Zheng Datong’s real name was Zheng Huamin. He was the village doctor in Siyuan, the local barefoot physician. Because he liked to brandish a giant syringe to scare children, the kids started calling him “Zheng Datong,” and eventually the adults followed suit.
“Lei’er, go fetch Blind Liu.”
“Okay, Grandpa.”
Blind Liu’s real name was Liu Jinxia. She lost her parents early and was married off from Sian Town by her uncle. In her first year of marriage, her in-laws both died of illness—causing more than a few village wives to secretly cry tears of envy.
The next year, her husband got drunk one night, went to relieve himself, and drowned in a cesspit. He left behind a newborn baby girl.
That’s when rumors started: people said Liu Jinxia had a cursed fate.
Life as a widowed mother was hard. Besides tending the fields, Liu Jinxia started telling fortunes and performing blessings to ward off evil. The worse the rumors about her became, the more people believed in her powers.
These days, scratching a living from the fields was barely enough to keep food on the table. If you wanted any sort of comfort, you needed another hustle. Liu Jinxia made hers work—so well, in fact, that she found a man willing to marry into her family for her daughter, Li Juxiang.
But the son-in-law barely lasted two years. Supposedly he had a sudden heart attack while transplanting rice in the fields, collapsed face-first, and died.
That left Li Juxiang with a newborn daughter of her own.By then, not just the villagers but folks from all over the surrounding countryside believed the whole Liu line was cursed. Ironically, that made Liu Jinxia’s business boom.
She simply rented out her farmland, had her daughter buy a three-wheeled cart from town, and wherever there was business, Li Juxiang would pedal her mother there.
A few years ago, Liu Jinxia developed cataracts, leaving her nearly blind—only cementing her reputation.
Meanwhile, Cui Guiying had just changed Li Zhuiyuan out of his soaked clothes when her husband grabbed a ladle of well water to wash the blood from his knee. Then he unlocked the cupboard and pulled out three packs of cigarettes.
He tossed one to Cui Guiying. “Zheng Datong’s here. Open it in front of him, let him take one. Give him another when he leaves. Medicine bill goes on the tab.”
Then he threw over another pack. “Give Blind Liu a whole one. Don’t haggle.”
Cui Guiying hesitated. “I heard Blind Liu charges a fortune to come out now.”
Li Weihan shook his head. “She may have lost her eyesight, but she better not lose her conscience.”
Liu Jinxia’s husband had grown up playing mud games with Li Weihan. In the years after his death, when she was left a penniless widow, it was Li Weihan who often brought supplies and helped with farmwork. People talked, of course, but he didn’t care.
These days, the families didn’t see much of each other. But if Blind Liu dared to charge them, Li Weihan swore he’d spit in her face.
He slipped the last pack into his own pocket.
“You heading out?” Cui Guiying asked, surprised.
Li Weihan nodded. “I’m going to find Uncle Sanjiang.”
“What! You think we hit something?”
Li Weihan glanced at the kids loitering nearby, shot his wife a stern look. “We’ll talk when I get back.”
Then he pushed his old Flying Pigeon bicycle out the door.
Cui Guiying returned to her spot by the mat, gently stroking Li Zhuiyuan, calling his name over and over.
A young granddaughter piped up, “What happened to Brother Yuanzi?”
“I know!” Huzi blurted. “Brother Yuanzi ran into a Water Monkey and got dragged down to be its ghost-substitute!”
At once, the children recoiled in fear.
Smack!
A red palmprint bloomed on Huzi’s cheek.
“Bah! What nonsense are you spouting!” snapped Cui Guiying. “Go see if the people we sent for have arrived. Go on, quick!”
“Okay! I’m going!”
Huzi didn’t fuss. The slap hurt, but he didn’t take it to heart. He dashed out with Shitou and the others to check.
Cui Guiying then told her eldest granddaughter, Ying’er, to bring her a bowl of water and a needle. She took the needle and scraped it several times across Li Zhuiyuan’s forehead and crown, then laid it flat in the bowl.
Locals had a custom: when someone had a mysterious illness—headaches, fevers, fatigue—they used a needle to “call the spirit.”
Not long after, a cry came from outside. “Zheng Datong’s here! Zheng Datong’s here!”
Zheng Datong entered with a wooden medicine box on his back.
“Doctor Zheng, come check the child, please check the child!”
Cui Guiying opened a fresh pack of cigarettes, pulled one out, and handed it to him.
Zheng Datong tucked it behind his ear, crouched down, and examined Li Zhuiyuan. “What happened to the kid?”
“He fell in the water and hasn’t woken up since.”
“Fell in?” Zheng Datong opened the boy’s mouth and nose, checked his eyes, then pulled out a stethoscope and listened carefully.
When he finished, Cui Guiying leaned in. “Doctor Zheng, what’s the verdict?”
Frowning, he sat the boy up. Cui Guiying rushed to help. He patted the child’s back, watched for a reaction, then laid him back down. He bit the cigarette between his teeth.
Cui Guiying rushed to the stove for matches, but Zheng Datong had already lit up, puffing deeply.
“Well?” she asked.
“How long was he in the water?” he asked.
Cui Guiying looked at Pan’er.
“Just a short while,” Pan’er said. “Grandpa pulled him out right after he fell in.”
Zheng Datong frowned again, took a long drag, exhaled a thick smoke ring.
“Auntie, the kid didn’t drown. He didn’t even inhale water. He’s fine.”
“Then why won’t he wake up?” she asked.
“Take him to the township clinic. Might be something else,” Zheng Datong said, packing up his things. He had no answers.
Cui Guiying offered him another cigarette.
“No, no,” he said, but still took it and tucked it behind his ear.
As he ground out his current one, he muttered, “You called Blind Liu yet?”
“Uh-huh, we did,” she said, a bit sheepish.
Zheng Datong nodded. Pan’er had filled him in earlier. All he could do now was say, “If he’s still out by nightfall, take him to the clinic first thing.”
“Alright, alright. Thank you so much.”
Just then, Lei’er ran in, wiping sweat off his face. “Blind Liu’s here.”
Cui Guiying scolded, “You brat, no manners! Say ‘Granny Liu’!”
Zheng Datong knew it was time to make way. As he stepped outside, he saw a three-wheeled cart approaching from afar, an old woman seated in the back.
“Heh…”
He suddenly thought of all the fantastical new medicines being hyped in the papers lately. Looked like he was part of that trend now. What was it called again?
Oh, right—
“Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine.”
Lei’er had run ahead to inform them. Li Juxiang followed, pedaling hard, clearly frustrated. “Mom, you shouldn’t have dawdled. We should’ve come sooner.”
Earlier, someone from nearby Shigang Town had come to discuss plans for Liu Jinxia’s spirit birthday ceremony. They could’ve let the guest wait and gone right away—but her mother insisted on handling that business first, then used the restroom before finally heading out.
Sitting on the little bench in back, Liu Jinxia exhaled a smoke ring. “What’s the rush? Not like we’re getting paid.”
“Mom, you’re seriously thinking of taking money from them?”
“Pah! If he offers, I’ll take it.”
“I remember Uncle Han helped us a lot when I was little.”
“He had four sons. Couldn’t give me one?” Liu Jinxia flicked her ash. “None of them were marrying into my family. I didn’t even want a dowry. Offered them a wife for free and they still said no. Hah!”
“That’s hardly Uncle Han’s fault.”
“Juxiang, let people talk all they want—mouths are on their own faces. But why belittle yourself like this?”
Li Juxiang pressed her lips together.
“Juxiang, Little Yuanhou’s still young. I won’t be around much longer. She’ll need you. So what if we don’t have a man? I’m gonna prove it—we two women can still eat well, live well, and live better than anyone else!”
“We’re here, Mom.”
The tricycle crested the dike and pulled up in front of the Li house.
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