thermometer from under Chen Ping's armpit and examined it under the light.
In another office, Shen Guoliang, panting, answered the phone: "What?! He Ping has encephalitis?!"
Su Ruyi paused for a moment: "It can be basically diagnosed as tick-borne encephalitis."
"Is it the disease you get from being bitten by the spotted mosquitoes in the forest? That...that deadly disease?"
Shen Guoliang felt his legs go weak and hurriedly said, "I...I...I'll make a call first, and then I'll come right away!"
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