Chapter 1966: The outside world is not so exciting
Unexpectedly, the meat quality of this bamboo rat is really good. Even though no spices or condiments are added, it still tastes delicious!
After a comfortable and hearty meal, I don't seem to feel so cold anymore, and my mental state is much better.
More importantly, I am not as negative as before.
Wu Nanxing ate slowly. She was still eating. When she saw that I had finished eating, she divided her half and handed it to me.
I shook my head at her and said with a smile: "I'm full, you go ahead and eat slowly."
"How was it?" she asked.
"It's good. Do you often eat like this?"
She nodded and continued to eat in small bites.
Looking at her quiet look, I really couldn't imagine that such a Miao girl, less than 1.6 meters tall and weighing only 80 kilograms, could be so bold in this deep mountain and forest.
Maybe, this is her daily life.
"How old are you?" I asked her again.
She shook her head, as if she didn't know how old she was.
But it looks like she is less than twenty years old, probably just coming of age.
I asked her again: "Have you never been out of the village?"
She nodded again, and I smiled at her again and asked, "Then do you want to go out and take a look?"
She suddenly fell silent, and then said with a troubled face: "Dad won't let me go out."
"Why?"
She shook her head to show that she didn't know, and I smiled again and said, "It's pretty good. The world outside is not as exciting as I imagined."
"Where are you from?"
She rarely took the initiative to ask me these questions. I was a little surprised and said: "I am from Chongqing, do you know Chongqing?"
She shook her head and curled her lips and said, "Is it far?"
"Uh... it's not far. If you drive from here, you can get there in more than seven hours."
"Then are there mountains where you are?"
"Yes! Chongqing is called a mountain city, but it's not as big or steep as the mountains here."
As I said that, I wanted to take out the photos on my phone to show her, but then I remembered that the phone was out of battery.
Then I thought, since she doesn't know what the outside world is like, it's best not to let her know.
It would be nice to just let her live her whole life here without any worries. The outside world is really not that exciting.
After chatting casually for a while, she fell asleep, lying on her lap, sleeping peacefully.
But I didn't feel sleepy at all. This was the first time in my life that I slept in such a place. I felt all kinds of discomfort, but I knew there was no other way.
I added some firewood to the fire, and the fire became stronger. I wanted to smoke a cigarette to relieve my anxiety.
But I found that there was no more cigarettes to smoke. Maybe I could really quit smoking here. I hope there are no cigarette shops in this village.
I don't know how long it took, but I finally fell asleep.
But the cold made me wake up several times. When I was woken up by the cold for the last time, it was already dawn and the rain had stopped.
The fire has been extinguished, leaving only some unburned firewood still giving off some faint light.
I stood up and stretched my body. At this time, Wu Nanxing also woke up. The first time she opened her eyes, she looked outside the cave.
Then he looked at me again and said, "The rain has stopped."
"Well, can we go down the mountain?"
She nodded, then stood up and walked to the entrance of the cave, then explored outside.
After I put out the fire completely, I followed her out.
Although the rain stopped, the ground was still very wet.
If Wu Nanxing hadn't led the way, I wouldn't have been able to find the directions from southeast to northwest.
I followed her the whole way, and soon we were out of the mountain, returning the same way we came yesterday.
On the way back, Wu Nanxing didn't forget to pick herbs. When he came down the mountain, he had already filled a basket full of herbs.
When we finally returned to the village, Wu Nanxing and I’s clothes were all soaked with dew. We looked like savages in the mountains.
On the way back, people kept saying hello to Wu Nanxing, but they were all in Miao language that I couldn't understand.
After returning home, Mr. Wu was still drinking tea in the yard and seemed to be enjoying himself very much!
It's okay that I didn't come back all night, but his children also stayed away all night, and he didn't even notice a trace of nervousness.
Seeing that we were back, he greeted us lightly: "You're back!"
Wu Nanxing carried the basket on his back and took out the herbs inside one by one.
After checking it, Mr. Wu nodded and said, "Yes, it's complete. Let's take it and let it sit for a while. Let's start tonight."
Wu Nanxing nodded, then put the herbs back and went into the house.
I came to Mr. Wu and asked him: "Mr. Wu, don't you ask why we didn't come back last night?"
He smiled coquettishly and said, "Do you still need to ask? It rained so heavily last night. It's impossible for you to come back."
"Then you're not worried?"
"What's there to worry about? Children in the mountains are just like that, not as squeamish as you people in the city."
His words made me speechless. I smiled bitterly and said, "Don't you care about your daughter?"
"I care! But she is used to it. This is not the first time."
I really didn’t know what to say, so I turned to him and asked, “Are you sure these herbs can cure the disease?”
"Don't believe it?"
"I don't believe it."
"If you don't believe me, just go back. I don't have to treat you."
"That's not what I meant, I just...have some doubts."
"You don't have to doubt it. I didn't say that I could completely cure you. I only said that I could help you with some relief. It won't be a problem to live for another five or six years."
"You are so good, then why don't you go out and open a traditional Chinese medicine store?"
He smiled, picked up the pipe next to him, lit it and said leisurely: "I'm not a doctor, I'm just a charlatan."
"But if your skills are really that great, you can make a lot of money."
She suddenly looked at me seriously and said in a cold voice: "Don't mention money to me. Some things cannot be measured by money. I treat people based on their treatment, not money. I don't want to treat you.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have.”
"Sorry, I said the wrong thing."
"If you know your mistakes and can correct them, there is no greater good!"
I stopped talking to him and went back to the house to brew the herbs that Wu Nanxing had collected over the past two days.
I asked her: "Don't these herbs need to be dried?"
She shook her head and said, "No, this will work better."
I said "oh" and sat next to him.
The smell of herbal medicine soon filled the whole room. The smell was not unpleasant, but rather refreshing, making people feel refreshed.
This herbal medicine is not like ordinary herbal medicines that only need to be boiled for an hour or two. It needs to be boiled repeatedly. When the water is gone, continue to add water until the color of the water turns dark brown.
It was boiled in the evening, and Mr. Wu asked Wu Nanxing to scoop out all the water, put it in a large wooden bucket, and let me soak it in.
Mr. Wu told me next to him: "Just feel free to soak. It may be very hot during the process, and you will also feel hot inside your body. This is a normal phenomenon. You can come out after the water temperature has completely cooled down."
"Well, you don't feel any other discomfort, right?"
"It may cause skin itching, so you have to endure it."
I nodded, and then I stayed alone in this small room to soak.
The water temperature was very hot at first, almost fifty degrees, but in order to cure the disease, I endured it the whole time, with only my head above the water, and my whole body was soaked in the medicine.
After more than ten minutes passed, I began to feel some uncomfortable symptoms, dizziness, panic, and even hallucinations...