It was strange. From what she had seen on mobile phones, doctors decades later didn't seem so eager to help people of their own accord. Everything they did had to be supported by credentials, sound reasoning, and evidence, because one misstep could lead to a complaint or lawsuit. At best, they might have to apologize and pay compensation; at worst, they could lose their careers or go to prison. Whether in news reports, medical dramas, or the warnings professors gave medical students in class, the doctor-patient relationship always seemed tense, with both sides on their guard.
Yet people in this era were inexplicably warmhearted, without even seeming afraid of being held responsible.
In the decades after her death, every aspect of society had changed. As an observer, she felt she knew everything, yet at the same time understood very little.
Still, the priority was Sun Tieniu's illness. After he took his medicine, Shu Jin Yue helped check his temperature and blood pressure, instructed him to drink the medicine warm every four hours, and went home.
Early the next morning, the first thing she did upon reaching work was ask whether Sun Tieniu had experienced any discomfort. When she learned that he had had diarrhea twice but had gone straight back to sleep afterward, without nausea or abdominal pain, she felt reassured.
There was another reason to celebrate today—payday!
After working for nearly two months, Shu Jin Yue finally received the first wages of her life: a full thirty-seven yuan!
That afternoon, she went to the department store and bought a jar of vanishing cream. In the evening, she visited the ghost market and bought two jin of eggs and some fine pork belly.
Of course, she had ordered the pork from a reseller in advance. All Zhao Wan Qiu needed to do was pick it up from beneath the bridge the next morning. Something so sought after would have been impossible to get if the reseller hadn't also wanted to befriend them.
Zhu Daqiang was particularly attentive to Sun Tieniu's condition. Whenever he had a spare moment, he visited the little partitioned room to check his blood pressure and temperature, or simply spent half an hour chatting with father and son.
Shu Jin Yue might not have looked as attentive as he was, but she wasn't idle. She found a copy of the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases at the waste-recycling station and started reading it. With her excellent memory, she could practically recite a book after reading it twice, but there were still passages she didn't understand. She planned to borrow some commentaries from the library.
She had barely stepped outside her workplace when she ran into someone familiar.
"Jin Yue! It really is you. You looked familiar from a distance, but I almost didn't recognize you." It was Huang Mei.
Shu Jin Yue's hair had almost reached her waist, but it was yellow and fluffy, and she had been losing a great deal of it. She had simply cut it to ear length and brushed a little fringe across her forehead, somewhat like the airy bangs popular in later decades. They framed her small, delicate face, and her fair, tender skin gave her a slender sort of beauty.
On Shu Wen Yun, that hairstyle would have hidden her best features. On Jin Yue, it emphasized her strengths and minimized her weaknesses.
"You're heading this way. Where are you going?"
"To the library. Have you just finished work, Sister Huang Mei?"
Huang Mei patted the back seat of her bicycle. "Hop on. I have business over there too, so I'll give you a ride."
After some time recuperating, Aunt Huang was doing much better. The discharge that used to flow almost like water had subsided to a normal level, and she had far more energy.
"When my father heard I was planning to take a husband into our family, he nearly went mad. He's been going around calling me unfilial." After drinking, he had even tried to strike her.
Unfortunately for him, Huang Mei was no longer someone who would meekly put up with it. If he wanted to hit her, he would have to catch her first.
After Huang Mei and her mother spent an entire night talking, they reached an understanding and began planning for their future.
Aunt Huang intended to sell her job. Even if she got less money for it, she would never let her nephew's family benefit. She had recently found a willing buyer, and Huang Mei was on her way to handle the transfer.
"We've sold it, and that's that. What's he going to do—get the whole family to scold me? Let them." All that mattered was getting the money into her own pocket.
After chatting for a while, they agreed to go on a spring outing together in a few days. By then they had reached the municipal library. Jin Yue showed her work identification at the front desk and registered, then searched the shelves. Not one annotated edition of the Treatise on Cold Damage was to be found.
Unwilling to give up, she searched again, with the same result.
Seeing her wandering about like a headless fly, a staff member asked what book she wanted. "Medical books? We don't have many. Why don't you try asking at the medical college?"
Shilan Province's college of traditional Chinese medicine had suspended admissions and been merged into the medical college as its Traditional Chinese Medicine Department. Its library collection had been moved there as well.
Fortunately, the medical college wasn't far away. Jin Yue took a bus for four stops and arrived. The gatekeeper mistook her for an ordinary student and let her in without asking a single question.
Shilan Medical College had been the university of her dreams in her previous life. It couldn't compare to Peking University or Tsinghua University, but for an older educated youth with a poor academic foundation, ordinary intelligence, and many years away from school, it had been far beyond reach.
Now, walking openly across its campus, she felt as though half her university dream had already come true.
She was so absorbed in the scenery that she failed to notice someone turning out of a side path. He didn't see her either. "Oh!"
"I'm sorry, comrade!"
"No, I wasn't watching where I was going."
They spoke at the same time, each rushing to apologize to the other.
The other person was a tall, fair-skinned young man in his early twenties, wearing metal-rimmed glasses. He met Jin Yue's eyes politely. "I'm the one who should apologize. I was in a hurry and didn't pay attention. Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." In fact, she had twisted her ankle a little.
The young man gathered up the papers scattered across the ground and apologized again.
Jin Yue found it amusing. He seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of apologies. "It's all right. I'm really fine."
Seeing that her gait was uneven, the young man asked, "Have you sprained your ankle? Let me take you to the campus clinic."
Jin Yue genuinely thought it was nothing serious. People twisted their ankles simply walking down the street; there was no need to visit a clinic for every little thing. When he continued insisting, she changed the subject. "What class are you in?"
"Oh, I'm a third-year student in clinical medicine. Are you a first-year student?"
Jin Yue didn't explain that she wasn't a student. She didn't expect to see him again, so there seemed no point in going into it.
"Are you certain you don't need me to take you to the clinic?"
Amused, Jin Yue teased him deliberately. "Since you're studying medicine, why don't you examine me yourself?"
The young man's face turned red. "I… I specialize in obstetrics and gynecology."
Jin Yue was taken aback and suppressed a laugh. There really weren't many men studying obstetrics and gynecology in this era.
Hearing that she wanted to visit the library, the student accompanied her on his way and kindly told her exactly which shelves on the left side of the third floor held the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department's books.
"Thank you. Why don't I treat you to a meal sometime?" This was merely Jin Yue's usual way of being politely noncommittal. An invitation without a date or contact information amounted to empty words.
But the boy took her seriously. Blushing, he replied, "A female comrade shouldn't have to treat me. I should be the one inviting you. By the way, what's your name?"
"Shu Jin Yue." The girl's eyes crinkled with her smile, revealing white teeth. She wasn't tall, nor were her features especially striking, but she had the sly charm of a kitten.
His face turned even redder. He left the library in a daze and didn't realize until he had returned to his dormitory that he had neither told her his name nor left any contact information.
Well, it shouldn't be difficult to find her: a first-year student in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department named Shu Jin Yue.
Jin Yue had already forgotten the encounter. After borrowing her books, she hurried back to work. When there was nothing pressing to do, she read and took notes.
With someone else's annotations to guide her, the obscure passages of the classics seemed to turn into plain language. The more Jin Yue read, the more interesting she found them.
After three straight days of drinking Xiao Chai Hu Tang, Sun Tieniu's health had improved considerably. He could eat, sleep, and even muster enough strength in his legs to get out of bed and take a few steps while holding on to the wall.
After another three days of exercise, Jin Yue told father and son to return home for the time being. Eating and lodging in the city cost money, and they were almost out of grain coupons. From then on, they could return for a follow-up once a week.
His liver and spleen hadn't enlarged overnight, and a few doses of medicine wouldn't make the swelling disappear overnight either.
Liu Jinbu clicked his tongue in amazement. "Who would've thought, Little Shu? The district hospital practically sentenced Sun Tieniu to death, yet after a few days in your care, not only has he not… he actually looks much healthier."
Zhu Daqiang said nothing, but his eyes remained fixed on Jin Yue.
"Just wait. In a little while, the improvement will be even more obvious."
"Well, look at you! Not even pretending to be modest?"
Jin Yue puffed out her chest. She really was confident in her medical skills. After so many years in the countryside, she had encountered quite a few difficult and unusual illnesses, many affecting people who couldn't afford major hospitals or whose conditions those hospitals couldn't treat.
Shu Wen Ming acted quickly. After meeting the reseller Zhang Liangwei a few times, he concluded that although the man operated at the ghost market, he wasn't bad by nature. He had principles and wasn't the type to put profit above everything else. So he let Sister Li at the vegetable shop know that he had access to grain coupons.
Sister Li immediately obtained twenty acrylic-fiber pillow towels from her husband. To be safe, they didn't discuss any price. She simply said they were benefits her husband had received through work, more than their family could use, and that a young man like Shu Wen Ming would need them when he married, so she would "give" them to him.
As for Shu Wen Ming, he had no way to repay Sister Li's kindness except to "give" her several grain coupons to help her family through its immediate shortage.
No money changed hands. It was all barter. Shu Wen Ming earned just two pillow towels and four jin's worth of grain coupons as his margin. With such a small quantity, and everything exchanged in kind, it could hardly be called speculation and profiteering, no matter how anyone argued.
"Second Brother, you're so crafty." Jin Yue had been worried he would leave evidence behind.
"Do you think I'm that stupid? Zhang Liangwei and Sister Li both know how to keep their mouths shut. I wouldn't dare do this with just anybody."
Not every neighbor in the compound would be suitable for such an arrangement. The last time Aunt Li failed to buy leather shoes while all the other aunties who competed with her managed to get a pair, she had been furious. If she caught the Shu siblings doing anything questionable, she would certainly make as much trouble as possible.
And if Teacher Shu and Zhao Wan Qiu found out what their children were doing, they'd probably be terrified enough to forbid them from going out at all.
"Oh, right, isn't that coworker of yours named Xu Wenli quite impressive? Why don't you invite her to the spring outing the day after tomorrow?"
"That greedy girl? Have you prepared enough food for her?"
"It's called maintaining connections. Don't you understand?" Jin Yue could talk a good game, but in truth she had very little life experience. Most of what she knew had come from novels and television. She was practically an armchair expert.
Still, she was slightly worried. Inviting someone at the last minute might make it seem as though they only needed another person to fill out the group. Would Xu Wenli even agree?
Since the outing was on a Sunday, besides the three Shu siblings, Jin Yue had invited Huang Mei and Yao Qingqing. She had originally wanted to invite Xu Si Qi too, but Shu Wen Yun volunteered to come, so Jin Yue decided not to ask him.
Now that she was earning a salary, Jin Yue wasn't quite so stingy when buying things. She asked Liu Jinbu for some braising stock, bought two jin of quail eggs from the ghost market, and had Zhao Wan Qiu braise them ahead of time. The leftover stock shouldn't go to waste, so they could braise potatoes, lotus roots, and edamame as well. They were only vegetables, and with her second brother working at the vegetable shop, they wouldn't cost much.
That made her think of all the braised duck snacks she had read about: duck necks, wings, intestines, gizzards, and collarbones. Food bloggers and written descriptions made them sound delicious, but she had never actually tasted them… She wanted to try them so badly!
Being a wandering spirit who could neither smell nor eat had been truly pitiful!
The five members of the Shu household didn't own a single bicycle between them, but Yao Qingqing and Huang Mei each had one. One could carry Jin Yue and the other Wen Yun, and they could take turns pedaling so neither rider would get too tired.
That left Shu Wen Ming on his own…
Jin Yue laughed. "Second Brother, remember to take the bus yourself! Catch Route Three at the entrance to our hutong, then transfer to Route Six. If you're quick and don't dawdle on the way, you might arrive in time for a few scraps."
Shu Wen Ming ground his teeth and silently swore that he would buy a bicycle within two years. He had never thought much of it before, but now he realized that a man without his own wheels had no dignity!
Make money. He had to make money! Money was a man's pride and dignity!
"Give me those. You girls ride carefully." He collected all the food and drinks, shouldered everything himself, and walked toward the entrance to the hutong.
There weren't many public buses in those days, and the interval between departures was usually more than half an hour. As luck would have it, Route Three pulled away just as he reached the stop. The driver behaved as though he hadn't seen him… No, he had definitely seen him. He had even deliberately stepped on the accelerator.
Shu Jin Yue burst out laughing behind him. Shu Wen Yun couldn't help smiling either.
"Jin Yue, your second brother is hilarious. Is he always this unlucky?"
"Unlucky? He's terribly unlucky!" Other children became Young Pioneers in first grade, but her second brother barely managed to get his red scarf before graduating from fifth grade. When he finished junior high, the first recruitment drive offered permanent factory jobs, but he happened to get diarrhea on examination day. During the second recruitment drive, the factory wanted apprentices, but he forgot his household registration booklet and returned with it only after everything was over.
Teacher Shu had scolded him countless times, but he had never managed to cure his absentmindedness.
Of course, one shouldn't air the family's dirty laundry. Jin Yue didn't tell them any of that. She was just about to ask Yao Qingqing to keep an eye out for a suitable girl to introduce to her brother.
"Hey, Jin Yue, look! Your second brother…"
It turned out Shu Wen Ming, who had been waiting for the bus at the hutong entrance, had run into a coworker who happened to be coming that way for an outing.
Jin Yue urged Yao Qingqing to pedal closer so she could listen in unnoticed. But the moment she heard the words "greedy girl," she knew that the plump young woman in the floral dress riding a brand-new Forever bicycle was the legendary Xu Wenli.
She had no idea what Shu Wen Ming had said to her. He had come home the previous evening grumbling that Xu Wenli wouldn't join their spring outing, leaving Jin Yue a little disappointed. Yet here she was, right at their doorstep. What an extraordinary coincidence!
Sure enough, Shu Wen Ming argued with Xu Wenli for a while. Then he said something Jin Yue couldn't hear. She saw Xu Wenli swallow, and the next moment the young woman obediently got off her bicycle. Shu Wen Ming climbed on, she sat sideways on the rear seat, and the two rode happily toward them.
"Sister Wenli, I'm so glad you could come!"
Xu Wenli's fair cheeks immediately flushed, like a large, juicy, crisp, sweet autumn apple. Jin Yue almost wanted to take a bite.
The girl had round eyes, a round mouth, and round cheeks, with glossy black hair tied into two short braids. She was adorable! How could Shu Wen Ming call her a greedy girl?
"I… I actually had something to do at home, so I couldn't come. I was only passing through your hutong because I came to visit… yes, a relative. But since Shu Wen Ming asked me, I'll come along. Otherwise, it would be rather inconvenient for him without a bicycle, wouldn't it?"
Jin Yue smiled brightly. Yes, of course. She had specially put on a floral dress even though it left her shivering in the cold, specially changed into colorful nylon stockings and black leather shoes, specially tied up her hair with a pretty silk scarf, and ridden all the way to Liu Ye Hutong to visit a relative—only to accidentally run into her coworker.
Inside, Jin Yue was nearly bursting with curiosity. Was there something going on between Second Brother and Sister Wenli? She should have guessed last time. Even the most foolish son of a wealthy landlord wouldn't normally trade a pair of leather shoes for two pieces of chocolate.
Xu Wenli probably liked her second brother. Whether he returned her feelings was harder to tell, since he acted obnoxious toward just about everyone.
Three bicycles carried six people. Chatting as they rode, they soon reached the foot of West Mountain.
The winter just past had been cold, but spring had arrived early. A faint chill lingered in the air, while pink and white peach blossoms already dotted the slopes, and the grass beside the road was turning green.
It was perfect weather for a spring outing. Plenty of other young people had the same idea and were flocking to West Mountain Park.
But their group didn't enter the park. Instead, they climbed halfway up West Mountain, followed a little path downward, and after half an hour of twists and turns reached an open clearing.
"See? I told you! This was my brother and his friends' secret hideout. They used to come here all the time. I followed him here once, hehe…" Yao Qingqing spoke of her late brother without bursting into tears this time.
Huang Mei joined in. "Without you leading us, ordinary people would never find such a wonderful place."
The clearing was neither too large nor too small. Tender green shoots covered the ground, with little purple and yellow wildflowers scattered among them. Beside it ran a shallow channel carved by a mountain spring, filled with crystal-clear water. Straight ahead, they had an unobstructed view of the lush trees at the foot of the mountain. Best of all, there was almost no wind.
Spring in Shu City was notorious for its wind and dryness. Somehow, this spot avoided both.
"It's such a lovely place. We should come often!" Xu Wenli fanned herself. Being rounder in figure, she grew hot more easily.
"You? Come here often? If I hadn't pushed your bicycle from behind, would you even have made it up here?" Shu Wen Ming shook out his sore arms. "Can't you eat a little less and lose some weight?"
Xu Wenli's face turned bright red. She didn't seem to know what to do with her hands or feet.
Jin Yue was furious and slapped him on the back. "Get lost! Not everyone is a skinny monkey like you. Sister Wenli has a prosperous-looking figure!"
"Don't listen to him, Sister Wenli. His mouth stinks worse than a public toilet." Even the usually refined Shu Wen Yun couldn't help scolding him.
Xu Wenli burst out laughing again. "I think his mouth stinks too. Hmph!"
To punish him for his foul mouth, the five girls kept him running around. One moment they sent him to gather firewood; the next they had him take out the fruit and wash it. Meanwhile, they wandered around picking wildflowers and admiring themselves.
All five girls had grown up in the city, and apart from Shu Jin Yue, they rarely had the chance to see such wildflowers in their natural setting. Jin Yue wove each of them a garland of colorful blossoms, and they looked lovely wearing them.
They played until the sun was high in the sky. Then Shu Wen Ming suddenly remembered something. "It's half past ten. I have to go down the mountain to meet someone."
"Someone else is coming? Who is it? Do I know them?" Xu Wenli bounced over with her flower crown on, parading in front of him.
Jin Yue groaned inwardly.
If Shu Wen Ming had told her earlier that Xu Wenli liked him, she wouldn't have invited that cousin from the Li family. But she had already extended the invitation and couldn't simply tell the girl not to come. Now she was about to arrive—and today's outing was supposed to include a blind date!
To make matters worse, Shu Wen Ming had a mouth that could never keep quiet. "My blind date."
Shu Jin Yue: "…" Aaaah! Second Brother, no wonder you're single!
Shu Wen Yun, who was usually so good at smoothing things over: "…"
Yao Qingqing and Huang Mei instinctively looked at Xu Wenli. If they still hadn't figured out her feelings after the ride up the mountain, they'd have been blind.
Unexpectedly, Xu Wenli's eyes lit up. Far from getting angry, she became more excited. "Wow, really? Come on, I'll go with you! I have to help you judge whether she's suitable!"
Everyone: "…"
The girls exchanged glances. Why did both these people seem so utterly carefree? Fine, this was no longer their problem.
Shu Wen Yun spread out the mat she had prepared and washed the previous day so they could sit directly on the grass. Huang Mei brought over a few flat, clean stones to hold the mat down and serve as little tables.
Yao Qingqing took out matches to start a fire, while Jin Yue laid out the snacks. Huang Mei had also brought something: sunflower seeds and peanuts roasted by Aunt Huang.
Jin Yue grabbed a handful. "Mmm, delicious! They're five-spice flavored too!"
"My mother used to be especially good at making snacks when she worked at the state-owned restaurant—fried dough sticks, fried pastries, twisted dough fritters, all kinds of things. Around the Spring Festival, people would line up just to buy her freshly fried treats." All she needed was a stove and a big iron wok to fry and sell them on the spot.
"As for these roasted seeds, she worked out the recipe herself. When I was little, I only got them on my birthday. Today, it's all thanks to Jin Yue." Everything was scarce in those days. Even the seeds sold outside cinemas were measured by the handful or by the cup—half a fen a cup—and a cup wouldn't last long.
When Aunt Huang heard about their spring outing, she'd immediately said she would make something for her daughter to bring Jin Yue. She still felt guilty over the unpleasantness surrounding the earlier attempt to buy the job, especially since Jin Yue had put it behind her and treated her illness anyway.
"Oh, don't make such a fuss! We're friends; there's no need to be formal. If you want more, just visit Auntie." Jin Yue had already decided to buy several jin of raw sunflower seeds with next month's wages and ask Aunt Huang to roast them. She could bring some home for Teacher Shu and Zhao Wan Qiu to taste.
Yao Qingqing tasted a handful and praised them too. "Your mother is amazing. She can make so many delicious things. My mother couldn't make anything. She spent most of the year away doing geological surveys. When my brother and I were little, it was hard even to see her. In our whole hutong, only the two of us and… Second Brother Xu were the most pitiful."
Seeing that Yao Qingqing could now speak calmly of her parents' early deaths, Jin Yue made no effort to change the subject. She listened quietly and added a few words now and then. She didn't even think to ask who "Second Brother Xu" was.
Although Yao Qingqing had never lacked food, clothing, a spacious home, or a good job, she no longer had any family. Jin Yue remembered how harsh she herself had been on the night she rescued Qingqing from the water, and felt a sudden pang of guilt.
That guilt didn't last long, however, because Shu Wen Ming had arrived with the newcomer.
Little Li had been busy and couldn't come up the mountain. He had escorted his cousin to the foot of the mountain, handed her over to Shu Wen Ming, and hurried back to his duty shift. Little Li's cousin was a tall, young woman with wheat-colored skin, a flowered padded jacket, and a green headscarf. She walked with a powerful, confident stride.
Xu Wenli was left panting as she tried to keep up with her.
Perhaps it was Jin Yue's imagination, but Shu Wen Ming occasionally turned to wait for Xu Wenli, and when they reached a steep section of the path, he even pulled her up with a stick.
Little Li's cousin was an outgoing girl. She greeted Jin Yue and the others as soon as she arrived. Girls could always find something to talk about—hairstyles, clothes, good food, and fun places—and they soon warmed to one another.
"These seeds are so tasty! They're different from what we eat back in the village. Were they roasted with spices?"
"Your auntie is so clever with her hands. I hope she'll teach me someday. We grow a whole row of sunflowers along the edge of our family's private plot, and every year we harvest twenty-odd jin of seeds. We've had good rain this year, so we might get thirty!"
"We plant lots of fruit and vegetables at home. Other families plant more grain, but my mother says we have so many children who like snacks that we might as well grow some treats for them."
Listening to her talk and noticing her strong, healthy build and seemingly boundless energy, Jin Yue guessed that her family probably had plenty of able-bodied laborers. Their share of grain from the production team must be enough to feed everyone, so they didn't need to devote their private plot to grain.
It was rather like the family of Wang Xiaohong, the girl she'd met at People's Park before.
But this girl's temperament was much better than Wang Xiaohong's. She wasn't haughty, respected others, and treated everyone with easy confidence. Even with Shu Wen Ming, her prospective match, she could start a conversation naturally and openly.
Even if she didn't become Jin Yue's second sister-in-law, she'd make a good friend… Of course, after what happened with Xu Wenli, Jin Yue had no intention of interfering in her second brother's affairs anymore.
What intrigued her now was whether Xu Wenli had also liked him in her previous life. If so, why hadn't they ended up together? Why had he gone far away and remained unmarried for the rest of his life?
Everyone chatted and snacked for two hours. Then Jin Yue's hands began to itch for something to do, and she decided to explore the nearby hills.
Her feelings toward country life were complicated. On one hand, she hated the tightly interwoven clan networks and their suffocating control. On the other, she loved the treasure troves that were the mountains and forests—a paradise for medicinal herbs.
Sure enough, after walking just a short distance, she spotted herbs commonly used in the countryside: some to stop bleeding, some to dispel phlegm, some to promote the flow of qi, and some to aid digestion. Every one was a welcome sight.
"Jin Yue, why are you picking these?" Yao Qingqing ran after her, carrying a few small white wildflowers.
"To make medicinal pills to take home." The Shu parents were very frugal. When they caught a cold, they hated spending money on medicine, let alone going to hospital. Zhao Wan Qiu had been a nurse for years, yet even she still took expired medicine.
She secretly took it when the children weren't looking, afraid of being scolded. Jin Yue had discovered it only a few days earlier, while sorting through the family medicine box.
"What's this one?"
"Bupleurum. It's used to soothe the liver and relieve emotional constraint." She could make Xiao Yao Wan from it when she got home, just right for the quick-tempered Zhao Wan Qiu, who was always getting angry.
"And what's that one you dug out of the ground?"
"Bletilla. It stops bleeding and is used for conditions like coughing or vomiting blood."
Whenever Jin Yue found a herb, Yao Qingqing asked about it, then helped her dig it up. In less than an hour, the little basket that had held her snacks was filled to the brim.
As the sun neared the horizon, everyone packed up to go home. Jin Yue had already dug several baskets full of herbs. They politely declined Li Yulan's invitation and headed back the same way they'd come.
Li Yulan was delighted. She'd seen these landscapes all her life and had long since grown tired of them. But with these girls, no one looked down on her for being unable to read. They taught her to play cards and chatted with her about the fashionable clothes, vanishing cream, and movies in the city. Even the scenery seemed different.
"It's a shame we didn't meet sooner. You missed our family's pig slaughter! This winter, when we slaughter pigs again, you must all come. We raised three this year, and after handing over the pig required by the state, we'll still have two to butcher. There'll be plenty of meat! I'll get my mother to make sauerkraut stewed with pig's blood. It's delicious!"
Everyone happily agreed. "When you have time, come to the city and visit us. We can go to the cinema together."
"Or go boating in the park!" Xu Wenli liked her too and had already forgotten that this was Shu Wen Ming's prospective blind date.
When they returned home, the old couple cared most about the meeting with Li Yulan. They asked what the girl was like and, on hearing both Jin Yue and Wen Yun speak well of her, hurried to question Shu Wen Ming.
"She's quite good."
This time, Shu Wen Ming hadn't been put off.
The old couple's eyes lit up. This was the first time he'd ever said a blind date was "quite good." Did that mean there was hope?
"Then make sure you don't let this opportunity slip away! If the two of you get along, we have no objections to her family. Try to settle the matter soon, so I can finally stop worrying about you."
Shu Wen Ming grew irritable. "You're getting ahead of yourselves. You think I can make it happen just because I want to? I know perfectly well what sort of circumstances I'm in."
"But you shouldn't put yourself down either!"
Shu Wen Ming shook his head impatiently and slipped away.
The old couple then interrogated Jin Yue and Wen Yun. Had anything unpleasant happened between Shu Wen Ming and Li Yulan during the outing? The sisters shook their heads. Until they knew how their brother felt about Xu Wenli, they weren't going to expose her feelings.
With older people, eagerness to help could sometimes make matters worse.
The uncertainty left the old couple sighing with worry. For two days in a row, they barely had an appetite.
After returning from herb gathering, Jin Yue was busy from morning to night. She washed the herbs and let them dry naturally, then began processing them. Once they had been prepared and dried, she still had to obtain the ingredients she hadn't found in the hills from hospitals and medicinal-materials shops. Next came grinding, boiling, and extracting, then adding supplementary ingredients and rolling everything into pills. By the time her finished medicinal pills were ready, it was already the fourth lunar month.
The family's rooms were too small, so she had to carry the stove and iron wok into the compound to do her processing.
"Jin Yue, what are you boiling? Why does it smell so strong?"
"Medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine." She worked during the day and spent her weekends hunting for useful finds at the recycling station, so she could only work on her medicines at night.
"Goodness, who's sick in your family?"
Jin Yue had no choice but to explain that she was making medicinal pills. In a communal courtyard, there was no keeping secrets anyway.
When everyone heard she was making Xiao Yao Wan, they immediately gathered around. They all recognized the name! As she worked, Jin Yue explained the pills' ingredients, benefits, and the conditions they were meant to treat.
People had previously thought that her cure of Old Lady Yang's illness might have been a lucky accident—a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse. Some had asked her to treat minor ailments afterward, but anyone could treat little problems, and those cases didn't demonstrate much skill. Now, though, she could explain everything so fluently and in such detail that even those who had doubted her medical training began to believe her.
After all, even if you wanted to make up a convincing story about such things, you'd have to know something first.
"You say these are for people who aren't in a good mood? Give me a bottle, then," Aunt Zhao suddenly said.
"What's troubling you, Aunt Zhao?"
"Oh, it's my third son. I've introduced him to several girls, and none of the matches have worked out. I'm worried sick. He's nearly twenty-three!" She even went home and brought back five eggs to thank Jin Yue.
Teacher Shu thought gloomily, *In that case, I should have been eating Xiao Yao Wan like rice for ages.*
When the others heard this, they became interested too. What family didn't have worries? They couldn't bear to take cash to a hospital and buy medicine, but exchanging a few things they already had at home, like Aunt Zhao did, didn't feel nearly so painful.
So Aunt Yang brought half a strip of homemade cured pork, two fingers wide. Sister Liu brought dried mushrooms sent by her family… Uncle Feng became anxious too. He wanted some for his wife. After stammering for a long time, he stamped his foot. "Jin Yue, would you take some dry tobacco my nephew grows in the countryside?"
Jin Yue was about to say she didn't smoke, but then she remembered that Teacher Shu still took out the two cigarettes Cadre Liu had passed him before the New Year every day just to smell them. She changed her answer at once. "Of course, Uncle Feng! Homegrown tobacco has the best flavor."
People said you shouldn't accept food offered as a humiliating handout, but Teacher Shu certainly loved sniffing those humiliating charity cigarettes from Cadre Liu. With the tobacco Uncle Feng gave them, she could roll Teacher Shu some cigarettes of his own, ones he could smoke with his dignity intact.
…
After reserving enough of the first batch of pills for the family, Jin Yue exchanged every last bottle. It was genuine net profit. Most ingredients had been gathered in the mountains, and only two herbs had to be purchased. Both were cheap, making the cost practically negligible.
Even Shu Wen Ming began looking at Jin Yue with an unreadable expression. He had a bold idea forming in his mind…
Of course, medicine wasn't something to be taken carelessly, and Jin Yue didn't agree to every exchange. She first checked each person's pulse and asked about their symptoms. Different conditions called for different doses and treatment durations.
While things were bustling along in the compound, several children suddenly came running through the entrance. "Sister Jin Yue! Someone's here to see you!"
No sooner had they spoken than the crackle and pop of firecrackers sounded at the main gate.
"Who sets off firecrackers when it isn't a holiday?"
"The people coming to see Sister Jin Yue! There are several of them!"
"That's at least two hundred bangs, isn't it? Were there any duds? I want to pick up the duds!"
"Doctor Little Shu, thank you for curing our Tieniu! Our whole family has come to thank you!" Seven or eight people stood there, some in sheepskin jackets and others with white or green headscarves. One glance showed they were honest, hardworking rural commune members.
Everyone was astonished. They knew Shu Jin Yue worked at the epidemic prevention station catching rats and eliminating mosquitoes, but they'd never heard that she treated patients at a clinic.
"Old Zhao, is that really your Jin Yue?"
"Teacher Shu, did your Jin Yue cure another difficult illness?"
Teacher Shu and Zhao Wan Qiu were both completely bewildered. They hadn't known either! Their daughter spent her evenings tinkering with medicine, and when she occasionally mentioned work, all they did was remind her to be humble and to take the initiative in wiping tables and sweeping the floor.
Jin Yue, however, had no attention to spare for the chatter. She was staring at the young man behind the crowd. A little over a month ago, he'd been brought to her on a handcart with legs as thin as chopsticks, a belly like a frog's, and lifeless eyes. Now he'd walked here on his own!
His eyes shone, his face was ruddy, and his swollen belly had flattened. Who would believe he'd been a man told to go home and prepare for death a little over a month earlier?
"We were supposed to bring him for his follow-up last week," Old Sun said, his face glowing with happiness, "but Tieniu said he wanted to recover a bit more and come thank you on his own two feet. None of us believed him! Look at him now. He walked the whole way himself. We tried to make him ride in the cart, but he wouldn't!"
Old Sun continued, "Ever since he started taking Doctor Little Shu's medicine, Tieniu hasn't complained of stomach pain, and his fever has gone. At first he could eat only half a cornbread bun, but now he can eat three. If we had enough grain at home, he could eat five!"
"He even went back to work in the fields the day before yesterday. Nobody in our production team could believe it," Mother Sun added. She pulled forward a blushing young woman. "This is our daughter-in-law-to-be. She and Tieniu are getting married next month."
"If Tieniu hadn't fallen ill, they'd have married long ago. Their child might already be running about!" It was the young woman's refusal to abandon him that had given Sun Tieniu the courage and determination to fight his illness.
The young couple exchanged tender looks, and the girl's cheeks turned redder still.
"We came to the city first thing this morning and went straight to the hospital for tests. Look at this report! It says his enlarged liver and spleen have shrunk back. The doctor thought he'd made a mistake and checked twice!"
Jin Yue took the report and saw that it was true. She checked his pulse as well. The wiry quality had vanished; it was now calm, even, gentle, and strong, with the qualities of stomach qi, spirit, and root all present.
It was the pulse of a healthy person. Her very first major treatment had succeeded!
The other neighbors asked the Sun family about Tieniu's former condition. Their account was truly alarming. Even Aunt Li, who had always disliked Jin Yue, couldn't find anything bad to say.
After all, the Suns had no reason to lie. Who would use the life and health of their only son to build up a stranger's reputation? That was one thing even Aunt Li believed firmly.
Neighbors who heard the commotion from several nearby compounds came over as well. They listened in amazement and gave Jin Yue approving thumbs-up.
"I always said Jin Yue was a clever girl. Looks like I was right!"
"Exactly! Going to the countryside turned out to be a blessing in disguise for her. Having a useful skill matters more than anything. Doctors are valued wherever they go."
To tell the truth, the Shu family's circumstances were modest even by the standards of the crowded communal courtyard. They weren't the sort of family anyone expected great things from. But with Shu Jin Yue emerging as a talent, they might one day have a golden phoenix in the family. Wasn't it worth building a good relationship with them?
Thinking back to the important leader who had come to ask Jin Yue for medical help before the New Year, they became even more convinced that the rumor about a powerful figure arranging her job was true. Their envy and jealousy only grew.
The Sun family had brought not just all their relatives, but also ten jin of corn, two large baskets of potatoes, and seven or eight big white radishes for Jin Yue. The gifts weren't worth much money, but for the impoverished Sun family, they were the best they could afford.
Zhao Wan Qiu tried to refuse them. When the Suns insisted, she accepted just a few potatoes and radishes as a gesture. "You can't get vegetables this fresh in the city, so we'll take these. But bring the cornmeal back with you and help Tieniu recover. The sooner he regains his strength, the sooner he can earn work points and marry his bride."
Everyone thought Zhao Wan Qiu had done the right thing. You couldn't take advantage of people in their hour of need. Only Aunt Li clicked her tongue: corn was coarse grain, but ten whole jin of it! What a wasteful woman Zhao Wan Qiu was to turn it down. If she'd been in her place, she'd have tried to get another ten jin out of them!
After a lengthy exchange of refusals and insistence, the Suns finally took back the corn. But they made everyone promise that when the young couple married next month, the whole Shu family would attend. They had raised a pig weighing just over a hundred jin. They hadn't planned to slaughter it, but to celebrate their son's recovery and his wedding, they had decided to do so. The Shus absolutely had to come.
If the whole family went to eat, it would be taking advantage of the Suns. The Shus weren't that sort of people. But with so many guests present, it would look awkward to keep refusing, so they provisionally agreed, planning to find an excuse not to go when the time came.
The lively visit lasted more than two hours. By the time the Sun family left, it was dark, and Jin Yue was genuinely exhausted.
She had to work, make medicine, and deal with all these social obligations. Even a donkey on a production team wouldn't be worked this hard!
But just as she was about to go inside to rest, Uncle Feng stopped her. He hemmed and hawed for ages without managing to put a proper sentence together.
Jin Yue was puzzled. Did he want the dry tobacco he'd just given her back? But Teacher Shu was already smoking it with great satisfaction!
She could hardly be blamed for wondering. Uncle Feng was nicknamed "Stingy Old Feng" in the compound. They said a person might be given the wrong name, but never the wrong nickname. Give him a single peanut and he could make it last through three months of drinking—if he ever brought himself to spend money on liquor, that was.
"Uncle Feng, if you want to…"
"Jin Yue, could you go and examine your Sister Chunxia? She's developed a strange illness recently. She's seen a lot of doctors, and none of them could help. Your Aunt Feng has been so worried she's made herself ill, which is why I exchanged the tobacco for your Xiao Yao Wan."