Mrs. Xu looked at the child's pale face due to blood loss with distress. "We saw that his hand was injured like that, and we didn't dare to cover the wound with force. We just wanted the white cloth to be clean and keep dirt out of the wound."
Wang Zhen did not stop until all the bottles of medicine were rinsed out. He asked Yang Dongmei to shine a flashlight on Xu Xiaobing's hand and use tweezers to open the wound and examine it carefully.
The main task was to clean out the sand and foreign objects remaining in the skin and flesh, and to check if the bones were injured. The child was just whimpering and didn't struggle much.
Boss Xu looked at the child's hand worriedly, "Doctor Wang, how is it? Are there any broken bones?"
Wang Zhen: "The bones were not injured, but the pulp of the middle finger was seriously injured. After the injury healed, the finger did not grow full. There was no impact on other parts."
After hearing this, Mr. and Mrs. Xu breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay if it doesn't grow full, as long as it's not disabled."
After Wang Zhen examined him, Yang Dongmei applied burn medicine to him. The child started crying, and she comforted him, "It's normal to feel a little pain. After the pain passes, it will be cool and you won't feel the burning pain anymore."
Mr. and Mrs. Xu said gratefully, "Thank you Dongmei, thank you Dr. Wang, thank you for troubling you on the first day of the Chinese New Year."
"It's okay." Wang Zhen took Xu Xiaobing's hand covered with ointment, bandaged it with gauze, and prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine. "Change the medicine in three days. It's best to eat less spicy and greasy food during this period."
"Thank you! Thank you!" Boss Xu said gratefully again, "Dongmei, how much is it? I'll go back and get it for you."
Yang Dongmei calculated and said, "Five dollars, including the cost of changing the medicine."
Mr. Xu and his wife searched their pockets and realized that they had come in such a hurry that they didn't even have a penny in their pockets. "Let's send the child back first and bring it to you later."
Yang Dongmei nodded, and Boss Xu carried his son on his back and walked out briskly.
Watching them leave the yard, Zhou Huaian said to them, "When we came here, we saw this kid and a few other kids setting off firecrackers to blow up cow dung at the intersection. If we had known this would happen, we would have yelled at them."
Wang Zhen is used to it. "Every year, there are people injured by firecrackers. This child is relatively good. Last year, there was a child in North Street who was injured in his left eye by a firecracker that did not explode after the fuse was lit, just like this child."
Mother Yang just took a look and was still frightened. She warned Brother Yang and his wife, "Don't let them play with cannons. If they explode, it's no joke."
Yang Weidong and his wife readily agreed.
Yang's mother took her daughter and daughter-in-law to the kitchen to busy themselves. It was almost time for lunch when Yang's father took Xiao Jiuer and his two little grandsons home.
Yang Chunyan held her son, whose face was rosy from the sun, in her arms and saw that his pockets were full of candies, melon seeds and peanuts. During the New Year holidays, the little guy's pockets were always full every time he came back from going out.
The family had lunch and sat and chatted for a while. After three o'clock, Yang Chunyan stood up and said, "Mom, old man, we are going back."
"You've only been here for a short time. Stay here for two more days before going back." Mother Yang was reluctant to let them stay.
"No, I have a lot of things to do at home." Yang Chunyan looked at her parents, "How about you come to my house and play for a few days?"
Mother Yang smiled and shook her head, "There's so much to do at home, there's no way we can go out." As she spoke, she went to the main room to get out the things prepared for the two of them. Her back was full when she came, and it was even fuller when she left.
The cloth bag also contained clothes and shoes made for Xiaojiuer.
Yang Chunyan carried her son on her back and walked out with Zhou Huaian pushing their bicycles. The Yang family members reluctantly sent them to the intersection.
Zhou Huaian said to Wang Zhen: "Ding Dingmao and I plan to go up the mountain tomorrow. Whenever you want to go, just come to my house."
Wang Zhen smiled and nodded, "I'll go to your place tomorrow afternoon and go up the mountain together."
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian responded and smiled at Yang's mother and father, "Mom, old man, let's go!"
The two elders nodded and reluctantly reminded him, "Ride slowly on the road."
After they rode their bicycles for a while, Xiao Jiuer woke up. The little guy shouted "Mom, Mom" and pulled Yang Chunyan's braids, refusing to stay on her back.
Zhou Huaian turned his head and looked, "Yan'er, let's just put him in the small backpack."
Yang Chunyan nodded, and the two of them stopped, untied the straps, and put him into the small backpack hanging on the back seat of the bicycle. Xiao Jiuer felt comfortable standing in it, and happily pulled the red cloth tied on the small backpack. When the bicycle went downhill, he laughed with joy.
When they were almost at Fangtian intersection, the little guy got tired and curled up in the small basket and fell asleep.
Yang Chunyan stopped the car again and carried him on her back. When they arrived at Funiu, the sun had already set. When they got home, the gate was closed tightly. After asking Zhou Huaishan, they found out that after Zhou Yumei and Luo Haili left with the children, the three old people went to the back mountain to cut weeds and apply fertilizer.
Zhou Huaian hurried to the back mountain to get the key, pushed the bicycle into the yard, looked at the things in his backpack and the clothes in the bag, thought of the elderly people in the family, and couldn't help shaking his head.
"Why can't these old people stay idle for even a moment? Grandpa said that if you don't have anything to do, you'll feel uncomfortable. You have to find something to do so that time will pass faster."
"Old people are all like this." Yang Chunyan put Jiuer to sleep in the crib, took out the ham from her back and handed it to him, "It's much drier after the New Year, the bacon and sausages hanging on the beams should be sent to the wine cellar."
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian thought about going into the mountains with Ding Ding Mao tomorrow, so he took the bamboo ladder to the backyard, took down the cured meat hanging on the beam and handed it to Yang Chunyan to put in the backpack. He ran back and forth several times before taking down all the cured meat and hanging it in the wine cellar.
Zhou Huaian carried the child to the fish pond to check on the fish. Yang Chun saw that there was still a lot of cold rice in the rice steamer, so he lit a fire and started heating up the cold rice and cold dishes. The three old men came back with a full basket of pig grass on their backs.
Father Zhou said, "The plantain, Viola yedoensis, and Rhizoma Coptidis in the medicinal field have all grown. You can use these few days when you have nothing to do to weed them and water them with manure."
Zhou Huaian: "I will go up the mountain with Ding Dingmao tomorrow. How about you help me find a few people and we can finish the job in two days."
Father Zhou thought that the money he earned from going into the mountains was much more profitable than watering the fields at home, "Forget it. There are so many good herbs by the forest. If they see them, they will ask all kinds of questions and cause trouble."
Zhou Huaian was worried that the three old men were too tired to take care of the medicinal fields as well as the wheat fields and crops behind the old house. He thought of an idea and said:
"Old man, Wang Zhen said that herbs don't need to be fertilized too often. Fertilizers will force them to mature too quickly, and they won't be as effective as the natural herbs that grow slowly."
After hearing this, Zhou's father frowned and looked at him, "Is there such a saying? Aren't millets and wheat grown with manure water?"
Zhou Huaian nodded calmly, "Millet and wheat are different from herbs. You see, the herbs we dug in the mountains are all wild, and none of them are grown with fertilizers. If you don't believe me, ask Chunyan."
Zhou's father was still hesitating, and the old man interrupted, "Dasong, herbs are for people to eat, so we should listen to the youngest. Tomorrow we will take the gate up the mountain, block the water in the ditch, and irrigate the herbs with water instead of manure water."
"Okay, I'll go tell the third brother." Father Zhou walked away with his pipe in his mouth.
Zhou Huaian put Xiao Jiuer on the ground, and the two of them sat next to the old man. "Grandpa, I'm going to see where there are more honey tree seedlings tomorrow, and then I'll ask someone to dig them up and plant them in the mountains in February."
"Hmm!" The old man put down his pipe and said, "I went to the mountains this morning to check around. The wild bees I released last year are still there. The colony is still a little small. You can bring back a few more nests if you find any good ones."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Ding Dingmao and I also placed two beehives in the big pit a few years ago. I'll go check them out when I get back."
"Youngest, look at what Xiaojiu is doing?" Zhou's mother looked at him angrily and shook her head, "Is this how you raise a child?"
Only then did Zhou Huaian notice that the little guy had urinated. He sat on the ground and kept wiping the urine on the ground with his hands. He quickly picked him up and laughed "Hahahaha".
"If you eat dirty things, you won't get sick. But if you eat boy's urine, it can cure diseases!"
Mother Zhou looked at Xiao Jiu'er's white and tender face and mouth, which were covered with urine and dirt. She smiled and slapped him, "Go away, you've been taking care of the child for a while and he's become like a beggar."
The old man was smoking a pipe and laughing, "It's okay, every kid has his own pee and poop."
Little Jiuer looked at the adults happily, waving his hands and shouting "Dad, Dad".
Zhou Huaian smiled and pinched his cheek, "Oh no, I gave birth to a kid who is so happy to eat urine!"
The old man said happily: "Jiu'er eating urine is nothing, you have caught shit when you were his age!"
Zhou Huaian felt a chill on his face after hearing this, "Grandpa, I'm so smart, I wouldn't do something that only Haer could do."
The old man rolled his eyes at him and said, "Do you think you were born this big?"
Zhou's mother glared at him angrily and said, "That's right, my hair is covered with feces and urine. I feel sick while washing it."
Zhou Huaian was speechless now. It turned out to be hereditary.
Zhou's mother took a porcelain basin and poured hot water to wash the child's hands and face, washed his buttocks, and changed his wet pants and put them in the basin.
He kicked Zhou Huaian who was leaning against the back of the chair and said, "Wash it and dry it in the sun."
"Alas!" Zhou Huaian sighed and picked up his wet pants with two pointed fingers. "What a miserable life! I still have to wash urine and feces during the New Year."
Mother Zhou slapped her grandson and said, "Tell your old man that being an old man is not that easy!"
"Mom!" Zhang Xiuxiang came in with her backpack, "Have you eaten?"
Mother Zhou: "Chunyan is heating up the food. When did you come back?"
"Just arrived." Zhang Xiuxiang put down her backpack and took out a bag of flour, a copper hot pot, and two bundles of tobacco leaves. "My old man grew the tobacco leaves, and asked me to bring them to my grandfather. I also got the buckwheat flour. Last time, I asked them to help make a copper hot pot for Chunyan, and I just brought it back this time."
"Thank you, my dear father-in-law!" Zhou's mother asked with a smile, "How is your husband?"
Zhang Xiuxiang smiled and said, "They said they eat better now and are in better health than before."
Zhou's mother was also very happy after hearing this, "That's good." (End of this chapter)
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