The villagers who had been chastised remained silent. They only stood there with pale faces as they were being criticized by those around.
Hearing this, the expressions of the people outside the village changed, especially Zheng Yulong. He glared at those people and shouted angrily, “Don’t talk nonsense!”
“We’re not talking nonsense—” The villagers wanted to defend themselves, but when they saw Xu Ji’s expression, their mouths twitched a few times, and they resentfully shut up, not daring to say anything more.
Ye Zhen frowned as she looked at Xu Ji. “Master Xu, don’t you think you need to ask clearly what they said?”
“Nonsense, do you believe them too?” Xu Ji snorted coldly and shouted at the soldiers guarding the fence. “Guard them all, don’t let a single fly in.”
“Master Zheng, once this matter is over, I hope you can investigate the fake plagues of the past years,” Ye Zhen looked at Zheng Yulong and said. Xu Ji had deliberately stopped them. Perhaps he knew the inside story and his doubts had something to do with this matter, so it was imperative for Zheng Yulong to investigate this matter.
Zheng Yulong nodded in response. In the past, he had had his conjectures, but now that someone had actually said it in front of him, he couldn’t sit idly by.
Xu Ji only snorted coldly and ignored him.
Ye Zhen glanced at the villagers and went back to the pavilion to continue brewing the medicine. No one knew what was going on in the village, but with Huangfu Chen and Qi Jin treating them, there shouldn’t be any problems.
The patients in the village didn’t have any problems now. Other than taking medicine every day, they were just hoping that they wouldn’t die from the illness.
“Mr. Huangfu, it’s 24 hours already. Those patients don’t seem to be improving.” A doctor looked at Huangfu Chen worriedly. Although they were well protected, they still feared being infected. Typhoid fever was not an ordinary cold that a few doses of medicine could cure. Too many people died of typhoid fever every year.
Huangfu Chen had not rested for a few days. He looked a little tired. When he heard that even the doctor was not confident in the treatment, he turned around and looked at them. “If the patients in the city can be cured, so can the villagers.”
“But there aren’t that many people in the city…,” someone remarked shakily. “Almost everyone in the village is sick. Look, there’s death everywhere. It’s scary.”
“Let’s not talk about this anymore. Let’s continue with the medical treatment. We have given them the medicine yesterday. If they still have high fever today, we need to isolate them,” Huangfu Chen instructed.
Now, even if they wanted to leave, they couldn’t. They could only brace themselves to continue.
“Not good, somebody is dead!” Suddenly, someone shouted loudly.
Huangfu Chen’s expression changed. How could she die? Huangfu Chen immediately rushed over. The person who died was an old woman. Yesterday, he personally fed her medicine.
“Did she vomit all the medicine she drank yesterday?” Someone pointed at the water stains beside him and asked in horror.
“Take her out first and burn her body immediately,” Huangfu Chen said in a deep voice. After the rain stopped, the weather had become increasingly hot. If the corpse was not burnt in time, it would lead to even terrible consequences.
Then, a few more people relapsed because they did not have the medicine yesterday. When Huangfu Chen gave them the medicine, they did not drink it.
“Didn’t I tell you to give medicine to every patient yesterday? Why did you miss them?” Huangfu Chen glared angrily at the doctors standing in front of him.
“There were so many people, it was impossible for us to take care of everyone…”
“We gave them the medicine but they refused to drink it.”
“——” As Huangfu Cheng listened, his expression turned gloomy. He sighed in his heart. “Continue to give them the medicine. Let them drink as much as they can!”
He still had to continue to check, he couldn’t count on these people anymore. Now, he went room by room, patient by patient. It was only when he made sure that everyone had taken the medicine that he was relieved.
“Mr. Huangfu, we were barely able to give them half a bowl of medicine. Do you want us to continue?” a doctor asked.
“Give them another dose in two hours,” he said hoarsely.
“All right.”
The doctor standing beside Huangfu Chen glanced at him. “Mr. Huangfu, you don’t look well. Do you want to take a rest?”
Huangfu Chen nodded gently. “I’ll go to the house and rest a little. You guys better watch out.”
“Sure.”
When Huangfu Chen left, the others looked at each other in dismay. They all saw worry on each other’s faces.
“Are we really going to stay with these dying people?” someone whispered.
“Well… In the end, even if these people are saved, the credit would not belong to us. What if… the ones who died was us?”
“Then what should we do?”
“Let’s leave the village,” someone suggested.
Everyone fell silent. There was none that did not want to leave, but if they left without permission, they could face severe punishment from the imperial court in the future.
“If we all leave, wouldn’t Mr. Huangfu be all alone? We all are doctors, are we going let him die without doing anything?” the young doctor asked.
“If you want to stay, then stay. If you want to leave… let’s go!” a middle-aged doctor declared.
There were originally only ten or so people, but after hearing his words, more than sixty percent of them walked to the village gates without any hesitation. Two of the remaining four were hesitant, in the end, one finally followed.
The village gate was still heavily guarded. When Xu Ji saw that these doctors really wanted to leave together he slightly narrowed his eyes. “The people in the village, no matter who dares to take a step out of the village, I will definitely kill them!”
“Xu Ji, what right do you have to kill people?” the middle-aged doctor demanded angrily.
Xu Ji snorted coldly. “I just rely on my knife!”
Ye Zhen looked at the retreating doctors and felt a chill run down her spine. “Doctors, what’s the current situation in the village? If you leave like this, what will those patients do?”
“There’s no cure for typhoid fever. One of them has already died today, and there are still a few that can’t drink enough of the medicine. We’re just waiting to die if we stay inside. Why should we stay here to die? Why don’t you come in?” someone shouted.
Those villagers who had been clamoring to come out heard this and rushed forward. “We don’t want to die, let us out, let us out!”
The situation at the village gate instantly went out of control, and those who were blocked behind the fence began to bang against it trying to come out.
Ye Zhen was very worried. Master was still in the village. Doesn’t he know that these people have left? Why did he not stop them?
“Commander Xu, what should we do?” Zheng Yulong anxiously asked.
Xu Ji sneered and walked over with the broadsword in his hand. He slashed at the two people standing at the very front. “Whoever tries to incite chaos again will end up like this!”
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