Improvement (Continued)

Jian Mo soothed the little beastman and asked his parents, "He was about to lose his baby teeth anyway, right?"

The little beastman's two fathers nodded repeatedly.

Jian Mo pressed his head against the little beastman's chest again and listened to his internal organs. Deciding there probably wasn't anything wrong, he said, "Then let's pull the tooth. Half of it has broken off, and leaving it in his mouth could lead to an infection."

The two fathers didn't quite understand what an infection was, but after watching Jian Mo work so deftly, they trusted him completely and took his word for everything.

Jian Mo looked at the little beastman in human form and found him a little awkward to handle.

After all, he was a veterinarian.

He discussed it with the parents. "Could you have the little fellow change back into his beast form? It would be easier for me to treat him that way."

The little beastman had stopped crying, though large tears still clung to his cheeks as he watched Jian Mo nervously.

Jian Mo looked down at the little beastman. "Can you do that?"

Neither parent objected, and the little beastman nodded obediently.

One of the little beastman's fathers untied his beast-hide skirt, and the little beastman changed back into his beast form while lying on his side.

He was probably a little member of the weasel family.

Jian Mo looked at the familiar beast form on the table, relief in his eyes.

What came next was the part Jian Mo knew best.

He looked at the little fellow, who had been held in place, and picked up a pair of wooden tweezers. Gripping the half-broken canine, he gave it a quick, precise, forceful upward tug in the direction it was loose and pulled the broken tooth right out.

He was so fast that the little fellow barely had time to react before Jian Mo was already rinsing his mouth with salt water. After making sure the whole tooth was out, he covered the spot with a small piece of sterilized cloth.

"Bite down," Jian Mo told the little fellow.

The little fellow blinked and obediently closed his mouth, far more cooperative than Jian Mo's previous animal patients.

Jian Mo couldn't help praising him. "Well done. What a brave little fellow."

The little fellow's ears twitched, and he averted his gaze, not daring to look at Jian Mo. He was clearly a little shy.

Jian Mo said to the two parents, "All done. For the next couple of days, try not to let him eat on the side where the tooth was pulled, and don't let him lick the spot where it came out."

The little fellow's bleeding had stopped long ago. Tears still clung to his cheeks, but he had already perked up.

One of the little beastman's fathers asked, "Doesn't he need medicine on it?"

Jian Mo put the used instruments away separately, intending to sterilize them all later. "No need. Saliva itself can disinfect, and the wound will heal on its own."

The two fathers nodded, only half understanding, but they had a general idea of what Jian Mo meant.

The little beastman's other father brought a basket over from behind him and said gratefully, "Doctor Jian Mo, this is for you."

When the two parents had carried the little beastman over, their fellow tribespeople had brought their supplies along with them.

The basket the little beastman's father was holding was one they had brought.

Jian Mo removed the leaves covering the basket and looked at the yellowish-brown, round fruits inside. Each was about the size of an egg. "What are these?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, I brought the wrong one." The little beastman's father glanced at it and hurried to take the basket back. "Those are flour fruits for feeding Flying-Winged Beasts and Pack-Pack Beasts. I meant to give you Wood-Stabilizing Roots."

If Flying-Winged Beasts and Pack-Pack Beasts could eat them, they weren't poisonous.

Jian Mo picked up a fruit and sniffed it, then scratched at its smooth, hard skin with his fingernail.

After he scratched it, a bitter smell hit his nose, along with another unpleasant odor. It wasn't exactly foul, but it was uncomfortable to smell.

Jian Mo tried to squeeze the fruit open, but even when he squeezed hard, it wouldn't crack.

Just as he was hesitating over whether to bite it open, Wu Jiong returned. He took the fruit from Jian Mo, gently squeezed it open, and handed it back.

Jian Mo turned and smiled at Wu Jiong, then sniffed the round kernel inside.

Jian Mo asked, "The kernel is the part they can eat, right?"

The little beastman's father said, "Yes, but it doesn't taste very good. Nobody eats it unless it's a famine year and there's no food. We brought it all to trade with tribes that raise Pack-Pack Beasts."

As he spoke, the father suddenly realized something. "Doctor Jian Mo, your tribe raises Pack-Pack Beasts too! Then you can have this basket of flour fruits, and I'll give you some Wood-Stabilizing Roots as well."

Jian Mo held the flour fruit. "Just the flour fruits will do. There's no need for the Wood-Stabilizing Roots. I didn't do much."

The little beastman's father disagreed. "That won't do. How could we give you nothing but flour fruits?"

He added, "There are flour fruits all over the river where we live anyway. We can just go scoop up some more tomorrow."

Surprised, Jian Mo stared at the flour fruit, its skin as smooth as a chestnut's. "They grow in the river?"

The little beastman's father said, "Yes, though I doubt your tribe has them. Only tribes like ours, down in the lowlands, have them."

Jian Mo smiled. "Well, I really did learn something new. Just give me the flour fruits. Listen to me."

He was so firm that the little beastman's two fathers couldn't very well argue any further. They had no choice but to give him a basket of flour fruits and leave the basket with him too.

The two soon left with the little beastman, while Jian Mo stayed where he was and waited for the next patient.

Things went smoothly that day, and he didn't run into any difficult cases afterward.

That evening, Jian Mo said goodbye to the people of the Mengshui Tribe and returned to his tribe with Wu Jiong.

He poured out some of the flour fruits, intending to feed them to the Pack-Pack Beasts.

Wu Jiong stopped him. "You have to shell them first. They can't digest the shells and could easily eat themselves to death."

Jian Mo looked at the shells. "Aren't their teeth pretty good?"

Wu Jiong said, "Even good teeth aren't enough. I'll go borrow a sheller."

Wu Jiong went out and soon returned with a borrowed sheller.

The sheller had a round groove for holding a flour fruit, with a wooden-handled stone blade above it. Once the fruit was in place, a press and roll of the blade would cut a ring around it. A gentle squeeze would then make the kernel fall out.

The kernels inside were actually quite substantial, about

the size of

longans, and had a fair bit of weight in the hand.

They just smelled really unpleasant.

The smell made Jian Mo feel a little like retching.