"Chao brother, wake up. Why are you sleeping here?"
Bai Chao, half-asleep, felt someone shaking his body, and then heard his mother's voice. He wanted to open his eyes and get up, but his eyelids were so heavy he couldn't open them at all. He could only call out groggily. "Mother, you're back."
"Oh dear, what's going on? In just a little while, how did he get a fever? Why is his body so hot?" Luo's Mother's voice was frantic with worry. With one hand she supported him, while the other hand felt all over his body.
Feeling that not just his forehead, but his back and stomach were burning hot too, Luo's Mother's legs went weak, and she was terrified inside.
She was a woman in her dozens of years, and she had never seen a fever that burned so hot it could scald. She was completely flustered with panic, and could only keep calling his name while helping him toward the house.
"Chaochao, be good, let's go sleep on the bed. A good sleep and you'll be fine." Half-carrying him into the room, once she got him onto the bed, Luo's Mother wasted no time and hurried off to the Feng family.
His grandparents had eaten more than a decade more salt than she had—no matter how you looked at it, they had more experience. She had to call them back quickly to figure out what to do.
When Luo's Mother rushed back to the Feng family in a panic, there were even more people in the Feng family courtyard. The ritual the Feng family was holding today was quite a big one, and all the people it had nothing to do with were treating it like watching a grand play.
When Luo's Mother returned after having left, the villagers watching the spectacle assumed she had only been pretending to be proper earlier, and couldn't resist coming back to join the excitement after going home. "Auntie Luo, isn't this show at the Feng family even more exciting than the New Year opera?"
"Not as exciting as your family's." Luo's Mother didn't give Eldest Daughter-in-law Wang any face at all, waving her away directly.
Luo's Mother rolled her eyes at Daughter-in-law Wang in the darkness, feeling disdainful inside. Hmph, and she's watching plays? Whose family's drama in this village could compare to the Wang family's? Their own brother died, and not only did they fail to look after the child he left behind, they even seized his fields.
"Mother, come home quickly, Mother!" Luo's Mother darted away from Daughter-in-law Wang in a few quick moves, calling out loudly. Following the sound of Luo's Grandmother's response, she called loudly for Luo's Grandfather as well, found the two of them in a few moments, and quickly pulled them away.
As the old couple were being pulled out, they could still hear Daughter-in-law Wang cursing. Though they didn't know what was going on, they instinctively cursed back before following their daughter-in-law out of the Feng family courtyard.
"What's wrong? Huiniang, what did you just say about Chao brother?" Only after leaving the Feng family courtyard did the noise die down. Grandfather asked casually, and Grandmother glanced toward home and smiled. "What else could it be? The child's afraid of the dark."
"Mother! What do you mean afraid of the dark? Chao brother has a high fever—his whole body is hot like a fireball. I'm really terrified. Let's hurry home."
With Luo's Mother's words, the old couple's feet grew wings. Without another word, they immediately hurried home. Everyone knew that a fever—especially a high fever—could take a person's life with the slightest carelessness!
The three of them were home almost in the blink of an eye. The moment they reached the door, Luo's Grandmother anxiously called out Bai Chao's name, but sadly, no one answered her.
All of them, calling out "Chao brother" as they hurriedly rushed into the room. But Bai Chao, whether he had fainted or simply fallen asleep, lay quietly on the bed without making a sound.
"Dad, what do we do? He's still burning up." Luo's Mother's voice was clearly panicked, even tinged with sobs. Her Luo Yang and her own family's children had all been well-behaved since childhood; even when they had headaches, fevers, or food stagnation, they had never been this scorching hot all over. She was truly terrified.
By now, Luo's Mother had sat down at the edge of the bed, feeling in the dark for Bai Chao's hand, softly calling to him over and over. It was Luo's Grandfather who stayed calm—he told Luo's Mother to light the lamp while heading to his own room. When he returned, he was holding half a jin of good liquor that had just been brought back from town the day before yesterday.
Luo's Mother was quick too. By the time Grandfather returned, she had already lit the lamp. The room brightened, but the people in it grew even more anxious. Bai Chao's face was flushed an abnormal red, his body frighteningly hot everywhere, yet not a drop of sweat appeared even on his head.
"Old woman, pull the child's feet out and set them at the edge of the bed. I'll massage the soles of his feet."
As soon as Grandfather finished speaking, he was already crouching by the bed. Grandmother hurriedly fished the child's feet out from under the covers, and Mother leaned in close as well. The two of them watched quietly as Grandfather rubbed the white liquor onto the child's soles, massaging continuously until the liquor on his palms had completely disappeared, then repeating the process.
It wasn't until nearly two liang of the liquor had been used up that the person on the bed finally let out a faint whimper. Luo's Mother rushed over at once, only to hear the child crying "it hurts." Her heart ached instantly, and she quickly told Grandfather to stop.
"Dad, stop rubbing. The child's feet really hurt." Luo's Mother was genuinely crying now. Though she was a mother herself with grown children, Luo Yang had always been sturdy—even when he had headaches or fevers, he could still bounce around and eat two full bowls of rice. She had never seen the child so miserable.
Luo's Grandfather also knew that this constant rubbing wasn't a real solution—it was just a stopgap. They would wrap him in a thick quilt to sweat it out, and if he was still burning tomorrow morning, they would carry him to town to see a doctor.
The child must have fallen asleep outside and caught a chill. It was only because the child was weak that the symptoms were so severe and frightening. If wrapping him up for a night to sweat didn't work, they would have no choice but to take him to see a doctor in town.
That night, Luo's Mother didn't return to her own room; she stayed by Bai Chao's side as he slept. The two Luo elders went back to their room but couldn't fall asleep for a long time either—they were discussing what to do the next day.
"Chao brother, be good now. Let's get some sleep, and you'll feel better when you wake up tomorrow morning—no more suffering." Luo's Mother felt a little more at ease by now. Though the child's body was still hot, it was no longer as frightening as before.
Now it was just warm, not scalding.
The window in Luo Yang's room wasn't large, and at this time of year there were still plenty of mosquitoes—ones that bit even more painfully than in summer—so the doors and windows were kept closed day and night. Even though there was a bright moon outside, the room remained dim.
Bai Chao slept in a daze, but instinctively felt very uncomfortable and wanted to throw off what was covering him. He called out softly, his limbs growing restless.
"Child, what's wrong? Where does it hurt?" Luo's Mother reached out to tuck the blanket around him and leaned her ear close to his mouth to listen carefully. When she finally made out Bai Chao's murmurs, her body relaxed a little, but her brow furrowed. With a soft sigh, she changed her words of comfort from "Mother is here" to "Daddy is here."
Early the next morning, the two Luo elders woke up and roused the mother and son in the east room as well.
"Child's mother, stop sleeping. Get him up and give him a bath, wash all that sweat off, and take him to the county town to have a look."
"Mother, the fever has already gone down. Do we really need to go to the county town?" When Luo's Mother went to bed last night, Bai Chao's body was no longer very hot. She had slept soundly, reassured, and was still drowsy at this hour.
Grandmother waved a hand, refusing to listen to anything, and just urged everyone to get up quickly. "Last night I discussed it with his Grandfather. This child is thin as a bundle of bones—who knows how much he suffered. This illness is a reminder for us. We should take him to the medical hall to get checked, see if there are any hidden ailments so we can treat and nurse them early. If his constitution is truly weak, then even recovering this time would be useless. If this happens again and again, it'll scare us all to death."
Hearing Grandmother's words, Luo's Mother thought it over and realized it did make sense, so she quickly got up and woke Bai Chao as well.
Once Bai Chao soaked in the big wooden tub, the sticky feeling on his body was finally gone. Like a fish that had been parched for ages, he happily rolled around in the water, his two palms churning back and forth—he had finally come back to life.
Seeing him become lively and noisy again, the stone in Grandmother's heart completely settled, and she even had spare energy to complain about Grandfather.
Grandfather wasn't home at the moment; he had gone out to borrow money.
"That old man, why does he have to owe someone a favor over just a few dozen coins?" Grandmother's idea was that they could simply carry their grain to the county town, sell it, and take the money to the medical hall. But Grandfather wouldn't do it.
Grandfather had done the math: the price of rice per catty differed by a full coin between the county town and the prefecture city. A hundred catties meant a hundred coins. Even if grain didn't have such a big price gap, it was still fifty or sixty coins. Not a single catty of the family's grain would be sold in the county town—it would all be hauled to the grain shop in the prefecture city, which worked out to earning quite a bit more.
"Mother, let's see if Father can borrow the money. If he can, it really is worthwhile—we don't even earn a few dozen coins in a day."
"Mm." Bai Chao was busy playing with the water at the moment, but he still had time to respond to people. Paying no attention to what those around him were saying, he would occasionally let out a few 'mm, mm' sounds.
On ordinary days he never had this much water for bathing—just a small basin to wipe himself down. If he wanted a bath, Grandmother wouldn't allow it, saying it wasted firewood.
Grandmother and Mother were both amused by him and felt much more at ease. After letting him soak for about a quarter of an hour, they fished him out, dried him off, and dressed him in clean clothes.
Bai Chao didn't have any new clothes of his own yet; he was currently wearing Luo's Mother's old clothes. Though they were a bit big and patched, at least they were clean—better than that sweat-soaked outfit of his.
Grandfather did manage to borrow the money after all. At first light, Grandfather and Mother took Bai Chao toward the county town. Bai Chao was carried on someone's back—Grandfather, while pretending to call for him to come down and walk on his own, was also thinking about when he could take over the carrying. The family bickered all the way to the village entrance, where Bai Chao suddenly protested, shouting to be put down.
"Mother, wrong, wrong! You're going the wrong way!" Bai Chao remembered clearly—the road into town was not this one, but the one in the opposite direction!
Luo's Mother bounced the child up a bit, gave his bottom a light pat, and told him to behave himself. "The road heading north goes to the prefecture city. We're heading to the county town, which means going south—it's less than ten li away."
"Huh? There's a city there too?" Bai Chao was delighted. So there was a city that close by! Buying candy would be so convenient from now on.
Bai Chao was happy because of the nearby city, but he didn't know there was something even more delightful: less than five li from Baihua Village there was a small market, complete with a general store and even a shop selling candy.
Buying candy would be a breeze for him from now on.