Chapter 378: New Year Gifts and Changes in Traditional Chinese Medicine

The day before New Year's Day happened to be Sunday.

Therefore, the two days of vacation were combined into one.

It is now the twelfth month of the lunar calendar and the weather is getting colder.

The eaves of the courtyard were covered with icicles. Led by Wang Yuandi and Wang Yuanxun, several half-grown children in the courtyard were holding bamboo poles and knocking down the weapons from under the eaves one by one.

In each child's hand, there were one or two 'spears' several dozen centimeters long.

Especially little Shazhu, who brought his younger brother together and held several sticks in his arms, and didn't feel cold at all.

"Be careful and don't stand underneath when it's knocking."

Wang Mengde came out of the house pushing his bicycle. He took a look and gave instructions loudly.

When he was a child, at his grandparents' house in the countryside, he often pestered his cousin to help him play with icicles.

Several children, their hands red from the cold, were playing the "war" game, holding two transparent and shiny "spears".

"I know dad."

"I understand, Uncle Mengde."

"Master Mengde, we will be careful."

Six or seven children answered in unison.

In the yard, Wang Mengde gave them candies and rare snacks when he passed by, although not much each time, only one or two.

But it can also make them happy for the whole day, so every child listens to him.

"Okay, go and have fun. I'll give you some candy in a few days."

Seeing that they were indeed more cautious, Wang Mengde said with a smile.

After saying that, he pushed his bicycle out of the yard.

As soon as I walked out of the yard, I met Sha Zhu who was coming back from the toilet.

"Meng De, where are you going? You are carrying so many things."

Seeing that there were large and small bags of things on the back seat and handlebars of his bicycle, Sha Zhu asked curiously.

"Shazhu, I'm going back to Tiangezhuang to visit my grandparents. It's almost Chinese New Year, so I'll bring some New Year gifts back."

Wang Mengde explained in a low voice.

This year's Chinese New Year is several days earlier than in previous years. Today is the first day of the twelfth lunar month, and New Year's Eve is only the end of January in the Gregorian calendar.

"It's so early! There's still nearly a month left."

"Hey, isn't it that the weather is too cold this year? It snowed so heavily a while ago, and it is said that there will be a heavy snowstorm in a few days.

I have to prepare New Year's goods for them in advance to prevent a snowstorm before the New Year, which would make it impossible for them to go there. "

“Yes, the weather this year is really weird. It feels a lot colder than previous years. I put on the big cotton-padded jacket I just made last year, but I still feel very cold outside.

Alas, the ration of coal briquettes is still the same as last year. Maybe there won’t be enough for burning.

By the way, Mengde, when we run out of coal briquettes at home, I will need to borrow 100 kilograms from you first."

Sha Zhu said with a frown.

The number of coal briquettes that can be purchased each month is fixed, and you need to bring a coal briquettes ticket to buy them.

During the winter days, the stove at home is burned 24 hours a day, and several coal briquettes are needed every day.

The weather is colder this year, especially at night. The quilts on the bed are of little use and a bigger fire is needed.

"Okay, we still have two or three hundred kilograms of briquettes that we don't need. If you need them, come to me."

Wang Mengde agreed readily.

Their family doesn't spend much time living in the courtyard, especially in winter. They spend most of their time living in the house allocated by their unit in Guang'anmen.

There is heating over there, and coal briquettes are only used when cooking.

Moreover, at the beginning of winter, the Chinese Medical Research Institute specially contacted relevant units and distributed 200 kilograms of coal briquettes tickets to each employee's family.

This benefit makes all employees grateful to Wang Mengde.

This winter, my family finally doesn’t have to shiver in the cold winter nights just to save some coal briquettes.

Although most of them live in staff buildings with heating, many of them have parents, brothers and sisters living in old houses who are in urgent need of these.

“I’m so envious of your company for providing housing to all employees.

Our steel rolling mill has been in a mess because of Director Li, who said he wanted to build a staff building as well.

But I heard that the first batch will only be two or three hundred units, and priority will be given to married families who have no houses and live in employee dormitories.

For people like me who have two houses, I don’t know when I’ll have my turn.”

Sha Zhu said with both envy and dissatisfaction.

There are tens of thousands of employees in the steel rolling mill, and in the staff dormitories alone, there are thousands of homeless workers living there.

Moreover, many of these people are married. It will take at least several years for them to be assigned to the staff building at the current construction speed.

Next, there was a large group of employees whose families had housing shortages waiting in line, many of whom had several families living in one room.

It is very rare for a family like Sha Zhu's to have two houses, one of which is the main house in the courtyard.

Moreover, the deaf old lady said that after she died, the house would be given to Sha Zhu.

In addition, after Yi Zhonghai and his wife clearly expressed the same idea, their family now had four houses.

If he wants to get a share of the house, it will take at least 20 to 30 years before he has even a slight chance.

"Silly Zhu, you will definitely have four houses in the future and you are still not satisfied.

There are only two children in your family, so even if you have two more in the future, there will be just enough for each of them to have a room."

Wang Mengde joked with a smile.

When talking about having two more children, Sha Zhu instantly perked up. He smiled foolishly and said:

"You know what, I really plan to have two more children, at least one more than Xu Damao."

Before he could finish his words, he burst into laughter.

Every time he thought of his archenemy helping others, he felt very happy.

Xu Damao's life is not easy now. Not only has he lost his job, but he is also scolded like a grandson by Widow Meng every day, and occasionally beaten up.

Not only that, they also had to follow Yan Jiefang and a few others to do odd jobs. Not only was the salary they received not much, but they also had to hand it all over.

At the same time, He Daqing came back once every half a month and even flirted with Widow Meng in front of him.

I saw him two days ago. He was as thin as a monkey and his spirit was almost tortured to the point of being abnormal.

The two chatted for a while, and felt that they were almost frozen, so Sha Zhu said:

"Meng De, I won't waste your time.

By the way, I want two more bottles of the 'Palace Emperor Pills'. Hehehe, when you come back, I'll treat you to a meal. Just tell me what you want to eat."

Every time Wang Mengde gave him a few bottles of 'Palace Emperor Pills', he would give part of it to his father He Daqing, and the rest was only enough for a few days.

The difference between taking medicine and not taking medicine is huge.

As the saying goes, it is easy to change from frugality to luxury, and it is difficult to change from luxury to frugality.

After eating the best meal, the steamed bun in your hand will no longer taste good.

"Okay, I'll give you two more bottles when I come back."

Wang Mengde readily agreed. He still had thousands of bottles of the medicine "Palace Emperor Pill" in his space.

Although they are all defective products with irregular shapes, their medicinal efficacy is not inferior at all.

These were what he occasionally brought back from the pharmaceutical factory.

In addition to some expenses for Fatty Guo and his son, Liang Mancang, Dai Botao, father-in-law, Sha Zhu and his son and others.

Also, many of his friends occasionally ask for some.

Two hours later.

Wang Mengde got off the bus.

He had a large package on his back and several smaller packages on his shoulders and hands.

Fortunately, he is tall, otherwise he would be "drowned" in the package.

It took some time before we finally arrived at Tiangezhuang.

Due to the cold weather, there was not much work to do in the fields, so the social workers gathered in the brigade headquarters to do some chores and earn some work points.

As for the village, not many people came out.

After entering the yard, they heard some noise outside and the wooden door was opened a crack. Qin Jingru leaned in through the crack and looked out. When she found that it was Wang Mengde, she quickly opened the door and said happily:

"Cousin, you are here, come in and warm up."

In the middle of the living room, there was a broken iron basin with a burning tree root inside, emitting heat and a faint scent of sweet potatoes.

Wang Jinghui and Wang Tianshi, wearing thick cotton-padded jackets and cotton-padded trousers, sat around the brazier.

"Grandpa and grandma, I'm here to see you."

Wang Mengde put the package on the ground and said with a smile.

"Meng De, it's so cold, why are you here?

Come back when it’s warmer. Your grandfather and I are in good health and have enough food and drink. You don’t have to come back every few days.”

Wang Tian looked at Wang Mengde and kept complaining.

As he spoke, he stood up, picked up a porcelain bowl, poured a bowl of hot water into his hand and handed it to him: "Come and sit down, drink another bowl of hot water to warm yourself up."

"Grandma, I'm wearing thick clothes, so I'm not cold."

Wang Mengde smiled and brought hot water, then sat in front of her and said.

"It's freezing outside, and this year is much colder than the previous two years.

Several elderly people in the neighboring village didn’t make it. Fortunately, your grandfather and I had the cotton-padded clothes, quilts, and nutritional supplements you sent us, otherwise...”

Wang Tian took his hand and said with narrowed eyes.

In this era, conditions are not good, and every winter many elderly people cannot survive.

Watching her familiar peers pass away one by one, she felt deeply moved.

If it weren't for her grandson's ability, she and the old man would probably have been gone years ago.

But now I have no regrets. I have many children and grandchildren, and each of them has a stable job. I even have a very promising grandson. I am satisfied with my life.

"Grandma, you and Grandpa are in good health. With me here, it will be easy for you to live a hundred years."

Wang Mengde said seriously.

As long as nothing unexpected happens, with the supplies he brought back and the supplements from those pills, it will be no problem for him to live another ten or eight years, even twenty years is possible.

Liang Mancang would send him some precious medicinal herbs from the Northeast every year.

Using these herbs, he improved the prescription and made the pills even more powerful.

"I don't need to live a hundred years, but I will be satisfied if I can see Yuan Chao and Wei Guo get married."

Wang Tian shook her head and glanced at the package on the ground, very curious: "By the way, what did you bring here? Why are there so many things?"

"Grandma, this big package contains cotton and cotton cloth. The weather is cold this year, so I'll keep it for you to make two extra quilts.

There are also white flour, beef, mutton, cakes and so on. I’m afraid that there will be heavy snow in a few days and the roads will be blocked before the New Year, so I’ll send you some New Year goods in advance.

Oh, and here are some fresh vegetables for you to try and change your taste.”

Wang Mengde explained with a smile:
"Jingru, take out all the things and put them away. Make sure nothing else is crushed."

"Hey, thank you cousin, I'll take a look."

Beside her, Qin Jingru said happily.

Then he quickly began to take out things from several packages.

Looking at these good things, especially the greasy pork fat weighing more than ten pounds, she felt very happy. She thought this year would be another fat year.

Wang Jinghui and Wang Tianshi were no longer surprised by the many good things that Wang Mengde brought back.

They didn't say anything like 'Don't take it here, leave it at home and eat it', because they had been to their youngest son's house before and knew that there must be a lot of these things left in the city.

After chatting with his grandparents for more than half an hour, Wang Mengde walked out and went straight to the health room.

He planned to talk to Zhou Xiaoli to see if he could get any inspiration.

As soon as I arrived at the door of the health room, I heard the heart-wrenching cry of a child coming from inside.

When I went inside, I saw Zhou Xiaoli holding a thick glass syringe in one hand and a pair of tweezers in the other, and he was picking up a steel needle from a white disk.

Next to them, three adults were pressing a child down on a chair.

The child turned his head and saw the thick needle. A look of great fear appeared on his face and he kept struggling.

He was crying and begging for mercy.

The three adults' foreheads were almost sweaty before they managed to hold the child down.

Seeing this scene, Wang Mengde felt very familiar.

past life.

When he was a child, he lived in the countryside for a period of time. When he was sick and went to the village clinic, he was held down by several people and given an injection in the buttocks.

After the injection, I was limping and in pain for several days.

A few minutes later, after the parents left with their crying children, Zhou Xiaoli finally had time to say hello to Wang Mengde.

"Brother Mengde, you are here."

"Xiao Li, how are you? Are you busy recently? If you are too busy, take an apprentice."

"Brother Meng De, I'm not very busy recently. Let's talk about taking on an apprentice later. I'm still a novice now, and I don't know how to treat many of my colds."

"Don't be in a hurry, learn slowly, experience is accumulated bit by bit."

At that time, there were no patients in the clinic, so the two of them sat in the room and chatted.

Wang Mengde did not ask any specific questions, but chatted casually like a friend.

As we chatted, we talked about the situation of the health center in the past two years.

“Brother Meng De, before, I thought some Western medicines were very convenient. As long as I knew what disease the patient had, I could just take a few pills or give him an injection in the buttocks.

However, TCM's treatment methods require dialectical analysis, prescriptions and Chinese medicine. The patient also has to boil the medicine after returning home, which is very inconvenient.

The situation has improved a lot in the past two years, and gradually, many Chinese patent medicines have appeared. "

Zhou Xiaoli talked about the changes he had felt in the past two years.

(End of this chapter)