After only one day of rest, Xu Hang took his medicine boys and master to the suburbs to check.
The places where the bodies were found included abandoned temples, farmlands, and mining areas in the suburbs… without exception, they were sparsely populated places or places where only poor people would go.
They climbed over mountains and even explored underground but did not find much.
At noon, although the weather was beginning to approach autumn, it was still unbearably hot.
The medicine boy drew water from the well and drank several gulps to quench his thirst before he could continue walking forward.
Xu Hang saw that the vegetable fields ahead were all abandoned, and the leaves were rotting in the ground. He pointed and said, “Did the owner of this field also die of plague?”
The medicine boy leaned over and took a look: “That should be it. These vegetables are ripe and should have been harvested long ago. They don’t look like they were wasted. But now they are rotting in the field. It must be because no one picked them.”
After taking two steps forward, the medicine boy seemed to have stepped on something. He lifted his foot and saw a dead mouse. He kicked it out in fear: “Oh my God! What bad luck!”
His shadowless kick went quite far, and the dead rat fell on the ridge of the field. Xu Hang took a look and saw large sores on the rat’s body, and his brows furrowed immediately.
This rat, has it also caught the plague?
After thinking for a while, he suddenly swayed and almost fell. The medicine boy reached out and quickly supported him: “Head of the Household! Are you alright?”
Xu Hang knew that this was due to his drug addiction and shook his head: “I’m fine, maybe it’s a bit hot. Let’s stop here today and go back first.”
The medicine boy saw that he was thin and hurriedly carried things in front to lead the way: “Head of the Household, you have to nourish yourself, you can’t be so weak…”
When he returned to Heming Medical Hall, he happened to see Chan Yi coming to get medicine for her mother, and the medicine boy shouted, “Sister Chan Yi, quickly give Head of the Household some patchouli and mugwort!”
Chan Yi turned around, looked at Xu Hang’s face, and nervously went to get the summer heat medicine. But when she turned around, he was already gone.
Then she knocked on the door of the inner room. Xu Hang locked himself in for an injection. He found that there was only one injection left. He felt a little irritated, so he perfunctorily said to her, “I’m sweating, I’m changing clothes.”
After destroying the things, he came out and said, “I’m fine.” He picked up the tea bowl in Chan Yi’s hand and drank it all. He then said, “Is Nanny not feeling well again? You’ve been coming to get medicine more and more often recently.”
When Chan Yi heard him ask, she sighed, “Mother is old, I’m afraid… it will be these few days, even the coffin has been prepared. She is also confused and often mutters my name and your name!”
As she spoke, she wiped away a few tears.
This girl is mature for her age, and she will not lose her sense of proportion easily. Even if she is sad, she is restrained. Or, after being bedridden for a long time, she becomes indifferent to the life and death of her loved ones and feels that it is better for the elderly to ascend to heaven early than to suffer while alive.
Xu Hang drank a few sips of milk from his nanny when he was young, and he remembered the source of the water and always took good care of her, so he said, “When that day comes, you can come to me and let me personally… send Nanny off.”
“Aye! That’s natural!” Chan Yi smiled with tears in her eyes, “It’s my blessing to meet Head of the Household.”
Blessing? Xu Hang was stunned when he heard this.
He has been practicing medicine for many years, and many patients have said similar things to him, but he never took it to heart, thinking it was just a compliment. He felt that he was someone without blessings, without a father or mother, without relatives or friends. If he followed Chan Yi’s words, was it because all his blessings were given to others that he was so lonely?
Is it a blessing to meet Duan Yelin?
Thinking of this, he laughed at himself. What kind of blessing is this? It must be a great misfortune for Duan Yelin to meet him.
Returning to the inner room again, he spread out a piece of paper and brush, pondered for a moment, and wrote on it stroke by stroke: “Sister Fangfei, although I have to bother you again, but I have no one to turn to, and I still hope you can support me again. The Western morphine medicine I asked for last time has run out now…”
There was the rustling sound of writing. When the letter was finished, it was folded, stuffed into an envelope, the address was written, stamped, and sealed. It was then put in a drawer, waiting to be delivered later.
Fortunately, Gu Fangfei was already on her way back to Hezhou; otherwise, he really didn’t know how to endure.
Morphine was really useful. One injection was like a soul leaving the body, free from the pain of the body.
But he also knew that morphine was more addictive than opium. Using it to quit opium was like drinking poison to quench thirst. Replacing one addiction with another.
From one injection a day to three injections a day, it would not be long before he had to inject one injection every two or three hours. But he did understand why so many Chinese were addicted to opium.
That feeling of floating in the air can really make people forget the troubles of the world.
Xu Hang hugged himself and curled up on the bed. He only had a shallow sleep, and then he had nightmares one after another. He dreamed of Shucheng, a fire, and his father’s mutilated body. He woke up suddenly!
Then, a dense pain swept from his dantian, and he had a splitting headache and rolled off the bed!
Today, the dose of morphine was too small, and it couldn’t be suppressed at all.
His knee hit the ground, and it must have been bruised all over. Xu Hang wanted to stand up but found that he had no strength in his legs and was in cramping pain.
“Ugh… ah!”
He slammed the back of his head against the ground, as if this could help him share his pain. It hurt so much. Compared to his drug addiction, Jin Hongchang’s previous methods of torturing him were nothing.
His fingers were aimlessly scratching in the air, trying to grab something to give himself some support, but no matter how hard he tried, it was all air.
It was so uncomfortable.
He can’t breathe.
“Ha… ha… huh…”
His chest was rising and falling violently. Was he a stranded fish or a shrimp in a pot?
Suddenly, a voice came from outside: “Hey! The Commander is here! Head of the Household is sleeping inside, would you like to sit for a while?”
Duan Yelin’s voice was very penetrating: “No need, I’ll go call him. If he goes on sleeping, he won’t be able to sleep at night.”
Xu Hang’s eyes suddenly widened. Duan Yelin, he’s here?
With his forehead propped on the ground, he raised himself up with great difficulty and moved towards the bed little by little.
Duan Yelin’s footsteps were getting closer and closer.
Xu Hang gritted his teeth and pinched his thigh hard before he regained consciousness. He climbed onto the edge of the bed with both hands and used all his strength to put himself back on the bed.
Just when he wrapped himself in the quilt and closed his eyes to pretend to sleep, the door was opened by Duan Yelin.
Crack————
Duan Yelin had brought some sugary water for Xu Hang. When he saw that Xu Hang was sleeping soundly, he relaxed and walked to the bedside to sit down.
Xu Hang then pretended to have just woken up and opened his eyes.
“Did I wake you up?” Duan Yelin saw that there was a little dust on his forehead and blew it for him.
“No… it’s time to wake up.” Under the quilt, Xu Hang was still pinching the acupuncture points that caused him pain to distract himself from the torture of drug addiction.
Duan Yelin helped him lift the quilt, and Xu Hang let go.
“You’re covered so thickly, aren’t you afraid of getting suffocated? Look at you, you’re sweating all over.”
Xu Hang was afraid that he would lift up his clothes, and just when he was about to change the subject, he heard a terrible scream outside.
Then there was the sound of things being knocked over, and someone stumbled into the inner room.
“Head of the Household!! The medicine boy!! The medicine boy, he, he has the plague!!”
