Liu San wanted to go down to the yard and take a look in various rooms, but Sister-in-law Sun stopped her on the steps and said, "I want to go in and have a look."
However, Sister-in-law Sun Wu did not move away and said with a smile: "Master, this is the Qingjie Yuan. Even the biological mother and son are not allowed to stay in the courtyard until the boy is seven years old. There is a widow's family living there. I'm afraid if I go in... I'm afraid. ..." Seeing that Liu San still had a confused face, Sun Wu's sister-in-law had no choice but to open the skylight and speak frankly, "...I'm afraid it will hinder the reputation."
Only then did Liu San understand why she was stopping him. He thought about it and felt that there was no need to look further. Although it's better here than outside, it's not much better. After all, Huanghua Temple itself is too dilapidated, and the management of Puji Hall is also in chaos, so rectification will not take place overnight. Don't rush this moment.
"In that case, please bring everyone in the courtyard, young and old, out. I want to see them."
Sister-in-law Sun wanted to refuse, but when she saw Mao Xiuyu winking, she felt that it was unwise to continue to disobey the new "Australian", so she had to say: "Please wait a moment, sir, I will summon you right away."
After saying that, he knocked on the wooden clappers under the eaves of the corridor.
With the dull and desolate sound of banging, many women came out of the clean rooms everywhere. The old one was already an old woman with chicken skin and gray hair, and the young one was still among the young ones. Some were holding young children in their arms, and some were dragging their children. Take a girl. Both young and old are made of the same color indigo cloth. Regardless of makeup, white hair on their buns is their only decoration. They all stood in the courtyard with low eyebrows and remained silent.
When Liu San saw it now, he felt that this place still looked like a charity. At least the yard was neat and clean, and the women were not in rags and rags, like beggars.
"This is the new doctor," Sister-in-law Sun said loudly when she saw that the person had almost arrived. "Come here for inspection."
The women all bowed their knees and said, "Hail, sir." Their voices were messy and weak.
Liu San took a closer look at these women who were "determined to keep their integrity". The faces of these women were either pale and bloodless, or sallow. Probably because I have been working in the house for a long time and rarely see sunlight. Of course there are no fat people here. Although they are not emaciated, they look very thin. The children in the hospital have sallow complexions, dull eyes, and slow movements. Looking at Sister-in-law Sun, who is big and round, it is obvious that the food here will not be much better, but she will not starve to death.
If we look at it according to modern nutritional standards, all the people here are suffering from chronic malnutrition.
Liu San frowned and said, "How many meals are served here a day?"
"Reporting to the master: two meals a day. One rice and one porridge."
"Where's the child?"
"It's the same." Sister-in-law Sun Wu didn't know why Mr. Liu was so interested in the child.
"What a pity." Liu San said with emotion. These more than a hundred "virtuous women" have been locked up in this living coffin-like yard for many years, looking at the sky in all directions, with the loom as their companion all year round. The cruelty and waste is outrageous. There are so many strong, hard-working and willing men in Hainan but they don’t have wives! It's simply unethical!
He thought about the whole Guangzhou Prefecture, the whole Guangdong, there are probably many women who observe this kind of etiquette. This culture of encouraging moral integrity needs to be severely punished.
Sister-in-law Sun Wu didn't know what was "a pity", and she wondered in her heart whether Mr. Kunren had taken a fancy to one of the young widows among them? This is extremely unacceptable. Thinking about how to advise him if he really wants to do such a thing.
Don't look at Sun Wu's ruthless nature in exploiting "virtuous women", but she takes the matter of "honoring women" as seriously as the sky. It is true that "starving to death is a small matter, but losing integrity is a big deal." It is best not to allow even one male sparrow to fall down in the courtyard.
Liu San was thinking about how to reform the entire Puji Hall, especially not to waste its human resources. Suddenly someone in the crowd screamed: "Master Classical Doctor! Help!"
Liu San was startled. The crowd that was originally like a dry well also started to ripple. But he saw a woman squeeze out from the crowd, kneel down at the foot of the stone steps, and kowtow repeatedly. The stone slabs banged against each other.
Sister-in-law Sun was shocked. She quickly jumped down and grabbed the woman's hair, cursing, "What the hell are you calling?!" She was about to pull her back.
Unexpectedly, the woman refused to obey and continued to cry and scream: "Master, help me!"
Seeing this, Liu San felt something was fishy, waved his hand and scolded: "Don't pull her, let her talk!" Then he said to the woman, "What do you want? Just talk."
Sister-in-law Sun Wu did not dare to use violence anymore, so she had to step aside. The woman then cried and complained that her child was sick and the hospital refused to treat her. Before the child died, he was thrown into the abandoned baby tower at the back.
"...Although there is no cure or cure, the child is still alive," the woman wailed. "Fifth sister-in-law insisted that she had smallpox and she would spread the epidemic if she stayed in the hospital, so she was thrown into the tower alive! Please be merciful and save my son's life!"
When Liu San heard this, she immediately felt her energy and blood rising, her face turned red, and she said angrily: "Sister-in-law Sun Wu, is this really true?!"
Sister-in-law Sun Wu didn't expect that this seemingly gentle Kun Ren would suddenly become so scary. It was a common practice to throw seriously ill children into the Abandoned Infant Tower. No one ever said anything, but this Kun Ren master would be so angry... She couldn't help but knelt down with a pop. She fell to the ground and said in a trembling voice: "Master, master, this is the custom in the hospital. Her son has smallpox, and the hospital will definitely not allow him to stay..."
"Fart." Liu San roared, "Get up and take me to the Abandoned Infant Tower!"
Sister-in-law Sun quickly got up and went out. She wanted to turn back and lock the door. When she saw Liu San's face full of anger and the guards' expressions even worse, they no longer cared about being "stricter" and crawled ahead to lead the way.
The so-called Abandoned Infant Pagoda is located at the back entrance of Huanghua Temple. It was originally the temple garden, but now it is deserted and dilapidated, filled with bat droppings and spider webs. Wild beehives, and fox tracks. The back door is open, and next to the door is the Abandoned Infant Tower.
The Abandoned Infant Pagoda looks like a Buddhist pagoda and is less than one foot tall. There was a small door on the wall of the tower that you had to bend down to get in. There was a filthy wooden basin in front of the tower.
Mao Xiuyu said that all children who died in the hall would be burned here and their ashes put into the pagoda. People's children who died young could also be brought and placed in this wooden basin, and then cremated in the hall and put into the pagoda.
As he walked to the tower, he could already smell a putrid smell - the smell of rotting corpses. Liu San couldn't help but frown secretly, took out a mask from his pocket and put it on. As soon as he lowered his head, he saw a naked body of a child lying in the thorn bushes less than five or six steps away from him. He was only four or five years old. The body had already looked like a giant, with flies flying around on it.
In the nearby grass and thorns, you can see many scattered young bones wherever you look. A little hand that had turned into bones was exposed outside the grass. It looked like the size of a baby less than one year old.
Looking at this scene that was like a horror movie, Liu San felt his blood rising. He held on to the tower to calm down, pointed at the bones, and said in a trembling voice: "What... is going on?!"
Sister-in-law Sun Wu did not dare to talk, but Mao Xiuyu plucked up the courage to say that these were all children who had died in common people's homes, and some had fallen down while being carried from the street.
"...Most of them ask widowed laborers to bury the children. They don't care about their conscience. It's troublesome to go to the cemetery, so they can just leave it here."
"You are conscientious, why don't you bury the child's body?!" Liu San was furious, "Just let his body be exposed in the wilderness. I saw the word benevolence and righteousness hanging on the door here - I saw all the way to now, there is no half benevolence anywhere." Righteousness! Your benevolence and righteousness have gone into the dog's belly!"
Mao Xiuyu did not dare to say anything and remained as silent as a cicada.
Liu San was getting angry when he suddenly heard the faint sound of a baby crying. He stopped and listened carefully. It seemed that he was in the abandoned baby tower, so he put his ear close to the wall of the tower - this time he heard it more clearly. It was indeed a child. Crying in the tower.
He turned to the door of the tower and bent down to get in. The guard squad leader quickly stopped him: "Chief, don't go. I'll go in! It's too dark inside!"
Liu San realized something was wrong when he reminded him, and said: "You prepare a torch for me, I will go in by myself."
The monitor refused, and finally went in with him.
As soon as we entered the pagoda, we smelled a strong rotten smell. It was not as dark as expected. There were several small skylights on the top of the pagoda, which let in light, so we could barely see clearly without lighting a torch.
I saw that the middle level of the tower was filled with small clay pots, which were piled higher than people. Most of the ones below had been crushed and broken. There was a thick layer of broken pottery fragments and ashes on the ground. Many of the fragmented bones had not been cremated and were obviously thrown in directly. Among this horrifying pile of bones, a child wearing an indigo cloth coat was crying, his voice was hoarse, and he was almost dying. Liu San quickly picked up the child, and the squad leader said: "Chief, this child is sick. I'm afraid it will be contagious, so I'd better hold him."
Liu San didn't say anything. He carried the child out of the abandoned baby tower. Seeing the bright sunshine outside, he said to the guard squad leader: "Put your hat on to cover him."
He used the squad leader's copper basin hat to shield the child from the sun, so as not to suddenly enter the sun in a dark place and burn his eyes. Look carefully this is a boy, about one year old. Although she has a sallow face and thin muscles, she keeps things clean, which shows that her mother is very dedicated. Liu San saw that there were no acne on his face, but there were many blisters on his little hands and arms, and pimples on his scalp. He knew that this was not smallpox, but chickenpox.
Chickenpox is not a serious disease and can usually be cured on its own as long as you take good care of it. However, children in this time and space are malnourished and have poor immunity, which often leads to high fever or pneumonia complications - which were fatal in the 17th century.
The child's hands and feet were indeed feverish, and his body temperature was still not low. However, his lungs were not infected when he heard the cry, so it was not difficult to treat him. He ordered: "Let's go! Go to Qingjie Hall!" Then he said to Sun Wu's sister-in-law: "Go and prepare a basin of cold water immediately! Then go and make rice soup!"
Sister-in-law Sun Wu agreed repeatedly and hurried away. (To be continued.) Please visit mpiaotian
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