Chapter 14: Granny Liu

I rushed to the hospital again—having been there that very morning, I found myself back by afternoon. When the doctor saw my swollen finger again, she was startled. This time, besides injecting and draining the fluid, she also took some blood to run a pathology test, wanting to check if there was any bacterial infection.

The test results wouldn’t be ready until the next day at the earliest. The doctor urged me to take the anti-inflammatory medication on schedule. Perhaps doubting amoxicillin’s effectiveness, she prescribed a different, expensive anti-inflammatory drug, its packaging marked in English.

That evening, back at the inn, the team leader said to me, “Yunfeng, don’t go into the pit tonight. Rest at home. Our main task these two days is to find the main tomb chamber.” He asked me to stay behind and watch the place.

In the dead of night, my bitten finger swelled again. This time, not only was it swollen and oozing pus, but it also began to ache—a stabbing pain that came in waves roughly every twenty minutes.

We had rented the entire small inn; now only two guests remained: myself and a mole.

I knew the Sun brothers and the team leader were searching for the main tomb chamber, so I dared not disturb them. Late at night, clutching my swollen index finger and writhing in pain, I couldn’t sleep.

I sneaked out, hoping to find a pharmacy still open. I wanted some painkillers. In that year, online shopping was not widespread, and there was no medicine delivery service. Unfamiliar with Shunde, I walked north from the inn, asking everyone I met if any pharmacies nearby were open.

I did find out, but when I arrived, the pharmacies were long closed. There was no 24-hour pharmacy in sight.

By chance, I realized I was near Li Jing’s home in Nanshan District, close enough to see the arched bridge over the moat from where I stood.

Li Jing was a local. I thought maybe her family had some painkillers. If not, I’d have to make the long journey to the hospital.

At her door, I knocked a few times. Li Jing’s mother opened it.

“Xiao… Xiao Xiang? It’s so late, what brings you here?” she asked in surprise.

“Auntie, is Li Jing home? I want to see if you have any painkillers—I happened to be passing by and thought to borrow some.”

“Painkillers?”

“Yes, yes, come with me,” she said, leading me inside.

“Xiao Jing, are you asleep? Open the door,” her mother knocked on her door, then turned to me, saying the medicine was in a drawer in Li Jing’s room.

Not wanting to frighten anyone, I kept my hand hidden inside my pocket, so her mother didn’t see it.

Li Jing appeared in her Donald Duck pajamas, rubbing her eyes as she opened the door.

“Xiang… Xiang Yunfeng? What are you doing here?” Li Jing was genuinely surprised.

“Your mother said to lend some painkillers. She remembers there’s some in the cabinet under your desk. Go find them for Xiao Xiang. I’m boiling water in the pot; I need to fill the thermos,” her mother instructed before leaving.

Li Jing’s pajamas were short, only covering above her thighs. As she bent down searching the drawer, I couldn’t look because of the angle.

At that time, being inexperienced, the more I avoided looking, the more embarrassed I felt, my face burning red.

“What’s wrong? Your face is so red,” Li Jing said, puzzled, turning back with the painkillers in hand.

Just as I was about to speak, a sharp pain stabbed my finger like a knife cutting into flesh.

“N-nothing,” I stammered, sweat beading on my forehead from the pain.

“I’m… I’m going!” Without hesitation, I grabbed the bottle from Li Jing and ran out.

Not far from her house was a water tap—whose exactly, I didn’t know, but water flowed. I took three painkillers with water right there.

After resting a while, the pain persisted, so I took two more pills. Only then did the pain subside a bit.

Leaning against the sink, I began to feel chilled all over; my head grew heavy, my eyelids drooped, and my limbs lost all strength.

At that moment, I thought I was about to die—surely, I was dying.

I curled up by the sink, teeth chattering with cold sweat pouring down, then I fainted.

I hadn’t been unconscious for long before I awoke in Li Jing’s bedroom.

“You’re awake! What happened to your hand? You scared me to death! If I hadn’t felt something was wrong and come to check, do you realize what could have happened to you?” Li Jing looked at me with fear still in her eyes.

Li Jing’s mother came in, carrying a bowl of water. Seeing me lying in bed, she asked, “Xiao Xiang, why didn’t you say anything earlier? What’s wrong with your hand?”

I hesitated, then said, “Auntie, I think I was bitten by a snake.”

“Maybe bitten by a snake? What kind of snake?” her mother asked, surprised.

I shook my head, saying I didn’t know.

“That won’t do. We have no car, and the hospital is still far away. It’s the middle of the night; clinics and pharmacies are closed. Xiao Xiang, you can’t delay this. Xiao Jing, help him up. We’ll go see Granny Liu.”

On the way, Li Jing explained that Granny Liu was from Guangxi, married from a Miao village deep in the Ten Thousand Mountains. Granny Liu had her own herbal medicines and was skilled at treating venomous snakebites. Once, someone bitten by a five-step snake had no serum available at the hospital, but Granny Liu cured him quickly with her herbs—remarkably so.

It took forty minutes on foot from Li Jing’s house to Granny Liu’s. Along the way, I suffered another attack, but five painkillers still helped me bear it.

Granny Liu’s house was very old. Li Jing said it might be demolished after the New Year as a dangerous building. After knocking for a while, an elderly woman slowly opened the door.

Li Jing’s mother explained our situation immediately. When Granny Liu heard it was a snakebite, she quickly invited us inside.

Granny Liu was in her seventies. Her house smelled of unwashed rags. An old man lay on the bed, covered thickly, looking unwell.

Looking at my finger swollen like a sunken finger and the two small puncture marks left by the bite, Granny Liu’s face darkened.

“Young man, I ask you—are you sure it was a snake that bit you? Where did it happen?”

I couldn’t admit to Li Jing that I was bitten during a tomb raid, so I stammered and lied, “I… I was bitten at home.”

“Home?” Granny Liu looked at me meaningfully. “I don’t think such a creature lives at home…”

She waved her hand, signaling Li Jing and her mother to step outside. She wanted to speak with me alone.

Once they left, Granny Liu shook her head. “Young man, let me be clear. Whatever bit you is not a snake. You’ve been to the hospital, right? What did the doctor say?”

“Granny, the doctor first said it was swelling. Then they took blood to run a bacterial pathology test, to see if there was an infection.”

Hearing this, Granny Liu sneered coldly, “By the time they find out the cause, your body will be done for.”

“There’s no such thing at home. Not even in the wild mountains. What bit you is a creature with white antennae called the corpse horned fairy by the elders in the Ten Thousand Mountains Miao tribe.”

“They only live among piles of corpses.”