Chapter Sixty: Ants as Food Therapy

  "Ah!" Hearing Chou say that he was going back to help his brother massage his legs, the woman suddenly woke up with a start and hastily paid her respects to Wang Kuang: "The humble wife has been remiss in her duties again. My husband is now bedridden with illness and cannot get out of bed to see Master Dong. I hope Master Dong will forgive me."

  "Where did elder sister-in-law come from? Is there a way to make the patient get up? It should be me going to see Wu Lang instead."

  At this time, several members of the Sun family had already put away their belongings and didn't need Wang Kuang's instructions. Some were sweeping the house, others were weeding, and one was using a bamboo pole to hang a red cloth strip on the gate, indicating the joy of moving into a new home. Neighbors who saw the red cloth strip and had nothing else to do would come over to help.

  Wang Kuang had already passed through the moon gate and arrived at the side courtyard, which was not very large, about the same size as the yard behind Wang Kuang's inn. It also only had two rooms. The woman walked quickly to the southern room, pushed open the door and said: "Ah Lang, Xiao Dong has come to see you."

  The whole house had only one small window, and the sun had already set at this time, so it was very dark inside. Wang Kuang stood at the door for a while before he could see the situation in the room clearly. There was only a low bed, a desk, and a wardrobe, nothing else. On the desk were several packages scattered around, which seemed to be brought by Wang Wu's family. The house should have been cleaned up already. It seems that he had indeed wronged Niu Wazi, who should have cleaned up this room first after receiving the guests before going to Sun Fu to call people. He blamed himself for not arranging for Wang Wu to stay here earlier, otherwise, it would have been tidied up long ago.

  On the short couch, a thin man with skin and bones was Wang Wu. He was struggling to get up with his hands, and Chou also knelt beside him to help. But how much strength could his small body have?

  Wang Kuang rushed forward and stopped Wang Wu: "Hurry up and lie down, don't force yourself if you're not feeling well. If you recover later, it's okay to pay your respects to me then." He also said to Chou Chou: "Chou Chou, quickly help your father lie down."

  Wang Wu struggled to hold on, his face already deathly pale, with beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He lay down laboriously: "I'm ashamed, my body is no good." Suddenly realizing something, he hastily added: "Don't worry, Xiaodong, I've already explained in the letter that although my body can't move, my mouth is still working. As long as you find a few skilled people to come, I'll supervise and we'll definitely be able to grind out the spherical object you want, it won't delay your affairs."

  "This matter is not urgent, as long as the grinding can be done by tomorrow summer, you just take care of your illness first. I'll go find a few people and have them serve under you for a while without telling them about the grinding stone ball. Then, it's up to you to decide who to keep. What do you think?" Wang Kuang knew that since Wang Wu had spoken about teaching someone to grind the stone ball, he meant to pass on his skills, which was equivalent to passing on his legacy. Therefore, the selection of people couldn't be careless, and they had to make Wang Wu satisfied.

  This is also Wang Kuang, if it were someone else, Wang Wu would probably consider it too. Even if he considered it, he might not be willing to pass on his skills. A skill can be passed down from generation to generation as a means of making a living, and there are few people in the world who are willing to easily pass on their craft.

  Just then, Niu Wazi led a doctor over, who was none other than Xu Langzhong from the famous Nan Shan Tang of Jian'an. Xu Langzhong was stunned for a while after entering the house before noticing Wang Kuang was also there, and hastily greeted him: "Oh, Little Dong is here too!" On this side, he didn't idle around, and with a flick of his sleeve, sat down on the edge of the bed to take Wang Wu's pulse. Wang Kuang quickly pulled Niu Wazi out, as there were rules for taking pulses, and unrelated people couldn't watch. Firstly, it was feared that others would learn the skills, secondly, it was said that the breath of others could affect the diagnosis. Wang Kuang himself didn't understand medicine, but Xu Langzhong knew this, and also had the intention of showing off to Wang Kuang, so he didn't avoid him and directly began the examination.

  Look at the house, Wang ordered Niu Wazi: "Tomorrow find a few craftsmen to come and expand this window, also open another window on this side, let the house be brighter, this patient will feel more comfortable in his heart, and the illness can recover faster. Also go and ask Yaoyue and Da Shu, which craftsman helped him make the wooden stool, bring him along too, I want him to help me make some things."

  Niu Wa Zi nodded in agreement, and Xu Lang also finished checking and came out. After hearing Wang Kuang's words, he couldn't help but praise: "It's really true that Xiao Dongjia is a star who has descended to the mortal world! He even knows that making patients feel comfortable can be beneficial for their illness. I only learned about this from a Taoist priest a few years ago when I went to pick herbs."

  Daoist? Could it be the Medicine King? Wang Kuang guessed, but he didn't know when Sun Medicine King appeared, and whether or not he had come to Jian'an was also unknown. However, at this time, Daoists were also medical practitioners, so it's possible that Xu Langzhong encountered a successful Daoist doctor, not necessarily the Medicine King. Forget it, who cares about all that? The difficult and miscellaneous diseases of this era are fewer than those of later generations, at least cancer and AIDS won't appear, and the education of later generations will also make him know many treatments for diseases that people at this time can't do anything about. How could he be so unlucky? Even if he encountered it himself, he could remind himself to see a doctor... Ugh! Why am I thinking about this?

  "Little Dongjia, Little Dongjia!" Niuwa saw that Wang Kuang was in a daze and Xu Langzhong was waiting on the side, so he poked Wang Kuang.

  "Oh, sorry about that, Mr. Xu Langzhong, I was a bit rude just now. Speaking of Daoist priests, it reminds me of one who used to visit our village often." Wang Kuang snapped back to reality and had an epiphany: "Isn't this an opportunity? I can attribute all the skills they think are amazing to the teachings of some wandering Daoist priest or Buddhist monk. Besides, I've already attributed my previous abilities to a non-existent merchant, so what's one more Daoist or monk? This is a common trick used by those big shots, and if they can use it, why can't I? If you say all your skills come from one person, others might not believe you. But if you say you learned from multiple people, others will just think you're clever and eager to learn. That's the difference between one and many."

  "It doesn't matter, it's just a sentimental feeling, I also have it sometimes." Xulang didn't mind Wang Kuang's distraction either. He then carefully told Wang Kuang about Wang Wu's condition and said: "Just follow the previous prescription to take medicine, this disease is caused by long-term invasion of dampness, can only be slowly nursed back to health."

  Wang Juan didn't understand what Xu Langzhong was saying about this or that, but he did catch the last sentence about being invaded by dampness. Could it be rheumatism? If so, that's easy to deal with. Black ants, even if they can't cure it, won't harm anyone. He thought to himself, I'll get some tomorrow, dry them out, grind them into powder, and mix it into Wang Wu's flour every day.

  Niuwa sent Xu Lang out, and Wang Kuang was thinking about the black ant again. He felt his robe being pulled, looked down, and found that Chou Chou had come out without knowing when, pulling at Wang Kuang's robe, looking up with wide eyes: "Brother, brother said before that there are many brothers who play with Chou Chou together, is it true?"

  Wang Juan squatted down and pinched Chou Chou's nose: "Of course it's true, otherwise, brother would take you there right now?"

  "Great, great," Chou Chou clapped her hands and jumped up and down with her two thin legs, stopping after a couple of claps: "No way, Chou Chou still has to help Ge (brother) massage his legs later, Ge's legs will hurt if they're not massaged regularly."

  "Chou Chou is really clever." Wang Kuang somewhat liked this Chou Chou, who was only four or five years old and should be carefree and playful at that age, but already knew to massage his father's legs to alleviate his pain: "Then we'll go tomorrow, tomorrow your brother will come pick you up."

  At this time, the woman also walked out of the house. Wang Kuang stood up and said to the woman: "In the future, I will let the people in the guest house send over three meals a day for my sister-in-law, so she won't need to cook at home. As for Chou Chou, I think it's best to send him to school, what do you think, sister-in-law? Also, someone will bring clothes later, if they fit Chou Chou, he can wear them, if not, then sister-in-law will have to alter them herself." Anyway, Sun Jiahan and Sun Jiaying, the two kids, had many unworn clothes before, now Wang Wu has many new clothes that are too small. Besides, if we don't let the guest house send food, how can we get Wang Wu to eat buns mixed with ant powder?

  The woman was overjoyed and wept, rushing to Wang Kuang as if she wanted to kneel down: "The great kindness of Xiaodong's family, the woman doesn't know how to repay it, can only wait for the next life to be a cow or a horse. It's just that in the future when Xiaofu is idle and has nothing to do, whenever there's anything that needs sewing, washing, or rinsing, send it over, so that Xiaofu's heart can be at ease."

  "Eldest sister, don't, it's not worth it." Wang Kuang saw her about to kneel down again and hastily jumped to the side: "It's just a small matter, anyway the inn has to provide food for guests, making an extra portion is better than you starting another fire here." After thinking for a moment, he added: "As for mending, it's not necessary either, just take good care of Wang Wu, if Wang Wu can recover from his illness, that would be a great thing." Seeing the woman turn around with the intention of kneeling down again, Wang Kuang hastily fled, as he was still not accustomed to being bowed to.

  Returning to the inn, Wang Kuang immediately called Gao San over. Among the many employees at the inn, Gao San was considered one of the more clever ones, and Wang Kuang could also see that Gao San was loyal to him.

  It's said that he and two other partners went to take care of Wang Wu, Gao San was somewhat reluctant to leave Fuli Inn, but also patted his chest and said: "Where Xiao Dongjia lets Gao San go, Gao San will go." After finishing, he asked with a humble face: "When are we coming back?"

  "You're such a good-for-nothing, if you had served well in the past and no one stopped you when it was time to come back, what's there to be anxious about?" Wang Kuang couldn't help but laugh and scold: "Starting from tomorrow, if there's nothing going on at Wang Wu's place, bring those two with you and take them out of the city to dig up ant nests. I want as many ants and ant eggs as possible. Just drown the ants in water, it's fine. After digging them up, dry them in the sun in that courtyard, then grind them into powder and send them over to me, I have a use for them."

  "Good heavens, Xiao Dongjia, if you want ant eggs, that's fine, they're a delicacy. But what do you want ants for? Can you eat them too?"

  "Why ask so many questions? You'll know when the time comes. For now, just send some food over to them, less oily meat and more vegetables, and then gradually add more meat meal by meal later."

  Division

  The depiction of the disease in this chapter can be said to be nonsense, medical friends please don't pick at it, this book isn't about medicine, it's just that the plot requires it, so I arranged it like this.

  Still seeking recommendations and collections, as well as evaluation votes. Your support is the driving force for Grey Sparrow.

  Cut the nonsense, this morning, Food King once squeezed into the top 100 of the category recommendation chart and click-through rate chart, Grey Sparrow likes it a bit, all thanks to everyone's support, but this mountain is still very high, need to keep climbing.