A Western Doctor’s Happy Farming Life[1] 102

Those bulky men, the ones longed to escape from the control of Song Qinghan, got their hearts softened at once as they found how pitiful the farm workers were. All of them clenched tight their fists, as if they were all ready and made their minds to fight against the disease for this town.

Song Qinghan moved quickly with a serious and focused expression. He didn’t even give the workers time to explain and started the operation.

Fortunately, it was Doctor Shi who came to explain in time and pacify those farm workers in fright. He and Yuan Wenxuan explained to them that cowpox could be used to be a treatment to cure the disease.

After the operation on these farm workers, Xia Yunfei and Qingfeng came back as well. Behind them followed a cluster of people, all of them crammed in the farm as if a town of zombies were about to attack.

Doctor Shi took the initiative to take over the scalpel from Song Qinghan since Song Qinghan seemed to get an countenance of exhaustion after that.

Probably these people had long buried themselves in a long period of despair, the hopes in their eyes seemed to be dim and meticulous, as if they did not put much expectations on such an operation, otherwise they would sink into another round of endless despair after getting another hit by the reality on their heads.

In this spaciously large and quiet sheep farm, there existed no other noises except the breathing sounds of the crowd and the scratching sound of the scalpel.

Yuan Wenxuan replaced Doctor Shi as Doctor Shi had to get a rest.

And then the bulky men replaced Yuan Wenxuan as Yuan Wenxuan had to get a rest.

And finally, the scalpel was back in Song Qinghan’s hands for several rounds.

After three rounds of the circulation, every resident got vaccinated while the moon hung high in the sky. The night fell quietly.

And then suddenly, there was someone cried among the crowd, “Buddha blesses us, Thank you Miracle Doctors!”. And the rest of them echoed, shouting in a same voice with a sobbing tone, “Buddha blesses us, Thank you Miracle Doctors!”

Song Qinghan wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. His pair of eyes was full of fire of hope while he delivered the crowd a smile of pleasure.

Well, this was the reason why he was eager to be a doctor, not for the gratitude from the patients but the great relief they were able to get out from the death.

It was late at night. Xia Yunfei and the others made the food they brought in from the carriage into dinner and shared to the crowd.

Though all the residents were already vaccinated with the cowpox, they should still stay for the follow-up observation. The group chose to stay right in the farm, they used the back-up quilt to replace the ones they used in the nearby town, and then burned them.

The other people did the same being obedient to Song Qinghan’s orders, they got their new clothes and new quilt from their closet. They would have a warm bath right away if they didn’t get open wounds on their bodies, a bath symbolizing for reborn.

The peaceful night went by fast. The next morning, outside the house came a bustling sound, a group of magpies were chirping as if they were coming to join the jubilant PARTY.

Song Qinghan walked out and saw that everyone had started to clean up the farm and yard. He was quite pleased seeing that everything was seemingly regaining its own vitality.

The owner of the sheep farm died for his misfortune in the outbreak of the smallpox disease, no one here had the right to claim his ownership to these animals. So residents now were dispensing them.

In thinking of Little Shitou at home, Song Qinghan approached to the crowd and asked being a bit cheeky, saying, “Can I buy two sheep from you? I got a child in my family, he wants to drink the milk…”

“NO, Doctor, we don’t sell. Please pick them as you wish! Two are not enough, how about ten?” a man said among the crowd.

Several residents pushed some sheep forward in front of Song Qinghan before the man finished his words. They got a brighter smile even the rashes on their face still lingered.

Song Qinghan waved his hand, saying with a wry smile, “I can’t take so many in the trip. I just want two, probably you can give me a male one and a female one. I want to make sure that my baby can enjoy the milk without worries.”

“How…”

The residents took a glance at the carriage not far away, they understood what Song Qinghan meant. So they negotiated and then picked up two of the strongest sheep among the herd, tied them up with ropes and then put them into the carriage.

Seeing that, Song Qinghan finally came to a relief, he then took over two pieces of silver drafts and placed them into the leader of the crowd.

The man was startled at the moment he got the money and took a few steps back, saying hurriedly, “No need for that! No need for that! We can’t accept Doctor Song’s money. That will be a curse to us!”

Song Qinghan looked at the silver drafts which had fallen onto the ground, saying purposely, “I have given you the money already anyway, it will be none of my business whether you want to let it be rotten on the ground.”

But beyond Song Qinghan’s expectation, the residents withdrew even farther. No one wanted to get the silver drafts at all.

He was a little embarrassed. After pondering for a moment, he bent over and picked up the silver drafts. He glanced at the group of ruffians who were talking to the residents from the corner of his eye. He was moved by that.

It was kind of a great shock for him that those ruffians bore no resemblance to the previous figures of them who got malignant and vicious looks. That was a total reborn to them as well. Since those bulky men got a sense to have reverence to lives, their intentions to rob and bully people gradually died away. And now they seemed to negotiate with the residents to get something to do.

Coincidentally, population in this town dwindled by the fierce “slaughter” of the smallpox. It required more people to fill in in this place for a new phase of booming. So they were eager to stay, stay in this town and be the town’s residents.

Of course, the residents showed all their willingness to keep their “Life-saving Sage” in their habitat. They promised those bulky men that they would dispense the best field and house property for them. With an utter shock, the bulky men immersed in happiness.

Just as they were all overwhelmed with joy, Song Qinghan’s voice suddenly rang out from their back.

“What are you laughing at? It seems that you guys have got the best news in the world! Come on, tell me something!”

The ruffians had been impressed by Song Qinghan, and they had experienced the “Fierce Stare” by him. So when they heard the words from Song Qinghan, he couldn’t help but tremble a bit at the same time subconsciously, they turned around with smiling faces, “Doctor Song, we are cheering up for the joyous result of this town! We just decided to stay here, well, we think that this town need so much some men like us with surplus strength here.”

Song Qinghan saw that their eyes were dodging yet he could still sense the serious sincerity from their words. So he nodded with satisfaction, reached out and handed over the two hundred silver drafts to them, ordering, “Take them! The town is about to be rebuilt from now on, it’s about to boom again. There must be some facilities which require money the most here. This amount of money is for sharing, it belongs to everyone. Don’t you try to misappropriate them. Do you understand that?”

“We got it, we got it! Doctor Song, you’re a real bodhisattva alive in the world.”

The leader of the ruffians took over the silver drafts hurriedly and nodded vigorously to Song Qinghan.

Song Qinghan snorted and checked all the people who were vaccinated with cowpox yesterday. Seeing that their condition showed signs of recovering, he immediately relaxed and got into the carriage.

However, to Song Qinghan’s surprise, when he got into another carriage which was loaded with sheep, he found that the weight of this carriage was a bit heavier than he thought. He pulled up the curtain of that carriage and found two more sheep were in while bunch of other novelties were lying aside.

Song Qinghan didn’t reject because they were all from the residents’ hearts, but instead, he felt quite warm in his mind with a smile on his face.

Although they were travelling overnight, they weren’t as anxious as they were when they came to the town. They took a lot of rest along the way, so it took them three days to reach the provincial capital.

After getting Doctor Shi and his servant in Huichun Shop and biding farewell to them, Song Qinghan took another carriage with Yuan Wenxuan and headed back home. They cooperated to get all the stuff on the carriage off and sent the carriage back.

What a such an exhausting trip they got! And after everything was done, they treated themselves a warm bath and got to their own rooms for a good rest.

When Wu Dahu came back with Little Shitou in his arms, he noticed there lay four sheep in all directions and came to know that Song Qinghan and Yuan Wenxuan had come back. But he didn’t bother them. Quietly, he picked up some wooden plates and used them to build a fence and then untied the sheep releasing them within the fence.

After a nap, Song Qinghan got up with full of energy. As he captured Wu Dahu and Little Shitou in his first sight, he rushed over excitedly and hugged the two with all affection. He missed them so much.

Surprise flashed across Wu Dahu’s eyes, but he hugged Song Qinghan tight without hesitation. He smelled the fragrance of Song Qinghan’s hair and felt relieved.

Little Shitou was being quite well-behaved there in Wu Dahu’s arms as if he knew he shouldn’t make any sound to break the reuniting ambience. He just reached out to play Song Qinghan’s hair with fun, and then tucked some in his mouth as usual.

They hugged for a long while without words while it could be sensed that love was pervading in the air. Finally, it was Song Qinghan who felt a bit timid, he raised his head and was about to speak, but he got his lips softened suddenly, their lips met gently to each other. They indulged themselves into the kiss with full of sensual love.

Wu Dahu was quite gentle yet clumsy too. But also, he was way more aggressive type in such a kiss.

And then they separated with reluctance staring at each other into their pairs of bright and clear eyes.

“Is Doctor Song at home?”

A voice outside the door broke in, interrupting mercilessly the sweetened ambience between the two. And then Song Qinghan blushed all of a sudden as he regained his attention. He rushed off as if he was trying to hide away the embarrassment right away, approached the door and opened it.

Outside the door there stood Old Zhu, the old man showed all his happiness as he saw the appearance of Song Qinghan emerging right inside the yard, he smiled, saying, “I thought no one is at home since there is no light inside.”

“Oh! Sorry…” Song Qinghan apologized, and then he turned around intending to light up the candles. But Wu Dahu had already lighted up the candles in every corner within the house. The candles gave off their lights, lighting up everything surrounded, including the environment outside. And then Song Qinghan found someone was there too hiding in the shadow.

Old Zhu chuckled and stepped forward a bit and let Zhai Su came out from the shadow, and then he turned to Song Qinghan again, saying, “Su’s getting better and better, I think he’s almost recovered now. He got a good medical cream to apply to remove the scar from Huichun Shop. Everything is going to be fine soon, I think. He said that he wanted to come over here to thank you. And I am free today, so we’re here.”

Zhai Su smiled and nodded to Song Qinghan, but just as he turned his head and was about to peer into Song Qinghan’s house. His gaze was fixed on Wu Dahu when he saw him inside.

Old Zhu’s smile stiffened as he saw Zhai Su was standing there with a dumbfounding look, he got closer to Zhai Su, whispering, “What’s wrong, Su?”

Song Qinghan followed Zhai Su’s gaze and he turned his head looking at Wu Dahu. He came to a shock when he noticed that Wu Dahu was standing still glaring outward.

It could be seen that Wu Dahu was frowning tight there, his eyes were full of burning anger while he was gritting his teeth as if he was trying his best to suppress the outrage deep in his mind.

“Why are you here?”

Beyond everyone’s expectation, it was Zhai Su who spoke the first. And obviously, he was talking to Wu Dahu.

Wu Dahu held tight Little Shitou in his arms, and sneered, “None of your business.”

And after that, Wu Dahu turned around and was about to enter the room without hesitation. Hurried, Zhai Su shouted immediately, “You’re my son! How can it be none of my business?”

The house sank into a long silence after the Zhai Su’s utterance. Even Yuan Wenxuan, the one who just got out from his room, didn’t dare to say anything as if he was afraid that he would break something fragile and made an ear-splitting noise.

Song Qinghan looked around and laughed dryly, “Lord, you might have recognized the wrong person, I suppose? Dahu is from a family long suffering scarcity, how does he get a relation with you?”

But to his surprise, Zhai Su answered without even changing his countenance, “I know he is from that kind of family, and that’s why I leave him.”

And then Wu Dahu broke in, trying to lower his voice but still shouted with anger, “That’s enough! We got no ties anymore. Just leave here please.”

Zhai Su looked at the little baby carried in Wu Dahu’s arms in a distance, and then he looked up to Song Qinghan, smiling while saying, “Then he’s your husband. Since I am not welcome today, I will visit you next time.”

And then he turned around and left, leaving Old Zhu standing there.

Wu Dahu clenched his fists, staring at Zhai Su’s back and saying in a low voice, “Not only today, you’re banned to visit here forever.”

Zhai Su paused but he didn’t say anything. Without a word, he left on his own.