“Inviting me back to the city?”

Qi Yue put down the two pieces of crystal in her hands, looking at the visitors with some surprise.

This was a group of physicians from Yongqing Prefecture. They were all giving meaningful looks to Physician Zhu, as his position by Qi Yue’s side was clearly very important now. It would be most appropriate to have him speak.

“Yes.” Physician Zhu stepped forward and said.

“What’s the matter?” Qi Yue asked, while examining the crystals in her hands, overlapping and separating them repeatedly, watching the words on the paper underneath change as they intersected.

“Well, although everyone has already done thorough epidemic prevention, we’re still not at ease, worried there might be some oversights. Plus, with the quarantined patients starting to return home recently, we wanted to have you come take a look.” Physician Zhu smiled.

I see…

“Physician Zhu, you can go look yourself.” Qi Yue smiled.

“How could I manage that.” Physician Zhu quickly shook his head, “Besides, if you go, the people will feel reassured.”

Post-epidemic social stability and comforting people’s hearts was indeed a problem.

Qi Yue nodded and put down the crystals.

“Alright then, I’ll make a trip.” she said.

Hearing her say this, the physicians present breathed a sigh of relief, their eyes showing joy.

What are they up to? Qi Yue thought to herself, then shook her head with a smile.

However, she could now be certain that these people wouldn’t pull any tricks deliberately targeting her.

Although she had witnessed the continuous stream of corpses being carried out of the hospital and knew what the scene would be like, walking on the road and seeing so many freshly appeared grave mounds by the roadside, along with the paper money scattered like snowflakes that hadn’t yet dispersed, and the occasional sounds of crying, still made Qi Yue’s heart heavy.

The survival rate for those who fell ill this time was ultimately four out of ten.

Clearly knowing how to save them but unable to do so…

Qi Yue took a deep breath.

“Don’t look.” A’Ru reached out to pull down the carriage curtain, looking at Qi Yue. “You said before that here is different from where you come from, so you can’t demand the same results here as in your place.”

Qi Yue looked at her and smiled, nodding.

“That’s right. Live in the present.” she said.

“I’ve already had someone tell A’Hao that we’re coming home today. She must have prepared a whole table of dishes waiting.” A’Ru smiled, “The Second Madam will definitely come over too.”

“Yes, I must go home for dinner, no matter who invites me elsewhere, I won’t go.” Qi Yue said firmly as well.

Just as they were talking and laughing, the carriage suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?” A’Ru lifted the curtain to ask, then she let out a short cry of surprise and fell silent.

Qi Yue could see the tall city gate over A’Ru’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” she also asked, leaning forward to look.

Outside the city gate stood densely packed crowds of people, yet despite their numbers, they were unusually quiet at this moment.

Qi Yue was stunned.

What did this mean?

“Qi Yueniang, time to collect the gambling debt!”

Someone shouted loudly from somewhere, and immediately this voice swept up, deafening.

Then the crowd parted, presenting the prison cart holding Wang Qingchun before Qi Yue.

“Qi Yueniang, please get out of the carriage.” the physicians on both sides of the carriage said excitedly.

Only then did Qi Yue come to her senses, glancing at Physician Zhu, then at the boiling crowd ahead, smiling somewhat helplessly.

So they called her back for this…

Wang Qingchun sat in the prison cart, long gone was his previous appearance, eyes closed as if dead.

But pretending to be dead wouldn’t work. Seeing Qi Yue get out of the carriage, the nearby crowd began poking him viciously with sticks.

“Kneel down! Kneel down!” they shouted hatefully.

Wang Qingchun couldn’t keep pretending under the poking and opened his eyes.

“This official kneels to Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Parents, and Teachers. You people can forget it!” he grabbed the prison cart and shouted hoarsely, his gaze falling on the woman walking closer, “Forget it!”

Qi Yue looked at him, walking closer step by step. Seeing her approach, the surrounding people stopped their shouting, and the scene fell quiet for a moment.

“How dare you still say the words ‘this official.'” Qi Yue said. She reached back to point, “What does ‘official’ mean! Parent-official! Wang Qingchun, go look now and see what happened to your children!”

Her suddenly raised voice startled the surrounding people, who instinctively looked in the direction she pointed.

Steamed bun graves, white mourning sticks, scattered everywhere like stars.

These were still people with families who could be buried, while those without relatives were burned and buried collectively in a pit.

“Wang Qingchun, having someone like you kneel to me would disgrace me.” Qi Yue said, looking at the soldiers standing nearby, worried about the crowd damaging the prison cart, “Please, brothers, open the cart door and let him out.”

The soldiers hesitated briefly, then complied.

Wang Qingchun was dragged out and immediately lost his support. Seeing the angry eyes all around, he finally became terrified, his legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees.

“You don’t need to kneel to me. You should kneel to those who died.” Qi Yue looked at him and said word by word, “They might have had a chance at life, but it was buried by your petty rivalry. Wang Qingchun, I know you’re jealous of me, so you constantly want to prove I’m inferior to you. How ridiculous. Even jealousy requires qualifications. Do you think you have that qualification? In my eyes, what are you?”

After saying this, she didn’t look at Wang Qingchun again and strode toward the city gate.

Yes, what was a loser in the winner’s eyes? Ever since losing the first time, he had actually been kneeling all along, kneeling while looking up at this woman, only his heart refused to admit it.

Wang Qingchun collapsed to the ground in despair.

The crowd parted to make way, watching this woman walk slowly forward.

“Wang Qingchun, kneel!”

The shouting roared behind her, but compared to the earlier excitement tinged with flattery, the voices now were full of tragic anger for heaven and pity for themselves.

Kneel! Kneel to those who died!

Kneel! Kneel to those who regarded you as their parent-official!

Kneel! Kneel to those who depended on you for life!

Qi Yue looked back slightly, seeing Wang Qingchun being pressed down to kneel on the ground, someone grabbing his head and slamming it hard against the earth, facing the new graves outside the city, facing those people still wearing mourning clothes, again and again.

Since Wang Qingchun still had to stand trial, the authorities couldn’t let him die at this time. They quickly dispersed the crowd and loaded him back into the prison cart. To avoid unnecessary trouble, without waiting for the Prefectural Judge and others to see them off, these people from the Governor’s office rushed away with the prison cart.

The commotion at the city gate hadn’t yet died down as everyone searched for Qi Yue’s figure and followed her.

Qi Yue didn’t take the carriage, as it was still blocked outside the gate by the crowd. Walking wasn’t as fast, so she proceeded on foot, and the crowd quickly caught up.

“Qi Yueniang, when will the Qianjin Hall in the city reopen?”

“Qi Yueniang, please come back quickly so we can feel at ease.”

Everyone spoke up.

Qi Yue smiled and answered each one. With so many people, they walked slowly and had only gone half a street when the people ahead stopped again.

What now?

Everyone looked ahead and saw a white banner stretched across the street not far away, with large bloody characters: “Where is Heaven’s justice?”

Where is Heaven’s justice!

Such familiar words!

Such a familiar scene!

Looking again, such familiar people…

Under the banner, a woman, a young woman, two half-grown children, and a small child knelt in a row, wearing mourning clothes.

The difference was that this time there was no corpse displayed in front.

Actually, according to those people’s original intention, they had wanted to display a corpse, but it had already decayed. Digging it up to display here would be shocking, but more disgusting and frightening, likely scaring away more than half the crowd. That would ruin the effectiveness of the scene, and they couldn’t let a good thing become bad, so they abandoned that idea.

The talking and laughing stopped again, and the whole scene fell quiet.

“You, what are you doing here again!” An elderly man was the first to react, saying urgently, “Will this never end! We said last time’s incident wasn’t Qi Yueniang’s fault! You, you leave quickly!”

They had finally coaxed her into the city, and if Qi Yueniang got upset and turned around to leave, what would they do in the future!

People’s hearts were never satisfied and couldn’t be indulged!

With the old man speaking up, more people reacted and urgently shouted, with some running over to pull this family away.

But Qi Yue was the first to act.

“You came just in time, I was just looking for you! You delivered yourselves to my door!” she shouted loudly, rushing to the family in a few steps, “Explain this matter clearly to me! This matter of your unconscionable false accusations and frame-up of the Marquis Dingxi’s heir isn’t over!”

Everyone was stunned, and Marquis Dingxi, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, wanting to be the first to bring Qi Yue home… no, to bring her to treat Chang Yuncheng, was also stunned.

In his ears came the woman’s next words.

“…speak, restore the Marquis Dingxi’s residence’s reputation…”

Reputation! The Marquis Dingxi residence’s reputation! This was the first thing she wanted to address?

Marquis Dingxi felt his nose tingle and wanted to cry on the spot.

Mother, you still love me most. Though you’re gone, you found a good daughter-in-law to manage and protect the household…

Qi Yue’s words brought everyone back to their senses.

“Yes, yes, if Qi Yueniang said it couldn’t be treated, then it couldn’t be treated…”

“…Right, right, so it wasn’t delayed treatment…”

“Exactly, exactly, it must be so…”

The people on scene spoke up one after another, completely forgetting how they had been so certain this was medical malpractice and how righteously indignant they had been in upholding justice…

The Prefectural Judge, who had just arrived and was listening from behind, couldn’t help but smile.

“What did I tell you? From now on, even if Qi Yueniang said the moon fell from the sky, everyone would believe it without question.” he said to someone beside him.

While it was chaotic here, the family there began kowtowing.

“Yes, yes, someone instructed us to do this!” the young woman shouted shrilly.

At these words, the noisy crowd fell silent.

Qi Yue was also stunned.

“Instructed you to do what?” she asked, “Frame my medical skills?”

“No.” the young woman raised her head, looking at Qi Yue.

After days of absence, her face bore two more scars, her expression terrified, as if she had suffered great shock.

She crawled forward a few steps on her knees.

“Qi Yueniang, someone instructed us that if framing you didn’t work, then we should frame the Marquis Dingxi’s heir as tyrannical and domineering.” she said while kowtowing, “I was threatened! Qi Yueniang, we had no choice…”

She finished speaking and kowtowed repeatedly.

What?

Frame-up?

Marquis Dingxi rushed out from the crowd.

“You, what are you saying? Deliberate? What does deliberate mean?” he shouted, looking incredulous.

“It means my father deliberately injured himself, then had Qi Yueniang treat him, all to…” the young woman said tremblingly, her breathing unstable, as if she might expire any moment, but she didn’t, “to prevent Qi Yueniang from treating the Marchioness and let the Marchioness die…”

At these words, the entire scene was shocked.