Lost You Forever

Chapter 1 - Life is Short Like a Temporary Stay

Chapter 1 – Life is Short Like a Temporary Stay

That day, was the same as the last thousand days before it.

A few rooster crowed and there gradually was the sound of human life in Qing Shui Town. Lao Mu (Old Mu) from the Hui Chun Clinic hurried to pick up fresh lamb from Butcher Gao. Two helpers were busying for the start of the day’s business.

The town doctor Wen Xiao Liu (Xiao Liu means Little Six) had a bowl of lamb stew in one hand and a biscuit in the other and was squatting on the backyard stoop noisily eating. Past the steps were two pastures planted with medicinal herbs, and in between was a little pathway that led to a small river. The sun was just rising and casting a golden glow on the river surface. The flowers were blooming on either side of the river banks and the birds were flying and landing, lending it a very poetic view. Xiao Liu admired the view while thinking the swans must be very plump and would be tasty to catch a few and roast them.

After the stew was in his stomach, he put the dirty bowl in a pail next to the door where other dirty bowls already resided. He picked up the pail to take down to the river to wash. There was a black shadow next to some water logs by the edge of the river and it wasn’t clear what kind of bird it was. Wen Xiao Liu put down the pail and picked up a rock to toss at it. The rock hit the black shadow but it didn’t move.

Wen Xiao Liu was stunned, when did he ever get so accurate? He walked over and saw that it wasn’t a bird but was a person. Wen Xiao Liu immediately turned around and walked to the edge of the river to wash his dishes, as if he didn’t just see something that resembled a human corpse.

Wen Xiao Liu complained as he washed the dishes “This dish will get dirty at the next meal despite getting cleaned now. Why wash after every meal? If one eats out of one’s own bowl, it’s not dirty, so one can wash every few days.”

Wen Xiao Liu never made his bed in the morning. If he folded his blankets he would just have to mess it up that night so why would he make more work for himself. Who’s that stupid? He could get away with never making his bed, but he had to wash the dirty dishes otherwise Lao Mu would have smacked him already.

Xiao Liu complained under his breath and rinsed all the bowls one time before picking the pail up and heading back, his eyes never once glancing towards the logs.

The people of Qing Shui Town saw more dead people than people outside the town had eaten meals, even the kids were desensitized to it.

Hui Chun Clinic may not be a large clinic but Wen Xiao Liu was especially skilled at treating infertility, with ten ladies coming to seek help and he could cure perhaps six or seven of them so the business of the clinic was pretty decent. After being busy for half a day, it was noon when Wen Xiao Liu wandered into the backyard moving his body after sitting still for so long.

Ma Zi (his name is a derogatory term for someone marked with leprosy) was sorting the herbs in the backyard and pointed to the door “A beggar came by and I tossed him half a biscuit.”

Xiao Liu nodded and said nothing. The kitchen only stoked the fires twice a day morning and evening so Xiao Liu took a biscuit and a scoop of water from the water pail before squatting by the door and looking outside as he ate.

Outside the door was a man sprawled on the ground. His clothes were tattered, his hair was matted, his skin was scratched and shredded, and he was covered in dirt. Other than his shape resembling a human being, nothing else looked like a one.