Chapter 4 The seventy-fourth night Danyuan

After the beginning of summer, the weather is getting hotter and hotter. When I think that the real summer has not come yet, I feel irritable when I see the news of people dying of heat one after another. Everyone in the office is struggling, and the tense face is like a clockwork that may explode at any time.There is nothing worse than having no air conditioning on a hot day.Especially when eight people and eight computers are squeezed into a space of more than ten square meters.No one talks, talking will only make you hotter, no one complains, complaining will only waste your energy.It is rare for everyone to reach a consensus to bury your head and finish the work and then leave.While trying to calm myself down, I was revising the manuscript, but the phone call I received later made me unable to calm down, so I immediately asked for leave and rushed to Ji Yan's house.

It was Li Duo who called, and the crying voice said that Ji Yan suddenly fainted, and she was sent to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment, so she could only lie down with salt water.Now Li Duo was in a panic, so he had to call me. I have always thought that Western medicine in China is a liar intentionally or unintentionally. They like to take their own unique path, so they are smart and invented Chinese and Western medicine. Maybe they have seen too many Transformers, and they naively think that those who fit together are powerful and excellent. Reluctantly treating a disease cannot be seen in such a simple way, so when they encounter a disease that cannot be diagnosed and cured, they will come up with a bunch of terms that we ordinary people cannot understand to fool us, ranging from colds and colds to surgery and surgery. Profit-oriented, with the purpose of curing the disease.It’s just strange that some people shout that western medicine is the world’s medicine, but unfortunately they forget that all the world’s medicines will have some Chinese characteristics when they arrive in China. Just like banks, their charges are close to international, but their services must have a local complex. .

When I rushed to the hospital, I actually saw another person I hadn't seen for a long time. Ji Xue, Ji Yan's cousin, he didn't like to walk around, and he lost a leg after the incident in Yuanya, so it was even more impossible for him to come here, but he still came here, and it was such a coincidence that he came here . Ji Xue's face was still thin, but his deep-set eyes were full of energy. He didn't use a cane. From the eyes of others, how could he tell that one of his legs was a prosthetic?Although I know that there is a black American who can dance with one leg, and it is very good, but it is a minority after all.

"I'm here to save him." Ji Xue looked at Ji Yan who was lying on the bed with his eyes tightly closed, and took out a white paper bag from his pocket, which seemed to contain something.When I opened it, it turned out to be some small pills, about half the size of a fingernail, each round, but the part of the wrapped paper that touched the pills turned light blue. "Take these one pill a day, and after four days, swallow this packet of medicine powder with water and you'll be fine." Ji Xue took out another packet and handed it to me, and I handed it to Li Duo, who rubbed it With tears in his eyes, he nodded quickly and put away the two packs of medicine.

I looked at Ji Yan, since Li Duo was taking care of me, I would be fine. Ji Xue was about to leave, but I stopped him. "Can you tell me what that is?" I asked, and Ji Xue looked at me. "No. Because you don't need to know." He replied with a smile, and I felt like I was choking on water. "But as far as I know, those pills are very poisonous, otherwise they wouldn't turn the white paper into light blue. Is the last package you gave Li Duo an antidote?" Last time I visited with Luo Lei Her grandfather, the old man once mentioned some, and I also secretly wrote it down.

"It seems that you know a lot, how about this, let's find a place to chat, maybe you, as Xiao Si's friend, I shouldn't hide it from you, I apologize for what I said earlier, I hope you don't mind." Ji Xue's attitude was very hearty , which makes me a little embarrassed.So the two of us came to a teahouse outside the hospital for people to rest. "I hate staying in the hospital, because there is not only a strong and pungent smell of medicine, but also the resentment of the dead and the living. Maybe you can't feel it, but if I stay for a second, I will suffocate." Ji Xue walked out of the hospital With a relaxed face, he walked so fast that I couldn't even keep up with him. I glanced at his legs. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes last time, I couldn't believe it.

"Before I tell you about those pills, I want to tell you a story about alchemy." Ji Xue ordered two bowls of jasmine tea. It echoed in my ears. When I was a young child, I was told by my father that no matter what happens in the future, the life of my cousin—that is, Ji Yan’s father is always the most important. If he dies, then I will continue Protecting his son is also the mission of the family division. At that time, a quack doctor came to the village, a barefoot doctor with a strong Jiangsu-Zhejiang accent. He didn't live in the village and didn't know where he lived, but he often came to the village to hang out. , but this person was wearing a Taoist robe. Although the blue Taoist robe was already filthy with oil and mud, he didn't mind it at all and still wore it.This man looks to be about forty years old and in good spirits. Although he is thin, he has a straight and slender waist anyway. His two eyebrows are very long and neat, extending straight to the temples on both sides. A pair of eagles His eyes are usually half-closed and lazy, but when they are opened, they have a sense of majesty. The square and narrow jaw shakes up and down when he eats. There is a deep line from the left side of his nose to the bottom of his lips. The scars cause the mouth to crooked when he speaks, and the crookedness is severe if he is emotional, but the scars look like sword marks. He claims to be very good at using swords, and ordinary people can't get close to him. Killing people only needs one sword , so we call him Yijian Daochang.People in the village always liked to tease him.Said that since he was powerful with the sword, why did he get such a powerful blow on the face.The Taoist always waved his big and wide sleeves and curled his mouth.

'Great is great, but not the most powerful. He always explained that before what happened later, people in the village, including me, always regarded him as a bragging idler. Every place needs this kind of person, just like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty needed Dongfang Shuo, everyone also needs a A person who can make fun in his spare time, and although everyone always teases him, Yijian always doesn't take it seriously, so the villagers still take a bite of food from their own bowls to support him. 'I will repay you all! Yijian was eating his vegetarian meal, and suddenly he raised his head and said something to everyone. The villagers all laughed and put this sentence in the same category as he said earlier that he was powerful with a sword.But the Taoist priest spoke very seriously, and he also treated minor ailments such as headaches, fevers, and the like for the children in the village.

Finally, an incident happened in the village once. A child accidentally ate a poisonous mushroom while digging mushrooms on the mountain. This is not an ordinary poisonous mushroom, and most of the children in the mountain know that the colorful ones are poisonous, but this is the only one. tall, wide and thick, grayish-white in color, and now this mushroom is called 'death goblet' because it looks like a goblet in shape. The child soon had convulsions all over his body, his consciousness was blurred, and his face began to turn blue. The Ji family also had a little knowledge of medicine. Unfortunately, at that time, my grandfather, who was the head of the Ji family at that time, was helpless after acupuncture, and the toxicity had already penetrated deep into the blood. Even if Hua Tuo is reborn and Bian Que is reborn, there is probably nothing he can do.

The child's parents cried very sadly, because this son was the single heir of their four generations, and the two of them are quite old. If this son is buried here, I am afraid that there will be no one to hold the festival in the future.But everyone had no choice but to watch the child's breathing getting weaker and weaker. At this time Yijian suddenly pushed aside the crowd, clenched his left hand and ran in. Everyone finds it strange. 'I have a way to save the child! The Taoist priest opened his eyes and said loudly.But everyone didn't believe that this person who was always boastful and only knew how to cure some common ailments could do anything, but his father suddenly raised his hand and agreed to let him try.The Ji family has a high prestige in the village, so everyone didn't stop his father from speaking, and they were more curious to see what method Yijian used.

At that time, I was crowded in the crowd, and I didn’t see it very clearly. I only knew that he spread his left hand, took out three pills, stuffed them into the child’s mouth with cold water, and asked someone to pinch the child’s nose and blow the pills into the abdomen mouth to mouth. . After a while, the child regained consciousness and started to vomit. The parents of the child were very happy, and they knelt down and kowtowed to Yijian on the spot. The villagers nearby also shouted in surprise.Later, the child cooperated with his father's acupuncture bloodletting and detoxification, and gradually relieved the poison on his body. However, because the poisoning was too deep, the root cause of the disease was eventually left, and his body was weak all year round.But it is a great fortune to be able to save a life. After this incident, Yijian Daochang became famous in the surrounding ten miles and eight villages, but he refused to meet anyone, and he didn't tell anyone about the pill. As long as he asked urgently, he would jump He got up, waved his hands high, like a child, yelled "I don't know", and ran barefoot. Everyone saw that he was half crazy and half crazy, so they had to give up. However, the teenagers in the village are very fascinated by him and haunt him every day. Yijian likes children very much, especially my cousin and me. He often gropes our two little heads and smiles. Interesting, even the deep and scary scars softened. 'That is the elixir. 'Finally, one day when the three of us were together, Yijian said it.My cousin and I didn't understand very well, so we pestered him to talk more. "Pillions are made by refining. In ancient times, they were called Huangbaizhishu. People who made alchemy were called alchemists. They believed that as long as people ate certain elixirs, they could become immortals, and at worst, they could prolong their lives. Alchemy pays attention to principles, qi, and numbers.It is also the most sought after goal of most Taoists.You guys don't understand too much, I can only say that ten days of alchemy generally make a week, the so-called yang one two three four five, yin six seven eight nine ten.The five days are carried out in the order of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. From the late Jin Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty, alchemy was very popular. The most famous alchemist Chu Ze compiled Su Yuanming's book "Taiqing Shibi Ji", which recorded the ingredients and refining methods of various elixir, such as the Jiuding elixir method, and he The emperor has not yet practiced alchemy.But alchemy pays attention to alchemy, the person who refines it, and the person who eats it. I think the child who ate mushrooms has some alchemy, so I dare to give it to him. Otherwise, people without alchemy will be poisoned if they eat it. , or die.And those who don't have the alchemy to refine alchemy, what they refine is poison.Some elixirs are highly poisonous, which contain cinnabar, mica, jade, ocher, stone, pine nuts, osmanthus, mercury and so on.So I dare not tell others that this is a elixir, but although I can't make a real golden elixir, I can still make a elixir that can cure diseases and detoxify. 'After speaking, he smiled deeply. 'Besides, I'm working hard on alchemy now, and I should be close to success. My ancestor is Ge Hong, and he has many descendants, basically in the Ninghai area. I belong to the Ge family in Qianshan.The descendant of his eldest son Bo, but my family is in the middle of nowhere, so I live here. But as long as I can succeed in alchemy, I will definitely be able to shine again, maybe I can reproduce the glory of my ancestors. 'It was then that I knew that the surname of Yijian Daochang was Ge, and his eyes were shining brightly at that time. However, I still asked him how he made alchemy despite having no possessions. He smiled mysteriously and said that he would take the two of us to the place where he hid the alchemy furnace the next day. 'The two of you are very close, it's a pity that I don't like this matter, but since we meet, I will definitely tell you everything. ' He smiled, rolled up his greasy robe and whisked away.My cousin and I went home. We went home with great anticipation, children, we are always very curious about novel things we have never seen before. When we returned to the village, we met a villager who asked us strangely how it was so late. Where did it come from? I honestly told him that when I came out from the Taoist priest, during the conversation, I was careless for a moment and told him that I would go to him to see alchemy tomorrow. I never thought that a casual sentence would actually kill several people. This guy was very excited at the time, and proposed to go with us tomorrow. Since the Taoist priest told me not to tell anyone, I refused, and he didn't say anything. He just walked away angrily, mumbling with. I recognize this person, he was also there when the priest used the elixir to save people that day, it is said that he wanted to get rich in his dreams, although he approached the priest to sell the elixir as medicine, but was rejected. 'People who don't have Danyuan will die if they eat it! ' said the Taoist with a serious but slightly funny face.The guy didn't think so. The next day, my cousin and I went to the place we had made an appointment with the priest, but we didn't find anyone accompanying us. After seeing Yijian, he was very happy and said that he had made a little success in alchemy last night, and prepared a gift for me and my cousin. I asked him what it was, but he smiled and didn't answer. He took two children and walked along the rugged mountain road. Although my cousin and I also ran around outside when we were young, we didn't know that there was a mountain road here.After walking for a few miles, I saw a cave on the mountainside. The entrance of the cave is very spacious, but logically this kind of cave should be very cool, but when I entered it was extremely hot, even a little suffocating. 'Master Dao, don't you feel uncomfortable staying here wearing such a thick robe? The cousin asked him, and the Taoist priest wiped the sweat from his head. 'It's hot, but the clothes are inherited from the ancestors, you can't take them off, you can't take them off! ’ He just rolled up his sleeves a little bit and walked us in. The cave is relatively dark, but there is still some light. When you walk in, you will find a bronze alchemy furnace about the height of an adult in the middle, which looks very strange. The base at the bottom is a flat round tray with some Yang patterns carved on it, and the bottom is supported by three corners, a bit like a charcoal stove for heating in winter, and the top is like a copper bell, but the nose of the bell is a Hollow semicircle, the most exaggerated is that the two sides of the clock are two round handles with very large arcs, like two big ears.The whole stove looks like it has been around for some years, very old.The furnace wall was glowing red, as if it was about to burn.Then the fire was not lit, and I saw a portrait and a sword hanging on the wall, and a lot of scattered things and equipment were placed underneath, which seemed to be some medicines, because I smelled a lot of them when I came in. Realgar smell. 'Here is alchemy, and the temperature of alchemy is also very important. The so-called slow fire one stick of incense, and martial fire one stick of incense, alternately, it is best to strictly follow the natural law, and if there is a slight difference, all previous efforts will be wasted.And the most important thing is that even after the training is finished..." The Taoist priest looked at the alchemy furnace as if looking at his newborn child, but he didn't notice that a person was slowly approaching behind him, quietly stabbing at his back. There was a knife, it was a dagger, half of the blade went in, and it just stabbed on the right side of the back. Although it was not fatal, it was very difficult to speak. Both my cousin and I were shocked. When we looked back, we realized that it was the person who asked me the question yesterday. 'hey-hey. ' He laughed smugly, and the laughter echoed through the cave. 'You actually lured the wicked to come to me, trying to get my elixir! Daoist covered his chest and frowned, while I cried and said I didn't do it. 'I came with them, but if you are sensible, hurry up and give me the elixir, otherwise I will kill these two children together. In this wilderness, no one will know even if the three of you turn into bones. 'As he said that, he actually took out another sickle and put it on my neck. The cold blade almost cut my skin, and now I couldn't even cry. The Taoist priest stopped talking and just pointed to the alchemy furnace. "You didn't even take it. People who don't have alchemy insist on eating alchemy, and they will only harm themselves, although this thing can prolong life." Before he finished speaking, the man rushed forward and kicked the Taoist priest away, and lifted the stove top with a sickle. There was a golden bowl turned upside down inside, shining brightly, the guy's eyes were straightened, and he carefully picked the bowl out. 'Damn it, it's gilded! ' He took the bowl to the light, looked at it, and cursed. 'Of course, it was originally a steel bowl, and it was often exposed to yellow and white things, so it was naturally plated. After the Taoist master said something, he coughed violently. My cousin and I ran over to help him up, while he patted our heads kindly. 'Didn't scare you? ' the priest asked kindly. The person who entered the hole took out the only three elixirs left in the stove. They were about the size of glass marbles, but the whole body was shining red, very beautiful and very gorgeous. The person dragged them with his hands and took them out. A handkerchief wrapped him up, and then he rolled his eyes and swallowed one.I saw that his finger that had touched the elixir had a sky blue patch on the surface. 'Old man, I took the elixir. As for these two children, let's go with you here, so as not to be lonely. ' He grinned again and walked out of the cave. Indeed, we don't know the way back at all. There are so many forks in the way back. Once we get lost in the wild, the mountain wolf will come out at night. Seeing that the man left, the Taoist priest struggled to get up, and took out a package from a hidden corner. After opening it, there were three packages of oiled paper folded very neatly, the size of a palm.He gave one of them to me and the other two to his cousin. 'The first time I saw you, I knew that there would be a catastrophe in the future. There is no cure for this disease, and it will be passed on from generation to generation with your blood, but this medicine can temporarily relieve the pain. Remember, One pack is pills, and the other pack is to cure the poison of pills. 'He said to his cousin, who nodded half-understanding. 'You will have a knife wound in the future, and you must break a limb. This medicine is not a golden pill, but it can remove putrefaction and regenerate muscle, and it is very helpful for wound recovery. Take it with you. ’ He turned around and told me again.Saying that, he took down the saber on the wall and handed it to us. 'Every time you reach the fork, put your sword upright, and wherever the sword falls, you will go down the mountain in that direction, and the patriarch will bless you. 'As he spoke, he slowly lowered his body, sat cross-legged on the ground, and made a meditation posture. 'I've finished what I want to say, you guys go down the mountain quickly, I'm going too. ' After finishing speaking, he closed his eyes and didn't like to speak, and his face suddenly became gray. At that time, I was young and didn't know what death was. I just hurried down the mountain with the sword and the three paper bags. Sure enough, I used the sword as a guiding tool at every fork, and I went back to the village smoothly. As soon as I came back, I found that the people in the village were crowded together. I squeezed in and saw that guy's body was found at the entrance of the village. The throat to the stomach turned black, like a ripe persimmon, limp Yes, there are several holes rotten, smelly, like rotten eggs.When he was lifted up, he failed to support his head, his throat was severed, and his head rolled down. Everyone only thought that he had eaten something highly poisonous, but they couldn't figure out what it was.I had no choice but to have a hasty burial.Since the head of the Taoist priest told us not to mention anything to outsiders, we had no choice but to keep this matter in our hearts. We didn't find that cave again, so we had to bury the sword as a sword mound. The people in the village are very puzzled by the sudden disappearance of the Taoist priest. Every time everyone eats, they will talk about it. It has been a long time since they saw the Taoist priest. There is one less thing to do after dinner, but as time goes by, they gradually forget him. Now, the only thing that people remember is that he speaks very seriously like a sour old pedant in the old days. As for the elixir, Ji Yan's father didn't take it seriously, and later he left the village to wander outside. Naturally, the medicine was handed over to me for safekeeping, and I carefully hid it, but it was too late when I received the news that he was seriously ill. When I went, he had already left.Afterwards, as the Taoist priest said, I broke a leg. Only then did I remember the Taoist priest's words. After taking the medicine, the injury healed quickly. Although the broken limb could not regenerate, it was much better than ordinary people.That's why I came here with the medicine, I can't look at Ji Yan like his father anymore, otherwise it will be my responsibility to separate the family. "Ji Xue finished speaking silently and took a sip of tea. "Don't you know why this happened? Why did he and his father suddenly get this disease?" I asked eagerly, thinking that I could get an answer from it, but I couldn't find Ji Xue but shook my head. "I don't know, I only know that it may be related to the blood of the eldest son of the Ji family. You also know that Ji Yan's blood has the ability to exorcise evil spirits, but this ability is limited to the direct line. The blood of our branch family does not have this kind of blood." ability, but it seems that if this thing is used too much, it will cause great harm to the body." He replied helplessly. "The elixir can be delayed for a while. The latter bag is used to detoxify the erysipelas. Both are indispensable." Ji Xue stood up, "Okay, my task is also completed, remember to tell him to go back when he wakes up." Look, everyone there misses him very much." After speaking, Ji Xue turned and left. I suddenly remembered that Li Zheng told Ji Yan not to use the blood sword before he left, maybe this was the meaning.It was getting late, I decided to go to the hospital to see Ji Yan first, and then return to the agency to continue working.