Chapter 163: Giving Big Black A Bath
Yun Jiao still remembered the matter of buying medicine for Big Dog to take a bath.
She pestered Father and went to town. That doctor indeed had medicine, it was in powder form. When bathing the dog, this medicinal powder needed to be mixed with water.
With the medicine obtained, the next day Yun Jiao took it and went with Fourth Brother to find Old Man Mu.
The old man and the young girl gathered together and mumbled about how to catch the dog and bathe it.
“Go boil water first. That dog is probably in the bamboo forest now, let’s go look for it.”
The place Big Black Dog went to most often was a hole in the bamboo forest. That hole was a dog den it dug itself.
This bamboo forest happened to be next to Old Mu’s house. Because of this, Big Black, having been fed a few times by Old Man Mu, often appeared at his house.
As expected, they discovered Big Black Dog curled up in a ball sleeping inside the dog den in the bamboo forest.
The fellow perked up its ears alertly upon hearing the noise, but seeing that it was the two of them, it relaxed again and even yawned.
Yun Jiao touched its dog head: “Big Black, let’s go take a bath.”
Old Man Mu: “Hurry, hurry, or the water will get cold.”
Although it didn’t understand, Big Black still stood up and followed behind them.
Big Black Dog wasn’t resistant to taking a bath.
It was just not accustomed to it, and the scent of the water was a bit pungent. So as soon as the water touched its body, Big Black Dog started shaking.
“Don’t move.”
“Aiyo, you stupid dog, what are you shaking water for when we’re bathing you.”
After a period of chaos, they finally managed to hold Big Black Dog down.
This black dog had thick fur, and the water still couldn’t penetrate to the inner layers.
There were still quite a few loose hairs from shedding stuck to its body.
“Grandpa Mu, do you have a comb?”
“Yes.”
Old Man Mu took out two wooden combs, and the old man and the young girl started using them to comb Big Black Dog’s fur.
“No wonder the water couldn’t get in, this fur is so thick.”
“So much loose hair hasn’t fallen out, you don’t even feel the heat.”
“Aiyo, this water is so black. Black Dog, are you really black? Perhaps you haven’t bathed for so long that you’ve turned this color!”
Old Man Mu was very talkative, rambling on endlessly while washing and combing the black dog.
Big Black Dog was very steady. Even when held and manipulated by the two, it didn’t bare its teeth at all. Yun Jiao asked it to lift its paws, lift its paws.
After Big Black Dog was washed clean, there was a pile of loose fur combed out next to it, and the water had also changed from the initial murky black to clear.
Faintly, one could still see dead lice that had been washed off.
“It was still black originally, but it looks much brighter after washing it clean.”
Exactly, before, Big Black’s fur looked messy and the color was a bit dim, but now it’s shiny and sleek.
After Big Black Dog confirmed that the two people were no longer bothering it, it stood a bit further away and began to shake vigorously, shedding water.
Its fur wasn’t dry yet, but Big Black Dog felt much lighter.
It wagged its tail and walked to Yun Jiao’s side, licking her hand, and then licked Old Man Mu’s hand to express gratitude.
Old Man Mu felt quite pleased internally, but outwardly he disliked it, saying, “You’ve licked my hand all over with your saliva.”
“There’s still plenty of yesterday’s cured pork leg soup left, I’ll get you some food to eat casually.”
Yun Jiao followed him in and out: “Grandpa Mu, you clearly like Big Black a lot.”
“I don’t like it; it’s just that I can’t finish the leftovers myself.”
“You just like him.”
“Hey, you little thing, what do you know? I don’t want to keep a dog.”
…………
It was settled that Yun Chenbei would study under Old Mu from now on.
The villagers were surprised when they saw Yun Chenbei and discovered he hadn’t gone to school.
“Isn’t your Chenbei attending high school? Why hasn’t he gone to school yet?”
Wang Mei had already thought of how to answer.
“My child is also pitiful; he had a fall when he was young, which caused a slight ailment of not recognizing people. Plus, he likes woodworking, so he’s apprenticed himself to Old Mu as a master and will learn some woodworking from him to support himself in the future.”
“What? What do you mean he doesn’t recognize people?”
Wang Mei then explained the matter of face blindness to them.
“Aiyo, a fall on the head can make someone not recognize people? Even though faces look different, why can’t he recognize them?”
Wang Mei thought for a moment and gave an example.
“Didn’t you all go to the Village Chief’s House to watch television? There was something called the Olympics, and you saw the foreigners in it, right? Can you recognize their faces?”
Anyway, in his eyes, those foreigners, regardless of whether they were black or white, all looked pretty much the same.
This example was very effective, and the person who had questioned him immediately fell silent.
“So, in your Chenbei’s eyes, we look the same as those foreigners?”
“Learning to be a carpenter under Old Man Mu, what kind of promising future is there in that? I haven’t seen Old Man Mu sell much.”
“Exactly, it’s better to continue attending school. University students are very valuable later on, and it’s easy to find a job. Perhaps one could even go to a factory to work as a worker; that’s an iron rice bowl.”
“Being a teacher is okay too, or a doctor.”
“But you have to be capable enough to get into a normal university or a university specialized in medicine to do that.”
In their hearts, doctors, teachers, and workers in big factories were all considered to have iron rice bowls and were the best jobs.
As for carpenters, these days in the countryside, who can’t knock and hammer to make a chair or a desk?
In their countryside, they didn’t need to make chairs and desks into any particular style.
It would be good if someone capable could make something like a wardrobe and sell it for a high price.
But they had never seen Old Man Mu sell anything big.
Regardless of what people outside said, Yun Chenbei was completely unaffected. Every morning after breakfast, he would go to Old Man Mu’s and work diligently, immersed in his own world.
However, after Wang Mei’s explanation, everyone understood that the child’s previous lack of greeting was not out of rudeness, but because he couldn’t distinguish who was who at all.
For a while, everyone felt quite sorry for the child.
Why did he have such a strange illness?
For the next period of time, their family didn’t go out to sea.
Because the new house was finished!
“It’s finally done.”
Today was Saturday, and the whole family stood in front of the new house, with smiles on everyone’s faces.
Two cement houses stood side-by-side, with a passage wide enough for three people to walk abreast in the middle. The cement houses were two stories high and looked exactly alike, clearly built as sibling houses.
The courtyard was large and also paved with cement, making it convenient for drying things on normal days.
The wall in front of the houses was also tiled with white tiles.
However, this way, the price of building the two houses was significantly more than the initial estimate.
It cost almost two thousand yuan in total.
Although spending this money felt a bit painful, looking at these two houses made it all worthwhile.
Yun Xiaowu impatiently asked, “When can we move in?”
“Wait a few more days. The newly built house is still a bit damp. We’ll clean up the hygiene here these few days first.”
In the following days, everyone was busy at the new house.
They cleaned the house and gradually moved some less urgent items from the old house over.
The once empty new house gradually gained a sense of life.
Yun Jiao also pestered Fourth Brother to use the leftover wood from building the house, along with some planks Old Mu had procured, to make a dog house and place it in the courtyard.
She lined the dog house with old clothes that were no longer used at home.
Last time, Fu Mingyu brought them some fabric. The several children at home all received new clothes. Granny Yun, who was accustomed to being frugal, and the others didn’t bear to throw away the patched-up old clothes that were replaced.
Now they are perfectly useful.
