Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

Upon hearing this, Ji Yongling immediately grabbed one of Naowa's hands to examine it, only to find that the hand and arm were swollen and red.

The boy on the ground had his eyes tightly closed, his teeth clenched, his chest heaving violently, his body trembling incessantly, and he would twitch from time to time.

"Brother Liangdi, give me a thin rope. Maimiao, find me a small jar about the size of my palm, and bring me a tinderbox and some straw. I need to hurry!"

"Brother Wangdi, pick some more dandelions and bring a basin of water."

Ji Yongling seemed to have returned to the scene of the rescue in the future, calmly giving instructions to the people around him.

Seeing that Ji Yongling was not flustered at all when checking on Naowa, and was now issuing orders in an orderly manner, Yu Liangdi felt relieved for some reason.

Seeing that Ji Yongling seemed to have a way to save her son, Naowa's mother forgot to wipe away her tears and hurriedly kowtowed to her repeatedly, saying, "Save my Naowa, save my Naowa! It's just the two of us left in the family. If anything happens to my Naowa, I won't be able to live either!"

Seeing Naowa's mother kowtowing to Ji Yongling, Ji Manchuan hurriedly urged Yu Shuiqin, "Shuiqin, quickly pull your aunt away, don't let her interfere with your sister saving Naowa."

Turning around, he saw Yu Liangdi still in a daze, so he patted him and said, "Hurry up and go, you silly goose, are you scared out of your wits?"

Ji Yongling carefully examined the skin on the back of Naowa's hand and saw a black spot at the bite site, which seemed to be a remnant of the venomous stinger. He immediately took out the tweezers he had obtained from the storage compartment and removed the stinger.

At this moment, Yu Liangdi also pulled two ropes of different thicknesses from the wall in the courtyard.

Ji Yongling took the thinner rope and quickly tied it about 2-3 centimeters above (closer to the heart) the sting site on the back of Naowa's hand. Then, she used her hand to squeeze the wound from around the sting site, forcing the blood containing toxins out of the wound.

After a moment, Ji Yongling loosened the rope, took the jar and straw from Yu Maimiao, lit the straw, circled it twice inside the jar, quickly pulled it out, and placed the jar on the back of her hand to hold it in place.

Ji Manchuan and the others watched Ji Yongling busily from the side, so nervous that they dared not even breathe.

About fifteen minutes later, Naowa's body gradually stopped convulsing and shaking, and his eyelids opened slightly. Naowa's mother was so happy that she shouted "Naowa!" and rushed over to him.

"Grab her!" Ji Yongling said without looking up.

Yu Liangdi grabbed Naowa's mother, afraid of disturbing Ji Yongling.

Ji Yongling gently removed the jar from Naowa's hand, and saw a clump of dark purple blood oozing out of the wound. She picked up the basin of water that Yu Wangdi had brought earlier and rinsed Naowa's wound several times.

Naowa gradually woke up, his eyes slightly open, looking up at the sky with some confusion, not knowing what had happened.

Seeing that Naowa had woken up, Ji Yongling felt relieved. She took the dandelion that Yu Wangdi had picked, squeezed out the white sap, and gently applied it to the wound on the back of Naowa's hand.

She touched Naowa's radial artery again and saw that his pulse was even and strong, and the rate had also slowed down. She said, "He should be fine now. Go back and rest well. Continue to apply this dandelion juice a few more times."

Naowa's mouth was dry, and he wanted to say something but couldn't make a sound. Yu Wangdi and Yu Liangdi quickly stepped forward to help him up.

With tears streaming down her face, Naowa's mother knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Ji Yongling again, saying, "Thank you, my little benefactor! Thank you, my little benefactor! You saved my Naowa, which is to say you saved my life. This old woman is willing to be your slave to repay you."

Ji Yongling turned aside, ignoring the courtesy, and helped Naowa's mother up with both hands, instructing her, "Be careful next time, don't get stung again. Naowa's constitution is such that getting stung again could be fatal."

Naowa realized that Ji Yongling had saved him and struggled to kneel down, but Ji Manchuan stopped him.

Ji Manchuan shouted, "You brat, you're not fully recovered yet, stop messing around. Liangdi, quickly take the poor kid back to rest in the mule cart. Everyone else, disperse and go about your business." After instructing Yu Liang, he went back to digging a latrine for Ji Shuicao's family.

Ji Yongling watched Naowa and the others leave, but his mood was not light; rather, it was somewhat heavy.

She knew all too well that in this era of extremely poor medical conditions, many seemingly ordinary illnesses and accidents simply had no chance of being treated. Like Naowa, if she hadn't happened to be there, he might have died without even seeing a doctor.

And cases like Naowa's are probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Ji Yongling took a deep breath. If possible, she would like to pass on those simple modern first aid techniques in the hope of helping more people.

However, it may be quite difficult. Even simple treatments need to be tailored to the individual and require accurate judgment based on the hospital's knowledge.

Upon entering the courtyard, Yu Shuiqin and Yu Maimiao surrounded her, excitedly saying, "Sister Yongling, you are so amazing! You can cure diseases and save lives. I hope I can be as amazing as you in the future!"

Ji Yongling smiled, but felt a little bitter inside.

Although the Ji family did not prevent girls from learning to read and practice martial arts because of her great-grandfather, private schools and academies still did not accept girls, and it was much more difficult for girls to learn skills than for boys.

Outside the door, Yu Wangdi, his lips still swollen and red, stared at Naowa's departing car, lost in thought for a long time. He thought that if he could raise scorpions at home, Naowa and he wouldn't have to go to the mountains to catch them anymore, and Naowa wouldn't be so easily involved in accidents.

Ji Yongling was standing under the persimmon tree in the courtyard, pondering how to graft the persimmon tree from Ji Shuicao's family onto his own tree.

Her grandparents had also planted a persimmon tree in their yard. Every autumn, the branches would be laden with red "little lanterns," almost breaking the branches. The persimmons, though small, were incredibly sweet and could be sucked out. Her family was small and couldn't eat that many, so even in winter, the tree was still full of fruit. Neighbors would pick some to eat as they passed by, and sparrows flying overhead would also come and snatch some.

She recalled the specific steps her grandfather took when grafting fruit trees in the family, and realizing that it was already summer, she could only choose bud grafting.

Ji Yongling took out an unopened fruit knife from the storage warehouse, selected several scions with plump leaf buds from the outer canopy of the persimmon tree in Ji Shuicao's house, cut off the leaves on the branches, leaving only the petioles, and then selected leaf buds on the branches, and cut them into a shield-shaped bud piece that is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom - the scion.

Considering that it would be several hours before they returned to Niujiazhuang, in order to keep the scions moist, Ji Yongling had no choice but to take a large piece of gauze from the storage warehouse, wet it, cover the scions, and place it in a shady spot in the yard, intending to take it with her when she went back.

Just then, Yu Wangdi's voice came from behind her: "Yongling, I've made up my mind, I want to raise scorpions."

Ji Yongling turned to look at Yu Wangdi, saw his serious expression, and asked with a smile, "Are you really sure?"

Yu Wangdi looked at Ji Yongling again and again, confirming that she was not as tall as him and not as old as him, but why did he always feel that this girl had a mature and steady aura that belonged to an adult today, and sometimes she spoke like an elder.