Fever

I had a cold as a child. If it is small, it means that it is like nothing during the day, and it will not be delayed.

The mother poured the white wine into a small bowl, lit the match and threw it into the wine bowl, and a blue ethereal flame quickly rose from the mouth of the bowl. When the burnt-out matchstick lost its vitality and left thin black marks on the bottom of the bowl, my mother dipped a little bit of hot wine and rubbed my chest, back, head core, armpits with the palm of your hand... …

The body is kneaded and kneaded like dough in the strong hands of the mother. The whole process is like a solemn and ancient religious ceremony, which makes people nervous and intoxicated. It was not until the whole house was filled with the aroma of wine, and the head was dizzy and sweating profusely, that the fever gradually subsided.

But the next day I was still awake during the day and faint at night.

My mother finally paid for it and got a few bottles of elixir—canned peaches, but I was so happy that I still didn’t escape the nightmare of fever. I don't know if it was because of the loss of canned peaches, or because I was so distressed that my mother had a heart attack.

The neighbor's aunt told me that her eldest sister, the aunt of her uncle's family, had a fever every night for a few days when she was a child. The fever reached 40 degrees Celsius. In the end, she became an idiot. When she grew up, she married a idiot and survived. A little fool, big and small, three fools walk the streets every day begging for food.

Although my body temperature never exceeded 40°C, my mother was also a little scared, as if she had foreseen that I would be a fool in the future, she touched my head and kept crying.

I don't know why, and I imagined that one day, the three people in the future will not need to go down to the dark well to dig coal, and wander around looking for food. What a happy thing it will be.

My mother took me to the Mining Department Hospital every day. The doctor Wang, who is neither young nor very old, who wears a white coat with folds and yellow stains all day long, I don't know if he is called uncle or grandfather, said to me in a thick voice with a cheerful smile:

"Why isn't the big-eyed girl alright? It's okay for a small problem."

His hands are rough and his fingernails are black, like my father, who goes underground to dig coal every day. With such a hand, he swiftly stabbed a needle in my butt, causing me to groan instantly in pain.

The shallots that my mother planted were sent to Doctor Wang, but I didn't feel well, so I sent a few bundles of radishes. Finally, when I saw my mother and me again, Dr. Wang was looking forward to the surprise and embarrassed of disappointment. The complicated emotions were obscured on his dark face.

He stroked his unkempt hair, then looked at me, who was staring at him with wide eyes, and muttered: "No way, all the needles that should be pierced, and all the medicines that should be taken, such as analgesia and tetracycline. , I tried oxytetracycline one by one, and I used penicillin for the big-eyed girl, but it was specially approved by the mine manager... Xiao Wang's wife, you also know that I was born barefoot, no, you can take it. child on..."

The mother interrupted Dr. Wang's words with grief and decisiveness: "Doctor, my little Wang, you know, he has been muddled again these days. I'm afraid that someday he will come up and come to you with five horses and spears. We are reluctant to eat the salted duck eggs in my house, so my brother-in-law will drink it, and the remaining five will be brought to you, my girl It's your life..."

My mother's coercive words made Doctor Wang's face longer and darker. He swallowed the words that he asked me to go to the city's big hospital and became silent and profound.

With his left hand supporting his cheek, his middle and index fingers with thick knuckles of his right hand tapped the writing desk across the thick glass. The monk captures the moves in the cheat book in his mind, so that he can subdue the tiger and the devil at any time.

My mother and I both looked at him reverently and obsessively. We didn't dare to shake a little bit. The air in our memory seemed to be frozen with Lysol water, and only a few blowflies happily hit the glass on the window...

After a long while, Doctor Wang's eyes suddenly widened, and the brilliance came to an end. He stood up abruptly, coughed loudly, spat out a mouthful of old phlegm on the ground, wiped it with the soles of his shoes, clenched fists with both hands and released them, and after slowly turning twice, finally seemed to have made up his mind to sit down. Go back to the chair.

Dr. Wang opened the drawer, inspected it slowly, and finally took out a stack of thick envelopes with rubber bands.

After undoing the rubber band, he carefully and meticulously checked each postmark stamp, as if he was admiring a painting, but also like fondling his treasures.

After picking out two of the envelopes, he put the rest on the rubber band and put it back in the drawer. After thinking about it for a while, he took back the stack of envelopes from the drawer. The stamps on the three envelopes were cut along the gears with medical scissors, and the stamps were finally placed in the water of his white enamel tea jar.

After about ten minutes, Dr. Wang took out the stamps one by one with tweezers and put them in a tray. His rough hands were very dexterous, and he gently peeled off the paper on the back of each stamp like an operation. The stamps and the paper were not damaged at all, as if they had never been glued together.

Next, he cut a piece of cotton gauze for wrapping, wiped the three stamps with a soft gauze, and blew on the stamps while holding his mouth until the stamps became semi-dry.

As he laid the stamps on the windowsill to dry, he seemed to remember our stunned mother and daughter. He looked at my mother and then at me, and said slowly:

"Little Wang's wife, I'll tell you three things. First, your shallots and radishes are too thin and thin, so they must be dense. Although it's not spicy and a little sweet, it's delicious when dipped in soy sauce, but the yield If you can't get up, you have to increase the plant spacing a little bit, and it will definitely be a lot thicker by then, so that you can sell more money in the market.

"By the way, I don't like salted duck eggs. You can't eat too much with chronic pharyngitis. You can take it back and give it to the children. Don't let your brother-in-law stare at him. If you tell him to eat it for me, he won't be with you. Crazy drinking at home.

"Second, yes, go home and tell your little Wang, you have to go to work seriously in the future, don't work against the mine manager Duan Chang, it's not good, he's all cut off the second-level worker (the title is downgraded), and the three children are all grown up. , his salary is not enough to spend, besides, I will not be able to give him sick leave in the future. I am going back to Shanghai. I am an old educated youth who should have returned to the city long ago. I won't even say it. He doesn't have to steal other people's stamps and give them to me anymore... Thanks to the fact that he has known your little Wang over the years, the dean doesn't even dare to wear small shoes for me..."

For some reason, Dr. Wang's voice was hoarse and choked.

"Third yes..." Having said this, he glanced outside the door, lowered his voice, and said to his mother, "The big-eyed girl's illness is most likely to be frightened by someone. I picked it out for you. Three stamps, you see..."

As he said that, he motioned his mother to go to the window sill: "This is what I treasured. If I didn't really care about your big-eyed girl, I wouldn't be able to give you these three pictures. Look, this one is a 'war Nezha', this one is 'Bone of the Bone', the most is 'Pansidong', this one is not easy to get, the face value is 60 cents, how much do you sell a bundle of shallots? It's 3 cents, it takes 20 bundles to exchange for one ...my salary is less than 30 yuan a month..."

Dr. Wang talked to his mother ramble, and he was so distressed. Mother just kept nodding her head, not knowing what to say.

"You are at the gate of your house at nine o'clock every night, burn a stamp in an iron spoon, then pour a little less boiling water and Yihe, and give it to the big-eyed girl to drink.

"By the way, the order of burning can't be changed, you have to remember, first is 'Battle Nezha', then 'Bone Fighting', and 'Pan Si Dong' is the last, after drinking, knock the latte spoon on the threshold, Knock and shout 'Hun'er come home', knock three times, shout three times, the big-eyed girl wants to follow you and shout 'Hun'er upper body'...

"Finally, take the ashes from the bottom of the pot and smear the big-eyed girl's forehead. It has to be burned for three days, but don't burn all the brains. Don't worry, no matter which way the monster is, Sun Wukong will be able to descend anyway. After seven days, The big-eyed girl is ready."

Having said that, Doctor Wang put the three dried stamps into a blank envelope and gave them to his mother.

The mother's eyes were red with excitement, and she kept trying to keep the salted duck eggs, and tore them to the end, but he also took them away.

When we were about to go out, our mother and daughter looked back and looked at each other in unison. His eyes were a little wet, and finally he instructed: "If it still doesn't work, you have to go to a big hospital, and the fever can't be delayed any longer."

It's amazing to say that it doesn't take seven days, and I won't burn it after two days. It seems that Sun Wukong really took the demon away...

When my father went to invite Doctor Wang for a drink, he had already left. Since then, although the father's temperament has not changed, he is no longer vague about going to work, and he retired safely at the age of 50.

Years later, we gradually understood Dr. Wang's good intentions. His remedies were nothing more than a placebo in that era. After using so many antipyretics, fever reduction is inevitable.

But I also think of him from time to time, and how he looked when he called me "big-eyed girl". I wonder how he was doing in Shanghai? Whether he will still use magical methods to cure people, I think people in big cities will not be easily fooled by him.

Thirty years later, after three rounds of debriefing and defense, the mid-level title was cancelled, and personnel changed, I started to have a fever like I did when I was a child. The body temperature was normal in the morning and rose to about 37.5 ℃ in the afternoon.

Although it never exceeded 37.6 ℃, this temperature burned me in a daze. After a lot of tossing in the major hospitals, the doctor finally announced that my body temperature was normal and I was not sick, and only asked me to record the temperature changes twice a day, morning and evening.

The results of TCM pulse numbers vary. From the beginning of November to April of the following year, I have taken nearly 100 doses of various bitter Chinese medicines, and I still have a low fever with me. During this period, my mother carefully mentioned Dr. Wang's remedies. I flatly refused, and even got a little angry. Dr. Wang could no longer deceive me. It only reminded me of the set of "Journey to the West" stamps issued in 1979.

Hehe, in the end, Dr. Wang still didn't give up the most valuable piece of "Journey to Learn from the Scriptures", with a face value of 70 cents!

After being recommended by others, I found Vice President Wang of the Municipal Hospital.

Vice-President Wang looks around 50 years old, lean, elegant and capable, and has no resemblance to the doctor Wang who has deep memory.

After carefully looking at the various thick original inspection documents I brought, his slightly non-local dialect and obscure consultation made my communication with him stop for a while.

He said slightly sullenly, "You don't understand me?"

I can only please: "I'm not in the same language system as you, please listen to my expression patiently." His face became gentler.

Vice-President Wang didn't ask me to do any further examinations, but only asked me to put my wrist on a "pulse pillow" rolled up with a towel. As a Western doctor, he could even take a pulse!

The hand resting on my wrist, the nails are round and clear, and the knuckles are well-proportioned and slender, reminding me of those dark and rough hands. He thought about it carefully for a while, wrote a prescription with only four or five herbs, and asked me to go to the pharmacy to buy it myself, decoction in the morning and evening, and asked me to return to the doctor three days later.

After three days of no improvement, he changed another medicine.

History is always strikingly similar, and my body temperature returned to normal after the fourth dose of the small pill.

To this day, I still keep this prescription on my mobile phone. In the past few years, many enthusiasts have asked me about the mystery of my recovery. I have explained my situation in detail and forwarded the prescription to them. As for the result, I have not asked.

I know that sometimes medicine stones also talk about fate.