Sha Niu’s Headache

Chapter 28

Sha Niu’s Mother learned that evening that Ming Wen’s merit bead could glow.

After Sha Niu returned home, she began describing to her mother how incredible the Immortal Lady’s merit bead was.

“It must be because it’s almost full, so now it can glow.”

“The Immortal Lady said she’s only two merits short.”

Sha Niu’s Mother thought about it. With only two merits left before the Immortal Lady could ascend, Sha Niu’s Mother felt a strange sense of apprehension, like a traveler nearing home.

Sha Niu began to mutter, “No animals have come to the Immortal Lady for help lately… Sigh, still two merits short. It’s a pity that saving humans doesn’t count as merit, otherwise it would have been full long ago.”

Sha Niu’s Mother also thought of this. She couldn’t understand why saving people didn’t count toward the tally.

Still, they were only two merits short. Soon. The ascension would happen very soon.

Her mind began to wander. Once the Immortal Lady ascended, she would return to her old home.

She would take Sha Niu back to her hometown with her.

In her mind, she traced the road from the town to her family home over and over again.

That road was actually quite long. Halfway up the mountain, there lived a family named Peng who were distant relatives. When she was a child and grew tired from walking to the market, she would stop at their house for a drink of water. The elderly woman of that house often gave her biscuits to eat.

This time, she could take Sha Niu to their house to rest first, then ask someone to pass word along.

Her father and mother, her brothers and sisters… they must all miss her terribly.

They would surely come running toward her, crying and calling her name.

She remembered a time in her childhood when she had run away from home, and the whole family had searched everywhere for her.

She could imagine that after she returned this time, everyone would hold her and weep together.

As she thought, she found herself unable to sleep.

Beside her, Sha Niu was still mumbling in her sleep, talking about going back to heaven.

Sha Niu’s Mother didn’t want to lie down anymore. Perhaps because she had been imagining her return, she felt the need to walk.

As she wandered, she eventually reached the clinic.

For the past two days, Ming Wen had been sleeping over at the Zhang Family’s place, but the clinic wasn’t entirely empty.

Outside the clinic, Sha Niu and Ming Wen had worked together to build a small bamboo hut. Inside, it was divided into cages housing injured animals.

Under the moonlight, Sha Niu’s Mother watched these small creatures and couldn’t resist feeding them.

These were all merits.

Rabbits, mice, turtledoves, an eagle…

Sha Niu’s Mother fed them one by one. The only problem was the eagle; it refused to eat the corn grits.

Only two merits left. It would be soon.

They said it would be soon, but half a month had passed without a single animal seeking Ming Wen out.

Even the livestock raised by the villagers were all perfectly healthy, free from illness or disaster.

Sha Niu’s Mother looked at the sheep tethered outside someone’s door. Her hands and heart felt restless. If she were to break the legs of those two sheep…

If Ming Wen then healed them, would that count as the Consummation of Merits?

Sha Niu’s Mother quickly shook her head. Heaven surely knew everything. If she did such a thing, it might even result in a deduction of merit.

Forget it. She would leave it to fate. Those two merits would come eventually.

It wasn’t until the latter half of the night that she started heading back.

When she returned, Sha Niu had stopped talking in her sleep. She was sleeping soundly with both hands cradling her head.

Sha Niu’s Mother was amused by the posture. When Sha Niu was little, she often slept like that, holding her head with both hands.

She couldn’t remember which year she had stopped doing it.

Now, seeing that sleeping posture again made Sha Niu’s Mother’s heart soften. It was as if she were seeing her daughter as a young child.

She looked closely at her daughter. Sha Niu actually looked quite a bit like her.

As she watched, Sha Niu began to mumble in her sleep again.

“It hurts… Mama… it hurts so much…”

A nightmare?

Sha Niu’s Mother quickly shook Sha Niu awake. “Wake up, wake up! You’re dreaming.”

Sha Niu opened her eyes dizzily. Seeing her mother, she couldn’t help but feel happy.

She heard her mother ask, “Did you have a nightmare? What did you dream about? You kept crying out in pain.”

Sha Niu was about to break into a grin, but then she couldn’t help but touch her own head.

“Mama… it’s not a dream… my head hurts so much.”

Sha Niu’s Mother pulled her up, cradling her like a small child, and then felt her head.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Inside. It hurts inside.”

Nothing could be seen on the surface, and there were no injuries. Why would she suddenly have a headache?

Sha Niu began clutching her head, looking as if she wanted to ram it against something.

“Right now! I’ll carry you to find the Immortal Lady!”

Ming Wen hadn’t slept yet. Her eyes were open. In the room, there was the sound of mice scurrying about.

Those squeaking sounds seemed to be conveying some kind of information.

Ming Wen simply listened quietly. A gust of wind blew from the distant mountains, reaching this place and making the dried chili peppers tied outside the wall rustle loudly.

After a moment, she got out of bed, dressed herself, and walked out.

She had something very important to do tonight.

She walked out onto the field ridge just as Sha Niu and Sha Niu’s Mother arrived.

Seeing Ming Wen, Sha Niu’s Mother felt a surge of relief. She believed the Immortal Lady must have sensed Sha Niu was in trouble, which was why she had come out so late at night.

“Sha Niu says her head hurts. It hurts inside her head.”

In this spot, only a simple examination was possible. Ming Wen felt Sha Niu’s head and discovered a small protrusion at the back of her skull.

“Let’s go to your house first.” It was closer to Sha Niu’s home.

As Ming Wen spoke, she remembered that the kerosene lamp in Sha Niu’s house was too dim.

“Who in the village has a flashlight?”

“The Village Chief’s family.”

The Village Chief’s family was fast asleep when a knock at the door woke everyone. They were initially unhappy, but when they opened the door and saw Ming Wen, their mood shifted.

The Village Chief’s wife immediately broke into a smile. She didn’t know Ming Wen was an Immortal Lady, but Ming Wen had performed a small surgery on her to resolve a private health issue. Whenever she saw Ming Wen, she couldn’t help but smile.

“It’s Ming Wen. Come in, come in. It’s so late, is something the matter?”

Ming Wen said, “Sha Niu came back with a headache today. I need to borrow a flashlight.”

The Village Chief’s wife hurried inside to find a flashlight. Inside, the Village Chief heard it was Ming Wen and immediately got up as well.

He personally brought the flashlight out.

The Village Chief’s eldest daughter-in-law soon heard the commotion. Hearing that Sha Niu had a headache, she remembered that Sha Niu seemed to have been pushed and hit her head during the earlier scuffle with the Li family.

She climbed out of bed and hurried out to take a look.

The group arrived at Sha Niu’s house. Sha Niu’s Mother was holding Sha Niu, and only when she saw Ming Wen return did she finally see a glimmer of hope.

Ming Wen turned on the flashlight and began performing a basic examination on Sha Niu.

No one in the room dared to make a sound; the only thing audible was Sha Niu gasping in pain.

Soon, Ming Wen looked up and turned to Sha Niu’s Mother. “Sha Niu mentioned she had a high fever once when she was little, and the doctor said she wouldn’t survive. What exactly happened back then?”

Sha Niu’s Mother sensed Ming Wen’s gravity and replied, “Niu Niu was still very small then. I had gone to the Zhou family’s place to help out. They were building a new house and needed laborers. I worked there for two days and left Niu Niu with her grandmother. When I came home that night, Niu Niu was burning up. I thought it was just a cold at first and tried to bring her fever down, but it wouldn’t break even by midnight. I had no choice but to carry her on my back and hold a torch to find a doctor. The doctor took one look and said there was no hope.”

Ming Wen seemed to understand. She said, “Look here. There is a protrusion right here.”

“Is that a bump from the fall?”

“No.” Ming Wen guided her hand. Sha Niu’s Mother’s rough fingers felt like tree bark, but even so, she could feel a tiny protrusion there.

“There is something inside.”

When Sha Niu was helping out yesterday, she had been pushed by someone from the Li family. That impact had affected whatever was inside.

There was something in her brain.

Sha Niu’s Mother felt as if her own head had been struck by a hammer. For a moment, her world spun into darkness.

Scenes from the past flashed before her eyes.

Her daughter hadn’t been born simple-minded. It started after that high fever. When Sha Niu had that fever, she hadn’t been home.

After the fever broke, Niu Niu began to turn simple. During that period, she couldn’t speak, but she would always sleep clutching her head.

Sha Niu’s Mother suddenly realized that her little Niu Niu hadn’t slept like that because she liked it; it was because her head hurt, and the little girl didn’t know how to tell her mother about the pain.

Sha Niu heard them too. She suddenly let out a laugh, but because her head still hurt terribly, the laugh turned into a pained grimace.

“You’re still laughing…”

“Mama, I’m going to become the Immortal Lady’s merit…” Sha Niu said, her voice barely a whisper.

Sha Niu’s Mother remembered this, but she wasn’t thinking about merit; she was thinking about the Immortal Lady saving Sha Niu.

She looked at Ming Wen. Ming Wen’s expression was very solemn, and a trace of worry slowly crept onto a face that had previously seemed beyond worldly sorrows.

Sha Niu’s Mother paused. No, Ming Wen was an immortal; she shouldn’t feel worry.

Sure enough, when she looked again, the worry on Ming Wen’s face had vanished.

Ming Wen said, “Get Sha Niu on your back. We are going to the city together.”

Forget the village, even the town didn’t have the necessary medical facilities.

Suddenly, the Village Chief, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up: “No.”

Sha Niu was sick, and Ming Wen was the Immortal Lady. Shouldn’t she be able to save someone just by waving her hand?

When he saw the anxiety and fear on Ming Wen’s face, the Village Chief suddenly realized that Ming Wen was just an ordinary person.

If she were an immortal, how could an immortal feel fear?

The Village Chief spoke up to stop them from leaving. As expected, Ming Wen had no way to do anything to him.

After daybreak, the Village Chief found the Zhang Family, and Ming Wen was locked up by them.

As the Village Chief watched her being imprisoned, he felt that he had truly been possessed by some delusion before.

If she really were an immortal, how could she have had her fingers broken and been beaten black and blue every day while she was with the Zhang Family?

She was just like Honggu, nothing more than a doctor.

Once he realized this, he felt a sense of total relief.