Chapter 35 Wood Carved Duck

Early the next morning, after dinner, the two went to deliver canned sugar water to two families.

　　Fu Zai heard that Chen Xiucai's family had a little girl who was similar to him. She was pretty and pretty, so he really wanted to go and see her.

　　But his feet were inconvenient, and Ye Anian didn't want to leave Ding Qiu alone at home, so he coaxed him with candy.

　　After the two of them returned from delivering the things, Jiang Zhu went into the small medicine house. In the past two days, he either went to town or delivered wedding invitations with Ye Anian. He had almost no time during the day.

　　Now that he had some free time, he quickly went to deal with his medicinal materials. The medicine for Fu Zai was crushed medicinal powder. You can make more at one time and store it, so you don't have to worry about it every time.

　　For Ding Qiu's eyes, he recently changed his prescription. Without the blood Ganoderma lucidum as a medicine, this prescription would not be very effective.

　　While he was busy here, Ye Anyian came over holding the small wooden box containing his woodcarving tools.

　　Jiang Zhu moved aside knowingly, making more than half of the table empty for him.

　　"Are you going to start making woodcuts?"

　　Ye Annian nodded, put down the tool box, then turned around and moved a tree trunk with bark on to the table.

　　Jiang Zhu:...

　　"Where did you pick it up?"

　　"There was a family not far from the village who seemed to be repairing a house. I saw that this piece had been sawed off and thrown to the side of the road."

　　Jiang Zhu looked at the trunk, which weighed more than ten kilograms. He frowned and said, "You went to move it in just a short while. Why didn't you call me?"

　　"It won't sink, I can move it." Ye Annian said.

　　Jiang Zhu said nothing and took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

　　Ye Annian liked this tree trunk very much. He peeled off the outer bark with a plane, cut the wood into pieces with a steel knife, and began to carve out the prototype of the little duck.

　　Because the shape is relatively simple, Ye Annian used a round knife to shape the image of a fat duck with a round head in a few strokes. After the rough outline was drawn, he then carved its mouth, eyes, wings and tail.

　　Although the shape of the fat duck is simple, Ye Anian is not ambiguous about the fine carvings. The feathers on the wings and tail are also outlined with thin lines to create a three-dimensional effect.

　　He was doing it very seriously and didn't notice that Jiang Zhu had been looking at him for a long time.

　　In ancient times, there was no sandpaper, only files. It was originally necessary to polish with sandpaper after carving, but the fat duck was not big, so Ye Annian used a file to polish the uneven edges and corners.

　　After sanding, the next one was originally painted, but there is no paint at the moment.

　　He turned his head and glanced at the brush on the pen stand next to him, took it out, dipped it in ink, dotted the eyes of the fat duck, and briefly traced the lines on the wings and tail.

　　"There you go, your duck."

After finishing the last stroke, a fat duck with a silly head and brain appeared in Ye Anyian's hand. It was chubby and very cute.

　　Ye Annian held it in his hand and showed it to Jiang Zhu.

　　Jiang Zhu had been watching for a while, and when he saw that the duck was finally carved, he reached out to take it.

　　But Ye Anyian retracted his hand and avoided it: "Not now, I have to let it dry and wait for the ink to dry."

　　"Okay." Jiang Zhu looked longingly at the duck placed on the corner of the table by Ye Anyian, and was forced to nod.

　　After carving the duck, Ye Anyian selected two square pieces of wood and whittled two wooden tops.

　　The wooden top he made was not a flimsy hollow product like stone. It was carved from solid wood.

　　After cutting out the rough outline, he polished it with a plane, and finally wiped off the wood chips on the surface with a rag, and a top was made with a round top and a pointed bottom.

　　"You are quite skillful with your hands." Jiang Zhu praised.

　　Ye Annian handed the wooden top to him and said, "How many years of craftsmanship does that have?"

　　He was a little carried away by what he said, and he felt something was wrong as soon as he said it, but it was already too late.

　　"You know how to make woodcuts before? I've never heard of it." Jiang Zhu asked.

　　Ye Annian touched the tip of his nose with some guilt: "I didn't come out very often at home before, and I didn't have any use for it. Besides, you have only been in the village for a long time."

　　"Yeah, that's right." Jiang Zhu nodded, "Then you learned this craft from Carpenter Ge?"

　　Ye Anyian:...

　　In his memory, neither the original owner nor he had any friendship with Carpenter Ge.

　　"Follow me, I learned from my mother." Ye Annian made up nonsense.

　　Anyway, the original owner's mother has passed away, and she doesn't seem to be from here, so there should be nothing wrong with it.

　　"Oh." Jiang Zhu responded and didn't ask any more questions.

　　Next, Ye Anyian made two more wooden tops and three bamboo dragonflies.

　　Jiang Zhu was boiling medicine, grinding medicine powder, and sorting out pulse records beside him.

　　The two of them were busy with their own business. When it was almost noon, the two children who were sitting at the stone table playing with flower ropes finally couldn't sit still.

　　Fu Zai supported Ding Qiu's blind cane, jumped over on one foot, and stood outside the medicine house, looking around.

　　Ye Annian had no choice but to get up and take him in and sit on his lap.

　　Xiaotuanzi saw the wooden duck on the table at a glance, and said in surprise: "Duck! Did my brother make it?"

　　The child was very smart. Looking at the table full of sawdust and tools, he guessed that Ye Annian had made it, although he did not remember when his brother knew how to make wood carvings.

　　"Yes, Fu Zai likes it?"

　　Fuzai nodded vigorously: "Yes!"

　　Ye Annian picked up the little duck but placed it in front of Jiang Zhu and said, "But my brother made this duck for Dr. Jiang. What does Fu Zai want? Can my brother do it well?"

　　Fu Zai stared at the chubby little duck. Although he was very reluctant to let go, he still nodded obediently.

"Hmm..." He picked his little finger and thought carefully, "Then I want a bunny. I am a rabbit."

　　"Okay." Ye Anyian agreed.

　　"How about being a little pig again?" Fu Zai asked.

　　Ye Anian understood immediately: "Is your brother Qiu a pig?"

　　"Yes!" Xiaotuanzi nodded like a fool.

　　But the next moment, Xiaotuanzi suddenly withered.

　　"What's wrong?" Ye Anyian asked.

　　"I don't know what brother Shitou is." His tone was full of disappointment.

　　Ye Annian laughed: "You are still thinking about everyone."

　　"Fuzai only has these two good friends." Fuzai blinked at Ye Anyian.

　　Jiang Zhu touched his head and said, "It doesn't matter. We'll find out next time when we go to find the stone and ask him."

　　"Yes," Ye Annian also agreed, "I also made wooden tops and bamboo dragonflies for you, so you can take them with you to the stone."

　　"Okay!" Xiaotuanzi was immediately happy.

　　When he saw the wooden spinning top and bamboo dragonfly that Ye Annian brought to him, he forgot about the wooden carvings of the zodiac and wanted to play with Brother Qiu.

　　Ye Anyian took the wooden top and bamboo dragonfly, carried him back to sit on the stool, and let him play with Ding Qiu.

　　Maybe I had something to do, and the morning passed quickly.

　　After lunch, Ye Anyian and Jiang Zhu were busy in the medicine house again.

　　Ye Anyian weighed the remaining pieces of wood and planned to make a wood carving of the twelve zodiac signs.

　　Once he made up his mind, he started doing it.

　　Different from the simple duck just now, this time he first used a brush to outline four different rough outlines on the wood, and then started to cut out the larger shape.

　　While I was doing this seriously, someone suddenly knocked on the fence door.

　　Aunt Tianhua's anxious voice came from outside the door: "Mr. Jiang! Is Dr. Jiang at home?!"

　　Ye Anian and Jiang Zhu looked at each other, and Jiang Zhu patted his shoulder, indicating that he could sit peacefully while he stood up and opened the door.

　　Ye Anyian nodded and continued to work on his hands.

　　After a while, Jiang Zhu closed the courtyard door and sat back.

　　"What's the matter with Aunt Tianhua? Why didn't anyone come in?" Ye Anyian asked.

　　Jiang Zhu crushed the medicinal powder with a medicine roller in his hand and replied: "It's Ji Fangfang who is sick and asked me to see a doctor."

　　"Then why don't you go?"

　　Seeing the serious look on Ye Anyian's question, Jiang Zhu felt helpless: "It's not a serious illness. Besides, she is an unmarried girl. It's not appropriate for me to visit alone."

　　In fact, there used to be a young girl in the village who was critically ill, and her family members came to invite him in a hurry, but he would usually go. After all, saving people was more important.

　　But Ji Fangfang is different. This girl has evil thoughts, and Aunt Tianhua is not a decent person either.

　　Moreover, since the two of them took the lead in arranging Ye Anyian last time, Jiang Zhu was too lazy to care.

"That's true." After hearing what he said, Ye Anyian also felt that it made sense.

　　After the small episode passed, the two of them started busy with their own affairs again, thinking that the matter was over.

　　Unexpectedly, not long after, the courtyard door was knocked again.

　　"Mr. Jiang! Dr. Jiang! I brought Fangfang!" Aunt Tianhua shouted outside the door.

　　Jiang Zhu:...

　　He had a headache.

　　But when the patient came to the door, he couldn't ignore it. He put down the medicine roller in his hand and had to get up and open the door again.

　　Not long after, Ye Annian saw Jiang Zhu leading Aunt Tianhua and Ji Fangfang into the door.

　　He originally wanted to go back to the house to avoid it, but when he was about to stand up, he was held down by Jiang Zhu.

　　"No, it's fine as long as you stay here." Jiang Zhu said.

　　After he said this, Ye Anyian sat down with peace of mind and continued to carve the shape of the little mouse on his hand carrying a rice bag.

　　Aunt Tianhua helped the pale Ji Fangfang into the medicine house and sat down across from the long table.

　　When he glanced at Ye Annian, who was sitting next to Jiang Zhu, his expression dropped.

　　"Dr. Jiang, why do you allow outsiders to be present during your consultation?"

　　Jiang Zhu was taking a pulse pillow. Hearing this, he smiled at her and said, "Aunt Tianhua, An Nian is my husband. If we talk about outsiders, you and Ji Fangfang are the ones."

　　"Since you are here to see me for treatment, how about you follow my rules?"

　　Aunt Tianhua was speechless by him and said angrily: "Let's see, you are the only doctor in this country."

　　What she said was that if there were other doctors in the nearby villages, she would not come.

　　"Mom!" Ji Fangfang, who was standing by, suddenly became unhappy. She secretly pulled off her mother's sleeve and complained, "How could you talk to Jiang Langzhong like this?"

　　"Hey, mother, it's better not to say anything anymore." Aunt Tianhua turned her head to one side and muttered, "It's really a bad girl. She's turning to outsiders before she gets married."

　　Ye Anyian was too lazy to listen to the two people arguing and concentrated on making the woodcut on his hand.

　　Jiang Zhu put down the pulse pillow and asked Ji Fangfang to put his hand on it in a business-like manner.

　　Ji Fangfang lifted up her sleeves and put her thin white wrists on them. She didn't know what was going on in her mind, but there was a blush on her face.

　　She said softly and coquettishly: "Mr. Jiang, please take a look. I've been feeling dizzy and weak for the past few days, and I have no appetite."