Toon Chapter 15

15

The cloth was rinsed in water again, becoming damp and cool, and was placed back on Liansheng’s forehead.

It was deep into the night. All was silent. In the warm, yellow lamplight, Zhou Lingchun sat by the bed, gently wiping Liansheng’s arm with a towel.

Wangcai sat quietly on the floor, its two eyes fixed forward like a sentinel watching the two people.

Juzi was also lying on the bedside table, watching Liansheng on the bed with half-closed eyes.

“Meow,” Juzi whispered.

Liansheng was burning hot, his cheeks unnaturally flushed. His eyes were tightly closed, making it unclear if he was asleep. He was completely wrapped in a thick quilt, only his head exposed. His expression was fragile, and he was breathing with a noticeable, though not loud, sound.

It seemed there had been an early sign. Before going to sleep, Liansheng had complained of feeling cold and had snuggled tightly into Zhou Lingchun’s arms. By the time Zhou Lingchun noticed Liansheng’s abnormal body temperature and coaxed him to take some fever medicine, less than half an hour later, Liansheng began to grow hotter and hotter, the fever worsening rapidly.

The fever came suddenly. The damp, cool cloth was quickly dried by his body heat and had to be replaced several times.

Zhou Lingchun stared at Liansheng, his eyes heavy and serious, a hint of anxiety creeping in. Liansheng usually didn’t suffer major illnesses, and this fever was clearly overwhelming him. If it continued like this through the night…

The man reached out and tucked the strands of hair hanging by Liansheng’s face behind his ear, then called out softly, “Sheng-sheng, Sheng-sheng… wake up.”

Liansheng let out a muffled “en” from his throat, his small face scrunched up. He asked for water. Zhou Lingchun quickly poured some and fed it to him. Liansheng’s brow relaxed slightly, and he soon drifted back into a hazy sleep.

But not long after, he let out a painful moan. His pale, lotus-root-like arms struggled out from under the quilt, waving constantly in the air. “No, don’t hit me… don’t come closer!”

“Stop!”

A large hand enveloped both of Liansheng’s hands. Zhou Lingchun bent down and leaned in, casting a shadow over him. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

His voice was steady, seemingly having a calming effect. Liansheng struggled twice, then stopped moving. But tears streamed continuously from the corners of his eyes, wetting the pillow. He whimpered softly, as if suffering immense grievance and pain, like a young cub who had lost its mother’s protection.

“Zhou Lingchun… Zhou Lingchun…”

Zhou Lingchun’s throat felt tight. He swallowed, then said clearly, “Zhou Lingchun is right here.”

He lifted Liansheng, still wrapped in the quilt, from the bed and held him in his arms, rocking him gently. “Don’t be scared. It’s just a fever. It’s a nightmare. Open your eyes quickly.”

The cloth, nearly dried by the heat, fell from Liansheng’s forehead. The man lowered his head and pressed his own forehead against Liansheng’s, feeling the intense heat hidden beneath the skin that prevented Liansheng from resting peacefully.

It was like a cluster of raging fire, scorching and consuming his skin, seemingly several times hotter than the summer sun.

The village clinic had long closed. Even if he rushed to the town now, it would likely be too late.

But Zhou Lingchun couldn’t wait another moment. He stood up immediately, grabbed a thick blanket to wrap Liansheng in, and held him close. He hooked the kerosene lamp, which he had lit sometime earlier, onto his finger and walked out.

Wangcai looked at the man’s retreating back, its dark eyes turning toward the pitch-black night, and followed behind the man.

The autumn night was desolate. The sky was dark gray, with sparse, broken clouds occasionally passing the moon. The moonlight, flickering through the branches, looked ghostly.

Zhou Lingchun walked steadily on the road, holding the person in his arms, heading toward the main road that led to the big banyan tree.

A quarter of an hour later, a sudden, fierce dog barking erupted in front of a house, piercing the surrounding silence.

Zhou Lingchun placed the kerosene lamp at his feet and knocked on the wooden door, which was barred with a stick. He called out, “Doctor Li! Doctor Li!”

The person sleeping inside was startled awake and called out, “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Lingchun. My wife suddenly has a high fever tonight.”

With a clang, Doctor Li removed the stick barring the wooden door and set it aside. The door automatically swung open. Doctor Li, in his forties and wearing a gray undershirt, his voice still heavy with sleep, said, “Lingchun, come in quickly.”

Zhou Lingchun carried Liansheng into the house. Doctor Li’s dog quickly stopped barking, and silence returned to the surroundings.

Doctor Li’s wife was still sleeping in the inner room. Zhou Lingchun sat on a chair in the main hall, holding Liansheng in his arms like a child. Liansheng was sleeping very restlessly, letting out faint whimpers and complaining of cold.

Zhou Lingchun held him tighter. “I apologize for disturbing you, Doctor Li. He’s seriously ill, and the clinic isn’t open at night. I had no choice but to come here first to have you look at him.”

Doctor Li was one of the doctors at the village clinic and was usually responsible for purchasing medicine. Zhou Lingchun knew he kept a good amount of private stock at home.

Doctor Li shook his head and used his hand to check Liansheng’s forehead temperature. He was calmer than Zhou Lingchun. “Did you take his temperature?”

“No. The thermometer I got from you before broke,” Zhou Lingchun said.

In fact, most villagers didn’t have the habit of keeping a thermometer. The ones sold at the clinic weren’t expensive, but people saved money where they could. Besides, they were all rural folk; when they got a fever, they usually took medicine first, wrapped themselves in a quilt to sweat it out, and if they got better, fine. If not, they went to the clinic to see the doctor. When Zhou Lingchun first found Liansheng, Liansheng had an infected wound, and Zhou Lingchun had gotten one from Doctor Li. A few months ago, Liansheng had broken it while rummaging through things.

Doctor Li went back to the room where he kept the medicine, pulled out the drawer under the table, took out a thermometer, shook it down, and handed it to Zhou Lingchun.

The cool thermometer was slipped under Liansheng’s clothes and placed in his armpit. The man then held Liansheng’s arm down.

While waiting for the temperature reading, Doctor Li asked, “Did he catch a chill recently?”

“Probably. I took him to the town hospital for cold medicine this morning, and he spent a long time in the fields this afternoon,” Zhou Lingchun said.

But there hadn’t been any cold wind in the fields that afternoon.

“Did you give him medicine?”

“Yes, but it didn’t work.”

“What medicine?”

“The one I got from you last time.”

Doctor Li’s gaze suddenly shifted to Wangcai, who was lying next to Zhou Lingchun. Wangcai was squinting, its dog head resting on the ground, half-asleep.

He watched the dog for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled. “Your wife really dotes on this dog. I saw her feeding it some of the dried meat hanging outside your door when I passed by your house the other day.”

Zhou Lingchun smiled too, but didn’t say anything.

A few minutes later, Zhou Lingchun took the thermometer from Liansheng’s armpit, turned it halfway against the lamplight to find the scale: thirty-nine point five degrees Celsius.

His expression changed. He asked Doctor Li what they should do.

Doctor Li rubbed his head and suggested trying some more medicine. Zhou Lingchun spoke a few words politely. Seeing Zhou Lingchun’s anxious look, Doctor Li then said, “Come with me to the clinic for an IV drip.” He went into the inner room to get his keys and told Zhou Lingchun to carry Liansheng and follow him.

The doctor simply prepared two bottles of fluid. His medical skill was not very high, so he only prepared error-proof medication. Only after observing that Liansheng had no adverse reactions did he feel relieved. Yawning, he told Zhou Lingchun to watch over the patient and went to sleep on a bed set up in the clinic.

Zhou Lingchun sat by the bed where Liansheng lay, watching the fluid in the bottle. He touched Liansheng’s needled hand and found it icy cold, so he took the thin IV tube into his mouth to warm it and covered Liansheng’s palm with his own.

Every so often, he would check Liansheng’s forehead temperature.

A few small black insects flew around the fluorescent light on the clinic ceiling. In the quiet room, Doctor Li’s snoring could be heard.

When the bottle was empty, Zhou Lingchun removed the needle himself. Liansheng’s fever had subsided somewhat, but for some reason, he hadn’t woken up, sleeping as if in a coma. Zhou Lingchun lowered his head and pressed the needle puncture site on Liansheng’s hand.

He looked at Liansheng’s fragile, somewhat pale face. His mind recalled Liansheng’s shy appearance that morning when discussing pregnancy and having children, and Liansheng’s anger that afternoon when he pulled weeds and sat down hard on the field ridge. His eyes inexplicably began to warm up.

He called out softly, “Sheng-sheng,” but Liansheng did not reply.

…

It wasn’t until dawn was just breaking that Liansheng’s fever finally broke and he woke up. Seeing Zhou Lingchun, he started crying, saying he was scared. Zhou Lingchun asked what he had dreamed about, but he said he couldn’t remember clearly.

“I want to go home.” Liansheng’s face was cool. He burrowed hard into Zhou Lingchun’s arms. “I don’t want to stay here.”

“Alright, let’s go home.”

He thought the ordeal was over, but for some reason, whenever Liansheng closed his eyes during the day and was about to fall asleep, he would suddenly wake up in a fright, crying that he was scared, claiming a dark, shadowy thing was chasing him and trying to strangle him.

Grandma Sun also came over. Hearing the situation, she slapped her thigh and declared that Liansheng must have been entangled by an unclean thing!