Juhua arrived at the lake. Before she even got close to the crowd, she heard a woman's drawn-out, intermittent wail. "My Shi Tou—Don't leave your mother... What will I do if you leave me... My boy—Ah—"
The mournful cry, with its long, trailing notes like something from an opera, was enough to make one's skin crawl and fill their heart with a bleak sorrow.
Everyone in the surrounding crowd who heard it was heartbroken and shed tears. Some of the more soft-hearted young wives even began sobbing softly along with her.
Juhua grew anxious and, no longer caring about her unsightly face, forcefully pushed her way into the crowd.
In the middle of the crowd sat a woman with disheveled hair, wailing with her eyes shut, her face a mess of tears and snot.
She was holding the little boy who had led the taunts against Juhua earlier. His face was deathly still. Qin Feng, soaking wet, stood to the side with his head hung low and his lips pressed tightly together. It seemed he had been the one to go into the water for the rescue, but he had clearly failed, leaving him utterly dejected.
Just as she was about to speak, another voice, a man's wolf-like howl, cut through the air. "Shi Tou—" The crowd quickly parted as a tall man in his early thirties charged in. When he saw the child with his eyes shut tight in the woman's arms, he collapsed to the ground as if his spine had been ripped out, pounding the grass with clenched fists.
"My Shi Tou!!!" His anguished roar was even more heart-stopping.
Juhua couldn't hold back any longer. The tragic, sorrowful atmosphere infected her. Her heart began to race, and tears streamed down her face. She shoved Qin Feng, saying, "Give him air! Quickly, give him air! Hurry!"
Qin Feng stared at her, baffled.
Juhua shouted, "Breathe into his mouth! He might still be saved! Lay him flat, you can't hold him like that."
'Damn it, if we wait any longer, it'll be too late!'
Juhua's heart pounded. Having no time to waste arguing with him, she rushed forward, snatched Little Shitou, and laid him flat on the ground. She pinched his nose with one hand, pried open his jaw with the other, took a deep breath, and blew into Shi Tou's mouth, repeating the process over and over.
Heartbroken and furious that her son had been snatched away, the woman reached out to shove Juhua.
Qin Feng quickly stopped her. "Let her try! Don't disturb her!" He was utterly astonished, watching with unblinking eyes as Juhua repeatedly blew air into Little Shitou's mouth.
Juhua's strange actions quieted the entire crowd. Even the newcomers were shushed by those who had arrived earlier. Shi Tou's parents choked back their sobs, their eyes fixed nervously on Juhua.
After a while, Shi Tou still showed no response, but Juhua was unwilling to give up.
'She had never performed this kind of first aid before. But in her past life, who hadn't heard of it? It was a common sight on TV. As for how long artificial respiration was supposed to take, she had no idea. But driven by the spirit of saving a life, she resolved to keep trying until the very end.'
Seeing no effect, she placed her left hand on Shi Tou's chest, put her right hand over her left, and gently pressed down before releasing. Then she said to Qin Feng, "Do it just like this, understand?"
Qin Feng nodded and began to mimic her actions while Juhua continued to perform artificial respiration on Shi Tou.
Qin Feng was a very dedicated doctor. Even though he was deeply skeptical and didn't believe in Juhua's methods, he had to cooperate with her. At a moment of life and death, not even the faintest glimmer of hope could be abandoned. All questions could wait until later.
It was precisely his cautious and responsible attitude, combined with Juhua's earnest if untutored passion, that snatched Shi Tou back from the hands of King Yan.
When Shi Tou let out a faint cough and a trickle of water ran from the corner of his mouth, the onlookers erupted in cheers. Qin Feng was stunned—he had actually been saved!
Shi Tou's parents clung to each other, laughing and crying. The woman pounded on the man's back, sobbing even more intensely than before. This time, however, they were tears of joy.
Juhua, ignoring everything else, quickly turned Shi Tou's body over, propped his stomach on her knee, and gently jostled him. More water began to stream continuously from his mouth.
After a while, she stopped and said to Qin Feng, "The rest is up to you." After all, she didn't know anything about medicine.
Qin Feng gave her a deep look and nodded. He placed Shi Tou beside his mother, leaning against her, and began to check his pulse. Shi Tou's father had already taken off his own outer robe to wrap up his son and keep him from getting cold.
Shi Tou's father was named Zhao San. The younger villagers called him Third Brother, while the older ones used a more familiar form of the name.
At that moment, he threw himself down in front of Juhua and kowtowed three times on the grass, which so frightened Juhua that she scrambled to get out of the way.
Zhao San, a tall and sturdy man, looked at Juhua with red eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "Juhua, if it weren't for you today, this Third Uncle would have lost his son. I should be kowtowing to you. Shi Tou will kowtow to you later, too."
Shi Tou's mother chimed in, "He should, he should!" Her face, still streaked with tears and snot, was unsightly, but now she was beaming with a radiant smile.
A stout man with a dark, ruddy face nearby interjected, "Third Brother, it's not my place to say, but there are plenty of ways to thank Juhua. If you kowtow to her, aren't you shortening her lifespan?"
Juhua seized this like a lifeline and said quickly, "Right, right! Please don't kowtow. Doctor Qin saved me the other day, and I didn't kowtow to him!"
Hearing this, the people around them got strange looks on their faces.
Juhua instantly regretted her slip of the tongue. In her haste, she had forgotten she was currently a "scandalous" figure in Qingnan Village. She turned to leave—there was nothing else for her to do here anyway, and she still had to go home and make lunch!
Unexpectedly, Gou Dan, seeing that Shi Tou was awake, was no longer scared and had regained his childish energy. He squatted in front of Shi Tou and said loudly, "The scabby girl just kissed you! She kept kissing you and kissed you back to life. You have to marry her when you grow up!"
The crowd fell instantly silent, and everyone stared at Juhua.
A village woman with a wide, round face—who looked to be Gou Dan's mother—grabbed Gou Dan's ear and yanked him to his feet, scolding, "You little brat, you and your big mouth! Juhua! Gou Dan is just a kid, don't be angry!"
Little Shitou, leaning against his mother, immediately burst into a WAIL. "I don't want to marry the scabby girl! I don't want to..." Fortunately, the boy had just woken up and ran out of energy after a couple of shouts.
Shi Tou's mother and Zhao San were mortified, and the surrounding crowd looked like they wanted to laugh but felt too awkward to do so.
Zhao San's face tightened as he snapped, "Call her Big Sis Juhua! What's this 'scabby girl' nonsense? Who did you learn that from?"
On the outskirts of the crowd, Zhang Huai stood frozen, at a complete loss.
He too had seen the large crowd gathered by Jing Lake and immediately wondered if the "ugly girl" had tried to jump in the lake again. When he ran over in a panic and saw it wasn't Juhua, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He finally managed to calm his furiously pounding heart and catch his breath, only to hear Juhua say, "Doctor Qin saved me," which made him feel uneasy. Then, to his dismay, Gou Dan blurted out his comment, making him feel even more awkward.
A powdered and rouged woman in her forties—whom Juhua recognized as Liu'er's mother—laughed loudly and said, "I say, Shi Tou, you're worrying for nothing. Juhua is so much older than you, how could she marry you?"
She laughed loudly as she spoke, her eyes scanning the crowd, but few people joined in with her. Most of the villagers were simple, honest folk.
Juhua's expression hardened. She said to Shi Tou, "Who wants to marry you? You bring me ten catties of dried fish, and we'll call the life-debt settled. Remember, they have to be cleaned properly."
'Most country folk were simple and honest; if they owed someone a favor, they wouldn't feel at ease. The boy was worried he'd have to marry her when he grew up. It was better to ask for something practical, which would also solve their problem—killing two birds with one stone. And she really loved dried fish. Steamed, it went perfectly with rice.'
Everyone stared in astonishment at Juhua's serious expression. Little Shitou, however, as if afraid she would go back on her word, quickly replied, "Okay, ten catties it is! No take-backs!"
Just as Juhua was about to answer, she heard her mother shout her name from the edge of the crowd. "Juhua—" The long, shrill cry startled her.
Immediately after, the woman of the Yang family roughly pushed her way through the crowd. Seeing Juhua standing there perfectly fine, her tense heart relaxed, but she still threw her arms around her and cried, "Juhua! You can't do anything foolish... We don't care about marrying him. Mom will support you for the rest of your life!"
She sobbed uncontrollably, clinging tightly to her daughter and refusing to let go, as if terrified that the moment she loosened her grip, Juhua would jump into Jing Lake.
Hearing the first part of the sentence, Juhua knew her mother had misunderstood—she thought Juhua was trying to kill herself again! She felt deeply embarrassed in front of so many people and was about to pull her mother away, but then she heard the last two sentences. Her heart ached, and she too began to cry. 'For her mother to say something like that meant she was truly trying to protect her daughter.'
Zhang Huai, upon hearing this, wished the ground would swallow him whole. He felt incredibly wronged—'he hadn't actually done anything wrong, yet right now he felt like he'd committed some heinous crime.' He dodged the strange looks from the people around him, wanting to leave but feeling unable to. It was an indescribably awful feeling.
Juhua sniffled and said to her mother, "Mom, you're mistaken—it was Little Shitou who accidentally fell in the water, not me. Let's go home."
Shi Tou's mother quickly said to the woman of the Yang family, "Aunt Zheng! We have your Juhua to thank for today. Otherwise, my Shi Tou would be gone." As she spoke, she was overcome with lingering fear and started wiping away her tears again.
Seeing that Juhua was anxious to leave, Qin Feng said to Shi Tou's mother, "You should hurry back and brew Shi Tou's medicine. I've already written a prescription. He swallowed a lot of water, so he'll need to be carefully looked after for a few days. I'll bring the medicine over to you all in a bit. Everyone should disperse now."
As Liu'er's mother was leaving, she stared at Juhua with an avid expression. But when she saw the woman of the Yang family holding Juhua so preciously and refusing to let go, she muttered resentfully under her breath, "Just a scabby girl, and she's treated like such a treasure!"
The crowd slowly dispersed.
As Zhao San's family was leaving, they thanked Juhua and her mother again and again, saying that once Shi Tou was better, they would pay a formal visit to express their gratitude.
When everyone was gone, Qin Feng finally asked Juhua with a smile, "Juhua, how did you know that method for saving someone?"