A life of two souls traveling through time

Chapter 359: People Do Not Fight Officials

With Xiaolu's help, Lao Zhou had much less time to clean up the corpses than when he was alone before. So he simply burned all the remaining corpses in the town today, and then sprinkled the medicine soup everywhere. He was busy until the sunset. The smoky town was finally cleaned up, but it was still weird as if no one was there.

Lao Zhou and Xiao Lu returned to the Taoist temple tiredly and were surprised to see Mu Liang wake up. Although Lao Zhou, who had always been heartless, still put on a playful smile in front of others, he couldn't help but tear up when he turned around and went to the kitchen.

It was only ten days, but watching Mu Liang dying and unable to do anything was extremely painful for him. Fortunately, he met Miss Si Yao, who was skilled in medicine, and everything was fine. He felt relieved, like a taut string that relaxed for a moment.

Half a month ago, the plague broke out in Lianzhou from Guicheng. Mu Liang and Lao Zhou chose to take a detour to the west to avoid the disaster. However, they never expected that the plague would spread so quickly that they could not escape the disaster even after crossing mountains and ridges to this remote town. When Mu Liang's condition worsened, the mayor of this town fled with a doctor. Lao Zhou was furious and wanted to run out of Lianzhou to find a doctor outside, but was severely stopped by Mu Liang.

It was not difficult for Lao Zhou to get out with his skills, but the plague was a serious matter. It was a small matter to force his way through and cause the anger of the government. If the plague was spread, it would be a great crime that could not be tolerated by heaven. After Mu Liang analyzed the key points, Lao Zhou gradually regained his composure. After thinking for a while, he could not help but break into a cold sweat for his recklessness. Yes, if he caused the people outside Lianzhou to suffer because of this, he would become an unforgivable sinner for all eternity.

The afterglow of the setting sun was shining like gold. On a high peak ten miles away from the town, a young man stood under a pine tree at the edge of the cliff, looking out at the town at the foot of the mountain where the smoke was gradually clearing. Soon he turned around in a hurry and ran down the mountain.

There was a large cave on the mountainside. At this time, more than ten men and women, young and old, gathered in the cave. Seeing the young man coming back, they all came forward with expectant eyes. In the middle of the crowd, a fifty-year-old man with kind eyes, a broad mind and a fat body asked eagerly:

"What's going on in town today?"

"Sir, the smoke in the town today has been rising for several hours longer than before, and it has only stopped now. I guess there are more people coming to the town, so more bodies are burned today." The young man bowed respectfully to the old man and replied.

It turned out that the fifty-year-old man was the village chief Bai Ruojin, who abandoned the villagers and fled with his family and doctor. He was also known as Master Bai.

Mr. Bai was originally a local squire. He failed the imperial examination and returned to his hometown in his early years. Because he was well-educated and his father was an elder in the town, and Bai Ruojin always appeared to be kind and friendly in front of others, he gained some prestige over time and later became the village chief.

Mr. Bai was kind-hearted and generous, and was respected by the local villagers. However, no one expected that in the moment of crisis, he would flee without caring about the lives of the villagers.

Lianzhou was full of plague, and the Bai family knew there was nowhere to escape, so they hid in a mountain only ten miles away from the town, and had people on the top of the mountain to check on the town every day. They wanted to wait until all the infected patients in the town died, so they could ask the doctor to send some people back to clean up the corpses, and then slowly go to the town, but smoke still floated over the town for several days. They didn't bring much food with them when they fled in a hurry, not to mention that they had to feed more than ten mouths a day, and now food was beginning to be scarce, so the Bai family was naturally very anxious.

"Someone coming at this time, could it be a doctor?" Before Mr. Bai could speak, an older white-bearded old man beside him started muttering first.

"If all else fails, send someone down the mountain to check it out?" An old woman next to the white-bearded old man said anxiously. She couldn't eat or sleep well in this cave, and she wanted to return to the town as soon as possible. It would be a good thing if a doctor really came.

As soon as the old woman finished speaking, everyone in the cave began to talk in low voices.

"Don't worry, cousin and his wife." Mr. Bai said with a smile, then turned to the crowd on the other side and asked, "Where is Madam Lu?"

"Master, Doctor Lu has gone to the mountains to collect herbs again." Someone in the crowd replied.

"Go and call him back quickly!"

"Master, I just saw two officers riding horses passing by. They seemed to be heading towards the town." Just as Master Bai finished giving his orders, another young servant came running back and hurriedly reported.

"Officials? Why are they here?"

When everyone heard this, their expressions changed and they started clamoring again. Mr. Bai, the village chief, turned pale with fright.

The epidemic was so severe that he thought the higher-ups had no time to care about this remote town, but he didn't expect the officials to come today. If the higher-ups knew that he, the village chief, had abandoned the villagers in a critical moment, he would be held responsible. Thinking of this, Mr. Bai hurriedly called everyone down the mountain and rushed back to the town.

“Da…Da…Da”

Suddenly, bursts of horse hoof sounds were heard outside the quiet town. Lao Zhou and Xiao Lu, who were boiling medicinal soup in the courtyard of the Taoist temple, were the first to hear the sound because they were martial artists.

"I'll go take a look." Old Zhou said to the path and walked straight out of the Taoist temple.

When the two officials who came to deliver the prescription entered the deserted and eerie town, they could not help but look at each other in surprise:

"anyone there?"

"Stop shouting, there's no one here, and most of them are dead."

As soon as an officer finished shouting, Lao Zhou came out of the alley with his arms folded across his chest. All three of them were wearing cloth towels for full body protection.

"Are you the only one left here? Is the village chief still here?" The two officers didn't seem too surprised when they heard this, but continued to ask. They had been to many places in the past two days, and had encountered villages or even towns where no one was left alive.

"What are the two gentlemen here for?" Old Zhou did not answer the other party's question, but asked after a sneer.

"Mr. Zisang has controlled the plague in Guicheng. This is the life-saving prescription written by Mr. Zisang. We are here to distribute the prescription. If there are others, please hurry up and prepare it. If you are short of medicinal materials, we have them too." After all, human lives were at stake. The two officers did not care about Lao Zhou's sneer and handed the prescription to him directly. After that, they pointed to the two bulging bags on the horse's back.

"I would like to ask the two officials, you just said that it was Mr. Zisang who controlled the plague in Guicheng?" Old Zhou had just taken the prescription when he heard Si Yao, who came hurriedly behind him, ask.

Hearing what Xiaolu said about someone coming to the town, Si Yao was afraid that the person might be infected, so she hurried out with Xiaolu. When she heard that the plague had been under control by Mr. Zisang, she was very happy.

"It is true that Mr. Zisang rushed back to Lianzhou and controlled the plague." The two soldiers nodded and asked Si Yao, "Miss, do you know where the village head is?"

"The village chief ran away a long time ago!" Old Zhou said angrily after handing the prescription back to Si Yao.

"Don't talk nonsense. As the village chief, how can I, Bai, be so afraid of death and abandon my fellow villagers?" Just as Lao Zhou finished speaking, more than ten people came hurriedly from outside the town. Leading the group was none other than the town chief, Mr. Bai, and following him was Doctor Lu who had returned.

Such extremely hypocritical words naturally made Lao Zhou sneer, but he did not say much. He just watched coldly and waited to see how Mr. Bai would defend himself.

"The town is located in a remote area but it is also ravaged by the plague. As the village head, I am naturally extremely anxious and restless. At the critical moment, I heard Doctor Lu say that he had found a prescription that could save people, but he was still short of one herb and had to go up the mountain to dig it up. Only then did I lead the family members of my clan to go up the mountain to find life-saving medicine for the villagers." After Master Bai finished his long speech, he spread his hands and looked around at the empty streets. Tears welled up in his eyes and he continued to sob loudly, "Who would have thought that I brought the medicine back with great difficulty, but the villagers still didn't make it... I... I feel guilty towards them... I am so heartbroken..."

At this time, the clansmen and family members behind Mr. Bai also cooperated with him, lowered their heads and cried sadly.

The two officers were deeply moved by Mr. Bai's tearful performance. They couldn't help but say a few words to comfort him. However, as they were in a hurry, they just repeated the prescription again and jumped on their horses and left in a hurry.

Seeing that the two officers were fooled so easily, Mr. Bai and the others all breathed a sigh of relief.

Old Zhou on the side was extremely furious. He never thought that there would be such shameless and hypocritical people in this world. What he did not expect was that the two officers actually believed such a ridiculous reason. He was so angry that he was about to step forward to question Mr. Bai but was stopped by Xiaolu.

Si Yao stood silently by, knowing in her heart why Xiaolu wanted to stop Senior Zhou. It was pointless to say more since the officers had already left. Besides, it was still unknown whether these two officers were really fooled and were fooled by Mr. Bai's difficult words, or they just thought it was better to have less trouble and pretended to be confused.

Moreover, in this small town, Mr. Bai is still the head of the village, and they are just ordinary people from other places. As the saying goes, the people should not fight with the officials. Moreover, even if they want to denounce the innocent villagers who died in this town, they should not come forward, after all, there are still more than a dozen local villagers in the Taoist temple.