Chapter 3 House Call

“Doctor Su! Doctor Su! It’s bad! Come out quickly!” A quick knock on the door woke up Lu Yuan who was dozing off. Su Huai responded, and picked up Lu Yuan. He wiped him twice, pushed him to the bed, and said “Put on your clothes, and don’t make a sound”. He hurriedly dressed himself to open the door, blocking the man outside.

“My child’s fever won’t go down, and his daddy and I are almost dying of anxiety. Doctor Su, please go and see him quickly…”

“Mm, I’ll put on some clothes and come.” Su Huai nodded, and closed the door to lock the man who was about to come in: “Brother Li, go home and wait for me first.”

A child has a fever.

When Lu Yuan heard this, his heart as an obstetrician and gynecologist began to get agitated. He had been so idle these days that he had no place to show his talents. He wanted to rush up to Su Huai, grab his arm and say to him, “Take me with you!”

Lu Yuan was emitting a strong sense of expectation. Su Huai, who was wearing a cotton coat, could feel the man’s eager gaze wandering around him. His gaze was so hot that it was about to burn a hole in his clothes.

Su Huai turned his head slowly and looked at Lu Yuan thoughtfully, as if he had seen something in his flashing eyes.

“That… Brother Su…” Lu Yuan was obviously very excited, showing the expression of a puppy being taken for a walk by its owner.

Su Huai looked at him sideways for a while, put on the medicine box, and looked like he understood.

“Mm… don’t look at me like that, I’ll come back in time to cook for you.”

You’re hurt, if you don’t get better, I, Lu Yuan, will be driven crazy by this bastard!

 *

When Su Huai came out of Li’s house, it was still early. He went to the market to buy some New Year’s goods and bought some medicine for mother Li. Just as he was about to go home, he met the city’s soldiers. The leader was holding a portrait, as if he was looking for someone.

“Hey – have you seen this person?”

“No.”

No?

It would be strange to say no!

Su Huai turned in a direction and went straight into a dyeing shop.

“Big brother, do you want to buy cloth? Today’s new goods are the best Jianghuai silk. Take a look…”

“Do you have dye? I want black dye.”

*

When Su Huai came back, it was already past noon. Lu Yuan was sitting on the bed in a daze. When he heard the door open, he immediately became alert. His legs were no longer weak. He got up and rushed towards Su Huai. When he took a step, he accidentally bumped his foot into the bathtub and ran over limping.

 “How is the child? Have you cured him?”

“The Li family’s child was born prematurely, and he is weak, so he has a fever. Just wipe his body with a wet towel and let him cool down. There’s nothing to make a fuss about!” Su Huai said, waving his arms impatiently, pushing Lu Yuan away like a fly. He patted the dirt off his body, took off his coat, and began to pack up the things he bought.

“I’m not making a fuss about it. I mean, I actually know some medical skills. You’re so kind to take me in, so I have to show some appreciation! It’s so busy at the end of the year. If you have a patient and can’t spare the time to take care of him, I can go for you!” Lu Yuan was like a dog-skin plaster, sticking to it again and again without getting tired of it.

 “…” Su Huai rolled up the whip in his hand and glanced at Lu Yuan who was laughing at him: “I don’t remember taking anyone in out of kindness. When your wounds are clean, leave immediately!”

“Yes, yes, yes–” Lu Yuan muttered in his heart. I won’t argue with him. I took the whip with a smile and put it on the table. I took the initiative to help Su Huai organize other things: “But I can’t leave for a while! If you don’t let me go out, you can also talk to me about illnesses. I will help you with some advice… Take this child with fever for example. Premature babies are born with deficiencies and must be supplemented. Does the mother have enough milk? If not, you have to give the baby some goat milk, cow’s milk, etc., so as not to be stunted…”

“Mother?” Su Huai stopped and frowned at Lu Yuan.

Isn’t it called mom here? Or mother?

 Lu Yuan pondered for a moment and nodded: “Ah, it’s the woman who gave birth to the baby…”

“Woman?”

“…”

Scratching his head, Lu Yuan suddenly felt that the dialect here seemed too far from civilization. It’s okay to have a little accent, but how come even the woman can’t understand it!

“You’re talking about the baby’s daddy!” Su Huai suddenly reacted, his expression was still strange: “He’s not a cow or a sheep, where does the milk come from! The baby grew up drinking rice soup, who feeds milk!”

“Ah?” This time it was Lu Yuan’s turn to be stupid.

What do you mean no milk? Don’t the women here have milk? It feels like the two big breasts on the chests of women in Shihe Village have been used as decorations for so many years…

There must be a disease somewhere, he must go to treat it. Otherwise all the children in this village can’t drink human milk, not to mention that they are prone to premature death, and their health will not be very good when they grow up.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan looked at Su Huai with a little more pity in his eyes.

 Alas… Children who have never drunk milk are so pitiful!

“Brother Su, children are like calves and lambs. They need milk to grow strong! If the mothers in this village don’t produce milk, why don’t we raise cattle and sheep?” Lu Yuan’s eyes lit up, as if he saw a smooth road to wealth.

Su Huai stared at Lu Yuan for a long time, and suddenly sneered, with an expression of “simply unreasonable”. He lowered his head to fiddle with the New Year’s goods in his bag.

“That… Brother Su, listen to me… You have to believe me… Hey? What are you doing? What is this!” While trying to persuade Su Huai, Lu Yuan suddenly saw Su Huai take out a brown paper bag, and then stared at the top of his head thoughtfully.

That look was… creepy.

 “Brother Su? Don’t pull me! What are you doing… Where are you going!”

Su Huai didn’t say anything, and pushed Lu Yuan to sit on the bed. He went out to get a basin of warm water, opened the brown paper bag, and sprinkled a bag of powder into it. The clear water immediately turned black.

“Brother Su?”

“Come here.”

Lu Yuan hesitated. Su Huai simply grabbed him and pressed the furry little head into the basin.

“Um… Brother Su! This water stinks!”l

“So troublesome! Here——” Su Huai lifted Lu Yuan’s head, and rubbed it with his big hands. He pulled off the face towel on his shoulder and stuffed it into Lu Yuan’s arms: “Cover your face.”

“But…” What are you going to do!

“You’re noisy!”

“Um…” Lu Yuan finally behaved after his hair was pulled hard.

 Although Su Huai had a bad temper, his hands and feet were very skillful. His hands were big and strong, and it felt very comfortable to have his plump fingertips rub his scalp. Lu Yuan found that if he didn’t move around, he would enjoy the process.

The key point was that he couldn’t move around – under the hands of someone like Su Huai, he would definitely suffer a loss in a head-on conflict.

Finally, his hair was washed. Su Huai wiped it for him, picked up the comb and combed it again. He grabbed his hair and looked at it in bunches as if he was checking.

“Wipe it yourself again.”

Huh——

The towel was thrown on Lu Yuan’s head, and Su Huai went out with the dirty water.

He was not wrong, this Su Huai was definitely mentally abnormal. Absolutely!

Lu Yuan made a bitter face and rubbed the ends of his hair with a towel. The black hair looked very soft.

Huh? Black?

 After Lu Yuan realized that he had traveled through time, he immediately observed his appearance. His slightly pale complexion and thin cheeks made his slightly sunken eyes look bigger and brighter. However, the color of his pupils was not black, but amber, like his hair, which made his complexion look even whiter.

According to Lu Yuan’s standards, this face was pretty except for being a little weak, but in Su Huai’s eyes, maybe his weird hair color was weird. So he couldn’t stand it, so he dyed it black?

This conclusion made Lu Yuan feel uncomfortable.

This Su Huai is too self-centered!

Su Huai came in again, holding… a lump of mud in his hand!

All the questions he wanted to ask were blocked by Su Huai’s behavior. Lu Yuan felt that the situation was not good, so he stood up and took two steps back: “That… Brother Su? What are you doing…”

“Come here.”

Damn! Su Huai, you lunatic, can you say anything else?

Even though Lu Yuan struggled desperately, Su Huai smeared mud evenly on all the exposed skin.

“What’s your name?” Su Huai frowned as he held down the restless Lu Yuan. He had been calling him “hey” all these days, and he had really forgotten what this guy’s name was.

“Lu Yuan.” Lu Yuan felt that he had to bow his head under the eaves.

“Lu Yuan?” Su Huai looked at the man opposite him with disdain and sneered, “Don’t use this name anymore. I’ll call you Xiao Yuan from now on. If the neighbors see you, just say you’re my distant cousin. Got it?”

“Mm.” Lu Yuan responded slowly, and it took him a while to realize the implication of these words. When he looked up, Su Huai had already gone out. Lu Yuan hurriedly chased him out, holding the door frame and shouting to Su Huai in the kitchen: “Brother Su! Do you mean, I can go out?!”

“Your injury is almost healed, and sunbathing will help recovery.” Su Huai turned his head: “But, only in this alley.”

If the officers and soldiers really caught him, they would definitely be suspicious if they found that he was hiding an outsider. It would be better to let the villagers know him, and then say that he was a relative, which would be natural, and maybe he could get away with it. Moreover, sunbathing can make the skin darker, and there is no need to go through the trouble of smearing mud.

Su Huai thought, and his hands also accelerated. A layer of shiny fish scales was scraped off along the blade.

With dark hair and dark skin, and if he gets fatter, those officers and soldiers will not recognize him even if they see him.

 “Brother Su, thank you.” Lu Yuan’s voice was very joyful. When Su Huai looked up, he was lying on the window frame, looking at him with a smile.

Lu Yuan’s emotions came and went quickly. The resentment that Su Huai had just tormented him was now forgotten because of the expansion of his range of activities. His sight swept around the kitchen and finally stopped on the chopping board. Su Huai was stabbing a knife into the fish’s mouth and stirring it. When he pulled out the knife, he reached out and pulled out the whole fish bone.

“Don’t get in the way here, it will be cooked soon. You go wait!”

Lu Yuan was a little stunned for a moment. It was not because of how good Su Huai’s cooking skills were, but because he suddenly realized that he finally didn’t have to drink porridge!