In addition to her poor family background, Chunhua also suffered from measles when she was a child. Her high fever caused a nebula about the size of a soybean to grow in her left eye.
At that time, the nebula was not cured, which caused her to become blind in her left eye when she grew up. Her disabled husband was not promising. After the child was born, she could not even drink sweet wine, her milk could not be produced, and the child screamed from hunger.
Three days after a woman gives birth to her first child, the father of the child should go to the mother-in-law's house to give three tips and report the good news.
Generally, according to local etiquette, you must bring sweet wine, red eggs, and chickens to announce the good news.
Of course, if the baby is a boy, hold a rooster; if the baby is a girl, hold a hen.
In this way, the maternal family can know whether their daughter will give birth to a boy or a girl without asking.
Then the mother's family will choose an auspicious day, lead the clan members and relatives to pick up two cans of sweet wine, hundreds of eggs, a few chickens and ducks, several loads of rice, as well as bedding, clothes, hats, cloth and other gifts for children. Go celebrate this joy of adding tiles.
However, in the famine years, there were no etiquette rules, and Chunhua's family was already poor, so her husband could only go to his mother-in-law's house with nothing to announce the good news.
At that time, Mrs. Ding knew that her daughter had nothing to eat, but Mrs. Ding herself only prepared five kilograms of glutinous rice, sweet wine and dozens of eggs. When a woman undergoes confinement, she usually needs to prepare twenty or thirty kilograms of sweet wine made from glutinous rice and dozens of eggs.
However, the times were bad and she had no choice but to give half of what she had prepared to Chunhua to eat.
In the past ten days, Mrs. Ding gave birth to a fat boy. She was so happy that Liang Hebiao just knelt under the altar in front of the hall, burning incense and paper, and kowtowing, thanking God for blessing his bloodline to flourish.
Afterwards, Liang Hebiao saw that his wife and eldest daughter had not eaten or drank during confinement, and he thought that there were some blue and white porcelain, colored porcelain and silver jewelry hidden in his home.
Some of these porcelains were bought from places like Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Jiangxi when his ancestors were doing business for several generations;
Some of them were enshrined by others when his ancestors were officials.
Liang Hebiao thought that hiding these things at home would not be of any use for a while, leaving only the most beautiful Phoenix Cup, which he bought at a stall in Chang'an City.
He felt that the name of this wine glass was auspicious and it sounded festive, so he was reluctant to sell it so he kept it to drink for himself.
He took the rest to the city, found buyers, and sold them all at a low price. And all the money from the sale was used for emergency relief, that is, he used the money to buy thirty kilograms of glutinous rice and five to six hundred eggs, specially for his wife and eldest daughter to enjoy during the confinement period.
Liang Hebiao's grandfather and father were the eldest grandson of the eldest son of Laofu Jun in Taijiang Village, and he and his father were the only male descendants of the two generations.
Not to mention how happy he was to be able to have a son when he was already forty years old and finally have an extra branch of his family's bloodline.
When the villagers saw the couple holding their child, they said with envy and congratulations: "Uncle Liang, you couple are so lucky! I didn't expect that you would live to this age and spring would come again. Autumn eggplants will bloom again." '—give birth to a full cub!"
"Hee hee hee!" Liang Hebiao smiled from ear to ear, and then agreed, "This is all because of my wife's wish. She has given my old Liang family another 'crooked eggplant'!"
Liang Hebiao's eldest son is called Liang Tianyou, and his younger son is called Liang Xiong. When Liang Xiong was five years old, he contracted measles. The oil in his body could not be released at night, and his high fever persisted, causing cramps and then shock.
Liang Hebiao climbed the Jiepai Mountain behind the village overnight, walked to his grandmother's house in Wujiazhai, and invited his uncle to help with the treatment.
My uncle is a well-known local witch doctor and medicine man. He knows magic and can not only cure children's illnesses such as crying at night, frightening, and diarrhoea, but he is also good at dealing with lost companions, redeeming souls, insidious arrows, and screening out nebula. He performed witchcraft and Nuo activities such as warding off evil spirits and building bridges; he also had unique skills in treating measles for children. Therefore, others called him "Miracle Doctor Wu".
Chunhua contracted measles when she was a child. She lay in a corner of the stove and slept for three days and three nights. Her life became extremely fragile and she was on the verge of death.
At that time Liang Hebiao went to invite Dr. Wu to his home.
When the old gentleman entered the house, he first set up the incense case, put a sharp knife on the table, put a liter of rice in a square bucket, and brought a bowl of water. After putting some Miao medicine in the water, he asked Liang Hebiao to go. A hen was caught in the henhouse.
Doctor Wu took the chicken. At first he saw the chicken crowing and struggling in his hands. Then he burned incense paper and recited the mantra. After using the so-called chicken-fixing surgery, the chicken became quiet.
After that, he plucked the feathers from the chicken's belly, smeared the water from the bowl on the chicken's breast, gestured at the chicken with a stick of incense, recited a mantra for a while, cast the spell, took out a sharp knife and pierced the chicken's body. Cut open the belly of the chicken.
But the chicken in his hand still didn't crow, didn't struggle, and didn't shed a drop of blood. It just let people control it.
After making these preparations, Doctor Wu asked Ding to take off Liang Xiong's clothes and put the chicken on the child's chest.
This practice is said to be because, on the one hand, chickens have the magical ability to ward off evil and avoid evil, and can be used to avoid various heretical evil spirits who deliberately breed various evil means to intrude on patients;
On the other hand, the chicken's breath is used to guide people to breathe together, so that the chicken body can suck out the toxins in the patient's body.
After finishing his work, Divine Doctor Wu sat down and slowly smoked a cigarette with Liang Hebiao's copper-headed long smoking pot. He said, "After the child has slept for two hours, take down the chicken, sew its wound with needle and thread, and put it on the chicken." Keep it in the nest. Afterwards, not only the people wake up, but their illnesses will be cured in a few days; and the chickens will naturally live after they wake up and nurse their wounds."
On the day when Liang Xiong's condition became serious, he saw a large group of black swans flying to a green hillside bush in the back mountain and squatting in the bushes. They kept making noisy noises as if they were going to a field or meeting, and they all called "ah wow, ah wow" all afternoon.
They seemed like a group of starving ghosts, asking for meat from the villagers.
At night, another group of nocturnal storks flew to the field dam in front of the house and hid in the dark corners. They also screamed "wow, ow," and howled as loudly as the ghosts.
This nocturnal bird is a nocturnal bird. It cannot be seen during the day and only comes out to look for food at night.
When the sky is sunny or it rains for a long time, they often go to the cemetery at night to shout, look for food or party.
People occasionally see it flying through the night sky, its figure as dark as a ghost.
Just because the bird's cry seemed sad and scary, and felt that it was similar to what people imagined as a ghost's cry, the villagers regarded it as a ghost bird.
Locals believe that black plovers and nocturnal plovers generally do not easily fly to the front of the house and then scream randomly. When you hear them screaming around the house, you will think that this is a bad omen from heaven, and you suspect that disaster will befall you. On the heads of the villagers.
The shrill howls made people feel creepy. Liang Hebiao felt that the omen was not good. He heard that ghosts were afraid of people spitting, so he went to the courtyard and faced outside the Tianba, "Bah! Bah! Bah!" He spat three times in a row, and then cursed: "Bah! Bah! Bah!" You bastards, get the hell out of here!"
The calls of the so-called ghost birds stopped for a moment, and then started to scream even louder.
More than two hours passed. Dr. Wu saw that Liang Xiong's condition had not improved. He used various treatment methods during the process. Finally, seeing that Liang Xiong was dying, he took out the chicken and did not suture the wound of the chicken. He just cut it casually. Throw it in a corner and put your things in the bag.
Before leaving, he said to Liang Hebiao: "There are people over there waiting for me to see a doctor... I'll go and come back later.
Doctor Wu has no way to save his life. As the saying goes, "Doctors don't cure death." The most taboo thing for doctors is to witness the moment when a patient dies.
As soon as he made excuses and left, Liang Xiong died.
On the spot, Liang Hebiao and his wife hugged their child, thinking about how well-behaved and cute he was, how he always made his parents happy during his lifetime.
But now that the child is gone, the parents are overjoyed. The thought of losing their child in old age makes the couple cry like hell.
People in the village came to visit and comfort the couple. Among them, an old woman came and persuaded: "Don't cry for him anymore. If you could make the baby cry to life, we would have helped your family cry. This baby is going to cry." He is really your son and a member of your family. Even if he encounters all kinds of disasters, he will not be willing to leave you and your wife easily. He is just a stubborn ghost who loves to make my mother happy and has a short-lived soul. , even if he doesn’t leave you, sooner or later..."
After some persuasion, the old man asked someone to find a dustpan and spread it on the floor of the main room. He also ordered several people to take the child from Ding's arms, put him on the dustpan and lie down, and then found some paper money and covered the child's eyes with it.
Mrs. Ding still cried while guarding her child.
Soon, someone else went to boil an egg and find a piece of white cloth. The old man first wrapped the white cloth on Liang Xiong's head, which was considered as a filial piety to his parents in advance and a filial piety ceremony.
Then, put the hard-boiled eggs and a few pieces of paper money into the child's hands and hold them tightly.
While the old man was doing things, he cried: "What a misfortune you have suffered! My dear boy... take this paper money and use it as money to buy money when crossing the Naihe Bridge! Take this egg and keep it in the underworld." It’s time to hatch chickens, so I allow you, a dead ghost, to reincarnate! If you can’t hatch chickens, then you, a sparrow ghost who loves to make me happy, don’t even think about it. You are a short-lived soul. Go reincarnate and come back to coax people!"
Two old men who were doing carpentry came to help make a wooden box on their own. After it was completed, they invited Sun Jiangou, a fool from the neighboring village, to bury Liang Xiong's body and nail the wooden box tightly with bamboo nails.
When the sun went down, the two old men carried several hoes and shovels, and led several young men to use poles to carry the wooden box to the mountain behind the village for burial.
At that time, no matter whose family something unfortunate happened to, the enthusiastic mountain people would often come over to comfort and help. After finishing their work, they worked hard and hoped that the host's family would entertain them. They couldn't even bear to take a sip of water from that family, so they went directly home to eat.
At that time, the mortality rate of children in the village was high. Within a year, many children in a village would die. There are many small mounds covered with weeds on the hillside. These are the mass graves of children who were unable to pass the iron threshold due to measles and were buried here after they died.
well! There is a pile of new soil on the top of the barren hill, but there is one missing child from the knees of the parents.
