Daily life of slaying demons in the government

Chapter 357 Insect Plague
On Houxi Street, a water channel was built to bring water from under the moat and was used to supply part of the city’s water supply in non-wartime.

People use it to wash dishes and clothes, and some even use it to wash feces buckets. You can imagine what the water quality is like.

But ordinary people have no choice, especially those living in Houxi Street. They don’t have a well here, so it’s very difficult to get water, not to mention daily water. They can only accept that the water in the canal is not clean. At most, they can go to other places to get some drinking water.

When Yang Qian found Wang Qin, the woman was carrying a bucket of water and sweating all over her forehead as she headed home. Seeing Yang Qian standing at the door of her house, she was so timid that she didn't even dare to go home, and she stopped in her tracks and froze in her tracks.

The robe Yang Qian wore could completely intimidate most people in the city. Although Wang Qin could not tell Yang Qian's identity, she knew that the man in front of her was a very important official.

Being an official in the capital city is definitely a feared identity.

"Is Wang Zheng your brother?" Yang Qian could see the woman's fear, so he spoke first and stated his purpose.

"Yes, it is."

"Open the door. I need to ask you something. Come in and talk."

"Oh! Okay, sir, please wait a moment."

In fact, there was no lock at all. Wang Qin just pushed the door open and went in. She was curious why the officer was waiting outside the door instead of kicking it open and going in?
The room is very small and you can see what's going on inside by standing outside the door.

But the inside was very clean, and with the light from the door open, one could see what was going on inside. In a prominent place, there was a small table with a tablet, and in front of it was a rough clay bowl with small stones in it, which should be used to insert incense and candles.

There are three tablets in total, the top one is "Father and Mother" and the bottom one is "Brother".

After taking a quick glance, Yang Qian brought a stool into the room and sat down. He saw Wang Qin struggling to pour the water in the bucket into a small water tank and then put the lid on it.

"Sir, what can I do for you?"

"Tell me about your brother. How he died."

Wang Qin was stunned for a moment. It had been almost three years since her brother died, but she didn't expect someone to come and ask about him, and he was a high-ranking official. She was very confused for a moment.

"To answer your question, sir, my brother died of an insect plague and has been dead for almost two years." Wang Qin lowered his head, still not understanding how his deceased brother could have attracted such a high-ranking official.

"Tell me more carefully what your brother's condition was like before he died."

"This..." Wang Qin frowned and recalled for a while before saying, "My brother felt listless at the beginning. He dozed off all day and couldn't eat. Later, he began to faint from time to time. His health became worse and worse. He also had nightmares when he slept and it was not peaceful at all.

Later on, he started to look thin, as if he had suddenly become 70 or 80 years old, and his hair and teeth started to fall out. When he died, his body was not even half as heavy as before.”

Perhaps remembering the miserable death of her brother, Wang Qin's eyes were slightly red. Although a few years had passed and time had diluted everything, she still couldn't get over the death of her last relative.

Yang Qian thought for a moment and asked, "Have you ever seen a doctor?"

"I did. The doctor initially thought that my brother was too weak, but when he saw the red color under his eyes, he said that he had been infected with an insect plague and that he could not be saved."

After leaving Wang Qin's house, Yang Qian's mind was filled with the mummies that he had seen in Jizhou City.

The blood, energy, and soul were sucked out of him alive, and he ended up in a state of exhaustion and being completely drained, which was a miserable description.

This is almost the same as what Wang Qin described when he was in the late stage of the plague. When Yang Qian asked Wang Qin, he asked if the deadly poisonous insects were visible in his brother's body after his death. Wang Qin replied that there were no deadly poisonous insects in his body. Instead, he said that when a person dies, the poisonous insects in his body will die with him.

This is interesting. If there really are poisonous insects, then they are parasitic. How can a poisonous insect that kills its host in a month or two and kills itself at the same time continue to reproduce? This is basically cutting off its own life, which is completely inconsistent with the instinct of living things.

So Yang Qian followed the doctor mentioned by Wang Qin and found a clinic not far from her home.

Small, but crowded.

Medical treatment is cheap here.

If you have money, give it to me. If you don't have money, you can use bread, pickled meat, fruit, or even carpenter's tools to pay for it. If you really don't have any of these things, then go to the clinic and work to pay the medical fees.

There were only two doctors and three medicine dispensers in the clinic.

Seeing Yang Qian coming in, the older of the two doctors came over to greet him and took him to a small room at the back to serve him tea.

"Sir, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I will tell you everything I know!"

"How much do you know about the plague?"

"Sir, insect plague is not common, and only about ten to twenty people are infected each year. Those who are infected are incurable, and usually they will show symptoms of fatigue and weakness in the early stages."

The doctor was talking clearly, but Yang Qian interrupted him and asked, "Is there any medical book about insect plague? I would like to read it."

"Sir, the disease of insect plague has not appeared in other places. It is because the city is close to the bamboo forest. Therefore, the disease of insect plague is not recorded in medical books. It was not until the immortal master of the government office instructed us doctors many years ago that we knew how to distinguish the disease of insect plague from ordinary physical weakness and fatigue."

"I see." Yang Qian's eyes widened for a moment, and then he asked curiously, "Based on your years of medical experience, what is the difference between insect plague and common diseases? Or is there anything that goes against common sense?"

The doctor thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Your Excellency, there are many differences from common diseases. It can even be said to be strange. There is no regular pattern in the onset of the plague, and from the onset of the plague to death, the body is like being drained dry. Even the blood in the corpse is mushy, and all the skin and flesh are dried up like being put on a kang. Other diseases have never had similar symptoms.

It can even be said that these symptoms alone do not seem like a disease. To say that it is a poison is to this extent, and it is unheard of elsewhere.

The insects in the bamboo forest are the weirdest ones! "

When he came out of the clinic, Yang Qian felt more confident.

"Bullshit insect plague! It's a damn evil and sinister method!" Yang Qian's face was gloomy, and he had already sneered at the so-called "insect plague" in his mind.

This is just a trick to fool the people. And this trick must be related to the Huashen Sect that Yang Qian knows, because they are too similar.

As for who came up with this method, there is no need to guess. It can't be anyone else except Xiao Cangyu. This is direct evidence, just like the "secret information" that the fox demon Hu Ming told Yang Qian before.

Xiao Cangyu is an evil cultivator, and he follows the path of the Huashen Sect.

After Yang Qian left the clinic, he followed the doctor to the charity hall on the back street of the clinic, where there were two corpses of people who had died from insect plague. The doctors left them there to study the plague and hope to find a cure.

"The body is from a year ago. People who died of insect plague are very dry. After being left for a few years, they won't rot at all. Instead, they will become dry and hard. If you are interested, you can take a look later."

(End of this chapter)