Ning Chen looked at the young man. “Thank you.”
Sixth was in his twenties, but his skin was rough and dark and he looked past thirty. Hearing Ning Chen thank him brought a plain, honest smile onto his face.
The old man looked at Ning Chen. “By your accent you’re not from Zhenyuan County.”
Ning Chen nodded slightly. “I’ve come to see relatives.”
He had no wish to give himself away, and turned it aside. “Sir. How long was I asleep?”
“A day and a night. You were in the water a long while. Sixth carried you back and the fever wouldn’t come down.”
That startled Ning Chen. He had not thought he had been out a day and a night.
No wonder his head felt heavy and his feet light and he ached all over. It was the fever.
Ning Chen looked at Sixth. “Brother Sixth. When you found me, did you see anybody else?”
Sixth shook his head.
Ning Chen frowned. Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng would be out of their minds by now.
The old man turned to Sixth. “Fetch the medicine you’ve boiled for this young gentleman.”
Sixth nodded and went.
The old man looked steadily at Ning Chen, and then bent and bowed over clasped fists. “This old fellow presents himself to my lord.”
That brought Ning Chen up short, and his eyes went wary by degrees.
The old man explained quickly. “Don’t be alarmed, my lord. This old fellow is only a physician of no particular use. I once had the good fortune to go to the capital, and I have seen men of the Inspectorate.”
“The oiled paper on my lord’s bundle was torn. This old fellow was afraid what was inside had been spoiled by the water, so I took it on myself to bring it out and dry it… There is a silver fish-scale coat in it.”
Ning Chen said nothing, and the old man went on. “My lord has come for the people of Zhenyuan County, has he not?”
Ning Chen looked at him. “What do you mean by that? What about the people of Zhenyuan County?”
The old man let out a long breath. “This old fellow is a physician of no great learning, but even he knows what the Inspectorate is for.”
“On any other business my lord could have come to Zhenyuan County openly… The officials of Zhenyuan County would have lined up to welcome him and entertained him handsomely, and he would not have had to suffer any of this.”
“Instead my lord went over hills and ridges and across a wide river, and very nearly died of it… This commoner is bold enough to guess that my lord came for the people of Zhenyuan County.”
“As to what my lord asked — what about the people of Zhenyuan County? If this old fellow told you, perhaps you would not believe it… Better to wait until my lord’s illness is gone, and go out and see for yourself.”
Ning Chen was about to speak when Sixth came in with the bowl.
The old man looked at him. “Rest properly, sir. This old fellow has work to get to.”
Ning Chen drank the medicine, handed the empty bowl to Sixth, and asked with a smile, “Brother Sixth. Is there anywhere worth seeing in Zhenyuan County?”
Sixth went still for a moment, then smiled his plain honest smile. “There are a great many places worth seeing in Zhenyuan County.”
“Then the people of Zhenyuan County must live very well.”
The smile went stiff on Sixth’s face. “Yes. The world is at peace now, and the people of Zhenyuan County live settled and content. Everyone does very well.”
“Rest properly, sir. I’ve got work to get to.”
Sixth said it and left in a hurry.
Something moved in Ning Chen’s eyes. So the people of Zhenyuan County were not only living badly. They were held down hard enough that they did not dare tell the truth.
He rested two days and was a good deal better.
The worn skin inside his thighs had scabbed over as well… He had been afraid of it turning bad.
Ning Chen could get out of bed.
He came outside. It was a small earth-walled yard with herbs drying everywhere in it.
He went through to the front room, saw the old man and Sixth both busy, and went out of the door without disturbing them.
There was a couplet at the gate.
但求世間無疾苦， 何惜架上藥生塵。
Let there be no sickness and no suffering in this world, and what would it matter if the medicine on my shelves turned to dust.
It had been cut into the wood, but the red lacquer was flaking and it was nearly past reading.
Ning Chen thought of his last life, and what got written over the door of a pharmacy there. Buy one, get one free. Members’ day on such and such a date, medicine at a discount… or spend so much and they give you eggs.
He shook his head and walked on.
There were few people in the street.
The ones he passed were in rags, thin as kindling, their faces blank and past feeling, like walking corpses.
At a street corner Ning Chen saw a ragged woman with a child howling with hunger, begging.
He felt over himself. He had come out in a hurry and had nothing on him at all.
The wind came up and took the dust with it, and filled the sky.
The whole of Zhenyuan County was bare and broken down.
Only the trees along the road were still in full leaf.
Ning Chen walked a long way and came to a ruined temple.
There were a great many people there with nowhere to go, none of them properly covered, all of them sickly, their eyes past feeling.
Ning Chen came around behind the temple, and his breath stopped.
Every tree there was bare. The bark was gone off all of them.
He went closer and looked, and found tooth marks all over the trunks… which meant the bark had been eaten.
The trees in the street were untouched. The county office would have forbidden the people to go near them, and kept those few trees to keep up the look of a country at peace.
Ning Chen’s fists shut hard.
He had been a soldier. There is nothing he could stand less than this.
He thought of Old General Chen, a lifetime on campaign, who needs a crutch now to cross a yard… A whole life spent, and what he had protected was a nest of woodworm.
He thought of Tao Qizhi, who had paid with his own life and had still changed nothing.
Ning Chen went back to the surgery with his face dark.
If he did not pull these woodworm out one by one and put them on the block, he was not fit to be called a man.
“You’re back, my lord?”
The old man came in with a bowl in his hands. “This is the last of it. When you’ve drunk it my lord will be well.”
Ning Chen took the bowl and drank it off.
“Thank you, physician.”
The old man shook his head. “My lord needn’t thank me. Treating sickness and saving people is this old fellow’s work… It is a pity he is of so little use. He can treat a man, and he can do nothing at all for the chronic disease of this county.”
“My lord went out just now and saw it, I imagine? Zhenyuan County is very sick.”
Something contracted in Ning Chen’s eyes. He said it one word at a time. “I know nothing of medicine, but I know that a grave sickness needs a violent medicine… Zhenyuan County can still be saved. I am willing to be the ingredient that carries it, and to pay with my life.”
Something moved violently behind the old man’s eyes, and he stared at Ning Chen.
He was about to say something when a noise started up outside.
“Physician. Where is the physician? Save my husband, save my husband—”
The old man’s face changed and he went quickly out of the room.
Ning Chen went out after him.
A woman and a young girl were holding up a man thin as kindling between them… His face was swollen and bruised, and there were marks all over him, blue and purple, as though he had been beaten. He was bringing up blood, and would not stop.
“Physician, physician… I beg you, save my man. I beg you—”
The woman had lost her head entirely. She went down on her knees and knocked her head on the ground over and over.
The old man said heavily, “Sixth. Help me. Get him inside.”
Just then a crowd of men with clubs came in through the gate.
They were all in short working clothes, and far better dressed than the common people. Household men to somebody, by the look of them.
The man leading them was not tall, in fine clothes, with a mean, rat-eyed look about him and treachery all over his face.
“Well, well… So this is where the pair of you have been hiding.”
The rat-eyed man said it in a strange sing-song, and then pointed at the young girl. “Come on, then. Take her back with me.”
(End of Chapter 52)