Chapter 114 Strange Customs and Quarrels

On the sleeper train from Beijing to Changsha, Hunan Province.

The passengers on this train are basically medical staff going to the south to provide support.

Wang Mengde, Qian Dayong, and four young men from the Chinese Medical Research Institute were in a private compartment in the same carriage.

Two of the four people are also students of Vice President Zhu, and they are also very familiar with the remaining two.

Originally, Qian Dayong and his two junior fellow students were planning to go to other places. However, when Vice President Zhu heard that Wang Mengde was going to Guangxi Province, he temporarily changed his mind and changed the itinerary of the three students to Guangxi Province as well.

Several young people gathered together and chatted, feeling excited about leaving the capital and entering a strange environment.

"Meng De, why do you still have a few packets of medicine?"

Not long after getting on the bus, when they were packing their luggage, Qian Dayong inadvertently saw that in his backpack, in addition to a few medical books, there were also a few yellow paper packages with a faint smell of Chinese herbal medicine, so he asked curiously.

On this trip to the south, they took nothing with them except bedding, a few pieces of clothing, lunch boxes, water cups, toiletries, a small amount of money and national food coupons.

These national food coupons were exchanged for one month's supply by the research institute. After they arrive in Guangxi Province, the province will be responsible for issuing them local food coupons starting next month.

Hearing that he had medicine in his bag, the other four people looked over curiously.

They all admired this "celebrity" in the research institute who was about the same age as them, and wanted to take this opportunity to learn more about him.

They all knew clearly about Wang Mengde's legendary story in the past two years, especially the recent news that he was unwilling to go to Shanghai and chose to go to the difficult Guangxi Province. Everyone would give a thumbs up.

"Brother Dayong, you will know its use when we get there." Wang Mengde smiled mysteriously.

These Chinese herbal medicines were prepared by him a few days ago.

In his previous life, every time he went to Guangxi Province from the north, he felt very uncomfortable and the memory was particularly vivid, so he prepared medicine in advance before leaving.

Seeing that he was unwilling to say, Qian Dayong didn't care. He would know when he got there anyway, so a few days wouldn't matter.

"By the way, Meng De, have you heard about what happened to Deputy Director Xia of your Internal Medicine Department recently? He has been in a bad mood and has a sullen look every time he sees him. He even had an accident while treating a patient."

After packing up his things and sitting on the lower bunk, Qian Dayong suddenly remembered what had happened in the research institute recently and said with a smile.

"I heard about it." Wang Mengde said with a smile.

Of course Wang Mengde knew the whole story of this matter very well, after all, he was the instigator.

Ever since he cheated him, Xia Yiqing's support location was moved by President Lu from a county in Jiangsu Province to a remote mountainous area in Gan Province.

On the first day he learned the news, he found an excuse in his office, lost his temper at his students, and gave them a severe scolding to vent his anger.

From then on, there was no smile on his face, and he became extremely harsh towards his students, scolding them if they were not satisfied with him even a little.

When he was seeing patients at Guang'anmen Hospital, he was also absent-minded. Two days ago, when he was treating a patient, he actually used the wrong medicine.

After the patient returned home and took the medicine, he soon began to vomit and have diarrhea. When he was sent to Guang'anmen Hospital, he was in shock and coma. Xia Yiqing was so scared that he didn't know what to do.

It was Pu Lao who heard about the situation and rushed over in time. He used acupuncture to wake the patient up. Pu Lao urgently prescribed a medicine and gave it to the patient to drink, which saved the patient.

Because of this incident, Xia Yiqing almost lost his position as deputy director.

"I have a piece of gossip here, which was spread by one of Deputy Director Xia's students." Zhu Tao, a junior of Qian Dayong, also said with a smile:

"It is said that Deputy Director Xia pretended to ask Vice President Shi to change the place of support. He originally intended to go through the motions to gain fame, but he did not expect that Vice President Shi and President Lu took it seriously and directly transferred him to the mountainous area.

That’s why he’s been in such a bad mood recently. In my opinion, this kind of person is shameless and a mean person.”

"That's right, villain, you say one thing and mean another."

"Yes, it's shameless."

When the other people heard that this was the reason, they all spoke out indignantly.

Seeing that they were discussing so lively, Wang Mengde did not go over. Instead, he picked up a medical book from the bedside and started flipping through it.

The train stopped and started along the way, occasionally stopping at a platform to refill water and coal.

In addition, the trains in that era were very slow, so they had to wait for three days before they finally arrived in Changsha, Hunan Province.

Without leaving the station, Wang Mengde and several others, carrying large and small bags, changed to another train directly on the platform under the guidance of the staff.

When we boarded the train to Guangxi Province, a large number of medical staff were missing from the train. Those who left were the team going to Hunan Province for support.

The train swayed as it moved forward. Everyone was accustomed to the high mountains on both sides of the road. Except for Wang Mengde, everyone else looked exhausted.

Although they were riding in sleeper berths during the journey, they still felt as if their bodies were falling apart.

It took nearly another day before the train stopped in Guibei County.

They finally arrived at their destination.

After getting off the bus, more than 200 people followed the staff from Guibei County and walked towards the guesthouse in the county town.

Of course, there were definitely not enough rooms in the guesthouse, so some people had to sleep on the floor in their fellow villagers' homes.

They arrived relatively late. Some support teams from northern provinces had already arrived in various villages and towns a day or two ago.

There were many local residents on both sides of the road, listening to the language that they couldn't understand at all. Qian Dayong looked confused and said to Wang Mengde: "Mengde, do you know what they are saying?"

Shaking his head, Wang Mengde basically could not understand the local dialect even though he had been here many times.

Moreover, many people here know more than one dialect.

In his previous life, the town where his wife's family lived had its own dialect, which was quite different from that of the county town and other towns.

Not far behind the two of them, Gao Yuze looked at Wang Mengde's back with hatred from time to time.

Ever since that seminar, he had become an object of disgust in Wei Chenggong's eyes.

For a long time afterwards, they ignored him. If it weren't for their face, they would have wanted to send him back to the Red Star Steel Mill.

This time of support, Wei Chenggong sent him directly to the most difficult place in Guangxi Province without his consent, under the pretext of training him.

He did not dare to show the slightest dissatisfaction towards his teacher Wei Chenggong on his face. On the contrary, he was always respectful.

In front of others, he always speaks well of his teacher.

Of course, he must have been full of complaints in his heart, secretly cursing Wei Chenggong and Wang Mengde every day. If he wasn't afraid of being discovered, he would have wanted to make two paper figures at home.

I didn't expect that enemies would meet on a narrow road, and this time I was assigned to the same place as my enemy.

Thinking of some of Wang Mengde's deeds that he had read in the newspaper some time ago, Gao Yuze recalled his own experience, which was entirely caused by the other party, and his heart was full of resentment.

Wang Mengde naturally also saw this old acquaintance, but he didn't care. The two of them were no longer on the same level, the gap was too big.

When they arrived at the guesthouse, the six people from their institute lived in a room without a bed. They spread the bedding on the floor and wiped the sweat from their heads. The weather here was much hotter than in Beijing.

After a day of rest in the county seat of Guibei County, the group was divided into nine teams. Except for one group of people left in the county seat, the remaining eight teams were divided into eight towns.

morning.

On the way to Wenqiao Township, three horse-drawn carriages were carrying everyone's luggage. More than 20 medical staff, including Wang Mengde, followed on foot behind Hu Danian, a township staff member and their translator.

Wenqiao Township is located in the northern part of Guibei County. Not far away on both sides of the road are continuous small hills. At the foot of the hills, there are a few low houses from time to time.

Farther away, the mountains began to rise higher and higher.

They seemed to be surrounded by mountains. When they looked up, there was nothing but the sky and green mountains.

We walked along the winding road for a whole morning with the sun shining brightly overhead. We were all hot and tired. Fortunately, Hu Danian was experienced and asked everyone to bring straw hats or bamboo hats and enough water, which allowed everyone to barely hold on.

After walking for a while, Wenqiao Township was not far ahead.

Hearing that they were almost there, everyone perked up.

After taking a sip of water, Qian Dayong wrung out the towel, wiped the sweat off his neck and forehead, raised his head and glanced to the left, and asked curiously, "Uncle Hu, is there anyone climbing up the mountain over there?"

Hu Danian looked in the direction of his finger and explained in unstandard Mandarin: "Oh, someone died in the nearby village, and they want to bury him on the mountain."

"Ah? It's so dangerous for so many people to climb up such a steep mountain?" Qian Dayong was stunned.

Everyone else, except the three people driving the coach, Hu Danian and Wang Mengde, looked at the steep hill on the left with shock.

Although the mountain is not high, estimated to be only a few dozen meters, most of the mountain is rocky, and there are not many plants. The lower part is relatively flat, but the upper part, about ten meters away from the top of the mountain, is almost vertical.

I saw more than a dozen people climbing up with their bare hands, and some had already reached the top of the mountain.

"Haha, this is the custom here. The deceased must be buried in the mountains. Steep places are not a problem for them. Of course, not all families choose such steep places. Most of them prefer gentle mountains."

Hu Danian said cheerfully.

"Every year during Qingming Festival and Chinese New Year, many younger generations come to pay homage to the deceased, and most families basically go to two places every time.

During the Qingming Festival this year, I climbed two hills and burned paper money for my grandparents. "

Everyone was confused after hearing this and looked at each other, their hearts full of doubts.

Hu Danian knew their confusion, so he smiled and explained:
"Some customs here are different from those in the north, or in most parts of the country. For example, when a couple dies, they are not buried together, but buried separately in different places."

After hearing his words, everyone suddenly realized that this was the custom here.

"Comrades, when we get along with the locals in our work and life in the future, we must be careful not to break any taboos."

Wang Mengde instructed.

When he first came here in his previous life, he was also amazed by many of the local customs and habits.

We chatted and laughed all the way and soon arrived at Wenqiao Township.

Accommodation had been arranged in advance, in a guesthouse in town.

After a simple lunch at noon, Wang Mengde borrowed a medicine pot from the staff and began to cook the Chinese medicine he brought in the kitchen of the town’s guesthouse.

In less than half an hour, a large pot of medicine was cooked. Then he called Qian Dayong and four others to bring their lunch boxes, and each of them poured about half a bowl of medicine.

After drinking it, Zhu Tao, who was young, could not hide his thoughts, so he could not help asking, "Brother Wang, is this medicine effective against schistosomiasis?"

The others also pricked up their ears and looked at Wang Mengde.

"No, this is a laxative."

Wang Mengde also drank the medicine, then no longer concealed it and said with a smile.

"Ah? Why do we need to take laxatives? We are all normal. We went to the toilet the day before yesterday and it was smooth." Qian Dayong asked.

“Haha, you were doing very well the day before yesterday, but you felt uncomfortable yesterday, and starting from today, things may get even worse in the next week.

The distance from Beijing to Guangxi Province is about 2,000 kilometers. The climate, soil and water have changed so much that if I don’t take medicine, I will not be able to defecate for at least a week.

Think about it, what would it feel like if you couldn’t poop for a week? "

Wang Mengde said with a smile.

In his previous life, every time he went back to Guibei County, he would suffer from constipation for a week. Not only him, but also his daughter-in-law, a local, was the same.

"Really? Meng De is really thoughtful. Otherwise, we would have been miserable for at least a week."

After thinking about it for a while, Qian Dayong showed an expression of admiration on his face and said with a smile.

In the afternoon, after resting for a while, a few people were bored and decided to go for a walk outside.

Wang Mengde didn't want to go at first and was planning to read a book in the guesthouse, but Qian Dayong and Zhu Tao persuaded him so much that he had no choice but to put down his book and go with them.

Although Wenqiao Township is a township, it is much smaller than the townships in the north. It has only two main streets, one horizontal and one vertical, forming a cross shape.

After walking for a few minutes, the six people were out of the main street. Following his memory, Wang Mengde involuntarily walked towards the northwest.

There is a village over there, which is the hometown of his wife in his previous life.

When he arrived outside the village, he looked at the surrounding environment and the layout of the village. There were many differences from when he came here in his previous life, but there were also some iconic things that he recognized at a glance.

For example, there is a pond surrounded by people.

Before they got close, they heard two groups of people arguing fiercely in the crowd.

(End of this chapter)