Denghuaxiao

Chapter 241 New Year’s Eve
It was a deep night with heavy snow and a still wind.

The light of the lanterns under my feet looked like a thin layer of yellow mist, and also like the magnificent sunset over Luomei Peak in the evening.

Lu Tong spoke softly.

"Yunniang, you died in my hands."

After saying this, it was like I had unloaded the last burden, and a corner of me that had been heavy for a long time now felt completely relaxed.

Actually, when I think about it now, some things happened really unexpectedly.

She stayed at Luomei Peak for seven years, day after day, year after year. At first, she always wanted to escape, but gradually she became numb. She was like a puppet trapped on the stage, repeating the same play every day.

One day, she and Yunniang went down the mountain to buy medicinal herb seeds and met a poor woman at the door of Sunan Medical Clinic.

The woman was not from southern Jiangsu and spoke with a local accent as she begged the owner of the medical store.

She stood at the door and listened for a long time, and learned that the woman had walked a long way to buy a medicinal herb for her son's treatment, but she was still short of three copper coins when she arrived here. The round trip was dozens of miles, and the woman wanted to buy on credit, or buy less, but the shopkeeper refused.

Lu Tong paid the three copper coins for her.

The woman was filled with gratitude and left with many thanks. She stared at the other person's back in a trance.

The woman's eyebrows and eyes look like her mother's.

When she turned around, she saw Yunniang standing at the door of the clinic, looking at her with a smile, and her expression understood everything.

After returning to the mountain, Yunniang scattered the newly bought seeds under the plum tree, and looking at her sitting in front of the medicine stove, she suddenly spoke.

"Xiao Shiqi," she said, "Do you want to leave here?"

Lu Chen was stunned.

The plum tree is in bloom, the cold forest is lit up with red. Beneath the tree stands a woman in a gauze dress with jewelry and ornaments, her makeup more gorgeous than the red plum blossoms.

"You've lived in the mountains for so long, and you've peeked at so many of my medical books and notes. You're pretty good at making antidotes, but you've never made poisons."

Every time after Yunniang tried some medicine on her, Lu Tong would detoxify herself according to the medical books she had read. Sometimes she was able to detoxify a little, and sometimes not.

"Let's play a game." Yunniang looked at her with her chin in her hand.

"what game?"

Yunniang thought for a moment and said, "You, learn how to make a poison for me. If you can kill me with the poison, you can go down the mountain. If the opposite is true..."

The woman smiled and said, "You just stay in the mountain and be my medicine man for the rest of your life, okay?"

Lu Chen didn't speak.

In fact, even if she didn't agree, Yunniang could keep her in the mountains and let her be a medicine maker for the rest of her life.

"You still don't dare?" Yunniang was a little disappointed and touched her head. "What a pity. I thought you really wanted to go home."

Come back home.

She looked into the distance.

The plum trees on Luomei Peak covered the path down the mountain. She thought of the woman who looked like her mother that she saw at the door of the medical clinic. She had not been home for a long time and wondered how her mother was doing now. Was her hair half white like that woman?

She had been away for seven years, and perhaps they would be apart for even longer. As long as Yunniang didn't die, she would have no way of returning home.

"it is good."

The woman was a little surprised.

Lu Tong looked at her and repeated, "Okay."

She was stunned for a moment, then smiled in surprise: "I'll wait for you, Xiao Shiqi."

When she was in the mountains, she made many kinds of medicine, all of which used poisonous herbs from Luomei Peak, but those were all for saving lives. She had read many of Yunniang's poison books, but this was the first time she made a poison that could hurt people.

Yunniang watched her struggle with great interest.

She divided the prepared poison into two portions, one for Yunniang to take and the other for her to sort. She seemed calm but actually waited for the outcome anxiously.

Yunniang took it with a smile.

It took seven days from taking the poison to the onset of the poison. This might be because Yunniang's constitution was different from others. Otherwise, the poison would have taken effect on the third day.

The woman was lying on a chair under the plum tree, looking at her with increasingly strange eyes: "Xiao Shiqi, what did you use in this medicine?"

Yunniang claimed to know all the poisons in the world, but she could not identify the last ingredient.

"Can't you tell?"

"So, what's the antidote?"

Lu Tong shook his head: "There is no antidote."

Yun Niang was stunned.

"I added my blood to the prescription." Lu Tong said.

Her blood, her blood had been mixed with hundreds of poisons during the seven years of drug testing and had become poison. Those poisons were mixed together and it was hard to tell which was which, not even Yunniang could tell.

The tool that Yunniang used to test medicine eventually became a problem that even she herself could not solve. This is the law of cause and effect, and reincarnation in the world.

As the woman listened, she was stunned for a moment, then she smiled and looked at her with admiration and satisfaction.

"I see," she sighed, "You really are a good candidate."

"But I don't have the antidote," Lu Tong looked at her, his voice trembling slightly, "and I can't make an antidote either."

That was her blood, her poison. She couldn't even cure herself, so how could she cure Yunniang's poison?

Yunniang glanced at her and said, "What are you afraid of?" She smiled faintly, "I was about to die anyway."

Lu Tong was startled.
Gradually, blood began to flow out from Yunniang's lips, which she brushed away nonchalantly.

"After I die, Xiao Shiqi, remember to burn the medical books and manuscripts in my room and bury them with me. Yes, I will be buried with the previous sixteen."

"It would be a waste to leave those handwritten poison scriptures to the world. It's better to leave with me. Luomei Peak is big and I'm afraid of being lonely."

Lu Tong listened in a daze.

She looked at Lu Tong again, smiling strangely and lovingly: "Xiao Shiqi, you are really amazing. I didn't expect you could last so long at Luomei Peak."

"You are my last medicine man, and also my first apprentice. I am very satisfied with you."

"I am the first life you have ever taken, Little Seventeen. From today on, you are the same person as me."

She smiled and said, "Congratulations, you have graduated."

Lu Tong looked at her blankly, his eyes felt a little sore but dry without a single tear, he just felt a little helpless.

More and more blood flowed from the woman's lips. She sighed softly and slowly closed her eyes.

Yunniang is dead.

He died from the poison she mixed with blood.

Lu Tong no longer hugged Wu Yun and cried as she did when Wu Yun died. She numbly stood up to help Yun Niang change her clothes. It was at that time that she saw the scars on Yun Niang's body.

There were large burn marks on Yunniang's body. If she had been seriously injured at that time, she would not have survived until now. Lu Tong gradually understood that perhaps in the past seven years, or even more, Yunniang had been using poison to keep herself alive, but drinking poison to quench thirst would eventually reach the end.

So before she died, she had to see Lu Tong's "graduation" with her own eyes.

The flames devoured the thatched cottage where Yunniang once lived, and the carefully collected medical books and pharmacology books turned to ashes in the flames. Lu Tong knelt in front of the tomb and was about to carve the inscription when he suddenly stopped.

What is the relationship between her and Yunniang?

She stayed in Luomei Peak for seven years, and Yunniang had been with her throughout those seven years, turning her into a different person. She had hated Yunniang, and she had also been grateful to her. In those cold days with flying snow, at some point, she might have experienced the loneliness of a woman.

Finally, she carved the words "mentor" on the tombstone.

Regardless of her original purpose, her medical skills and poisons were all taught by Luomei Peak during her seven years of study. Yunniang taught her many things she had never seen in her childhood, such as the gambling father who sold his daughter's body for silver, the rogue son who secretly poisoned his sick father to get rid of the burden, the woman who spent a lot of money to have a child in order to win back her husband, and the scholar who poisoned his brother to occupy the family property...

She has seen a lot.

Then I gradually understood that not all things in the world are bright, and the human heart is more dangerous than mountains and rivers, and more difficult to understand than the sky. The sky still has autumn, winter, summer, morning and evening, and people are thick-skinned and affectionate.

The principles that I didn’t understand from books when I was young, I gradually understood them after wandering around the market.

Life taught her to be patient, to be ruthless and decisive, and to learn to protect herself. That's why she decided to go to Beijing without hesitation after returning to Changwu County.

If she had not been taken away by Yunniang, her first reaction might have been to file a complaint with the authorities like Lu Qian did. But she was taken away by Yunniang. The medicine she drank unwillingly at night on Luomei Peak, the corpses in the mass grave, the tears and fear finally turned her into a different Lu Tong.

She just wanted revenge.

It's all destined, by some strange coincidence.

In this mortal world, there are joys and sorrows, ups and downs, and for her, Yunniang is no longer something that can be simply described by the words love and hate.

"Actually, I'm... very scared." She spoke softly. She had killed someone, it was her first time to kill someone, a life was in her hands, and Yunniang's words before her death were like a curse, lingering in her mind all the time.

"From today on, you are just like me."

"Congratulations, you have graduated."

She had been keeping this secret fear in mind, but tonight, she suddenly got tired of hiding it and allowed herself to be honest in front of the other person.

The night was long, the light of the lanterns reflected the bright white snow, and there was a little moonlight in the clouds, shining on the two people under the tree.

"Don't be afraid."

A hand reached out and gently held her face.

Lu Tong raised her head, and the person in front of her lowered her eyes and raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes.

She reacted belatedly and, without knowing when, she actually started crying.

Pei Yunying touched her head, leaned over slightly, and held her in his arms.

His voice was gentle.

"Doctor Lu is not a bad person."

Lu Chen was stunned.

He could always see through her at a glance, see through her fear and worry, her uneasiness and anxiety, no matter if they were at loggerheads at first or if they understood each other tacitly later.

The quagmire entangles people and makes them sink deeper and deeper, but there is always a hand reaching out from the shore.

She held that hand now.

The warmth of the cloak and his embrace drove away all the coldness. Lu Tong smelled a faint, cold fragrance. She had been awakened by this smell in her dreams. She was attached to this smell, just as she was attached to the meager sunlight in winter.

She buried her face in his arms and hugged him tightly.

"I know."

……

Half a month after the snow stopped in southern Jiangsu, the sun came out in the city.

The better the climate is, the more beneficial it will be for disease control.

The emperor issued an order, and red wood vines and golden tan were continuously transported to southern Jiangsu. The new prescription for epidemic prevention was effective, and the city re-arranged the pharmacy. In addition to the patients in the plague center, the people of southern Jiangsu spontaneously went to the pharmacy every day to get the anti-epidemic soup.

Su Nan gradually became more lively.

No new bodies were buried in the execution ground behind the ruined temple. After the epidemic stabilized, the imperial court issued an order to send new medical officers to southern Jiangsu to handle aftermath of the epidemic. After the new medical officers arrived, the original group of medical officers had to set off back to Beijing.

Amid this gradually improving trend, southern Jiangsu ushered in the first New Year after the pandemic.

Early in the morning, firecrackers were set off in the medical officer's quarters.

The red "Mantangcai" was scattered all over the yard, and the smoke from the firecrackers diluted the smell of medicine, adding a lot of liveliness to the yard. Chang went in to ask for two red lanterns, and asked Ji Xun to write a couplet to post at the door of the dormitory. Seeing this, Lin Danqing said, "Doctor, we will be returning to Shengjing in a few days, why are you posting this?"

"Young people don't understand," Chang Jin instructed Ji Xun to put up the Spring Festival couplets, "This is a ceremony. Besides, won't the medical officer from Pingzhou come in a few days? It won't look good if there's nothing left."

Lin Danqing was helpless: "You are so particular." Turning around, she saw Lu Tong coming out of the room, and immediately smiled: "Sister Lu!"

Lu Tong came over.

Chang Jin turned around after hearing this and, as usual, he felt her pulse before withdrawing his hand and nodding with satisfaction: "Not bad, not bad. You're getting better day by day."

Lu Tong felt much better.

Perhaps it was because of the exquisite medical prescription of Lin Danqing's ancestor, that after she vomited black blood that night, it seemed to have taken away some of the deposited toxins in her body. After that, Ji Xun gave her acupuncture every day, and together with Lin Danqing and Chang Jin's new prescription, her originally weak pulse was much stronger than before.

The most gratifying thing is that some of the medicines have begun to work on her body.

Even though the effect of the medicine is much weaker than that for ordinary people, the fact that it works means that everything is going in a good direction.

"There is still not enough medicinal materials in southern Jiangsu," Chang Jin sighed, "When we return to Shengjing, I will pick up some medicinal materials with the Imperial Pharmacy to prepare a prescription. It should be better than now."

Lu Tong thanked Chang Jin and looked outside the dormitory door.

There was a lot of noise outside, and the sound of bargaining could be heard faintly, with one or two crisp sounds of firecrackers in between.

"They're selling window decorations and New Year gifts." Lin Danqing explained, "Today is New Year's Eve."

Lu Tong suddenly realized.

Another year has passed.

Since the epidemic situation in southern Jiangsu has improved, it is gradually no longer as lifeless as when they first arrived. There are pedestrians passing by on the streets, and some shops and businesses have reopened. Although it is not as bustling as before the epidemic, it is gradually returning to its former appearance.

Therefore, this New Year after surviving the disaster becomes even more precious.

"Mr. Cai said that fireworks will be set off in Sunan City tonight. The medical officer had originally planned to have a New Year's Eve dinner with us in the dormitory tonight, and we could watch the fireworks together then."

"New Year's Eve dinner?"

"Yes," Lin Danqing said, "We fought hard to fight the epidemic in southern Jiangsu. Even if we didn't make any contributions, we still worked hard. I heard that in previous years, everyone would get together in advance before New Year's Eve at the Medical Officers' Institute. We would eat, drink, and listen to the directors' thoughts on the future of the Medical Officers' Institute. But this year, the venue has changed to southern Jiangsu."

Lu Tong was speechless, then remembered something and glanced outside the door.

Lin Danqing rolled his eyes and leaned closer and asked, "Are you looking for Pei Dianshuai?"

"No."

"What do you mean nothing?" Lin Danqing sneered, "You two are so thoughtful that it's almost written on your faces. Who can you fool?"

Lu Chen: "..."

"He went out with Lieutenant Li and County Magistrate Cai." Lin Danqing explained enthusiastically, "We have to go back to Shengjing in a few days. There are too few people guarding Sunan City. He wants to leave some people here. I guess he will be very busy these days."

Lu Chen nodded.

In fact, it was not just Pei Yunying who was busy, the medical officers were also very busy.

In a few days, the medical officers from Pingzhou will come to take over, and the previous epidemic affairs in southern Jiangsu will also need to be handed over. After Chang Jin posted the Spring Festival couplets, he went back to sort out the handover documents with the medical officers.

When you are busy, the passage of time is not always noticeable. When Lu Tong and Lin Danqing finished sorting out the last volume of documents on epidemic prevention, the sun had set.

The lanterns in the dormitory lit up.

Li Wenhu and Cai Fang had people put together a long table in the yard in advance and prepared the food. Southern Jiangsu had just experienced a major epidemic and was not as bad as Shengjing. Even though there were relief medicines and grains now, they still had to be frugal. The food was very simple. In the middle was a bowl of Yuanxiao, and it was said that some of it contained coins.

Lin Danqing pulled Lu Tong to sit in the yard. Chang Jin specially opened some Tu Su wine, but only allowed each person to drink a small cup to avoid delays. Because Lu Tong was taking medicine, he only got a cup of hot water.

"Thank you for your hard work," Chang Jin stood up with a cup of wine, feeling a little emotional. "During the days since we came to Southern Jiangsu, all of you have worked together to fight the epidemic. Now that Southern Jiangsu has been relieved of its crisis, everyone here is a hero. I would like to toast you all and wish that when we return to the Medical Officers' Institute in the future, no matter where we are appointed, we will always remember the days when we fought side by side in Southern Jiangsu, and stay true to our original aspirations and help each other. I also wish that after this epidemic, Southern Jiangsu will be better and everything will be fine!"

He seemed drunk even before he drank any alcohol, and spoke a long paragraph in one breath.

Lin Danqing leaned close to Lu Tong's ear and whispered, "See, the old doctor is right. Doctor Chang really wants to imagine the future."

Lu Chen: "..."

The next moment, Chang Jin pointed at Lin Danqing and said, "Doctor Lin has performed well this time. He can be promoted to level three in the clerk assessment!"

"Really?" Lin Danqing stood up happily, sweeping away the disdainful look on his face, holding up the wine cup and saying seriously: "Thank you, Doctor. I offer you a toast!"

The medical officers burst into laughter.

There was a lot of noisy toasts all around, and Lu Tong was carefully poking the Yuanxiao in the bowl with a spoon.

A large bowl of Yuanxiao (Chinese dumplings) was placed in the middle of the table, and each person was given a small bowl of four Yuanxiao (Chinese dumplings), which was a sign of peace in all four seasons.

Lu Tong ate four slowly and found that there was not a single coin left.

She used a spoon to stir the empty porcelain bowl. Just as she was feeling a little disappointed, she heard a voice in her ear: "Are you looking for coins?"

Lu Tong turned around and saw Ji Xun pushing his bowl towards him.

She was stunned for a moment, Ji Xun coughed lightly and explained: "I see you have been looking for it... I haven't touched this bowl, you can eat it."

He saw that Lu Tong had no interest in other food and had hardly touched his chopsticks all night, but he ate the Yuanxiao in front of him cleanly and looked a little unsatisfied. After a little thought, he realized that Lu Tong was probably looking for coins.

Legend has it that eating Yuanxiao wrapped with coins will bring good luck in the new year.

"No need." Lu Tong thanked him and pushed the bowl back in front of Ji Xun. "I'm full."

Perhaps influenced by Lin Danqing, she has recently believed in luck. However, although she wanted more good luck, Ji Xun's move was inappropriate. If there was nothing in Ji Xun's bowl, she would probably feel full tonight after eating eight Yuanxiao in a row.

Ji Xun paused, and was about to speak when Chang Jin's voice suddenly came from behind him: "Master Pei."

The two of them looked back and saw a young man outside the dormitory door with a smile on his face. He glanced at everyone at the table and walked in.

"I'm late, sorry," he said.