Chapter 66: No Medicine Left to Use

Shitou Village ancestral hall.

Village Chief Zhao piled up all the medicinal herbs he could find and asked Old Doctor Lao to inspect them.

Unfortunately, after discarding the unusable and rotten, only enough remained to boil one pot of medicinal soup.

This amount would barely suffice to sprinkle a small path.

But Old Doctor Lao said last night that the whole village must disinfect at least three times a day, inside and outside every household, every corner cannot be missed.

Now even basic disinfection cannot be guaranteed, let alone large quantities of preventive medicinal herbs, curative medicinal herbs—we have nothing of what we need.

Village Chief Zhao looked at Old Doctor Lao and already understood the dire situation before them.

But the villagers had only just been calmed, and Village Chief Zhao didn't know whether he should tell them this.

If he doesn't tell them, how long can medicine-less Shitou Village hold out?

Half a day? One day?

Village Chief Zhao's face seemed to age several years in an instant.

Old Doctor Lao sensed his mood and comforted him, "The constables outside have already gone back to deliver the message."

"Let's wait a bit longer; the medicinal herbs dispatched by the Government Office will arrive."

Village Chief Zhao said anxiously, "Even if the Government Office acts quickly, it probably won't arrive until tomorrow."

"How are we supposed to cope until then!"

While Old Doctor Lao and Village Chief Zhao were talking, Gu Xixi paced around, inspecting the interior of the ancestral hall.

It is a large building consisting of two connected rooms, intended to serve as a temporary isolation facility for accommodating many patients.

Apart from the altar for offerings, all other furnishings have been moved out, and the floor is covered with patches of soft dry grass.

The grass piles serve as beds.

Gu Xixi counted forty of them, seeing that Village Chief Zhao and the others had already prepared these to the best of their ability.

She walked to the west wall and suddenly inhaled sharply.

Then she scraped the wall with her finger and brought it close to smell.

"Village Chief Zhao," Gu Xixi said, unable to hide her excitement, "what did you use to whitewash the walls?"

Village Chief Zhao obviously had no mood to answer this irrelevant question: "Oh, ash powder."

But Gu Xixi continued to press, "Is it made by crushing a specific kind of stone and calcining it?"

Village Chief Zhao finally moved, lifted his head, and said, "This is a technique passed down in our village; miss, you actually know about it?"

According to him, about a hundred years ago, their ancestors discovered a kind of stone that could be found everywhere in this place.

By accident they crushed and calcined it, discovering that when mixed with earth it made houses stronger.

They named it "ash powder"; later, because its color is a pale white-gray and, when watered and cured, becomes fine and smooth, it works extremely well for plastering walls.

The interior walls of the ancestral hall are made this way.

Village Chief Zhao sighed, "Indeed, as Village Chief Qian said, Miss Gu, despite your young age, you have extraordinary insight. Only…"

Only unfortunately, being implicated by Shitou Village, you may well die young.

Village Chief Zhao sincerely regretted that, while Shitou Village would die a worthy death, it would implicate two benefactors to suffer innocently.

He felt guilty and dared not look at Gu Xixi and Old Doctor Lao.

Gu Xixi asked again, "Can ash powder still be made now?"

Village Chief Zhao nodded, "We can source the materials locally; we just need a few more strong laborers."

"Excellent!" Gu Xixi clapped her hands and laughed.

Village Chief Zhao looked at her in surprise, "At a time like this, what's good about it? How can you still laugh?"

Gu Xixi said, "Please bring people to produce ash powder quickly; the more the better."

"The ash powder produced can replace the medicinal soup used last night, to be evenly scattered throughout the village."

Old Doctor Lao had already realized this.

"Girl, you say this can substitute for medicinal herbs to kill the plague?"

Gu Xixi nodded, "Not only the plague, it works against other epidemics too, but because it is extremely potent, it cannot be applied directly to people."

Village Chief Zhao turned and strode out, "I'll go find people to make ash powder right away!"

Although he didn't understand why ash powder could be used this way.

But he unconditionally trusted Gu Xixi and Old Doctor Lao.

Next, they still had to go to the house that was treating patients last night.

Old Doctor Lao had made a new discovery; on the way he still marveled, "The substance used for whitewashing walls and building houses cannot be eaten, yet it can detoxify and eliminate impurity, can substitute for medicine, yet it is not a medicine."

"In all these years I've been in Shitou Village, I have never discovered this marvelous thing!"

The gatekeeper, upon seeing Gu Xixi and Old Doctor Lao, let them in.

The patients had already taken their medicinal soup early in the morning.

Gu Xixi listened to his cough through the window; unsure if it was psychological, she felt it seemed a bit lighter.

Old Doctor Lao still went in himself.

Gu Xixi had to stay outside, chatting casually with the elder sister-in-law.

Having been busy last night without asking, she only now learned that his family originally shared the same clan as the village chief, both surnamed Zhao.

Because the head of the household is the fourth eldest, villagers refer to his family as the "Zhao Four family".

After a long wait, Old Doctor Lao finally came out, though his expression looked more relaxed than last night.

The elder sister-in-law had prepared clean water for Old Doctor Lao to wash his hands.

Gu Xixi then held a steaming bowl of medicinal liquid and fumigated Old Doctor Lao from front to back, top to bottom, before stopping.

The elder sister-in-law worried, "This morning I went to deliver medicine, why hasn't Second Brother's fever subsided yet?"

Lao Langzhong said, "He just told me he ate a bowl of congee this morning—that's a good sign."

The course of plague is perilous, it greatly drains the patient's strength, so medication must not be rushed.

I have observed that his pulse is not worsening further, which shows the medicine's nature is compatible.

The elder sister-in-law didn't quite understand and pressed on, "When will he get better then?"

You're a divine doctor—you can surely cure him, right?

The guard outside said that getting the plague means certain death, and they avoided the family like a flood and ferocious beasts.

The whole family has been trembling with fear from last night until today, and even their meals have no flavor.

In their eyes, Lao Langzhong had become their only lifeline.

So the elder sister-in-law wanted to get a single sentence out of Lao Langzhong's mouth—even if it were just a comforting lie—so that people could feel a bit more at ease.

Old Lang, however, never lies: "If he drinks two more bowls of medicine today and his fever breaks before dawn, then there is hope."

In Huachi Du Cun, the teacher was absent, so the schoolhouse was temporarily turned into a daycare.

Zhang Shen and Qin Dasao together looked after the children of the whole village.

Mu Nan Zhao hurried home, fortunately avoiding Zhang Shen's questioning.

He went to Gu Xixi's room to take a small piece of oilcloth, a wooden basin the size of a palm with a round hole in the bottom, and also the third small bottle of powder from the left on the table.

Gu Xixi told him at the village entrance that he must definitely come home to fetch these.

Mu Nan Zhao kept gritting his teeth while searching for the items.

That woman doesn't want a change of clothes (she said she could borrow someone else's), nor does she want food.

And yet she insists he take these things whose purpose is impossible to discern!

Mu Nan Zhao still managed to gather everything and carefully packed them into a bag.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly thought, "Could Gu Xixi possibly have taken an interest in some random weeds and broken branches at a time like this?"

If that were indeed the case……

Mu Nan Zhao's veins bulged at his temples.

As he hurried to the intersection, a graceful figure sprinted over and spread her arms to block the path.

"Chen Dage, don't go!"

Gu Qingye looked pleadingly at Mu Nan Zhao, "I know where Sister Xixi went."

"That place is already full of corpses, guarded by the authorities—if you go in, it's a one‑way trip!"