Chapter 101

But by the third day, when the death toll passed ten and the number of patients in the medical tents jumped to a hundred and twenty-one, with still no clue where the outbreak started and more cases pouring in without end...

Magistrate Liu's confidence took another hit.

There was no miracle cure that could fix things in one dose, not enough silver to buy medicine, and even the cheap grain was gone. How were they supposed to get through this?

If the death toll passed a hundred, he'd lose his post; if it passed a thousand, he'd lose his life...

Magistrate Liu stared at the figures the Chief Clerk reported, his vision went black, and he keeled over.

With his life on the line, all that frantic worrying finally caught up with him.

The court runner was startled, scared he'd caught the plague too, and hollered for a doctor.

He cried out: "We're done for, we're done for! The Magistrate's caught it too! If the magistrate dies, what are we supposed to do?"

The Chief Clerk snapped at him: "What're you panicking for? We'll deal with it as it comes!"

Was this guy trying to take over his job?

Magistrate Liu got so mad he woke back up.

He stumbled home to write his will and get his affairs in order.

He'd never dealt with a plague like this in all his time in office, but he knew all too well how bad the plague ten-plus years back had been.

One of his old teachers had been fired over a plague outbreak.

He figured his own number was up. The flood had already given him a ton of headaches—even though nobody died, the whole season's crops were wiped out. There was only so much relief grain to go around.

Before they'd even gotten over that disaster, they were now staring down a plague that scared the hell out of everyone.

Because plague was way scarier than a flood.

Sure, plague was a natural disaster too, but the damage was real, and the body count was real.

If the death toll in his town passed a thousand, it meant he'd failed at stopping the outbreak as magistrate—he'd lose not just his job but his life too.

And this year was especially dangerous. The new emperor had just taken the throne, and the treasury was stretched thin. There was barely any money to hand out. With things like this, who knew how many people would die.

The death toll was already in the double digits, and that was only because Huo Jilin's husband caught it early. If Chen Jue hadn't noticed that everyone coming in had the same symptoms, the outbreak wouldn't have been contained this fast.

But people were dying every day, and there was still no real cure for the plague.

So Magistrate Liu told his wife, "Pack up and take the kids back to your hometown."

Magistrate Liu's wife, Lady Yuan, looked at how defeated he was and said worriedly, "What about you, husband?"

Magistrate Liu faced north and said, "I've failed His Majesty and failed the people of Dongling County. I'm going to atone with my death."

"...Then... then what about buying your way out with silver?" Lady Yuan said.

Magistrate Liu turned his head and laughed coldly: "Silver? What silver could buy my life? In ten years as an official here, how much have I actually earned? After your clothes and socializing, how much is left?"

Lady Yuan coughed lightly. "What about the donations from this time?"

Magistrate Liu closed his eyes. "Don't ever say that again. I'm scared of getting all nine generations of my family killed."

He was an official sent here from somewhere else. The merchants and big shots here only paid taxes and gave a token tribute each year. In his early years, he'd been straight and honest, hoping to move up. In the last two years, he'd given up on moving up, but by then nobody was bribing him either.

He'd hoped to serve out his time in Dongling County and retire in peace, but who could've guessed these two years would be such a mess—first war, then flood, then plague...

When he lay awake at night thinking about his past, he wondered: had he really done something bad enough to deserve this?

After ten years as an official, when he counted up his assets, he had only a few hundred taels of silver.

Lady Yuan saw that he truly had no solutions left and couldn't help saying, "That Regional Commander Huo seems very capable. Why don't you go discuss plans with him? Doesn't his husband own a medicine workshop? Maybe I should go see him and ask his workshop to pitch in?"

Lady Yuan had also wanted to invite the Regional Commander's husband for tea and conversation, but she'd never managed to arrange it in these past six months. The Regional Commander's husband seemed interested in nothing but medicine—he never came to any flower appreciation or tea gatherings.

Magistrate Liu merely let out a hollow laugh: "Chen's Pharmaceutical needs to make money too."

Merchants never rise early without profit. Huo Jilin had been willing to set aside his position as Regional Commander to establish Chen's Pharmaceutical first—wasn't it all for profit?

If he didn't take advantage of this crisis to profiteer, that would already be lucky. Asking him to lend a helping hand was out of the question.

This was also the source of Magistrate Liu's despair. The thing plague needed most was medicine, and Huo Jilin had monopolized the medicinal herb trade for the past six months. There must be a reason he was so actively building the medical tents—at his core, he was a merchant.

Magistrate Liu thought bitterly: once the court's medicine reserves ran out, Huo Jilin would start selling his own stock, and there would be no recourse when he jacked up the prices.

Lady Yuan wanted to say more, but Magistrate Liu waved her away: "Pack up tonight and leave with our son. Consider it preserving the Liu family line..."

After Lady Yuan left sobbing, Magistrate Liu let out a deep sigh: "Heaven has abandoned me."

The next day, Magistrate Liu sat at his desk, intending to write a confession of his crimes. He couldn't save the town from this plague. With silver, grain, and medicine all depleted, he couldn't hold out much longer.

He wasn't a perfectly upright official, but he wasn't particularly wicked either. Knowing his end was near, he abandoned both the people and himself, wishing only to die and plead with his superiors to spare his family out of consideration for his years of service.

He would atone with death.

But he sat there for half a day without writing a single word on the paper.

It was too difficult to write.

Just as he sat in despair at his desk, a yamen runner burst in: "Magistrate! You must come preside over the charity fundraiser! Quickly!"

"What?"

"Chen's Pharmaceutical is leading the donations! All medicines for the epidemic will be supplied to our medical tents and Jishi Hall at cost price! The Tung Oil Paper Mill has contributed all the rain cloth needed for the medical tents and has also led with a donation of one thousand taels of silver! Zhang's Jiangnan Cloth Shop has donated all the medical linen needed plus eight hundred taels of silver... Dongzhuang Dong Family Medicine Shop has donated one thousand taels worth of medicinal herbs... He Family Winery has donated one thousand jars of wine for distillation and disinfection..."

It wasn't that Huo Jilin had deliberately delayed the fundraising these past few days. First, time was urgent and building the medical tents took priority. Second, he wanted to see Magistrate Liu's attitude—the county government couldn't stand idly by. Only after they'd truly done their best could others step in to help. This was also the point that made merchants willing to donate.

When the official governing this land wasn't a corrupt one, but one who genuinely cared for his people, only then were they worthy of donations.

Magistrate Liu's hands trembled as he took the donation list. When he saw the total of several hundred thousand taels of silver, he finally placed his official cap back on his head and rushed to the donation site.

"Quick, quick! No sedan chair! I'll ride a horse! I know how to ride! And tell my wife—she doesn't need to leave after all! Have her continue distributing porridge to the needy! No more sitting around drinking tea all day—that tea doesn't cost that much anyway!"

Magistrate Liu rode crookedly on his horse, the hot wind blowing against his face, and his ashen heart finally began to stir again.

When he arrived at the donation site and saw Huo Jilin transcribing the list of donating merchants on red paper, he found himself at a loss for words.

Especially when he saw the large characters of Chen's Pharmaceutical, Magistrate Liu's eyes grew hot.

Last night he'd told his wife she was overthinking things. Huo Jilin was indeed a Regional Commander, but he was also a merchant. Though all his enterprises were registered under his husband's name, Magistrate Liu was certain Huo Jilin was the man behind the curtain—his husband was merely a figurehead.

A man with such cunning and depth was surely a shrewd merchant. It would already be remarkable if he didn't profiteer from the nation's calamity—how could he possibly extend a helping hand?

But wouldn't you know it, Huo Jilin went and lent a hand anyway.

Chen's Pharmaceutical not only led the charge in bailing out the county government's finances at dirt-cheap prices—giving the authorities that kind of major support—but also rounded up the big shop owners across Dongling County to raise relief funds. He'd solved his own money problems too.

Now that was the real lifesaver.

The whole way back, Magistrate Liu couldn't wrap his head around why Huo Jilin would do this.

He'd always known Huo Jilin was something special—going from a mud-caked laborer to earning military honors, to getting hand-picked as Regional Commander on General Weiwu's personal orders.

But he never dreamed Huo could be this good. Sure, he could get soldiers to jump at his command, and he could get the business world and his medicine circles to do the same. But when a man can command both, that's when he gets scary.

Magistrate Liu watched Huo Jilin—who still towered head and shoulders above the rich folks around him—with tangled emotions.

He was grateful for Huo's help, sure, but he couldn't help feeling a twinge of fear.

But he let it go, because he knew damn well that without this man's muscle, he'd have been completely lost.

So Magistrate Liu headed over to Huo Jilin, his heart a mess of gratitude and unease.

"Regional Commander Huo!"

He wanted to say something inspiring, but Huo Jilin didn't have time for small talk. The moment he saw Liu, he dumped the whole situation on him: "Good, you're here. I'll leave this to you—I've got to head to the other towns to set up treatment tents."

"...Wait, what? Other counties?" Magistrate Liu felt like he couldn't keep up.

Huo Jilin nodded. "Yeah, the numbers are climbing. The other counties need isolation and treatment too, or this thing will spread even more. Until we've got a cure, we've got to keep people separated."

And it wasn't just Dongling County hit by the plague—other towns and cities had it too, and it had even reached the capital. Nobody had a clue where it came from.

It had spread that fast, in just a few short days. That was what made Magistrate Liu feel so hopeless.

In his despair, he'd thought about killing himself to make up for it, while Huo Jilin was bending over backward to save people.

Magistrate Liu felt ashamed of his own uselessness and small-mindedness. Huo Jilin wasn't just helping his own Dongling County—he was helping everyone else too. How big was this guy's heart?

He wanted to kowtow to Huo Jilin, or slap himself silly.

But right now, he had something more important to ask.

"The... the cure—will there be one?" Magistrate Liu stammered. He couldn't figure out how Huo Jilin could sound so sure. How could he be so certain a cure would come?

Huo Jilin shot him a look. "Of course there'll be a cure."

Magistrate Liu figured the Regional Commander really had a lot of faith in his husband.

Still, Magistrate Liu was also hoping Chen Jue would crack the cure soon.

Chen Jue was burning the midnight oil on the treatment.

In later generations, cholera wasn't some incurable nightmare anymore—there was already a cure for it.

The treatment for cholera wasn't all that complicated. What was complicated was that the region was different, the water and soil were different, the era was different, people's immune systems and resistance were different, and the strength and nature of the medicine had to change accordingly.

That's why there still wasn't a cure that worked for this era.