292 Parkinsons Disease (2/2)

The others shared his doubts as they thought that only a doctor had the right to give that prognosis.

Then, Xiao Quanren put down the brush, smiled weakly, and said, ”Xiao Luo's right. I went for a medical checkup at the county hospital some time ago. The doctor said that I contracted a disease whose name is tough to remember. It has come back to my mind now that Xiao Luo had mentioned it. Pump-kin-son, it is.”

”It's Parkinson, Wise One,” Xiao Luo corrected him with a smile.

Xiao Quanren smiled with squinted eyes and said, ”Ah, yes, yes. Par-kin-son, it is. Sigh, that's what you get when you grow old. My memory worsens as the days go by.”

After hearing Xiao Quanren's affirmation, the crowd looked upon Xiao Luo with deep regard.

Xiao Dizhang asked further, ”Xiao Luo, since you know what illness this is, you should know how to treat it, right?”

Xiao Luo shook his head, ”This is a complication due to old age, and as far as I know, there's no way of treating it. But, it won't affect his lifespan; it's just that when he is focused on doing something, some parts of his body will tremble uncontrollably, unable to stay still.”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, all was good as long as it wasn't life-threatening.

”Xiao Luo looks like your days in university were not in vain. You have knowledge in so many areas.”

”Yeah, I haven't heard of this Parkinson's Disease before. You taught me something new today.”

”Looks like we still need to get our child to further his studies. It will come in handy after all.”

Xiao Qiudong was incensed, and his awful expression said it all. He never made it to university and had resorted to comparing his career to that of Xiao Luo, intending to prove his theory that studying was overrated. As it turned out, he had just been proven wrong, and that had made him hate Xiao Luo even more.

”That's for sure, Luo is the only person who had gone to university in our village. His qualification is the highest, so of course, he knows a lot more,” Xiao Ping gushed, praising Xiao Luo unreservedly.

Xiao Qiudong couldn't contain himself anymore and directed his hostility toward Xiao Ping. ”What nonsense are you talking about! Who said that if one attends university, that would mean one will know a lot? University students nowadays are nothing compared to those in the past. They aren't learning anything during their four years in university, they are busy dating, fooling around, and wasting their time. Anyway, university graduates are just a bunch of lazy people.”

He directed those remarks at Xiao Ping, but his intention to criticize Xiao Luo was very obvious to the crowd.

”Dong Dong, that's too strong of an opinion, is it not?”

”Yeah, Xiao Luo can't be that kind of person. Otherwise, Miss Ji wouldn't have liked him.”

”It is still better to study more and widen your field of knowledge.”

Xiao Ping dared not respond to Xiao Qiudong, but the crowd, however, didn't take kindly to Xiao Qiudong's outburst at all. Besides, Luo Village was a small community, and everyone knew about Xiao Ping's predicament. They were well aware that Xiao Ping had borrowed money from Xiao Qiudong, and they didn't appreciate how rudely Xiao Qiudong acted toward Xiao Ping. To take advantage of someone else's ill-fortune was despicable.

Seeing how everybody reacted, Xiao Qiudong wisely kept quiet.

But there was a rather urgent problem that they had to deal with. Now that Xiao Quanren was unable to write the couplets for the Seekong Altar, who else could do it?

Xiao Dizhang threw the question to the crowd, but everyone only shook their heads. Most of the villagers were farmers. They could carry out any kind of farming work expeditiously, but handling a calligraphy brush was beyond them. Even the characters they wrote with pencils looked like scratch marks made by chicken claws.

Footnote:

[1] The four books (The Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, Confucian Analects, and The works of Mencius) and the five classics (The book of Songs, The Book of History, The Book of Changes, The Book of Rites and The spring and autumn Annals)