Chapter 38 Half a Bun

  Zuo Shaoyang was even more puzzled: "You said these are all exterior-releasing decoctions, how did they become pills and powders?"

  "I'm not quite sure about that, anyway it's sold by Huimin Hall, which is pretty good. You can just buy and eat it, and it works after eating, very convenient. So my family has stocked up a lot, if someone has a headache or fever, they can just take the medicine themselves, no need to go to the pharmacy to see a doctor or anything like that."

  Zuo Shaoyang smiled wryly and said, "Auntie, I now understand why you always catch colds and get sick."

  "What's wrong with me?"

  "You're suffering from the side effects of taking too many patent medicines for external treatment!"

  "What does it mean?" The woman asked in confusion.

  "This external contraction of illness has wind-heat and wind-cold distinctions, and the medication used is also different. There's a distinction between pungent-warmth expelling the exterior and pungent-coolness expelling the exterior. If it's an external contraction of wind-cold, then pungent-warmth expelling the exterior medication should be used. If it's a wind-heat external contraction, then pungent-coolness expelling the exterior medication should be used. This requires differentiation and treatment, and cannot be treated with reckless use of patent medicine.

  Otherwise, if you originally had an external contraction of wind-heat but used pungent-warmth expelling the exterior medication, it would lead to dry mouth and tongue. If you had an external contraction of wind-cold but used pungent-coolness expelling the exterior medication, it would lead to lung qi stagnation. You might not feel anything, or maybe taking medicine randomly like this is fine, but your body's righteous qi has already been secretly damaged.

  One or two times, three or four times, long-term reckless use of medication will lead to a deficiency of exterior yang, lung qi not spreading, stagnation becoming more severe, and righteous qi greatly damaged. The ability to resist external pathogens is greatly reduced, making it easy for external pathogens to invade. You'll naturally become very prone to illness."

  The woman said in doubt: "I also ate it according to the pharmacy's instructions on how to take the medicine."

  "What is meant by 'doctors do not self-medicate' is that even doctors themselves do not diagnose their own illnesses. You are not a medical professional, how can you know what kind of disease you have? External contraction diseases are actually very complicated, and the symptoms and treatments are different. It's not just simply external wind-heat or wind-cold, but also includes external wind-cold with deficiency of qi on the surface, external wind-cold with dampness and internal heat, external cold and internal phlegm, lung heat cough, wind-cold transforming into heat, etc. A professional doctor must use the four diagnostic methods to make a diagnosis before prescribing medication. You are afraid of trouble, relying solely on your own experience to take medicine randomly, which is often inaccurate, resulting in harm to the body and weakening its resistance to external pathogens. It would be strange if you didn't get sick."

  The woman seemed to understand a bit and anxiously asked: "Is that so? Then what should we do?"

  "Don't worry, my father will give you medicine, take care of yourself for a while, and in the future, don't eat too much medicine. If you're sick, go to the pharmacy or find a doctor to check, after a period of treatment, your body will recover."

  "Oh, I see! Thank you very much!"

  Zuo Gui glanced at Zuo Shao Yang, picked up his pen and wrote a prescription. Zuo Shao Yang looked at the prescription and thought it was just right for the symptoms, so he quickly prepared the medicine according to the prescription and handed it over to the woman. The woman paid seven cents as a consultation fee, took the medicine and left.

  Zuo Gui turned sideways, looked up and down at Zuo Shao Yang, smiled and nodded: "Hmm, you just explained it very clearly to the patient, and it's not bad. However, these things are not in the medical book I gave you. Where did you learn them from?"

  "Uh... it's what Old Bell Doctor taught me last time I talked to Dad."

  "Ah." Zuigui stroked his white beard and smiled, "You said last time that he only let you read the medical book for a day. You can learn so much in such a short time, it's really impressive. It seems that you are still studying hard, I was wrong to scold you for not being diligent before."

  Zuo Shaoyang chuckled and asked, "Dad, are you hungry? I'll go home and bring you some food?"

  "Go ahead."

  Zuo Shaoyang took a distant glance at the firewood girl, saw her standing by the fire with her sleeves rolled up, also secretly looking at him, and when she saw him looking at her, she quickly hid her gaze.

  Zuo Shaoyang smiled and quickly ran back to the Guizhitang with a small bag of pine nuts. Liangshi had already prepared lunch, four black-faced buns with white skin, two bowls of green leafy soup, packed in a bamboo food box, and two pairs of chopsticks.

  Zuō shǎo yáng bǎ sōng guǒ dào zài yào cái cāng kù de dì shàng, bǎ kòng dài saī jìn huái lǐ, duì Liáng shì dào: "niáng, néng bu néng duō gěi liǎng ge móu móu a?"

  English Translation:

  Zuo Shaoyang poured the pine nuts onto the floor of the medicine warehouse, stuffed the empty bag into his bosom, and said to Mrs. Liang, "Mother, can you give me two more buns?"

  "What's up?"

  "I'm hungry, and it seems like Dad is quite hungry too. Let's take a few more, we can always bring them back if we can't finish them."

  Li's mother lovingly looked at her son, saw that his face was pale from the cold, but his nose was red, reached out to help him rub it, and then took two buns from the pot and put them in a bamboo lunch box, wrapped it tightly with a blue cloth, and handed it to Zuo Shao Yang.

  Zuo Shaoyang happily carried the food box and ran back to Wasteland City. This time he came from the other side, first arrived at Miao Peilan's place, handed over Miao Peilan's bag to her, saying: "Here, your bag. - Ah, I brought you two hot buns, eat them while they're hot, warm up!" He took out the buns and handed them over.

  Miao Peilan took the bag, glanced at the bun, blushed and shook her head. She took out a small package wrapped in a white handkerchief from her pocket, unfolded it, and inside was also a hard bun that had been bitten off by about half. The bun was also made of black flour with more mulberry bark, apparently this combination for making buns was well-known to the locals here, and it was also the staple food in times of grain shortage.

  Zuo Shaoyang reached out and touched the half mantou in her handkerchief, saying: "Oh my, it's as hard as a stone, how can you eat this? Eat mine instead! Quick! If it gets cold, it won't taste good."

  Miao Peilan shook her head again, picked up the hard pancake and took a bite, chewing very hard.

  Zuo Shao Yang snatched the hard bun from her hand, stuffed two steaming buns into her hands and smiled: "You gave me a little squirrel, I give you two buns, neither of us owes each other anything, right? Eat quickly!" After that, he didn't wait for her reaction, grabbed the food box and ran.

  Miao Peilan caught up with him in two steps, then stopped again, lowered her head to glance at the two buns in her hand, picked them up and took a light bite. The warmth spread throughout her body as she held the steaming hot black buns and gazed at Zuo Shuangyang's back, her eyes becoming slightly moist.

  Zuo Shaoyang ran to his father's stall, no one was seeing patients, and he put the food box on the table: "Dad! Lunch is ready!"

  "What's that?" he asked, staring at the half of a hard bun in his hand, which looked unlike anything they had at home.

  Zuo Shaoyang naturally didn't want to say it was Miao Peilan's, so he casually lied: "It was given by the uncle of the grocery store across the street. It doesn't taste good and can't compare to our family's, so I took a bite and didn't finish eating."

  "Goodness gracious, someone is kind enough to give it to you and you're still being picky? Hurry up and eat!"

  Zuo Shaoyang hummed a sound, bringing the half bun to his mouth, and again smelled the familiar spring tender grass fragrance. He couldn't help but turn his head back, seeing Miao Peilan also looking at him, seeing that he was going to eat the remaining half of her bun, suddenly blushing, hurriedly turning her head away.

  "Haven't you eaten yet? What are you waiting for?" Zuo Gui looked up at him with wide eyes.

  Zuo Shaoyang quickly withdrew his gaze, secretly laughing to himself. He hastily stuffed the bun into his mouth and bit down hard, nearly shattering his teeth, before managing to tear off a small piece. He chewed with great effort, making crunching sounds like he was chewing on ice cubes. Unable to chew any further, he let it soften in his mouth with saliva before finally swallowing it down.

  Zuo Gui saw that he was having a hard time eating and said: "Forget it, it's all cold now. We can heat it up when we get back and eat the hot food at home first."

  Zuo Shaoyang was overjoyed, hastily stuffed the half bun into his bosom, opened the food box, took out two bowls of soup, and four hot steaming buns. The two of them ate quickly, finishing everything in no time, including the soup.

  Zuo Shaoyang ate while stealing glances at Miao Peilan, and only felt relieved when he saw her eating the buns he had given her.

  Zuo Gui saw him staring at the firewood-selling girl and asked Zuo Shao Yang: "Who is she?"

  "She was the firewood girl who pulled me down from the cliff when I fell off it last time, her name is Miao Peilan."

  "Oh, why don't you thank him then?"

  "Thanks, but sister gave her money and she didn't want it."

  Zuo Gui Zan said: "Kindness without expectation of reward, what a good man!"