After many years of mentioning Liang Qing, the man in his fifties still wept and nearly collapsed.
His name is Liang Chun, and Liang Qing is his sister. He died of illness in 1996 when he was only 26 years old. This made Liang Chun’s grief always wrapped in a great regret and unwilling.
[Liang Qing didn’t deserve to die, didn’t deserve to die… It’s not the old society…] He couldn’t continue to speak several times, but could only repeat these words vaguely over and over again. No one mentioned this matter to him again for more than 20 years. Now the memory has been cut open, causing a sad large-scale dike burst.
What he still cannot accept is-if it is an incurable disease, it is just enough, but this is no longer [the old society], how can his young sister still die of tuberculosis?
1
After Liang Qing’s death, the husband’s family held a grand funeral, invited the band to set up a water table, the coffin was very thick, and four people were found to carry it. It is said that the moment the coffin was lifted, the shoulders and hearts sank at the same time, and it was almost forgotten that Liang Qing was lying inside-before he died, he was so thin that only a pair of skeletons were left, weighing less than 70 kg.
Liang Chun did not see this scene. At that time, he applied for a job in a private school in Shandong. I want to find a teaching position in a summer tutorial class-because my family is going to be unable to open the pot. He used to teach English in a township high school. The monthly salary is 120 yuan, but I often have to squeeze out 40 or 50 yuan to see my sister, so the family is not enough. The four-year-old daughter, because of long-term malnutrition, has not yet fully grown her deciduous teeth and her hair is pale yellow, is often called “foreigners” by other children. As a father, he is anxious to let his daughter eat meat.
Liang Qing’s husband’s family reported the funeral on the second day after Liang Chun got on the long-distance bus. At that time, there was no mobile phone. When Liang Chun arrived in Shandong to get the news and hurried back, her sister had become a new grave beside the corn field.
Liang Chun heard his wife talk about the funeral scene and cried very dark. There are five siblings in the family, and he loves Liang Qing most: [He Ma Wei (Liang Qing’s husband) works in Dongguan, earning 400 to 500 yuan a month, and never sends it to his home. Now everyone is dead, so there is still what to do these! Why don’t you see the living with this money? ! ]
Liang Chun didn’t want to forgive his sister’s husband’s family and never stepped into Shipotou Village again.
2
The old people in Shipotou Village still remember Liang Qing, who used to sit at the door of her house and weave fishing nets, because she was [frightening thin] and [only two big eyes were left on one face], but she always smiled and looked kind and kind. Later, she had no strength to speak and still smiled when she saw people. She always held the ruler board and shuttle for weaving nets in her hand and piled green nylon ropes at her feet.
There are no fish ponds in Shek Po Tau Village, I don’t know who introduced the way women weave fishing nets and sell money to the village. When it’s done, someone will come and collect it. A small net bag costs 30 cents each, The fish basket is seven cents, The big net with fresh eyes cost three and a half yuan. Liang Qing was no longer able to work in the fields at that time. When her husband went out to work, her parents-in-law did not talk to her very much. They called her when they ate, so she had a lot of time to sit at the door and weave a net and do a rest. She saved enough 20 or 30 yuan a month and went to the town high school to find her brother to help buy medicine. In fact, this money is still far from enough. Liangchun never told her, but only squeezed money from her salary to cushion it.
Drugs are very expensive. At that time, there was already a free treatment policy for tuberculosis. County TB clinics have also started offering free combination drugs, Such as isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol. Unfortunately, Because these drugs have certain side effects on the liver, patients are often required to buy liver-protecting drugs, which cost more than ten dollars per bottle. What’s more, Liangqing’s disease has now turned into multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, taking more drugs than the original, and must often go to the county to review the film, the cost is even greater.
All this was because Liang Qing stopped taking the medicine without authorization during the first treatment.
At first, it was because it couldn’t stand the side effects of the combination, Liang Qing often vomits, The rice and the medicine spit out together, And then have to eat again, My stomach is miserable and I love money. She used to cry behind her back. She married in ’90, When she was found out, she lied that it was a cold. Later, she heard a sick person in the village say that if the cough was cured, it would be cured and she would not need to take medicine. So she stopped taking medicine like a lifeline.
Liang Chun taught in the town. It took several months before he heard that his sister had stopped taking medicine. He was worried and wanted to persuade her. However, his parents held him back: the water poured out by the married daughter is beyond our control now. Let her and her husband’s family make decisions.
But a few days later, Liang Qing came to her door: her cough recurred again, and this time it was more fierce and bloody-often coughing for days and nights, with blood in her phlegm, and her breathing became shorter and shorter. Gradually, she could not do any physical work. Even sweeping the ground twice, she had to rest on a broom for a while, waiting for the backward heartbeat to catch up.
Liang Chun pulled her to the tuberculosis prevention and control institute (tuberculosis prevention and control institute), but Liang Qing’s eyes were afraid: “elder brother, I can’t take that medicine, I’m dizzy and can’t stand vomiting… I heard the villagers say that the placenta can be cured by eating people. Can you find me some?” ]
Liang Chun got a fright, but he couldn’t resist Liang Qing’s pleading. He entrusted several relationships to the obstetrics and gynecology department of the county hospital and got several placentas. Liang Qing stewed them in a small pottery jar and ate them bit by bit like a baby.
But the cough is still fierce. Doctor Li of the county’s anti-corruption office watched Liang Qing’s film and shook his head and said, “Take it to the provincial capital chest hospital. I can’t cure it here.”
The doctor told Liangchun privately that Liangqing’s lungs were already full of holes, as if they had been eaten by worms.
Three
At that time, there was no rural medical insurance either. In order to raise enough money to go to the provincial capital to see a doctor, Liang Qing worked harder to weave fishing nets. Although breathing has begun to be difficult and her speech is becoming more and more silent, she still wants to live well.
Life used to be worth nostalgic-she always felt that if the child did not flow away, she would be happy and her husband would take care of her life and death. After all, before the abortion, her husband would accompany her to the hospital, wouldn’t let her do heavy work, and often would find ways to get back some meat to make a small kitchen for her… … …
Every time I talk to my brother and sister-in-law, Liang Qing always comforts himself [Ma Wei still cares about me, he used to be very kind to me], as if to confirm that life is not determined to turn his back on her.
The child stayed in her body for five months. At first she and her husband were both lucky, but then they came to the hospital for examination. The doctor looked at the anti-tuberculosis drugs Liang Qing was taking and his face became very uncertain.
Liang Qing finally saw her [child], a small red mass nested in a stainless steel basin. It was a boy. She felt that thousands of knives were poking her heart, her throat itched and vomited a mouthful of blood, and then she did not know.
After her husband had brought her home, He gradually cooled down to her, Soon she went out to work and did not even have a letter all year round. Liang Qing’s body was even worse because of induced labor. She said that she was always cold and hot when sleeping alone. Liang Chun was not at ease and took her back to her mother’s family. However, after living for a long time, her old father often lost his temper. Liang Chun took her to her own home in the town.
That was the last time people in township high schools saw Liang Qing.
4
Many people still remember Liang Qing in the township high school where Liang Chun taught. When she was studying there, she was considered the “best-looking girl of the 89th session” because of her beauty.
At the end of the 1980s, people could do very little about their appearance, and probably even cosmetics were not popular. Therefore, good-looking is natural good-looking-just like Liangqing, big eyes and white skin, they are often in a weak and quiet state. They treat everyone kindly, but they have a kind of absent-minded charm.
I heard that because of this very conspicuous beauty, There are many boys who like Liangqing, but they can only think about it, because everyone knows that Liangqing’s family has already made a reservation for her. Therefore, her unique pallor and emaciation have not aroused too much concern-for a girl who already has a husband’s family, concern is a difficult thing to grasp, and a little carelessness will seem to overstep.
Liang Qing’s grades were not very good, but she was always gentle and kind to people. After studying for three years, she never had any disputes with anyone. Later, everyone gave her a nickname of “good sister”-about someone finally found out that Liang Qing and Lin’s sister were the same as each other.
At that time, Liang Chun was not very happy when he heard of it. After all, [Sister Lin] is really the same disease, And he died early, His sister was called out like this, How unlucky. But Liang Qing herself didn’t pay much attention to it-the pain consumed her too much spirit to separate any extra attention from these pranks. Sometimes when she coughed with chest pain and gasped slightly, she felt that her life was like this anyway, and there was nothing wrong with being a good sister-even better if she had Daiyu’s talent.
However, miracles did not happen-Liang Qing failed to enter the university and silently welcomed the fate of returning home to marry.
5
When Liang Qing returned to this campus for the last time, people did not recognize her. Later, when they learned about her, they all sighed. However, Liang Qing would greet people with a smile, just covering her mouth with her hand.
After living in the town for a month, Liang Qing’s body seemed to have improved a little, but Liang Chun was in a hurry to go to Shandong and sent her back to her mother’s family first-who expected to say goodbye to heaven and man from now on.
Liang Chun felt that his sister was really pitiful. In the past 26 years, she had only a handful of truly happy and free times. But after her death, the harsh world seemed to have received satisfactory sacrifices and began to slowly improve.
Only then did Liang Chun become unable to stand the hospital-every time he went there, he always felt that many people had regained their vitality in it, but why didn’t his sister, who was as beautiful as flowers and pure as jade, get any chance?
In the first few years after Liang Qing’s death, he didn’t even eat much meat, because he couldn’t help thinking, if these sisters could eat, wouldn’t they die?
Or, if Liang Qing did not listen to the villagers to stop taking the medicine at the beginning, if he changed oral administration to intravenous administration with less reaction, if he could have better nutrition and mood in his husband’s family, if he induced labor earlier, if she could recover, and give birth to her husband, if she could delay for another year and a half, and wait for his brother to have the money to take her to a better hospital…
If, there are many if that have not come.
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