Jolted Out of Memories

It took a dislocated shoulder to jolt Shu Shu out of her state of daze. She'd forgotten most of the things she had to do, but she remembered first aid. The kid lay on the ground, whimpering. He had visible swelling and deformation of the joint.

"He fell from the tree," repeated one of the boys crowding around. He was the youngest of Lin Family's six siblings, which wasn't unusual in these times. Commoners didn't have family planning or effective contraceptives. "What do we do? Should we pop his shoulder back in?"

Shu Shu moved from her place crouching under a tree not to far from the crowd.

The boys moved away when they saw her, wrinkling their nose at her dirty form but also curious of what the silent girl would do.

"I'll take care of this." She bent down. The boy was already supine and in position, so that made her job easier.

"Are you sure?" the Lin boy, Lin Chen, shifted from foot to foot. "Maybe we should bring him to Old Lu..."

"We are not moving him," Shu Shu said calmly.

"And why should we listen to you?" a slightly chubby boy, Liu Bao, asked rather rudely. "You are just an uneducated and dirty mountain girl! Unlike you, Zhang Niu's family can pay his medicine!"

Lin Chen frowned at the rude remarks but didn't disagree. Their three family was the richest in the village, and though they couldn't live lavishly like those young masters in the city, their family could pay for medication just fine.

Shu Shu, on the other hand, was truly a mountain girl that almost never came down except for doing odd jobs for the villagers.

Her origin was unclear. He only knew from the whispers of the villagers that Shu Shu and her late mother appeared one day and settled down on the mountain behind their village.

"Because you are in the mountain's forest. It's a bumpy road down, would you risk injuring him further?" Shu Shu's calm voice made him focus back. "Old Lu lived near the front gate of the village. Even if you ran there and brought him here, it'll take a long time and the sun might go down before he is here."

"You--!" Liu Bao gritted his teeth at the lecturing tone Shu Shu used to answer him.

Lin Chen stared at the slip of a girl crouching between them and Zhang Niu.

"Then you know what to do?" Lin Chen dared to ask.

"Lin Chen! You don't think--"

"I do." Shu Shu cut off Liu Bao's sentence with calm confidence.

Then she turned to her patient, ignoring the squables behind her. With one hand, she pressed his arm to his side, and with the other, she grasped his wrist. Shu Shu bent his elbow to ninety degrees and began rotating his upper arm. Zhang Niu yelped, gathering the boys' attention back while she waited for his upper arm muscles to relax.

"Hey! You are hurting him!" Liu Bao exclaimed.

"Hush! I think she knows what she's doing," Lin Chen pulled the advancing Liu Bao back.

Paying no mind to the other boys, Shu Shu continued rotating when she felt Zhang Niu's muscle relaxed. After she'd rotated his arm about a hundred degrees, reduction of the shoulder was achieved.

"You... You popped it back in!" Zhang Niu said in amazement after he was done screaming.

"So your arm works fine now?" Lin Chen asked curiously.

Zhang Niu flexed his hand experimentally. "It didn't hurt as bad as I thought," he replied in wonder.

"Don't move it!" Shu Shu snapped. "Keep it still. Also hold your hand like this."

She slowly and carefully arranged the injured arm to a neutral position on his side.

"Help him up." She called out. Liu Bao and Lin Chen immediately went to help while Shu Shu made sure to support Zhang Niu's arm so as not to put any burden on the shoulder.

"Now what?" Liu Bao disgruntled voice called out. He was actually impressed but unwilling to admit it.

"Now you can bring him to Old Lu. This is as far as I can do to help you, Old Lu will do better than me for the rest of the treatment," Shu Shu said.

"One of you, go get Old Lu to meet us halfway," Lin Chen asked the boys loitering around them unsurely.

Shu Shu made sure Zhang Niu's forearm was parallel to the ground and made another boy to support it. Then, she tore her skirt to make a crude sling, surprising all the boys present.

"This should support your arm for now. Remember, don't move it for a few days." Shu Shu warned, her mind not registering the flushed look on the boys.

"O-okay!" Zhang Niu squeaked, horrifed of Shu Shu's utter disregard of her indecent clothes.

Shu Shu tilted her head in confusion of what made the boys react that way. "Don't worry, your injury does not have wound. My cloth may be dirty, but it won't worsen your injury," Shu Shu said, thinking it was because she used a dirty cloth to make the sling.

"Uh, we better go now," Lin Chen pipped up, averting his eyes.

"Okay, take care," with that farewell, Shu Shu turned around and walked towards her little hut in the outskirts of the forest.

Lin Chen, Liu Bao, and Zhang Niu didn't reply. All three of them were in a daze.

Lin Chen then led their little group down the mountain. He turned slightly to the direction where Shu Shu disappeared before shaking his head to dispel his thoughts.

For now, he need to get Zhang Niu to Old Lu. Besides, he could just tell Mrs. Zhang what happened and let their family repaid Shu Shu's help.