A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

The boot prints of the border soldiers pierced Yang Hu's heart like needles.

He kept quiet and had Liu Da find a long pole, tied an iron hook to one end, and gently probed into the well.

After a few hooks, they pulled something out of the mud.

It was half a rotten animal hide and something wrapped in a tattered cloth, inside of which was pitch black.

The stench was so foul it made me want to vomit.

Liu Ye covered her nose, her face turning pale: "What is this?"

"This is a human!" Yang Hu stared at the pile of rotting matter. "It was deliberately thrown into the well to make the water deteriorate faster and become more toxic."

He continued to explain:

"A well that was already breaking down very quickly and badly, suddenly breaking down like this? Something's not right! Is it because it broke down too quickly and badly? That's not right, someone deliberately broke it by throwing things into the well!"

Qin Ying also rushed over, squatted down and looked at the shoe prints and animal hides, her face growing increasingly ashen.

"Shoes from the border troops, leather from the barbarians, and these two things put together," she said. "Just like the ones made by the people on Zhao's line."

"The barbarians retreated once, unable to seize this place openly, so they resorted to underhanded tactics, poisoning the well to create a real plague."

Qin Ying hid in a corner of the village, barely clinging to life.

The result was that the entire village was affected by this underworld plague, and almost everyone died.

"How cruel." She clenched her fist, her fingers turning pale. "To take my life, they didn't hesitate to wipe out an entire village. I'll remember this debt."

"Ruthless as they are, they're also stupid." Yang Hu stuffed the rotting mess into the oilcloth. "They thought this was a plan to wipe them out, calculating that no one in the countryside would know what this plague was all about. Little did they expect, they ran into me."

His words sounded uninteresting, but he had a certain confidence in them.

The man-made disaster has been resolved.

but now?

Saving lives is the most important thing.

They sealed the well, dug up the spring, built an isolation room, and drank a bowl of rice soup every night to replenish their energy. These painstaking efforts helped them get through the most terrifying days.

For the past three days, Yang Hu has barely slept.

During the day, he would visit each household for follow-up examinations, overseeing the fetching of water and cooking. In the evening, he would sit outside the isolation room, checking the pulse every half hour to see if the vomiting and diarrhea had stopped, and then feeding the patient a bowl of rice porridge.

Lu Yan was in charge of distributing and decocting the medicine, and her voice had become hoarse.

Lu Rou remembered exactly how many people were in each family, which person could eat which food, and who could drink rice porridge.

Liu Ye was the strongest, carrying water, carrying patients on her back, and digging out garbage; she didn't hold back at all when it came to work.

Even Qin Ying was helping to look after the most seriously injured villagers, staying up night after night.

With these hands, the entire village was pulled back from the brink of death, step by step.

By the fourth day, the illness had subsided.

The number of new cases is decreasing day by day.

In the two isolation rooms at the end of the village, the patients who had been drinking rice water and salt water for a few days were able to get out of bed and even move to the doorway to bask in the sun, holding onto the wall.

Even the old woman from the Qian family, who was carried in first and was on the verge of death, survived. Supported by her son, she tremblingly kowtowed to Yang Hu, muttering only one sentence: "Living Bodhisattva."

The entire village was pulled back from the brink of death.

In the neighboring village, Yang Hu also asked Liu Da to send over the prescription and method, to seal the well, boil water, and replenish the salt water. Following this advice, the problem gradually subsided.

Seven days later, no new patients appeared in Maocao Village.

The village was revived, but the people's hearts were completely changed.

Those who spread rumors that "Yang Hu created the epidemic and summoned the plague god" are now so ashamed that they lower their heads and dare not look up.

Furthermore, people used to call upon a shaman to send away the plague god, but now when they mention Doctor Yang, they practically worship him as a god.

The old witch Liu performed her rituals for three days and burned several baskets of paper money, but she couldn't cure a single patient. Yang Hufeng, however, fed the patient a few bowls of salt and rice soup, and the entire village came back to life.

You'll understand in no time.

She dared not ring the copper bell in the village anymore, and slunk away at home, not daring to show her face for quite some time.

The village chief, leaning on his cane, led a group of villagers to kowtow to Yang Hu.

"No, no, no!" Yang Hu quickly stopped him, he really couldn't bear this scene.

"Dr. Yang!" a man with red eyes shouted at the top of his lungs, "From this day forward, if you say east, we won't go west! If you say seal the well, we'll seal the well! If you say it's an illness and not a god, then it's an illness and not a god!"

The whole village shouted in unison.

After this plague, Yang Hu's words in Maocao Village were more effective than those of the village chief or the plague god who had been worshipped for so many years.

For several days in a row, things were delivered to the gate of the courtyard again: eggs, new rice, and large cured meats that the villagers themselves were reluctant to eat. The villagers would leave them down with red faces and run away.

There were also elderly people who had recovered from illness and insisted on having their grandchildren become godfathers of the children, hoping to receive the blessings of a living bodhisattva.

Brother Stone always brags to everyone he meets, "Didn't I tell you? Dr. Yang is a star descended from the sky! That plague god is nothing but a fart in front of him!"

His mouth resonated throughout the entire village, prompting a group of people to burst into laughter and agree.

Amidst the laughter and merriment, the suffocating atmosphere that had been weighing on people's hearts for the past two days finally dissipated.

Qin Ying stood to the side listening for a long time before coming to Yang Hu's side.

"Without spending money or exerting any effort, we can eradicate a plague that wipes out a village and find the traitor behind it all." Her voice was low but sincere. "Yang Hu, believe it or not, this achievement is enough to earn you a place in the border army."

"Background?" Yang Hu raised an eyebrow.

"In chaotic times, someone who can heal people, uncover conspiracies, and keep people in check is someone the army would fight tooth and nail for." Qin Ying looked at him, her eyes more serious than ever before. "If my old subordinates were still here, I would report these two merits of today without missing a single word and guarantee you a good future."

Yang Hu smiled but didn't say anything.

But he knew in his heart that this female general was leading him step by step down these two paths towards one.

Even his initial thought of "keeping to his herb garden and living a peaceful life" faded somewhat after being pulled out of the well by this lump of mud.

He can't escape this mess.

That night, Yang Hu locked the bag of mud, the arrows, and the token together in a box.

Three things, three paths, now all point to one name: Xiying, Squad Leader Zhao, and then there's the person above him, the one who hasn't appeared yet.

"Once we get into the city," he said to Qin Ying, "only you, the mole, can get this case to the bottom. There are people in the city who can influence the Western Camp."

Qin Ying nodded.

The trip into the city was delayed for more than a month.

However, as the epidemic subsided and people's lives stabilized, and with all the medicines he had prepared ready, the old man in the city, Mr. Zhou, had been ill for more than half a year and could not be delayed any longer.

They had to set off.

However, there are some things to worry about regarding this incident.

That barbarian in the woodshed, Yang Hu has now set up a trap for him.

He needed Brother Stone to bring some reliable, burly men to keep watch day and night, making sure that barbarian didn't get a chance to escape.

They also need to keep an eye on their medicinal herb garden and clinic, which have only recently been established and require someone to take care of them.

The most crucial issue is Qin Ying's identity. Although this matter can be temporarily concealed in the village, once he enters the city, there will be many more eyes on him, so he needs to be kept even more secret.

Yang Hu thought about all these things in his mind over and over again. After discussing with Lu Yan for a long time, he finally felt at ease after considering who would accompany them, who would stay behind, how to deal with the survivors, how to settle their families, and so on.

Liu Ye was eager to follow and act as a guard, and Yang Hu agreed. He agreed to go into the mountains with her to gather herbs. Liu Ye was skilled in archery, and she could help protect Qin Ying and the others in the city, making her a good helper.

Qin Ying also considered it carefully and decided to go along as well, since she could only get to the bottom of the traitor case once she entered the city.

Outside, an autumn rain had just fallen, and Yang Hu sighed slowly as he looked towards the city.

This time, he truly entered this deep pool with his medical reputation and half a box of irrefutable evidence.