A Western Doctor’s Happy Farming Life[1] chapter 86

Although Song Qinghan didn’t know why Wu Dahu changed his mind, he did notice what Wu Dahu had figured out just now. He thought that since the shop was given with a name “An Eccentric Shop”, it would be more fitting for the shop’s temperament to change its business hours to eccentric one either, so he responded, saying, “Alright then. I will get another wooden board and write down its opening period. And I will just hang it under that wooden board.”

Wu Dahu smiled indulgently again thinking of the first wooden board with multi-colors, nodding and saying, “Fine, I will make one for you.”

After the two of them went home, Wu Dahu went to prepare dinner while Song Qinghan put away the dried lemon slices.

He took a bowl, put two lemon pieces into it and then added two spoons of white sugar and poured some warm boiled water. He took a sip after the sugar inside melted.

Probably it was because the spoon was too small, the sweetness of the sugar didn’t overwhelm the sourness of the original flavor from lemons. However, it was still an acceptable flavor for Song Qinghan, he drank it all at once.

After the first shot, he could finally figure out the proportion of sugar in one single bowl. And then he took another bowl over, put one piece of the lemon slice, two spoons of sugar and filled the bowl with warm water. After stirring them in the bowl, he directly delivered it to Wu Dahu.

It happened that Wu Dahu didn’t even like the taste of sourness, so he just frowned at the moment he could smell the pungent sourness the water gave off and was about to refuse.

But the fact was that no one could ever rival against Song Qinghan when it came to roughness. Song Qinghan now was showing a strong attitude that Wu Dahu had to be obedient and listen. He then directly pushed the bowl to Wu Dahu’s mouth and fed him forcefully. It was not until Wu Dahu swallowed every drop of it did he loosened his attitude.

Wu Dahu pursed his lips a bit showing a face of suffering as if he was being tormented by a poisonous liquid. But then as he released his eyebrows, he muttered in astonishment, “This flavor… I don’t taste a strong sourness. But but brisk one instead.”

Song Qinghan answered confidently, “I didn’t lie to you, right? I do have talent in making tea too! I will bring a pot of lemon tea in the shop and let the guests to taste them for free. I won’t believe that they won’t fall in love with this flavor!”

Wu Dahu recollected the pleasant flavor of the lemon tea in his mouth, and then he nodded while reaching an agreement to Song Qinghan and saying, “I think it’s a good idea.”

Yuan Wenxuan intended to pretend to ignore the scene that Wu Dahu and Song Qinghan were “Eating on the Sly”. However, the smell of the lemon tea was so strong and special that it arouse the curiosity of him. He couldn’t help but sniff heavily, while saying, “It smells so good!”

Seeing that there was another candidate coming for a free sample, Song Qinghan hurriedly filled another bowl with lemon tea and then delivered it to Yuan Wenxuan, saying while blinking his eyes, “Try it and tell me if it tastes good or not. I want the truth.”

Seeing that his master took the initiative, Yuan Wenxuan took over the bowl excitedly, and he did even tuck the whole lemon into his mouth. After chewing and swallowing flesh, he spitted out the lemon peel, and then frowned, saying, “It is a nice drink tough, but… such a flesh tastes bad.”

Song Qinghan felt that something was wrong when he saw him putting the bowl up. However, it was already too late to stop him. Looking at the childish face of Yuan Wenxuan who was showing a pitiful expression, Song Qinghan couldn’t help laughing, he explained, “That isn’t for eating, you just drink the water.”

Hearing that, Yuan Wenxuan felt rather awkward standing there while scratching himself on the head. His face was flushing with embarrassment.

He should have thought that most of materials which were suitable for making various tea were non-edible. It just happened that pieces of lemon bore the most resemblance to the ones of tangerine. That was why he would tuck them all in mouth without hesitation.

Although things happened out of expectation, Song Qinghan still could draw a conclusion that he had succeeded making the lemon tea with a perfect flavor. And then he packed all the lemon pieces into a sack and made them all tightly sealed and placed them somewhere in the shade.

After dinner, just as they were all about to sleep, there came a slight sound of door knocking from the yard. It was so slight that if someone didn’t listen to it carefully, he wasn’t able to notice that.

It was Yuan Wenxuan who found out the sound of minuteness. In the very beginning he wasn’t about to pay attention to it at all. But since the sound remained as if there was a ghost outside there kept knocking on the door in an equivalent tempo, he couldn’t help but get his goose bumps all of a sudden and then rushed to Song Qinghan and got him informed.

Song Qinghan walked over with surprise, and only when he approached the door did he find out there was someone knocking right there, he then lowered his voice, muttering, “Who is that?”

The door-knocking sound paused all of a sudden, and then there came a familiar yet strange voice.

“It’s me, Old Zhu.”

Song Qinghan pondered for a moment and then he opened the door. He then let Old Zhu in as soon as he found Old Zhu was coming alone. After Old Zhu came in, he locked the latch. And then he asked dubiously, “Lord Zhu, would you mind me asking what the intention is you come here so late?”

Old Zhu sighed while looking at Song Qinghan in the eyes, saying, “Doctor, have you ever thought about that? The matter I mentioned about the strange disease of my family member. Do you still refuse to come with me and check it out?”

Song Qinghan noticed the sincerity in the eyes of Old Zhu, and he came to know that this old man wasn’t lying at all, so he frowned, asking, “I wonder how strange it is as you just keep accentuating such a word? Will you tell me something more in detail?”

He asked that not because he was curious, but he wanted to make sure if he was able to give the old man any suggestion. Well, he was still a doctor after all. He rejected to help Old Zhu last time because he had to be fair as Old Man Gao buzzed around. In fact, he was quite willing to help the family member of Old Zhu.

With even a moment of hesitation, Old Zhu responded quickly, explaining, “He got his lower body paralyzed, and sometimes he gets bleeding somewhere physically. And he feels joint pains occasionally.”

Song Qinghan nodded thoughtfully and then continued to ask, “How long has it been?”

“Half a year.”

After the response, Old Zhu seemed to recall something in his mind, and then he added, “It’s my grandson who gets the strange disease. He is ten years old now.”

“I see,” responded Song Qinghan, he already had some speculations in his mind now as this Old Zhu guy kept saying something in details. And in order to get his speculations proved, he continued to ask, “You said that your grandson got his lower body paralyzed. So I would love to know one certain thing. Did he get hit by something or something out of your expectation happened before he got paralyzed?”

“No, I was informed by the servants that he collapsed all of a sudden without any sign. And from then on, he was never able to make it to stand up.”

Probably it was because Old Zhu suddenly recalled something misfortune to his beloved grandson, it could be heard that this old man’s voice was a bit trembling.

“Then do you know something about his food preference? Like he doesn’t like something sour, or he doesn’t like tomatoes, vegetables or even fruits?”

“Well… Basically, all of these you mentioned. He loves eating meat so much, he eats meat even more frequent since he got ill. We all grown-ups offer him unprincipled accommodation just for pacifying him.”

After getting the crucial information, Song Qinghan said directly, “Ah I see, well, it would be similar to an illness called scorbutus. Even if it’s not, it’s kind of serious to that. And… half a year is quite long, it’s kind of sticky as far as I am concerned.”

Seeing that Song Qinghan knew this illness, Old Zhu cried as loudly as he could, “Doctor! PLEASE, save my grandson! I will pay any price as long as you can save him! And your husband! I promise you that he can get the top three prize by my force! And as for the coins! I will pay you 500,000 silver coins, is it enough? We can manage to negotiate about that if you think that is too little.”

Song Qinghan was almost choked just at the moment Old Zhu offered him such a seductive condition, but he didn’t show any expression of excitement but just hissed while gesturing and putting one of his index fingers in front of his mouth, he whispered, “Hush, don’t shout like that! If you let the Gao Mansion know everything, I am afraid I am not able to help!”

After that, he noticed Old Zhu had already released his mood, and then he continued, “Lord Zhu, I have known the basic information about the illness of your grandson now. As far as I am concerned, it is kind of a hard-to-cure illness. But I get some methods which can help your grandson mitigate the annoying and unbearable symptoms, you can get the prescription from me and try it out. If it works, keep trying, and probably he is able to be wholly cured by that. As for the remuneration, I’m not going to take that. Well, I do nothing at all but just give you some suggestion. It will still fall to you to implement everything.”

Old Zhu was inspired all of a sudden after Song Qinghan informed him something like that, he then lowered his voice saying seriously, “I will listen to you, Doctor! Even though it can cure my grandson, as long as it can help mitigate the symptoms, I will take every possible risk myself.”

Song Qinghan pondered for a moment, and then he grabbed a small basket over and then filled it with lemon pieces, and then delivered the basket to Old Zhu and explained, “Just replace the water with lemon tea to your grandson. As for the process to make the tea, just like this, take two lemon pieces into a cup or bowl and add some white sugar in and then pour some warm water.”

“Keep it in mind, you have to make the tea with warm water. ”

When Old Zhu saw that Song Qinghan was keeping his silence, he was stunned and asked, “Is that all?”

Song Qinghan nodded and said calmly, “That’s all. Go back and tell me the situation after a week.”

Elder Zhu pondered for a moment, then clenched the basket tightly and cupped his hands together, saying, “If this sort of things turn out to be useful, then Doctor, you will be the essential life saver for my family. I will pay you back for your kindness for sure in the future!”

Song Qinghan waved his hand as if he didn’t care much about the remunerations, and then he sent Old Zhu to the gate, confirming again, “Listen, you have to do in accordance to my words. And, most importantly, you can’t just let him be capricious.”

After Old Zhu left, Yuan Wenxuan revealed a pity in his eyes and whispered, “It would be better if we have a chance to visit the patient. I just check it out in books, but no relevant knowledge can be found…”

Song Qinghan couldn’t help laughing while caressing Yuan Wenxuan on the head, saying patiently, “Just wait for some more days. I should verify the illness first.”

Yuan Wenxuan nodded obediently. And one thought just popped up in his mind that he would ask Doctor Shi about the unknown illness and see whether people from Huichun Shop knew it or not. If Doctor Shi didn’t even know about it. Probably it would be another evidence that his Master was better than any doctor in Huichun Shop in medicine area.

After that, everyone in this house went back to their beds. Silence overwhelmed the whole night.

The next morning, Wu Dahu got up earlier than Yuan Wenxuan. After cooking breakfast, he got Song Qinghan a pot of warm water for washing face. With everything done, the family went out all together after their breakfast.

After helping Song Qinghan get the shop open, Wu Dahu gave Song Qinghan some clear-cut orders, and then left for the Liangyi Martial Club before Song Qinghan got impatience.

It wasn’t that easy to find the Liangyi Martial Club at all. But every resident here had to admit that this martial club was quite famous, and no one wouldn’t hear the name of it once.

With the guidance of passers-by, Wu Dahu finally arrived at the Liangyi Martial Club. He stood right in front the gate while looking at the plaque for a brief moment, and then entered the building directly. He searched around and wanted to see if he could give people here a hand or not.

It was still early though, and the servants in the building were moving out the weapons placed in the warehouse, as if they were all prepared for those who were coming to do weapon practice.

Seeing that, Wu Dahu approached and grabbed over those weapons with weight from the servants in his hands and commenced working.

Although the servants never saw Wu Dahu before, but he didn’t say anything. Nothing would be better than a willing helper.

But instead, someone not far away erupted all of a sudden.

“Who the heck are you? How dare you to sneak into my Liangyi Martial Club?” a clear-cut voice just rang after Wu Dahu placed the weapons down somewhere.