Chapter 44 Treatment? How to treat it? What treatment? I think we should just leave it to fend for itself.
Li Shiyue's words made both of them frown. Li Youfu was truly at a loss at this moment. He looked up at Li Shiyang, wanting him to make a decision.
Li Shiyang pursed his lips and remained silent. Li Shiyue looked at Li Youfu and then at Li Shiyang. She continued, "We still have to go to the county town. It would be best to find a doctor to examine us. Maybe we'll be able to escape the plague in the prefectural city."
If it is indeed an epidemic, we need to discuss this carefully: should we stop treating and saving lives? Or...?
Li Shiyang and Li Youfu understood what Li Shiyue meant by leaving the sick behind, while those who weren't sick could run faster and hurry to Dengzhou.
But how can one truly abandon this?
Even if bones are broken, tendons are still connected. Along the way, those who fled for their lives were all their closest relatives. Now, they have traveled more than halfway, and only this last little part remains. How can one bear to abandon their loved ones?
Even after Li Wangren called over his third uncle and the others and explained the situation, none of them had any good solutions, and they all went to look at Li Shiyang.
"If it wasn't because I contracted the disease in the prefectural city, then it must be because there was something wrong with the water source near the prefectural city."
These past few days, the water we've been drinking has all come from the Zi River outside the city. If anyone gets sick, it's only a matter of time before we all fall ill.
Tomorrow we'll go to the county town to inquire about the situation, and then we'll invite a doctor out. If we're sick, we'll get treatment; if not, we'll stay healthy.
This was the only option left. After returning to the Li family home, Li Shiyue secretly told her mother and the others about it, keeping it from her grandmother.
“Father must be really sick. Tomorrow, Brother Shiyang and I will go into the city to see him. If we can bring back a doctor to treat him, that would be the best.”
If not, then we can only leave it to fate and see if we can get through this period.
"Don't tell Grandma about this," Li Shiyue looked up at Li Wangming, "she's old and already heartbroken by Father's actions. If you tell her more, I'm afraid she won't be able to bear it."
Li Wangming naturally nodded in agreement with Li Shiyue's words. In Li Wangming's opinion, his father, as the eldest brother, was really not acting like a son. It was right not to tell his grandmother that his father might be sick, as it would save his grandmother some worry.
Besides, even if we told Grandma Li, what could she do?
Grandma Li isn't a doctor, so she can't cure illnesses. She's also old and can't take care of people, so it's better to keep it from her and not tell her.
The next day was a cloudy day with no sun.
Li Shiyue, Li Wangming, Ma Zi, and a few others drove a donkey cart together, following Li Shiyang towards the county town.
The number of people entering and leaving the county town is not large, but it's not small either.
At the low city gate, two soldiers with swords stood in line. When it was Li Shiyue and his group's turn, they paid the copper coins to enter the city. They didn't even need household registration certificates or travel permits. They just drove their donkey carts into the city.
Ma Zi was a lively person. He sat at the front of the cart and used a thin twig to nudge the donkey's rump. He noticed that Li Shiyang, who was walking beside the cart, did not have a smile on his face, so he asked, "Shiyang, why are you unhappy?"
"Didn't we enter the city perfectly well?"
Ma Zi's words drew everyone who had come with him to look at Li Shiyang, and Li Shiyue, who was walking beside Li Shiyang, also had a heavy expression on her face.
"Why are you like this in October too?"
"When we entered the city just now, the soldiers standing there only needed to pay money and didn't even check our household registration. This shows that the county government only cares about money and doesn't care who is entering the city. In this world, they are not afraid of bandits."
That's not right.
Moreover,” Li Shiyue said to Ma Zi after bobbing the basket on his back, “we’ve walked for almost fifteen minutes, and at least five of the people we’ve passed have flushed faces; they look like they’re sick.”
Li Shiyue's words immediately plunged Ma Zi and the others into worry.
Upon arriving at the clinic, I saw at least a dozen people with flushed faces, bloodshot eyes, and hoarse voices waiting to see a doctor. The young clerks at the medicine cabinet were busy dispensing medicine without stopping.
Finally, Li Shiyang spent a lot of money to hire a doctor and a young apprentice to accompany them out of the city to see patients.
Li Shiyang originally wanted to look for the official gazette in the bookstores of the county town to see if he could get some information about the imperial court, so that they could have a better understanding of how to proceed in the future.
However, both of the only two bookstores in the county town were closed!
I asked the nearby shops, and they said they had closed three days ago because the owner of the Taoist bookstore had a family emergency.
But you know, if the owner has something to do, the bookstore should still have a manager. Surely the manager can't also have something to do at home, right?
The doctor was a man of the world; he wasn't afraid at all when he saw seventy or eighty people in the wilderness. He even asked Li Shiyang for a table to sit at and see patients.
In just over an hour, the doctor and his young apprentice examined all the more than ten sick people in Lijia Village, including Li's father.
"The symptoms are similar to those of people who have recently fallen ill in the county, except that two of you have more severe symptoms. I'll prescribe a medicine for you to drink first. If you can pull through, you can live; if not, there's nothing I can do."
The family the doctor mentioned were two elderly people surnamed Li. As for the rest of the people, the doctor said, "Take your medicine first. You've been traveling for too long, and your bodies are weak, so this illness has come up."
If he can rest for a few days, eat more, and let his body recover, he should be able to recover.
Li Shiyue watched as the doctor directed the young apprentice to take medicine packets from his basket. She stepped forward, bowed, and then asked, "Doctor Chen, aren't you afraid? Is this an epidemic?"
"Isn't Dr. Chen afraid of catching this disease from us?"
When Li Shiyue mentioned the word "epidemic," the doctor Chen paused for a moment, but quickly resumed his actions, as if he had not been startled by Li Shiyue's words at all.
While distributing medicine to the young apprentice, Doctor Chen replied to Li Shiyue with his head down: "Alas, young lady, you must have seen it in the city. This kind of illness has been around in the county town for a long time."
Why do I dare to come out of the city to treat your illnesses?
Sigh, it's just for a few coins; the family still needs to eat.
Furthermore, I have been in the city for a long time, and since we have not been infected, I should not be infected when I come out to treat you.
Why didn't you check household registration certificates at the city gate?
Doctor Chen glanced up at Li Shiyue briefly before lowering his head to continue dispensing the medicine: "The county magistrate fled with his family several days ago. The county lieutenant is now in charge of the county government."
"The magistrate can escape, but I'm just a registered physician, and my whole family is here. Where can I run to?"
After paying for the medicine and giving extra money for the consultation, Li Shiyang instructed Ma Zi and Li Wangshui to take good care of Doctor Chen and the young apprentice and escort them back to the county town.
As for the medicine packets left by Doctor Chen, they were distributed to the sick people of Lijia Village as instructed, so that they could quickly decoct the medicine and take it.
As a result, by evening, a strong medicinal smell permeated the field where the people of Lijia Village lived.
Qin Tao squatted on the ground, preparing medicine for Li's father. She looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention, suddenly poured something into the pot. She quickly stirred it with chopsticks, mixing the stuff she threw in with the original medicinal herbs.
Li's father was lying on the donkey cart where Li Chunli and Li Shigui had originally been. He had a white cloth tied around his head, his face was abnormally flushed, and he had his eyes closed.
Just as Li's father was about to drift off to sleep, he vaguely heard the sound of arguing. He had no choice but to force himself to open his eyes, sit up halfway, and look in the direction from which the argument was coming.
"Treat it? How can we treat it? What's the point of treating it? I think we should just leave it to fend for itself."
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