Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 535 - 481: Chaos

Chapter 535: Chapter 481: Chaos
A crow flapped its wings agilely and landed on the treetop.
The autumn wind was bleak, and the leaves of this tree had long since withered and fallen, leaving only the lonely branches.
The tree lacked vitality, and as a consequence, the insects that used to dwell on the trunk and branches in spring and summer were far fewer, which left the crow somewhat displeased.
But soon, its attention was drawn to another scent nearby.
It was... the smell of something burning.
The Taiyuan Prefecture sick house was on the brink of shutdown.
The isolation wards at all levels were filled with patients, their beds overflowing. So much so, that even on the square in front of the sick house, countless tents had been set up, packed with innumerable stretchers.
The sound of coughing, crying, pleading.
Healthcare workers wearing heavy isolation suits bustled between the beds. They were either administering IV drips to patients or cleaning the phlegm and blood they coughed up. They were so exhausted that their foreheads were drenched in sweat, with no time to stop and wipe it away.
All the workers’ masks had long been soaked through with sweat. To maintain their protective effect, many wore two, even three layers. This resulted in clearly visible indentations forming, especially on the sides of their noses, and the areas behind their ears were swollen and sore.
But even though all healthcare workers were overloaded, they couldn’t alleviate the standstill at the sick house.
There were too many patients.
Since the appearance of the Plague Demon Talismans, a few individuals had, either for personal gain or for the health and safety of their families, secretly affixed them to the doors of others’ homes. This created a massive number of patients.
Taiyuan Prefecture’s Government Officials and soldiers tried to seal off the workshops to prevent the spread of these Evil Spirit talismans.
However, as rumors spread, the pattern and use of the Plague Demon Talismans still managed to circulate.
The pattern of the Plague Demon Talisman was overly simple. Even a child could draw it with pen and paper.
Common people who had a member of their family coughing, in their panic, began to follow suit and stuck talismans on other people’s doorways.
One wasn’t enough, and fearing the effect might be weak, they added ten, twenty more.
If someone stood guard at the door, they would stick it on the walls of alleys, on trees by doors, even on the ground outside houses.
Like a droplet of ink in a basin, gradually, the entire basin representing Taiyuan Prefecture became thoroughly stained with ink.
Even those kind-hearted common people who initially didn’t spread the Plague Demon Talisman, for the safety of their families’ lives, eventually had no choice but to join in this mad and chaotic upheaval. The result was the collapse of the sick house.
"Doctor! Doctor!"
A somewhat immature, frantic voice called out from outside the sick house doors. A young man named Zhuo San, wearing an ill-fitting Government Official uniform, burst into the sick house carrying an elderly woman who was coughing incessantly.
"Doctor!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs under his mask, his voice breaking, but in the busy and near-stagnant sick house, no one stopped to attend to him.
Just as the boy was sinking into despair, a familiar voice rang out from beside him.
"Zhuo San? What are you doing here? Didn’t you get leave to go home and rest?"
A masked and weary Government Official, Sun Er, approached. He immediately noticed the elderly woman Zhuo San was carrying and furrowed his brow severely. "Your mother?"
"Yeah!"
Zhuo San nodded emphatically. "Brother Sun Er, my mom suddenly developed a high fever, and all the medicine from the drugstores in the market has been bought out. There’s simply none to buy."
Fever...
Sun Er’s words trailed off, hesitation threading his voice. Given the current situation within the city, what a fever meant was self-evident.
He glanced at Zhuo San’s mother, who was gasping for breath, pursed his lips and, unable to bring himself to shatter the younger man’s illusions, said, "Come with me."
Sun Er, who served as a Patrol Officer in the sick house, led Zhuo San to the duty room in the farthest corner of the sick house.
There was only one doctor in the duty room, asleep on a simple wooden bed.
Sun Er woke him and said respectfully, cupping his hands, "Doctor Mo, please examine this patient."
"What’s there to examine?"
Doctor Mo, rudely awakened with bloodshot eyes, merely glanced at Zhuo San’s mother, who had been carefully placed on a stool, and without even getting up from the bed, said coldly, "Plague! Go get a number for isolation!"
"What did you say?!"
Zhuo San’s expression changed dramatically. He stood in front of his mother and shouted, "My mother just has a fever, that’s all. She isn’t showing any other symptoms. Even Mr. Li wouldn’t diagnose a patient as having the plague just by one look!"
"Do you think, in the city now, there are still patients who only have a fever?"
Doctor Mo spoke indifferently. "Plague Demon Talismans: to drive away Plague Demons, to summon Plague Demons, to please Plague Demons. Every household doesn’t want to fall ill. To protect their own, they wouldn’t care about others. Now look, every household has fallen ill. Everyone has the plague and is as good as dead!"
"I am a Government Official! Our house hasn’t affixed any Plague Demon Talismans!"
Zhuo San’s eyes nearly burst with rage as he bellowed, "Do you know what I’ve gone through these days? These days, it’s been me and my companions who went into rooms full of fleas and rats, carrying the bodies that no one in the city wanted to touch, burning them. Several brothers who grew up with me, they’re all dead! Do you understand that?!"
"Do you think you’re the only one who’s lost friends and family?"
Unmoved, Doctor Mo remained lazily seated on the bed and said coldly, "My apprentice died from the Infection. My fellow apprentice was bitten on the palm by a patient who couldn’t accept his diagnosis and went mad; he too died from the Infection. My master, who was at the forefront of combating the plague in Yunzhou, standing bravely before the soldiers, has also died.
Heh, come to think of it... I don’t even know what to say.
His letter to me instructed me to follow Mr. Li in Taiyuan Prefecture and to remember the noble medical ethics of serving the people, to protect the common people. Yet, the day after his letter arrived, news of his death came from Yunzhou. He had no children, only me, his apprentice. When he is buried, I fear there won’t even be a person to weep at his grave."
Doctor Mo continued speaking to himself, and the atmosphere in the duty room grew increasingly stifled and oppressive.
Sun Er stood silently to the side, while Zhuo San stood frozen in place.
"Third Son, COUGH, COUGH, apologize to the Doctor."
Zhuo San’s mother tapped him on the back with her fingertip.
"...Forget it. The big shots of Taiyuan Prefecture are preparing to flee. All the Princes, Princesses, are ready to run at the first sign of trouble, leaving us locals from Taiyuan Prefecture and unencumbered Doctors like me behind."
Doctor Mo waved his hand, sighed deeply, and said to Zhuo San, "Come on, let’s take your mother to do a smear."
He listlessly walked out of the duty room, leading Zhuo San and his mother to the laboratory. There, he drew blood, made a smear, placed it under the microscope, and then peered into it briefly.
Sun Er asked cautiously, "Doctor, what are the results..."
"You look for yourself."
Doctor Mo stood up to give way, and Zhuo San, silent, stepped forward and bent down to peer through the microscope.
Under the microscope, countless bacilli hung suspended in silence.