Fools don’t save themselves.
As the child walked, he kept looking back.
He didn’t know why he believed these two strangers from outside. It might be that the person who claimed to be a physician guessed the herbs in the bag just by smelling it, and it might also be because they’re very good-looking, not like a bad person at all.
Unlike Master Xiang where he looks at people as if he’s going to dig a piece of their meat.
Thinking of this, the child couldn’t help but shiver.
The child felt a hand on his shoulder. The palms were very warm, and the places it touched also became warmer.
“What’s your name?”
“Hu Zi.” The child sniffed, his voice dull.
There are many narrow lanes in Qinghu Town. In between houses, children can still walk through it flexibly, but it’s very difficult for adults.
Hu Zi kept turning around to make sure that the two followed him.
Strangely enough, after the physician took his pulse, Hu Zi felt that his groggy head became a lot clearer. Although he still wanted to cough, he was able to bear it.
Naturally, he can’t make a sound when stealing herbs. It’s over if he got caught.
Now, there’s a physician, but no medicine——Uncle Lin’s disease must be cured, and then everything will be fine.
There was a faint smile on the child’s face as he cheered himself up and continued to walk forward.
“There’s a granary on the street behind Ziwei Xinjun Temple, and the sick people in town will be sent there. Are you here to find someone? No outsiders have come to Qinghu Town recently, so if you know people in town, I might know them.”
The child straightened his chest and confidently said.
Mo Li glanced at Meng Qi. The latter understood and asked in a slow tone: “Why are the cloth shops in the town gone? Do you know what happened?”
Hu Zi immediately appeared frightened, and stammered: “I, I don’t know.”
“What about other shops?” Meng Qi rolled his eyes and change his way of questioning, “There’s no place to sell things in town, if there’s nowhere to buy oil and salt, how did you survive?”
“They’re all from Master Xiang. The people in town pay the money, and then the people under Master Xiang will send some to everyone…it’s sent once every three days, which is today. Before, the people in town ate together, and if they didn’t go, there’d be no food to eat.” Hu Zi whispered as he walked, “Later on, people continued to get sick. Master Xiang said that it was caused by evil spirits, so he allowed everyone to go home and eat separately, otherwise, we can’t hide Uncle Lin’s illness at all.”
The more Mo Li listened, the darker his face became. If it’s not for fear of scaring the child, perhaps the result of the “heavenly fire expelling evil” was already on the ground they’re standing on.
Elder Li was right. When the Holy Lotus Shrine confused people and took root in one place, even if the people wake up and want to escape, it’ll be difficult to do so.
“There’s the threshing field.” Hu Zi stopped and pointed in a direction.
On a clearing, the ground was burnt black and white with the granary next to it. There were many people wearing linen and reverently squatting there while burning paper money and crying.
“They just burned once yesterday, so we have to wait three more days…”
Hu Zi couldn’t see the situation on the other side of the shed. He hadn’t finished speaking yet when he vaguely saw a shadow pass by. Hu Zi turned his head in surprise. Suddenly, he found that the physician had disappeared, and only the good-looking person was left beside him.
“Let’s get the herbs.” Meng Qi said, touching the back of the child’s head.
Although the people in Qinghu Town are pitiful and abominable, there is more than one Qinghu Town in the world. Meng Qi could suppress his anger, unlike Mo Li, because no matter how tragic the scene is, it won’t make waves in his heart.
Meng Qi vaguely felt that something was wrong with him. He ignores everything and gradually lost interest in lively things, only the anger and killing intent can make him feel that he’s still alive.
This tragic situation has been going on for a long time, and it’s only when he met the physician recently that he suddenly got better.
When they first met in that house, Meng Qi felt that this person was very unusual and different.
——that’s why he uncharacteristically ran to follow the other.
To Meng Qi’s surprise, he was discovered and his sleeves were cut off.
How many people in the world can do this?!
Those people are either old or leaning on a major power, after all, they swallowed the so-called heaven and earth treasures to get that deep internal strength.
But this person who claimed to be Mo Li was different from those people. He turned out to be the disciple of the Silver Fox Doctor.
Meng Qi immediately believed that the reason he was suddenly attracted to this person was through instinct! He is a physician, a physician with profound internal strength and advanced martial arts. He can definitely cure his illness!
Can’t let him go at all costs!
Meng Qi thought so and a smile faintly appeared on his lips.
The child accidentally saw it when he turned his head and was dumbfounded.
“…hero, what are you smiling at?” Hu Zi rubbed his nose, the smoke here was so thick that he wanted to cough.
“Nothing.” Meng Qi concealed his smile and looked down, thinking that he’s lucky. The expert he met was an outstanding disciple of the Silver Fox Doctor and had never traveled. Without being tainted by the turbid waters of the world, he’s too easily impressed.
Can such a pure person always stick to his innocence?
In the face of power, beauty, and wealth, can he not care?
In this world, there are not only temptations, but also resentment, love, and hatred, as well as the evil it produces.
——when the sins of the world are exposed to him through the ignorance and cruelty of human nature, naked and violent, will he be angry? Will he be swallowed by anger and kill the entire Qinghu Town?
Meng Qi silently smiled, as if looking forward to it, but also feeling a faint pain, because he knew that his illness was getting worse.
The child sneaked into the Ziwei Xingjun Temple.
This time, Meng Qi secretly followed as Hu Zi stole the herbs without any suspense. When they went back to the narrow alley, Mo Li was already waiting for them.
Mo Li’s face was ugly as if he was trying to suppress something.
Meng Qi naturally asked: “Are there any patients over there?”
“There are two old people who have just been sent away. They’re not very ill and still awake…but they’re both talking about Ziwei Xingjun, hoping that the heavenly fire will come soon and take them out of this world.” Mo Li faintly felt irritable, how can such a person be saved?
A dozen corpses were outside the granary, all of which were burnt into a black mess.
Beside the corpses were people wearing linen and kowtowing. They cried with sincerity. Some even fainted while crying. It could be seen that their grief was real, but it was them who personally sent these people to the Yellow Springs.
Why are there such contradictory people?
This is simply ignorance.
Mo Li closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down.
“The epidemic here is not serious. If they take the medicine according to the prescription, it’ll only take three to five days. If the people in Qinghu Town didn’t eat together, this seasonal epidemic wouldn’t spread so quickly.”
“You mean——this disease is actually not deadly?” Meng Qi tentatively asked.
“Not necessarily. Physically weak people will develop a cough after a few days which is difficult to treat. In this cold winter, if the elderly and children are at home, many people would not have been infected…”
Mo Li looked cold and solemn and did not go on.
Hu Zi stood blankly, unknown if he understood.
“Where is your Uncle Lin. We’ll give him medicine.” Mo Li bowed his head and didn’t look at the howling people in the distance.
Hu Zi quickly picked up the cloth bag full of herbs and ran to lead the way.
Meng Qi followed behind Mo Li, sneaking glances at him.
“What do you think I did?” Mo Li asked inexplicably.
The martial arts practiced by Meng Qi is very peculiar. He’s very good at concealing his breath, so he wouldn’t notice him, but after a few times, Mo Li noticed. Ordinary people don’t have eyes behind their backs, but Mo Li is not a human being. He has no extra eyes but he has spiritual power.
Mo Li felt that the eyes of the person behind him looked like sharp knives, poking him from time to time, even though Meng Qi thought he was concealed and openly looked at him.
“I thought you would kill those people from the Holy Lotus Shrine.”
“The Holy Lotus Shrine is known to have one hundred thousand members with 36 saints, 72 shrine masters, and countless Master Xiang. If I kill this one, the Master Xiangs from elsewhere will come, and Qinghu Town will still look like this. If I want to save the people here, I must use other methods.” Mo Li’s tone was calm as if the person who was full of anger before wasn’t him.
Meng Qi laughed and said in a low voice: “These people are full of wickedness. Just kill them, why think so much?”
Mo Li turned his head and glanced at him, wondering if his patient was sick again.
Mo Li lightly said: “It’s useless to kill them.”
“Oh?” Meng Qi’s expression suddenly changed, and a wicked, ironic smile appeared on the corner of his lips.
Mo Li also lowered his voice. This was to prevent Hu Zi from hearing their conversation. He pointedly said, “Unless you kill all the people in the world, killing will not solve the problem. My teacher said that killing is useless. The word ‘kill’ can be used as punishment and also to shock people. If you want to save people, don’t kill them and just ignore their follow-ups. Everything in this world would never end just because of humanity’s death.”
Meng Qi sighed deliberately: “Sure enough, as expected from the disciple of the Silver Fox Doctor who saved many people.”
——save? Saving people? You’re joking! What’s worth saving in this world!
Meng Qi’s eyes went red, showing a faint madness.
“Do you want to save the people in Qinghu Town?”
“No.” Mo Li simply said that word.
Meng Qi choked at the unexpected answer and his expression froze.
“What did you say?” Meng Qi suspected that he heard it wrong.
“Since you’ve heard rumors of the Silver Fox Doctor, don’t you know his code of conduct? Do you think I only learned martial arts and medical skills from Elder Qin?”
“Save the person who should be saved, cure the disease that can be cured…I remember, but what does ‘save the person who should be saved’ mean?” Meng Qi muttered.
Mo Li suddenly stretched out his hand and stuffed a calming pill to Meng Qi, reminding him that he was sick again, and then said: “Leave aside the good and evil, the simplest criteria is their desire to survive and save themselves. If the patient didn’t want to live, why should the physician stop them?”
“So to say, those who committed suicide won’t be saved?”
Meng Qi didn’t know why he wanted to continue this conversation with Mo Li. There was hope in his heart, but he didn’t know for what.
“Suicide? If they have another way to survive, why would they die?” Mo Li told his patient with a good temper, “You’d occassionally go crazy and want to kill others. I also treated a man who wanted to commit suicide all day, but as soon as I saw his eyes, I knew that he actually wanted to live and was struggling very hard…you as well. You want to kill people, but you also wanted to save yourself. Compared with the former, the latter is your heart knot and I can see that.”
Meng Qi raised a hand to cover his eyes subconsciously.
After a while, he muffled a laugh.
“Okay, physician, I will listen to you.”
The author has something to say:
The gong has gone through the vicissitudes of life. He thought our little shou was too young and foolish, as a result, he was given a bowl of soup. He drank until he almost teared up.
Qin Lu: Tsk, this old man taught well.
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A patient who cooperates with the treatment and does not cause trouble will get better.
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During the New Year, I can only spare a bit of time to code words. The update time might fluctuate, OTZ, but I’ll try to keep a daily update. If there’s no update, I’ll leave a notification.
Translator’s Notes:
I don’t know if he’s called Master Xiang like it’s his name, or Incense Master, which is a title. Maybe I’ll know after a couple of chapters.
“and his sleeves were cut off.”
Oh boi, we knew. 😌😏
Anyway, great thanks for the four updates in a row!
Nice catch..lol