Chapter 18 — Her Road Is Still Long

Tiet To Man tore a piece of paper from my registration book. Fold it in half twice. Tuck it into your chest.

“I need to use this remedy.”

“What remedy?”

“The cure for people without conscience.”

After speaking, she turned around and left. I continued to explain to A Cam about the veins. She learns slowly. But remember very firmly. Life just goes by. Examination of patients. Teach A Cam to recognize medicinal herbs. Bargain with drug merchants. Sometimes in the middle of the night I'm woken up by a knock on the door. Quickly put on a shirt and go out. By the time we returned, it was already morning. There was a time when I had to go to hospital in the middle of the night. It's the Luu judge who sells tofu at the end of the street and has trouble giving birth. Her man knelt outside the door and cried without a sound. Say the midwife said it wasn't okay. I follow. Tell the midwife to hold the woman's abdomen tightly. And I struggled to the point of sweating. The baby did not cry when he was born. Pat your back twice. It just made a really loud sound. Later, Judge Liu held the baby who was just one month old to thank me. The child is wrinkled. Looks like a little monkey. The judge told me to name it.

“Call me Thuan ca Nhi.”

Pros and cons, favorable and favorable... The news about Tham Thanh Tu was accidentally heard from the mouth of a patient. That patient came from the capital. It is said that the eldest son of Tham residence has not yet married. In the court, someone mentioned that story. He only answered one question:

“I don't mind your worries.”

The patient lowers his voice. One more sentence added.

“Some people say he was spoiled by love.”

“I don't know if it's real or fake.”

I just checked my pulse. Even my eyelids didn't bother to lift.

“The statue's veins are slightly waxy.”

“The liver and qi are stagnant.”

“There should be an opening, not a deadlock.”

“This remedy takes five doses.”

After that person leaves. We put the medicine on the corner of the examination table. It started to rain outside. Raindrops fell on the metal roof of the pharmacy. Emitting constant popping, popping, popping sounds. A Cam was standing in front of the medicine cabinet and dozing off. The little head kept nodding up and down. We sit a while longer. Then get up and close the window. When the window is closed, it's convenient to look outside. The alley was deserted. Rainwater flows along the base of the wall into the underground drainage ditch. Stories of past lives. Like an illness. People who have never had the disease will not understand how painful it is. People who have had it before don't want to talk about it anymore. But Tham Thanh Tu. He is the cause of that disease. But not the antidote. He never married his whole life. It's his story. It has nothing to do with me. From then on. I rarely miss the Tham mansion anymore. Sometimes I remember it. I only remember the sound of my grandmother's cane tapping on the tile floor.

“Cop” sound.

The favor I owe you. I'm afraid I can't pay it back in this life. Let's wait until the next life. On the contrary, Tham Quy Bach's letters were never interrupted. Every year he sends two pictures. Not much. Not a lot. In the envelope, sometimes there is a dried flower. Sometimes, I clip a sheet of prescriptions. Flowers are picked from many different places. There are sea buckthorn flowers of Tai Bac. There are osmanthus flowers of Linh Nam. There are flowers from Xuyen Tay region. As for the other remedies, he wrote them down while searching everywhere for famous doctors. Among them are some folk remedies that are indeed very useful. There is a cure for bowing Infertility in women. I used it in Doan Chau for two years. The effectiveness is much better than that of popular contemporary remedies. The content of his letters is always very short. Just write where he is. Who have you met? Try something you've never seen before. He once wrote:

“The navigator in Thuc is much spicier than the capital.”

“It was so spicy that I had to drink three pots of tea at once.”

On the corner of the paper was a string of dried navigators. Again wrote:

“Burma's climate is hot and humid.”

“The miasma is very severe.”

“If Miss Tiet goes there to pick medicine, remember to bring medicine to prevent bad breath.”

“So does she.”

Those four words. From beginning to end, nothing has changed. Tiet To Van once told me:

“Do you understand what this means?”

“Peace means everything is good with us.”

"Don't remember means I'm afraid you'll remember me."

“What happens after that?”