Chapter 12 Treating Ears

　　Seeing Ye Annian lying on his lap, Jiang Zhu raised his hand and took out the needle bag where he kept his silver needles from the long wooden table.

　　The outside of the needle bag has been worn and turned yellow. When you open it, you will find soft leather inside. Twelve delicate gold needles are inserted on the left side, and nine silver needles with a cold light are inserted on the right side.

　　His slender fingers crossed from the left to the right, and he took out a silver needle as thin as a cow's hair and held it in his hand.

　　After exploring the acupuncture point around Ye Anyian's left ear with his fingers, he started to insert the needle neatly.

　　After the silver needle was inserted into the acupuncture point, there was only a brief stinging sensation, followed by the discomfort of soreness and swelling. Ye Anian frowned slightly and tolerated the discomfort.

　　After a moment, nine silver needles pricked the acupuncture points around his ears. Jiang Zhu withdrew his hand. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Ye Anyian's hand tightly grasping the hem of his clothes, and reached out to hold his hand.

　　"What tools do you need to make wood carvings?" He spoke slowly to distract Ye Anyian.

　　Ye Annian was still startled when his hand was suddenly held by someone.

　　Jiang Zhu's hands were thin and slender with well-defined joints, giving them a sharp and cold look.

　　Such hands are suitable for holding swords, not needles. Ye Anian suddenly came up with an idea.

　　But when Jiang Zhu held his palm, it had a completely different hot temperature from what it looked like. It was warm, giving him an inexplicable sense of security.

　　"Hmm..." he thought for a while and said, "I need a hammer, chisel, plane and a steel knife."

　　These are the four most basic tools. In fact, if we break them down, there are many different types.

　　For example, hammers are divided into heavy hammers and light hammers; chisels include flat chisels, gouge chisels, and triangular chisels; planes also come in different sizes.

　　There are many types of rigid knives: straight knives, curved knives and reverse knives. According to his usual carving habits, he also customized many carving knives with special heads.

　　Wood carving tools should be easy to buy, but as for the carving knife, you may have to order it specially.

　　Just as he was thinking about it, Jiang Zhu's voice rang out: "Then tomorrow I'll go to Carpenter Ge's house in the west end of the village and ask him to help me get a set."

　　"If you have any special tools that need to be customized, you can draw them for me and I will find someone to make them."

　　"Yeah." Jiang Zhu thought thoughtfully, and Ye Anqing responded softly. He felt sleepy and closed his eyes again.

　　The acupuncture was performed three times in total. After the last acupuncture was removed, Jiang Zhu wanted to wake Ye Anyian up, but found that he had already fallen asleep.

　　With his hand still held tightly by him, Ye Anyian's breathing was steady and even, and he was already fast asleep.

He didn't want to wake him up, but he hadn't drunk the medicine yet, and if he delayed any longer, the medicine would get cold.

　　After gently patting Ye Annian's shoulder, Jiang Zhu still called him up.

　　Ye Annian slept soundly. Although the summer night was a bit cool, he didn't notice it since they were in the medicine house and he was covered with Jiang Zhu's clothes.

　　He sat up from Jiang Zhu's lap and raised his hand to touch his left ear. It seemed lighter than before, without the stuffy and dirty feeling.

　　It's just that after lying down for a long time, my waist felt a little sore when I stood up.

　　"You go into the room first, and I'll be back later with the medicine." Jiang Zhu was standing by the small clay stove looking at the Dingchuantang soup cooked for him.

　　"Okay." Ye Anian wrapped up his clothes and left the medicine house as instructed.

　　The courtyard was quiet. Ding Qiu had already asked Jiang Zhu to drink medicine and took Fu Zai to bed.

　　Both the east and west rooms were dark, except for a candlestick placed on the stove in the middle room, which was emitting a dim yellow light.

　　Ye Annian entered the east room, put away Jiang Zhu's clothes, and began to make beds for the two of them.

　　The east room is a big kang. Even if the kang cabinet and table are placed at the foot of the kang, the place is still very spacious, and there is enough room for one person to be between the two people's bedding.

　　The head of the kang was next to the stove fire in the main room outside, Ye Annian slept, and Jiang Zhu slept at the foot of the kang.

　　As soon as the bed was made, Jiang Zhu came in with a medicine bowl, which was still a large, dark bowl.

　　Ye Anyian took the medicine bowl and drank it all. Before he put the medicine bowl down, someone stuffed a candied fruit into it.

After Jiang Zhu fed the candied fruit, he went to give Ye Anyian a glass of water to rinse his mouth with. He added some light salt to the water to remove the medicinal smell from his mouth.

　　It was getting late, so after a simple wash, the two of them went to bed separately.

　　This day was so tiring that Ye Anyian almost fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

　　Have a good night's sleep.

　　The next morning, when he opened his eyes, it was already broad daylight.

　　Fuzai was sitting next to his pillow with a smile on his face, maltose in his mouth.

　　Seeing that he was awake, he stretched out his little hand and poked his forehead, and said in a soft voice: "Brother, get up, the sun is shining on your butt!"

　　Ye Anyian:...

　　The sun was shining brightly outside, shining through the thin window paper, and the warmth was not shining directly on his quilt.

　　He quickly got up and reached out to poke Fu Zai's forehead: "Don't rush me, brother, get up now."

　　"Where are Ding Qiu and Doctor Jiang?"

　　"Ding Qiu is helping me dry the medicinal materials," Jiang Zhu leaned in from the main room outside, "I'm making breakfast for you."

　　Ye Anyian:...

　　In the whole family, he is the only one sleeping in.

　　As if she knew what he was thinking, Jiang Zhu said: "I went to town for a day of running yesterday, so I will be tired. I'm used to getting up early. If you're still sick, just sleep a little longer."

　　"I've slept well, let me help you." Ye Anyian rubbed his forehead and folded his quilt.

　　The new clothes were made of light and soft materials, one in moon white and the other in blue mountain color. Although the style was simple, with no patterns, and it was not silk and satin, they were simple and elegant, which he thought was good.

　　After choosing the blue mountain-colored dress and getting dressed, Ye Anyian went to the main room to set up the table and dishes after washing up.

　　Ding Qiu was drying the selected medicinal materials in the courtyard. When he heard the noise, he came in with a blind stick to help. Ye Anian rushed him and sat next to him.

　　Although Ding Qiu did all these tasks before, now that he is no longer here, we can no longer ask a child with eye problems to do it.

　　Breakfast is still a light but nutritious combination, with noodles in clear soup, eggs, a plate of pickled radishes, and some boiled corn.

　　"There are also cooked corn and sweet potatoes in the pot. Go get them when you two are hungry," Jiang Zhu said.

　　The two-and-a-half-year-olds are growing up, so the house must always have food ready.

"But don't eat too much. I'm going to make fried sausage with green onions for lunch."

　　"Wow!" When Fu Zai heard this, he couldn't help but start drooling.

　　He took a big bite of the poached eggs in his bowl, which tasted like fat intestines: "Doctor Jiang, are you a chef?"

　　Ding Qiu laughed softly at the side and explained: "My husband didn't know how to cook before. However, my eyesight is bad, so he had to learn to cook. Gradually, the more he cooked, the better his cooking skills became." The better."

　　After he finished speaking, he lowered his head and looked a little depressed: "If my eyes are good, I can help you sir."

　　At least I can help my husband with the cooking.

　　But because he can't see, Jiang Zhu only lets him do simple tasks and never lets him touch the fire for fear that he will burn himself.

　　"You have done a good job." Ye Annian comforted him, "Why does a child do so much work? I can do it from now on."

　　Ding Qiu is only eight or nine years old. In modern times, eight or nine-year-old children are probably still the baby of the family who can only stretch out their hands for food and open their mouths.

　　"But..."

　　Ding Qiu clenched the chopsticks in his hand, his face a little uneasy.

　　He was originally a street boy who was picked up by Jiang Zhu.

　　So he has been trying to do what he can to make himself useful instead of a burden.

　　"An Nian is right," Jiang Zhu patted him on the shoulder, "From now on, you will be responsible for taking care of Fu Zai. You will learn medical skills from me when you have time. You will also be responsible for the household chores, An Nian and I."

　　"Yeah." Ding Qiu sniffed hard and felt his eyes were hot, but he would not shed tears.

　　After eating the morning meal, Jiang Zhu gave Ye Anian the cooked Dingchuan soup to drink, then took the medicine basket and went to the mountain to collect medicine.

　　Ye Anyian wanted to follow, but was rejected this time.

　　"There is no need for a town in the mountains. All the good medicinal materials are deep in the mountains. The climb is very tiring. You can take Fu Zai and Ding Qiu and wait for me at home."

　　"Then be more careful." Ye Annian warned as he sent Jiang Zhu out.

　　Close the fence gate and return to the yard with the two little ones.

　　With nothing to do, he thought for a while and went to Jiang Zhu's medicine house to grind ink and lay paper, intending to draw the carving knife he needed to order according to the pattern.