Rebirth of the Evil Stepmother and the Four Villainous Children

Sanbao has been traveling with Imperial Physician Shen for two months. They have arrived in the Lingnan area, which is close to southern Xinjiang and has high mountains and long rivers, and is full of miasma.

Witchcraft is even more prevalent. After being here for so long, both of them have discovered that the patients here do not go to see doctors, but to see witch doctors, whom they have also seen in the village.

There are witch doctors everywhere but the degree of credibility varies. For example, in the south, people trust witch doctors for psychological comfort only. They come to exorcise ghosts and gods, calculate auspicious days, and perform rituals, but they do not treat illnesses.

But the witch doctors in Lingnan are different. Not only do they claim to be able to communicate with ghosts and gods, they can also cure all kinds of diseases. Sanbao and Mr. Shen have both sought medicine from witch doctors.

After careful study, the two of them found an anti-inflammatory pill mixed with incense ash and called it a magic pill. This medicine will not kill people, but it cannot cure diseases either. Whether it can get better depends on each person's fate.

Sanbao wanted to expose the truth on the spot, but Master Shen covered his mouth and asked the guards to take the man away.

Master Shen taught him, "Disciple, you can't tell them. These people all believe in witch doctors. If you tell them, you will be beaten. Why are you so stupid?"

Among the Zhou family's children, Sanbao is the most stubborn and focuses all his intelligence on medicine.

Sanbao nodded and said, "Then what should we do, Master?"

Master Shen said, "No need to worry. Watch and understand first. Don't be impulsive. Otherwise, you will lose your life. What shall you do?"

Sanbao still cherished his life very much. When he came out, he repeatedly promised his mother that he would not get into trouble and protect himself, and only then did his mother agree.

Sanbao nodded obediently and agreed: "Okay, I'll watch it.

Sanbao and his group set up a medical stall in Linxi County in the Lingnan area. This is an area where witch doctors are prevalent. You can see them everywhere on the street, a group of people following a strangely decorated sedan chair.

Sitting in the sedan chair was an old lady with wrinkled skin. She was wearing a silver headdress on her head, but the headdress could not cover her face when it hung down.

The clothes she wore were decorated with countless strips of cloth of different colors and were hung with silver ornaments. When she turned the clothes, a tinkling sound could be heard.

This is the attire of the local wizard. To perform witchcraft, it depends on the number of people accompanying her. There are so many servants that even the accompanying servants may reach hundreds. She is even more majestic than the officials in the capital. Behind her, there will be devout people running after the sedan chair with various financial matters in their hands, begging the wizard to give them magic medicine or touch their hair to pass on the message from far away.

Here, a powerful wizard has more say than even local officials, and countless wealthy families have wizards enshrined in their homes.

The one we saw this time was the most powerful wizard in the area, the Moon Wizard. It is rumored that this title is hereditary. The moon represents the thing closest to the gods, and the wizard with the title of the moon is called the communicator closest to the gods by the locals.

Looking at these crazy people, Dabao's mouth grew so big that it was big enough to hold an egg.

After a few days, everything suddenly changed. The Moon Wizard went to the streets again and started performing rituals.

Sanbao and his group squeezed in the middle and heard the people around them talking.

"Why do you think the Moon Wizard performed this ritual?"

"I don't know, but I know that the Moon Wizard doesn't perform rituals easily."

"Eh? You don't know? I told you that it seems that many followers of the Moon Wizard are sick. I heard that first one person got sick, then more than a dozen people got sick, and now it seems that many people are sick."

"That's right, that's right, my neighbor is like that, he has vomiting and diarrhea, and he has a fever, and he said that the medicine given by the wizard is useless."

"Hey, hey, hey, my neighbor's house is like that too. It's really like that. Could it be that he's possessed by evil spirits? Is that why the Moon Wizard is performing rituals to exorcise evil spirits?"

"Oh my, please stop talking. Pray more and pray more. Be sincere and don't be contaminated by evil spirits."

Sanbao and Master Shen saw something very strange in their eyes. As an old physician in the Imperial Medical Bureau, he had seen many reports on epidemics, so this situation was really not right.

One person found out through analysis that it was impossible for dozens of people to have the same disease at the same time, so he took advantage of the fact that he was a child.

She asked innocently, talking to the fat lady next to her who said her neighbor was sick.

"Sister, where is the sick person you mentioned?"

When the fat aunt saw that Sanbao was a fair and well-behaved child, she called him sister and couldn't help but pinch Sanbao's little face.

"Hey, don't call me sister, call me aunt. I feel embarrassed if you call me that. It's the sixth house in the alley with the big sycamore tree on the east side. It's Old Zhang. Why don't you go and take a look?"

Sanbao rubbed his cheeks and said, "No, no, I'm just curious, curious."

The fat aunt said, "Little kids can't go there, or they might get infected by evil spirits."

Sanbao nodded obediently and took Master Shen's hand. The two of them squeezed out of the crowd like a grandfather and grandson. They looked around, and when they saw that no one was paying attention, they quickly took the guards to the east.

After asking the person at the entrance of the alley, he told them that he was here to visit relatives. The person enthusiastically led everyone to Old Zhang's door, then ran away quickly as if he was avoiding something.

The guards knocked on the door for a long time but no one came to open it. According to what the fat aunt said, Old Zhang seemed to be very ill, so he shouldn't be away from home.

Sanbao said: "You go in first and take a look at the situation."

The guard said, "Yes, Master."

The man climbed over the wall and entered the yard. The yard was quiet. When he thought no one was trying to climb out, he heard a suppressed cough.

The guard immediately drew his knife and walked forward following the sound. When he opened the door, he saw an old woman lying on the dirty bed. Her face was very pale.

The guard quickly put away his knife and went to support the old woman. Wasn't she talking about an old man?

The old woman didn't recognize the guard but she grabbed the guard's clothes tightly as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw, and said with a weak breath.

"Save me, save me, save me old man."

The guard asked hurriedly, "Where is Old Zhang?"

The old woman burst into tears immediately: "In the main room, dead, dead."

The guard's face suddenly changed, he cut his robe with a sword, covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves, and went to many places with the guard Sanbao. Although he couldn't treat the disease, he could see that something was wrong.

He quickly told Sanbao and the others across the yard what he had just seen.

Sanbao and Master Shen were immediately shocked and felt a strong sense of uneasiness in their hearts: "Don't come out yet, I'll go in, I'll go in and take a look."

Grandpa Shen immediately stopped Sanbao and said, "Grandpa, come in, Grandpa, go in and take a look. You can't go in, you are too young."

How could Sanbao listen to Master Shen at this moment and immediately ask the guards to pull Master Shen away? Ignoring his attempt, he asked the guards inside to open the door and went in himself.

I followed the guard into the room and took a look at the old woman first. I could see at a glance that the old woman was breathing rapidly. Breathing through her nose could no longer satisfy her, so she could only open her mouth wide and breathe in big gulps.

In addition to the face, the skin on the body was also wrinkled, as if severely dehydrated. The face was sunken, the eye sockets were sunken, the lips were covered with dry lip skin, and the eyes were lifeless, completely lost and empty.

Sanbao immediately took the old woman's pulse and found that the Cun pulse was slow, the Guan pulse was floating, and the Chi pulse was weak, which was the pulse condition of a patient with typhoid fever of the sixth or seventh degree.

There has never been a case of typhoid fever in history. The first time I knew about this disease was when Zhou Rongrong mentioned it inadvertently. Sanbao was interested and went to check it out. The patient's pulse showed roseola on the skin, and his liver and spleen were enlarged when tapped.

It was exactly the same as what was written in the book. Sanbao anxiously ordered the guards, "Go and tell the master to take my father's token and ask the county magistrate to come. If he doesn't come, put the sword on his neck. At the same time, go to Zhouji and tell my mother and father that dozens of people have been infected with typhoid fever in Linxi County."

The guard didn't know what harm was, but he knew the emergency situation and quickly stood at the gate of the yard and talked to the people outside through the gate.

Mr. Shen had heard Sanbao mention typhoid fever, which is an epidemic disease. He also said that the mortality rate and infectiousness of the disease were extremely high. His eyes suddenly turned black and he almost fainted.

His last disciple was still inside, holding onto the wall to avoid fainting. Master Shen calmed himself down and quickly made arrangements: "Come with me to invite the county magistrate, and you go to Zhouji to pass the message. You must be quick. Something big is going to happen. Something big is going to happen."

Master Shen and his guards were beating drums at the gate of the county government office. Soon, a bailiff came out and Master Shen took out a jade token with a dragon pattern on it. The guard didn't know who the jade token represented, but after looking at the dragon pattern he knew that the man was no ordinary person. He didn't dare to neglect him and immediately welcomed the man in to find County Magistrate Wu who was basking in the sun on a rocking chair in the backyard.

"Sir, sir, there is an old man with a dragon-shaped jade plaque saying he has something urgent to see you,

County Magistrate Wu exclaimed, thinking that they had encountered some swindlers in this remote area, and that someone was lurking in the government territory to commit fraud?

When he saw the token, he quickly knelt down and said, "Your humble servant Wu Tian greets His Majesty."

This token is Xie Wuyou's identity token. Seeing it is like seeing Xie Wuyou himself. Except for Erbao who doesn't need it in the military camp, almost every child in the Zhou family gets one, just like buying in bulk.

Master Shen immediately asked him to stand up and explained the matter in a few words. After learning that the old master was actually from the Shen family in the capital, a family that had produced famous doctors for generations, and that he was also a director serving in the imperial court, he had to believe what he said. He became completely scared, because you know what epidemic means?

Once an epidemic breaks out, it means death, and many people will die. However, he has never heard of it, but he has to believe it, and he is shaking all over.

When Master Shen saw that this man was really useless and worthless, he immediately asked the guards around him, "Are there any troops here that the prince has led?"

The guards chosen to go out with the children were all Xie Wuyou's personal guards. Not only were they loyal, they also knew a lot of people in the army. When Master Shen saw the county magistrate like this, he knew he was a fool, and quickly asked the guards to take the token and call a team of soldiers to help.

The guard put down the token without saying a word, and started galloping on his horse. Fortunately, the distance was only twenty miles. When General Wang saw that he was the prince's guard, he asked why and hurriedly asked his deputy general Guo to take a team of people to go. He himself had to stay in the military camp and start checking whether there were similar symptoms in the army.

This investigation was really terrifying. One of the soldiers who went to the city to purchase goods had the same symptoms. He first had diarrhea and no medicine worked. Then he had a high fever. Now he had a rash on his skin and it was dry. The symptoms were exactly the same as what the guards had described.

People in the same tent also showed similar symptoms. The most feared thing in the military camp was epidemics and fires, which could easily take the lives of an entire camp of soldiers.

General Wang's face darkened and he immediately called the military doctor to discuss the matter in secret. At the same time, he isolated the people and reported the situation as quickly as possible.

Over in the county town, Deputy General Guo had already arrived, and Master Shen was making arrangements.

"First, close the city gates and prohibit entry and exit. Secondly, drive the people on the street back home and guard the streets. No one is allowed to go out unless necessary. Register the number of sick people and bring all the sick families to the county government office for treatment and observation. Don't spread the news until it is confirmed. Also, tell the soldiers to wear hand towels and take precautions."

Deputy General Guo hurriedly took the order and did it, but when County Magistrate Wu heard that his government office would be used as a quarantine place, he immediately objected.

"No, sir, we can't do that. What if we are all infected in the government office next door?"

Master Shen said without thinking, "If it is infected, then it is. You are such a parent official who is so afraid of death, then what were you doing before? Lord Wu, let me tell you, if this epidemic cannot be controlled, it will not only cost you your life, but the lives of your entire family and your nine clans. Do you believe it?"

According to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, if an epidemic occurs, officials who fail to report it in a timely manner, or fail to take timely precautions and provide treatment, will have their entire clan executed.

When Lord Wu thought of this, he broke out in a cold sweat and could only nod his head quickly, "Yes, yes, sir, I will listen to you, I will listen to you."

Deputy General Guo took the troops to the streets and there were still people on the streets worshiping the wizard. This place is close to southern Xinjiang, and everyone is used to seeing the army entering the city, and they will stop to take a look.

This time, Deputy General Guo started to shout angrily, "The court has ordered that everyone should go home and close their doors. Do not go out of the city. Anyone who has diarrhea, fever, or a rash should report it immediately. If you do not report it, you will be killed."

The common people looked puzzled, but seeing that the soldiers were carrying shining swords and guns, they did not dare to step forward to ask, so they could only disperse and quickly go home.

Many people also secretly came to find the registered soldier to explain to them that the family had the problems they mentioned.

After all, here in southern Xinjiang, whenever there is a sign of war, the imperial court will send them back home and not allow them to leave the city. Some people even thought that there was going to be another war.

But some people heard it, and when they saw their attire, the triangular bandanas covering their mouths and noses, and the gloves they wore, they had a feeling that something was wrong.

But he did not dare to ask more questions, so he hurried home, closed the door, and asked his family whether his neighbors had the symptoms that the general described. It turned out that several families had experienced such symptoms, which scared him a lot. He quickly boiled a pot of boiling water, threw all the dishes and clothes in the house into it, and then sprinkled lime water and vinegar everywhere.

The family members were confused, and the man said, "Don't worry about it, don't worry about it. Don't go out recently. Don't go out. If you have diarrhea, you must tell me."

After the man had taken care of his family affairs, he found the registered soldier on the street and told the sergeant the news. Seeing that the book was already filled with names of many people, he became more certain that it was an epidemic.

But he didn't dare to say anything and could only lock himself up at home.

Mr. Shen looked at the increasing number of registration names. There were already more than a hundred people on the list, but he had not yet started the investigation. There were many people in Linxi County, but it was impossible for so many people to have the same disease at the same time.

He flipped through the pages and said solemnly, "The epidemic has been confirmed. Go and fetch Sanbao and treat him in the government office."

The guard said with a serious expression: "Yes."