Chapter 23 Chapter 23 (1)

Most of the patients in the Burn Department of the Jiaohuo Academy are able to walk and move. They strung around in the wards built by the Japanese decades ago, and the sunlight swarmed and embraced them on the white gauze.No new patients came, and it was always calm and peaceful.Sima Lan came to the county town three days ago to buy explosives and heard from the explosive storehouse that the mayor of Chengguan Town led people to fry fish in the reservoir, and in the end he blew himself up, killing one and injuring three on the spot. "Will the wounded be skin-grafted?" "You go to the Teaching Fire Institute and ask."

After chasing them to the Jiaohuo Academy, the doctor of the Jiaohuo Academy said that they all suffered second and a half degree burns, and of course they needed skin grafting. The source of the skin was their own thighs, or someone else's leg skin, depending on whether they could be reimbursed.Human skin is worth every inch of skin and every inch of skin is precious. Most people who sell it ask for it all over the world. Who can afford it without reimbursement?The mayor suffered from mild burns, unfortunately on the left side of his cheek. He was only thirty-nine years old. If he didn't have skin grafts, his face would definitely be blushing, so Sima Lan went to find the mayor.

He said, "Oh my god, it's like this, it's not skin grafting." The mayor said: "You will come to three people the day after tomorrow. If you can reimburse the three of us, we will all be planted." Sima Lan came as scheduled.It was just noon when he arrived at the Jiaohuoyuan. The doctor went to the cafeteria to eat, and the family members of the patients were cooking under the eaves. He asked Sima Hu and the villagers to wait at the entrance of the Jiaohuoyuan. Mayor, the mayor is the mayor of the town, and the fire academy is located in the territory of Chengguan Town, so the mayor is naturally taken care of by swarms. Not only is there a ward for each person, but there is also an extra bed in the ward than other wards. Mattresses and bed sheets are also new, and family members can go to the cafeteria with the doctor to buy food subsidized by the hospital.When Sima Lan came in, the mayor's family members were not there. A nurse brought the mayor's food from the cafeteria in front of the bed and was about to feed the mayor when Sima Lan stood in front of the bed.

Sima Lan said, "They're all here." The mayor sat up, held his face wrapped in white gauze with his hands, talked about the price, and took out an apple from the bedside and handed it to Sima Lan.At this time, Sima Lan already had the demeanor of a village chief and was good at calculating things.He knew that the price would not be able to go up because of the soft mouth of others.He said I don't want to eat it, we agreed on a good price, I have to go to the bath to wash, I have to go to the market, and I have to go back to the construction site tomorrow.The mayor asked the doctor, saying that in the past years, your teaching and fire academy bought skins based on centimeters and sizes?

The nurse was in her forties, thin, with a lot of ink on her white coat.He said that the centimeter and the size are the same, which is the same as buying things by the catty. If you buy too much, you will talk about the size, and if you buy less, you will talk about the centimeter. The mayor said: "How much is an inch? The nurse said: "No one has sold skins in the past ten years, but I really can't tell a price." The mayor looked at Sima Lan: "Tell me about it." Someone walked past the door and looked into the room through the crack of the door. Sima Lan saw that the person was Sima Hu, and knew that they were waiting outside impatiently, looking for him next to the ward.He glanced out of the door, turned around again, and asked:

"Mayor, it's all agreed that the government will reimburse you." The mayor said: "Don't worry about whether the government reimburses you or not." Sima Lan said: "This is human skin, nothing else. It costs a thousand yuan per inch." The mayor stared: "How much?" Sima Lan said, "One thousand." The mayor smiled.Because of the pain in his face, he laughed halfway, and quickly stopped, saying: "You are also the village chief, how much is a thousand yuan? You can build three tile houses in the countryside. If this is the case, the peasants will be rich long ago. Selling one inch is one thousand, and ten inches is ten thousand, isn’t it all households with ten thousand yuan?”

Sima Lan thought about it, one thousand yuan was indeed too high.Said: "Eight hundred." The mayor did not speak, and looked at the reed mat shed in the ward with his eyes protruding from the gauze slit.Time is like a pool of stagnant water, with no movement at all.Sima Lan waited impatiently and said: "No, five hundred." The mayor remained silent. The nurse said, "Four hundred is expensive." Sima Lan said, "Three hundred and five." The nurse said, "It's still expensive." Sima Lan said: "It's not expensive, human skin, it hurts to cut it."

The nurse said: "Anaesthetics are given, and you are not allowed to pay for anesthetics." Sima Lan said: "Let's say three hundred, anything less will do." The nurse looked at the mayor. The mayor looked away from the shed to close the net, and said firmly, "Two hundred yuan." Sima Lan stood up from the chair: "Then we won't sell it." The mayor said: "If you don't sell it, you go." Sima Lan resolutely walked out of the ward.He thought that if he didn't reach the door, the mayor would definitely call him back.When he was shopping in the town, he was always like this. When he thought it was too expensive and refused to buy it, the seller would call him back as soon as the person left.Today he is the seller.Today he got up resolutely and left again, walking out of the ward step by step, waiting for the mayor to call him back at every step, but the mayor just wouldn't open his mouth.He came out and stood in front of the ward, the Pingnan sun was shining red above his head.Looking into the ward through the window, he saw the mayor picked up the bowl to eat again, so he sighed, had to push open the door of the ward again, and said to the mayor, "It's two hundred yuan per inch. It’s not good to go back.”

The mayor said: "Selling things with small profits but quick turnover." Walking back from the ward, to the entrance of the fire academy, the deer, the tiger and the people who came to carry the stretcher saw Sima Lan from afar and swarmed up.Is it a good price?Let's talk about it.How much is an inch?Say two hundred dollars an inch.The crowd fell silent, just like the dead silence that fell from the sky before dusk. People looked at each other in blank silence.The flowing water on the river beach in front is bright and pleasant to the ear, and the sound of cooking at the iron shed restaurant on the roadside in front of the Jiaohuoyuan Gate and the sound of buying and selling at the fruit stand are deeply felt in the heart and lungs. .

"Grandma, it's only two hundred yuan per inch. "We sell human skin, not pig skin." "More than ten years ago, the blue centenary was sold for 500 yuan per inch, but now it is only 200 yuan. At that time, eggs cost 2 cents, but now eggs cost 20 cents." Sima Hu kicked the tree on the side of the road, squatted down on the ground, and said, "Fourth brother, if you want to sell it, you can sell it. I won't sell it for two hundred yuan." Sima Lan shouted: "Do you want to repair the canal if you don't sell it? If you don't repair the canal, they will live to be thirty-seven or eight years old, and they will die one by one. The leather is not worth a penny." Then I understood the truth: the leather on the legs is really worthless when a person is dead.They all say that since it is here, let’s sell it, sell it for one piece, and sell it for ten yuan.At this moment, Sima Lu was silent on the sidelines, and Sima Hu jumped up from the ground, saying that it would be fine to sell it, but the day is over, and we have to let them take care of our meal, and everyone go out to the restaurant to have a good meal .They all looked up at the sky, the clouds were white and the sun was high, and there was a bright yellow circle hanging over the Jiaohuo Academy, making a Jiaohuo Academy look lazy in the sun.Thinking about being able to go to a restaurant to have a meal, it is naturally a good thing, so I asked who to talk to the mayor?

Sima Hu said, "I'll go." Then he strode to the ward, kicking the sunlight on the ground like a layer of smooth yellow cloth.Not a moment later, Sima Hu came out of the ward with a bumpy smile on his face, followed by the nurse who was helping the mayor negotiate the price just now.Seeing the people in the village, Sima Hu called out: "Fourth brother, bring the villagers here, so that everyone can spend one more New Year's Day." Persimmons, fragrant and sweet, fell from the face, making the ground red and rotten. two Sima Lan led his two younger brothers and four or five villagers to a restaurant. This restaurant is near the west gate of Jiaohuoyuan. There are three tile-roofed houses, one with a kitchen fire chopping board, and the other two as a cafeteria hall.After entering the hall, the nurse said that the mayor said that you can eat whatever you want. Those who sell leather can order two dishes, and those who don’t sell leather can order one dish.So they all sat around a table of Eight Immortals, and Sima Lan ordered a plate of shredded pork with chili peppers and a plate of shredded pork with beans.A fat shopkeeper in his fifties asked Sima Lu what he would order, and Sima Lu said very sadly, "I just want to eat meat and eggs, and you give me a plate of meat and scrambled eggs."The shopkeeper ignored Sanxing Village and looked at their clothes. He saw that it was autumn, and they were all still wearing white shirts. They said they were white cloth, and they were all crumpled red and yellow like dust. Everyone's collars were like those who had their heads shaved. The decanter cloth looks oily, and the smell of sweat is stronger than the smell of the restaurant, so I look down on them a little bit, saying that I have never heard of a dish with meat and scrambled eggs, you order something else.The nurse was a good person, so she quickly smoothed things over and said that he would have a plate of scrambled eggs and a bowl of fried pork.So they all said, yes, let's have a bowl of braised pork.The guy named Du Gougou asked Sima Lan, said the village head, is white meat or red meat better?Sima Lan said, of course white meat is delicious, white meat is fat, red meat is vegetarian, white meat is fragrant, and meat has little meat.Du Gougou said that I don't sell skins, and my dish needs fatty meat.What did the shopkeeper say about fat?The dog said that fat is just fat, so why not fat.The shopkeeper said it was boiled or white strips?Is it mixed with potherb mustard or cold garlic sauce?The dog just stared, not knowing what kind of fatty meat to order, and said how delicious it is, if there is too much, you can have a plate, and he refused to write a few words on the menu. It's time for Sima Hu to order. The nurse said, "There's too much meat, let's have two vegetarian dishes." Sima Hu said: "If you order fat, you call me vegetarian, and I still want to sell leather." The nurse said, "Then you can order whatever you want." Sima Hu said, "A roast chicken." Palm refused to write. Sima Hu said: "That plate is still roast chicken." The nurse said, "Can I finish eating?" Sima Hu said: "Ah, you only pay two yuan for an inch of skin. If we can't finish eating, we will take it back." The dishes are finished.In the end, the nurse asked for a plate of green vegetables and a spare rib.The cook cut the meat and heated the fire in that room, and they sat and waited outside. The nurse gave each of them a cigarette, saying that they could smoke all of them. They were imported from foreign countries, and even rich counties couldn’t buy them.Both smokers and non-smokers picked up the cigarettes. They all looked at the characters on the cigarettes. Sure enough, they were somewhat different from the Chinese characters.Sima Hu said that fucking foreign characters are the same as roads in the mountains.How much is a box of cigarettes?The doctor said that it was given to the patient after he got well, and it cost 40 cents a piece. They all agreed for a while, and they all said that a cigarette is worth two eggs, and they all carefully put that cigarette in their pockets. , only Sima Lan felt that this was not good, and confronted the nurse to light the cigarette. The dishes were served. One by one, they ate like tigers and wolfs, and the chopsticks on a plate turned upside down, as clean as the walls of a hospital. They didn't start to lower their chopsticks until the eighth plate of boiled fat meat was served, which surprised the doctor. hair straight.Sima Lan said, I made you laugh at the doctor, we mountain people are like this.The nurse said that it was nothing, that they were assigned to this hospital the year they graduated from the burn school, and that they also had dinner with a skin seller here, saying that the man had eaten three bowls of big fat meat in one sitting. Sima Lan said, "Who is it?" The doctor said, "It's not big, with a small pointed face." The villagers all laughed and said that it was the head of our village, named Lan Baisui.Why didn't he come?The villagers said that he had died a long time ago. He had been dead for several years, and his bones were all turned into ashes.The nurse was stunned and said that he was not very old, only two years older than me.The villagers said that he lived to be thirty-eight, which is considered a long life.The doctor was even more dazed, but only for a moment, as if he remembered something, patted his forehead and said with a smile, I even forgot that you are from the village with three surnames in Palou Mountain.At this time, two roast chickens came up.It turned out that the roast chicken was not made in the store, but was bought outside and cut up and served. However, at this time, the villagers were already full, and each person ate at least three white-faced buns. Looking at the two large plates of roast chicken, each person ate one piece. It was extremely delicious, but it was a pity that my stomach was full.Sima Hu said, I wanted this roast chicken, and I took it away after I didn't eat it.Some villagers said that Sima Hu was not careful, and he was planning to take the roast chicken away from the very beginning. Sima Hu said: "You can take it with you, and cut the skin off your legs later." The villagers were dumbfounded for a while, and then laughed again. three After coming out of the restaurant, the sun was clearly westward, and there was already a faint red in the bright yellow light.When the nurse came out to pay the bill, Sima Lan asked how much it was?The answer was ninety-eight yuan, but Sima Hu was taken aback, saying that it was less than one hundred yuan, which was too cheap.The nurse said that the times are different from the past. The more meat you eat, the cheaper it is, and the more expensive wild vegetables are.The villagers don't understand why wild vegetables are more expensive than meat. They look at each other and don't talk much.Sima Hu looked at the chicken nuggets in his hand and regretted that he forgot to ask for two pheasants.When we arrived at the side gate of the hospital, when the doctors were at work, Sima Lan asked where should we take a shower?The nurse said that there is no need to wash it, just use more alcohol to disinfect it.Sima Lan said that it would be better not to wash it. When they arrived at the door of the hospital's operating room, they were arranged to wait on a bench. After the doctors had all returned to work, they all changed into white coats. The Sima brothers were called in for skin examinations and blood tests.At this time, the sunlight seeps in through the glass windows, looking soft and warm, and the faces of every doctor, nurse, patient, and idler have a faint light.Only the villagers with the three surnames had pale faces.Brothers Sima Lan, Sima Lu, and Sima Hu, when they were brought out by the skinny nurse from the skin examination room, they all pinched their wrists with their thumbs, and a ball of cotton was exposed under their thumbs.They stood at the door of the skin inspection room, and the villagers came from the other side of the corridor, asking if they were qualified?Sima Lan said to wait a while to find out.Sima Hu said that if you fail to pass the test, you will sell it. This is not because our brothers do not want to sell it.The villagers fell silent, only to hear the sound of knocking on the table in the leather examination room.As soon as the voice sounded, the lean nurse opened the door and went in, took out three red, red, blue and blue slips, and handed one to Sima Lan first. Sima Lan stared at the list for a while, and said: "Are you qualified?" "qualified." "Just pass." Sima Lu took a step forward and asked worriedly: "Mine is also qualified?" The nurse said that you are biological brothers, if one of you is qualified, both of you are qualified.After hearing this, Sima Lu's face gradually turned yellow and white, and the sweat hung on his face like a layer of rice grains.Sima Lan said, Fifth, what's wrong with you?Sima Lu said that I was a little dizzy, so he supported his head against the wall, slid slowly to the ground, and fell down in the corridor. He lost consciousness for a while, and panicked all the villagers of the three surnames. They shouted, "Doctor, doctor—help me, doctor." Two doctors ran over, pushed the crowd aside, carried Sima Lu to the air vent in the corridor, and pinched Sima Lu with his hands to make the beans bigger. He woke up again, but the sweat was still dense and gathered on his face. Sima Lan asked, "What's wrong with him?" The doctor said, "It's not a disease, it's scary." You are worthless, Sima Lan said, you were born in the village of Sanxing, you are afraid of selling your skin, what kind of man are you.He also said, Fifth, just lie down here for a while, you don’t need to go into the operating room, just cut an extra piece on my and sixth’s legs.Sima Lu struggled up from the ground, saying that I'm fine, let Lao Liu stay here, he is young, if he wants to cut off the skin of both of us.Sima Hu said, forget it, look at the sweat on your face, it's just a piece of skin cut on your leg, there's nothing to be afraid of.So I went to the operating room at the other end of the corridor with my fourth brother Sima Lan. The operating room of Jiaohuoyuan consists of four connected rooms with the same door, and the four rooms are connected to each other when you walk in.The two easternmost rooms are operating rooms for burn patients, and the westernmost two are operating rooms for skin sellers.In the jargon of the hospital, the east operating room is called the skin grafting room, and the west operating room is called the skin cutting room.The mayor and his two burn patients have already been carried into the skin grafting room. They have opened all the gauze on the burn, washed it with water, and waited coldly for the skin of brother Sima to be cut off from the Xiqie skin room for mending. to the body.Sima Lan and Sima Hu entered the operating room and saw the mayor lying on the operating table, with a peaceful light on his face, as if waiting for someone to beat his back.At this time, someone came out of Dongzhi Leather House, and took four pieces of white cloth in his hand. Each piece of white cloth was painted with some strange patterns like persimmon leaves, twilight leaves, and elm leaves.What did Sima Lan say was this?The doctor said that this is the skin sample to be cut, and the size and shape of the cut from your body is similar to this pattern, and it is just right to patch the wound of the burn patient one by one.Sima Lan said that it would cost such a small four yuan after a long time of tossing around?The doctor was stunned, and said that this is not small, how big do you want to cut it?Adding one piece is less than half the size of a hand towel, Sima Lan said, Sixth Brother, forget about cutting mine alone, and you won't have to suffer along with it. The doctor said: "It's not enough to cut one person, there are six squares." Sima Lan said, "It's okay, it's not much bigger than a slap." Sima Hu said: "Fourth brother, let's cut them all from your legs. You are the village head and you didn't let me cut them off. It's not because I am afraid of pain and take advantage of it." Sima Lan said, "Let's go." Sima Hu came out of the skin cutting room.When he came out, he said, after a long time of trouble, he bought a piece of skin like a slap in the face, and I was lying on the operating table, and the fourth brother insisted on letting me down.Saying this, he gathered around the window of the skin cutting house with the villagers. The skin cutting room is very well lit.Rize seeps in through the glass and shines on the white plaster wall, making the entire operating room bright.As soon as Sima Lan came in, she was placed lying on the operating table. Which leg did the doctor say to cut?He said let's use the left leg, it's easier to move with the right leg.The doctor said that it is best to cut two legs, so that you will feel lighter, Sima Lan hurriedly waved her hand, saying that you should cut one leg, and this piece should be closer to that one, don’t cut me a small piece, it’s a waste of me a chunk. The doctor said, "Are you still planning to sell it in the future?" Sima Lan said: "The bark of the legs is the same as the bark of a tree. If you cut off the old one, you can still grow new ones." Started peeling.His lower limbs were tied to the operating table, and the medicine was applied to the whole leg, and the medicine was applied, and the medicine was applied.Then he cut out the pattern of leaves on the four pieces of cloth, and traced them one by one on the back of his thigh with a pen, and gave a circle of anesthesia needles around the pattern on his leg. After more than ten minutes, the doctor used a Prick a needle in his leg, does it hurt?Sima Lan said it was like an ant trap.The doctor changed the place to tie it again, and asked if it hurts?He said it was still like an ant trap.Let's just start, and he heard the metal sound of cold white and bright knives and scissors colliding, echoing coldly in the room.The skinny nurse sat in front of him, doing nothing, and was absorbed in chatting with him, asking him how many people and how many rooms there were in the family, and said that the land was divided now, the production was fixed to each household, and how did the grain harvest compare with before? How about it, and asked him if there is no division of land and cattle in your village, do the farmers have any objections?There was really nothing to say, so he joked with Sima Lan, saying that they said that the men in your Palou Mountain could not afford to marry a wife, so the brothers would marry one together.It is said that in a family, four brothers married a daughter-in-law. Before the marriage, it was agreed that each of the four would take turns sleeping with the daughter-in-law for one night, but on the wedding day, they all competed to sleep for the first night.Because the daughter-in-law was a virgin on the first night, the boss said that I was the boss, so I should go first; the second child said that I spent a lot of money on the day of giving the bride price, so I should be the first night; Well, originally we were a match made in heaven, of course I will be the first one on the first night.It's the fourth brother's turn, and it's up to me to say what happened to the first night. The match is my fourth brother, and the girl agreed to marry our brother because she took a fancy to my fourth brother.When it came to the end, they couldn't stop arguing and said that they would let their father judge.The four of them went to find their father, who heard the argument of the four children, and said that there is no need for any of you to argue, you are all dutiful sons, and it is fine for her to sleep with me on the first night.The thin nurse's joke made even the doctor at the operating table laugh.He asked Sima Lan, is there such a thing in your village?Sima Lan said, in our village even a fool can marry a wife.While speaking, Sima Lan felt that a piece of skin cut off from his back thigh was peeled off, as if he cut a hole in the leg with a knife first, and then clamped the leg skin on the hole with tweezers, and then The knife creaked and cut in along the skin.Apart from the voice of the skinny nurse, the skin-cutting room was so quiet that one could hear the breathing of other doctors, which was as loud and oppressive as a draft.Sima Lan knew that when the knife cut the skin, she had to hold her breath, because she was afraid that if the knife cut crookedly, it would go into the flesh or leave a hole in the skin.He was lying on the operating table, looking at a black crack on the clean concrete floor, stretching from under the thin nurse's chair to under the operating table, and the details stretched out like hair.He thought how clever the doctor who cut the skin of his leg was, it didn't make him feel pain, it didn't cut into the leg, and it didn't cut a hole in the skin.He remembered that once he peeled the rabbit skin and wanted to use the rabbit skin as ear warmer in winter. He hung the dead rabbit on a jujube tree, and two people pulled the rabbit's legs, and cut two holes in the rabbit skin, leaving a layer of meat behind. .He wanted to turn his head to see how the doctor cut a thin cloth-like layer of skin from his leg, but as soon as he moved his head, the thin nurse immediately turned his head around again. "Don't move." The nurse said, "It's not good to move." He asked, "Did you cut off a piece?" Said: "Three pieces have been cut, and the last piece is left." He was taken aback, "So fast." You are lucky, the skinny nurse said, I caught up with you to patch the skin for the mayor, the mayor has a good relationship with our dean, and today the dean cut the skin on you himself.Sima Lan turned her head slightly, and saw that the dean was wearing a pair of black leather shoes, and two plastic film bags were put on the shoes, and the pockets were tied with elastic cords to his trousers.Sima Lan followed the skinny nurse's instructions and lay motionless on her stomach. The sound of the knife cutting the skin was completely different from his skinning the rabbit and sheep. The aura jingled and flowed in front of and behind the house.But the sound of skin-cutting is as thin as paper, with a bluish-white color and a chilly feeling, like a piece of transparent thin ice, slowly starting from the dean's hands, swimming in the mid-air of the room .He thought that the sound might be the same as standing in this field and listening to the sound of cutting leeks in that field, creaking—there was some green color in the creaking sound.He was very strange, he was lying on his stomach with a living person, but the knife cut off the skin of his leg, and there was no bleeding at all. "Is there really no blood?" he asked. The nurse said, "You smell blood?" He said: "The whole room smells like potions." The nurse said: "The technology is good, and with the medicine, there is no bleeding." He said, "Cut off this piece of skin and let me take a look." The nurse said, "According to the regulations, you can't watch it." He said: "How can you not let me take a look at my skin?" The last piece was cut and held in front of him.He saw that the skin of his leg was really the same as paper, it was dipped in the liquid medicine in a glass dish, pink and pale, because the skin was still alive, it was twitching in the liquid medicine, trembling like a drum after being beaten, On the half of the skin about the size of a persimmon leaf, the potion hadn't soaked into it completely, and a layer of small blisters like rice grains appeared on the skin.He wanted to reach out and lift the leather, but a doctor with a mask on brought the leather to the skin planting room in the east.He thought, after a while my skin will grow to the mayor and those people.Looking at the doctor who was carrying the leather bag, suddenly there was a drizzle of sadness on his heart. "Can I go?" he asked. The doctor said, don't move.He didn't know what else to do, turned around and saw a doctor came in with a plate of eggs, they smashed the eggs into the bowl one by one, peeled off the second layer of egg skin like a persimmon from the shell , one piece after another, stuck to the incision of his hind leg, applied some medicine, and wrapped it in gauze. The doctor slapped his waist and said to carry it away. When he was carried out from the skin-cutting house, he saw that the villagers were lying on the two window sills of the skin-cutting house instead of at the door, thinking that I had already stepped off the skin-cutting platform, so what are you looking at?The person who carried him called out there, "Hey—here is the person, the glass can see the outside from the inside, but can't see the inside from the outside."Hearing this call, all the villagers turned their heads together and were stunned when they saw Sima Lan lying on a stretcher at the door.They all rushed over and asked the village head how it was, did it hurt?We couldn't see inside, we saw black shadows moving around.Sima Lan said it was skin-cutting, so they can see it.Sima Hu said strangely, there is this kind of glass, he can see you from there, but you cannot see him from the outside.Then I asked Sima Lan, said fourth brother, does it hurt when you cut it?Sima Lan said it didn't hurt at all, it just peeled off from her body like a piece of adhesive tape.And how much skin was cut from your body?Said to be six inches three.Asked how much it was, Sima Lan did the math and said two six one thousand two, two three is six, a total of 1,260 yuan.