Xia He pondered for a moment, then got on his horse and said, "Let's go and take a look."
The group rode their horses to the riverside and saw that the water was indeed turbid and yellowish, with a layer of strange foam floating on the surface.
Xia He got off his horse, squatted on the shore, scooped up a handful of water, and sniffed it -
A pungent fishy smell rushed straight to my head!
"This smell..." His eyes shone, and he immediately shook off the water droplets on his hands and said in a deep voice,
"It's not the usual stench of decay, it's more like... corpse poison?"
Erpang spat beside him and cursed:
"Who is so wicked as to poison the river? Isn't this harming people?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a hoarse sneer came from under the shade of the trees by the river:
"Oh, what do you mean by poisoning? You are such an ignorant kid."
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw an old man with gray hair and beard lying under a tree.
He was sitting with his legs crossed, a grass stem in his mouth, looking lazy.
He was dressed in rags, like an ordinary old farmer, but his eyes were bright and restrained, without any hint of turbidity.
Er Pang was provoked by him and said angrily:
"Old man! Who are you calling ignorant? If it's not poison, then tell me what's wrong with this water!"
The old man said lazily without even raising his eyelids:
"Fool, this water is not poisoned, it is infected with plague. If you are not afraid of death, drink it."
"Plague?!" Erpang's face changed and his eyes widened.
Xia He stopped Er Pang who was about to speak, stepped forward, clasped his fists and said:
"Are you a farmer here? Where did this plague come from?"
The old man then glanced at him sideways and snorted:
"Farmer? I look like a farmer, old man?"
Er Pang couldn't help but ask, "Then why are you pretending to be so profound here?"
The old man sneered: "The little kid has a bad temper."
After saying that, he turned over and tried to continue sleeping.
Er Pang was so angry that he glared, but Xia He raised his hand to stop him.
After carefully examining the old man for a moment, he suddenly said:
"Since you know the source of the plague, you must be no ordinary person. Could you be the doctor here? Could you give me some advice?"
The old man then slowly sat up, squinted his eyes and stared at Xia He, for a while, he grinned:
"You, young man, are more polite than that fool."
He patted the grass debris on his body, pointed to the mountains in the distance, and said lightly:
"A while ago, a group of people died in the mountains. Their bodies washed down the mountain stream and rotted, and the water became smelly."
"The villagers drank it, some got sick, some died, and the rest... hey, they couldn't run away, they could only wait to die."
Xia He's heart sank: "Who died?"
The old man gave him a meaningful look and said, "What do you think?"
"Of course they are all ordinary people."
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