Acupuncture

"All right, I'll go back and talk to them. Staying away working forever isn't a solution, and Tangyuan is about to start school." Second Uncle's eyes lit up. Working with this eldest nephew of his, never mind vegetables at thirty yuan a jin-even at ten yuan a jin, what would they have to be dissatisfied with?

They had a dozen or so mu of reclaimed land at home. Following their nephew's lead, they didn't need much in a year, just enough to support the family. Wasn't that better than working away from home?

"Once we have more vegetables next year, we'll definitely have to set up an agricultural products company and pay whatever taxes we owe, so nobody reports us. Heh." Ye Huan spoke jokingly. These days, he didn't dare trust the villagers completely.

Second Uncle and Ye Huan's father shook their heads speechlessly too. They had seen and taken to heart the changes in the village over the years.

"What about those seeds you gave them before? I saw quite a few people really going into the mountains to carry back spring water for watering," Second Aunt asked.

"Second Aunt, they really are better than ordinary vegetables, but don't take rich people for fools. You'll understand later." Ye Huan said no more. Could ordinary mountain spring water grow good vegetables? Of course it could.

Otherwise, how did they think the grain and vegetables from certain special regions had become tribute goods?

But with things like this, comparisons were what you had to fear. Especially with those rich people-was a single one of them a fool? Could a fool hold on to an immense family fortune?

"As long as they're willing to sell, vegetable dealers will definitely come to buy them. Three to five yuan should be no problem. Mountain spring water is a selling point, after all. They count as a kind of organic vegetable," Ye Huan added. Any higher probably wasn't very likely, especially with vegetable dealers, who cared for nothing but profit.

Second Uncle, Second Aunt, and even Ye Huan's parents nodded. They had grown vegetables their whole lives and never heard of any selling for thirty yuan a jin. That was why they had reacted that way when their son first told them about it.

Even with pork at thirty yuan a jin, they had to consider whether to buy it, let alone vegetables. After returning and discovering it was all true, they had burst with tremendous enthusiasm. They never complained of being tired each day, thinking only of working a little harder, not knowing when they might be knocked back to square one.

Everyone drank and chatted. They were all close relatives who kept in frequent contact, so there was nothing they couldn't discuss, and the conversation turned to Eighth Grandpa's family.

"When Xiao Jie set up her own household before, Eighth Uncle didn't give her much land. Uncle, could we talk to Daming this time and have some of their family's land allotted to Xiao Jie?" Ye Huan's mother said.

The old man thought it over and nodded. "That's only right. She should have been given it when they split the household, actually. But you all know what your Eighth Aunt is like. Sigh, Daming's a spineless coward too, forever papering over the cracks."

Bai Jie said nothing. She had suffered more than enough over these past few years, hardships not worth recounting to outsiders, and she had made it through. With just that half mu of land, she had supported herself and Jingjing.

"Grandpa, have the village chief give Sister-in-law that plot of Eighth Grandpa's next to ours. It'll be easier to look after later," Ye Huan said.

"All right." Grandpa nodded. The plot wasn't large, around two mu, but if it was tended well, with his grandson leading the way, it would be enough to feed the mother and daughter for the rest of their lives.

"Uncle, are you home?" someone suddenly called from outside the courtyard.

Ye Huan got up, went out through the front door, and reached the courtyard entrance. "Ninth Uncle, what's wrong?" This cousin of his father's ranked ninth among their generation, so Ye Huan called him Ninth Uncle. He was also a relative within five degrees of mourning kinship.

"Huanzi, is your grandpa here?" Ninth Uncle hurried in anxiously, then spotted the old man.

With a thud, he dropped to his knees.

"What's going on?" The old man hurried to help him up.

"Uncle, please come look at Xiao Huo. I don't know what's wrong. He came back this afternoon and slept like a log. Now he's running a fever of 39.5 and keeps babbling nonsense. I can't tell what he's saying."

"Come on, let's take a look. Xiao Huan, go fetch my medicine chest. I'll head over first." The old man wasted no words. He threw on an undershirt and urged Old Nine to get moving.

The second eldest, Ye Huan's Second Uncle, and his father followed to see what was happening too. Ye Huan's father ranked sixth, the village chief Ye Daming seventh, while Bai Jie's late father-in-law, Eighth Grandpa's son, had ranked fourth.

Ye Huan fetched his grandfather's medicine chest, told his mother and the others to eat first, and hurried after his grandfather's group to Ninth Uncle's house.

Old Nine, Ye Daquan, lived near the center of the village, toward the village entrance. Ye Huan caught up with his grandfather, father, and the others outside the courtyard, and they went into Ninth Uncle's home together.

Ye Huan's grandfather, Ye Wuju, practiced both medicine and martial arts, which shared the same roots. In his earlier years, he had also been the village's barefoot doctor. His secret acupuncture techniques were so badass that a leading traditional Chinese medicine practitioner from the provincial capital had once wanted to become his disciple, but Ye Huan's grandfather had refused.

He had said the same thing as always: Ye Huan's great-grandfather had passed all of this down to him, and he would pass it down to Ye Huan.

Ye Huan had studied acupuncture since childhood, along with things like the Formula Songs. Identifying medicinal ingredients posed no problem for him at all, but because he had later gone off to school, he had not continued his advanced studies, so his skills had remained at the level of someone barely qualified to finish his apprenticeship.

As soon as Ye Huan's grandfather entered, he saw the boy lying on a bamboo cooling bed in the main room. Ye Daquan had gone away to work in his younger years and married late. He was nearly fifty now, but his son was only thirteen. His wife was a widowed woman he had met at an out-of-town construction site. Back then, Ye Daquan had given all fifty thousand yuan he had earned working to her parents' family before he could marry this wife, who was six or seven years younger than him.

Having been born to his father late in life, Xiao Huo had feared neither heaven nor earth since he was little. Later, after Ye Huan beat him up twice while home for the New Year, he became afraid of Ye Huan.

Ye Wuju laid a hand on Xiao Huo's wrist, then lifted his eyelids, checked his tongue, and held out his hand.

Ye Huan had known how to assist his grandfather since childhood and handed over the sterilized silver needles. Grandpa picked out a particularly long one, located the Yongquan acupoint on the sole of Xiao Huo's foot, and drove the needle in.

"Xiao Huan, bring his temperature down," Grandpa told Ye Huan. Ye Huan had been his assistant and apprentice since childhood, and the villagers had long since ceased to find it unusual.

Before Ye Huan had gone to board at high school, the villagers had even let him treat their minor ailments rather than trouble the old man.

Ye Huan set down the medicine chest, stripped off Xiao Huo's trousers and clothes, then wiped him down with alcohol. By the time his own forehead was covered in sweat from the effort, Xiao Huo's temperature had finally come down.

His grandfather, Ye Wuju, inserted thirteen silver needles into Xiao Huo in succession, gently twirling their ends between his fingers as true qi flowed out of his body. Only after he had twirled them all once, leaving every silver needle humming and quivering without a breeze, did he stop.

"Where did he go this afternoon? Do you know?" The old man's expression was grave. In this short span of time, many relatives had arrived in the room, and the village chief had come too.

"Eldest Uncle, how is he?" he asked Ye Huan's grandfather.

"He's suffered a fright. I don't know what caused it. If you'd waited any longer to call me, you'd be preparing his funeral." Ye Huan's grandfather glared fiercely at Old Nine, Ye Daquan.