UCTOOT CH29

The two of them led the donkey forward. The street was desolate and pale, terrifyingly empty. Unexpectedly, a figure in a plain long robe was standing outside a house, looking at something with his hands behind his back.

Shi Shu: “Finally saw a living person. But why does this back look so familiar?”

When the person turned his face, Shi Shu was surprised: “Imperial Physician Lin?”

It was actually Lin Yangchun!

Lin Yangchun smiled: “So it’s you two. Good, good, another pair come to die. That’s right, instead of enjoying the comfortable life in the Eastern Capital’s Heir Apparent’s residence, you come here looking for hardship.”

Shi Shu was curious: “Aren’t you here too? What are you looking at?”

Lin Yangchun: “Looking at the dead. I heard someone just died here, so I came to see what kind of death it was, what they looked like after death.”

Shi Shu took a step back, his heart going numb, and retreated to Xie Wuchi’s side: “What kind of death?”

“Alternating between cold and hot before death, chest pain, internal bleeding, and delirium. After death, bleeding from the seven orifices, sallow and emaciated face, and a tongue coating as white as accumulated powder.”

Shi Shu noticed that Lin Yangchun’s mental state was not good. He seemed to be suffering from overwork. He was holding a bunch of herbs in his hand and was thinner and more haggard than when he was at the Heir Apparent’s residence. “I’ve seen a hundred dead people today, all died in the same way! The poisonous qi of the miasma ghost! There are more than a hundred thousand people in this Shukang Prefecture, and hundreds of thousands more outside the city. King Yama’s book of life and death has suddenly crossed out so many names, hahaha! I, Lin Yangchun, have been a doctor all my life, and in my lifetime, I can actually encounter such a tragic event!”

“Slap!” Lin Yangchun actually slapped himself hard across the face!

“Why are you hitting yourself? You can’t save them… but you can’t be blamed for this…”

Shi Shu was stunned in place. He wanted to walk forward, looked up, and met Xie Wuchi’s face, which was as calm as water.

On the way here, he had seen many refugees and corpses. Shi Shu didn’t feel despair. The battle was over, and what followed would be a period of recovery. But Lin Yangchun’s words made him feel like a storm was about to break, that a great disaster was imminent.

Xie Wuchi: “Imperial Physician Lin, don’t blame yourself too much.”

“Blame myself? How dare this mediocre doctor blame himself… You have no place to stay? Follow me.”

In the gray night fog, they followed him through a small door into a courtyard with a sign that read “Medical Bureau.” Lin Yangchun opened a room door and let them go: “You two can stay here. When you have time, come and help me grind and sort the medicine. There are too many patients, and the few people in the bureau are not enough.”

Shi Shu: “Okay, I’ll definitely come and help you when I have time.”

A simple and quiet guest room in the backyard. After traveling from the Eastern Capital to Shukang Prefecture, they finally had a place to shelter from the wind and rain and rest. Shi Shu’s heart calmed down. He sat down at the table and wanted to drink water: “I didn’t expect Imperial Physician Lin to come all the way from the Eastern Capital to save people here. He’s really a good doctor.”

“Raw water, don’t drink it.”

Xie Wuchi took the water cup from his hand: “I’ll go boil some water. From now on, don’t eat or drink things randomly.”

“To prevent getting infected with this ghost poison? Okay… I won’t drink randomly.”

Shi Shu paused, then drank the rest from his water pouch.

The courtyard was some distance from the front yard, but faint sounds could be heard. Shi Shu listened carefully for a moment before recognizing them as cries of “It hurts, it hurts,” “Ouch…,” “My leg, my leg!” “Doctor, please save me!” “It hurts, it hurts,” “Where’s my dad? Is he dead?” and other such screams.

Shi Shu said to himself: “The entire city of Shukang Prefecture is as quiet as death, only the Medical Bureau is filled with cries that shake the heavens…”

The dim light shone on Shi Shu’s fair face, casting a faint shadow under his eyelashes. Shi Shu stood up after eating and sighed, “Xie Wuchi, who can sit still through this? I’m going to the front yard to see if I can help with anything.”

Xie Wuchi: “Not resting?”

Shi Shu: “I’m not tired. I’ll come back when I’m tired. I really can’t listen to this anymore. You go to sleep. I’ll be quiet when I come back at night and won’t disturb you.”

Xie Wuchi: “Can’t stay idle for a moment?”

Shi Shu: “I have nothing to do anyway.”

Xie Wuchi held his teacup, closed his eyes and took a breath, then stood up: “Together. Before we go, cover your mouth and nose with a cloth.”

Shi Shu stood there. Xie Wuchi took out the cloth gauze he had bought earlier from his bag and wrapped it layer by layer around Shi Shu’s mouth and nose. After wrapping it, his dark eyes consented: “Go.”

Shi Shu walked to the front yard. The candlelight was dim. Not only were there patients on the stretchers, but also lying in the courtyard and under the corridor, their heads wrapped in layers of gauze, or with half a leg hanging, and some lying stiffly on the ground.

Official soldiers walked back and forth, dragging away anyone who died. Doctors were prescribing medicine, and yamen runners were moving, cutting, and boiling medicine, all in a great hurry.

At the entrance, someone was waiting to carry a stretcher. Shi Shu went forward: “Brother, let me help.”

“Alright, come on.”

Shi Shu: “Heave!”

The moment he exerted force, his arms trembled. The brother opposite him smiled: “Little brother, a dead person is very heavy. You really can’t lift one without some strength.”

“…” Shi Shu saw the pale feet under the cloth. “Where are the bodies being taken?”

“First, they’re loaded onto a cart, then pulled outside the city and burned.”

Shi Shu: “So that’s how it is.”

Shi Shu followed him all the way to where the horse-drawn carts were parked. Piled up like haystacks were all corpses. In the dark night, the soldiers were all waiting. When the number was enough, they would pull the carts away.

“Lift his feet.”

Shi Shu took a breath, lifted the feet, and together with the other person, threw the body onto the cart. The person said: “Alright, thank you! Little brother.”

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing, you’re welcome,” Shi Shu said. He only felt his hands were ice-cold and hurriedly ran back to the well to wash his hands.

The light flickered in his eyes. A moth bumped into the lamp flame. In this atmosphere, Shi Shu felt a bit numb. He returned to the corridor and was grabbed by Lin Yangchun, who said: “All this bupleurum, cut it all into slices and put it in a pot to boil. There’s no time to lose!”

A large bundle of herbs. Shi Shu nodded, quickly got the hang of the cutter, fed the roots of the bupleurum in, cut them into thin slices, brown on the outside and white on the inside, and then put them in a clay pot to decoct.

The next few days were like this. Xie Wuchi was not at the Medical Bureau. After meeting up with the advisors from the Heir Apparent’s residence, he had social engagements and was secretly investigating the cause of the popular rebellion.

Shi Shu, on the other hand, spent his days boiling medicine at the Medical Bureau.

“—Thump.” The lid fell onto the pot.

Shi Shu opened his eyes abruptly. His vision was a bit blurry. He quickly picked up the lid: “It’s ready. This pot of medicine is ready.”

Lin Yangchun: “Give it to the person in the middle of the main hall. Let it cool first.”

“Okay.” Shi Shu wrapped the medicine bowl with a cloth, passed through the hurried crowd, and walked to the middle of the main hall. On a straw mat lay a person, tall and sturdy, with a narrow belt tied around his waist. He was said to have been just transported from the army today.

“Army, a patient sent from the army…”

Shi Shu walked closer with the medicine bowl. The man’s face was pale, his beard unshaven, his lips purplish-red. It was the paleness of a very weak patient. Shi Shu called him: “Big brother, time for your medicine?”

No response.

Shi Shu: “Brother, wake up quickly. You should take your medicine.”

When going out recently, Xie Wuchi not only covered his face tightly with cloth, but also didn’t spare his fingers, wrapping them all in cloth. Shi Shu gently patted the man’s shoulder.

The man woke up. It was June, but he was shivering as if from cold. He glanced at Shi Shu, his eyes turning red, and suddenly reached out to grab his wrist.

With immense strength, Shi Shu quickly put down the medicine before he fell. The other person tore at him: “Wife, it’s cold, so cold. You go back. Don’t bring me food anymore.”

“I’ll be crossing the river soon, I don’t know when I’ll be back. I’m going to die on the frontier. You find another man to marry.”

“Go, go quickly…”

“This place is full of dead people—”

Shi Shu: “Brother, I know you miss your wife. Drink your medicine quickly. Get well soon and go back to see your wife!”

“Go, don’t think about me.”

Pitiable are the bones by the banks of the Wuding River, still the men in the dreams of the spring boudoirs.

Shi Shu grabbed the medicine bowl: “Drink your medicine, drink your medicine, brother! I wish you lovers will eventually be united!”

Shi Shu was being pulled. The other person was clearly cold, but his fever had made him delirious. Just as Shi Shu was about to reach out and pry open the other’s teeth to pour the medicine in, a pair of hands wrapped around his waist from behind and lifted him up.

“Who, who, who!” Shi Shu struggled.

Xie Wuchi had returned at some point. He wore a bamboo hat, his dark hair wrapped in layers of gauze. He took off the hat with one hand, his veined, thin, and thick wrist bones showing. One hand was on top of his head, and the other was on his waist.

Xie Wuchi lowered his gaze slightly, looking at him without a word, and pulled the man’s hand away from Shi Shu.

“I came back and happened to come see you.”

Shi Shu: “Xie Wuchi, you came at the right time. Hold him down, I need to pour the medicine!”

After much struggle, they finally fed the medicine to the man. Shi Shu’s forehead was beaded with sweat. He sat on the ground: “Finally done.”

Xie Wuchi: “Do you want to leave early today? The residence has prepared a banquet to treat us to a meal.”

Shi Shu: “I’m not going. I can’t talk to them. I’d rather stay at the Medical Bureau. There are so many people here waiting for me to feed them medicine. I’m very busy.”

“What time are you coming back tonight?”

“Probably very late. Lin Yangchun said Shukang Prefecture has been hit by a plague and they’re going to invite the Nuo gods, Zhao Gongming, and Zhong Kui. He asked me to play the role of a flower boy.”

“You, a flower boy?”

“Yes, it’s where you put a lot of flowers on your head, hold a basin of water, and walk around sprinkling it, walking through the entire Shukang Prefecture to expel the poisonous miasma ghost. You understand, in this situation, people have to believe in ghosts and gods.”

Xie Wuchi: “Heh.”

Shi Shu: “What are you ‘heh’-ing about?”

Xie Wuchi’s gaze licked over him: “You’re suitable to be a flower boy. Very pretty.”

“But worshipping gods is useless.”

Shi Shu returned to cutting herbs under the eaves, saying, “Who knows if it’s useful or not. Praying to the gods is also a form of progress. When there is no hope, the gods are the only hope.”

Shi Shu’s fingers were wrapped in gauze. At the fingertips, specks of red rust had seeped through. Xie Wuchi stared at his fingertips, his voice hoarse: “Cutting medicine, did you cut your fingers?”

“No, the cutter is too rough on my hands. It wore my skin and made it bleed. Proof of my bravery.”

Xie Wuchi lowered his eyes and was quiet for a moment.

Beside the herbs was a flower crown. Shi Shu had already paraded through the streets twice. He took it and put it on his head: “Let me show you. The flower crown looks like this.”

Xie Wuchi leaned against the pillar and looked at him for a moment.

Spring, a crown of all beautiful grasses and flowers, a full cluster. When the brocade of flowers was worn on his head, it made Shi Shu’s fair face even more translucent. When he smiled at people, it was dazzlingly sweet.

Xie Wuchi held a long sword in one hand, leaning loosely against the pillar. To be honest, he was not a good person. What did the life and death of the world have to do with him?

Xie Wuchi’s dark eyes looked at him quietly for a moment. The voice of reason said, it’s better not to get involved in some things. Wading into muddy waters will have a price. So these days, he secretly visited Shukang Prefecture. Seeing corpses in every household, the scales in his heart were still balanced. He had not thought of favoring any side.

Before him, Shi Shu showed him the flower crown, took it off, and grabbed a handful of herbs to cut into pieces on the blade.

Xie Wuchi extended his scabbard and gently lifted his chin.

Shi Shu opened his eyes, his handsome and unparalleled young face: “What are you doing? Xie Wuchi, take your sword away.”

“Little flower boy.”

Xie Wuchi’s voice was calm and restrained, as if with a deep meaning: “If you want fewer people to die, don’t pray to the gods.”

“—Pray to me.”

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