Chapter 115 Blood Gu Ye Weiwan's life is a catastrophe.
Ye Weiwan casually tossed the scissors she had just removed onto a patch of water; the stalactites on the cave ceiling were still dripping water downwards.
A drop of water fell at Zhu Ying's feet. Zhu Ying looked down and saw a small puddle in the ground.
With a simple hook of the foot, one can reach the scissors.
After that meal, no one brought food to the cave again. The men guarding the cave entrance were several soldiers who had been sent south with Zhu Ying by Yue Dun, the Earl of Chengyang, to buy medicine. For some reason, these men were under the command of Ye Weiwan. The cave had no other exit, and the entrance was guarded by soldiers; forcing their way through was impossible. Zhu Ying noticed the panic in their eyes, and one of them had a scab-covered, peach-shaped wound on the back of his hand.
These people have contracted the peach blossom plague. Their symptoms are relatively mild.
Zhu Ying hadn't eaten for two days and had been drugged repeatedly, leaving her barely breathing.
"Stop doing evil."
"I don't!"
Ye Weiwan said sternly, "The plague is alive, why does no one believe me? Why don't you believe me either?"
She pulled out a palm-sized jar from somewhere, raised it high with both hands, and smashed it on the ground, shattering it. A worm the size of a fly, entirely black, crawled out of the jar, its abdomen swollen into a translucent, blood-red sac.
This is what a mosquito looks like when its abdomen is full of blood.
Zhu Ying took two steps back. "What are you up to now?"
Ye Weiwan said, "Blood Gu. People who have been sucked by it will be infected with the Peach Blossom Plague." She rolled up her sleeve, revealing a few scabs on her smooth, delicate forearm. The wounds were old, not recent.
"Have you ever been infected with the peach blossom plague?"
Zhu Ying thought about it and immediately realized something was wrong.
"You're using your own body to raise Gu worms?"
The black blood gu rolled motionless among the broken tiles.
Ye Weiwan stretched out her forearm and rolled up her sleeve a bit. Only then did Zhu Ying notice that her clothes were covered with dark spots of poison. A small copper bell was tied to Ye Weiwan's wrist. When the bell rang, the blood gu stretched its head to explore the surroundings. It seemed to have smelled something, and then wriggled its bloated body toward Ye Weiwan.
"Their toxicity is still not weak enough. What I need is for people to show no signs of the virus in their bodies after being infected with the plague. I can achieve that in a little more time."
"What if you can't do it?"
If you can't do it, try again.
Ye Weiwan's eyes were filled with a cold and fierce aura. "In my lifetime, I will definitely eradicate the Peach Blossom Plague from the world. Are you willing to help me?"
In the instant that cold sweat soaked through her inner garment, Zhu Ying finally saw how hideous the old wounds of the Peach Blossom Plague were.
Just like Ye Weiwan's appearance.
I once thought she still held some reverence for the word "doctor," and that despite her obsession and madness, she still possessed an undiminished conscience.
She tried to quell the hatred in her heart, naively believing that she could soothe the twisted resentment that Ye Weiwan had harbored for more than a decade.
How ridiculous she is to think she can make lotus flowers bloom from rotten bones.
Two major epidemics broke out in the countryside because of Ye Weiwan, and countless people died from the disease. Her words, "If I can't do it, I'll do it again," were a catastrophe for the millions of people in the world.
"It's time to end this."
Zhu Ying kicked the blood gu to death, gripped the scissors tightly, and was about to stab Ye Weiwan in the chest when Ye Weiwan gave her a light push, causing Zhu Ying to lose her balance and fall to the ground.
The scissors slipped from my hand and clattered to the ground.
"You want to kill me?"
Ye Weiwan suddenly burst into a maniacal laugh, a laugh filled with the absurdity of betrayal. "You want to kill me. Aren't we twin sisters? Our only blood relative in the world? You want to kill me?"
Zhu Ying lay helplessly on the stone on the ground.
"You're terrifying."
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a disdainful sneer.
“I’ll take you somewhere so you can see whether what I’ve done is a curse or a blessing.”
Ye Weiwan stuffed two brownish-yellow pills into her mouth, kicked away the scissors, and carried Zhu Ying on her shoulder, leading her out of the cave.
Squeezing through the clump of weeds and overgrown vines, Zhu Ying saw the soldiers guarding the cave entrance once more, all of them looking sickly. Zhu Ying glanced at the back of one of their hands; the peach-blossom-shaped wound had scabbed over, a sign that his condition was improving.
After walking a few steps forward, they realized that the cave entrance was high up. Under their feet was a flat rock platform, and below, along the slope, were several caves, from which many people poured out.
Those people also had peach blossom-shaped wounds on their hands and faces.
Ye Weiwan led her into one of the caves, which was filled with the fishy smell of insect slime.
Many people with blank expressions sat inside the cave.
In the middle was a pool, the bottom of which was covered with black worms. Unlike the Gu worm that Zhu Ying had stepped on and killed, the worms at the bottom of the pool seemed to be still hungry, and their abdomens did not show blood sacs.
Zhu Ying was placed on a straw mat next to the stone wall, half-lying down.
She watched as Ye Weiwan, carrying a small jar, weaved through the crowd, using a flaming dagger to carve away at their festering wounds. Some couldn't bear it and cried out for mercy.
The Blood Gu feeds on the blood and rotting sores of people suffering from plague.
Ye Weiwan placed the ripped, festering flesh into the bottom of the pool, where the blood worms fought over it. In the blink of an eye, it was all gone.
Zhu Ying noticed that apart from the cave that trapped her, there were no soldiers guarding the other places. These people were like puppets, possessed by evil spirits, allowing Ye Weiwan to tear their flesh and draw their blood.
These people were not afraid of her at all; on the contrary, they were extremely grateful.
This is insane.
Zhu Ying grabbed the arm of a woman beside her. "There are no soldiers outside, let's go." Her voice was gradually returning.
The woman looked at her in surprise. "Didn't you come here for treatment?"
"She can't cure your illness, she'll die. Get out of here!"
The woman pulled her sleeve away from Zhu Ying's hand and moved it further away, saying, "Doctor Ye is a bodhisattva."
Don't believe her.
The woman looked at Zhu Ying with even more strange eyes. "People are dying everywhere outside, those infected with the plague are being burned at the stake. No one has died here."
Zhu Ying paused for a moment, her gaze shifting back and forth, as if piecing together some clue.
She looked around at the people crammed into the cave.
Almost everyone here has wounds from the peach blossom plague.
As they headed south from the main camp, they saw funeral processions everywhere in the streets and alleys. Many people had died from the plague in all the prefectures and counties of Xiling, so why hadn't anyone died from the plague in Ye Weiwan's area?
She looked over there.
Inside the cave, there was an inkstone and a pen. Ye Weiwan was squatting in front of several patients suffering from the plague, holding a yellowed booklet in her forearm and writing something down.
Blood Gu is the source of rampant plague, but whether a person is infected with Peach Blossom Plague is severely ill or mildly ill is beyond Ye Weiwan's control.
If what the woman said is true, and no one has died here, then it is enough to prove that Ye Weiwan truly holds the antidote to the plague.
It's not a blood curse.
Perhaps it was one of the pills that Ye Weiwan fed her.
Zhu Ying asked the woman, "Did Doctor Ye give you a kind of pill? It's brownish-brown."
"I've eaten it."
A scab was visible on the back of the woman's neck, causing her pain and itching. She tried to scratch it, but could only scratch the edge, saying, "It's scabbed over, so it's almost healed."
prescription.
With the prescription in hand, the peach blossom plague in Xiling can be ended.
Ye Weiwan dipped her brush in ink, wiping away the excess ink along the edge of the inkstone, focusing all her attention on the paper and brush before her.
Zhu Ying's gaze fell on the yellow booklet in Ye Weiwan's hand. Ye Weiwan wrote half a page on it, then snapped the booklet shut and put it into her sleeve pocket.
She walked towards Zhu Ying.
It seemed that Zhu Ying was brought here only to let her see this human tragedy firsthand. Zhu Ying was dragged over and pulled back, her body aching so badly it felt like it was about to fall apart.
Ye Weiwan was in no hurry to send her back to the cave guarded by soldiers. She stood on the rock platform and occasionally looked towards another mountain.
Waiting for something.
Ye Weiwan said, "Why do you think these people are on the mountain? They fled up the mountain for their lives, met me, and begged me to stay here and become medicine people. No one will leave."
As the setting sun brushed past the peaks of the Western Ridge and sank downwards, black smoke suddenly rose from a valley in the distance.
"Did you see that?"
Ye Weiwan pointed to the mountain peak and showed it to her, saying, "You should be very familiar with this black fog."
Zhu Ying dug her nails deep into her palms to barely steady her trembling, but her knees still couldn't stop going weak.
That was the black smoke from burning corpses.
The hill where the bodies were cremated was far away, and the smoke couldn't reach her, yet her nostrils seemed to be filled with the stench of burning and sulfur, and she couldn't help but gag, leaning on the ground.
Xiling Camp.
The army medics, carrying their medicine kits, moved back and forth through the tents, coughing incessantly. In the central command tent, Marquis Yue Dun of Chengyang was discussing matters with officials from several prefectures and counties. Suddenly, the sound of Yue Dun slamming his fist on the table echoed from within: "No! This will not do!"
"Lord of Chengyang, please calm down and keep your voice down."
The plague spread rapidly. The imperial physicians, who had experienced the major plagues in Linxia and Li'an, soon discovered that far fewer people died from the plague in Xiling compared to Linxia and Li'an. Although some were seriously ill, most had milder symptoms.
The plague is still spreading.
Xie Yuan issued three urgent edicts in succession, fearing that if the epidemic were allowed to continue unchecked, officials in several prefectures and counties of Xiling would likely resort to armed force and join the rebels in rebellion to save their own lives.
There was plague in front and rebels behind.
Xiling was a place where wolves and tigers lurked. Yue Dun summoned officials from various prefectures and counties to his main tent to discuss countermeasures. Among the officials present were some who had previously served in Li'an, and they wanted to repeat their old tricks, using the method of burning offerings to ward off the plague that Li'an had employed.
Someone chimed in, "Brilliant!"
Upon hearing what a brilliant plan it was, Yue Dun immediately overturned the table, declaring, "There's no room for discussion, absolutely not!"
"Then what do you suggest, Earl of Chengyang?"
The disaster relief funds allocated by the imperial court were insufficient, and the granaries in various prefectures and counties were opened to distribute grain, but they would soon be empty. The surrounding cities were deserted and desolate, and any medicine or grain needed had to be sourced from prefectures and counties in the north and south.
The northern border was manageable; after Chen Liangyu sealed the pass, she sent a considerable amount of rice, grain, and medicine. However, she was guarding such a barren land that the wheat in her fields produced fewer grains than others. Even emptying her coffers wouldn't be enough. Moreover, the three prefectures and sixteen cities in the northern border were military strongholds for defending against Bei Yong, so money and grain had to be stockpiled. Chen Liangyu couldn't offer her all her assistance.
Furthermore, it would be inhumane to exploit only Chen Liangyu.
I still want to go to the south.
Yue Dun called out, "Someone come here."
Yue Zhengyang entered from outside the tent, cupped his hands, and said, "Father."
"Of those groups that went south, there's still no news about one of them. Send someone on horseback to find out what happened. If they've delayed the fight against the epidemic, they'll be dealt with according to military law!"
Yue Zhengyang said, "Yes, I will go right away."
The main camp dispatched four groups of people to buy medicine in different directions. The other three groups had already reached the nearest city, bought the medicine, and sent it back. Only Zhu Ying's group had disappeared without a trace.
They disagreed with the officials of the prefecture and county, and no solution was reached.
Yue Dun went outside the tent for some fresh air.
Pei Danxing was taking the pulses of the soldiers and distributing medicine at the drill ground.
Most of the doctors recruited from the common people only did logistical work. When Pei Dan came, he carried a letter written by Chen Liangyu. Yue Dun specially allowed him to diagnose and prescribe medicine together with the imperial physicians.
Yue Dun rushed to the drill ground and shouted, summoning a soldier.
"Isn't there a physician named Ye from the palace? Why haven't I seen him these past few days?"
The soldier replied, "I was unaware; it has indeed been several days since I last saw Physician Ye."
On the training ground, a royal physician said, "Imperial Physician Ye came here on the orders of the Eldest Princess to treat General Bu's injuries. General Bu has returned to the Northern Border. Perhaps Imperial Physician Ye has returned to Yongdu to report back to the Eldest Princess."
Yue Dun responded with an "Oh".
"That's not right. Without my official documents and travel permit, how can she return to Yongdu to report back?"
"This, I do not know."
Yue Dun scolded the soldier, "Fool, go find him!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com