At present, the quilt covering Li Dafa was made by that Sichuan woman when she picked cotton. After the cotton was picked, there were occasionally some leftovers in the cotton fields. It's unimaginable how many mu of cotton fields that petite figure had scurried about in to gather enough cotton for two quilts. Nearly ten years had passed, and the cotton had almost become batting and was no longer very warm. He was also covered with a military overcoat, which had also gloriously entered its old age.
One day, Second Sister suddenly asked him if the military overcoat felt heavy on him. The once big and strong man was now just a skeleton. Second Sister was afraid that the military overcoat would crush his skeleton.
Li Dafa nodded. It wasn't just the military overcoat. Even a single blade of grass could crush a strong camel because the camel was old and sick.
Second Sister found the smallest key from a bunch of keys and opened an elmwood box painted black. Inside, mandarin ducks were playing in the water, looking joyous with red and green colors. There was a new quilt with soft cotton batting and a gorgeous back.
She took out the quilt to cover Li Dafa. When Li Dafa saw the pair of mandarin ducks coming out of the box, he suddenly let out a long string of gibberish. Obviously excited, he was speaking too fast for others to understand what he was saying. His military overcoat was rising and falling.
Second Sister was a smart person. She said, "If you don't cover yourself with it now, when will you? You can't take anything with you when you're born or when you die. Do you still expect that little woman to come and take care of you? When you were fine, she left without a word. Now, even if she knew about your situation, she'd avoid you like the plague."
With that, she shook out the quilt that the Sichuan woman had used. A colorful cloud seemed to spread out overwhelmingly. Li Dafa's body was like undulating hills as he coughed violently. The big sarcomas on his face and neck turned a frightening purplish-red color.
Second Sister didn't dare to provoke him anymore, so she had to take the quilt away and fold it. The two mandarin ducks went back into the box. As she put it away, she said, "Such a stubborn temper. No wonder his wife ran away. Wait, you can take it with you when you go! Anyway, no one wants it left here. We even think it smells like rats."
Li Dafa saw the quilt put back in its place, and his body's hills became plains again. Perhaps in Li Dafa's heart, he hoped that one day, the Sichuan woman would suddenly stand in front of him, grinning with her buck teeth, looking like a wild flower in bloom.
On the evening when Li Dafa received a letter from abroad, there was a rumor in the village that he had gone crazy.
A villager who had just come back from work said that Li Dafa was singing an opera on the mountain facing the setting sun. With his rough voice and vigorous gestures, he scared the birds so much that they didn't dare to return to their nests.
The villager stood with his hoe and listened for a long time. He could tell that Li Dafa was singing the well-known "Li Ersao's Remarriage": "I'm similar in temperament to the fifth brother. It seems he could be my life partner. But then I think remarriage isn't easy. I need to think carefully and be cautious. I'm afraid that my mother-in-law will block my way, and my own mother won't let me remarry someone else. Although the fifth brother treats me quite well, I'm afraid that I'm the only one who's interested while he has no such intention..."
In the midst of everyone's discussions, they corrected Li Dafa's mistake. The person Li Ersao wanted to remarry wasn't the fifth brother but the sixth brother.
After the Sichuan woman left, Li Dafa's two sisters unanimously thought that he had been cheated.
Elder Sister always sighed and said, "Alas, he's too honest. In today's society, being too honest doesn't work..."
Second Sister gnashed her teeth and said, "That rat..." Finally, she didn't have to say "that little hen" anymore, and she wasn't afraid of disgracing her title as the wife of a scholar.
Li Dafa didn't think so. He said, "What do I have to be cheated of? They can't cheat me out of my house, nor can they take me away. I don't have much money either. She just ate and drank here, and she was busy working in the fields and at home all day. Even if I hired a farmhand, I'd have to pay them."
He always felt that when they were together, it was a case of mutual affection. The Sichuan woman was his "Li Ersao" in his heart.
Just from then on, Li Dafa gave up the idea of looking for another woman. He lived a life that flickered on and off with a little stupid dog. When he bought baked buns, he'd throw one to the little stupid dog. When he bought steamed buns, he'd also throw one to the little stupid. Whether it was baked buns or steamed buns, the little stupid dog always caught them cheerfully and gnawed on them slowly. In these baked buns and steamed buns, the little stupid dog gradually grew into a big stupid dog.
He had four big north-facing rooms. He wasn't bad-looking, could work, and didn't gamble or visit prostitutes. In the eyes of divorced women and widows, he was a "Wang Laowu" (an eligible bachelor).
Some people had introduced him to several widows. He was like "fat meat" in the eyes of the widows, while the widows were like "chicken ribs" in his eyes. When "fat meat" meets "chicken ribs", they can't be cooked together in the same pot. So the "fat meat" left first.
He thought it was difficult to find a woman with a compatible temperament, and he didn't want to raise someone else's son. So he simply went back to living a life where one person ate enough and the whole family wasn't hungry.
The predictions he read from the serious faces of the announcers on the black-and-white TV were almost accurate. In ten years, his black-and-white TV was replaced with an 18-inch color TV. Somehow, Tuesday was no longer a day when the TV stations rested. After adding a set-top box, there were always meetings being held on TV, but there were also more TV dramas. He also bought a DVD player and several discs of Lvju (a type of local opera in Shandong), including the classic "Li Ersao's Remarriage", "The Wall Record", "Borrowing the New Year", "The Virtuous Younger Sister-in-law", "Wang Xiao Driving the Donkey" and so on. In winter when he wasn't busy, the voice of the "fearless" mother-in-law in "Li Ersao's Remarriage" often came out from Li Dafa's house: "Borrowing chickens, raising ducks, reluctant to eat the eggs they lay, selling the money to buy cotton..."
On this day, the eldest nephew came. When he had some free time, he went to ask the "Guo Gai" doctor to write a certificate so that he could go to the hospital to get Dolantin.
He said, "That Guo Gai kid is so slow in writing the certificate. I'm afraid that if something goes wrong in the hospital in the future, they'll come after him and revoke his medical license. Is it that serious?"
Guo Gai's head was still bald like a desert, but he had changed a bit.
At first, when Guo Gai came to give Li Dafa nutrient injections, he was like a detective, searching for small branches in the long strips of bark with great difficulty every day. Two bottles of nutrient solution were injected every day. Little by little, like water dripping on a stone, but it was difficult to penetrate the stone.
Originally, the injections were supposed to be given in the morning. But recently, Guo Gai had been coming later. Sometimes he didn't show up until noon. Second Sister always had to go and ask him to come. He always said, "I just went to give injections to so-and-so's family, just went to do cupping for so-and-so's family, just went to..." In short, he was always busy, so busy that he seemed to be the only savior for the whole village.
Once, Second Sister went to fetch the doctor again. The doctor was wearing glasses. His chubby hands grabbed a handful of Chinese herbs from those densely packed medicine boxes. It seemed that wasn't enough, so he pinched out a few more. He weighed them with a four-eyed scale, looking at them carefully like he was examining gold, and then carefully poured them onto a piece of straw paper. His movements were slower than an old cow eating grass. Second Sister looked at the dozen or so pieces of straw paper spread out on the table. It seemed that he couldn't finish this task in the morning.
At the door, Guo Gai's wife was shelling corn cobs, which is commonly known as "peeling corn on the cob". Among a large pile of bright yellow corn cobs, the small corn-shelling machine was like a noodle press. Round corn was put into it from above, and after shaking the handle a few times, the corn cob was like a plucked chicken. Guo Gai's wife was sitting on a bench. Her belly was like a drum. She gasped for breath when she bent down and also when she shook the handle.
Second Sister saw this and went over and said, "Sister-in-law, take a rest. I'll do it. I'm good at this job. I can finish shelling the three mu of corn in my family in one day." Guo Gai's wife moved her obese body and left the "battlefield" that was making her suffer. Second Sister took over and, sure enough, her "corn-shelling magic" was shown again. She held a corn cob in her left hand and shook the handle a few times with her right hand. One by one, the "plucked chickens" came out like products on an assembly line.
Guo Gai's wife shouted to the slow doctor inside the room, "You dead thing, go and give Li Dafa an injection quickly..."
When Guo Gai came back after giving the injection, it was already noon. There were a lot of corn cob bones and the ground was covered with golden corn kernels. Second Sister raised her bright face from the harvest and said, "The sun is already past noon. I have to go home to cook and come back in the afternoon."
In the afternoon, after Li Dafa had the injection, she really came back again and shelled all the corn in the doctor's house into "plucked chickens".
Later, Guo Gai started to be late again.
Elder Sister said, "How much money can he earn from giving these injections? He's probably tired of it and doesn't want to come anymore. Also, he didn't get a share when we sold the land and trees last time. Can he be willing? Isn't there a bag of fungus? Take it with you when you ask the doctor next time."
The fungus was a gift brought by the eldest brother from Jiamusi. The two sisters used a little of it when making dumplings.
Second Sister said, "That big bag of fungus, which is from the genuine big forest in Northeast China, must be worth dozens of yuan. It's such a waste to give it to this bald guy."
She was muttering about the waste, but still took the fungus to Guo Gai's house.
When Guo Gai saw the fungus, a cloud of joy passed over his head. He pretended to look down on the thing and said with half-closed eyes, "Oh, what's this for? Saving lives and treating the sick is a doctor's duty. There's no reason to accept gifts. Those doctors in big hospitals who accept red envelopes are showing no medical ethics. We are all neighbors, don't be polite."
After saying that, he quickly glanced at the fungus and asked uneasily, "Is it really brought by the eldest brother from Northeast China?"
Second Sister said, "Yes. Last time, the eldest brother brought this thing with great difficulty. He took trains and buses. It's from the genuine big forest in Northeast China. My fifth brother used to cut trees there when he was young. He knows that the fungus there is delicious, much better than the ones in supermarkets that claim to be from Northeast China but might be fake. A rare thing for an benefactor, look, no matter how many days my fifth brother has left to live, as long as he's alive, we have to give him injections to save him. And we'll probably need your help in the future."
Guo Gai pretended to decline for a while and then happily accepted it. He said happily, "Respecting your wishes, I'll also taste the genuine Northeast fungus. This fungus has many benefits. It's commonly known as the 'vascular scavenger' and is very good for the elderly. Second Sister, you should also eat it often."
Second Sister thought to herself, If you eat it all, where will I get to eat it? But she said aloud, "That's right. Our family has relatives near the big forest. It's easy to get Northeast fungus."
Guo Gai started to lament again: "In recent years, people's living standards have improved. Do you know why more and more people are getting cancer? Illness comes from what we eat. The food people eat is too bad. There are fertilizers, pesticides, fake and inferior products. The Chinese are harming themselves. Last time I bought fungus from the town supermarket. It cost me dozens of yuan. When I soaked it, the water turned black like ink. It was dyed fungus pretending to be from Northeast China. It really did a lot of harm. There are so many cheats and swindles. People's hearts are not as good as before. This world is going to be ruined."
Second Sister didn't care at all about whether the world was going to be ruined. She only cared that her fifth brother was almost dying.
A bag of Northeast fungus temporarily settled the "old fritter" doctor.
When the eldest nephew came, it was already a long time after noon. The sunlight in the afternoon, around three or four o'clock, shone sparingly into the room. A fly was lying motionless on the glass. Outside, there was still some remaining hustle and bustle of the sunlight, but the fly inside the room seemed to have no way out.
The nutrient injection had been completed. At the end, it seemed that not a single drop could get in for a long time, which made Li Dafa's body feel extremely uncomfortable. So he simply stretched out his other hand and accidentally pulled out the needle.
Because of the pain, Li Dafas body shifted a little in the quilt. His shoulder was exposed, and the collar of his old autumn clothes was torn open wide due to deformation. The two bones on his shoulders were exposed, looking like an empty swing frame.
The eldest nephew saw this and pulled up his autumn clothes. The slight weight of the autumn clothes almost scattered the skeleton in the quilt. Li Dafa cried out in pain, "What are you doing? Are you trying to kill me?"
The eldest nephew understood what he said and knew that he had made a mistake. He quickly said, "I was just afraid that you would freeze."
Li Dafa regretted his outburst a little. His eldest nephew was only a dozen years younger than him and had been a revolutionary comrade with him. The farthest they had gone together was to Inner Mongolia to sell watermelons. Of course, they didn't have the ability to be watermelon vendors but worked as loaders and unloaders with their physical strength.
Li Dafa made up for his mistake by saying, "Take the TV on the table away."
On the table opposite the bed, there was an 18-inch color TV, which was bought with the money earned from working in Inner Mongolia. Elder Sister and Second Sister sometimes opened the TV and randomly changed the channels to amuse Li Dafa and distract him from his pain. Most of the time, the TV screen either showed people selling medicinal herbs, claiming that those herbs could cure all diseases and bring the dead back to life, or showed women on a diet, with a woman with a "swimming ring" around her belly tying a belt, and the "swimming ring" would visibly deflate. The men and women hosting these programs had urgent and loud voices, like those who were performing monkey shows by beating drums and gongs at the mountain fair. After the DVD player was taken by the scholar, the Lvju operas couldn't be played anymore, and the "fearless" mother-in-law in "Li Ersao's Remarriage" also took a break. Li Dafa was afraid that the scholar would come to take the TV again one day, so he wanted to transfer the TV safely.
The eldest nephew had a 29-inch big color TV at home. He wasn't interested in this small and old TV at all. He was interested in the set-top box, but he thought it was inappropriate to take the thing away while the person was still alive. He originally wanted to say, "I'll take it when you leave." But then he thought it was inappropriate, so he said, "Now there's 'Zhen Huan' on TV. That woman has a lot of tricks. She beats and defeats those 'fairies' around the emperor one by one. Let me tune to the channel for you to watch."
Saying that, the eldest nephew opened the TV and used the channel selector to go through the channels one by one. Sure enough, on Heilongjiang Satellite TV, Zhen Huan appeared. Li Dafa had a good impression of Heilongjiang Satellite TV. There was Jiamusi in Heilongjiang, and his eldest brother was in Jiamusi. There was a forest farm on the edge of the city where his eldest brother was, and his youth was spent in that forest farm. Now, on Heilongjiang Satellite TV, a woman who was even more "fairy-like" than a fairy was performing.
He heard Zhen Huan say, "If the wind blowing against me understands my feelings, please don't break me easily." He looked at the woman's charming eyes and felt that they looked familiar. He searched in the well of his memory, as if he had touched the lost bucket, but then it quickly slipped away.
He fell asleep deeply in the charm of Zhen Huan's glances.
In Li Dafa's dream, there was a woman like Zhen Huan running. She ran in the flowering wheat fields for a while, then in the willow groves by the river for a while, and then ran to a long railway station. Suddenly, the figure of the woman disappeared. So Li Dafa searched for her one by one in the carriages. There was a