CH 141

February 12, 2023Merchie

In the end, that corpse was dragged off by several soldiers.

Hu Lan continued to stir up a fuss, denouncing the old chief, saying that he had found a fraudulent doctor who couldn’t cure a thing; instead, she had caused these people’s deaths.

The chief suppressed the matter for the time being; he knew in his heart whether Shen Huan was a fraud or not. He also knew that Hu Lan was coveting his position.

Shen Shijiu returned to the mud brick house with his shifu, and Yue Nu went along with them.

Shen Huan stayed in her room alone; from the moment they came back, she hadn’t said a word.

Shen Shijiu noticed this, and entered the room as well.

He grabbed Shen Huan’s hand and said softly, “It’s definitely not Shifu‘s fault, Shifu is the best doctor in the whole world. The person this disciple respects and adores the most is Shifu.”

Shen Huan smiled wearily, “Really?”

Shen Shijiu nodded enthusiastically, “Really, it’s true.”

Shen Huan patted his hand, “All right, little disciple. Your master knows what you really think. No need to console me, I just need to be alone for a bit, and think about what went wrong. I’m fine. Run along now.”

Shen Shijiu nodded, “Shifu, if there’s anything wrong, you have to call for me, understood?”

Shen Huan looked at Shen Shijiu’s sincere little face and smiled, “Yes, your master understands.”

Shen Shijiu had just emerged from within room when he saw Yue Nu sprint over in a panic.

“Shi, Shi! There’s trouble!”

Shen Shijiu hurriedly steadied him “A-Yue, what’s wrong? Speak slowly.”

“There’s no time, outside, outside, there are a bunch of people, clamoring to see the three of us. I noticed that some of them had been infected by the plague before, and now, their symptoms have gotten worse! They’re all crowded outside the gate, and they’re about to force their way inside!”

Just as the two were speaking, the gate downstairs was pushed open.

The people who had flooded inside were all infectees with festering skin. Their symptoms had indeed worsened drastically; some of them had already fainted and had been carried inside by the others. They were already bleeding from their seven orifices, showing the same symptoms as that official.

If this continued, every single one of them would die.

The little mud brick building was filled with that disgusting stench. Fortunately, the three of them had already taken pills to resist the plague. Otherwise, they would have already been infected.

“It’s them, there must have been something wrong with the medicine they gave us! Otherwise, why else would we look like this?!”

“That’s right! Before, we could’ve lived for a bit longer, but they must have given up on us, and fed us a poison to make us die quicker!”

“That’s right, explain yourselves!”

Everyone present began to yell and shout, so Shen Shijiu and Yue Nu headed downstairs.

“Everyone, please be quiet, listen to me.”

Yue Nu yelled at the top of his lungs, but once everyone saw that someone had come out, they all rushed forward like a swarm of bees, crowding around the two of them, demanding an explanation.

Someone suddenly fainted as they tried to squeeze inside. Then, their entire body turned red, and they began to bleed from their seven orifices.

Shen Shijiu hurriedly ran over to examine the fainted person’s condition, but a man suddenly reached out from the side and grabbed his arm.

That man’s hair was messy, and his red skin was dripping with blood. His nails dug into Shen Shijiu’s tender skin, scratching two long gashes onto his arm.

Shen Shijiu’s brow creased from the pain, and tried to pull his arm away, but the man’s grip was so tight that he couldn’t move at all.

“It was you, you’re that quack’s apprentice! I caught you!”

Red patches had already appeared on his face, and when he spoke to Shen Shijiu, his breath smelled rotten. Shen Shijiu began to feel sick to his stomach, and the urge to retch hit his throat.

Shen Huan heard the commotion from downstairs and also came down. When she saw the chaos in the courtyard, desolation flooded in her heart.

Not long before, these people had regarded her as their savior. They all called her a miracle doctor, and had been eager to worship her like a god.

Now, before the truth of the matter had even been investigated, these people had begun to see her as the root of the problem, and were all vying to pull her off of her pedestal and step all over her.

Shen Huan was also grabbed by several people wearing threatening expressions, but she didn’t even try to resist.

She had practiced medicine for so many years, but this was the first time Shen Huan had experienced something like this; people were actually hunting her down, insisting that she be punished.

At this moment, there was another disturbance at the door. A group of foreign soldiers had walked into the courtyard. First, they gathered up the corpses scattered on the ground, wrapping them up in thick cloth, before dragging them out of the gate.

Everyone else was frightened by this demonstration, and they all gradually fell quiet. The man who had been holding onto Shen Shijiu this whole time also let go of him.

Shen Shijiu glanced at his bleeding arm and gently blew on it, but it still hurt.

That guard at the front of the group glanced at the three of them, before he waved his hand, “Capture the three of them!”

The foreign tribe was sandwiched between the Celestial Dynasty and the barbarian tribe, so the country had been in a volatile state.

And now, the old foreign chief had suddenly stepped down, and had relinquished his position to Hu Lan.

Unexpectedly, the moment Hu Lan was instated, the first thing he did was arrest Shen Shijiu and the others, saying that the deaths of those infectees had to be carefully investigated; they wouldn’t be freed until they got to the bottom of this matter.

But in truth, those infectees suddenly relapsing and dying was all Hu Lan’s doing.

Shen Shijiu and Yue Nu had been locked into the same cell, while Shen Huan was imprisoned in her own cell.

Everything was pitch-black. Shen Shijiu was shoved inside and fell onto the cold floor of the cell.

“Shi, Shi, are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?”

Yue Nu hurried over and helped Shen Shijiu off the ground, but just so happened to touch the blood on his arm.

“You’re bleeding!”

Yue Nu helped Shen Shijiu up and had him sit on the only stone bed in the cell. Under the dim light, he saw the bloody gashes on his arm. The moment he saw them, he knew that someone had scratched him with their nails. Just now, he had also scraped his arm on the floor, so beads of blood had already begun to seep out.

“A-Yue, I’m fine.” Shen Shijiu took a small bottle out of his sleeve, “There’s ointment in there, just help me apply some.”

Yue Nu hurriedly applied the ointment, and the wound stopped bleeding, but it hardly looked any better.

Shen Shijiu asked, “A-Yue, where are we? Where’s Shifu?”

“This should be the foreign tribe’s prison, I’m afraid we’ve been framed as criminals. Master Shen was taken to another cell.”

As Yue Nu spoke, he tore off a piece of his outer robe and wrapped it around Shen Shijiu’s arm.

“”Ss-” Shen Shijiu’s brow furrowed in pain. He still felt a burning sensation from the wound.

He had been scratched by an infected person. Shen Shijiu looked at his arm, watching as blood seeped into the strip of cloth, and he couldn’t help but worry a bit.

The plague was extremely contagious, but he had taken a pill to prevent against it, so he couldn’t have been infected, right?

Before he could continue to ponder this, the cell door opened.

The visitors walked in, holding lanterns that lit up the cramped cell.

They were two foreign prison guards, and behind them were two soldiers from the Celestial Dynasty.

Those soldiers knew Yue Nu. When they saw that he was here, they stepped forward, ready to take him away.

Shen Shijiu grabbed Yue Nu’s hand, “A-Yue! Who are you? Why are you taking A-Yue away?!”

“Who are you? We don’t need to report what we do to a foreigner like you.”

Those guards from the Celestial Dynasty had never met Shen Shijiu before, and they didn’t plan on explaining any further. The two of them each grabbed one of Yue Nu’s arms, and were about to drag him out of the cell.

Yue Nu guessed that the two of them were Zhao Litang’s subordinates, and said, “Wait a moment, wait, I have something to say!”

The two soldiers really did pause at the doorway.

“You have to take him as well!”

Yue Nu pointed at Shen Shijiu, who was sitting on the stone bed. If he left alone, who knew how Shen Shijiu would be treated. It would be safer to follow those soldiers from the Celestial Dynasty, and let themselves both be captured by Zhao Litang.

However, Zhao Litang didn’t know that Shen Shijiu had come to the borderlands. He had only instructed that Yue Nu be brought back, so his subordinates only knew who Yue Nu was.

“The general’s orders were that only you were to be brought back. Others would pull us into the political turmoil in the foreign tribe, so we won’t get involved.”

After they finished speaking, the two of them forcefully dragged Yue Nu out. Yue Nu’s fingers latched onto the cell door, but they were pried away.

Shen Shijiu watched as the door to the cell was shut once more, but he didn’t have the strength to stop them. He could only call out in a weak voice, “A-Yue…”

After the cell door closed, the cell returned to its former dimness. Shen Shijiu sat alone on the ice-cold stone bed, and slowly curled up, hugging his legs and shaking slightly.

He felt a faint pain in his stomach. This illness of his was very strange, and he had never experienced it before. But fortunately, the pain only lasted for a few moments before fading away.

Shen Shijiu’s heart was full of fear and unease in this eerily quiet environment. But he was helpless and alone, His little body curled up into a ball.

The corners of his eyes slowly turned warm, and he couldn’t help but think of a certain person that was thousands of miles away.

The cell gradually grew colder and colder. Shen Shijiu was so cold that he was shivering slightly. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and they slowly closed.

When he woke up again, it was because someone was pulling at his hair, tearing his scalp to the point that it had gone numb.

Shen Shijiu lifted his chin. He opened his eyes to look at the person in front of him. It was the new chief of the foreign tribe, Hu Lan.

Hu Lan yanked a handful of Shen Shijiu’s hair, forcing him to lift his head and look at him. His eyes scanned over Shen Shijiu’s face.

“You’re that quack’s apprentice?”

Shen Shijiu regained his senses. His gaze flickered as he looked at Hu Lan, glaring at him without a word, before he huffed and turned his head away.

“I was asking you a question! You still dare not to answer? I’m the chief, yet you dare to be so impudent?! You’re looking for a beating!”