“Don’t worry about me, sir.
“I know what I’m doing,” Fang Qiu said comfortingly. “I’m sure that this thing can’t cause too much harm to my body. But because it’s a kind of neurotropic virus, I’m not sure if I can control the virus after consuming the drink. I might lose my mind. You have seen my power just now, so I think it’s best if you stay here.”
Old Yang immediately shook his head and said, “It’s because I know you’re very powerful that I’m worried. There are several villages at the foot of the mountain. What if you run amok and end up sending a few boulders rolling down the mountain? The villagers’ lives would be in danger.
“You don’t have to say anything more. I won’t stop you from contracting the virus with your own body, but you can’t stop me from going up the mountain with you.”
Hearing this, Fang Qiu couldn’t help but smile wryly.
It appeared that Old Yang was a stubborn man!
But he cared about other people. Fang Qiu admired him for it.
Unable to persuade him, Fang Qiu nodded and said, “Alright then. After I drink this, you must be careful. If I lose my mind, you must go down the mountain as soon as possible.”
“I know what to do,” said Old Yang.
Fang Qiu said, “Then, let’s go up the mountain.”
Old Yang yelled, “Wait.”
Then he took out a lot of bowls from his room, poured the boiled medicine into the bowls, and placed them on the table in front of the door.
After that, Old Yang took out a green round kettle—like the ones carried by soldiers in the sixties. He poured a bowl of medicine into the kettle, and then hung the kettle in front of his chest. And then he waved to the mountain and said, “Let’s go!”
Fang Qiu asked, “Aren’t you going to send the medicine to the patients?”
Old Yang said, “Only Old Zheng needs me to send medicine to him.”
He waved his hand and continued, “I am too old. I can only decoct medicine for them. I don’t have enough strength to send medicine to them one by one. I’m only responsible for decocting the medicine. When it’s time to drink medicine, they will come here to collect it.”
Fang Qiu nodded with understanding and said, “I see.”
They walked out of the village and came to the foot of a high mountain that was more than 50 meters away from the village.
The mountains in Nanjiang were all very tall. Although it was not tropical rainforest, the shrubs, flowers, and trees on the mountain were very luxuriant.
A huge mountain lay before them.
Standing at the foot of the mountain, Old Yang looked at the mountain in front of him and said, “This mountain is what the villagers rely on. The herbs, wood, fruits, and vegetables all come from this mountain. Occasionally, some people go up the mountain to hunt. Over time, they have made a road leading straight to the summit.”
Fang Qiu listened while Old Yang talked about the things that had happened on that mountain.
It was not difficult for Fang Qiu to make his way up the mountain. But for Old Yang, it was not easy. After all, he was old. He couldn’t make it alone even if there was a road.
So they took short breaks along the way. The journey along the winding mountain road to the summit took nearly an hour.
There was a pine forest at the summit.
The gaps between the pine trees were very large, and the ground was covered with yellow pine needles. There were no bushes or flowers around, giving the area a flat and spacious look.
“Let’s do it here.”
Fang Qiu supported Old Yang as they made their way towards a tree. At the tree, Old Yang leaned his back against the trunk of the tree and sat down.
“You should rest first, that way you’ll have enough strength for the journey down the mountain,” Fang Qiu said teasingly.
“Yep, I should get some rest.”
Old Yang nodded earnestly and continued, “If you lose your control later, I still have enough strength left to feed you the medicine.”
Looking at Old Yang, Fang Qiu was amused.
For some reason, Fang Qiu found the old man rather cute.
They rested for half an hour.
After the old man drank some water, ate something, and regained his strength, Fang Qiu took out the nutrient drink.
He said, “Sir, I am gonna drink it now.”
Fang Qiu immediately uncapped the bottle and gulped down the drink.
It tasted a bit like water, albeit slightly acidic.
Fang Qiu carefully screwed the cap back on the bottle and sat down cross-legged.
Old Yang stared wordlessly at Fang Qiu, his eyes boring into Fang Qiu.
Sitting cross-legged, Fang Qiu closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.
But Old Yang became a little nervous.
As a martial arts practitioner, it was easy for Fang Qiu to relax his mind and reach a spiritual state. So he fell “asleep” soon after closing his eyes.
Old Young thought that Fang Qiu did fall asleep with his back against the pine tree. Actually, Fang Qiu did not fall asleep. The moment he fell “asleep”, he saw other things.
He saw a city.
Standing on the street, Fang Qiu could see everything around him clearly. Everything in front of him felt very real.
“Was this a dream?” Fang Qiu was a little surprised.
He found that the feeling of being inside a dream was the same as he got whenever he entered the consciousness space. It was as though the place he was in right now existed in reality.
“Breaking news. As the world’s leading power, Huaxia has successfully mediated between two countries in Zhongdong to prevent another world dispute!”
Fang Qiu looked up and saw a tall building with a large screen hanging from its facade.
At this time, the news was being broadcast on the big screen.
“At 8 o’clock this morning, the leaders of the Huaxia Chinese Medicine Association participated in the opening ceremony of the world’s 9999th Chinese Medicine Hospital in Nanfei. It is the 100th Chinese Medicine Hospital in Nanfei. At the same time, it is also the last Chinese Medicine Hospital in the world. Let’s applaud Chinese Medicine Hospitals all over the world!
“According to the United Countries, there is now a shortage of Chinese Medicine experts in countries all over the world. As such, the United Countries encourages Huaxia to send even more practitioners of Chinese Medicine to other countries to spread their knowledge to the world. The citizens of the world are looking forward to their arrival!”
Fang Qiu couldn’t but smile at the news.
This was exactly what he wanted to see, but it wasn’t enough.
Looking down, Fang Qiu saw a large group of people standing below the big screen. These people were staring at the Chinese Medicine doctors shown on the screen, their eyes filled with admiration.
A young girl approached and stood beside him.
“Hey, is this yours?”
The girl held up a thick wallet and handed it to Fang Qiu.
“No.”
Fang Qiu shook his head at once.
“Oh.”
The girl nodded and then chased after a middle-aged man in front of her, shouting, “Sir, wait a minute.”
Fang Qiu just stood there and watched the girl leave.
The wallet looked thick. At the first glance, one could clearly see that there was at least ten thousand yuan in it.
The girl hurried down the street, stopping every time someone passed by her to ask if they were the owner of the wallet.
But everyone shook their head in denial. No one attempted to claim the wallet as their own.
After asking more than a dozen people, the girl finally found the owner of the wallet. It was a middle-aged man in a suit. Before he took the wallet from the little girl’s hand, he thanked the girl with a smile and kept her phone number.
“Ouch!”
Suddenly, a scream sounded.
Hearing the sound, Fang Qiu saw that an old man tripped on a flowerbed and fell on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street.
Perhaps it was because of his old age, or perhaps it was because of the pain from the fall, the old man just lay on the ground and groaned.
Fang Qiu wanted to help him.
However, he saw that the pedestrians on the street all rushed to the old man one by one. While comforting him, they carefully helped the old man to his feet. They asked the old man for the phone number of his next of kin and helped him make a phone call. They also examined the old man’s hands and feet to look for injuries.
The old man thanked the pedestrians profusely. When his family arrived, they also thanked those pedestrians and then took the old man to the hospital for an examination.
The crowd dispersed.
A large crowd appeared at an intersection.
The traffic light was green.
People were not in a hurry. They gave way to each other and walked across the road with smiles on their faces.
An old man staggered, and a young man who saw it stopped his car in front of the traffic lights to help the old man across the street. The traffic light turned green, but none of the cars on the road moved. Instead, they were all waiting for the young man to send the old man to the other side of the road and come back into his car.
Fang Qiu stepped forward.
He began to walk in the city.
With every step he took, he saw new events unfolding before him.
It was as though this world was filled with love. He did not see any criminals and everyone he saw was a good person. Everything was so perfect, and he was fascinated by them.
Fang Qiu smiled happily.
This was the perfect world.
However, just as Fang Qiu was completely immersed in this perfect world, the sky above the city suddenly darkened. Dark clouds came from all directions like tides, covering the entire city in an instant.
A sense of chilliness could now be felt in the air.
Fang Qiu looked around.
Those kind people who smiled and walked on the streets just now in the city turned their heads and looked at him.
They were laughing.
Their faces began to distort.
Soon their sweet smiles turned into savage looks.
As the sky darkened, all those kind and peace-loving people slowly transformed into monsters. Like evil spirits, they pounced on Fang Qiu from all directions with strange laughter, baring their sharp fangs!
Fang Qiu didn’t run away.
Instead, he stood there and watched quietly.
“It started!”
On the top of the mountain, Old Yang, who had been watching Fang Qiu, obviously saw that Fang Qiu’s body was twitching. He had seen this symptom in the other villagers.
This was a sign of an impending bout of hysteria!
Old Yang’s heart clenched.
He immediately stood up, removed the lid of the kettle hanging on his chest, placed the rim of the kettle near Fang Qiu’s mouth, and let Fang Qiu smell the medicine, ready to pour the medicine into Fang Qiu’s mouth at any time.
Old Yang was ready to treat him. But after a slight tremble, Fang Qiu’s body relaxed.
