Chapter 44: A Cow’s Difficult Labor

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“Two letters. Sixteen cents in all,” the clerk said from behind the window without raising his head.

Zhou Yichen took out the money and watched as the clerk stamped both envelopes with two loud clacks of the red postmark.

With that done, the weight in his heart finally lifted.

After leaving the post office, Zhou Yichen rode his bicycle and turned into the supply cooperative with practiced ease.

He went straight to the butcher’s stall at the very back.

It was still early, and there were not many people gathered before the stall.

Half a pig still lay on the chopping block, while a broad-shouldered butcher swung his cleaver with brisk efficiency, dividing the carcass into portions.

Zhou Yichen squeezed his way in, his eyes fixing precisely on his target.

“Comrade, give me that fatty piece.”

He pointed to the snow-white slab of pork fat.

“And cut me two jin of pork belly too. I want a good balance of lean and fat.”

The butcher glanced up at him. Seeing how direct he was and how quickly he moved, the man brought his cleaver down several times in swift succession and cut off exactly what he wanted.

“Two jin and three liang of fat, two jin and one liang of pork belly. Three yuan and twenty-nine cents altogether, plus four jin of meat coupons.”

Zhou Yichen paid the money and handed over the coupons without hesitation.

In those days, anything containing oil was precious beyond measure.

That large piece of fat would yield nearly half a jar of lard. And the cracklings left behind—whether wrapped into steamed buns or stir-fried with cabbage—would be delicious enough to make one’s tongue ache with pleasure.

As for the beautiful pork belly, he planned to make a pot of braised pork, glossy with oil and tender enough to melt in the mouth, as a proper reward for himself and Jiang Xiaoman.

He wrapped the meat carefully in waxed paper and tied it to the rear rack of his bicycle.

Looking at his heavy, satisfying haul, Zhou Yichen’s lips curved into a pleased smile.

Remembering that they were still short of a scale for weighing medicinal herbs, he bought one at the cooperative as well.

Once everything was done, Zhou Yichen decided to head home.

With a bicycle, he could always come back whenever they needed something. It would not take much time.

He swung onto the seat, pushed down hard with his foot, and the bicycle shot forward with a sharp whoosh.

Once he returned, he planned to go into the mountains and gather some medicinal herbs.

He had heard that snowfall in Heijiang came suddenly and heavily.

Once the mountains were sealed off by snow, gathering herbs would be out of the question; even leaving the house would be difficult.

He had to stockpile as many herbs as possible while he still could, in case they were needed later.

The road home was the same deeply rutted dirt track as before.

But Zhou Yichen rode at full speed.

The bitter wind poured down his collar, yet he did not feel it at all.

His mastery of the Eight Brocades at the fourth level had given him stamina and endurance far beyond those of an ordinary person.

These several dozen li of mountain road were nothing more than a warm-up for him.

Even riding the heavy twenty-eight-inch bicycle, he did not feel the slightest fatigue.

The wheels rolled on and dust flew into the air.

Before long, the familiar outline of Sunrise Brigade appeared at the end of the mountain road.

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Just as he reached the village entrance, he saw two half-grown boys running toward him from inside the village.

Taking a closer look, he recognized them as the same two boys who had accompanied Captain Wang Zhenshan a few days earlier to deliver firewood to him.

He remembered that they were called Ergou and Tiedan.

“Doctor Zhou!”

“Doctor Zhou!”

Even from a distance, the two boys were shouting at the tops of their lungs, their voices thick with anxiety.

They ran up to the bicycle, bent over with their hands on their knees, and gasped for breath.

“Doctor Zhou... Doctor Zhou... We’ve finally found you!” Ergou panted.

Zhou Yichen swung one long leg over the bicycle and stepped down, his brow furrowing slightly.

“What happened?”

“Take your time. Don’t panic.”

Tiedan managed to catch his breath and hurriedly cut in. “Something terrible happened!”

“Captain Wang sent us to find you! He told you to hurry over there!”

Ergou nodded repeatedly and pointed toward the depths of the village.

“Quick! Come with us!”

Zhou Yichen’s heart tightened.

For Wang Zhenshan to send people running after him in such a panic, it could not possibly be a minor matter.

“What happened?” he pressed.

“It’s the brigade’s... the brigade’s big yellow cow. She’s having a difficult birth!”

A cow was having trouble giving birth?

Zhou Yichen’s expression changed, and he immediately understood the gravity of the situation.

In those days, a cow—especially a breeding cow capable of producing calves—was practically the lifeblood of a production brigade.

Plowing the fields, hauling carts, producing calves... everything depended on it.

If something happened to that cow, it would be a devastating loss for Sunrise Brigade.

As for why Wang Zhenshan had sent for him, that was perfectly understandable.

After all, throughout the entire Green Mountain Commune, there was not a single proper veterinarian to be found.

Before Zhou Yichen arrived, Sunrise Brigade had not even had a barefoot doctor.

Now he was the only person in the brigade who knew anything about medicine.

Calling for him was simply a desperate last resort.

They had no choice but to treat a dead horse as though it might still live.

What Wang Zhenshan did not know was that this move of his had actually been the right one.

To Zhou Yichen, the underlying principles of medicine were connected.

Human and animal anatomy differed in detail but not in essence; physiology and pathology followed the same fundamental laws despite their countless variations.

Whether he was treating a person or a cow, he saw no essential difference.

Of course, all of that was still theoretical. Whether he could truly perform the procedure in practice remained unknown.

But at a time like this, regardless of whether he was capable of it, he could only go and see the situation for himself.

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“I’ll go ahead. You two follow me.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Yichen mounted his bicycle and raced toward the brigade’s cowshed.

He knew where the cowshed was. He had never been there, but he had heard enough about it to know the way.

He drove his foot down hard, and the heavy bicycle shot forward along the dirt road, raising a trail of dust.

The wheels thundered onward. In only a few minutes, a courtyard thick with the pungent smells of fodder and livestock appeared before him.

Zhou Yichen made a graceful skid to a stop, stepped off with one long leg, and landed firmly on the ground.

The small cowshed was already surrounded by a crowd.

The brigade commander, Gao Jianjun; the accountant, Li; and the leaders of several other production teams—Sun Mancang, Zhao Xuenong, Zhang Jianshe, Qian Dayong, Zhou Xingtian, and the rest—nearly every cadre in the brigade had gathered.

Every face wore the same anxious, grave expression.

He also spotted Doctor Sun from neighboring Red Flag Brigade.

“Yichen! You’re finally here!”

Wang Zhenshan was the first to notice him. As though he had seen a savior, he hurried over in three quick strides.

Grabbing Zhou Yichen by the arm, he asked anxiously, “Can you treat a cow? This one’s having a difficult birth!”

From inside the cowshed came the mother cow’s pained, suppressed lowing. The sound made everyone’s heart clench.

A powerful, stinging odor rushed over them—the rank smell unique to livestock, the raw green scent of fresh fodder, the heavy tang of blood, and the foul, fishy stench of ruptured amniotic fluid.

The mingled odors fermented in the cramped space, churning everyone’s stomach.

Doctor Sun turned as well. When he saw Zhou Yichen, a spark of hope flashed through his clouded eyes, only to fade into a bitter smile.

He stepped aside of his own accord.

“Little Zhou, you take a look.”

He sighed and said frankly, “I only know how to treat people. I don’t understand livestock at all, and I don’t dare to interfere recklessly.”

The two of them had discussed medicine before, and Doctor Sun already knew that this young man was no ordinary person. His medical foundation was solid, and his insights were exceptional. In terms of ability, he might even surpass Doctor Sun himself.

The older man felt that perhaps the young man really did have a solution.

Zhou Yichen nodded without ceremony and walked straight to the cowshed.

The interior was dim, lit only by a few shafts of sunlight leaking through gaps in the dilapidated roof.

The large yellow cow lay collapsed on a thick bed of fodder, her massive body heaving violently. Every breath was accompanied by a painful moan.

Her coat was soaked with sweat and some unknown fluid, plastered tightly against her skin and leaving her in a miserable state.

Her huge abdomen was unnaturally swollen and taut. Irregular movements and forceful impacts could be seen beneath the hide.

The fodder beneath her had been soaked through with dark-red blood and cloudy fluid, filling the air with a sickening, heart-wrenching stench.

“Doctor Sun, what’s the situation?”

Doctor Sun answered with deep concern, “From what I can tell, the calf is probably in the wrong position. It’s stuck inside—neither able to come out nor move back—and everything has simply locked up.”

Zhou Yichen was about to step forward for a closer examination when Brigade Commander Gao Jianjun came over as well.

“Doctor Zhou, she’s the hardest-working cow in our brigade! She was the one we depended on for last year’s spring plowing! If she dies, we won’t know how we’re going to plow the fields when spring comes! The loss would be enormous!”

“Yichen, you have to think of something!”

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