Chapter 17: Seven Medicines for Treating Muteness

  Ye Fei Jiao's aunt gave us the address of her cousin in Shanjiang, which is Ye Fei Jiao's uncle. However, what made Ye Fei Jiao unacceptable was that we had to walk there.

  I don't mind, walking over 10 kilometers is just a bit slow for me, but no pressure at all. For Xiao Jianqi to be able to speak, this is nothing. Maybe Ye Fei's uncle can really cure her, and when that happens, a lively little loli will sing songs for us, "Left one voice Jump River Brother, Right one voice Fei Jie Sister", what a happy thing that would be.

  Ye Fei had never seen her maternal great-uncle before, and originally wanted her grandmother to accompany her, but unfortunately her grandmother was old, walking ten or twenty kilometers would make us tired, and she would still feel tired after resting for half a month.

  We can't go empty-handed, and we don't dare to be careless. In Fenghuang, we bought a big piece of pork that weighed 10 kilograms, two chickens, some fruit, and other gifts. To make it easier to carry, we had to use a snake skin bag on our backs. Fortunately, after walking for not too long, we met a passing tractor. Ye Fei stretched out his hand, and the enthusiastic driver uncle stopped the tractor.

  We got on the tractor trailer and our waists almost broke along the way, but it's still better than walking. Walking would have gotten us blisters, which wouldn't be a big deal, what we feared most was getting lost.

  The tractor drove for twenty minutes, and the driver stopped in a village. Ye Fei asked him how much farther to Shanjiang, and was told that it would take half an hour's walk after passing through the village.

  After getting off the tractor, we walked for more than half an hour and finally arrived at Shanjing Town. However, after asking around, we realized that the village of our destination, Ye Fei Chuo's uncle's village, was still at least 40 minutes away.

  Shanjiang Town is also a gathering place for Miao people, and you can see elderly women wearing ethnic costumes like He Ye Fei Chuo's grandmother everywhere, but young people rarely wear them.

  My shoulders were tied with a snakeskin bag, and each hand held a chicken. Ye Fei Jie was carrying Xiao Jian Qi, and after another hour of arduous walking, we arrived at a village.

  To be exact, it can't even be called a village, because there are only five households scattered on the mountain slope.

  I laughed and said, "Is your great-uncle the legendary hermit who's hiding here to cultivate immortality? Otherwise, why would he run to such a remote place to live? Your aunt has even moved to Fenghuang County Town!"

  Ye Fei sat down on a lawn by the roadside to rest, constantly shouting that she was tired. She said her grandmother told her that all of her uncle's family members were in town! He had been living in the mountains for a lifetime and couldn't get used to leaving the mountain life.

  After a rest, we climbed the mountain and walked for nearly twenty minutes to a house. The house was built with wood and bamboo, with several rice fields and vegetable gardens in front of it, and a small stream left over from the mountain on the left side. If this place were used for seclusion, raising hundreds of chickens and killing one every day would indeed be a heavenly life, and for someone like me, this kind of life is also very tempting.

  I don't know if we came at the wrong time, the door was tightly closed, Ye Fei knocked on the door, and there was no response inside, maybe they were really not home. I tied the legs of the two chickens to a bamboo stick, and then sat with Ye Fei on the pile of firewood at the door waiting.

  Before long, Kojima reached out to me and I knew she was hungry, so I handed her an apple to eat. Just as Kojima took a bite of the apple, a Miao tribesman with a headscarf and carrying a hunting rifle came down from the mountain and arrived in front of the house, holding several birds whose names I didn't know.

  This old hunter looked to be over sixty years old, with a roll of dry tobacco in his mouth. Seeing us sitting at the door of his house, he hurriedly asked who we were looking for. Ye Fei immediately called out "Uncle" and mentioned her paternal grandmother's and mother's names.

  This was Ye Fei Jiu's uncle, he was stunned for a moment, then reacted and smiled and said something to Ye Fei Jiu in the Miao language that I couldn't understand.

  My uncle threw those birds into a wooden bucket at the entrance, then opened the door and invited us in. The house was like the thatched hut I had seen on the mountain in Guigang, with animal hides, horns and shells on the walls, as well as bundles of dried herbs and lingzhi mushrooms.

  I took out the ten jin of pork, fruit and some other gifts from the snakeskin bag and handed them over to my uncle. He politely said that his family didn't need to buy so many things, it was a waste of money.

  Ye Fei Jie and his maternal uncle talked non-stop, but his maternal uncle couldn't speak Hakka dialect, although he could listen. However, I couldn't understand the Miao language, so we couldn't communicate, which was quite awkward.

  Ye Fei and her uncle talked for a while, then remembered to cook, went back to the kitchen to boil water, killed those few birds that had been brought back. Also killed the chicken I brought, plus the foxes and wild rabbits he usually hunted, as well as the pangolins, made a big table of dishes.

  In rural areas, everything is inferior to the city, except for food, which is absolutely better than in the city. Various game meats are hard to buy even with money, and a meal like this now costs at least 5,000 yuan.

  During dinner, I asked Yefei to tell her uncle about the purpose of our visit this time. Coincidentally, her uncle asked about it again, and Yefei explained everything clearly. Uncle listened attentively while nodding his head, and at the same time, he was serving dishes to Xiaojianzi, saying that after dinner, let Xiaojianzi take a look.

  At this time, Xiao Jianzi was holding a chicken leg in both hands and gnawing on it, with oil all over her mouth and hands. The apple that had been bitten into twice was thrown onto the table, and Ye Fei's teasing didn't faze her at all.

  Maternal great-uncle asked Ye Fei Ji, Ye Fei Ji said maternal great-uncle asked me if I had ever heard Xiao Jian Qi speak.

  I replied that I had possessed her body and spoken a sentence when her grandfather died at our old home.

  The uncle said that might be a fake dumbness, which means being able to speak but not knowing how to say it, however, to know the truth or not still needs to try.

  I asked what method to try, as long as it's not dangerous, anything is fine.

  Ye Fei chuckled and didn't say a word, picked up a rabbit leg and started gnawing on it fiercely, looking just like an old beggar who had been starving for half a month.

  After dinner, Uncle Ye asked Ye Fei to use medicinal herbs to boil water for Xiao Jianqiao to take a bath. Uncle Ye was grinding medicine powder with a mortar at the door. After the medicine powder was ground, he poured a bowl of boiling water and added the medicine powder into it, immediately turning the whole bowl of water blood red.

  After the medicine in the bowl had cooled down, my uncle asked me to cover Xiaojianye's eyes and then brought it over for her to drink. After Xiaojianye drank the half-bowl of medicinal liquid that looked like blood from my uncle, she fell asleep within three minutes.

  Five minutes later, Kojirō woke up again, got out of bed and sat on the edge of the bed in a daze. My uncle signaled us to talk to Kojirō, so I and Yeshi sat down beside him on the bed.

  I asked Kojima what's your name!

  Kojima looked up at me and replied in a low voice, "Call me Kojima."

  When I heard Koseki speak for the first time, her voice was so tender and well-behaved that I was excited and didn't know what to say, it felt like winning a big prize.

  Ye Fei was also very happy, and she asked Xiao Jianqiao again, "How old are you this year?"

  Kojirase turned his head and looked at Yefei, saying he was four years old this year.

  Ye Fei couldn't help but applaud with both hands, constantly praising his uncle for being too awesome.

  However, the uncle shook his head and said that this was just a medicine to confuse her mind, similar to getting drunk. After the medicine wore off, the child would not be able to speak either.

  After Ye Fei Ji told me what Uncle Biao said, we both sighed endlessly, wondering how Uncle Biao could be cured.

  The maternal great-uncle added that doing so was just to try whether the little girl was really dumb, now it seems not, and there is a way to cure her, only...

  As soon as we heard there was hope, we hastily asked how it could be treated and what conditions were required, and we would definitely make every effort to do our best.

  Maternal great-uncle reached out and tapped Xiao Jian's forehead, she immediately fell asleep, and maternal great-uncle asked us to go to the living room to talk in detail.

  After coming out to the hall, we each found a stool to sit down. My uncle spoke a lot to Ye Fei, and Ye Fei told me what my uncle had said. Xiao Jianqi didn't know for what reason, never opened his mouth to speak, and his ears weren't deaf either. This was just like someone whose two legs were fine, but he would rather sit in a wheelchair every day than walk.

  Ye Fei said, reminding me of Chen Baoguo and his son who adopted Xiao Jianqiang. The weirdness of that old house might be some kind of factor or curse suppressing Xiao Jianqiang's instinct to speak.

  Ye Fei Ji told me that her uncle can cure it, but needs seven kinds of medicine. With these seven kinds of medicine, a kind of medicine can be made to cure Xiao Jian's dumb disease.

  I eagerly asked what medicine it was

  Leafy Ji stretched out his hand, counting one finger at a time, saying a medicine each time: Toad skin, centipede legs, chili mud, loach eyes, snake venom, cicada shell, crystal blood.

  I couldn't help but furrow my brow, toad skin, centipede legs, chili mud eel eyes, and snake venom cicada shells were all easy to obtain, except for the snake venom which was a bit harder to get, the others were all readily available, but what is this crystal blood, I've never even heard of it.

  Ye Fei asked her uncle about this crystal blood, what exactly is it?

  Uncle Wang just rolled a cigarette, took out an iron lighter to light it up, and after taking two puffs, he said to Ye Fei.

  Ye Fei repeated the translation for me, this crystal blood is a kind of blood called crystal fish blood. This blood is different from the red blood of most animals, it's a transparent one like nasal mucus.

  Crystal fish live in the extremely deep underground river, with a thickness and length similar to that of a human leg, and its entire body is transparent like a crystal column. This kind of fish is very rare because it lives all its life in the underground river and rarely drills out of the surface river. Ye Fei's uncle saw one when he was catching frogs in the spring eye at the foot of the mountain, but it quickly drilled back into the spring eye hole. This crystal fish has been living underground for many years, its blood is extremely cold, and it is a very precious medicinal material. Want to catch this kind of fish? That's something that can't be sought after.

  I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. With such a high-sounding name, it turned out to be just fish blood. I have Tongtong here, what kind of fish can't he catch?

  Of course, I wouldn't be foolish enough to mention Tóng Tóng to Ye Fei Jī's uncle. Ye Fei Jī doesn't even know about my fishing skills. I only promised Uncle that I would definitely gather all seven medicinal herbs for him within a day.

  Yefei Jiao told me not to boast, just the venom of the glasses snake is not something that can be obtained in one day. Now the snake has not come out of its hole, and we don't even know where to go to catch it. Moreover, that snake is very poisonous and extremely dangerous.

  Ye Fei Ji said that his uncle knew of a python, which he saw last year and had already grown to over three meters in length. It's just that it's not convenient for one person to catch it.