A Leisurely and Extravagant Life - Chapter 7
Chapter 7: A Broken Leg
Luo Tianwang didn’t know what these light spots really were, and even when they were consumed, he didn’t care much. That day, he slept much less than usual. Still, no one noticed—since to everyone else, he spent most of his time asleep anyway, a little more or less made no difference.
After school, Luo Tianwang wasn’t asleep when his grandfather came to fetch him, but he wasn’t happy about it. On the way home, he refused to say a single word.
Luo Baolin, however, wore a constant smile. No matter how much his grandson sulked, he was overjoyed—Tianwang’s condition had clearly begun improving!
What Tianwang didn’t know was that in the morning, when he walked to school by himself, his grandfather had secretly followed from a distance, only turning back after he saw him safely enter the classroom.
Even after dinner, Tianwang was still pouting.
“Tianwang, tired? Want to come help me with the cattle this afternoon?” Luo Baolin asked with a smile.
“I’ll go, but I don’t want you coming with me. I can do it alone,” said Tianwang.
“That won’t do. What if you fall asleep on the ox again? If it eats someone else’s rice, we’ll have to pay for it,” Luo Baolin said, shaking his head.
Tianwang wasn’t sure if he’d doze off again that afternoon, but judging by past experience, it was likely. So he compromised: “Then let me lead the ox.”
When Tianwang went to lead it, the ox affectionately licked his hand. As usual, he patted its head, but this time the ox barely reacted.
Tianwang didn’t know that when he had touched the ox’s head that morning, he had unconsciously channeled many light spots into it. Animals were often more sensitive than humans, and the light spots had made the ox feel comfortable.
The ox could sense the light spots gathered around Tianwang, so it stayed unusually close to him.
“How odd. Why is this ox listening to Tianwang so well?” Luo Baolin muttered in puzzlement. But seeing the ox so docile toward his grandson, he felt much more at ease. An ox with a temper could be dangerous.
Time passed quickly, and more than a month slipped by. Tianwang still fell asleep often in class, dozing off without meaning to. But his sleep had improved a great deal compared to before. More importantly, inside that strange place in his body, the light spots had gathered more and more, finally condensing into a single droplet.
He found this droplet much easier to control than the scattered spots. With it, he could easily form that mysterious character. But what purpose the character served, he had no idea.
Every day when he went to herd cattle, he would pat the ox on the head, and the ox seemed to enjoy it immensely. His hand always carried many light spots, and the animal relished the sensation.
Many times, Tianwang tried to draw the character in his sketchbook, but he could never reproduce the same feeling—it always looked wrong.
Autumn arrived, the season of harvest. The fields were filled with golden rice ready to be reaped, swaying in waves of gold whenever the wind blew. Luo Baolin and Xiao Chunxiu carried the threshing machine out to the fields, while Tianwang followed behind, balancing a yoke with two baskets.
The machine had been made with heavy old oak and was solid and durable. Even after more than twenty years, and though well-maintained, it remained extremely heavy. In his younger days, Luo Baolin wouldn’t have minded, but now, with age and ailments, carrying it was a struggle.
Barefoot, he accidentally stepped on a small stone. Pain shot through his foot, and he stumbled. Already straining under the weight, he lost his balance and fell off the field ridge, more than two meters high, crying out: “Aiya!”
The heavy threshing machine crashed to the ground. Walking just behind, Xiao Chunxiu was struck by it across the neck. Luckily, when she fell, the impact was cushioned, and a gap formed between the machine and the ground. Even so, she was in pain, struggling to breathe under the weight.
Tianwang panicked, threw down his baskets, and rushed forward, trying to lift the machine off his grandmother.
Her neck aching, she pushed with all her strength, managing to squeeze out from beneath it. Red marks burned across her throat, but ignoring them, she cried urgently:
“Tianwang, go check on your grandpa! Darn old fool! I told you, everyone else has switched to electric threshers—you should’ve gotten one too! Those things are light enough for one person to carry, but this clunky old coffin nearly killed us!”
Tianwang leapt down the ridge. His grandfather was sitting in the muddy paddy, face dripping with sweat.
“Grandpa, what’s wrong?” Tianwang ran to help him up.
Waving him back, Luo Baolin said, “Grandpa’s fine. Go tell your grandma to call someone for help.”
“How are you, old man?” Xiao Chunxiu called anxiously.
“My leg’s probably broken. I heard a crack just now,” he admitted.
Villagers, seeing the couple had fallen, rushed over.
“What happened?” Luo Guangfu hurried over and carried Luo Baolin out of the paddy on his back.
“I’m old, useless now. I used to carry this thing alone, now I can’t even lift it,” Baolin muttered, ashamed.
“I told you last time—buy a new thresher! Everyone in the village has switched to electric ones. They weigh half as much as yours. Now look, something’s happened! You can’t fight age forever,” Guangfu scolded gently, carrying him home.
“Not a single stalk has been harvested yet. With you injured, what are we going to do now?” Xiao Chunxiu fretted.
“Forget the rice for now. Get Baolin to the town hospital—don’t delay treatment,” Guangfu said.
“Call Zengcai over to take a look. When it comes to treating sprains and breaks, he’s no worse than the hospital,” Luo Changping suggested.
“That works too,” Guangfu agreed. Before long, Luo Zengcai arrived. He examined Baolin’s leg with his hands, frowning.
“The bone’s broken. Needs to be set in a cast,” he said.
In hospitals, “casting” meant plaster, immobilizing the bone until it healed. But in the countryside, there was no plaster.
Instead, Zengcai stripped bark from a pine tree, wrapped it around the broken leg, braced it with wooden sticks, and tied it tight with rope. Crude compared to hospital treatment, and far less comfortable—but it was local, cheap, and available.