(xv)

Without exception, when I was a child, like other children, I was looking forward to having a little illness. Because only when I was sick would my father put down his seemingly endless farm work and lie on the bed with me, turning page by page, and reading to me the words of a comic book.

I always thought it was the happiest thing of my childhood.

For this reason, I pretended to be sick a lot when I was a child. And once you are really sick, you will put on a pitiful appearance that is worse than your illness. Sometimes my father seems to see through my little thoughts, but he never debunks me.

But when the fever persisted, my father always exhausted all the knowledge he had, such as kneading a handful of turnips and applying them to his brain. Or pick a fruit called "fruit six", peel it, take out a yellow juice, and smear it on the brain. This kind of home remedies works very well, and after a while, the brain is cool and cool, and the whole person is more energetic.

When I was a child, I was most impressed by the painkiller cream, a white plaster that was attached to the door of the brain. But if you have a fever or headache, you can't get good with radish and "fruit six", so you cut a plaster into three small pieces, paste one on each side of the temple, and stick one on the middle of the brain.

On weekdays, my mother picked a plant called "Isodemi" from somewhere, wrapped it in a long strip of red cloth and hung it on my chest. It is said that "medicine separation" can isolate an unlucky thing.

Almost all of our generation have memorized this kind of "separation medicine".

My mother always "shouted souls" for us every once in a while. Legend has it that children are prone to wandering spirits, and if they don't call back in time, they will get sick and even die in serious cases.

The spirit of a child can also be seen on the fingers. The sixth mother on the village is good at watching this.

When the sixth grandmother passed by the door, my mother always asked her to help me take a look. Liuma spit a little saliva on her finger, and then rubbed my dirty left index finger, if one of the meridians on the index finger was straight, she said, "Okay, okay." Once the meridians deviated, the sixth mother asked my mother to find a sewing needle, poked it on my index finger a few times, and said something in my mouth......

More often than not, my father would scramble a few eggs or boil a fish, and encourage me to finish a bowl of rice. I remember what my father said the most: "Rice is the best medicine".

All of these methods owned by parents may not be effective, but a sense of home is particularly warm.

There is an old doctor in the nearby Gash village, who is famous for his medical skills. Generally, diseases that are not well meted can be eliminated by hand when they go to him. Even the patients he can't heal basically have little hope.

For a while, I always had a stomachache, so my father took me to the old doctor in Gash Village. The short, stocky, kind-faced old doctor touched my little belly, checked my pulse, and prescribed me a few small packets of medicine. Before leaving, the old doctor also instructed my father to use more sugar for me to eat.

The old doctor said a word, and I have eaten sugar since then. When my father bought the cigarettes every once in a while, he always bought a pack of sugar, and after giving each of the three brothers and sisters a spoon, the rest would all belong to me.

Father's burden, in addition to the cigarettes he can't quit, adds another "my sugar".

Some people say I grew up in sweet water, and that's true.

For a few years, I grew up eating mostly bibimbap. My stomach problem was cured, but then one of my teeth was hollowed out by worms.