"Find the magistrate! He'll definitely know what happened!" a richly dressed middle-aged man suddenly said.

His words immediately attracted the attention of others, who echoed his sentiments.

"Yes, let's go to the county government office and find the magistrate here, and ask him to let us out!"

"Okay, I'll go too!"

"Let's all go!"

So the group stopped bothering the soldiers guarding the city and instead headed to the county government office in the city.

"What? The magistrate isn't here?" the richly dressed man asked with surprise.

Upon hearing this, the county yamen runner nodded and said, "Yes, our county magistrate left the city early this morning, saying that the lady's father is seriously ill and they are going back to visit him."

Someone suddenly retorted, "Nonsense! I'm from the same hometown as that county magistrate's wife. Her father has been dead for eight hundred years. How could he possibly be seriously ill again!"

The moment these words were spoken, the expressions of those around them changed instantly.

"Does that mean the magistrate knew about the plague and fled with his entire family beforehand?"

"Pah, this heartless bastard, what kind of official is he, the father and mother of the people? He ran away first when there was danger."

"I was wondering why he would notify us of the city gate closure in advance. Now that I think about it, it was probably to cover his own escape from the city, wasn't it?"

The county yamen runners listened to these people with furrowed brows. They were about to reprimand them, but when they heard the word "plague," they paused.

"Young man, has there been any news of a plague outbreak in your county government?" asked an unlucky fellow who had just entered the county town and heard about the plague.

The constable shook his head upon hearing this. "No, normally our county government would be the first to know about something like this, unless..."

Unless the county magistrate blocked the news and prevented it from spreading.

The constable suddenly remembered what his colleague had told him a few days ago.

"Old Li, I don't know what's wrong with the slums in the west. There have been deaths lately. I've been to the mass grave five times already."

“I went to the slums again today. It seems like there really are unclean things there. Many people look half-dead.”

"Cough cough cough, I think I've caught a cold recently. I always have a fever in the middle of the night, and the medicine prescribed by the doctor hasn't helped."

My wife said it's probably because I'm tired, and I need to take a day off tomorrow to rest.

The constable, Old Li, broke out in a cold sweat. Could it really be that place?

Then wouldn't his colleague Lao Zhao be...?

When the onlookers saw that the constable Li's expression changed, they guessed that he might have thought of something, and immediately looked at him intently, all wanting to get the details from him.

"It's...it's the slums to the west. The plague may have originated from there, but now..."

Old Li didn't finish his sentence. If his guess was true, the news had probably spread throughout the entire county, since the western part of the town was mostly inhabited by beggars.

In order to get more food, beggars might have gone to every tavern and restaurant in the county town to beg for food. This place is usually bustling with people, so it would be difficult for the plague not to spread.

What he could think of, all the smart people present could think of as well.

But some, driven mad by the plague, shouted, "The slums in the west? That's easy! Just set fire to them and burn them all down, people and houses alike!"

That way, everyone else in the county will be safe. Don't you all agree?

But no one spoke up to him; some even retorted directly.

"What, you think you're the only one with a brain? Don't you think others could think of this? Those are human lives, living, breathing people!"

"There are at least half the people of the county living in the west, and you burned them all to death at once? How can you spout such nonsense?"

"Are you really stupid or just pretending? If it were that easy to solve, would the magistrate have fled with his family?"

It is now estimated that the plague is not only spreading to the west, but that many people in the city have already been infected.

Upon hearing the last person's words, everyone sighed, and one of the women even burst into tears.

"So, are we just supposed to wait to die now?"

The middle-aged man in fine clothes who had initially said he was looking for the county magistrate was the first to step forward.

"Perhaps it is fate that prevents us from leaving. To be honest, this is the first time I, Yang, have done something against my conscience, and I have been stopped by God."

It seems that one should never do anything that goes against one's conscience.

After finishing his speech, the middle-aged man gave a self-deprecating laugh to everyone, "Since this is the will of Heaven, then I, Yang, will fight the plague to the end with everyone. I will donate all the medicinal herbs in my home for the doctors in the county to develop prescriptions."

He then declared that anyone who could prescribe a medicine to temporarily halt the plague would receive one hundred taels of silver, and anyone who could develop a truly effective cure would receive one thousand taels of silver and a courtyard!

As soon as he finished speaking, the onlookers exchanged surprised glances.

"Manager Yang truly deserves to be called the number one philanthropist in Heyu County. If he keeps giving away like this, he'll probably have to give away most of his wealth."

"We can't just take advantage of others. Since Manager Yang is so generous, I'll reciprocate. My Su's Pharmacy will also donate all the commonly used medicinal herbs in the store, vowing to live and die with everyone!"

"Yes, helping others is helping ourselves now. Although my Li's Cloth Shop doesn't have any medicinal herbs, we can't fall behind. So let's add some reward money to give everyone some good luck."

...

And so, under Manager Yang's influence, the wealthy people of Yu County generously donated money.

Xu Jinhuan said to Ma Wencai and Xie Guangbai, "It seems that the people in this county still have some humanity, so it wasn't a complete waste of time to save them."

Ma Wencai stared blankly at those people for a while before saying, "If only we had people like that back then, or if we had met the boss back then, things would have been much better."

This was the first time Xu Jinhuan and Xie Guangbai had seen the carefree Ma Wencai like this. Neither of them spoke, but they waited quietly for Ma Wencai to speak his mind.

Ma Wencai sighed and said, "Back then, when a plague broke out in my small village, because of the lack of information, no one knew what the disease was. They just thought that they would be fine after resting as usual."

When the village head's son went out to seek medical treatment, he didn't bring back a doctor or medicine; instead, he brought back a group of government officials and yamen runners.

At this point, Ma Wencai paused, and after a long pause, continued: "The officials that day did the hypothesis proposed by the man today, and set the village on fire, burning it to the ground."

I was naughty back then and secretly went up the mountain to play, which is how I escaped this disaster. But my parents and brother died in that fire, even though they weren't sick!

The last sentence was spoken by Ma Wencai in a hoarse voice. His eyes were already red, and the burly man burst into tears in front of Xu Jinhuan.

Xu Jinhuan gently patted Ma Wencai's shoulder and said in a gentle tone, "What we are doing today is not only for ourselves, but also for the millions of children who were in a similar situation to you back then."

Wencai, now you can help others.