Chapter 127 The doctor said it wasn't a big deal.
Yao Xiaoyu didn't come to see the senior doctor this time to collect information. She had already compiled most of the useful and publicly available medical knowledge at the beginning of Yang Shunxin's story. She came this time to ask if there was anything wrong with her body.
This was supposed to be done after the birthday party, but Yao Xiaoyu was busy and forgot about it, so she dragged it out until now to scam the doctor.
"I haven't had my period yet."
Yao Xiaoyu wasn't very old, but she remembered that most women experience their first menstrual period around the age of twelve or thirteen.
In modern times, because Yao Xiaoyu was the only daughter in her family, and was beautiful and had a sweet tongue, although her family was not wealthy, she could often eat relatively luxurious KFC and McDonald's, and snacks and drinks were never lacking. Food testing was not strict in those days, and hormones were not a topic of concern. She was thus tragically forced to mature early and started menstruating at the age of ten.
When her parents realized something was wrong and took Yao Xiaoyu to the hospital for a checkup, they discovered that her bone age was too advanced and her growth plates were almost completely closed. They tried all sorts of methods, both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, but her height still became an unbearable pain for Yao Xiaoyu. Especially since modern children are growing so fast, every time Yao Xiaoyu looked up at them, it was like a knife to her heart.
How old are you now?
The old doctor looked up at Yao Xiaoyu and asked, "The young girl has a delicate face, but she's quite tall."
"Sixteen."
Yao Xiaoyu, who is 1.7 meters tall, blinked and felt a little emotional. When she first came here, she was a 13-year-old bean sprout with a height of 145 cm. Now she has grown up.
Yao Xiaoyu hopes to grow to 1.8 meters, or even 1.9 meters, so she can breathe in the fresh air of the upper atmosphere and experience the equality of vision for everyone—because if she were too tall, she could only see the top of anyone's head and wouldn't care about their height.
Give me your hand.
The old doctor said that Yao Xiaoyu obediently extended her right hand, and then, somewhat embarrassed, switched to her left hand after being reminded by the old lady. Although she didn't know the difference between the two hands, she was sure the doctor had a reason for doing so.
...
Bad news: Yao Xiaoyu has kidney deficiency. The old doctor prescribed her some pills and told her to take them with water as instructed.
Not good news: Yao Xiaoyu's growth spurt is nearing its end. She can try to grow a little taller, but reaching 1.8 meters is impossible, let alone 1.9 meters.
Good news: Apart from that, Yao Xiaoyu's health is perfectly normal. It's not that she doesn't have menstruation, but rather that she experiences an extremely rare period of menstruation, which occurs precisely during the coldest time of the year, around the Lunar New Year. Because it comes quickly and in small amounts, it doesn't even leave any trace in Yao Xiaoyu's mind. It's practically a perfect way to repay a debt of gratitude.
Because the doctor pointed out the timing, Yao Xiaoyu finally solved a mystery in her heart—no wonder there were only bloodstains on her pants during the New Year. She had always felt that the pot for the blood clot vermicelli soup had been changed from the most authentic duck blood all the way to goose blood. She planned that if it still didn't work this year, she would reluctantly refuse this traditional activity of the Yao family.
Yao Ping'an was physically weak and needed careful care, but after the Yao family's decline, eating meat was a luxury. A bowl of blood and vermicelli soup was the cheapest and cleanest nutritional supplement. Before Yao Ping'an's life at home improved again, he survived several times on it.
Now that life is better, this soup has quietly become a tradition in the Yao family. A bowl of blood clot vermicelli soup means another year of peace and safety. Zhou Chunhua has a recipe from who knows where, and she makes this vermicelli soup incredibly fragrant. It takes a lot of willpower to refuse it. Yao Xiaoyu's ability to resist delicious food is almost equivalent to superhuman magic resistance. [1]
But now, she no longer needs to choose between food and life!
Yao Xiaoyu hummed a cheerful tune, preparing to take Tao Xiaoxiao out for a nice meal to celebrate the doctor's encouraging diagnosis. This time, she chose a restaurant that served mixed dishes.
The so-called mixed dishes refer to dishes that are not sold according to region. One dish may be a specialty of Shandong, while the next dish may be a pot of simmering food from a snowy winter.
Yao Xiaoyu enthusiastically ordered a table full of dishes, most of which were above average in taste. However, if she had to rank them, the two main dishes were her favorites.
One dish was Beijing-style fried sauce noodles. The gravy was made with mutton, thick but not cloudy, fresh and moist yet soft and sticky. The waiter said that he learned the recipe for the gravy from a tofu pudding stall. Yao Xiaoyu just listened and let it go. There are many strange legends about dishes, but this story didn't even have a beginning, development, climax, or conclusion. It didn't sound as appealing as the braised mutton in the fried sauce noodles.
Another dish is "Immortal Congee," a Cantonese style. It uses well water and fine rice, cooked over a high flame in an earthenware pot for several hours until the rice grains are partially dissolved, resulting in classic open-flame white congee. Adding ginkgo nuts and tofu skin, and finally covering the cooked congee with washed fresh lotus leaves, is what Yao Xiaoyu is eating now.
The color of the "Immortal Porridge" was a cool, refreshing light green, almost otherworldly, perfect for summer. It had a lotus leaf aroma. Yao Xiaoyu had only intended to eat something light, but she ended up eating most of it. However, it didn't matter: the weather was getting hotter and hotter, and she had been suffering from summer heat for several days. Being able to eat anything was already a good thing. As for nutritional balance, she could put that aside for now.
Nutritional imbalances may not be immediately apparent, but a person can truly starve to death if they don't eat!
After filling her stomach, Yao Xiaoyu paid the bill. She was in a hurry to go home because of the heat, but then she remembered that Tao Jingu had sent someone to tell her a couple of days ago that the summer clothes from Lan Shuangyu Factory had been produced. She had bought a few sets for herself and Yao Xiaoyu, and told Yao Xiaoyu to pick them up when she had time.
It's still early...
Looking at the scorching sun, Yao Xiaoyu recalled the prolonged high temperatures of the past two years and decided that it was better to end the pain quickly than to suffer for a long time. After getting her clothes and meeting her friends, she was determined not to leave her room until the end of summer!
Ah! Air conditioning! The greatest invention in the world! If Yao Xiaoyu could enjoy it now, she would be willing to drive a car and live in a house with a garden!
"You really know how to take both food and money."
Tao Jingu rolled her eyes speechlessly. She knew about air conditioners. Her wholesale business relied on information asymmetry. Although foreigners in Shanghai accounted for a small percentage, they were still a significant number, making information collection somewhat complicated.
"After all, I'm so beautiful, it's normal for me to think about nice things."
While checking her clothes, Yao Xiaoyu bantered with Tao Jingu. Her words were quite narcissistic, but they silenced Tao Jingu for a while—putting everything else aside, Yao Xiaoyu was indeed very beautiful now.
With an oval face, lychee-shaped eyes, a perfect neck, waist, and legs, and even, delicate light wheat-colored skin, she looked exactly like a large, lifelike silk doll.
As Tao Jingu looked at Yao Xiaoyu humming a song, he inexplicably thought of the story of the Mother Goddess creating humans from clay—Yao Xiaoyu's appearance must have been meticulously sculpted, while she was probably just a speck of mud thrown out by a vine.
Yao Xiaoyu, who didn't have mind-reading abilities, put the clothes away contentedly. She tried to interact with Tao Jingu, who was inexplicably downcast, but received no response. So, she wisely took Tao Xiaoxiao and said goodbye to the others.
The weather was extremely hot, and Yao Xiaoyu was covered in sweat just from picking out clothes. After consulting with Tao Xiaoxiao, the two headed straight for the clean women's bathhouse. [2]
This is the only women-only bathhouse in Shanghai. Due to some well-known social issues, it cannot be openly advertised, and its fame relies entirely on word of mouth. Yao Xiaoyu learned about this place at the Li sisters' birthday party, but this was her first time actually visiting it.
The clean women's bathhouse was a tall, two-story box-shaped building with a sign nailed to the door in the middle, which was quite conspicuous. There was a designated area for rickshaws at the entrance, which was already about 50-60% full. Yao Xiaoyu also saw two or three cars.
"Miss, would you like a mask? Wearing it will guarantee that no one can see your face."
Before Yao Xiaoyu even got off the rickshaw, a vendor eagerly came over to promote his wares. She didn't quite understand what was going on, so she bought one for herself and one for Tao Xiaoxiao. After asking a few more questions, she finally learned the reason.
It turns out that the clean women's bathhouse served women of the brothel type, or rather, the bathhouse originally catered to these kinds of customers. Even the founder of the bathhouse was a woman from the red-light district. She was a woman with both luck and ability, who made her business thrive after escaping the clutches of the thieves.
Originally, no one wore masks. It was only later that people in high society wanted to enjoy the pleasures of the bathhouse but did not want to damage their reputation, so the unspoken rule of wearing masks to cover up and prevent being recognized by acquaintances came about.
"What if you don't want to spend money on a mask, but also don't want to be recognized?"
Yao Xiaoyu asked with some curiosity. The vendor was clearly not being asked a similar question for the first time. She just subtly gestured with her chin toward the parked car next to her. Yao Xiaoyu followed her gaze and immediately understood.
Several women got out of the car, wearing everything from veils that reached their necks to full-body veils.
Yao Xiaoyu looked at the mask in her hand, or rather, the oiled paper with three holes cut out, revealing her eyes and mouth, and inexplicably felt that she had lost.
But she still had to wear it. She slapped the oiled paper onto her face, tied it behind her head with thin threads on both sides, and quickly entered the room with Tao Xiaoxiao, who was dressed in the same style. Then she saw the woman from before naturally take off her veil. Turning around, she saw the female customer who had bought the vendor's mask also tear off the oiled paper and casually throw it into the corner... Oh, there's a big trash can there. I didn't notice it just now.
Yao Xiaoyu asked a staff member and learned that removing the mask upon entering was an unspoken rule. Once inside the bathhouse, everything was over, and even the biggest grudges or deepest resentments had to be dealt with after leaving.
"Now I understand why this thing is so rough."
Yao Xiaoyu said quietly to Tao Xiaoxiao, "I just calculated that the rickshaw could take them about five meters from the bathhouse entrance. It's only ten steps on foot, or fifteen steps including the stairs. Why would we need a mask for such a short distance..."
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Author's note: [1] Superman's magic resistance is zero.
[2] The earliest women-only bathhouse in China was the "Runshen Women's Bathhouse" in Beijing, founded in 1916. However, Shanghai did not have dedicated women's bathhouses until the 1920s, and they were very few in number and did not become popular. The women's bathhouses in Shanghai, including the public bathhouses before them, were all privately owned.
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