Ulcers/knots【repair】
The journey was not bumpy, and Ye Xuanling finally saw the red maple tree outside the county again. It was still standing there quietly, but only a few days had passed and most of the leaves of the maple tree had withered.
Brown maple leaves spun to the ground, clinging to the moist soil. When you stepped on them, you could hear the crisp sound of the leaves.
Ye Xuanling used to love stepping on these leaves, but after getting off the carriage, with the bamboo basket on her back, she was of course happy to have medicine to treat her illness, but she always felt depressed in her heart.
"Let's go." Ji Yan saw her looking at the maple tree for a long time and reminded her to go back quickly.
Ye Xuanling looked away and nodded in agreement.
She walked and looked around, finding it strange. Usually, there would be people guarding the county border, but why was there no one there now? Moreover, with the epidemic raging, Liu Dakou should have arranged more patrols.
"What's wrong?" Ji Yan asked her.
Ye Xuanling frowned slightly, her eyelashes trembling slightly, but there was no joy on her face. She was about to save everyone, but she felt an indescribable discomfort in her heart.
"It's okay, let's hurry up."
The county was completely different from the previous few days. The streets were completely deserted, a stark contrast to the lake and the lake. This eerie silence was truly suffocating.
She clutched her chest, trying to make herself feel better, but it didn't. The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt.
The moss on the roadside grew in bizarre and twisted shapes, the dark green spreading all the way to the entrance of Qingye Clinic. Seeing the scene before her, Ye Xuanling finally understood the reason for her uneasiness.
The Qingye Clinic was divided into a front yard, a central hall, and a backyard. The entrance, through the main gate, was where herbs were usually dried. But now, the main gate was charred and broken, and the two pillars outside were charred black. Ye Xuanling's heart was pounding with fear as she watched the scene in disbelief.
Still in shock, she held onto the pillar, the fuzzy black remaining on her palms.
The door had been charred and collapsed. Ye Xuanling gasped for breath as she ran inside. It was a scene of devastation, with the structure toppled. She was desperate to find Ye Qing, looking around frantically.
The door to the main hall was tightly closed. She didn't care about anything else and pushed the door with all her strength.
She had never found this door so difficult to open before. She nervously scratched her nail bed and rubbed her fingers. Since her hands didn't work, she would use her body to push it open!
After several attempts, Ji Yan told him to come, but Ye Xuanling was not discouraged and kicked it with one foot.
"Bang!" The door opened. The hall was pitch black, with only a few rays of sunlight coming in through the cracks in the burned-out windows and doors. She didn't dare to think about what had happened.
I thought it was just a door blocked with sticks, but I didn't expect that there were piles of boxes filled with rocks behind it. Ye Xuanling kicked the box open and asked the big man anxiously, "Master, where are you?!"
"Master!" Ye Xuanling opened the back door, but there was no one in the backyard. In fact, the house in the backyard was burned more seriously than the one in the front yard.
After searching through several rooms, Ye Qing was nowhere to be found. Why was the clinic burned down? He had never caused any trouble, let alone been against anyone.
Qingye Medical Clinic is usually well-received by the people. It never takes advantage of the precious herbs and never charges more for the medicine than it costs the people.
"Ye Qing!" Ye Xuanling howled, "If you don't come out, I'll sell you the file you treasure most! Ye Qing!!"
No one responded. Black crows were circling in the gray-blue sky, howling and crying, adding a chilling and eerie atmosphere to this small county town.
Ye Xuanling's entire body turned cold as she stared quietly at Ye Qing's room. A dark red bloodstain remained on the inconspicuous crack of the door. In Ye Xuanling's eyes, that small spot looked like a dried-up lake.
Unlike in the past, Ye Qing didn't jump out and pull her ears, criticize her behavior, or suddenly say to her: "You are always making trouble. When I die, you will still stand on my grave and make a scene?!"
After a moment of silence, Ye Xuanling gritted her teeth and said, "I'm going to find Liu Dakou."
He turned around and left without any hesitation. This was the only way. After all, Liu Dakou was the county magistrate. He should have an explanation for the burning houses and the remaining bloodstains.
But she was terrified. What explanation could Liu Dakou offer? A fire? An accident?
It is impossible for people to disappear for no reason. The streets are so quiet that it is hard to tell where these people have gone. Looking along the way, except for the hospital that was burned, all other houses are still in good condition.
How angry was he? He was so mad that his face was horrible and he wanted to burn Qingye Clinic to ashes.
The stone lions still stood with their eyes wide open on either side of the lacquered gate, their smoke and dust lingering above them. The door to the county government office was already scorched. Ye Xuanling watched indifferently, her face impassive.
After knocking on the door symbolically, Ji Yan stood behind her silently without making a sound.
There was no sound or sign of anyone inside.
Just a few days later, there was no one left in the county, and the county government office and the clinic were all burned down.
Zhe Yang had not yet passed away, and she had not yet taught everyone the treatment method. It was impossible for them all to die, and it was impossible for Ye Qing to die from the disease after drinking the medicine.
Before they went to Liu Dakou's house, Ye Xuanling turned around and saw Ji Yan standing behind her. She turned her head away from him and tried to hold back her sobs. She didn't want to show them to others. After taking a deep breath and adjusting herself, she said to him, "Let's go to Liu Dakou's house. I want to see if he's still alive!"
"good."
The entrance to Liu Dakou's house was unburned, just like any other. Ye Xuanling didn't even consider whether she was trespassing. She simply kicked the wooden door open and said, "Let's go."
Ye Xuanling stood at the front, and the room was also empty: "Let's go to the secret room."
She remembered clearly that Liu Dakou's books were kept in the secret room, which was in the couch room. The layout of the couch room had not changed, it just looked like no one was there, and a thin layer of dust had settled on the objects and the couch.
Her movements were very skillful. She pressed the brick on the couch just like Liu Dakou did at that time. The secret door opened, but it was pitch black inside.
Ji Yan took a tinder from the side and lit a lamp: "Here."
Ye Xuanling: "Thank you very much."
Holding a lamp in hand, I walked down the wooden stairs. The lamp was clearly lit the last time I came, and it was still burning.
Why only this time...
What caught their eyes were layers of bookshelves, and they turned on the lights and got closer to take a look.
The bookshelf is empty.
After checking back and forth twice, she realized that not a single book was missing. Ye Xuanling gazed at the bookshelves, lost in thought. Anping County had become a completely different place in just a few days of her absence.
But this person must still be alive.
The two looked at each other for a long time, and then Ye Xuanling looked away: "Let's go."
Ji Yan: “Yeah.”
"Why are there so many people out there, all gone just in the few days I was away?" Ye Xuanling said with a self-deprecating laugh. "It's become a deserted county?"
Ye Xuanling was talking to herself, but Ji Yan still patiently patted her back, as if he was smoothing the fur of a small animal.
"Don't think too much. Maybe Liu Dakou just transferred them to other places." Ji Yan said gently without stopping.
She was terrified. The prescription was in her hands, and Liu Dakou was so disregarding everyone else. The ulcer was spreading rapidly, and the entire county might be... No, she shook her head. This kind of thing wouldn't happen.
Even if someone is sick, the officers and soldiers will arrange a place for them to go. Usually, such people will be buried in the West Mountain. Even if they die of illness, there will never be a master.
That pool of blood couldn't possibly be her master's.
"If he's alive, I'll have to see his body. I want to go to Xishan to take a look." Ye Xuanling quickened her pace. Xishan was not close to the county, and she had to get there quickly before dark.
Ji Yan: "Okay, I'll listen to you."
The road to Xishan is winding, but at this moment my body feels lighter than ever, but my heart is extremely heavy.
Ye Xuanling felt that this skirt was not convenient at all, so she walked forward holding up her skirt.
"You picked me up from here?"
"Um."
"Luckily I met you, otherwise I would just be waiting to die up here."
Ye Xuanling looked at him without saying anything, with an expression that said "Why are you talking so much?" and looked unhappy.
She was silent for a moment: "Sorry."
"I should be sorry." Ji Yan said.
"I'm sorry." She knew he didn't mean any other things, maybe just wanted to make her feel more relaxed. But she couldn't control herself, she was afraid that it was the master's blood.
The two of them first met at the mass grave in Xishan, and she didn't want to think about it at the moment.
The earth mounds at the mass grave were surging. It was no longer as desolate as it had been before, with small piles of yellow earth arranged in no order.
Instead, the bodies of hundreds of people were scattered on the ground in a chaotic manner.
Some had half their bodies exposed, the other half buried in the mud. Their wounds hadn't healed, and they were covered in dense red spots and rotting flesh. Corpses littered the ground, all of them residents of Anping County.
Corpses were scattered everywhere, and graves were in disarray. Ye Xuanling suppressed the nausea in her stomach and searched everywhere, but she didn't want to find that person here, and her heart was in turmoil.
When he looked up, he saw Ye Qing, wearing a purple robe, lying on top of the corpses. His robe was mixed with rainwater and mud, and his hands and feet were mixed with hers, making it impossible to tell whose was whose.
Her eyes trembled: "Master!!" Ye Xuanling ran over, knelt beside Ye Qing, and held Ye Qing's cheek in a posture that was most familiar between the two.
Several emotions intertwined, and tears suddenly fell like a kite with a broken string. Her chest heaved, and grief and sadness took over her entire body.
She held Ye Qing close to her chest, tears streaming down her face. She called out to her master, her voice slurred as tears streamed down her cheeks. One tear landed quietly on Ye Qing's cheek. Wailing seemed futile at this moment. She dragged Ye Qing from the pile of corpses. Her legs were buried in the dirt. She dug them apart with her bare hands and hunched them over her back. She wanted to take her master home, back home.
Before leaving the mountain, she buried everyone's naked bodies underground, at least to protect them from wild dogs. She knelt and bowed before them, expressing her deepest gratitude for their help in collecting firewood. Now, she felt deeply ashamed that she could not escort them home. If there was a hidden truth, she would investigate and restore justice to Anping.
The Ye family did not have an ancestral tomb. Ye Xuanling wiped away her tears, her eyes dull as she buried her under the maple tree at the entrance of Anping County. There was no tombstone and no mound left, just to let Ye Qing rest in peace.
The two had nowhere to go, so they had to return to the clinic.
Ye Xuanling collapsed completely and sat on the ground at the entrance of the clinic.
"Liu Dakou must still be alive." Ye Xuanling stared at the osmanthus tree in the backyard of the clinic, her eyes never moving away. "I'm going to go find him."
"I understand." Ji Yan felt compassion and spoke quietly beside her.
Ji Yan said, "Tonight, you will come to the capital with me."
She knelt on her knees, put her hands together, raised them in front of her face, and worshiped the bright winter moon.
The first snow of winter fell that night. Snowflakes fluttered onto the girl's body. The moment they touched her fair skin, they turned into small drops of water, slid across her nose, and fell silently to the ground like a tear.
But this osmanthus tree will not bloom again next year.
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