Editor's Reading Interactive | Fangchun: Gold Teeth Have a Heart of Gold

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Fang Chun, formerly known as Wei Fangfang, his works have appeared in Youth Literature, Digest Weekly, Changzhou Evening News, etc.

Gold teeth have a heart of gold

——Reading Qiu Shanshan's "Golden Teeth" has a feeling

Fang Chun

Talking to his son that day, he somehow talked about gold teeth, and he said that in the past, rich people would replace their teeth with gold teeth and show off their wealth. I say I hate people who see gold teeth the most. When I was a child watching movies, many landlords who wore hats and smoked cigarettes were bad enough to have big gold teeth, and big gold teeth were simply the symbols of negative characters. Besides, our hometown dragged the snot of a child into his mouth, called "big gold teeth hanging", so when I heard the word "golden teeth", I was uncomfortable. Unexpectedly, I saw the short story "Golden Teeth" in the catalog of "Novel Monthly" that night, and the author was actually my favorite writer Qiu Shanshan.

What kind of gold teeth would she write?

Finally found the "Novel Monthly" (2022 issue two) in the Pudong Library, and could not wait to open it, "Golden Teeth" was placed in the first article. The first part of "Novel Monthly" can be played by heavyweight works, and the expectations in my heart are even more urgent.

Mobile phone WeChat ticking a chaotic ring, at this time it is already 7:30 p.m., only half an hour away from the closing time, I turned off the sound, do not look at who it is, threw the mobile phone into the bag, seize the time to read "Golden Teeth".

"Golden Tooth" was originally the nickname of Dr. Yuan of a township hospital, named after the gold tooth wrapped in the lower row of teeth. Everyone called him "Golden Tooth", Doctor Gold Tooth, Dr. Kim, so that "the surname Kim is more than a person for no reason." "I" was a seventeen-year-old unemployed little girl whose father arranged for her to go to a health center to apprentice with Dr. Yuan. In "I"'s eyes, Dr. Yuan is wrapped in gold teeth, his face is greasy, his brain is shiny, and he does not look like a doctor.

The Golden Tooth Doctor is a full-tongued surgeon who has only been trained as a barefoot doctor for more than a month. But he was diligent and studious, did not have the learning conditions to create himself, and in the health center without surgery, he himself through practice, "filled the gap in the surgical field of the hospital." He often asked the only doctor director of the health center "shamelessly", and also paid for his own money to go to the county hospital for further training. He loved to read, and in that era of cultural poverty he could only read two professional books.

The Surgeon's Manual, already as thick and fluffy as a bun, should be his sunflower treasure book. As soon as he opened the book, he could not move his nest for half a day, unless something came to him. The book had been turned over by him, and he had taped several vertically and vertically, as if they were tied up. I'd love to do a little more and let him read the book.

During the apprenticeship, "I" learned the legend of the golden tooth doctor "becoming famous with one knife", and once the township secretary's wife suddenly suffered from acute appendicitis, and it was too late to send it to the county town, and the golden tooth doctor was in danger and was ordered to get rid of the disease. "I" also learned how the gold tooth doctor operates on stray cats and dogs and how to improve his professional ability. The gold tooth doctor taught carefully, and "I" practiced injections and learned surgical sutures. Some interesting things happened in the meantime, such as meticulously removing the inflamed appendix of the stray dog, giving a young man penicillin, after the beating the youth fell asleep, "I" thought he was dead, and the two learned lessons in first aid.

Later, "I" matured, there was an emergency patient whose scalp needed to be sutured, and at that time, the gold tooth doctor was not in good health, so he let "I" operate, and with his encouragement, "I" consciously completed the task satisfactorily. After the operation, "I" began to prepare for the college entrance examination, no longer caring about the people and things in the health center, and soon heard that the gold tooth doctor's teeth were taken away to compensate the patient. And that patient is the woman who "I" stitched her scalp with my own hands. When "I" personally went to verify, the gold tooth doctor denied it, saying that his gold tooth was a bad gold tooth.

The accident or story seems simple, and the length of the novel is also very short, but eight thousand words. However, these eight thousand words are interesting and full of charm when they read. Qiu Shanshan uses her usual humorous and humorous brushstrokes to make people read to the end like a stream of clouds.

I was like a sparrow flying into that village health center, feeling the fullness and abundance of humanity like an immersive sight. The heart that was touched was stirred up and down by the novel. At this moment, the bell of the closed museum suddenly sounded, and when it was time to reverberate in the air of the library, I heard a sacred meaning, a sound that struck my heart deeply because of the most wonderful passage of "Golden Teeth".

Like this "Golden Teeth", in addition to the story of the novel itself, the writer Qiu Shanshan wrote the meaning of a rural barefoot doctor with a pen, which made me feel warm. My mother was also a barefoot doctor, but she was engaged in obstetrics, as the saying goes, "midwifery", which in the average person's mouth is about "midwife", but my mother and "midwife" are fundamentally different. Like the "Golden Tooth Doctor", she studied seriously and scientifically mastered a set of regular doctor skills. Because my mother was a decentralized teacher, when she was trained as a barefoot doctor, she had a deep cultural foundation, coupled with her intelligence, and all those who were delivered by her hand, regardless of the difficult birth, did not have an accident. Walking with my mother on the streets of my hometown, I often met people from all over the world who came to greet her, some of whom were children delivered by my mother, some of whom my mother helped her deliver, and some of whom were the husbands of my mother who helped him deliver babies at home. They still greeted their mothers gratefully, and many years later, today, when they were turned over by the novel "Golden Teeth", I read "Golden Teeth" with such warmth, and I had an unusual feeling.

The Golden Tooth Doctor, like my mother, and like countless ordinary doctors, they shine with their own light, how precious this light is!

Writer Liang Xiaosheng said in his interview program of "The World of Man", "I want people to see that the lives of ordinary people are also important, and every little person has an extraordinary flash." We are often disoriented by the clamor of this era, as if we can only gain enough fame and fortune to count life. I'm going to write with a pen about these submerged ordinary people. ”

In fact, this passage of Liang Xiaosheng's words has long been reflected in Qiu Shanshan's decades of writing. Qiu Shanshan's novels have been focusing on the lives of ordinary people since their debut, in addition to the theme of military service and love. The optimism of the widowed old man in "Laba Congee", the open-mindedness of the low-level man in "The Instep of the Foot", the persistence of Master Jin in "Master Jin's Sunlight", and the dream of orphan Xiaozhen in "Who Tells the Story" are all interpreting her warm and compassionate writer's feelings. A writer who does not have great feelings in her heart will not write so well, and she will not go so far.

Let's enjoy the best sixth verse in The Golden Teeth.

I ran to see Dr. Yuan.

As soon as Dr. Yuan saw it, he smiled happily: College student, it's too good, it's too good. I knew you could get in, you could go to college. So envious of you, so envious.

Sure enough, he became a toothless one.

I said, that, that woman, that wound...

He waved his hand: Nothing. Wound infections are common. It was a very short hair that fell in the wound, it was hot, and it was a bit infected. It's good now, it's good.

I said, what about your teeth, gold teeth?

He said, I don't know which rumor it was, the teeth were lost by myself, gingivitis. It turned out to be a rotten tooth, rotten tooth, wrapped up.

I will believe it, this is not the same as what my mother said. Did he say this to comfort me? But I didn't ask any more questions, but chose to believe. Because then I can be at ease.

I handed him the new edition of the Surgeon's Manual that my father had entrusted him with. When Dr. Yuan got the book, he was half speechless, and when he looked up at me, he was in tears. It was the first time (and the only time, it seemed) that I had seen someone get a book in tears. He wiped his tears and said embarrassedly, there are big steamed buns to eat, hehe, big steamed buns.

Qiu Shanshan used her best suppressed brushwork to make several vivid conversations, like a strong light and dark light and shadow, to show the golden tooth doctor's generous and benevolent heart. In this period, the golden teeth of the golden light are gone, but a golden heart rises like the sun. There is not a single qualitative word in the whole paragraph, but the dazzling golden light fills the entire novel.

Excerpt from "Golden Teeth"

Mount Qiu

Five

In the blink of an eye, I have been mixing in the health center for half a year, from spring to autumn, and the autumn equinox has passed.

That morning, Dr. Yuan's face was not good when he came, he said that he had a headache, and went into the room to rest. I guess he had two surgeries in a row yesterday and was tired.

The weather is still very hot, and the autumn tigers are threatening. I sat in the clinic rubbing cotton balls, blowing at an old electric fan, listening to the last batch of people outside the window screaming with exhaustion, a little tired for a while, but also a little sad. When is such a day a head? Am I really going to mess around here forever? I'll be nineteen years old.

Suddenly, I heard a noise outside the door, some people crying, some people shouting. I got up and tried to go out to see, but I saw three or four people rushing in. Crying was a young woman, covering her head, blood flowing from her fingers, like several red earthworms crawling across her cheeks, shouting at her family, saying that the family had built a house, and a beam fell and hit her head.

What about the Gold Tooth Doctor? What about Dr. Kim! Dr. Kim! They shouted and shined.

Dr. Yuan came out of the room, he frowned, and shouted at the woman first: Don't cry, cry more blood. He was rarely so fierce, obviously a little irritable. Then he examined the wound and said to the crowd, "It's not a big problem, just a few stitches, a few stitches."

He called me aside and whispered, you do it. I'm not in good shape today, my brain hurts, I may have a cold. My eyes widened. He said, it is a superficial suture, the wound is not large, a few stitches can be, you have no problem, no problem.

I nodded, excited, and turned to get the kit.

The woman saw me busy, realized something, cried and said, I don't want her to sew, I want you to sew. Dr. Yuan said that she is also a doctor, and her skills are better than mine, very good. The woman still shook her head and said, I don't want her to sew, I want you to sew.

Dr. Yuan said that he knew it, don't get excited, be quiet, and your blood will come out when you are excited. As he spoke, he pressed her with gauze to stop the bleeding.

Dr. Yuan asked her family to go out, placed her in a chair, took out a surgical towel to cover her head, and gave me a look. I'm on the pitch.

Before that, I had seen Dr. Yuan stitch up the wounds of my fellow villagers many times, and the procedure was already familiar. First use scissors to cut off the hairs around the wound, some of which have been glued to a strand of blood, then debridement, then local anesthesia, and then needle leads.

When I started stitching, my hand was still shaking in the face of the bloody mouth. The shiny needle does not go under the hand. I closed my eyes and meditated three times in my heart: I am for her good, I am for her good, I am good for her. Then, let's get started.

Every time I stitched, I looked at Dr. Yuan, he nodded, and I continued. Gradually, he calmed down and his hand stabilized. There were five stitches in total, and I felt that my five stitches were even better sewn than when I practiced on weekdays, and the stitches and spacing were very standard.

Dr. Yuan gave me a thumbs up, then sat down on the chair next to him, looking very weak.

I carefully bandaged the wound and took off the woman's hole towel. The woman had calmed down, but when she looked up at me, especially the blood on my gloves, she was still surprised: You sewed it for me?

I pretended not to hear and went to get a bandage to wrap around her head. She reached out to cover her head, as if to make sure it was there. Dr. Yuan said on the side, don't touch the wound, I tell you, the stitches are very good, don't believe in removing the stitches when you look.

Dr. Yuan's tone was unmistakable. The woman finally stopped talking.

Before leaving the woman said, thanks, doctor. She said it to Dr. Yuan, and she also looked at me. My sense of satisfaction exploded in an instant, and the tiredness and sadness of the morning were gone. My God, maybe in the future I can be as self-taught as Dr. Yuan. I began to think about it.

I said to the woman like an elder: I have shed a lot of blood today, go back and cook two eggs to eat.

/ End of Trial /