CHAPTER 142: 142 A BOWL OF DIVINE WATER

Liang Limin rushed into the house and yelled, "Hurry up and get me some money!"

As he spoke, he had already run to the tricycle, started it up in a couple of tries, snatched the money from his baffled wife, and was about to drive off.

This completely bewildered his wife. "What’s wrong with you? Where are you going in such a frantic rush?"

Liang Limin sighed. "The lead ram in the pen knocked Ma down into the lower field."

His wife was startled and quickly asked, "Is he alright?"

"He was knocked unconscious from the fall and won’t wake up," he replied.

"Then hurry and take him to the hospital!"

As his wife spoke, she scrambled to open the main gate.

Liang Limin wasted no more words and started to drive the tricycle out, its engine PUTT-PUTT-PUTTING, but he was stopped by his mother, who was standing at the entrance of the main hall. "What’s all the panic? Slow down."

Before Liang Limin could say anything, she walked out the door.

「 」

At this time, Du Ping was also calling Du Heng, and Du Heng, on the other end of the line, broke into a cold sweat when he heard the news.

After hearing what his Big brother and Liang Limin had done, he truly felt it was a case of ignorance breeds fearlessness. A five- or six-meter drop wasn’t that high. If someone jumped, a light fall might result in nothing serious. A harder fall might twist an ankle, and an even harder one could mean a lower leg fracture. But those were all external injuries, not life-threatening. However, according to his Big brother, Ma had fallen backward. This was troublesome. Falling backward meant landing either headfirst or on his back. If his head hit the ground, cerebral hemorrhage was practically guaranteed; his cervical vertebra could even snap. If he landed on his back, internal organs could rupture, also causing hemorrhage, equally life-threatening. Considering how Du Ping and Liang Limin had slapped Ma’s face, shaken him, and then carried him up by his legs and shoulders, if Ma really was hemorrhaging, his chances would be slim. Of course, some people were lucky and merely had the wind knocked out of them, unable to wake up for a short while. But then again, some people were so unlucky they could fall off a bed, suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, and die. One couldn’t afford to be complacent in such situations; it had to be treated as the most severe case.

"Big brother, don’t use the tricycle to transport him! That thing is too bumpy. If there’s really any hemorrhage, the jolting from the tricycle could kill him. Wait for me; we’re on our way back and will be there soon."

"Okay, okay, I’ll tell Liang Limin."

Just as Du Ping hung up, Liang Limin’s mother came out.

She walked up to Ma, whose eyes were closed, and called out to her daughter-in-law behind her, "Go inside and fetch a bowl of your son’s urine."

"What for?" The three of them—Du Ping, Liang Limin, and his wife—were utterly confused.

Liang Limin’s mother looked at them with exasperation. "For child’s urine, of course! One bowl, and he’ll be right as rain. Back when we worked in the commune, it would get dark, and we couldn’t see the road. We didn’t have flashlights, so people would often fall. A bowl of child’s urine was all it took, and they’d come back to life."

As if sensing their disbelief, she offered another example, pointing to Liang Limin. "When your father was young, plowing the fields, a mule kicked him in the chest. He was knocked out just like this. Back then, it was a bowl of *your* urine, from when you were a boy, that saved your father."

The three listened, half-believing, but the old woman spoke with such conviction from experience that they chose to trust her. Of course, there was also an element of desperation in their decision—grasping at straws.

Usually, those little rascals were always underfoot, annoying everyone. But now that they actually needed one, not a single boy was to be found.

Liang Limin’s wife searched all around but couldn’t find her son or any of the other kids. Instead, she grabbed a little girl from next door.

"Mom, will a girl’s urine do?"

"No, it must be a boy’s. A young boy’s urine has yang qi; that’s what makes it effective."

Just as she was speaking, several little rascals came sauntering over from a distance. The two in front were each carrying a large toad. From afar, the toads looked exceptionally big, almost the size of a child’s head. They walked over, swinging the toads by their legs.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t that the toads were naturally large; the children had inflated them. Their bellies were puffed up like balloons.

Liang Limin’s wife was furious. She snatched a twig from the roadside and chased after them, leading to a chaotic scene of shrieking children scattering in all directions, crying for their parents. She didn’t care whose child it was; she grabbed the nearest one and gave his backside two sharp whacks. She wasn’t angry about them catching toads but furious that they had gone to play in the spring ditch. There was a spot there where the mules drank, and it was nearly two meters deep. If they had fallen in with no adults around, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Stop hitting them! Hurry up and make them pee!" Liang Limin shouted at his wife, who clearly couldn’t get her priorities straight.

Liang Limin’s son, a boy of over eight, was crying as he held a bowl, trying to urinate. After a long while, he sobbed, "Mom, I can’t pee."

There was no other choice. None of the little boys present were spared; each had to contribute a few drops.

Afterward, under everyone’s watchful eyes, a full bowl of it was poured down Ma’s throat.

Once it was done, the group of people formed a circle around Ma and waited quietly for a miracle.

This wait lasted three or four minutes before Du Heng arrived, having rushed back as fast as lightning.

He was immensely grateful to the government. If it weren’t for the Rural Connectivity Project that had paved the roads with asphalt and concrete, he definitely wouldn’t have made it back in time.

"Big brother, how is he?"

Du Heng pushed past a few small children and was about to crouch down to check on Ma when a pungent, acrid smell assaulted his nostrils, making him recoil slightly.

"Big brother, what’s going on? Is he incontinent?"

"No, we just gave Ma a bowl of child’s urine."

Du Heng’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He asked incredulously, "Child’s urine?"

Du Ping gulped and confirmed, "Yes, from all these kids."

"All of them?" Du Heng looked in disbelief at the circle of little boys, each around seven or eight years old. Was this some kind of ’share the blessings’ principle?

Du Heng composed himself, ready to examine Ma and then send him to the hospital. Just then, Ma slowly opened his mouth, let out a breath, and his eyes gradually fluttered open.

He’s awake?

Du Ping and Liang Limin quickly stepped forward, pushing aside the dazed Du Heng, and helped Ma sit up.

"Ma, are you okay? Do you feel pain anywhere?" Liang Limin asked with concern. He was the most worried, as it was his family’s ram that had knocked Ma down. He had already decided that, regardless of whether Ma was injured or not, that ram’s carefree days were over. Tonight, it would have to say goodbye to its ’three palaces and six courtyards.’

Ma slowly seemed to regain his senses. His gaze became clearer as he looked at the people around him, though his expression grew increasingly puzzled. Especially after smacking his lips a few times, the bewilderment in his eyes deepened. "Did you guys... make me drink urine?"

No one answered him, but Liang Limin’s mother declared, "See! I told you child’s urine works, and you didn’t believe me!"