These concluding words fell into Arlan's ears, and like a heavy hammer, they severely smashed a crack in the ice wall of hatred in her heart.
For a long time, her heart was covered by this ice wall, making it almost impossible for her to see anything outside the wall.
The moment the crack appeared, her first feeling was panic.
She lowered her head and shook her head again: "Impossible, I saw with my own eyes that the Xuan Ce army surrounded my tribe..."
Seeing her expression, Chang Suining had no intention of saying more about the matter, and only said: "If you insist on deceiving yourself now, that's fine."
This sentence made the panicked Allan suddenly furious, as if he had hit an outlet for venting: "...Why do you act so high and mighty!"
She struggled to stand up, tears flashing in her red eyes, and asked uncontrollably: "Do you know how it feels to see your family and tribesmen being slaughtered?"
"I am not unreasonable. Of course, some people from my tribe participated in the war, and it is understandable that they died in the war! But those women, children, the elderly and the weak...what fault did they have? My mother and brother, what fault did they have!"
Chang Suining looked at her quietly, and suddenly asked, "What about the people in Yuezhou who were infected? What was their fault?"
Arlan's body, which had been shaking with excitement, suddenly became still.
Chang Suining asked again: "You think the lives of innocent people in your tribe are lives, but the lives of the people in Yuezhou are not lives?"
After being stunned for a moment, Arlan gritted his teeth and said again: "You Sheng people... all deserve to die!"
"Okay." Chang Suining said, "Then go and take a good look at whether all these people you say deserve to die are really all hideous--"
Seeing someone coming in, Allan stepped back subconsciously: "What are you going to do?"
Chang Suining's eyes were cold: "Why, you dare to kill them but not to see them?"
Arlan fell to the ground. Shepherd's Purse stepped forward to untie the ropes on her feet, but she struggled to shrink into a corner. She tried to resist, but all the hidden weapons and poisons on her body were searched away. The moment she was pulled up, she began to scream: "No... I won't go! Let me go!"
Chang Suining looked at Allan, whose face was filled with fear, and said, "Let her have a good look."
There are many ways to torture people. Making them bleed is one, making them afraid is another. There is no difference in severity between the two. It all depends on which one is more suitable for the condition.
Arlan was quickly stuffed into a carriage by Shepherd's Purse. When they arrived at the place several miles away where the infected people were accommodated, he was forcibly dragged off the carriage by Shepherd's Purse.
Arlan struggled and screamed, unwilling to move forward, but she was no match for Shepherd's Purse. She screamed like crazy, "I don't want to look at them... Why should I look at these damn people!"
The commotion she brought soon attracted the attention of many people.
Shepherd's Purse forced her forward. The more she struggled, the slower she walked. The shacks on both sides were crowded with people, who looked at her, most of them with confusion.
Most of those puzzled eyes showed signs of suffering from illness. Some were lying in the shed groaning in pain, some were holding the crying children in their arms and comforting them softly, and some were hugging their knees and sobbing quietly, not knowing whether they were for themselves or others.
When these people heard Allan's voice, they all raised their heads and looked over.
Meeting those pairs of eyes, Allan's frantic shouts were uncontrollably stuck in his throat, and suddenly he could not make a sound.
She didn't want to attract any more of that attention, but as she quieted down, everything around her became too clear for her to avoid.
Arlan's body was trembling slightly, but she still sneered disdainfully, trying to keep herself calm and numb, and kept telling herself - they were just a group of Sheng people, and all Sheng people deserved to die! This was how she had convinced herself before she met these people.
But when you meet face to face and your eyes touch each other, the feeling is different after all...Human eyes are too good at conveying suffering and perceiving suffering.
Those tortured eyes make them more than just a general number of people, more than just the cold word "Sheng people".
They are human beings, living people who are being forced to die.
It has been too long since Arlan has faced up to his awareness as a “human”——
Ever since she followed Li Xian, she has never established a close and deep relationship with anyone. She has no relatives or friends, no one to talk to, no room to think about right and wrong. She is only accompanied by hatred day and night, and her heart is frozen by hatred.
Occasionally, she would suddenly wake up from a nightmare. That brief moment of trance was one of the few times she could "reflect on herself". She would then realize that the day of revenge might also be the day of her destruction.
But at this moment, the revenge had not yet been achieved, and even the truth that she had always believed in suddenly became blurred...
What is clear at this moment is only the torment of the people before my eyes.
Behind a shed, a young woman in plain clothes and wearing a veil was squatting in a corner, hugging her knees and crying quietly. Her cry was low and trembling, with a sense of helplessness and frustration.
Beside her, there was a young man squatting, trying to comfort her in a low, hoarse voice.
Both of them were students at Wu Er Hospital's Medical School. They were very young and came here to save people, but they witnessed different people dying in front of them every day.
But they didn't have much time to be sad, as someone soon called out "Doctor" urgently, and the two of them quickly left the place.
Walking further forward, they were finally far away from the shacks. Just when Allan felt she could catch her breath, she was pushed forward by Shepherd's Purse and stumbled. When she raised her head again, she saw a blinding fire in front of her and a strange burnt smell in the air.
At this time, two more people came over carrying a corpse. Allan took a subconscious look and saw a young and handsome face wearing a tattered gown. The only bright color on his body was the string of brightly colored beads in his right hand that was tightly clenched... He didn't know whether it was from his family or the girl he liked.
Arlan suddenly remembered that he had once given the silver bell on his wrist to a boy with whom he had a crush, and that boy also died on that day.
The fire burning the corpses was particularly hot in the summer night. Seeing another corpse that had not yet fully grown being thrown into the fire, Allan turned his head abruptly, raised his legs with a pale face, and dodged to the side.
Shepherd's Purse did not hold her back any longer, but just followed behind her, letting her walk forward.
With only his feet untied and his hands still tied behind his back, Allan took a few dozen steps before his way forward was blocked.
This path was cleared out from the original messy grass. At the end of the path were neatly arranged pottery jars, most of which had names labeled on them. At a glance, there were more than hundreds of them.
A girl about six or seven years old with two braids came over holding a clay pot and placed it down carefully.
The woman who accompanied her wiped her tears and reminded the girl: "Kowtow to your mother again."
The girl kowtowed three times towards the pottery jar very straight. Perhaps she still couldn't understand the difference between life and death, but she didn't cry from beginning to end.
When the woman wanted to take her back, she still knelt there, looked up at the woman, and said, "Aunt, I miss my mother. I want to stay a little longer."
The woman's eyes were sore and she looked in the direction of the shed. It was obvious that there were people there who needed her care, so she nodded, bent down, touched the girl's head, told the girl to go back early, and left.
The little girl knelt there, looking at the small jar, as if she didn't understand how her mother, who was holding her and carrying her on her back, could become smaller than her.
After looking at the small figure for a long time, Allan seemed to be extremely tired. He lowered his head and sat down.
The girl turned around when she heard the noise and saw Allan. She asked in a low voice, "Are you here to see my mother too?"
Arlan looked up in shock. In the dim light, the girl's dark eyes were filled with tears. When she turned back, her tender voice also had tears in it: "The plague is so bad!"
So bad...
The child's shallow two words were like a sharp knife that suddenly pierced Allan's heart.
Yeah, that's really bad.
When she was this old, she never thought that she would become such a bad person in the future, right? As a genius in the tribe, Allan was spoiled and grew up. She had never left Nanzhao since she was a child, and had never experienced any hardships worth mentioning. Therefore, she was more naive than her peers. It was this naivety that often made her unable to distinguish and think independently.
The little girl finally started to cry. Allan didn't dare to look and hurriedly looked away, but his eyes were stung by the fire not far away.
Distance seemed unable to block the scorching heat wave, and she was burned like this until the ice wall in her heart, which was already full of cracks, began to melt and collapse quickly, revealing the appearance of the sea of heart, where blood flowed like a river, some of which were from her own people, and some were innocent people.
She vaguely felt that the blood was flowing out, dyeing her whole body a scarlet color like purgatory.
At this time, someone learned of Allan's identity and came here: "...it was she who helped Duke Hanguo create the plague in Yuezhou!"
Questions and scolding suddenly came, Allan's eyes were empty, and he was pulled up from the ground by Shepherd's Purse.
"Bad guy!"
A ball of mud suddenly hit Allan. She turned around and saw that the little girl had stood up and stared at her with hatred on her face: "Monster!"
Allan's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he turned back. He was dragged away by Shepherd's Purse and stuffed back into the carriage.
Unlike when he came here, this time Allan was very quiet and there was no sound at all.
"Have you thought it through?"
It was still the same shed. Chang Suining looked at the person who was brought back and asked.
Allan sat on the ground without saying a word.
Chang Suining glanced at her and said to She Cai, "Give her an hour to think about it."
Just when She Cai thought her master was in a particularly good mood today, she heard Chang Suining, who had turned around and left, add: "Ask her once every quarter of an hour. If she doesn't answer once, cut off one of her fingers."
After an hour, only two of the ten fingers were left, which was enough.
Shepherd's Purse shuddered all over, responded and came down, calling a female soldier in.
They were not people who liked to kill, but they had no choice at the moment. Too many people died from the plague, and they could not give even a little bit of their softness and sympathy to the culprit.
Chang Suining has never gone far.
The moonlight was silent, but the sound of Allan crying and laughing was particularly clear.
It was not until the third finger was severed that screams of pain were heard in the shed, but the immense pain did not seem to come only from physical pain. In fact, the physical pain seemed to make up for and reduce some more unbearable spiritual pain.
Chang Suining gradually realized that the man seemed to be asking for physical pain.
More than half an hour passed and the screams gradually became weaker.
Allan fell to the ground twitching slightly, his face pale and his whole body wet with sweat. All five fingers of his left hand were cut off, leaving only a blur of flesh and bones.
Just when she was about to lose consciousness from the pain, Chang Suining walked in, lowered his eyes and said, "Can you tell me now?"
Arlan was too weak to raise his head again, and said in a trembling voice: "I have one condition..."
Chang Suining did not sneer at her for overestimating her own abilities, but said, "Tell me about it. If I feel better later, I will consider agreeing to your request."
The implication of her words was very clear. As long as the plague could be eradicated, her mood would naturally improve.
A ray of moonlight sprinkled through the gap in the ceiling. Facing the moonlight, Allan raised her face with great effort, opened her bitten lips that were bleeding, and stated her conditions.
Chang Suining said "hmm" without comment, turned around and left, and asked someone to invite Qiao Yumian, Doctor Sun, and several experienced medical practitioners over.
For the next two days, Doctor Sun locked himself in the pharmacy to prepare medicine, and the only person he saw every day was Qiao Yunmian. The opinions of other doctors were also conveyed here through Qiao Yunmian.
Doctor Sun once dealt with an epidemic, and before Allan told the story of how he made the poison, the doctors had accumulated a lot of valuable experience after many days of treatment - it was like being in a thorny forest, repeatedly searching for a way out in the fog, repeatedly trying and failing while covered in wounds, and walking forward most of the way without retreating. So when the fog dispersed, they could clearly see the correct path, and all they had to do was run forward with all their might.
On the morning of the third day, Dr. Sun, who had been sleepless, pushed open the door of the pharmacy and a rare look of joy appeared on his face. Just as he was about to speak, he saw nearly a hundred doctors gathered outside the pharmacy, all waiting for him to come out.
"..." Doctor Sun restrained his expression, took a step back, stuffed the medicine bag in his hand to his apprentice, and whispered: "...Take it twice a day, try it."
This medicine is relatively strong and needs to be tried by someone first.
Qiao Yumian and others selected ten people with serious illnesses, and after obtaining their consent, they began to test the medicine. Zuo Yuanwai was among them.
Two days later, Qiao Yumian came to Pingchang Suining crying. The usually demure girl of the Qiao family had lost one of her shoes.
"Ningning!" Qiao Yumian, who was barefoot and thin, had tears all over her face, but she smiled widely and said the simplest words: "Alright!"
Chang Suining turned his head and looked over. Behind the elder sister of the Qiao family, the summer sun was exceptionally hot but no longer scorching. The sound of cicadas suddenly became less harsh and instead sounded pleasant.
I feel better, that's it.
Chang Suining smiled back, eyes full of sparkle, but said first: "I'll ask someone to buy new shoes for my sister!"
Qiao Yumian looked down at her bare feet and quickly hid them under her skirt. She smiled and nodded heavily to Chang Suining. (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
