The night was deep and dark. In the distance, a few muffled rumbles of thunder could be heard. Duan Yan stopped and looked out toward the horizon with Song Fengsui on his back.
After being worn out for most of the day, Song Fengsui no longer had the strength to hold himself up. He simply went limp and sprawled across Duan Yan’s back.
“The thunder is faint. The rain must be falling somewhere far away,” he said.
Duan Yan gave a hum. “Summer rains come hard. If it rains around here, that old storehouse you’re living in will surely suffer. Once the epidemic has been eradicated and I’ve finished cleaning up my household, I’ll come repair your place.”
“If the house isn’t fixed, then even if it survives the sudden summer rains, it’ll still be difficult to endure once autumn passes and the weather turns cold. Half the days in Yan Town’s winter are drizzly and overcast, while the other half bring snow. Compared with summer, winter is much harder.
“Many elderly people find winter the most difficult season to survive.”
“But don’t worry. While the weather is good in autumn, we can stockpile firewood and make some charcoal. We’ll also stuff a couple of thick cotton quilts and bedding, so there’ll be something to keep us warm when winter comes. Winter has its own advantages, too. Farm work is slack, and there’s plenty of time to sit around the stove brewing tea, roasting meat, making soup, and stewing vegetables...”
Song Fengsui listened quietly as Duan Yan made his plans. He did not interrupt, but a feeling he could not quite put into words stirred in his heart.
The simple, practical worries of ordinary people, and the calm yet substantial warmth they carried, somehow gave him an extraordinary sense of peace.
Since being exiled and arriving in Yan Town, the days that had kept him constantly on edge seemed to be slowly fading away. Deep down, he no longer felt quite so afraid of everything unknown here.
If he traced the reason back to its source, it seemed to be because of the man before him...
Not every man would harbor wicked intentions toward someone in a vulnerable position. Nor was everyone purely evil...
“Are you asleep?”
When Song Fengsui remained silent for a long while, Duan Yan stopped and asked him.
“No.”
“The wind is strong outside at night. If you fall asleep, you’ll catch a chill. Hold on a little longer. We’ll be home soon.”
Song Fengsui answered softly. Following the thread of Duan Yan’s earlier words, he said, “Once everything has settled down, I’ll put up a sign and practice medicine. When I don’t have farmwork to do, I can treat people and earn consultation fees to buy firewood and charcoal, as well as thick clothes and cotton quilts to get through the winter.”
“Mm. But don’t go out to treat patients alone. Even if it’s an emergency, you must have Uncle Song or Second Uncle Song accompany you.”
Song Fengsui nodded. “That’s right.”
“But Father and Second Uncle are both scholars. They aren’t skilled in martial matters. When Second Uncle went to the estate to look for me, the people there even beat him. He only knows how to reason with others, but in the countryside, there are times when reason gets you nowhere. In the end, the one with the harder fists is the one who is right...
“Unfortunately, I’m the only son of my generation. I don’t have any brothers to rely on.”
“Then I’ll find you a strong fighter,” Duan Yan said. “Someone like Tie Da or Tie Er. I’ll have him accompany you on your visits. I guarantee no one will dare treat you disrespectfully.”
“If you have another capable fighter accompany me... what about you?”
Duan Yan paused. “Me?”
“...If you’re truly worried and want me to accompany you, I can do that too.”
Song Fengsui’s lips curved into the faintest smile, his phoenix-shaped eyes shining like stars suspended in the night sky.
The two of them continued speaking in low voices as they walked. Just as they were about to emerge from the mountains, they saw the village of Liu from a distance, its lights blazing brightly.
Duan Yan immediately sensed that something was wrong. He hurried forward several steps, reached higher ground, and looked down at the village. Nearly every household had its lamps lit, while many people were moving back and forth through the village carrying torches.
At this hour, the village should have been quiet, yet it was still in an uproar. Though they were too far away to make out who the people were, it was clear enough that something had happened.
Song Fengsui’s heart began to tighten with unease. Duan Yan quickly reassured him, “Don’t panic. We’ll go take a careful look and see what’s going on.”
The two quickened their pace toward the village, avoiding the guards before slipping into a ruined cellar.
However, with people constantly coming and going outside, they could not find an opportunity to leave the cellar for a long time.
“Village head, village head! My old father is frail and can’t endure being worn down by illness for too long. Please, show mercy and let him be placed near the front of the line!”
“Hongshun, your maternal uncle has treated you well since you were little. You can’t make him suffer at the back of the line!”
“Everyone’s place is already decided. Stop causing trouble! If you delay something important, none of you will get off lightly!”
“The town inspector said people will come in batches. No one will be left without treatment, so what are you all panicking about? A-Feng, Shuizu, drag these troublemakers away. Blocking my path like this—is this any way to behave?”
Duan Yan hid by the edge of the ruined cellar, pressing himself against the wall as he listened to the commotion outside.
Not long afterward, he heard someone privately approaching the village head to offer a bribe. The village head, who had just been sternly insisting that everyone’s place was fixed, now made an exception for that person.
After listening to bits and pieces of the conversation, Duan Yan brought Song Fengsui to a safer corner and said, “I estimate that the town inspector’s side must have found a prescription for treating the epidemic. But there are too many infected people for all of them to take the medicine at once, so they have to be arranged in batches and wait their turn.”
Song Fengsui’s brows drew tightly together. “They have a prescription? The one I gave you earlier...”
“I haven’t had time to deliver your prescription to the town inspector. It seems someone else developed one first.”
Song Fengsui murmured, “If there’s a new prescription and all the patients infected with the epidemic can be saved, then it doesn’t matter who provided it...”
Duan Yan thought the same. Although they had missed the chance to claim credit, their ultimate goal was to eradicate the epidemic. As long as the matter could be resolved, everything else could be discussed afterward.
This time, they could only say that fate had played a cruel trick on them.
Yet Song Fengsui still felt uneasy. “We hadn’t heard even the slightest news that there had been progress on a treatment for the epidemic. How did it suddenly happen so quickly...? I wonder whether many people have already tried the medicine.”
It was not that Duan Yan had been slow and missed the opportunity to submit the prescription. The two of them had discussed the matter privately beforehand. With so many people infected across such a wide area, the treatment had to be handled with the utmost caution. They could not administer it to everyone simply because it had shown some effectiveness.
When they parted, they had secretly agreed that Duan Yan would return to town and rest for the night. The following day, once it was clear that none of the people who had taken the medicine had developed any other complications, they would send word to Song Fengsui. Only after confirming that the prescription was safe and reliable would Duan Yan go to the town inspector and present it.
If they could not guarantee that the prescription was both effective and harmless, and recklessly handed it over to the authorities, then any mishap would not only bring punishment upon them—it could also harm the patients infected with the epidemic.
They had happened to run into Wang Quan along the way and been delayed for quite some time, but that had not actually disrupted the plans they had originally made.
Knowing what worried Song Fengsui, Duan Yan comforted him. “The town inspector shouldn’t be that careless. He is, after all, the local official responsible for the people. If something went seriously wrong here, he would suffer for it too.”
Song Fengsui, however, said, “A large-scale outbreak among the people is a serious matter. When faced with something so urgent, the town inspector may not have considered everything thoroughly.”
But they had only gleaned a rough outline from those few words and knew none of the specifics. There was no use fretting here, so they could only force themselves to calm down. With matters weighing on both their minds, they waited in the cellar. Not until they heard no more commotion outside did they seize the opportunity to slip back into the village.
Once they returned, the two avoided the villagers and headed straight for the Song residence.
The Song home stood at the foot of the mountain, far from the other houses. It was still quiet there, with no sign of disturbance.
It was already the second quarter of the Zi hour, yet Song Wushen and Song Xuemu had not gone to bed. They had been waiting for Duan Yan to bring Song Fengsui back.
Only when they saw the two of them did their hearts finally ease.
The village had been in an uproar. Although the Song family was not near the village’s central gathering place, whenever something happened in the village, how could they fail to notice? The terrain here was higher, and the entire village was brightly lit. Naturally, they knew that trouble had broken out.
Song Xuemu had already slipped over earlier to make inquiries. After finding out what had happened, he had returned home.
“The supervising magistrate has obtained a prescription. The village head is distributing the medicine in order to the villagers infected with the epidemic. Originally, the medicine was not meant to be distributed to everyone at once, and the matter should have been handled quietly. Most likely, word leaked out while the medicine was being delivered to people’s homes. News travels fast from person to person in a village, and before long, the whole matter had erupted.
“For now, only households with status or close ties to the village head have been able to receive the medicine first. The rest of the villagers have to wait for the government’s second or third distribution. They say the next batch will arrive soon, but this is an epidemic that can kill people. Now that there is medicine, everyone wants to use it first. Who knows when exactly the next batch will come?
“So the villagers have been shouting and arguing without end. Earlier, there was even a clash at the village head’s place. The patrol team formed by the village could not keep things under control, so the guards from outside came in to suppress the disturbance. Quite a few households were beaten before things finally quieted down.”
Song Xuemu told the two of them everything he had learned. “Fortunately, the prescription was developed by Suisui, so Father could receive the medicine first. Otherwise, given our family’s present circumstances, we would probably have been at the very back of the line.”
“The prescription was not the one I developed...” Song Fengsui sighed softly. “Our prescription had not yet been brought out.”
The entire Song family had believed that the prescription was Song Fengsui’s. None of them had expected that it had been developed by someone else.
For a moment, they all fell silent.
“In any case, I will personally oversee Grandfather’s care. There is no need for us to compete with the villagers for a place in line. I also do not know what prescription the supervising magistrate has obtained, so it is best to be cautious.”
Song Wushen and Song Xuemu both answered solemnly.
Seeing this, Duan Yan said, “Then I will not stay any longer. I will return and find out what is going on.”
Song Fengsui looked at him and gave a slight nod.
“My lord, you finally came back.”
When Duan Yan returned to his residence, the person who opened the door was Gou San’er. He did not look the least bit sleepy, as though he had not rested at all.
“Something delayed me. Why are you so anxious?”
Gou San’er hurriedly said, “You were gone for an entire day and night without sending back the slightest word. How could I not be worried? But that is no longer the important matter. There is a prescription for the epidemic in Magistrate Kong’s hands. Did you know?”
Duan Yan acknowledged this. “The village has already begun distributing the medicine. Your information is quite quick—you even heard about it in town.”
Gou San’er immediately continued, “Then do you also know who gave Magistrate Kong the prescription?”
At those words, Duan Yan suddenly sensed that something was amiss. “Who?”
“Chen Hu!”
Duan Yan’s heart jolted. “How did he get a prescription for treating the epidemic?!”
Since Gou San’er had been given greater responsibilities by Duan Yan, and knew that Duan Yan had begun distancing himself from Chen Hu, he had privately arranged for someone to monitor Chen Hu’s every move in order to serve Duan Yan well.
A few days earlier, Duan Yan had sent this informant to the countryside on an errand. He had not discovered any fresh tricks there; Chen Hu had merely continued with his usual attempts to sow discord. There was only one unusual detail: while in the countryside, the man had seen an unfamiliar, middle-aged stranger.
Gou San’er had kept that detail in mind and quietly investigated what sort of person the man was. He learned that the man was not a local. For the past few years, he had been living in the mountains behind Xiaoyue Village, rarely interacting with the villagers. Most days, he dug up medicinal herbs in the mountains and used a furnace to concoct small pills.
He was probably some sort of physician or wandering Daoist.
According to his informant, the man made nothing but disreputable pills, most of them aphrodisiacs and hallucinogens. He likely did regular business with the madams of the pleasure houses.
After thinking it over, Gou San’er decided that Chen Hu was already a thoroughly bad sort, so it was only natural that he would secretly associate with someone like that wandering Daoist. After all, had Chen Hu not been the one to procure the drug used to bewitch Song Fengsui?
Gou San’er had not paid the matter much attention.
By coincidence, Duan Yan had taken Song Fengsui to the countryside over the past two days. According to his informant, the Daoist had specifically come to town to meet Chen Hu.
Gou San’er felt that the two had suddenly met for no good reason and were most likely plotting something shady, so he ordered his man to watch them even more closely.
“...Hahaha, Old Hu, I knew I had not misjudged you. Those useless physicians outside boast that they can bring the dead back to life, but in truth, not one of them can match your skill!”
“Only someone like you could deal with that deadly epidemic! Hahaha!”
Old Daoist Hu wore a sly grin on his face. “Now that we have the prescription, and with Brother Chen’s influence, we can take advantage of this rare opportunity created by the epidemic and make a fortune from my medicine.
“The epidemic is deadly. Those who have caught it want to live, and the prescription is in our hands. We can charge them whatever we please!”
“Eh, Old Hu, you are being short-sighted.”
Chen Hu could not stop smiling. “How much grease can we squeeze from those commoners? Besides, this is not a business that will last.
“Lately, I hear Magistrate Kong has been frantic over the epidemic, with mouth ulcers from all the stress. If someone were to solve this problem for him at a time like this, would that person not become Magistrate Kong’s great benefactor? And if a benefactor has a request, how could Magistrate Kong possibly refuse it?”
“Once I have power and status in Yan Town, why would I need to seek out ways to make money? There will be plenty of people rushing to send me their wealth. When that time comes, you will stay at my side—what could you possibly have to worry about?”
Old Daoist Hu’s eyes shifted. “Brother Chen truly thinks far ahead and considers everything thoroughly. This old man never imagined that the prescription could be put to such great use.”
..........
Gou San’er relayed everything to Duan Yan. “The two of them joined forces and went to see Magistrate Kong. They left shortly before noon today. Since the village has already begun distributing the medicine, they must have reached an agreement!”
Chen Hu was vicious and his appetite was enormous—his greed knew no bounds. No one knew whether he had demanded an official position from Magistrate Kong this time, or some other sort of commercial privilege that could only be granted by the government.
Whatever he had asked for, it posed a tremendous threat to Duan Yan. With the government’s favor, he would no longer need to secretly poison Duan Yan and take his life without anyone knowing. He could obtain the power he wanted even more smoothly and replace Duan Yan.
Duan Yan’s brows drew tightly together.
Anyone could have been the one to offer the prescription. Why did it have to be Chen Hu?
This was far more troublesome than they had ever imagined.
