Finally, the old sow raised by Liu You's wife gave birth. The couple with one born in the Year of the Monkey and the other in the Year of the Pig was really a perfect match, bringing extraordinary prosperity. The old sow gave birth to twelve piglets in one litter, two more than expected. Unfortunately, the next day, one piglet was trampled to death by each of two boars. Liu You's wife was furious and beat the two boars with a wooden stick until they howled in pain. She lamented, "Fathers are just not as concerned about their children as mothers are."
So, she sold those two irresponsible fathers of the piglets!
During the day, Li Dafa heard the screams of the boars at Liu You's house.
At night, Liu You's wife, with her bat-like ears, heard the cries made by Li Dafa.
The dose of Dolantin was soon used up, and the pain spread like wildfire again. He wanted to bang his head against the wall, but he didn't have the strength to stand up.
He still asked his eldest sister and second sister to wash his face every morning so that when people came to see him, he could still look somewhat presentable.
However, fewer and fewer people came to see him.
His eldest nephew came back empty-handed from the county hospital. Dolantin couldn't be bought there anymore. The hospital had recently appointed a new dean, and the new dean was eager to make changes as soon as he took office. One of his initiatives was to create a provincial civilized hospital. As a result, various aspects were being rectified. In Li Dafa's hospital records, the data from ten years ago was unexpectedly dug out. The data showed that he had been prescribed Dolantin.
The eldest nephew said, "You were hospitalized in the county hospital before? Why didn't I know? And you were prescribed Dolantin. Did you use it yourself? The hospital suspects that you are a drug addict and won't prescribe it anymore. The certificates from last time are useless too. I'll try to figure out something else."
The story was like a bucket that suddenly slipped off the well rope and fell to the bottom of the well but didn't sink completely. Now, Li Dafa didn't have the energy or ability to pull that bucket up to show it to his eldest nephew. However, in the pain without the relief of Dolantin, his memory was like the well rope, swinging around and reaching that bucket.
On a foggy morning ten years ago, a woman was carried out of the ambulance in the hospital. The woman lying on the stretcher looked extremely thin, like an underdeveloped child.
The woman lay stiffly on the hospital bed, unable to move.
Her spine was broken.
On that foggy morning, a three-wheeled tuk-tuk emitted a thick black smoke from its rear after bouncing for a while. The smoke intertwined with the fog and was swallowed up by the dominant fog. People called this kind of tuk-tuk "Sanbengzi". A group of women with headscarves were sitting around the edge of the Sanbengzi's carriage. Their hands were grasping the edge of the carriage, but their bodies were still swaying. Where there are many chickens and ducks, there is a lot of manure. Where there are many women, there may not necessarily be a lot of chatter. They were going to a village called Jiangcun, twenty miles away. As the name implies, the villagers in Jiangcun grew ginger collectively. During the ginger harvesting season, ginger-growing professionals would hire farmers from other villages to work. They would provide a meal at noon, and the farmers could earn twenty yuan a day.
The thick smoke from the Sanbengzi and the thick fog were having an ambiguous relationship when a large truck forcefully intervened. To avoid the third party, the driver of the Sanbengzi jerked the steering wheel, and the vehicle tilted towards the ditch by the roadside... The people in the vehicle were scattered like thrown buns. The lightest "bun" was the most seriously injured.
At noon, a man came to the ward and quickly reached the woman's bedside in a few steps. When the woman saw the man, she started crying like a little child. The man gently stroked the woman's hand and said softly, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. I'm here."
That night, the floor of the hospital ward corridor was littered with cigarette butts. The man smoked two packs of cigarettes that night. Usually, he only smoked one pack every two days. Cigarettes were like the cheapest "Little Goldfish". The price of "Little Goldfish" had risen from twenty-three cents in the 1980s to one yuan and twenty-three cents.
In spring, the man planted five mu of watermelon fields. When the watermelons were in season, the price of watermelons dropped so much that it made people nervous. Finally, it dropped to eight cents per jin. The watermelon fields were full of watermelons, and the sun was so hot that they seemed about to burst. There was also another piece of news that spread like wildfire: A watermelon had "killed" someone. An old man's body was like a tattered flag, hanging from the roof of his own melon shed.
The man sold the watermelons. After calculating the costs of agricultural film, fertilizers, and watering, the price of eight cents per jin was obviously not enough to cover the expenses. He lost more than just his "buttocks". But the man said, "Even if the crops don't yield well this year, we'll plant them again next year. Maybe the next crop will be better. Hanging oneself just because of watermelons is really stupid. Besides, the old man was over sixty. He should have died anyway. In the past, people used to bury the elderly alive if they didn't die by the age of sixty."
Bad luck was like rainy days, always coming in waves. The woman needed an operation, and a deposit of three thousand yuan was required for the operation. Besides the deposit, other medical expenses also needed to be prepared. The sudden huge expense was like a continuous downpour, dashing his optimism. Smoking ten packs of "Little Goldfish" wouldn't help either.
After smoking two packs of "Little Goldfish" in one night, the man felt sorry for his two yuan and forty-six cents. But a solution finally emerged. He sold the wheat that he had stored for three years and cut down the poplar forest that had grown for five years. He walked into the hospital gate with a pocket full of money, his back straight.
There were a lot of details about the operation precautions written on a piece of paper. The man read it and thought the hospital was too wordy, not straightforward, and not decent. He secretly summarized the main idea of the paper: The operation was very dangerous, and the risks had to be borne by oneself. For the first time in his life, he signed his name - Li Dafa - in the family member column.
Perhaps it was during that operation that Dolantin was used without him really knowing. Otherwise, how could the cost at checkout be like the burst watermelons, hitting Li Dafa hard?
After the stowaway woman left, Li Dafa's love life was like a TV program at midnight, full of snowflakes. The matchmaker Yue Lao tried to set him up a few times, but the threads were always broken. He was a good-looking man. Except for being a bit poor, he had no other problems. But ultimately, any problem boiled down to being poor.
In the "market" of love, he accidentally became like the radishes in the evening market, waiting to be picked and chosen.
For example, Fatty Wang introduced him to a widow from the neighboring village who had two sons. After the blind date, Li Dafa took the widow and her younger son to the market. The widow said, "Recently, I've been getting too much internal heat. Look how red my tongue is. Apples are a great thing to reduce internal heat. I'll buy some apples."
The old man selling apples had two baskets of apples. The apples in one basket were as fresh and juicy as an eighteen-year-old girl, while the apples in the other basket were small, withered, and had rotten spots. They were from the same orchard, but they looked so different, as if they weren't from the same mother.
The widow went to pick the "eighteen-year-old girl" apples. Li Dafa said, "Big apples have a lot of water, and too much water makes them not so sweet. Small apples are called 'wisdom fruits'. Adults can reduce internal heat by eating them, and kids will become smarter. It's like children from the same mother. Big and stupid ones are usually a bit dull, while the small and short ones are smart. Why don't you try picking some from this basket?"
The widow thought of her older son who was a big and stupid guy and was the last in his class in terms of academic performance. Her younger son was like a little monkey, lively and cute, and she liked him very much. She thought what Li Dafa said made sense, so she turned to pick from the small apple basket.
After weighing the apples, the widow fumbled in her pockets for a long time but couldn't get the money out. She said, "Oh dear, having too many pockets is really a hassle. Look at my memory. I don't remember which pocket I put the money in."
So Li Dafa took out the money. He liked clothes with a pocket on the chest, close to the heart. Since the heart was always on guard against thieves' hands, he had never lost any money.
The widow's younger son said, "Mom, I want to eat pig liver. I want to gnaw on chicken feet."
The sun shone on the cooked food, making it look shiny. The man selling cooked food had a shiny face. The widow's younger son was drooling heavily in front of the cooked food stall, making a loud noise. The widow also swallowed saliva, and so did Li Dafa, but the two adults swallowed their saliva secretly without making a sound.
The man selling cooked food cut a small piece of pig liver for the widow's son to taste. The widow's son's craving was aroused, so he said again, "Mom, I want to eat pig liver. I want to gnaw on chicken feet."
The widow said to the man selling meat, "Give me a piece of pig liver and five chicken feet." Her voice was loud.
The man selling meat said loudly, "Sure!" Then he picked up a large piece of pig liver. The tone of that "Sure" was like a firecracker suddenly shooting up into the sky and then quickly falling back to the ground.
Li Dafa said, "The pig liver doesn't seem fresh. Look, the color is a bit dark. Oh dear, boss, slow down. Spending money is a small thing, but don't make my kid's stomach sick. I think this piece has a uniform color and seems to be freshly cooked. Wow, it even has a nice smell."
Li Dafa hooked out a small piece of pig liver with a meat hook. Sure enough, the color was bright. Compared with the large piece, the tip of the pig liver was a bit dark. The widow nodded in agreement to change to this small piece of pig liver.
Li Dafa said, "I think these chicken feet don't seem fresh either. Why are they all skin? Did these chickens run races all day and run their feet thin? What's the point of eating just the skin? It would be better to buy a chicken and stew it some other day. A pot of yellow chicken soup and two big chicken legs would be great."
After saying that, he secretly swallowed saliva again.
Thinking of having chicken to eat, the widow withdrew the chicken feet from her purchase plan in the anticipation of eating chicken.
When it was time to pay, the widow fumbled in her pockets again for a long time, of course, without getting any money out. The position of Li Dafa's heart twitched sensitively, but he still took out the money.
The widow's son was really smart. When he walked to the toy stall, he said, "Mom, I want to buy a gun to shoot bad guys."
The widow's son was really smart. When he walked to the balloon seller, he said, "Mom, I want a balloon. I want to go up to the sky to see if there are white rabbits on the moon."
The widow's son was really smart... Every time the widow's son was smart, the position of Li Dafa's heart would twitch.
Finally, the widow's son stopped being smart and played with his "trophies" all the way.
But then it was the widow's turn to speak: "Oh dear, this small piece of floral cloth is really nice. Li Dafa, do you think it would look good if I made a blouse out of it? People say that the older you get, the more floral clothes you should wear. I'm not that old yet. Wearing a small floral blouse should look good."
The widow draped the floral cloth over herself and smiled at Li Dafa. Li Dafa saw that the woman in the sunlight was lively and vivid. All women in the world, whether ugly or beautiful, have the ability to rejuvenate in front of the men they love. He thought this woman wasn't really that old. Except for the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes that were like spider webs, the widow was somewhat good-looking. With the floral cloth draped over her, she looked even more attractive.
People say that beauty is edible, but Li Dafa's stomach didn't react at all. Why did his heart twitch again?
The next day, Li Dafa went to Fatty Wang's small store and said to the matchmaker Fatty Wang, "Please tell the widow that I, Li Dafa, am not good enough for her. I only earn that little money. It doesn't matter if she spends money on herself, but her younger son also needs to spend money, and her older son also needs to spend money. Usually, spending these small amounts of money doesn't matter, but when her two sons grow up, they will need to marry. Building four big rooms in the north for one son means eight big rooms for two sons. Eight big rooms are okay, but when they marry, they will also need betrothal gifts and money for banquets. Even if I sell my old bones, I can't afford this money. Spending this money doesn't matter, but when the sons marry, they will surely think that I, their stepfather, am in the way. They might even push me up on the wall and no one will take care of me in my old age. Tell the widow that the things we bought at the market yesterday don't count. Anyway, she accompanied me to the market. People might think that I have a wife and children. It's just that I'm not good enough for her."
Li Dafa liked the Lu opera "Li Ersao's Remarriage" and "On the Wall". Judging from the widow's lavish spending, she definitely didn't seem like the thrifty and virtuous Li Ersao. Moreover, he foresaw his future fate. He might be pushed up on the wall by the widow's big and stupid son and the smart son together, staging a new version of "On the Wall". So, he backed out.
Fatty Wang reported everything to the widow. The widow took a bite of an apple and spat it out immediately. There was a small worm lurking in the apple. The widow's sharp teeth bit the worm in half. The juice of the worm mixed with the juice of the apple, creating a strange taste of sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy. She spat twice. She said, "Look at how stingy he is. He'll never get married in his life. He's born to be a bachelor." There's a saying: Never offend a woman. Some women will make the men they hate have a hard time for the rest of their lives. More elegantly, it's like what Confucius said: Only women and mean people are difficult to deal with. If you get close to them, they become disrespectful. If you keep your distance, they become resentful.
After finding the fifth worm in her pile of apples, the widow's mouth became even more inflamed, so she became a loudmouth. As a result, many young girls and married women in the surrounding villages knew: "There's a stingy old bachelor named Li Dafa. His hands tremble when he pays for a woman."
At that time, he wasn't really that old. His reputation faded in the passage of time, and his days also grew old alone in the flow of time.
Some people didn't care about these rumors, or perhaps she didn't understand the local dialect. A Sichuan woman finally ended Li Dafa's single life.