The hospital of vet Hao is very dilapidated. It is a thatched shed connected to a dilapidated room, with some primitive medical tools that even a second-rate quack would have to leave without hesitation. There is a bamboo bed on two benches, which can be considered an operating table. This is the only characteristic of this place as a hospital. The dilapidated house has no door, and you can see nothing except the straw laid on the ground, but the sleeping people lying there — perhaps that's the inpatient department?
"Take it off." The place is very dilapidated, but the voice is authoritative, and that's right, it is supposed to be maintained.
I take off my pants and let them fall onto my ankles, revealing the reason why I have been dragging my legs all the time — the thigh that had been stabbed by the Japanese when I pretended to die had already rotted, and the bandages tangled with grass no longer have blood on it. It is yellow pus and clear bodily fluids.
Vet Hao is not in a hurry to undergo an examination, but instead finding a broom to enter his inpatient department. Quickly, there are thrusts and shouts like shouting the animals from vet Hao, as well as moans and weak curses like "son of a bitch vet Hao" coming from inside.
After a while, vet Hao comes out tired and puts down his broom to start washing his hands — he tries to pay attention to the details that a doctor should have, even if it could only maintain a sense of respect.
I wait with my pants draped around my ankles, "Can't you let them sleep?"
Vet Hao starts working with my medicine, "There are a few. They drop dead when they fall asleep."
"Grandpa, don't bother them please. They want to die."
"They are crazy? Who wants to die when they are sober? You want to die, Fanla? With a half dead face, you don't want to die even if all the people in the world die."
"You think how can I make to that day with my leg when people all over the world die?"
Vet Hao doesn't like to argue, so he starts checking my injuries. He has a common sense of numbness unique to doctors on his face, and a unique numbness unique to incurable patients on my face.
My savior makes a trial and says, "It's all rotten. If there is no surgery, you'll have a high amputation."
I look at the blood stained on the bamboo bed and the blood stained on the ground in an instant. There is a bucket by the bed, you'd better not think about what it has been used for. There is a saw in vet Hao's tools, so you'd better not think about what it has been used for as well. All the bloodstains and spots have faded, they don't seem to come out from human bodies.
"What is surgery?"
"Surgery is a high amputation"
We calmly talk about this leg, like the chopping wood we may use to make Stewed Pork with Cabbage and Rice Noodles.
"That's what you said last week. Not a word wrong."
"You answered the same way last week, not a word wrong. It can't be delayed, Master Meng."
He tries to change the bandage for me as much as possible, wraps it in a herbal paste that nobody knows whether it is useful. The used bandage is thrown into a bucket and even has to be used again after being washed clean. I think about my own things, put on my pants, tie them up, and walk out. I don't like here.
Vet Hao stops me and says, "Fanla, do you have money? If there's no money, do you have anything that can be exchanged?"
I look at him strangely, with an expression of "I have one leg played by you and you dare to ask for money?"
"You need money?"
Vet Hao shakes his head and says, "Qi Mazi in the East city market has medicine from black market. If you exchange something with him for sulfonamide, some injured can stay alive. If I get something, I would have already exchanged it with him. Several of my injured soldiers here are short of sulfonamide."
That's it, I turn around and say, "I have nothing."
Vet Hao says, "Hmm," and just keeps busy with his business. When I get out of the shed, he says suddenly, "Yi still has a watch."
I begin to feel happy: "his father left it to him. His father lived as an obedient citizen in the Japanese occupied area and went to work one day, but was being targeted by the Japanese. Clang — Crack — Bam — Wham."
I flick my forehead, indicating that the 6.5mm bullet made by Japanese find its entrance to human head. Yi's father fell off his bicycle and the Japanese bullet found its exit in the back of his head.
I pat myself on the back of the head and sneer, "He didn't provoke anyone, He didn't do anything. it's just that there was a Japanese soldier who wanted to try the gun he just polished."
Vet Hao squats there washing the bandages and snorts, "Hmm."
"Hmm, hmm, hmm." I hum with him. What can you respond?
I plan to leave, but my torn leg is even lamer. Old man Hao's warning comes behind me: "With your current situation, if you still go out to cheat for food and drink, you're looking for death."
"Hmm, hmm." I answer perfunctorily. What is the matter about him?
When I leave, I pass by a young Major. His spirit, as well as his dusty body, indicates that he is not belonging here at my first glance. He walks towards Vet Hao, but what is that about me?