Qi Yue had always felt she was overlooking something, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure out what. At this moment, seeing this approaching elderly man, her mind exploded with sudden clarity.

That man lying on the door plank with massive skin necrosis who was carried into the medical hall and carried out dead shortly after!!

That man she had diagnosed with sepsis!

What could cause sepsis! What could cause acute abdominal symptoms! What could kill so rapidly! What could make penicillin effective!

“I’ve figured it out…” she said, pointing at the old man’s neck. From three or four steps away, she could already clearly see the transparent, swollen large bumps on his neck. “It’s anthrax! It’s anthrax!”

Anthrax?

Neither Chang Yuncheng nor the old man understood, but seeing Qi Yue’s expression, they knew it was very serious.

“Uncle, please stand right there and don’t move,” Qi Yue quickly calmed down and extended her hand.

Chang Yuncheng immediately handed over the medicine box he was carrying.

Qi Yue put on her mask, gloves, and protective clothing, then handed the same to Chang Yuncheng, who put them on efficiently.

“Young mistress, what are you doing?” the old man asked curiously, startled by their sudden costume change in broad daylight.

“Uncle, your illness is very serious. If not treated immediately, you probably won’t be able to get up tomorrow, and the day after you might lose your life,” Qi Yue said.

The old man was startled.

“Isn’t it just a rash?” he asked with wide eyes.

“This isn’t a rash—this is a contagious disease,” Qi Yue said. She had already walked to the old man’s side, asked him to sit down, and began examining him while asking where he’d been recently, what he’d eaten, and what he’d come into contact with.

“…Do you raise any large livestock at home?” Qi Yue asked.

The old man chuckled.

“We’re so poor we can barely feed ourselves—how could we afford to raise livestock…” he shook his head. “I just tend pigs for other people…”

Upon hearing the first part, Qi Yue had already decided to conduct a thorough investigation of this village, especially every piece of livestock. But when she heard the latter part, she paused.

“Pigs?” she asked.

The old man nodded and pointed east.

“Shihe Village raises many pigs. Many people from our village go help them tend the pigs—three meals provided, plus five wen per month. But recently many pigs died, so they don’t need so many people. Being old, I was sent back… now even eating is a problem…” he rambled on.

Qi Yue followed his pointing direction and was momentarily stunned, her mind repeating only one word.

Pigs…

So familiar, as if from long ago…

Pigs…

The scene before her eyes shifted, and she seemed to be standing outside Qianjin Hall, watching a funeral procession pass by on the street.

“…it’s Flower-mouth Granny, who sold pork…”

“…how did she suddenly die… wasn’t she fine…”

So… so it had already begun back then!

This meant that the diarrhea caused by food at Qingfeng Restaurant must have been from pork too! So those cases weren’t acute diarrhea at all, but intestinal anthrax!

Because of anthrax’s low probability of human-to-human transmission, it appeared to be just infection of random people caused by food, so she could never discover the connection!

“Uncle, I’m a doctor. A doctor from Qianjin Hall,” she turned to the old man.

The old man nodded.

“Now there’s a disease, the kind you have, that’s very dangerous and contagious. That means your illness will infect people who come close to you,” Qi Yue continued.

The old man’s eyes widened in terror as he quickly backed away.

“Then, then young mistress, you should stay away from me…” he said loudly.

Qi Yue was stunned. Since suspecting it was a contagious disease, she had encountered all kinds of reactions—questioning, terror, anger—but this was the first time she’d encountered an old man’s reaction like this…

He was telling her to stay away…

“Uncle, I’m a doctor. I can cure you,” she said, somehow feeling her eyes getting teary. Facing so much questioning, facing the humiliation of being driven from the city, she hadn’t felt the least bit sad—instead she was full of fighting spirit. But facing this old man who had only spoken two or three sentences, she somehow felt very uncomfortable inside.

Chang Yuncheng naturally noticed Qi Yue’s expression. At first he didn’t understand, but seeing the old man back away two steps when Qi Yue approached, he suddenly understood.

This woman never gave in when facing resistance—if you stepped on her, she’d rather die than not stand straight and fight you to the death. But if you showed her even the slightest bit of kindness, she’d immediately become so soft she’d show you her entire vulnerable belly…

So really, who doesn’t want to enjoy others’ care and love…

But if there’s no love, one can still live just fine.

He stepped forward to approach the old man, about to help support him.

“Don’t move,” Qi Yue stopped him, taking several steps to support the old man herself. “You have recent external injuries—don’t make contact.”

Chang Yuncheng nodded obediently and stepped back several paces.

Qi Yue finally convinced the old man to go with her to the isolation hospital.

“How terrible—I’ve been wandering around the village these past days, and people took pity on me and gave me food. I hope I didn’t harm anyone…” the old man was anxious and uneasy.

“After I get you settled in the hospital, I’ll immediately bring people here for comprehensive epidemic prevention. Don’t worry—cutaneous anthrax is relatively mild. With timely treatment, there’s no life-threatening danger,” Qi Yue comforted him.

The old man was slow on his feet, so the three of them walked and stopped frequently before finally returning to the isolation hospital area. Before they even got close, they were startled.

The area outside the isolation hospital was completely packed with people.

“What’s happening?” Qi Yue asked in shock.

Were they moving here too, wanting to drive her even farther away?

Let me see who dares!

Qi Yue was about to rush over when Chang Yuncheng had already gone ahead.

“Let us in…”

“Save us…”

“…Mistress Qi is divine, please have mercy…”

Chang Yuncheng was also stunned hearing this chaotic talk.

“What’s going on?” he demanded.

The guards left by Marquis Dingxi were all firmly guarding the gate. With the crowd between them, they couldn’t hear his words, but the people in the back of the crowd heard.

“We want isolation!” they shouted.

They turned around, saw Chang Yuncheng, then also saw Qi Yue behind him.

“Mistress Qi!”

The crowd surged toward them.

Chang Yuncheng immediately stepped back, protecting Qi Yue behind him.

“What do you want?” Qi Yue asked.

“We want isolation,” they shouted.

What? Isolation?

Qi Yue was completely confused. Looking at these people again, most were from poor families and were dragging their entire households with them. They didn’t look like they were here to cause trouble—they looked like refugees…

Something had happened in the city!

The atmosphere in the courtyard was clearly very tense.

“…From yesterday until today, no fewer than six people have died, and people continue to die…”

“…This time it’s not just diarrhea…”

Liu Pucheng, Dr. Zhu, and others told Qi Yue what they had learned.

Qi Yue nodded.

“I know. Whether it’s massive skin necrosis or acute abdominal symptoms, they all die from sepsis and circulatory system failure, or perhaps meningitis…” she said.

Liu Pucheng and Dr. Zhu exchanged glances.

Though they couldn’t quite understand her terminology, they could roughly guess the meaning from the words.

“That’s right, Mistress Qi. Did you see it?” Dr. Zhu asked in surprise.

Qi Yue sighed.

“I didn’t see it, but I guessed what disease it is,” she said.

“What disease?” everyone asked joyfully.

“Anthrax,” she said.

Anthrax?

Everyone was completely confused.

“It’s an acute infectious disease transmitted from livestock to humans,” she said. “Common symptoms are skin ulcers… Everyone come with me—I brought back a patient.”

The old man had been settled in a ward, bathed and changed into patient clothing. He was eating the meal disciples had brought him.

Seeing Qi Yue and others enter, he stood up anxiously.

“Oh my, this really is… providing meals, baths, and clothes—it’s like New Year…” he said excitedly, while looking at these strangely dressed people. “I won’t, won’t harm you all, will I? I’m old now. If I just find some deserted place to die, that’s fine, but look at you all, so young…”

“Uncle, it’s fine. Please sit down,” Qi Yue said, gesturing for Liu Pucheng’s people to examine him.

Liu Pucheng and Dr. Zhu stepped forward to look.

“It’s epidemic carbuncle!” they said in unison.

This was their first time seeing this disease in its initial state, and they finally recognized what it was.

Epidemic carbuncle? That was the Chinese medicine term? Qi Yue was happy that they knew this disease—that meant they had experience.

“I once followed my master up north and saw this. It was transmitted by people from the Eastern Barbarians. They said it was a disease caught from cattle, horses, and sheep!” Liu Pucheng said with some excitement.

“Carbuncle patients may be infected by the poison of dead cattle, horses, pigs, or sheep,” Dr. Zhu also said. “I never thought I’d have the chance to see this…”

His expression even showed excitement.

Perhaps this was the contradiction of doctors—wanting everyone to be free of illness and disaster, yet always wanting to see more diseases.

“But this isn’t very serious,” Liu Pucheng looked up and asked. “Basically all cases can be cured, just leaving scars.”

“Some will be serious, mainly due to delayed treatment, causing sepsis and toxemia—this can be fatal within two days,” Qi Yue said.

“Then, those cases of diarrhea?” Dr. Zhu asked again. “Are they related to this?”

“They’re related. That’s also a type of anthrax—diarrhea from eating diseased meat causes intestinal anthrax, which is much more dangerous than cutaneous anthrax because it’s very hard to diagnose… so those acute abdominal cases never thought of this connection…” Qi Yue said, especially in ancient times without blood tests.

“Give him penicillin injections and he’ll recover in a day or two,” she said. “The key now is to find the source of infection and completely cut it off, otherwise we can’t control this disease…”

“What’s the source of infection?” everyone asked in unison.

“I suspect it might be pigs,” Qi Yue said.

Pigs?

“So I need to personally go see the pig-raising place,” she said.

“That’s too dangerous,” Dr. Zhu was the first to object.

“How about this—you stay here since you’re familiar with this disease, and I’ll go look,” Liu Pucheng said.

Qi Yue shook her head.

“For this disease, there’s no need to worry about medicine—it’s just penicillin. Compared to medicine, what’s more important is cutting off the infection source. I should do this, and to confirm whether it’s really pigs, I need to do precipitation experiments,” she said.

Everyone looked at her with both worry and helplessness.

“Alright, you go. Leave this place to me,” Liu Pucheng said.

Qi Yue nodded.

“Everyone prepare disinfection supplies, bring enough masks and gloves. Some go to this uncle’s village to promote disinfection and investigate suspected cases, and some come with me to the pig farm this uncle mentioned…” she said to her disciples without further delay.

The disciples responded in unison.

“Master, what about these people outside?” Hu San called out. “They’re about to rush in.”