Chapter 2: Strange Diseases

It was no one else who made them cry. It was the third aunt who was already asleep.

Everything was fine until the little aunt went to sleep. At midnight, there was a slight noise in the room, and the third aunt thought it was my little aunt (Xiu) who went to the toilet. However, the third aunt felt something unusual, as her sister does not usually go to the bathroom at midnight. Through the moonlight outside the window, the third aunt saw Xiu got up, then she went back to sleep, did not take it seriously as she thought Xiu was just going to the bathroom.

About a few minutes passed, the third aunt was suddenly woken up, because she didn't feel that her sister(Xiu)was back in bed, so she looked around the room. The most terrorist scene in her life was seen when she turned around——Xiu was kneeling towards the moon in front of the window.

The third aunt was completely frightened to wake up after seeing this. She tidied up her clothes and tried to encourage herself by coughing, however no response from Xiu. The third aunt is timid since childhood. Mainly she can be scared by a baby mouse. The third aunt called gently to Xiu—— however, the little aunt was kneeling without any reaction.

Then She raised her voice: Xiu, what's wrong? But, there was still no response.

She got off the bed immediately, ran to her sister without wearing shoes. She stepped towards her sister with barefoot, put hand over her back trying to turn Xiu around, but she failed to do so. Then by the light of the moon, she went to the front to have a look, where an ever unforgettable scene in her life were seen ——Xiu kneeling on the ground chewing a White candle in the mouth, which used for lighting during old days.

In those miserable years, electricity wasn't prevalent in rural areas of China, hence every family use candles for lighting instead of electricity. Due to the cost of candles, they only use candles when necessary.

At the moment the Little Aunt (Xiu) was chewing a candle with dull eyes, looked pale and lifeless and staring at the moon motionlessly. The third aunt was completely frightened and screamed out with the loudest voice: Ah…

This scream wakes up grandparents and little uncle, and also "wakes up" the disaster which was predicted when Xiu was born.

When the grandfather ran to their room, the third aunt was speechless. Grandfather turned on the light and found that Xiu was fainted on the ground, left with clearly visible bite marks on the candle next to her.

when the grandfather picked up his daughter, looking at her pale face and candle bits left in her mouth also feels implausible. They did not know what happened, then the whole family turned their eyes to the third aunt.

Grandma quickly went and pulled up the third aunt: "What happened to your sister?"

The third aunt was completely speechless because of fear. Other family members can only tell from her shaking body and chattering teeth that she must have seen something terrible.

Grandfather picked up little aunt who was unconscious on the ground and put her on the bed. Grandma held the third aunt who was still shivering with fear. The little uncle, who was only 12 years old, had the black dog in his hand and the dog started barking when came into the room, which is very ferocious. Grandmother instructed the little uncle to take the dog out, however, the dog keeps barking outside the room without entering.

Grandma may get annoyed, she shouted loudly at the black dog: "if you bark again, you will be killed". Then a strange thing happened again, the black dog was scared to urinate, and then ran back to its kennel when grandma scolded it.

A while after, the third aunt gradually calmed down and described the scene she saw with grandparents. Through the narration by the third aunt, both grandmother and grandfather also got frightened a lot. After narration third aunt couldn't hold her fear anymore and cried again, where grandmother stopped her immediately by covering her mouth.

The third aunt could only choke down her fear with heavy breaths. After a while, the little aunt began to wake up and then started to vomit. The vomitus was mixed with a fishy smell, the mixture contains candles that she had just ate and semi-digested state of the dinner, which really smells disgusting.

Actually, grandmother knows some Chinese medicine. It happened late at night, and there was no better way. She boiled Kuding tea for my little aunt because it is very effective in treating children's stomachache. It can promote the gastrointestinal digestive function in children and I had this tea in Grandma's house when I was young.

Grandma fed medicine to a little aunt in this way. But the little aunt clenched her teeth and refused to drink the tea and she spat out everything she had swallowed.

In the end, there was no way, Grandpa helped hold little aunt's mouth open and the little uncle held down her foot. In this way, the little aunt was forced to take the medicine.

After taking the Kuding tea, the little aunt was quiet for a while, but the third aunt no longer dared to sleep. So grandpa and grandma stayed in the room sleep with Xiu, then third aunt and little uncle went to their room to sleep.

At this time the little aunt has to wake up a little, but not for a while she began to have diarrhoea, and symptoms repeated until dawn, Grandpa and grandma did not sleep all night. Until the next morning rushed to the town hospital.

The doctor in the hospital looked and said that she might have eaten something bad and prescribed my little aunt an intravenous injection according to acute gastroenteritis. The nurse had just inserted the needle into my little aunt's arm, she pulled it out immediately. She refused to cooperate with the doctor. After such a tumultuous night, the little aunt was about to go into shock. The doctor in the town hospital advised grandma to send Xiu to a larger hospital in City Center which has a better medical facility.

At noon that day, grandma and grandpa took little uncle and little aunt to the county by bus. After arriving at the bus, because of carsickness, grandma took little aunt and picked a seat by the window. At that time, the bus was very crowded——there were many people crowded onto the bus outside, including my little uncle and Grandpa

Grandma opened the window of the bus to get some fresh air. Suddenly, my little aunt ran out of the window. Just in time, was quickly caught by my grandfather. "Mom, please don't take me to the hospital," she cried, "I can't get cure. I will die, take me home, please..." No matter how my grandfather tried to comfort her, the little aunt kept crying. She was only nine years old that year. My little uncle told me about this as he was at the scene, but my little aunt told me that she did not remember anything. She only vaguely remembers that she had a serious illness when she was a child, and the rest is not clear.

Then grandfather pushes the little aunt into the car from the window. This time, grandma held her in her arms tightly, ignoring she was crying. Slowly, the bus drove their family to the county town.

When arrived at the county hospital, my grandmother held a reference letter from the town hospital, doctors immediately arranged hospitalization procedures. The doctor provides the little aunt with a thorough examination, they also treated the way that children ate something bad. During the treatment, little aunt more than once took the advantage of when adults do not pay attention, ran out of the hospital. In the end, my grandmother tied my little aunt with a rope and she did not dare to sleep. Several people looked after her in turn, even going to the bathroom take place in the ward, dare not let her out.

In 1986, economic conditions were generally backward in rural places in China. Patients and doctors in the hospital need to eat in the canteen. Every time my grandmother brought the food back from the canteen, however, the food was either threw away by a little aunt or she didn't eat at all and she was kept alive by liquid nourishment.

Strangely, the bowl placed in front of my little aunt this time contains half rare rice, it was the first time in a long time that she had said she wanted to eat.

Grandmother was surprised and untied the rope for her. My little aunt quickly swallowed a bowl of half-raw rice and yelled to eat more. As a result, the rice from my grandparents, the third aunt and the little uncle were all eaten by my little aunt. After the meal, the little aunt got bulged stomach, but she still wanted to eat more, which scared the whole family. Grandma quickly went to call for the doctor, the doctor prescribed some pills to promote digestion and walked away.

At dinner time, the rice was fully cooked, and my little aunt began to stop eating again. Family members thought it was because she had eaten too much at noon. Then the next day and the third day, no matter how good the food was, she didn't want to eat, this continued until the evening of the fourth day.

That night, my little aunt still didn't eat, looking at Xiu who was getting thinner and weaker by the day, my grandmother felt very distressed and don't know what to do to help. In desperation, my grandmother went outside and bought a portion of half-raw rice for my little aunt. The result was no surprise; little aunt ate them all until the stomach bulging up. The doctor also could not explain, but told her not to eat this kind of raw rice anymore due to the weakness of the stomach of children and this kind of food can aggravate Xiu's Condition.

For the next two days, they did not feed Xiu raw food any more. The doctor had no idea what to do with my little aunt. It continued until the seventh day when she suddenly fainted again and began to cramp and foam at her mouth. Her heart rate and blood pressure began to drop. The doctor said, "Maybe you have to get ready for the funeral? I don't know what's wrong and have no idea what to do with this kid."

My grandmother was very strong and powerful, she didn't cry. Only one sentence was said: "Whatever, Xiao Xiu can't die in the hospital," then she took the little aunt back home. On the way home, the nine years ago mad Taoist priest passed through grandma's mind and she asked grandfather to go find him again. But that was nine years ago, in that special era, there was neither telephone nor business card. It's really difficult to find a person from the world during that time.