The snow grew heavier.
More flakes fell on Ding Yong’s head, indistinguishable from his white hair.
All was silent around, save for the soft sound of falling snowflakes.
Lu Tong gazed at the person in the snow for a long ti, then lowered her eyes and said, "I understand."
"That’s great!" The man’s spirits lifted, and he bowed several tis in gratitude toward her, as if finally heaving a sigh of relief, and then cast a grateful glance at Ji Xun.
"Dad—" Cuicui called him from the other side, and so Ding Yong said goodbye to Lu Tong and Ji Xun, heading toward the entrance of the Plague Hospital. Lu Tong watched his retreating figure for a while, then turned around and left without a word.
"Doctor Lu." Ji Xun caught up to her.
"Do you have sothing on your mind?" he asked.
Lu Tong continued walking: "What does Doctor Ji refer to?"
"You’ve been especially cautious about trying new dicine. But the prescriptions you used to make at the dical Officer Institute were always bold, this action of yours is unlike your usual approach."
Lu Tong said, "People always change, Doctor Ji. In the past, you were also advising to be conservative in practicing dicine."
"But trying new dicine is a temporary solution, and with your reason, you shouldn’t vehently oppose it."
Lu Tong stopped in her tracks, facing him.
"Doctor Ji," she began, "the epidemic could resurface ti after ti, either externally or internally, possibly relapsing over and over. Among the ingredients of this new dicine, one is thick leaved liana, which is toxic. All our colleagues, including you and I, haven’t found a way to counteract the toxicity of thick leaved liana. Even if the new dicine could temporarily suppress the peach blossom spots on Ding Yong, once it recurs, the toxicity of thick leaved liana combined with the epidemic could strike simultaneously, and he simply wouldn’t survive."
"Even if he could sohow hold on for now, continuing to take this back and forth, endlessly, would also be harmful to his health. Ding Yong has never served as a dicine Man before, is it really appropriate to use sothing on him that even the dical officers do not know the efficacy of?"
Ji Xun was at a loss for words.
Lu Tong seldom spoke so much.
When she was at the dical Officer Institute previously, she spent most of her off-duty ti quietly reading dical texts in a corner.
Even after coming to Su Nan, she seed aloof about everything. Patients at the Plague Hospital once secretly told Lin Danqing that they always found Doctor Lu indifferent, even when governnt officials carried away new corpses each day, she looked on impassively, as if it was all in a day’s work.
She was like a thin leaf, drifting in the water, gone with the current.
Yet she had taken a strong stance on this matter.
The silent snow fell on them both, as they stood in the vast snowy field in silence.
In the distance, another figure approached but stopped abruptly upon seeing them.
Duan Xiaoyan grabbed Pei Yunng’s sleeve, "Brother, it’s Ji Xun and Doctor Lu!"
Pei Yunng, "I see them."
"Their expressions seem a bit off," Duan Xiaoyan observed carefully, "Like they’re arguing. Should we go add fuel to the fire?"
Pei Yunng, annoyed: "Shut up."
Duan Xiaoyan prudently shut his mouth.
He stood in the wind and snow, quietly observing the distant figures.
Further in the distance, Ji Xun’s expression flickered, he tentatively started, "Doctor Lu."
"Are you... hiding sothing from us?"
"If you have unspeakable troubles, you can tell , I won’t tell anyone else," he said.
Ji Xun always felt sothing wasn’t quite right.
When soone behaves out of the ordinary, there must be a reason, but his understanding of Lu Tong was too limited; now that he thought about it, besides knowing she had once been at West Street, he knew nothing else about her.
Lu Tong paused, then said, "No."
"But..."
"Doctor Ji." A voice suddenly cut in from the side. Ji Xun turned his head to see Pei Yunng approaching leisurely from another direction.
Pei Yunng walked up to the two, glanced at Lu Tong, then turned to Ji Xun and indifferently said, "Guard Duan suddenly feels unwell, and since you’re here, it would be good for Doctor Ji to take a look at him."
Duan Xiaoyan was montarily stunned, then suddenly exclaid with a "ouch" while clutching his stomach: "Yes, yes, I’ve had this unbearable headache since I got up early this morning."
This exaggerated gesture caused Ji Xun to frown involuntarily, about to speak, when Lu Tong had already nodded at the two and turned to leave.
Ji Xun wanted to follow, but Pei Yunng stepped slightly to the side, blocking his way, and said with a smile: "Doctor Ji?"
He effectively stopped him.
Watching Lu Tong walk further and further away, Ji Xun withdrew his gaze and looked towards Pei Yunng.
The other’s lips carried a smile, but his eyes were indifferent.
After a standoff, it was Duan Xiaoyan who stepped forward, shoving his arm into Ji Xun’s hand: "Doctor Ji, co, take my pulse first."
...
Lu Tong returned to her lodgings.
The commotion over the new dicine quickly subsided, and in the following days, she beca busy again.
Ding Yong switched to a new prescription, but there was one particular thick and flat herb in the dicine that made her feel uneasy, so she pored over dical texts day and night, hoping to derive so new thods from them.
Surprisingly, Ding Yong’s disease began to lighten day by day.
On the third day of taking the new dicine, the red spots on Ding Yong’s arms stopped darkening, on the fifth day they appeared lighter than the previous days, by the seventh day, the faded red spots were quite evident, and on the ninth day, there was only a slight red hue left in the cherry blossom spots.
Cuicui was ecstatic, hugging Ding Yong’s neck and thanking the dical Officers.
"The cherry blossom spots on my father’s body have faded so much, my father is about to get better, Chief Physician Chang told earlier that once my father recovers, he’ll have all the patients in the Plague Hospital take the new dicine, Cai County Chief also said that the Plague Deity of Su Nan is about to leave, and the epidemic will be over soon!"
All the patients in the Plague Hospital were happy about Ding Yong’s improvent.
The new dicine was effective, aning there was hope for everyone; nobody wanted to wake up only to beco a corpse under the execution ground, with the blotchy spots on their bodies darkening day after day, always causing anxiety.
Cuicui smiled brightly with curved eyes, hiding in Ding Yong’s embrace while handing Lu Tong a newly woven grasshopper.
"I’ve learned how to weave grasshoppers from my dad, and when spring cos, with the riverbanks in Su Nan covered in green grass, I’ll weave them with fresh grass. The green grasshoppers will even jump. I’ve promised all the uncles and aunties, uncles and grandmas here in the Plague Hospital, that when the ti cos, I’m going to set up a stall at the temple market to sell grasshoppers, and everyone has to co and support !"
She spoke crisply, her laughter pleasant to the ears, and the people of the Plague Hospital couldn’t help but be chard into laughter by her.
Ding Yong laughed as well, looking at the dical Officers gathered around the people, he spoke softly: "Thank you, everyone, for saving my life. If I get the chance in the future, the Ding family will surely repay this debt."
The dical Officers then each dismissed it as part of their duties, and scattered to continue attending to their unfinished tasks.
Lu Tong also breathed a sigh of relief.
She had always been worried that the new dicine’s efficacy was unclear and might cause other harm to Ding Yong. Now it seed that everything was getting better. With further observation over a few more days, she would try to use this dicine on other patients in the Plague Hospital.
With signs of improvent, the patients were comforted, and the dical Officers found new motivation. Cai Fang grew even more enthusiastic, contemplating adding a few more wells for dispensing the healing soup once the new dicine proved successful.
Co nightfall, the lodging was empty, and Lu Tong sat under the lamplight, drawing a booklet from her dical kit.
Ever since Lin Danqing caught her with a nosebleed, Lu Tong had told Chang Jin that she had been sleeping lightly lately and wanted to sleep alone; hence, Chang Jin had left a room for her alone.
The inside and outside of the room were utterly silent; Lu Tong spread the booklet out on the table.
The booklet was not very thick and was already half-filled. In the dim light, she picked up a pen and carefully added a few strokes to the booklet.
After finishing, Lu Tong put down the pen, picked up the booklet in her hands, flipped a few pages forward, and slowly beca lost in thought.
Until a "bang—" the door was violently struck, causing Lu Tong to startle. Quickly and deftly, she clasped the booklet shut and stuffed it into the wooden drawer beneath her hands.
"Younger Sister Lu!"
The returnee was Lin Danqing. She seed to have just sprinted from outside, covered in snowflakes, breathing heavily as she began: "Sothing’s wrong!"
Lu Tong asked, "What happened?"
"Ding Yong, sothing’s happened to Ding Yong!"
Lin Danqing’s face was pallid: "He was fine during the day, but at night, while sleeping, Cuicui called out that her dad was having convulsions. The night shift dical Officer went to check, and Ding Yong started vomiting blood."
"His original cherry blossom spots... they turned purple! In a matter of monts, they beca purple cloud spots!"
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