A Western Doctor’s Happy Farming Life[1] chapter 52

They gobbled the bear palm with rice, and at the end of dinner, Song Qinghan could hardly stand up holding the wall aside. That was such a satisfaction and a great entertainment to his stomach.

“That’s super divine. No wonder people would describe the superb flavor of the bear palm in books. It’s just a pity that this wonderful dish is served without cumin.” Song Qinghan exclaimed.

Seeing that Song Qinghan was acting like he was totally drunk, Wu Dahu asked in amusement, saying, “What is cumin? Tell me, I will find some for you.”

With eyes opened wide, Song Qinghan stretched wide his arms measuring and explaining, “It’s a plant in such a large size. Its bloom features yellow with several seeds on it. And it gets a special flavor, I would say it tastes like star anise.”

Pondering for a brief moment, Wu Dahu nodded, saying, “I might have seen this before! Once upon a time I got lost in the moutain. And I had seen something similar to what you’ve described just now. They were growing in adjacent to each other. That was amazing just took a look on them. However, they just got a pungent smell, maybe? So I just kept a distance from them. From your description, I would say that’s it.”

Song Qinghan clasped his hands in excitement, saying, “Really? What about black pepper? It is probably with like this height. And there hangs strings of ball-shaped fruits, including some green and red.”

Wu Dahu answered in an uncertain tone, “I might have, and it was also seen in the mountain. But it’s hard for me to recall the precise location. I remember that I did take a bite of it in my childhood. How bad taste it had! So I never ever tasted it again.”

Song Qinghan patted Wu Dahu on his shoulder happily, saying, “Never mind. As long as we know they do grow in the mountain, everything will just be fine. How silly I am, I did forget to ask you in advance. Well, this must be the influence of the pregnancy. I wasn’t that dumb before.”

Witnessing the look of confusion from the boy, Wu Dahu came to hold the waist of Song Qinghan with amusement, and accompanied with him to the room, saying, “You’re dumb or not, I don’t care. As long as you got your brain sober now, that will be fine. Sleep this side tonight, or I would be worried that I probably would press on you. And it’s troublesome for me to sleep this side, I don’t want to get dirty on my wounds.”

“NO, I can’t sleep without you aside! And you are much nicer and warmer compared to the cold wall.” Shouted Song Qinghan in a tempting tone. It was the first time for him to play the coquetry and be acting like a spoiled kid.

With an awkwardness flashing on face, Wu Dahu fumbled there touching his own body but then said with hesitation, “It seems that I can’t make it to warm your feet up right now. If you still feel cold… Then let’s heat up the brick-bed.”

After that, he directly headed out the room and looked for some woods, and when he came back he commenced firing the woods and setting them under the brick-bed.

With a pampered smile, Song Qinghan held his own forehead helplessly.

What “blockhead” Wu Dahu is! What Song Qinghan really wanted wasn’t the warmth of his feet or something else. The key point was that this boy was eager to sleep with his man!!

However, as the brick-bed started heating up and showed its warmness, it failed Song Qinghan to conceive any other naughty thoughts in his mind. As soon as he got his head on the pillow, he fell asleep all of a sudden.

Tucking in Song Qinghan, Wu Dahu came to blow out the candle and walked alone to the kitchen. In this atmosphere of dreadful silence, he commenced dealing with the remaining bear flesh, making them into dry meat. It was not until the moon hung high up in the sky did he finally went back to the room and sleep.

The next morning, Song Qinghan woke up with sweats. Well, such a “wet” and “warm” night he had.

That might be the downside of the so-called brick-bed. People would just sleep in if the bed was heated up by their naturally physical temperatures. However, situation would just reverse if the bed was heated up by any other external factors, people wouldn’t choose to cling to their beds.

Rubbing eyes, he stood up and headed to the kitchen. But then he was with an utter astonishment when he just saw the well-set dry meat, he then shouted in surprise, “Dahu! Did you make all these alone?”

At the moment Song Qinghan shouted, Wu Dahu just came back from outside, he walked in the kitchen, smiling to Song Qinghan and saying, “Yes, I got extra strength and was free. Have your breakfast now, I just sent some to Aye.”

Approaching to the man, Song Qinghan came over to check the wounds on Wu Dahu. He sighed with a relief after he found his man was getting better.

After breakfast, Song Qinghan helped Wu Dahu change the gauze. But then he read out the eagerness of this man who was seemingly ready to go out, he raised his eyebrows, asking, “Where are you going? The mountain again?”

With a look of innocence, Wu Dahu nodded tentatively, and saying in a low voice, “Didn’t you mention that you want some cumin and black pepper? Well, I got nothing to do today. I will go and find some.”

Pondering, Song Qinghan didn’t retort all at once this time, but just asked in concerns, “Do you still remember whether it is dangerous or not in the place where you saw the cumin thing?”

Thinking seriously for a while, Wu Dahu answered in honesty, saying, “What I can assure is that there exist no valuable animals to hunt. I was just wandering there, and to be honest, I met nothing threatening. There should be no perilous situation if nothing changed.”

Heaving a sigh, Song Qinghan nodded and replied, “Then I will go with you. It’s better for us to finish it before noon. Laifu probably will come this afternoon and, don’t forget Qin Aye, we still have to deliver the food for him.”

Wu Dahu didn’t dissuade at all because he knew the toughness of Song Qinghan when this boy just made up his mind. He put away a dagger in his sleeves for any unexpected situation.

Closing the door, this couple headed to the mountain in a leisure way.

The trip was just like what Wu Dahu had mentioned, there existed no any special fierce animal at all, but only some hares could be seen occasionally.

Probably it was because Song Qinghan was right aside along the way, Wu Dahu felt a bit stressful, which had totally triggered the inner potential of him. He finally found the place smoothly where bore much resemblance with the place in his memory.

With an utter shock, Song Qinghan stared at the plant group of cumin, he then shouted in happiness, “Let’s just transplant some in our yard! We do have some spare space for them, don’t we?”

Obediently nodding, Wu Dahu then bent over to dig out dozen of the plant, and then threw them into the basket on his back.

In thinking that cumin was quite easy to be preserved within a long time, Song Qinghan showed no mercy at all. He asked Wu Dahu to pick up all the remaining fruits of cumin. At the very end, they had tucked the whole basket with full of cumin.

On the way back, Wu Dahu didn’t choose the causal way but another.

However, it seemed that everything was just not that of smoothness. This poor couple almost lost their way in the woods. If Wu Dahu led the way further and did not backtrack at all, they probably should have got lose in this ocean of forest.

But luckily, this trip seemed not to be a worthless one.

When Song Qinghan caught a glance at a tree of black pepper not far away, he shouted all of a sudden, “There, there! We should transport the tree back too!”

Measuring up and down on those trees, Wu Dahu picked the one in the smallest size and then dug it out and placed it aside.

It had been such a strength-consuming task for this couple to pick up the cumin and then another long trip of the wrong way. So at this time, they seemed to be extremely exhausted right away.

Not long after they started picking up the fruits, Song Qinghan got no any strength at all to even raise his hands, he looked at Wu Dahu puffing, and saying, “Let’s go home now. As long as we recognize this spot, we can come over here next time.”

Feeling a dull pain on wounds, Wu Dahu was afraid that any further movement would probably crack his ever-recovering wounds. So he decided not to push himself for that, and then answered while taking a pause, “Alright, it’s almost the noon time though. Let’s back home.”

Carrying the black pepper tree together, the two headed down the mountain in a slow pace.

They didn’t rush to handle with the stuffs they brought back after they got home, but just drank some water and took a rest for a brief moment, then commenced cooking for lunch.

Song Qinghan helped Wu Dahu change the gauze again before they were ready to visit Qin Aye.

The external injury of Qin Aye seemed to be quite promising in its recovery phase, no inflammation could be seen at all, and what’s more, the wounds started crusting.

But as for the bone crack… After a detailed check over the bones, Song Qinghan still showed a face of seriousness.

Well, it is a truth that the elders always get a worse physical situation. The elemental calcium in their bodies drains easily. That’s why when the elders face such a problem of bones, it always bodes ill and will take time for them to recover.

Moreover, there comes another wise cognition: any damage to the bones and tendons always requires one hundred days for people to recover comprehensively. Though the bone crack isn’t an illness of seriousness, it still takes time for a root-and-branch recovery. In this thought, Song Qinghan impelled again Qin Aye to cling tight in bed with no other intense movements. After that, he came back home with Wu Dahu.

The recovery process didn’t need to be urged and should be controlled as long as it recovered in its natural course. The bone problem could be better in a long-term recovery if the external injury continued to be better in these three days.

As they finished their lunch at home, Laifu happened to knock on their door.

Probably Laifu and his servant didn’t even go back home but come to Song Qinghan directly. So it could be seen that on the ox cart outside there existed bunch of goods.

After unloading the stuffs Song Qinghan required, Laifu was about to leave.

But then Wu Dahu shouted, trying to stop Laifu leaving, then he carried out something in the yard and put it on their ox cart, saying, “Take this back, it should be an offset for all these goods.”

Staring at the thing what Wu Dahu carried out, Laifu got shocked standing there. It was the bearskin he was longing for the whole time. With an utter delight, he waved his hand, saying, “How can it be? What I brought here is the real offset for the charge of the treatment for Zhuer. And this piece of bearskin is another business, we can’t mess them up.”

Saying so, he then took out five silver coins from his pocket and then tried to stuff them into Wu Dahu’s hands.

Pondering a while, Wu Dahu didn’t accept the coins at all, but asked tentatively, “Do you… Do you need an assistant in your fur business?”

With such a bewilderment, Laifu finally came to read out the thought of Wu Dahu, he clasped his hands with exultation, saying, “I would be so glad if Brother Dahu would love to join in this business. But you should know that this career posts a risk of danger, right? Well, I am afraid that this deal can’t be illustrated so clearly in a short time. How about this, we will find a time to discuss about it this afternoon. What do you think?”

For this request, of course Wu Dahu wouldn’t say no, he then nodded, saying, “Alright. You must be kind of tired today for the purchase. Go back home and take a good rest. I will visit you tomorrow at noon.”

Responding happily, Laifu pondered for a while since he noticed that Wu Dahu still rejected the coins, and then he said, “Since so, then I will just keep the coins myself. If we reach an agreement soon, these coins would be the money for the participation. Is that okay?”

Seeing that Wu Dahu showed no face of rejection, he delivered him a big smile while waving his hand and saying, “I’m going back home right now. We will discuss about the further details tomorrow at noon.”

Nodding, Wu Dahu stood there eyeing Laifu and his servant leaving.

Song Qinghan then uttered thoughtfully, “He only mentioned the situation that if you would love to participate, but neglect the other side that if you wouldn’t. So that means he can assure that you definitely will join in his business no matter how perilous situation it will bring.”

Wu Dahu then echoed, saying, “True. That’s why he is a successful businessman. Though he looks like a down-to-earth guy, his eyes are just sharp and kind of merciless. I’m afraid that I need to join in this business for sure. The fur business is such a career with sudden huge profits. We can relocate to the town or even farther place if I can make profit from it this winter.”

Though Song Qinghan never thought that the idea of relocating from Wu Dahu was stimulated by Laifu’s utterance, as a man he still had ambition and eagerness to make the promotion. He would choose to have a better life pursuing a richer livelihood rather than living in such a shack for their rest of life without any changes.

Later, the two commenced handling the stuff Laifu brought to them, and then implanted the small sized black pepper tree and the plants of cumin in their yard.