The troubles Wang Qingchun was encountering didn’t even cross Qi Yue’s mind. In fact, she couldn’t possibly concern herself with them.

What concerned her was the trouble she was currently facing—convincing the pig farm owners to let her examine their pigs.

“What pig farmer doesn’t lose a few pigs? In Yongqing Prefecture, we’re not the only family raising pigs. Why are you claiming our pigs will harm people?” the young woman shouted loudly, her face full of indignation. However, the fear in her eyes didn’t escape Qi Yue’s notice.

Rather than disbelieving her pigs could harm people, it was more that she dared not believe the so-called epidemic was caused by her own pigs.

“Exactly. You woman, how can you speak so irresponsibly without evidence, saying people’s pigs are the source of some epidemic? There are no sick people in our village,” an elderly villager also stepped forward to seek justice, speaking sternly.

“No, no—not showing symptoms doesn’t mean not being infected. And I’m not speaking irresponsibly. Actually, I came here precisely to find evidence,” Qi Yue looked at him and nodded.

Everyone present was stunned.

“I’m only suspicious now, so I need to conduct experiments to verify whether these pigs carry anthrax bacteria,” she continued. “So please cooperate with me and let me find evidence—either proving I’m right to ensure everyone’s safety, or proving I’m wrong to clear your name.”

This reasoning was sound, and everyone hesitated upon hearing it.

“Let’s listen to her. If it’s really true, that would affect our entire village…” someone said quietly.

Hearing this, the village chief stepped forward and tapped his cane.

“Fine, Flower Granny’s family, do as she says,” he said. “I want to see how this can be proven.”

With the village chief’s word, this family had no choice even if they were unwilling.

“If our pigs are fine, you must compensate us!” the woman said with some grievance. “If word of this gets out, our business will be affected.”

Qi Yue nodded.

“Naturally,” she smiled.

Seeing the woman so agreeable, the woman sighed with relief, calculating in her mind how much to ask for.

“However, if your pigs are sick, you must listen to me,” Qi Yue said, turning back before leaving.

The woman paused.

What would that entail?

The pigs here weren’t like modern pig farms but were free-range across the mountains. Qi Yue led her disciples running all over the hills.

“It’s no good, Master. These pigs are all fine,” the disciples said. Wearing protective suits in the hot summer, they were practically steamed through, each supporting their waists and gasping for breath.

Qi Yue was in even worse condition, too exhausted to speak.

“Our pigs are fine, right? They can eat and run around energetically,” the woman laughed.

The villagers who had watched the excitement all day couldn’t help laughing too.

These people were really interesting, chasing pigs around in such hot weather dressed like that.

“Pigs have the strongest resistance to anthrax. It’s basically chronic, with almost no symptoms while alive. It’s mostly discovered during sanitary inspection at slaughter,” Qi Yue said. “This isn’t surprising, nor does it mean we’re wrong.”

“Should we do dissection then?” a disciple asked.

“No, no, absolutely not,” Qi Yue shook her head. “If it’s anthrax, dissection is extremely dangerous.”

The disciples nodded.

“You must have had dead pigs during this period, right?” Qi Yue asked.

The woman’s expression became slightly displeased.

“Pig deaths are normal,” she said.

“Did you sell all the dead pigs?” Qi Yue ignored her tone and asked again.

The woman became even more displeased at the questioning.

“Those… those weren’t sick… only two or three were sick, and I buried them all…” she said loudly.

She thought if this woman kept insisting sick pigs killed people, she’d have it out with her! Drive them away immediately!

“That’s excellent,” Qi Yue said, stepping forward. “Take me to see them.”

Excellent? What was excellent? The woman was stunned again. How did this woman speak so unpredictably…

But having come this far, she could only take her there.

“Keep searching. Infected pigs have swollen throats and inflexible neck movement…” Qi Yue said again.

The disciples responded and after a brief rest went back to examining the pigs one by one.

When Old Physician An arrived, Qi Yue and others had already found living sick pigs and healthy pigs and were preparing to conduct experiments.

“How can you prove these pigs transmit disease?” he asked excitedly.

Qi Yue was startled to see him.

“Why did you come here? You can’t come here,” she said, pointing to the white lime sprinkled on the ground by disciples. “Don’t enter within this line.”

She currently lacked personnel and could only ask villagers to help watch, but the villagers weren’t taking it seriously at all, so this lime line was just for show.

“Master, how could I not come for such an unprecedented event?” Old Physician An said with a smile.

Qi Yue was helpless.

“Help Physician An put on isolation gear,” she said to a disciple.

By the time Old Physician An finished disinfecting and putting on protective clothing, Qi Yue had already begun drawing blood from two pigs.

“This is healthy pig blood and sick pig blood,” she said, handing the extracted blood in individual porcelain test tubes to disciples.

The disciples carefully received them, labeling each one and placing them on test tube racks. Soon the wooden rack was full.

Old Physician An watched carefully without asking questions.

“First I need to obtain serum from sick and healthy pigs,” Qi Yue proactively explained to him. “Since we don’t have a centrifuge, we can only use natural coagulation.”

“What is serum?” Old Physician An asked.

“Blood all looks the same, but its components differ. Serum is plasma with fibrinogen removed,” Qi Yue said.

Couldn’t understand a single word… Old Physician An nodded without asking further.

Accompanied by pig squeals, the two pigs were marked and released.

Qi Yue and others withdrew.

“I suggest you don’t cross this line. Watch your children carefully. Here’s some lime and liquor—please spray it in your homes, don’t go out, wash hands with running water, and if you have external injuries, go to Qianjin Hall immediately for screening,” Qi Yue said.

The villagers were noncommittal.

“Let’s wait until you produce evidence,” the village chief said.

Qi Yue said no more, had disciples distribute those items to the villagers, then withdrew to set up a tent.

This tent was originally created after the incident with the farmer and Madam Xie made Qi Yue realize there might be emergency surgery situations in the field, so she had Hu San rush to make it. With so many things happening, only one was completed, but it was proving useful.

A small, crude laboratory was quickly set up.

“I need to make precipitin now. Please step back,” Qi Yue said, placing her hand on a small porcelain jar.

Even they had to step back?

The disciples and Old Physician An looked worried and no one moved.

“Master, let us do it instead,” one disciple said. “If something happens, we don’t matter, but if something happens to you…”

Old Physician An also nodded.

Qi Yue turned to smile at them.

“Wrong,” she said. “You are the future. You are what’s most important.”

The disciples were stunned and confused. Them? How were they important!

Qi Yue smiled and waved her hand.

“It’s fine. I already did the most dangerous part—extracting dead pig tissue. Now I’m just preparing precipitin. The danger has greatly diminished,” she said.

In other words, if there was real danger, she had already faced it…

The disciples had complex expressions.

“Now isn’t the time for you to learn. I’ll teach you this later,” Qi Yue smiled again. “Go do the serum separation according to what I wrote down. It’s just like what we normally do in the laboratory—steady hands, concentrated attention. No problems.”

The disciples responded in unison and retreated with Old Physician An.

When night fell, the villagers who had watched the novelty all day without seeing anything particularly interesting dispersed. Qi Yue’s tent was lit with torches, very bright in the darkness.

“This contains antigen…” Old Physician An muttered, looking at the liquid in the test tube.

That term was too unfamiliar…

“Clear liquid,” Qi Yue said for him.

Old Physician An carefully placed the test tube back on the wooden rack. Wearing thick gloves made his movements very clumsy.

“This can detect it?” Old Physician An asked.

Qi Yue exhaled.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Master…” Old Physician An looked at her somewhat helpless smile.

“I’m not being modest,” Qi Yue smiled, resting her hands behind her head and looking at the starry sky through the opening. “My previous environment was completely different from now. I’ve never tried these… you know… we had… equipment…”

Old Physician An had heard Liu Pucheng describe the speculation about this Mistress Qi’s master—an existence like an otherworldly immortal.

“But before that… equipment… how did you do it?” he thought and asked.

Before?

Qi Yue looked at him.

Old Physician An looked at her and smiled slightly.

“Why would there be… equipment?” he asked.

“Because there was need,” Qi Yue said, also smiling. “Why do people have needs? Because someone knew it could be made. So in the beginning, there were only people, no machines. With this…”

She pointed to her head, “step by step there came more, better, more perfect…”

Old Physician An smiled.

“Let’s see how tomorrow’s serum separation goes,” Qi Yue waved and stood up. “Physician An, it’s crude here with no place to rest. Please use this reclining chair.”

Old Physician An didn’t refuse. This wasn’t the time to waste words on politeness. With his servant’s help, he lay down to rest.

Qi Yue walked out of the tent. Two disciples were guarding a box that was tilted at an angle.

At some distance from the box, two small charcoal stoves were placed.

“We don’t have an incubator, so we can only use the crude method of room temperature slanted placement overnight,” she said. Though it was summer, nighttime temperatures could very likely drop. “Make sure to keep the temperature from falling too low. Everyone will have to work hard tonight.”

The disciples responded affirmatively.

Qi Yue sat down casually, with disciples scattered around her.

“Master, why can’t the temperature be too low?” someone asked, habitually taking out a small notebook.

Seeing this, the others hurriedly took out theirs too.

“Because blood temperature inside the body is thirty-seven degrees. If the external room temperature is below twenty-five degrees, there will be thermal expansion and contraction reactions, cell walls will rupture, and the resulting serum will be hemolyzed serum, losing our desired effect,” Qi Yue said.

“…Master, blood has temperature?”

“…What’s thermal expansion and contraction?”

“…What exactly are cells? Why can’t I see them?”

“…The naked eye can’t see them. You need a microscope…”

“…What’s a microscope?”

In the crude tent, Old Physician An listened to the discussion outside and smiled faintly, closing his eyes.