by Brittany B
Ching and the Boy
by
Brittany B
Once upon a time
back in China, there was a skilled doctor by the name of Ching.
He lived in the little town of Nanning with his wife, Chou. They
lived in a modest house with rice windows and a rounded top like
a pagoda.
Ching had been studying medicine ever since he was a child. He
even studied on his two-hour break. His teacher was very ashamed
at this, she wanted him to learn about different things, but all
he could think about was medicine and becoming a doctor. Even
though his teacher was displeased about his studies, she had to
continue to teach Ching for 5 more years. On the other hand Chou
his wife was always nice and sweet because she was a woman and
women in China should always be restrained from talking. The only
thing was that she was born in the year of the horse,
and that was bad luck because in the Chinese zodiac it said that
the horse should be independent. In Chinese culture women were
not allowed to have a sense of independence, so her family frowned
her upon. And she never had any friends so she was a quiet wife,
never complained, or whined to Ching, but was so quiet that sometimes
when Ching came home he thought she wasn't there.
One day Ching went to his office in Hong Kong and on his way he
meet a foolish little boy in the square. The boy said to Ching
" I'll bet you a whole bowl of rice that you can't find another
way to take my temperature other than using a thermometer."
Ching was stunned by what the little boy had said, but he couldn't
resist a challenge so he accepted. He ran straight to his office,
not even stopping to do his early morning Tai Chi with his master
Wong Sheui, and all his partners. Nor did he stop to say hello
to his acupuncturist, Doctor Shu Ni, he hustled right to his office.
When he got there, the line at the soup medicine counter was extremely
long, and only one person was at the western medicine counter.
This amazed Ching. He went to the soup medicine counter to ask
where he could find his good friend, Ne Shi, the lady at the counter
said " go to the back of the building and take a right, she
should be there." Ching dashed off again. By the time he
got to her he was out of breath. He looked up and saw Ne Shi,
and finally panted out, " I need to use some herbs."
Ne Shi agreed and led Ching to her office. When they got there
Ne Shi asked Ching what he needed, and of course why he needed
them.
Ching replied, " a little boy in the village challenged me
to find another way to take someone's temperature". Ne shi
got him all the herbs he needed, and sent him on his way. When
Ching finally got back to his own office he started his challenge.
He worked all day and when he finally looked at the clock he was
startled. He thought to himself, Chou must be worried sick about
me, I better go home. So Ching started home. It was a long journey,
but it was worth it.
When he got home he could smell the grease from the kitchen, and
he knew that Chou had invited friends over. He slowly crept into
his living room, but when he got there he saw the saddest sight.
It was Chou with Mr. And Mrs. Kong Shu. She was crying hysterically.
He burst onto the couch cuddling Chou in his arms, and whispered
to her "what's wrong?"
Then Chou sobbed, " I thought you hated me and left to go
find a woman who was not born in the year of the horse."
When the Kong Shu's heard this, their jaws dropped to the vein
of gold. Mrs. Kong Shu let out a yelp. " You were born in
the year of the horse?"
Ching replied, " Please don't talk about it."
Mr. Kong Shu was so angry, he stormed out of the house and almost
broke Ching's animal charm. Not far behind Mrs. Kong Shu ran after
him yelling and crying all the way home. Ching looked down at
Chou and said,
" It's ok, Hon I still love you," and he went to bed.
The next morning Ching woke up real early and kissed Chou on the
forehead affectionately, and left her to sleep the morning out.
The whole day seemed to pass quite quickly, and finally he worked
out a way to use roots, 
flowers,
animal pieces, and honey to find someone's temperature. He went
to the place where he previously saw the little boy to wait. He
waited, and waited, and finally said to himself, it's no use.
He went back to his office. When he got there he was surprised
to see a 14-year-old boy sitting in his chair, but before he could
say anything the boy asked him " I need you to take my temperature,
your new way". Ching did what he was told. He determined
the boy's temperature and announced proudly "1,000.42".
The boy looked at him, and Ching frowned, knowing that it didn't
work, he was about to apologize, but all of a sudden the boy became
the black tortoise. The black tortoise stands for winter, the
north, long life, and wisdom. The tortoise said to Ching, "
Even a clever daughter-in-law cannot cook dinner with out rice,"
and left. Ching knew exactly what he meant. Ching took all the
used herbs down to the pond near his office and fed the fish with
it. He mumbled to himself " go back to the basics, go back
to the basics" and when he got to the Village Square he saw
the little boy. The boy asked, "So what did you learn?"
Ching replied to the boy, "Go back to the basics."
