He's not a doctor? How is he not a doctor again?
If he's not a doctor how can he be called a divine doctor?
Just because it's troublesome he won't treat the illnesses—is that it? So he could actually treat my father's illness, but he just refuses to, right?
"Shut your mouth."
The man turned around and stuffed an apricot into Miss Jun's mouth.
"It's pouted enough to trap a deer."
Why not a donkey? She was somewhat puzzled.
"Because deer are prettier than donkeys," the man said as he tied up the bundle and hung it on her shoulder. "Let's go, let's go."
She was pushed out of the house where the pox lady was worshiped, watching the men and women in the yard crying.
The boy in the house who had smallpox had already stopped breathing; with this child, this family had already lost three children to it.
She looked at the women who had fainted from crying, her heart aching a bit.
"Let's go." The man behind her pushed her forward without any hesitation.
Outside the door, onlookers from the neighborhood stood with expressions of sorrow and fear.
"So sorrowful, so sorrowful," the man lamented to the neighbors.
The neighbors nodded their heads in agreement without blaming the doctor for not curing the disease, knowing that smallpox was incurable.
"It's really tragic, this is the third one already."
"There's still one younger kid left, who knows if he can escape this calamity."
"He definitely can't escape; they said he started running a fever yesterday. He'll probably go down tomorrow."
The neighbors continued to whisper.
This family's smallpox was raging fiercely, forcing children from the vicinity to keep their distance. Yet, aside from this family's children, several others had also been infected and subsequently died.
The feudal authority had quarantined this area, forbidding the family from wandering freely. Any chance to send the children away had vanished.
She turned to look at the family who had collapsed in the yard, a two- or three-year-old child was held in an old woman's arms, listlessly sucking his finger, oblivious to the sadness and fear.
This child had also begun to run a fever, just like his brother and sister.
Soon, he would likely collapse like his siblings, unconscious, with sores blooming on his face and spreading across his body, resembling fiery blisters oozing white fluid, typically leading to death in three to seven days.
"He won't fall ill,"
The man walking ahead suddenly said.
She was somewhat surprised and somewhat disdainful; he spoke with such certainty, just as he had when he first saw this family's smallpox, but still, those children had fallen ill and died.
"The key to this smallpox isn't treatment, it's prevention,"
the man continued as he walked.
"Do you remember what I did after coming to this house?"
She looked at the man's back ahead. What did he do?
After arriving at this house, he practically did nothing but watch the other children and ate and drank.
"What do you mean did nothing?" the man clicked his tongue and glanced back at her with a glare. "That was me working."
Working on what?
The man's expression suddenly turned grave.
"I was working on something to prevent them from catching smallpox."
But…
"Did you see me blow medicine into those children's nostrils?"
She did see that. He used a thin bamboo tube, not applying the medicine to all children at once, but one by one.
After one child was treated, if he still succumbed to the illness, he would then treat the next child.
Is this what he meant by prevention? But it still didn't prevent anything in the end.
"That wasn't medicine."
The man turned to look at her, his face unclear in the shifting sunlight.
"That was the pox virus."
The crackle of the lamp was suddenly loud, Miss Jun placed her pen on the inkstone, making a slight clinking sound.
The quiet room gained a touch of liveliness.
Miss Jun stood up, unable to resist pacing back and forth several steps like Seventh Chen had done.
"Pox sore, once it breaks out, is difficult to treat, four out of ten die, and most are not cured through medicine but by fate."
"To avoid the harm of pox sore, one must fight poison with poison, and that poison is the pox sore liquid."
"Saint Sun once used pox sore liquid to combat pox, so this time I used the powdered scabs of pox sores."
Blowing the pox poison into the mouths of people who hadn't contracted the disease...
No wonder those children fell ill one after another.
Is this really treating disease? This is killing.
"It's not really killing. These children all come from the same family, have been in close contact for a long time, and were most likely already infected."
"The acceptance of pox poison to fight poison is erratic and unpredictable."
"Such a method, if disclosed, would absolutely be seen as an evil act by the public and couldn't possibly be explained."
"That's why I say this disease is not easy to treat, it's too much trouble."
Although it had been many years, recalling that man's words now, Miss Jun's mind went blank with shock just as it had then.
The man laughed again and stuffed an apricot into her wide open mouth.
"However, this family is very lucky, the last child, after receiving the pox poison from the third sick child, had only a fever yesterday, and although pox broke out today, it wasn't as severe as with the previous children. It seems he might survive this ordeal and will not suffer from pox sore again in his lifetime."
"This is why I can treat but also cannot treat, who can accept such a method of killing before saving?"
"This kind of inaction is a natural death for the patient, while intervening makes the physician a murderer—truly, it's far too troublesome."
She understood his point, like he mentioned her father's illness.
If her father's illness were untreated, it was congenital, just fate, but if medicine were used and he died, it would be the physician's medicine killing him.
Yet, her father's illness could be put aside, but what about pox? After all, so many children die from it, if the preventative pox poison could really be found, despite its difficulties, it would be worth some deaths for a physician.
In the sunlight, the man chuckled, flicking his sleeves.
"For a doctor, it is worth it, but I am not a doctor. I didn't come to save people or do such greatly beneficial yet troublesome deeds."
Then what was he here for, carrying the title of divine doctor?
"I'm just here to redeem myself."
He smiled faintly and walked forward.
Redeem himself?
Chewing the apricot, she stood there watching his shadow stretch in the sunlight.
The shadow then stopped and turned back.
"However, perhaps you will need it when you encounter bigger troubles. Then, the trouble brought by this great merit won't seem like much trouble at all."
"Therefore, I can suggest another method to you, this method is even more unbelievable. I'll tell you the method, but you'll have to do it yourself—I won't be involved."
She didn't need it; she wasn't a doctor.
She spit out the apricot pit and caught up with the man.
But life is so unpredictable, she never imagined she'd end up doing things a doctor would do, not to save the world but to redeem herself.
Redeeming herself.
Her master said he was redeeming himself, so only helped those within his power without seeking fame or fortune, without needing great merit.
But now, she was redeeming herself and needed to seek fame, only with great merit could she have the power to save those she wanted to help.
Miss Jun stood silently in the room for a moment, then suddenly opened the door.
Despite the deep, quiet night, the courtyard was not empty; Seventh Chen, Fang Jinxiu, Liu'er, and two servants were all standing under the corridor. Miss Jun's sudden opening of the door startled them.
Miss Jun was also startled.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" she asked.
Who could sleep, Seventh Chen thought to himself.
"Checking if there's anything I can help with," he chuckled.
Miss Jun smiled.
"Yes," she said, thinking, "I'd like to eat some apricots."