Chapter 45 first quarter

After the examination, the doctor took off the stethoscope and put it in the purse.He didn't give an injection. "Doctor, is my illness incurable?" Yamada Tetsukichi lay on the futon in the Japanese room and asked the doctor.He was thin to the bone, and his wrinkled throat twitched slightly. "It's nothing like that, as long as you take good care of yourself, you will definitely get better." The doctor replied avoiding his gaze. "There is no decent treatment anymore, so how can I get better? But doctor, I am very grateful to you. It is only because of your careful care that I can live to this age. I have no regrets."

"How do you say that?" "Doctor, please tell me the truth, how many months can I live?" "This kind of cranky question, I'm sorry I can't answer it." "Don't say that, tell me. I still have a few months? Could it be that it's less than a month?" "Your days are still long, please don't worry." The doctor stood up and nodded goodbye to Tetsukichi Yamada's son and daughter-in-law.The daughter-in-law Yuzi hurriedly stood up to see her off, and her son Shi Lang also stood up, at this moment—— "Shi Lang," Tieji called him, "you stay here."

"OK." Shi Lang winked at his wife, and Yuzi sent the doctor to the entrance alone. "Shi Lang, sit here." Tieji said hoarsely. Shi Lang walked forward on his knees, sitting beside Tieji's pillow, looking down at his father who was forty years older than himself. "Is there a problem?" "Shi Lang, my days are numbered." "It doesn't look like you at all." "It's not that I'm weak. My own body knows best. Besides, I'm not afraid of death. It's just that I have something to tell you while I still have breath."

"What's the matter, you say it so solemnly." "Father didn't leave you anything valuable. If you want to talk about it, there is only this house, but this kind of country house can't be sold for a good price." "Don't say that." "Listen to me first. Don't think I'm not capable, but I have a treasure to pass on to you. I've kept this treasure for decades, and only I know about it." "It's too exaggerated." Shi Lang smiled. The old father didn't seem to be joking.After coughing a few times, he said, "Go and open the closet next to the Buddhist altar. There should be a long and thin box on the far right."

The Buddhist altar is located in this room, and Shi Lang searched in the closet next to him, and there was indeed a wooden box about one meter long. "Open the box." Shi Lang opened the lid of the box, and inside were two wooden sticks about one meter long and several centimeters in diameter, which looked dirty. "What is this stick for?" Shi Lang asked. Tieji chuckled, the wrinkles on his face squeezed into a ball. "This is the treasure I want to pass on to you. If you need money urgently in the future, you can sell it." "Sell it? But this kind of thing doesn't look like a valuable antique no matter how you look at it."

"It's not an antique, but it's a bit like an antique. In the eyes of those who are not interested, it is worthless, but to those who are interested, it is worth a fortune." "Who would be interested in a stick?" "This is the secret I want to tell you now, and you must not reveal it to unrelated people." Tieji began to speak eloquently.At first, Shi Lang didn't care too much, and just echoed a few words, but he was deeply attracted after listening to it.The story in it is really not trivial. He finally understood why Tieji valued these two sticks so much.

Tieji passed away two months later.