Chapter 65 second quarter

In the autumn of 1964, the only daughter of a family in Ping'an County suddenly wanted to recruit relatives. The woman who wants to invite relatives is named Tianxiang, and people seldom see her.Tianxiang has no occupation, and it is difficult to go out all year round.Even in summer, when she occasionally walked through the alley in front of her house, she was in a hurry as if she didn't want to meet people.From behind her, people can see a head of black and shiny long hair, hanging down gracefully behind her head, which is completely different from most women in the county who comb two "brush handles" or braid their braids. Fat, what stays in people's sights is always the gentle and agile back, and the residents of the county concluded that she is a rare beauty in the world.

Tianxiang, who walked through the alley in summer, wore a short white top with a narrow waist and a decent cut.Her bottoms are usually a skirt, sometimes black and sometimes dark blue, with an ankle-length skirt that creates a gentle breeze from her feet as she walks.In the county town at that time, apart from a few actresses singing Qin opera in the county troupe, there were almost no women who could wear skirts to go out.On her feet are a pair of black khaki handmade cloth shoes with square mouths and straps. The uppers are embroidered with blue floral patterns and the soles are glued with rubber. Stepping on the cinder-paved alley, there is a rhythmic click. .Her flowing black hair and soft long skirt also fluctuated with the rhythm of walking, and her whole body showed graceful flowing lines, like a piece of rhythmic and harmonious music flowing through the alley.

However, Tianxiang is already twenty-six years old, and she has not yet married in Ping'an County, where she is very popular. She has become a veritable older young woman, which is indeed incredible. It is said that Tianxiang's parents are witch doctors from the Western Regions. In the past, they traveled all over the world, mainly exorcising demons or treating diseases for people.After the new government banned superstition, they settled down in Ping'an County and set up a small stall selling needles, threads, and brains to survive.Of course, setting up a small stall cannot support the family. They still treat people in private and use some mysterious folk remedies.

The witch doctor set up a wooden board in front of the door facing the street, on which there are sewing needles of different sizes, knitting needles, crochet needles, thimbles, scissors, rulers, floral handkerchiefs, nylon socks, and wooden or plastic ones. Pipes, matches, and fine, even tobacco.During the day, the witch doctor and his wife sat in front of the booth, not speaking, with gloomy faces as if they had just finished arguing.Customers who come to buy things also don't speak, they choose what they want, put down the money and leave, as if the price was negotiated, and they don't need to change the money they pay.I don't know if the supermarket became popular more than 30 years later.If a patient came to see the witch doctor, they lowered their voices and asked each other a few words, and then the male patient was led into the courtyard by the male witch doctor, while the female witch doctor was still sitting in front of the booth, looking very energetic, as if she was watching the wind.If it is a female patient, the female witch doctor will lead the patient into the courtyard.Residents in the county may not all believe in their medical skills, but there are still many people who seek medical treatment from them, because some intractable diseases cannot be cured in the county health center. Go, the cost is too high, it is not affordable for ordinary people, and some diseases may not be cured even after spending money.Based on the idea of ​​treating a dead horse as a living horse doctor, many people come to the witch doctor couple privately for medical treatment. Not only are the charges cheap, but they also take good care of the neighbors. Patients who really have no money can bring a basket of steamed buns or one or two The chickens raised by oneself can also be used as consultation fees.Witch doctors sometimes cured patients, and sometimes put people to death.They all say the same thing to the family members of patients who have recovered or died: that is fate, and people should not fight with fate.Because they can not only see a doctor, but also tell fortunes.Most of the county residents believe in fate, so they are very in awe of the witch doctor couple.

The witch doctor couple always give people a vague impression.They wear black hats with colorful lace on their heads all the year round. Golden tassels hang from the front of the hats. The tassels are embellished with light green beads, dangling on their faces.Because of that hat, they took on a strong sense of mystery.It is said that their hats come from the remote Western Regions, where jade is abundant.The tassels that dangled on their hats and the glittering beads obscured their faces, making it impossible to tell their ages, or even whether they were male or female.Only when you get familiar with it will you know that women's hats are inlaid with blue lace, and men's hats are inlaid with brown lace.As for their clothes, they are not much different from those of the county residents, far less modern and fashionable than their daughters.

Witch doctors often accept chickens from patients, and there are always groups of big roosters running in their yard, sometimes flying up to the window sill, sometimes flying up to the roof, their shiny feathers shining golden in the sun.At night, the witch doctor closed the stall in front of the door, and the chickens in the yard were crowded into the chicken coop. The husband and wife sat in the yard and began to grind the medicine with an iron roller.The medicine is prepared with folk prescriptions, which are dark brown and fine powder after being crushed. They are packed in several porcelain jars. When the patients come, they take out the medicine noodles from different porcelain jars according to different diseases, and wrap them in a few small packets. , Asked them to go home and drink it with shochu.No one knew what the dark brown powder contained. The patients took the medicine religiously. Some miraculously recovered, while others died.Since it is fate, people who are cured don't need to be overly grateful to the witch doctor, and of course the family of the dead will not come to make trouble. Moreover, people who have no money to go to a big hospital for treatment will inevitably come here to ask for medicine On the face of it, no one wants to offend the witch doctor.Therefore, because of those roosters and those medicinal noodles, the witch doctor's house is always filled with a strange smell, which is like traditional Chinese medicine and like chicken dung.But that kind of smell probably mixed with people's imagination, because everyone has only seen these two things from the witch doctor's house - the rooster and the medicine noodles.

During the three-year famine, the eyes of the hungry people turned green when they saw the mice running from the street, and the smell of slaughtering poultry and livestock wafted in the yard of the witch doctor all day long.Some people couldn't help but climbed to the top of the courtyard wall to see that the witch doctor and his wife raised their necks and gurgled the blood of the chickens they caught in a bowl, but buried all the chickens they killed in the yard, attracting swarms of flies Buzzing and shouting made people regret and wonder for a long time.As a result, people not only feared the witch doctor, but also alienated them, in a fearful way.

I also heard that Tianxiang was not the daughter of the witch doctor and his wife, as if it was given to them by God, that's why they gave their daughter such a weird name.However, these do not seem to be the main reasons why Tianxiang still has not married at the age of twenty-six. All kinds of speculation covered up Tianxiang, and she lived mysteriously in the witch doctor's yard, silent and isolated from the world. Later, because the witch doctor and his wife had difficulty walking due to their age, Tianxiang went out occasionally to the county wholesale company and the county pharmaceutical company to pick up the goods and medicines ordered by the witch doctor and his wife.At that time, Tianxiang walked past people like a fairy, leaving only a beautiful back view that could arouse people's infinite reverie.