The men that worked in the mine had two ways to
cure malaria - one was to dunk the person in icy cold water and let the shock drive out the illness, and the other was to whip him, with the branches of a peach and willow tree. They choose the later with Luo. However, this surefire technique did not cure him, as a few days later, when he was visiting the Little Chinese Seamstress to tell her a film, he was struck down by another malaria attack. This canceled the oral cinema and put Luo in bed, while the Seamstress and the narrator went in search of another, more efficient
remedy. A herb more or less, and for extra strength, the Seamstress invited four Sorceresses to watch over Luo for the night. As it turned out, the narrator had to
entertain the old crones with his
storytelling to keep them awake, with Luo chiming in once to
electrify the audience and conclude this strange treatment.
