Reborn in 1977

Chapter 282: Return Gift

Chen Fan followed Doctor Lu to the inpatient department and immediately smelled a strong medicinal odor.

It wasn't the disinfectant smell of hospitals in later generations, but the mixed scent of different Chinese medicines.

Doctor Lu didn't explain much to him. After arriving, he went to find the nurse on duty and inspected the patients with their charts.

The nurse, however, was pleasantly surprised by Chen Fan's arrival and chattered softly beside him.

"This one is from the cement factory. He twisted his ankle while carrying things and suffered a direct fracture."

"This one is from the Red Star Brigade. He got schistosomiasis. This disease is incurable in the late stages; medicine can only delay it. But he doesn't want to die, so he's been lying here. There's nothing else to do."

"This one is from the White Wave Lake Brigade. He fell into the water while fishing, but he had bad luck. He fell through a crack in the boat and broke four ribs. The barefoot doctor in the brigade couldn't handle it, so he had to be sent here."

"This one is…"

While listening to her introduce the conditions, Chen Fan took the patients' pulses at Doctor Lu's suggestion, combined with reviewing the medical records, and soon had a good understanding.

Although there weren't many patients here, only a dozen, their conditions were quite complex. Unlike decades later, where more than a hundred people sitting in the outpatient clinic all had colds and coughs, many diseases common in this era were nipped in the bud.

And the most common diseases in this era, besides some infectious diseases, were hepatitis and gastritis, followed by various injuries.

There were broken legs, broken arms, and heads that had been smashed.

Chen Fan walked around the inpatient department, and excluding the repeated cases, he collected pulse readings for eight kinds of diseases at once, from injuries to illnesses. Combined with the thirty-odd people he had seen in the morning, he already had some preliminary understanding of pulse diagnosis.

After Doctor Lu inspected all the patients, he waved at Chen Fan, signaling him to follow, and walked out.

Once out of the inpatient department, he asked softly, "How do you feel?"

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "Not bad. I learned more than a dozen pulse readings today. It was quite rewarding."

Doctor Lu came to his senses and looked at him in surprise, "Learned more than a dozen pulse readings? You've mastered all the pulse readings you encountered today?"

Chen Fan grinned, "Uh, I guess so."

Doctor Lu pondered for two seconds, then directly extended his hand, "Take a look at me."

Chen Fan placed his fingers on it. His first reaction was shortness of breath and a weak pulse, then he realized that Doctor Lu was over 80 years old, so shortness of breath and a weak pulse were normal.

Then he explored again, and after a while, he suddenly felt something. He turned to look at Doctor Lu and said in surprise, "Your liver and kidneys seem to have some problems."

Doctor Lu looked at him with a strange expression, not saying whether he was right or wrong, and walked forward slowly with his hands behind his back.

Chen Fan raised his eyebrows and followed slowly behind.

It wasn't until he was about to walk into the outpatient department that Doctor Lu turned around and said, "Besides pulse diagnosis and acupuncture, would you like to learn something else?"

Chen Fan's eyes flickered slightly, "What?"

Doctor Lu smiled, "Tui na and bone setting."

Chen Fan immediately beamed with joy, "Yes, please."

Traditional Chinese medicine is also divided into departments, and they are divided very finely, including internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics, acupuncture, tui na, rehabilitation, etc.

Chen Fan couldn't possibly learn all those subjects. He only needed to understand the general things and master some basic skills, so that he could improve himself by reading books.

And the most basic skills were pulse diagnosis, acupuncture, trauma treatment, tui na, and bone setting.

He already knew how to treat trauma.

Ahem, although he learned it from a veterinarian, trauma medicine is similar in many places. Bandaging wounds for people and bandaging them for horses is not much different. Didn't he treat Jiang Lili very well?

So he only needed to learn the other four.

Originally, Fourth Master arranged for him to learn pulse diagnosis and acupuncture from Doctor Lu, and he was wondering where to learn tui na and bone setting, but he didn't expect Doctor Lu to have it here. That was really a coincidence.

Seeing Chen Fan's face full of surprise, Doctor Lu smiled and said, "Don't misunderstand. It's not that I know tui na and bone setting. It's another doctor in the hospital named Dong Qingzheng, who is the hospital's orthopedic doctor. I can only take you to see him. Whether he teaches you or not depends on him."

Chen Fan said "Oh" and didn't care. He nodded with a smile and said, "In any case, I still want to thank you."

Doctor Lu smiled and continued walking forward.

Soon he arrived at the orthopedic clinic. An old doctor in his sixties was pulling on a person's arm. When he saw Doctor Lu coming in, he immediately smiled and said, "You're here."

The patient instinctively looked in the direction of his gaze.

At this moment, Doctor Dong suddenly flicked his hand, and there was a cracking sound. The patient cried out in pain, "It hurts."

Then he quickly pulled his hand back, twisting his right arm. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly reacted, stood up, and moved his arm, "Hey? Hey? Is it better already?"

Doctor Dong picked up a pen and wrote a prescription, saying without looking up, "It's not completely better yet. I'll prescribe two plasters for you. Apply one a day, and you'll be completely healed after two plasters."

Then he tore off the prepared prescription from a whole sheet of paper and handed it to him, "Okay, go get the medicine. No need to come back for a follow-up."

The man took the prescription and left happily.

It wasn't until this time that Doctor Lu pointed to Chen Fan and said, "His name is Chen Fan. Fourth Master introduced him to learn pulse diagnosis and acupuncture from me."

When Doctor Dong heard this, he immediately stood up and looked at Chen Fan in surprise, "I've heard of Teacher Chen's reputation, but I didn't expect him to have a relationship with Fourth Master?"

Chen Fan bowed slightly and smiled, "I learned to write from Fourth Master, and the basics of medicine were also learned from Fourth Master."

At this time, Doctor Lu said, "You just need to know it yourself, don't spread it outside."

Doctor Dong immediately laughed and said, "Then definitely not, I understand Fourth Master's situation."

Doctor Lu looked at Chen Fan again and said to Doctor Dong, "Little Chen has good talent. He learned basic pulse diagnosis from me in just one morning…"

Before he could finish speaking, Doctor Dong widened his eyes, "No way?"

Doctor Lu smiled and continued, "He has already memorized 'Binhu Pulse Studies,' but he is not familiar with pulse diagnosis. As long as he feels the pulse and I tell him what kind of pulse it is, then compares it with the records in the book, he learns quickly."

Doctor Dong was still somewhat incredulous, looking at Chen Fan, who was standing aside with a smile, and couldn't help but shake his head, "That's too fast."

Doctor Lu didn't respond to his words, and said directly, "I think he has good talent, so I recommended him to you to learn massage and bone setting."

After a pause, he added, "Of course, whether you accept him or not is up to you, especially don't let it interfere with your work."

Doctor Dong knew what he meant as soon as he heard it. Only teaching massage and bone setting meant not involving any unique secrets, just teaching some ordinary things, which would be considered a nominal disciple, or even not a nominal disciple at all.

In that case, there was no need to consider it much.

He smiled and nodded, "Since it's someone recommended by Fourth Master, and you personally brought him here, how could I not teach him?"

Then he looked at Chen Fan and said, "Except for Sundays, I usually work here. If I'm not here, I'm checking beds in the inpatient department in the back. You can come and find me directly when you have time."

Chen Fan rubbed his hands and grinned, "I have time today."

Doctor Dong didn't hesitate and immediately nodded, "Okay, then you can follow me and watch now."

Thus, Chen Fan transferred from internal medicine to orthopedics.

… …

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.

April had ended, and it was now May 1st.

This day was the first market day after the Nanhugong Commune officially restored the agricultural trade market.

In the educated youth compound, Master Liu appeared again with his cart.

He and Chen Fan sat together on the chairs under the eaves, watching the four girls lift one bamboo basket after another onto the flatbed cart. Inside the baskets were stacks of bundled bowls and plates, which were what they were going to sell today.

Master Liu smoked his pipe, looked at the baskets on the mule cart, and asked, "Why aren't you going today?"

Chen Fan crossed his legs, listening to Zhang Cuie's voice coming from the loudspeaker in the village ahead. Hearing that there were no mistakes, he smiled and said, "It's enough to go and see twice. Anyway, there's nothing to buy, and as for selling goods, Yang Ju and the other two are enough."

That's right, this time only Yang Ju and the other two went, not even Jiang Lili.

From the last market day to now, nearly forty days had passed. During this time, in addition to firing some bricks and pottery shards for building houses, as well as squatting toilets ordered by others, Jiang Lili and the others made several pottery tableware sets almost every day, preparing to sell them at the next market.

Accumulated over these days, there were more than 100 sets. After the news of the restoration of the agricultural trade market was announced last time, they gradually bundled these pottery tableware sets with straw, and then put them in bamboo baskets, making exactly 100 sets, waiting to be pulled to the market today.

Chen Fan's only role in it was firing the kiln. Even applying the glaze was done by Jiang Lili and the other four together. He originally thought of giving up a few more points of profit, because in his opinion, he only threw some firewood and lit a fire, and he was going to take 60%, which was a bit of an advantage.

He couldn't do things that took advantage of girls.

As a result, as soon as he started, all four of them resolutely opposed it.

Yang Ju even brought out her father, Captain Yang, saying that even 40% was too much for them, because Chen Fan was the "master craftsman", and they were at most helping hands. If it were in an external industrial kiln, they would only be qualified to get the wages of a handyman, the kind who worked from morning till night, 1 yuan a day, not a penny more, let alone a bonus.

In the end, both sides took a step back, and the 40% remained unchanged. The only change was that, as agreed last time, the money from the sales would no longer be distributed equally, but according to the quantity produced by each person.

As a result, the number of the four people in this batch of 100 sets of pottery was exactly the same.

Last time, Yang Ju and the others were not familiar with it, so Jiang Lili took the lead the most. Now that their proficiency had caught up, the number of pottery blanks they made was not much different. After removing a dozen or so sets that were not brought along, it was still the same as last time, calculating an average number.

In addition, when they learned that Chen Fan was not going to the market, Jiang Lili also stayed behind on the grounds that her foot injury had just healed, and Huang Ying and the others volunteered to pull the pottery to the market to sell.

Now they were preparing to set off.

Soon the baskets were loaded onto the cart, Master Liu threw away his cigarette butt, stood up and waved his hand, and drove the mule cart away. Yang Ju and the three followed behind in the donkey cart, swaying out of the courtyard gate.

After they had all gone far away, Jiang Lili turned to look at Chen Fan and suddenly smiled.

Chen Fan looked at her, "What are you laughing at?"

Jiang Lili pursed her lips, "It's nothing."

Indeed, it was nothing, just wanted to laugh.

Chen Fan also chuckled twice, then waved, "Come here, I have something for you."

Jiang Lili looked back at the open courtyard door, quickly stepped forward and followed, and asked in a low voice, "What is it?"

Chen Fan returned to his room, turned around and waved to her again, "Come in."

Jiang Lili pursed her lips and puffed out her cheeks, and without hesitation, walked straight in.

When she got inside the room, she saw Chen Fan take out a small cloth bag from the innermost cabinet, bring it over and hand it to her, "It's for you."

Jiang Lili was stunned, "What is this?"

As she spoke, she had already taken it in her hand, opened it and saw that it was two belts.

The leather was crocodile skin, and the buckles were exquisite copper. She recognized at a glance that it was what Chen Fan had made himself with a charcoal stove and tools the day before yesterday.

She raised her head and looked at Chen Fan in surprise, "Why, why did you suddenly give me this?"

Chen Fan smiled, "You helped me transcribe the manuscript, of course I have to return the favor."