Chapter 93: Flowing Light (7) Plague
The man was heartbroken and would not believe anyone at this moment.
"She has been laid to rest now. What? Do you still want to act rashly in front of the dead? Do you want to dig up the grave and desecrate the corpse in broad daylight?!" He looked warily at the men in black around Xie Yun and was obviously frightened by them.
The cause of death is still unknown, yet the person was buried so hastily?
"I have a prescription from you, and the medicine was also picked from here. This is the residue of the medicine my mother drank." The man held the residue tightly in his hand and carefully unfolded it to show the people present, trying to prove it.
Xie Yun snorted coldly, "You prove nothing. You can't prove that this medicine was prescribed by me, nor can you prove that your mother died after taking it. All you prove is that you bought a batch of medicine, boiled it, and left a pile of residue. The rest doesn't prove anything."
The man was instantly enraged, as if Xie Yun had hit the nail on the head. He immediately wanted to bite back, "Are you going to deny your debt? This Tianshan grass is unique to your pharmacy. Are you going to deny it?"
Xie Yun stepped forward to examine the dregs. Indeed, among the medicinal residues was a trace of Tianshan grass. This meant that even if the herb wasn't entirely hers, it was indeed only available in her pharmacy. Xie Run personally led his men to the summit of the snow-capped mountains to gather the grass each season. Due to the cold weather and steep terrain, it was rarely accessible. Xie Run had practiced martial arts since childhood, so he was no stranger to climbing snowy mountains.
"It's true that this Tianshan grass is unique to my shop. But as a son, if your mother had an accident because of drinking my medicine, why didn't you tell me when it happened, and only come here to complain now? When your mother showed any abnormality, you should have gone to seek medical treatment immediately. Even if you don't believe me, there are so many doctors here, you could have found someone else to solve your mother's urgent needs. But you didn't, and it's not known who has bad intentions." Xie Yun suspected that this person wanted to take the opportunity to extort some money.
If he really had grievances or difficulties, even if he came to Xie Yun to ask for money, she might give him some money because he was poor. But if he used such a despicable method, she would not give him money.
"If you feel wronged, you can report it to the authorities. The county lieutenant is very observant and will surely give you an explanation for this matter," Xie Yun added.
She could be a bit cold-blooded and ruthless at times, but after all, she had experienced life and death, betrayal, and had spent years working outside, so it was natural for her to be more decisive and ruthless. Otherwise, how could she survive?
It would be extremely foolish for her to blindly treat others well in everything.
As soon as Xie Yun finished speaking, his brother Xie Run came over with the county lieutenant: "No need to ask for it. I have already informed the county lieutenant of the matter, and he is already here!"
He was just out for a trip, going with the caravan to collect and purchase medicinal herbs. Unexpectedly, as soon as he came back, someone came to tell him that something had happened at Yunjitang.
The troublemakers and Xie Yun were taken to the yamen by the county lieutenant, and the matter needed to be investigated slowly.
The county lieutenant was surprisingly polite to Xie Yun this time. "Boss Yun, I will take the troublemakers to the yamen for custody. I'll need you to come with me to record a statement. After you've done that, you can go home."
Xie Yun smiled lightly and bowed. "Thank you for your hard work, County Lieutenant. I hope you will investigate the whole matter and clear Yun Jitang and me of all charges."
"It's natural."
-
Two days later, the outcome of the incident became clear. It turned out that the troublemaker was addicted to gambling. He had lost all his family wealth over the years and even sold out the few acres of land he had left. His mother had contracted tuberculosis due to years of hard work and was now terminally ill and beyond help.
But as a son, he had no filial piety at all. He even made up a minor illness for money and went to Yunjitang to get medicine. After his mother died, he came to frame Xie Yun.
However, it was still unknown who had been behind his actions. He had met that person in the casino and thought he was a loan shark. However, he had never imagined that he was simply looking for an opportunity to slander Xie Yun and ruin Yunjitang's reputation in exchange for money.
He was naturally delighted. Before this, he had never even seen Xie Yun, having only heard that she was the owner of Yunjitang. As long as the pain wasn't personal, I wouldn't mind it. But as long as it was beneficial to me, I would hesitate and eventually do it. Everything in the world is like this; it's just human nature.
What Xie Yun hadn't expected was that within just a few days, more and more people in the city would come to Yunjitang to cause trouble, cursing that Yunjitang's prescriptions were ineffective. In fact, such a large-scale phenomenon didn't seem to be directed at Yunjitang.
Because other pharmacies also experienced the same phenomenon, it seemed to be a trend, like a sudden and unstoppable attack. In an instant, the entire Baixia City fell.
More and more people have been coming to see the doctor recently, but at first their symptoms were no different from those of ordinary colds. But after a few days, when the cold seemed to be getting better, they suddenly developed a high fever, and then their whole body began to burn and blister, and then ulcerate, and the disease progressed so quickly that it was almost incurable.
Xie Yun had never seen such symptoms before because they occurred in a series of attacks.
Conventional medicines for treating colds, high fevers and body ulcers have little effect, and even if they are effective, they only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. At first, only the skin ulcers appear, but then the internal organs are also damaged, quickly fail, and the patient begins to cough up blood.
The most terrifying thing is that this disease is contagious very quickly. Anyone who touches any object used by the patient will be quickly infected, and the pus from the skin ulcers will also be transmitted if it gets on the injured area.
All the doctors in the city were helpless, and even Xie Yun had no idea.
That day, Xie Yun contacted all the doctors in the city to gather at Yunji Hall to discuss how to deal with the current epidemic.
Everyone was overwhelmed by this sudden illness. Many unknown young doctors fled early because they had poor medical skills and did not want to be affected by this highly contagious disease.
Not only the doctors, but also many civilians in the city began to pack up their belongings and flee. Those who remained in Baixia City today were the people who had lived here for generations.
Nowadays, only a few people can accept the invitation.
"I have been practicing medicine for many years, but I have never seen such a disease. It is really strange." One of the old men with gray hair spoke first.
"This isn't just a simple epidemic, it's a plague! Once infected, your internal organs will fail within a few days. Not to mention there's no cure right now, even if a drug were developed, it would be too late. Furthermore, how long will it take for the drug to be developed... Sigh... I don't even know if I can hold out until that day."
There was a constant groaning in Yunji Hall.
At the onset of the illness, Xie Yun sensed something was wrong. Children have weaker resistance. So, she quickly asked the remaining soldiers from Yan Huinan to take Yan Lang out of Baixia and head north back to the capital. In the capital, at least there would be someone to take care of Yan Lang; staying in Baixia was too dangerous.
As for the children in Jishan Hall, those who had contracted the disease had all been brought to Yunjitang for treatment, and those who were not infected were also sent out of the city by Xie Yun.
In fact, Xie Yun has seen countless patients in the past few days. For this reason, she has not had a full night's sleep for several days. She only sleeps for one or two hours every day and then gets up to see patients. She has been studying the symptoms for days, which has made her eyes red. Fortunately, she has been practicing medicine for many years and pays attention to physical recuperation on weekdays. Her body is still healthy and can last longer than ordinary people.
After studying the symptoms repeatedly for many days, she found that the symptoms were very familiar. Although she had never learned about it in medical books, she seemed to have seen it somewhere before.
So she spent the past few days repeatedly recalling the cases she had treated and looking through her medical notes, which recorded all the unusual conditions she had encountered, along with the corresponding diagnosis and treatment methods and prescriptions.
But after looking through them all, I found nothing.
Until last night, she had been reading medical books for so long that she didn't even notice it, and fell asleep leaning against the small table. Perhaps because she had sent Yan Lang away and missed him too much, she first dreamed of Yan Lang. The Yan Lang in her dream seemed two years younger than he is now, smaller in stature, and more like a meat bun than he is now, so adorable.
Holding the kite string in his hand, he ran carefree on a flat green meadow. As he ran, he looked back at Xie Yun and shouted, "Mother! Mother! Look at how high my kite is flying!"
Xie Yun couldn't help but smile and responded that he was flying very high.
Yan Huinan suddenly appeared in the sight, leading his horse to Yan Lang's side.
Xie Yun's heart suddenly felt like it was falling into a sea of fire. She was terrified, worried that Yan Huinan would snatch Yan Lang away.
She was terrified and chased after him. If it were in reality, she would not have been so panicked to face Yan Huinan, but in the dream she was very panicked, shouting at Yan Huinan, "No, don't take Lang'er away."
But no one heard her cry.
She realized belatedly that she couldn't make a sound at all. The feeling of helplessness, with no one answering her calls to heaven or earth, enveloped Xie Yun deeply like an abyss.
She ran forward desperately, watching Yan Huinan carry Yan Lang onto the horse, and then he whipped the horse and was about to ride away.
Xie Yun was in pain and anxious, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. She desperately tried to make a sound to get Yan Huinan to stop.
But before I knew it, the endless green grassland in front of me disappeared and was instantly surrounded by a raging sea of fire.
In the sea of fire, she saw the ruthless Yan Huinan of the past. Beside him was Xie Qingyun, the Wu Si who had wanted to take her life. He was covered in wounds and barely resembled a human. If it weren't for the black hooded gown, she would hardly recognize him.
That fair and handsome Miao boy.
The dream ended abruptly here.
She was awakened by a scream.
After waking up, she was shocked to realize that she had been crying in her dream. She raised her hand to touch the corner of her eye and found it was wet.
But at the same time, her memories of the past and Wu Si made her associate this illness with the way Wu Si looked when he died.
As children, Xie Yun and Yan Huinan traveled together to the south of the Yangtze River. The emperor's secret visit to the region was due to the region's recent economic recovery from the plague, which had returned to a vibrant and prosperous state. The emperor took Yan Huinan with him, and Yan Huinan, in turn, persuaded his uncle to bring his two friends, along with Xie Yun, to the region.
As the others chattered non-stop, creating a chaotic scene, Xie Yun suddenly spoke up, "This is indeed not just any plague, it's the plague."
"There's just one thing I don't understand. I remember there was a plague in Jiangnan, but that was after a flood. The entire Jiangnan region had just ended the flood, and rats were running everywhere. People competed with the insects and rats for food, and even ate rats, which caused the plague. But now Jiangnan's economy is prosperous, the people are rich, and they have no worries about food and clothing. The government has also been cracking down on insects and rats. Why did the plague break out again? So suddenly, catching everyone off guard?" Xie Yun raised his question.
Similarly, this question brought back memories for several doctors.
The symptoms today are more serious than the plague after the flood. Moreover, when people contracted the plague back then, they only had organ infections, but no ulcers.
This time the situation is much worse.
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