The wind and snow were fierce at night.

Wild wind swept the heavy snow, and in the vast heaven and earth, the ruined temple was almost obscured from view, leaving only a faint shadow.

Lu Tong hurried to the pest house. Just reaching the entrance, she heard Cuicui’s heart-rending cries.

“Dad, Dad—”

The patients who had gathered laughing in the pest house during the day now all fell silent, their faces showing silent despair under the dim lamplight.

Lu Tong lifted the curtain and entered, immediately hit by a thick, bloody smell.

Ding Yong lay on the bed, his face turned an eerie blue-green color. On his arms hanging over the bedside, large purple cloud spots were shocking to behold, and he was vomiting blood.

Medical officials on both sides were helping to hold him down as gushing fresh blood stained the bedding beneath him red.

Cuicui knelt beside the bed, crying until her voice was hoarse. Seeing Lu Tong enter, she immediately threw herself before her.

“Medical Official Lu,” she cried loudly, “what’s wrong with my dad? He was clearly getting better—his red spots had already faded. Why is this happening suddenly?”

Lu Tong looked at Ding Yong on the bed. Before she could speak, the next moment, Cuicui suddenly crawled forward on her knees and lowered her head, kowtowing to her with a “bang.”

“Cuicui—” Lin Danqing came over to pull her away.

But Cuicui refused, stubbornly clutching Lu Tong’s dress hem like grasping the last straw.

“Medical Official Lu, please save him. I—I can sell myself to you. I can do anything. Please save my dad. I can do anything—”

She wailed, her forehead hitting the damp, cold ground of the pest house heavily, blood immediately blooming.

Lu Tong was suddenly shaken and couldn’t help stepping back.

In an instant, she seemed to return to many years ago.

It was also such heavy snow, winter’s harsh cold. In her desperation, she met Yunniang, knelt and kowtowed to her, willing to trade herself for a chance at life for her family.

Life is unpredictable, changing like clouds and rain. At this moment, fate displayed its terrifying and eerie power. The helpless, reckless young girl she had been in Changwu County suddenly overlapped with the helpless, pitiful little girl before her in Sunan’s plague, while she had become Yunniang, the “bodhisattva” others relied upon.

Yunniang’s face seemed to float before her eyes.

The woman smiled at her, gently touching her face.

“Give up, Little Seventeen. You can’t save anyone.”

Cuicui’s voice grew more tragic, but Ding Yong on the bed seemed awakened by the crying. He struggled to sit up, looked at Cuicui with longing, then shouted breathlessly: “Take her away—”

“Dad—” Cuicui cried as she rushed forward.

“Don’t let her see,” he turned his face away with effort, not letting his daughter see the blood continuously gushing from his mouth. “Don’t let her see… don’t let her see…”

The man’s eyes bulged from pain, veins visible on his forehead. He tried his best to suppress his moans, but the increasing blood gushing from his mouth made this restraint even more tragic and terrifying.

Cuicui was led away by the medical officials. Seeing his daughter leave, Ding Yong breathed a sigh of relief, and his hand gripping the bedding relaxed.

“Ding Yong, Ding Yong!” Chang Jin tried to treat him with acupuncture, but it was already futile.

Lu Tong knelt beside Ding Yong’s bed, helping to clean the blood constantly flowing from his mouth and nose. The blood was like a dark red spring, gushing unstoppably.

A hand suddenly gripped Lu Tong’s wrist.

Lu Tong looked up. Ding Yong looked at her pleadingly.

“Medical Official Lu,” he spoke intermittently, “I only have one daughter, Cuicui… They say your medical skills are the best, that you’re the best medical official from Shengjing. Cuicui likes you most. Please cure her… let her live, let her survive…”

In her daze, Lu Tong’s eyes gradually warmed. She gripped Ding Yong’s hand in return: “She will live.”

“Good…”

Having received this promise, Ding Yong smiled with relief. Perhaps pain clouded his mind—he gradually became confused, pulling Lu Tong’s hand and saying: “Child, Dad is leaving… Don’t, don’t always think about Dad. Dad once told you, people must look forward, don’t always think about unhappy things. In the future, you must study well, live well. When you marry, Dad will be watching from heaven. You must live to a hundred years old… In the next life, Dad will still weave grasshoppers for you…”

Lu Tong stared at him blankly.

“Dad’s good daughter…”

He murmured: “You must… live well…”

That thin hand covered with purple cloud spots suddenly dropped. She tried to catch it but grasped only air.

“Dad—”

A heart-rending cry came from behind.

That moment seemed to stretch very long.

The little girl who had broken free from the medical official’s hands rushed to the bedside, wailing over and over: “Dad, Dad, get up and look at me. Dad, Dad, look at me…”

“Don’t leave, don’t leave me alone…”

The tragic crying echoed throughout the pest house, soon drowned by the wind and snow outside.

Lu Tong tried to pull her up, but Cuicui suddenly turned around and glared at her viciously.

“Didn’t you say doctors are for saving people?”

“Didn’t you say we wouldn’t die?”

Cuicui grabbed her dress, questioning unwillingly: “Didn’t you say that lamp wicks blooming meant great fortune, that Dad and I would be fine?”

“Why did my dad die?” she cried. “Why did he die?”

The girl suddenly pushed, and Lu Tong staggered backward, caught by someone behind her.

Lu Tong turned around. Pei Yunying released his supporting hand and looked down at her with furrowed brows. He must have just arrived—he wasn’t wearing his waist sword.

Cuicui released her grip on Lu Tong’s dress hem, collapsed to the ground, and broke into sobs.

Lu Tong’s heart ached. Unable to stay here any longer, she suddenly turned away and strode out of the pest house.

“Lu Meimei—” Lin Danqing called out.

Pei Yunying turned and followed.

Lu Tong walked very fast.

Outside, wind raged and snow fell heavily. Beyond Sunan’s ruined temple lay pitch darkness. As she walked, she gradually began to run, as if not daring to look back at that small, grief-filled ruined temple behind her, afraid to turn around again.

There is much suffering in this world—she had realized this long ago.

She had always been a monster without compassion, coming only for revenge. Running a medical clinic, being a doctor—these were merely means of revenge. She didn’t care about benefiting the world or healing the wounded and saving the dying. Except for revenge, she didn’t care about anything else in this world.

But at this moment, just at that moment, how she wished she could save him.

How she wished she could save them all.

Just as Yunniang had saved her parents years ago.

The little girl’s happy voice still echoed in her ears.

“Grasshopper! For you, Medical Official Lu. These past days, Dad and I have felt much better. Dad says it won’t be long before we can leave the pest house. When spring comes next year, he’ll accompany me to the little river to catch crabs.”

The voice gradually faded, then changed to the man’s final attachment.

“Child, Dad is leaving… Don’t, don’t always think about Dad. Dad once told you, people must look forward, don’t always think about unhappy things. In the future, you must study well, live well. If you marry, Dad will be watching from heaven. You must live to a hundred years old… In the next life, Dad will still weave grasshoppers for you…”

“Dad’s good daughter…”

“You must… live well…”

The cacophonous sounds followed her, echoing constantly in her mind. She ran forward aimlessly, not knowing where she was going, until someone behind her grabbed her, forcing her to stop.

“Lu Tong.” That person called her name.

Lu Tong was in a daze.

“Lu Tong.” He called again, his voice heavier than before, as if trying to wake her completely from her stupor.

Lu Tong looked up blankly.

Pei Yunying stood before her, staring intently, his voice cold and heavy: “Where are you going?”

Like being doused with cold water, Lu Tong suddenly snapped back to reality.

This was Sunan, not Changwu County.

Ding Yong was dead. She hadn’t been able to save him.

Suddenly losing all strength, Lu Tong swayed and was caught by Pei Yunying.

Pei Yunying looked at her.

Her face was deathly pale, her lips without a trace of color, her eyes empty. She looked more dangerous than Cuicui had moments before, tottering as if she might dissolve at any moment.

The youth lowered his eyes for a moment, then suddenly embraced her.

Sunan’s flying snow danced, night winds wailed, and in the dark snow and proud wind, the embrace was full of warmth.

Lu Tong curled up in his arms. His hand gently patted her back, over and over, as if comforting, instantly bringing tears to Lu Tong’s eyes.

Ding Yong’s dark face suddenly changed, becoming her father’s face, then hazily becoming her mother’s voice, her siblings’ instructions…

She had always wondered, if her family could see her one more time, what would they say to her, what would they instruct and entreat? She had guessed countless possibilities—perhaps they would want her to seek revenge, perhaps they would want her to endure and compromise. Now, in tonight’s final parting, she dimly glimpsed a hint.

The last words a father struggling before death would want to say to his daughter were simply: live well.

If her parents and siblings could see her one last time, that’s what they would say.

Live well.

People must look forward.

She closed her eyes, and tears fell unexpectedly.

…

Sunan’s snow didn’t stop all night. The horizon gradually showed pale dawn.

At dawn, Ding Yong’s body was taken to the execution ground.

Ding Yong had died several days after using the new medicine. The peach blossom spots on his body had already faded by more than half, yet they suddenly deepened in this unexpected night.

Bodies of plague victims couldn’t remain long in the pest house. Cuicui insisted on following to the execution ground despite the medical officials’ dissuasion, personally watching Ding Yong being buried and placing a small grass grasshopper on the grave mound.

The execution ground’s black earth mixed with white snow, grave mounds large and small jumbled together. Those with families might still have tombstones erected, but most were simply buried wherever, becoming one with this damp earth.

Lu Tong stood in the ice and snow, looking at the distant misty peaks, suddenly feeling somewhat dazed.

As if returning to many years ago, when she came down from Falling Plum Peak to search for fresh corpses for Yunniang in the execution ground.

From initial discomfort to gradual numbness, she thought she had long grown accustomed to this land. She hadn’t expected that standing here again, she would still be moved by the world’s sorrowful partings.

The world is cruel.

She stood in the execution ground for a long time.

Until Cuicui was led back to the pest house by the medical officials, until all other medical officials had returned, with frost and snow falling from the sky in endless sheets, she stood alone as if she would stand there until the end of time.

An umbrella was held over her head.

The falling snow was blocked outside the umbrella’s edge. She turned around—Pei Yunying stood before her.

He said nothing, only quietly watching her, as if understanding her bewilderment at this moment, tilting the umbrella more over her head.

The umbrella wasn’t large enough for both of them completely. The snow that had escaped her found its way to him instead, covering his shoulders and entire body.

“Why haven’t you left yet?” Lu Tong heard her own voice.

Last night, her loss of composure after Ding Yong’s sudden death had been witnessed entirely by him. She hadn’t slept all night, so he had accompanied her all night.

Pei Yunying glanced at her: “Are you alright?”

“What could be wrong with me?”

“Don’t be stubborn, Lu Tong.” His expression grew somber, as if seeing right through her. “You’re clearly very sad.”

He was as perceptive as ever.

Lu Tong turned and walked forward: “Commander shouldn’t linger here long. This place is full of plague victims’ corpses. Though most have been burned and buried, staying too long could still harm your health. Leave early.”

The person behind her grabbed her wrist.

Lu Tong stopped.

Pei Yunying looked at her with slightly furrowed brows. After a long while, without saying anything, he put the umbrella in her hands and said: “Take it.”

Lu Tong nodded to him, took the umbrella, and gradually walked away.

Only after the woman’s figure could no longer be seen in the wind and snow did Pei Yunying speak: “Qing Feng.”

Qing Feng, who had been waiting in the distance, came forward.

“Watch Lu Tong. Something’s wrong with her.”

Qing Feng was somewhat puzzled.

Lu Tong had always been calm and indifferent. Earlier, when burying Ding Yong’s body at the execution ground, even when Ding Yong’s daughter was crying inconsolably, she hadn’t shown the slightest comfort. He really didn’t know what was wrong.

In the snow, Pei Yunying remained silent.

Lu Tong was not right.

Last night her expression had been dazed and empty, like a cloud about to drift away with nowhere to go. If he hadn’t pulled her back in time, who knows what might have happened.

The last time he’d seen her like this was during the Nuo ceremony, after Qi Yutai’s death.

It was truly worrying.

…

Ding Yong’s death plunged the pest house, which had just shown signs of life, into sudden deathly silence.

“Despair” is the “disappointment” that follows “hope.”

It’s more frightening.

However, death shows no mercy for tragedy. Three days after Ding Yong’s passing, Cuicui began falling ill.

Perhaps because a child’s body isn’t as strong as an adult’s, or perhaps because Ding Yong’s death had struck Cuicui too hard, Cuicui’s condition erupted even more violently than her father’s.

On the little girl’s tender arms, large peach blossom spots bloomed mottled, already showing purple.

Purple cloud spots.

Cuicui’s condition had worsened.

In the pest house, medical officials had drawn cloth curtains and were forcing medicinal soup down Cuicui’s throat.

The girl’s face showed pain, her entire body soaked with sweat, constantly crying that her bones hurt.

Lin Danqing held down the struggling child while forcing life-sustaining medicine down her throat. Ji Xun and Lu Tong were applying acupuncture to Cuicui.

Golden needles pierced Cuicui’s body one by one, yet the child’s breathing continued to weaken gradually.

“It’s not working. Her body is getting colder and her pulse weaker.” Lin Danqing was covered in sweat. “Lu Tong, Ji Xun, add more needles.”

More golden needles pierced Cuicui’s body.

She began trembling rapidly, calling for her parents.

Lu Tong half-embraced her, whispering in her ear: “Hold on.”

“You must survive,” she said. “Your parents most hope you can survive.”

Having spoken these words, Lu Tong herself was startled.

Quickly, she recovered and continued speaking in Cuicui’s ear.

“Your living is your parents’ hope.”

Cuicui seemed to understand and gradually stopped trembling.

“There’s improvement,” Lin Danqing rejoiced. “Don’t stop, continue—”

Behind the pest house’s cloth curtain, the lamp burned all night until dawn gradually brightened and Cuicui’s pulse finally stabilized.

Lin Danqing wiped sweat from her forehead and removed her soaked outer garment. “That scared me to death.”

She yawned and sat on the pest house floor, propping her chin: “Let me rest a moment.” But within a few breaths, when checked again, she was already fast asleep.

She was truly exhausted.

The patients all refrained from making noise to disturb her. Lu Tong covered her with a blanket and walked outside the pest house.

It was already morning. Today there was actually a rare hint of sunlight. That faint celestial light seemed unable to be completely hidden by thick cloud layers, revealing a gap of golden red, as if one could glimpse the shadow of sunrise.

Ji Xun walked over from behind.

After working all day, weariness showed between his brows. Rubbing his forehead, he said: “Cuicui’s condition isn’t good. Purple cloud spots have appeared over most of her body.”

Even if saved now, she didn’t have much time left.

“I know,” Lu Tong said. “But the new prescription has been proven unusable.”

“I have an idea.” Ji Xun looked at her. “If we use the new prescription for her, we could delay several more days. If we don’t use the new prescription, she might die any day now.”

Lu Tong looked at him: “The new prescription isn’t suitable. Ding Yong died from poisoning after using the new prescription. Medical Official Ji, you understand this better than I do.”

Ji Xun shook his head. “It’s not that the new prescription is poisonous—it’s that the Magnolia bark in the new prescription is poisonous. If we could find an antidote to Magnolia bark, there might still be hope.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Use the new prescription. Magnolia bark’s poison is heat toxicity. I want to try Red Wood Vine,” he said.

Lu Tong was surprised: “There’s no Red Wood Vine in Sunan, and probably none in Pingzhou either.”

“The Medical Director has already sent word to Pingzhou. Perhaps we can buy several days. Medical Official Lu, we don’t have much time to wait.”

Ji Xun had always been cautious and careful. Back at the medical academy, when she used Red Fragrant Floss in Jin Xianrong’s medicine, he had severely reprimanded her. Now this method was already very bold, yet she seemed to have become the cautious one. Their positions had reversed—how absurd.

“It’s somewhat risky.”

“For patients, every chance at life must be fought for.”

What he said wasn’t wrong.

“Unfortunately, Pingzhou is still some distance from Sunan,” Ji Xun sighed. “I don’t know if Cuicui can hold on until then.”

This melancholy sigh echoed in her ears even after Lu Tong returned to the lodging courtyard.

Just neutralizing Magnolia bark’s poison…

Lu Tong sat at the table. Just as she sat down, a dried grass grasshopper caught her eye.

Lu Tong was stunned.

As if seeing again Ding Yong’s honest smiling face and Cuicui’s joy when giving her the grass grasshopper.

She stared for a long time before lowering her head to take up paper and brush.

Ding Yong’s new prescription was rewritten on paper. Lu Tong’s gaze fell on the three characters “Red Wood Vine” among the various medicinal materials.

Honestly speaking, this prescription was indeed very bold. Magnolia bark’s poison was difficult to neutralize, and excessive antidote would immediately dissolve the toxicity. This meant balancing the opposing medicinal properties was even more difficult. Using other poisonous medicines would only increase toxicity.

Ding Yong ultimately couldn’t neutralize this poison.

The medicinal materials brought from Shengjing and the herbs Pei Yunying had sent from near Qishui had all been examined one by one. Those that could be used had been used, yet the medicinal effects remained poor.

Sunan had no other herbs.

Red Wood Vine…

Even from the nearest Pingzhou, it would take five or six days to transport.

Lu Tong’s brows knitted tightly as she looked up toward the window.

Outside the window, in the vast wind and snow, the faint red of Falling Plum Peak was dimly visible.

Falling Plum Peak did have many herbs. She had often gathered them there before, but unfortunately they were all highly toxic and couldn’t neutralize Magnolia bark’s poison.

However, Red Wood Vine…

Lu Tong’s heart stirred.

Wait, she seemed to have overlooked a place.

…

The next day, the medical officials’ lodgings were quiet. At dawn, before full daylight, Lu Tong rose early.

In the adjacent room, Lin Danqing hadn’t awakened yet. Lu Tong shouldered her medical box and pushed open the door to leave.

The hour was still early. The medical officials who had been on duty at the pest house last night hadn’t returned to change shifts yet. The courtyard was cold and desolate. Lu Tong carried a lamp and had just reached the courtyard when she heard a “creak”—another room door in the courtyard opened.

Lu Tong turned back in surprise.

At this time, the medical officials should still be resting. Even if rising early, they wouldn’t rise this early.

She wanted to see who it was, but the person who emerged was truly unexpected.

“Pei Yunying?”

In the light morning snow with scattered fragments like broken jade, he was properly dressed and composed, as if specifically waiting for her here.

“Why are you sleeping here?”

The guards’ lodgings weren’t here—Pei Yunying had emerged from the medical officials’ quarters.

“Last night I suddenly felt unwell. Fearing I might fall ill, I specifically asked Medical Director Chang to exchange for a room.”

Lu Tong’s heart sank.

His answer was so natural, yet the reason was so absurd—he had clearly made up an excuse. But why would he sleep here? He couldn’t possibly have guessed what she planned to do and waited here in advance.

Did he have mind-reading abilities?

“What about you?” The young man glanced at her with a half-smile. “Up so early—where are you going?”

“The pest house,” Lu Tong answered quickly. “To change the duty medical official.”

“Oh,” Pei Yunying nodded, looking her over. “Going to the pest house with medical box, cloak, bamboo basket, iron spade…”

He chuckled: “Why don’t you just hire a horse cart?”

Lu Tong: “…”

“Doctor Lu, you wouldn’t be thinking of going up the mountain, would you?” Pei Yunying’s gaze fell on the iron spade she carried.

Lu Tong remained silent.

Yesterday she had asked Chang Jin if she could take people up Falling Plum Peak.

Before Chang Jin could respond, Li Wenhu on the side vehemently objected.

“Falling Plum Peak is very large,” Li Wenhu said. “The mountain paths are steep. Even without snow, few people want to run up that barren mountain. Only those whose families have died and dump corpses in the mass graves—there’s a large area of mass graves on the mountain. They say it’s because so many died there that the plum blossoms bloom so brilliantly. Terrifying.”

“With heavy snow sealing the mountain now, you definitely can’t go. Once you enter that mountain, people can’t get out at all.” Li Wenhu looked at her suspiciously. “Medical Official Lu, you wouldn’t want to take medical officials up the mountain, would you? I advise you to give up this idea! There are already few medical officials. If they’re lost on the mountain, they can’t even be retrieved—that’s suicide.”

The voice beside her broke her train of thought.

“The mountain is snowy, the paths treacherous, a hundred times more dangerous than usual. Don’t you value your life?”

Lu Tong looked at him.

He stood before her, his lips smiling but his tone serious, earnestly warning her.

Lu Tong said: “I have reasons I must go.”

He frowned slightly.

Silent snow danced between them.

He stared at Lu Tong for a long time. After a while, Pei Yunying nodded: “Then let’s go.”

Lu Tong was startled: “What?”

The youth took the heavy iron spade from Lu Tong’s hands and said lightly: “I’ll go with you.”