Ah Mian looked over when she heard the sound.
Mo Man took an unsharpened large knife from a tray, smeared something on it, and then sprayed a mouthful of water onto the knife.
Then she slashed her arm with the knife, and the crowd screamed.
Mo Man thought to herself, "I've gone from being a doctor to a street performer." She still had a serious expression on her face, but a lot of "blood" was oozing from her arm.
At this point, A-Mian also vaguely understood.
Sure enough, Mo Man wiped her arm with a white towel, and her arm was completely healed. Then she did the same thing as Lu Weiwei.
This enraged the crowd, creating a huge uproar as they all demanded the money be returned!
At this moment, Lu Weiwei looked panicked, still stammering and insisting on that claim: "I...I really learned it from an immortal...it's different from hers...she's the weirdo!" If the constables hadn't stopped her, Lu Weiwei would probably have been beaten to death!
“She couldn’t have come up with this idea by herself.” The constable was a decisive man; he first brought the situation under control and ordered Lu Weiwei to return the money on the spot.
Lu Weiwei was heartbroken, but faced with the broadsword, she could only tearfully take out the copper coins and return them to everyone.
"She earned just as much yesterday, several dozen taels!" someone shouted.
"Understood, we will search her house then."
After witnessing this commotion, A-Mian ran to Mo Man and asked, "Dr. Mo, how do you know so much?"
Mo Man shrugged: "Let me tell you a secret, I can say that I've been in school for over twenty years."
This man was older than A-Mian, and she was skeptical, but then sighed, "You are the county magistrate's daughter, so he can naturally find a tutor for you at home alone."
“There will be a chance.” Mo Man couldn’t help but pat the little native’s head. “I suspect this outbreak is the plague. You know, never eat rats or field mice, and get rid of fleas. Don’t touch any wild animals in the mountains recently.”
Amian was surprised: "The farmers' harvests have been pretty good these past few years, so why would anyone eat field mice?"
Even when she was starving, she never thought of eating a rat.
However, she used to catch cicadas, remove their wings, roast them over a fire, and then bite into them—they were crunchy and delicious.
It wasn't very tasty; it had little flavor, probably because it lacked seasoning.
"If you see someone with a high fever, run far away and don't get close. I may not have time to teach you exercises anymore. After discussing it with my father, I will be heading to the prefectural city."
Mo Man said a few more words, her tone rather desolate.
Before transmigrating, she had worked as a doctor for many years, seeing countless patients and witnessing countless life-and-death situations. Sometimes, as a materialist, she would ponder "fate" at certain moments. People today are completely unaware of the pathology of diseases, so when faced with many illnesses, they can only place their hopes on some mysterious, metaphysical power.
But one day, people will reach a point where even if they know the pathology, they still can't explain questions like, "But others smoke and drink, etc., so why did God choose me to get sick?"
She still remembers the first thought she had after reading her cancer diagnosis report with the calmness typical of a doctor, before she transmigrated here, when she was forty-three years old.
Why me of all people?
At this point, Mo Man realized that she had been busy for half her life, striving almost endlessly: college entrance exam, undergraduate, master's, doctoral, residency training, professional title...
The next day, she went to work as usual.
This is Mo Man's way of life: if she starts something, she will see it through to the end.
"Dr. Mo, is it absolutely necessary to go?" A-Mian wrote down her words one by one.
"Don't worry, I'm not going there to die. But if it really is this disease, I know how to control the casualties, so I have to communicate with the local officials. It hasn't spread to us yet... but it's hard to say, the incubation period for this disease is three to five days."
Amian gripped her arm tightly. "Could you be a Bodhisattva reincarnated?" This was the only explanation she could think of. Her knees buckled, and she was about to kneel down in worship.
Mo Man steadied him, laughing, "It's not what you think. You don't understand. In this life, finding something you truly love to do makes you feel incredibly happy. That's called an ideal. Little Amian, until we meet again."
Mo Man is gone.
A-Mian and the people were left bewildered, still having to make a living in this world.
The following day, the city's constables led a search party to the Zhang family's residence, where they found forty-five taels of silver. Furthermore, they discovered an obscure travelogue that clearly described the "water-to-blood" trick, a sham that Lu Weiwei was illiterate in.
Despite Zhang Yixing's vehement denial that it was his idea, he and Lu Weiwei blamed each other.
However, husband and wife are one; they share both glory and loss.
Considering that Zhang Yixing was a scholar, he was not imprisoned but instead given twenty strokes of the cane. Lu Weiwei, being a woman, was therefore punished with ten strokes. This incident caused the Zhang family to lose all face, and people would frequently come to their door to hurl insults and spit at them.
For a time, the Zhang family stayed indoors, and the atmosphere was deathly still; this time, there wasn't even a single cry.
Forced into a corner, the Zhang couple have completely given up on their dreams of making a fortune through business. Now, there is only one way for them to turn their lives around.
Four or five days later, news spread throughout the city that the first person to contract the disease had appeared in the chicken feather shop. The person was already burning up with fever, foaming at the mouth, and had swelling in many parts of their body.
All the shops closed overnight, and every household shut their doors tightly.
The Meng family's courtyard was bustling with activity at the moment.
"Third brother, we've even blocked up the drainage hole in our house. There's no way for rats to get in or out anymore."
Amian nodded in agreement. She was busy spreading out bamboo mats and clothes in the yard and pouring boiling mugwort water over them. "Besides, there weren't any lice in the house before!"
Meng Chijian's expression was resolute, like a general who remained calm in the face of a formidable enemy, as he lit mugwort to repel insects everywhere. These past few days, he had been dressed completely in the midday heat, even wearing trousers around his neck, not exposing a single inch of skin, to fetch water when there were fewer people around.
Mencius' mother, who had initially been on high alert, was now exasperated by her son's antics and couldn't help but laugh at him: "You used to be so depressed and half-dead, but now you're more afraid of death than anyone else!"
"Mother, this matter is of utmost importance..."
"Alright, alright, I won't say anything to you." The old lady really couldn't be bothered with such trivial matters.
In the countryside, where people lived in relatively sparsely populated areas, there had been no reports of anyone contracting the disease. However, the news from the city grew increasingly serious each day; the beggars, servants, and maids who had stayed at that inn had all fallen ill!
Subsequently, even among the residents who had never stayed at that inn, the illness began to appear one after another.
At this time, news also spread that a waiter named Wangwang at Song Liusao's fish soup shop had also developed a high fever.
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