Chapter 103

Chapter 103

On the seventh day after the epidemic was confirmed, the death toll reached eighty-seven, and still no effective drug had been developed.

When Magistrate Liu came to the foot of the mountain, his steps were unsteady. He no longer dared to ask about the numbers. He wanted to ask Chen Jue, but Chen Jue didn't have time for him.

Every day he stared at that number, unable to eat or sleep. The physicians weren't doing any better than him. Magistrate Liu didn't dare push them, nor could he—what good would it do to drive them to death? It'd just add to the death count.

On the eighth day, the death toll reached ninety-six, with the daily rise closing in on double digits. There were hundreds of severe cases, and the infected had reached the thousands.

By that day, Magistrate Liu was already stumbling.

When he learned that no effective drug had been found, he staggered back home.

He wouldn't live long enough to see a cure.

Magistrate Liu returned home in despair and wrote his will again.

Maybe heaven figured he'd made up for his past sins with all his hard work lately, for on the ninth day, the effective drug was developed.

Thanks to Chen Jue's round-the-clock research and testing, a highly effective cure for cholera was finally created on the ninth day.

The seven severe patients who had taken the new drug the previous night had their fevers broken and diarrhea stopped by morning, their grayish faces turned back to a normal color.

This had every doctor in the place over the moon. Several senior doctors took turns checking pulses and, confirming the patients weren't just having a last-minute rally before dying but were genuinely improving, were almost in tears of joy.

They could be saved—all those thousand-plus people could be saved.

This was the ninth day after the cholera epidemic had been identified by name, thirteen days since the first patient appeared. Over those thirteen days, the number of patients had accumulated to 1,180, and the whole county had barely ten thousand people.

So you can imagine how thrilled they were when this good news came out.

Doctor Zhao was already yelling excitedly at Chen Jue: "Doctor Chen! Come quick! The medicine is working!"

Chen Jue had only caught a quick nap in the early morning hours. Hearing his shout, he woke with a start. His brain wasn't even awake yet, but his feet were already carrying him to the patients' tent.

After Chen Jue also confirmed that the medicine was working, the doctors were so happy they couldn't even put it into words. They quickly switched everyone else to the new drug.

After a whole morning of observation, they confirmed the disease was truly held in check in every case—not a single person died that day.

When Magistrate Liu learned the news, he came galloping over, yelling Chen Jue's name the whole way: "Doctor Chen! Doctor Chen!"

Chen Jue thought something was wrong and came out to see him. Magistrate Liu stumbled getting off his horse and dropped to his knees in front of Chen Jue.

Chen Jue let him clutch his clothes, not knowing what to say for a moment. In his past life, plenty of family members had knelt to him when they got too emotional, but Magistrate Liu didn't need to do this.

Huo Jilin gave Magistrate Liu a hand up: "Magistrate Liu, people are watching."

Magistrate Liu understood his meaning and knew it wasn't right for a seventh-rank official to kneel to a commoner. He was just way too excited. If he could kowtow to Chen Jue a couple of times, he'd do it in a heartbeat. He clasped his hands toward Chen Jue and said:

"Doctor Chen, thank you... You saved the people of Dongling County... This is great, just great..."

Chen Jue said politely: "You're too kind, Magistrate Liu. Now that this medicine is working, I hope you'll send this prescription to the other counties as fast as a horse can carry it."

Magistrate Liu looked at him and Huo Jilin upon hearing this. Whether they'd talked it over or just happened to think alike, it was obvious.

Selfless and compassionate, with a heart for healing the world.

Looking at them, you'd never guess they were like that—how cold and heartless the two of them seemed.

"Really?" Magistrate Liu asked again to confirm.

Chen Jue nodded: "The epidemic is only truly contained when it's contained across the whole country. So the medicine has to be used everywhere at once. If other places don't get better, new strains of the disease could pop up..."

Chen Jue was afraid he wouldn't take it seriously, so he spelled it out again.

This plague belonged to the whole of Great Liang. It was no use if only Dongling County recovered.

If the neighboring counties stayed sick for long, the plague would spread and create new symptoms, making things even worse. So it had to be suppressed and wiped out quickly and effectively in a short window of time.

Magistrate Liu understood all this. They were all citizens of Great Liang, drinking the same water and eating the same rice. So if one got sick, everyone got sick. Among the infected were plenty of rich families, officials, and even big shots in the capital. In the face of the plague, everyone's life was as cheap as grass.

So now he finally understood why Huo Jilin had sent soldiers to assist neighboring counties in setting up medical tents.

And why Chen's Pharmaceutical had been supplying medicine and purchasing raw herbs at cost price as aid.

Because if the neighboring counties didn't recover, Dongling County's recovery alone was useless.

Magistrate Liu's big-picture thinking had finally clicked. He wanted to aim higher.

He looked at Huo Jilin: "Are you and Doctor Chen sure you want to make this prescription public with no strings attached? So can I send it to the capital too?"

After seeing how well it worked in his own county, once he confirmed the drug was solid, it could be used in the capital. If he pulled it off, maybe he could even make up for his past screw-ups.

Huo Jilin shot him a look, reading his mind, and nodded: "Of course."

Not just the plague cure—Chen Jue never held back even other valuable prescriptions.

Magistrate Liu's spirits shot up, and he got things moving right away.

He was like a man brought back to life, finally seeing hope of living. Before, he'd been forcing himself to fight tooth and nail; now, that fight had finally paid off.

Magistrate Liu turned around and tears streamed down his face.

He didn't want Huo Jilin to see him like that, but he really did feel deep gratitude toward him.

After all, just last night he'd written out his confession of guilt, planning to hand it to his superiors this afternoon and wait for the court to sentence him to death.

Chen Jue kept observing in the medical tent for a few more days. He still couldn't go home—this was the most crucial moment.

These days, he got to see Huo Jilin, even though Huo Jilin came in the dead of night and left at the crack of dawn.

Huo Jilin always stopped by to see Chen Jue first. He'd originally planned to check on Chen Jue, then head home to see Huo Yu, but now Chen Jue was too busy to get away, so Huo Yu had to be looked after by him.

At the very least, he had to make sure he saw the kid once every ten days, so he wouldn't feel like he'd lost both his dads.

But when Huo Jilin came and leaned on Chen Jue, he'd end up dozing off. By the time he opened his eyes again, it was already getting light out, and he could only rush back to check on Huo Yu, hoping the kid wouldn't be mad.

Chen Jue opened his eyes, half-asleep, and asked: "Leaving already?"

Huo Jilin made a soft "mm" sound: "It's still early. Get some more sleep—it's not even light out yet."

Now that they had the cure, he could let Chen Jue get some rest.

But Chen Jue was already wide awake.

He threw on his clothes too and watched Huo Jilin get on his horse: "Take it slow on the road. Tell Huo Yu I'll be back to see him in a few days, and I'll bring him good food and fun stuff."

Huo Jilin shot him a smile: "Okay, don't worry. I'll tell him. He hasn't cried."

So he really didn't cry? That's good.

Chen Jue looked toward the mountains and thought, when he got back, he'd definitely buy a few more toys to reward him.

He'd also set him up with some teething treats—couldn't just have fries. He'd get him a bone to gnaw on, something with a bit of meat flavor.

Chen Jue took a deep breath in the first morning sunlight, cleared his head, then went to see his patients.

The critically ill patients stabilized after taking the medicine and could recover by the fifth day.

So on the fifteenth day after the outbreak was confirmed, all patients in Dongling County had stabilized and were improving.

Mild cases responded quickly to the medicine too, recovering in three days.

Most severe cases could also recover within five to seven days.

Twenty days later, Chen Jue was finally able to go home.

Old Doctor Tang and the others shooed him away: "Go home for a day and spend time with the kid. Tell Xiaoyu we'll all come visit him later and bring him gifts. Make sure you buy him some gifts when you get home."

Chen Jue knew—he'd bought plenty of gifts, and he really had bought bones. The butcher at the meat stall had superb knife skills, separating the meat from the bone cleanly, so Chen Jue didn't even need to do any extra work.

He picked out a few leg bones at the stall—ones easy for Huo Yu's little hands to hold and gnaw on—then rode home on horseback.

He hadn't been home for twenty whole days. Not only did Huo Yu barely recognize Chen Jue, but even Zhang Xiuer, who was holding him, was wiping her eyes.

"Jue Geer? Doctor Chen!"

She hurried over holding Huo Yu. Chen Jue dismounted and smiled at Huo Yu. Huo Yu kept his little face taut—not crying, not smiling, just staring at Chen Jue.

Chen Jue felt a pang of sadness at being looked at like that.

"Daddy's home. Let me go change clothes, then I'll hold you."

Chen Jue reeked of medicine and disinfectant. Even though he'd changed into fresh clothes and disinfected everything inside and out before reaching the doorstep, he still felt it wasn't right to hold Huo Yu like this.

Huo Yu was as clean as his big, bright eyes—like the only patch of pure earth in this world.

Chen Jue quickly went inside to change. Halfway through changing, he heard Huo Yu start crying.

He just couldn't hold it in anymore.

Zhang Xiuer stifled a laugh and soothed him: "Don't cry, don't cry. Daddy just went to change. He'll be out in a minute."

Chen Jue changed, washed his hands, and came out. Huo Yu cried even louder.

Chen Jue took him into his arms. Huo Yu wrapped his little arms around Chen Jue's neck and wailed. Chen Jue gently patted his back: "I'm sorry. I missed you so, so much."

He carried Huo Yu around the yard in a slow circle. Uncle Liu, who was cooking, wiped his face and kept saying, "Good that you're back, good that you're back."

Even though Huo Jilin had said last time that he was fine and would come back once the medicine was developed, they still worried every day until they saw Chen Jue come home.

Huo Yu cried for a while, then finally lifted his head from Chen Jue's chest and looked at him through tearful eyes: "Daddy... hold..."

Chen Jue smiled and held him: "Okay, I've got you. Want to see what gifts I brought you?"

Huo Yu was soothed just like that. The whole kang was full of gifts—he grabbed one to play with, then grabbed another. He could already crawl really fast now, and he even tried to pull himself up using the railing on the edge of the kang.

Chen Jue held his hands and let him walk. After a few steps, he laughed heartily, looking so proud of himself.

When the big marrow bone was done boiling, he was even happier. His little hands gripped the bone firmly, taking a bite now and then.

Chen Jue had already removed the membrane from the bone, so Huo Yu could gnaw off a bit of bone shaving with a hint of meat flavor. He chewed it with great relish.

His complementary egg custard now had a little meat puree mixed in, so he loved this taste.

Uncle Liu reached out to him: "Let me have a taste?"

Huo Yu hesitated a moment before bringing it to Uncle Liu's mouth, but he gripped it tightly, refusing to let go. Uncle Liu laughed heartily: "Oh dear... sweetie... Grandpa won't eat it, you eat it..."

So Huo Yu quickly pulled it back and shoved it into his own mouth to gnaw.

Chen Jue wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and smiled at him: "Tasty, right?"

Huo Yu held the bone up to his mouth, smacking his lips to signal him to eat. Chen Jue laughed and took a symbolic bite of the bone, saying, "Delicious."

Huo Yu burst into loud laughter, like silver bells—this was genuine joy.

Little kids are just adorable. They don't hold grudges. When they like you, they give you their whole heart, unreservedly.