Dirt Pills

I'm now taking a medicine for my throat called 清音丸. The packaging is so unique that it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the medicine out. Each pill is individually packed in a tiny box, and when I opened the box, I was greeted with a ping pong ball like thing that is maybe half the size of the real thing. Great, I'm sick and my throat hurts like mad and now I've got to swallow something so huge. But wait, when I held up the ping pong ball, I could hear something rattle inside. Oh, so the pill is actually inside the ball. But how am I supposed to open the ball!!! I realised then that the exterior is some kind of waxy plastic. I used a fruit knife and tried to pry it open. Alas, it hardly budged! Hello, I'm sick and not able to think properly! I need to eat the pill now!

Anyway, I decided that brute force was not the way to go and sat down to analyse the ping pong ball. Ah! There is a very fine line (almost invisible!) along the middle of the ball and so with just an ounce of strength, I squeezed it right there. Pop came my pill! Ulghh! It is a big, soft and smelly THING! I can't even begin to call it a pill!

Which brings me to my next story.....

Remember when I was young, there was this drama about 'Ji Gong', the begger god who always carried with him a torn and tattered straw fan. He had super powers and could heal people with pills that were actually dirt rubbed from his body. He would knead the dirt into tiny balls called 'lao ni wan' and pop them into his patients' mouths.

I feel exactly like I'm eating a 'lao ni wan' now! Help me!!!

Ping pong ball on the left and the THING on the right.....