Old Li heard this and immediately raised his voice: “This is a distant relative of mine who knows medicine. Everyone may as well let him take a look — perhaps there is still hope for us.”

Though everyone believed plague was a death sentence — that once one person contracted it the whole village would become a ghost town — hearing that someone was willing to try gave them at least a sliver of hope.

“I’ll go back with Uncle now and prepare the medicine. By evening, please come and collect it.” Yan Qing said, seeing that everyone was looking at her with expectation.

Returning to Old Li’s courtyard, everyone let out a long collective breath.

The first thing Old Li did was pull Xiao Yue down with him to kneel before the two benefactors.

Shi Ting reached out and caught him. “Uncle, what are you doing?”

Old Li wept with emotion, saying: “Two benefactors — thank you for stepping in to save me and Xiao Yue, and to save our whole village. Your great kindness and virtue are beyond repayment. All I can do is kowtow three times.”

“Uncle, you would shame me.” Shi Ting helped Old Li sit back down. “You saved my life and Yan Qing’s life. If I were to accept those three kowtows, I would truly deserve to be struck by lightning.”

“Heaven has eyes, to have sent me two noble souls to save.” Old Li wiped a tear from his eye.

Today the villagers had risen up and killed the village bullies who had for years abused their power and disregarded human life. From now on, whoever became village chief would not dare provoke the villagers — for a single misstep might result in being beaten to death by an angry mob. As for the tomb digging, with Master Niu now dead, that matter would also come to an end. No one would ever again force the villagers to risk their lives going up the mountain.

Jiuyang Village could finally be at peace.

“Young lady, will the villagers’ illness be all right?” Old Li suddenly thought of this.

Yan Qing and Xiao Yue exchanged a smile. “Uncle, rest assured. Those were only substances that cause temporary allergic reactions. In a moment, Xiao Yue and I will brew medicine and distribute it to the villagers — within two days they should all recover.”

She had once used this medicinal substance on Yang Liu and Yang Zhi. She hadn’t expected it to come in so useful again now — though it also helped greatly that Old Li’s home was well-stocked with medicines.

The whole affair had actually been quite simple. Shi Ting had had Xiao Jin and a few other children first apply the powder to the homes of the villagers who had dug in the bone pit that day. After these villagers ‘fell ill,’ Xiao Jin had then gone house to house applying more powder, creating the illusion of a village-wide plague.

The bloody handprints and footprints had been made by them deliberately. The will-o’-the-wisps were simply phosphorus — in the dry summer heat, phosphorus ignites very easily, burning with neither smoke nor trace.

While the ‘plague’ was spreading and the ghost fires were drifting, they had people circulate talk about the bone pit, stoking the villagers’ panic.

When Master Niu tried to force the villagers to continue digging, the villagers were already seething with collective rage — but years of oppression had built up layer upon layer of fear in their hearts, and even with hatred and fury, they had not dared to resist outright. Then Old Li stepped forward and delivered his rallying speech, and that young man stumbled forward into Master Niu — and everything that had been building suddenly combusted. The long-suppressed resentment came pouring out with the force of an explosion, surpassing even the power of guns.

The villagers rose up and killed Master Niu and his gang. Though this would leave them shaken afterward, it also taught them an important lesson: only by standing firm could they protect their own safety. Whoever became village chief in the future would have no choice but to remain docile before these villagers — because one wrong move could mean death by mob.

Shi Ting could certainly have effortlessly dispatched a few petty thugs on these villagers’ behalf. But in the end, he would have to leave. The only ones who could ultimately protect them were themselves. This was the gift he left them before departing from Jiuyang Village.

Give a man a fish, or teach him to fish.

“Uncle, you said there used to be a dock here — why did it fall into disuse?” Shi Ting asked curiously.

“The tributaries of the Red River used to flood often. Every time there was flooding, the area around the dock would be submerged, causing tremendous losses. Within a few years, the dock was abandoned.” Old Li said.

“The Red River tributary now has a dam built on it — there will be no more floods. The dock here could be rebuilt.” Shi Ting had heard from Yan Qing that this area’s hundred-li mountain landscape was rich in all manner of traditional medicines, including many rare and precious varieties. He thought that if the dock could be reopened, not only could these valuable medicines be transported out, but the whole region could benefit.

Hearing that the dock could be rebuilt, Old Li was immediately excited — though he couldn’t help wondering: this young man was nothing more than a city person who had arrived as a refugee in distress. Did he truly have the means to rebuild a dock?

After all, rebuilding a dock required enormous expenditure of manpower and resources, and the support of the government.

“Uncle, please do me the favor of gathering the capable people in this village. If the dock is to be rebuilt, the support of the local people is indispensable.” Shi Ting said.

Old Li, hearing Shi Ting speak this way, felt as though the dock reconstruction was truly going to happen. Whether it ultimately came to be or not, this was a good thing — even if it came to nothing, they would have hoped for nothing and lost nothing.

In the evening, the villagers came to collect medicine, and a long queue formed outside Old Li’s gate.

Two days later, a miracle appeared: the villagers who had taken the medicine saw the red rashes on their bodies gradually fade. And the bloody footprints and handprints that had appeared punctually every night, along with the ghost fires, were nowhere to be found. Jiuyang Village restored its former peace and vitality.

The villagers unanimously agreed that although they had killed several people, they had received the protection of heaven. Those people had committed outrages against heaven and earth, disturbing the tranquility of the gods and spirits — the villagers had done a righteous thing, which was why not only had their mortal illness been cured, but the strange occurrences in the village had ceased entirely.

For a time, the villagers were jubilant. Every household brought out a chicken. Several large stoves were set up at the village entrance. Chicken and mountain delicacies were stewed in several large pots.

The fragrance of stewing meat drifted through every corner of the small village, as festive as the New Year.

Shi Ting and Yan Qing were welcomed into a wide spacious courtyard — the largest courtyard in Jiuyang Village. Its owner was Zhang Dexi, the former village chief. Zhang Dexi had been well-loved by the people during his tenure, but he had later been framed and entrapped by Niu Yishi’s father, who forced him to give up the position of village chief. After Niu Yishi’s father took over as chief, he had listened to the Taoist priest’s words, believing there was an ancient tomb on the mountain, which had led to everything that followed.

Zhang Dexi’s courtyard was large but not prosperous — after Niu Yishi’s father took his position, he had never stopped suppressing Zhang Dexi.

Shi Ting and Yan Qing had cured the villagers’ illness and were naturally treated as guests of honor. Moreover, when Old Li spoke of rebuilding the dock, Zhang Dexi was elated beyond words.

If the dock could be rebuilt, Jiuyang Village could trade with the outside world and escape from poverty — that would be a truly remarkable achievement.

Shi Ting drank a few cups of wine with everyone. Then someone looked at Yan Qing and laughed: “Young fellow, how come you’re not drinking?”

A cup had been placed in front of Yan Qing, filled with wine, but it had not been touched at all.

“She can’t hold her drink.” Shi Ting smiled. “I’ll drink on her behalf.”

Saying this, he picked up Yan Qing’s cup and drained it in one go. Everyone, seeing how forthright he was, all raised their cups together.

When Shi Ting looked up again, he noticed that something new had appeared on the cabinet in the side room — a decorative disc-shaped object on a base. The disc was painted with dragons and phoenixes in vivid colors.

Seeing him staring fixedly at the inner room, Zhang Dexi followed his gaze. When he realized what Shi Ting was looking at, he immediately rose and went to fetch it.

“My wife must have just put it out.” Zhang Dexi said, cradling the object as if it were something precious. “When we first came to Jiuyang Village, this place was nothing but rubble. When I was digging the ground to build a house, I dug this up. At first I thought it was solid gold, but looking more carefully, only the surrounding ring is gold inlay. All these years, Niu Yishi and his father swept through my home countless times. Only this object was saved because my wife buried it in the ground. Now that the Niu family has been collected by the gods and spirits, we can finally put it on display.”

Zhang Dexi was not stingy about it and let everyone pass it around for a look. When it reached Shi Ting’s hands, the light in his eyes suddenly dimmed.

The others went on drinking and eating, not noticing anything. Only Yan Qing noticed Shi Ting’s unusual reaction. She saw him staring fixedly at the pattern on the disc, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

Yan Qing craned her neck to look. She didn’t find anything particularly strange — it was nothing more than a dragon and a phoenix, with a peculiar pattern in the center surrounded by flowers, plants, and running animals, as if randomly assembled. A bit odd.

But it was only odd in its composition. There was nothing about it that warranted such an outward display of emotion from him.

Yan Qing didn’t understand where Shi Ting’s reaction was coming from. But she knew — he must have discovered something that had deeply shaken him.

Director Shi’s emotions were not easily revealed on his face.

After the village feast ended, Shi Ting took Yan Qing back to Old Li’s place.

Old Li had drunk a bit too much and had already been helped off to rest by Xiao Yue.

Yan Qing carried a basin of water inside, and found Shi Ting sitting on the edge of the bed in a daze, so deep in thought that he hadn’t even noticed her come in.

“Shi Ting.” Yan Qing set down the basin and walked over to him.

Shi Ting looked up. His eyes had returned to their usual clear composure. He took her hand and sat her down beside him. “I barely saw you touch your chopsticks at the feast tonight. If you get hungry later, there won’t be any midnight snack.”

“I’m not hungry.” Yan Qing shook her head. Her eyes curved like crescents, bright as the clearest crystals, making it hard to look away. “Today at Zhang Dexi’s place — what did you discover? You looked very strange.”

Shi Ting rubbed her hair. “I simply hadn’t expected to see this pattern here.”

“You mean that odd-looking pattern?”

Shi Ting nodded.

“Have you seen this pattern somewhere before?”