Hexagram 16: Thunder Hexagram 2: The Receptive
When Lao Ye and Tang Zhen Dong returned to the small street beside the train station, the old sister was still waiting there. Seeing Lao Ye and Tang Zhen Dong coming back together, she happily came up to greet them.
"Master, you're back?"
Lao Ye nodded, "Let's go, where do you live?"
This old lady lives in a shabby tube-shaped building not far from Haicheng Railway Station. How can there be a tube-shaped building next to the railway station? There is one next to Haicheng Railway Station.
These are all residents of the old city area, who have lived here for decades.
Lao Ye's building is relatively old, but when she arrived at her home, Lao Ye suddenly felt that her own building was like a new one. Anyway, although Lao Ye's building is old, it is still the best of the old buildings with three units per floor. And this big sister's house is a real tube-shaped building.
What is a tube dwelling? A tube dwelling refers to a long corridor, with households living on one side of the corridor. It's similar to modern apartment buildings, but generally not both sides are inhabited, and each household has a relatively small area.
"Walk slowly, the corridor is dark."
This corridor is not only dark but also cluttered with many useless items, including old sofas, tables and honeycomb coal for winter heating.
"It's nothing, it's nothing." Old Ye felt more and more uncomfortable as he walked further. He was also an old resident of Haicheng and knew that this area used to be the residential buildings of a coal company.
The coal company was the best unit in the previous planned economy era. The coal used for production and heating by large enterprises, as well as the coal used by residents, all had to be purchased through the coal company, which was a monopoly. At that time, the benefits were extremely good. However, after the reform and opening up, the planned economy turned into a market economy, and the coal company's business began to plummet.
The workers of the coal company, apart from being able to live in the dormitories allocated by the unit, have nothing else. Not to mention wages and bonuses that are not paid out, even medical expenses for seeing a doctor are not reimbursed by the factory.
Later, after the state-owned enterprise was reformed, the original coal company was bought by a private individual, and these retired workers were even more neglected. These people are truly dedicated to serving the country for their entire lives, but when they are old, they are swept out of the company and left with only a meager pension.
Lao Ye had also heard that retired workers from the original coal company had gone to sit in protest in front of the municipal government many times because of pension issues.
However, the original site of the old coal company has now been developed into real estate, and only a group of old residents who lived in the dormitory building of the coal company are still living here.
"Please come in, please come in. The house is a bit messy, sorry about that!" As soon as the old lady opened the door, Tang Zhendong could smell the strong herbal medicine scent inside the house.
Lao Ye followed Lao Da Jie into the room. The old-fashioned tube building, called a tube building, is actually similar to a dormitory. The larger ones are divided into one bedroom and one living room, while the smaller ones cannot be separated at all, and can only sleep and cook together.
However, the old lady's house has a decent area, divided into one room and one hall. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are integrated into one.
"Master, please sit down, it's too crowded at home, I'll make you some tea first."
"Sister, don't bother, let's just see a doctor first."
"It's okay, have a cup of tea, it'll be fine soon."
Not long after, the old lady brought up two cups of tea with more stems than leaves, and the leaves had a faint musty smell. However, Tang Zhendong and Old Ye were not picky people. On the contrary, after seeing the situation at the old lady's home, Old Ye felt even more that it was not easy for the old lady to take out 3,000 yuan yesterday without hesitation to buy medicine for herself, this money might be her entire family savings, and it was her hope to cure her husband's illness.
"Master, wait a minute, I'll help the old man out." The elder sister went in and helped the old man from the inner room come out.
When the old lady helped her husband out, Tang Zhendong was visibly surprised.
Originally, according to the old sister's meaning, her husband's illness was in the stomach and intestines, because of stomach and intestinal pain. However, Tang Zhendong took a look at it from the perspective of Feng Shui and physiognomy, and this sluggish old brother's disease root is actually not in the stomach and intestines.
From the perspective of Feng Shui, the southwest is Kun Gua, although it represents the mistress of the house, this position controls the stomach of all family members. The reason is easy to understand: the mistress cooks for the whole family to eat, naturally controlling the stomach of all family members.
However, coincidentally, the kitchen of this old lady's house was in the southwest direction, clean and tidy, and there was no place that conflicted with the Kunkua diagram belonging to the earth, so Tang Zhendong dared to conclude that even if this family got sick, they would not get gastrointestinal diseases.
In Feng Shui, the northwest is Qian Gua, representing the male owner, which is this sickly man. Tang Zhen Dong really wants to go take a look at what's placed in the northwest position of that bedroom separated by Old Sister. However, now isn't obviously the most suitable opportunity, because he isn't the master, Old Ye is the master invited by them.
"Elder sister, elder brother's illness, didn't you go to the hospital to see what the doctor said?" Old Ye saw the situation at Elder Sister's house at this time and couldn't care about his own master's reputation. He only hoped to cure Elder Brother's illness so that she could live up to her trust in him.
"Went to the hospital, did this check and that check, spent several thousand yuan on examination fees alone, was asked to stay in the hospital for observation, but in the end they didn't say what disease it was."
Old Ye nodded, ordinary people get sick and first think of going to the hospital. But sometimes hospitals are too unfair to everyone, they go there no matter what illness, from head to toe, they check everything first, for those who have money, this is a good thing, it's like having a thorough physical examination.
But for the poor, if I have a headache, I should just treat my head. Why do you need to examine my stool? Every examination is money piled up, one or two examinations are bearable, but more than ten examinations added together, it's unbearable for families like Wang Cai Feng who are both laid off.
Wang Cui Feng's old man heard that the cost of two days' examination was over 2,000 yuan and he couldn't afford to stay in hospital. In fact, Wang Cui Feng had only saved a little over 10,000 yuan all these years, which was not enough for a few days' stay. Staying for four or five days, the money would be spent before the illness could even be diagnosed.
So the old man was going to be discharged from the hospital and she didn't insist anymore.
"Old brother, where do you feel uncomfortable?" Old Ye heard that after going to the hospital for so many checks, they still couldn't find out what the problem was, and he couldn't help but panic a little. To think that his old partner, although also ill, at least knew what the problem was, but this old couple didn't even know where the problem lay, which really made him anxious.
"I've been feeling uncomfortable all along, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where the discomfort was coming from. Sometimes it's a headache, sometimes it's stomach pain, and sometimes I even feel short of breath and can't catch my breath."
The old man mentioned his illness and directly confused Old Ye.
