Looking at those infected villagers, seeing their sickly appearances, Xia Wenjin always recalls the words from the unofficial history: The green hills turn to scorched earth, and wronged souls wail through the night!
Her heart rises with a sense of compassion and helplessness.
The power of one person is so limited; can she prevent this catastrophe in Wangshan Town?
She hopes to be able to do more, even just a little more. Although there is no dicine, at least, she can protect those who aren’t infected, isolate those who are ill, and prevent more people from being infected.
She’s not only in Shuifeng Village but has also gone to six other villages, running tirelessly to every isolation point every day.
Being tired is nothing, the most grievance is from those clueless villagers who speculate her with the greatest malice, always thinking she has an ulterior motive for staying. They assu she is tornting others.
In Daleng Village, she was surrounded by a dozen villagers, Xia Wenjin initially thought they had a sick person at ho and wanted her to visit.
Unexpectedly, one of them pointed at her from afar and shouted, "It’s him, this outsider talking about an epidemic, ordering the town chief to build isolation points, collecting money from every household, and driving healthy people to the isolation point. He has ill intentions!"
"A fraudster has co to deceive us, beat him to death!"
"Make him leave, our village doesn’t welco such liars!"
"Building isolation points? I think he has an ulterior motive. How is it possible that there’s an epidemic? If there is, it’s his doing!"
"Right, why was there no epidemic before he ca, and there’s an epidemic now? He must have poisoned our village!"
"Beat him to death!"
"Right, beating him to death serves him right!"
...
While speaking, those villagers holding hoes, rakes, and stones rushed towards Xia Wenjin.
By this ti, the afternoon had passed, and Xia Wenjin hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, just drank a few sips of water. The sun was intense, and the weather was scorching. After running through three villages to check the isolation points, she was dizzy and exhausted. Seeing these nacing villagers, her first reaction was to turn around and run.
At this mont, how could she have the strength to fight?
Besides, fighting doesn’t solve the problem.
Yet her running only made the villagers think she had a guilty conscience. They chased even more vigorously, surroundingly blocking her path.
Xia Wenjin felt truly frustrated; here she was running for their lives, and there they were trying to take hers!
The terrain in the village was far less familiar to Xia Wenjin compared to these villagers. She was trained in martial arts, shouldn’t be chased like a chicken by villagers, but with a patient having a nightti attack last night, she stayed by their side for care and observation, exhausted to the point of dizziness, dividing each mont into pieces of ti. Through the morning till now, she hadn’t slept all night and only drank a few sips of water, not made of iron, how could she compete with these strong, robust, and aggressive villagers?
Soon, Xia Wenjin was cornered.
The young girl had lost her glow from days ago, her face showed fatigue, only her eyes remained dark and bright like a gemstone in the night, glittering with light. Her clothes had beco wrinkled, lacking the past carefree freshness. She was originally a woman, although tall among won, dressed in n’s clothing, she appeared thin.
At this mont, surrounded by a group of strong n, she appeared small and weak.
A man angrily said, "Still want to run, run to where? I see you are not a good person, now it’s hard to say anything, right?"
"Beat him to death! If the liar dies, it’s deserved!"
"Turn him over to the governnt, let him rot in jail!"
"No need for that trouble, daring to deceive us, beat him to death!"
...
The crowd was roused, filled with cries of beating and killing.
Next, they raised bamboo sticks, hoes, and various chaotic weapons.
Xia Wenjin was too tired to run any longer, exhausted physically and even more so emotionally. Except for Shuifeng Village where it was slightly better, in other villages, weren’t the villagers all glaring at her or intentionally provoking her, attacking her with words, and finding ways to hinder her?
The distrust and suspicion, such malicious speculations, and obstructive actions, if not for Xia Wenjin’s determination to save lives, not wanting thousands to beco re numbers in a fiery disaster, not wanting green hills to turn to scorched earth and wronged souls to cry through the night, it would’ve been almost impossible to continue.
The village chief required those with red spots to co to the isolation point, but aside from those genuinely sick, no one ca.
And those who were sick, even after being placed in the isolation point, their families never visited again, the village had no dical staff, nor anyone who knew dicine, moreover, who would spend their own ti for others? They all expected her to care and look after them.
She was just one person, unable to be everywhere.
After so many days of fatigue, all she received in return was shouts of beating and killing?
Hearts do grow cold!
Especially now, it seems she is the only one persevering and striving. Those patients mostly ca to the isolation point not because they believed in her skill but because they wanted treatnt without cost, due to Doctor Zhang charging excessively.
Clearly, she is a doctor, working hard for their benefit, seeking a way out for them, yet they treat her as if she was begging them, asking why she only examines and doesn’t prescribe dication? Questioning if she can even treat illnesses? If not, don’t waste their ti! So relatives even threatened that if their loved one died in the isolation point, they would beat Xia Wenjin to death!
Villagers are simple?
Indeed, not to exclude the simple ones, like Uncle Kuang’s family.
But they are also ignorant, previously incited by Zhang Jiantang, now being utilized with hidden motives, particularly serious with xenophobic intentions, always suspecting Xia Wenjin has other motives. Yet they never considered what she could possibly want from them.
At this mont, those objects were about to hit Xia Wenjin.
The light in Xia Wenjin’s eyes gradually returned to coldness; she wants to save people, but she is not a saint, she has done everything humanly possible, if all that cos in return is the villagers’ hatred and wish for her death, she would cast aside this heart of compassion.
Seeing those sticks about to fall on her.
From afar, soone shouted loudly: "Stop!"
Yet the voice was so distant, how could it stop those who were already moving?
Even more, seeing soone coming to stop them, they moved even faster, the leader, with eyes glaring fiercely, intended to strike Xia Wenjin dead with a single blow.
With a loud "bang", the muscular man resembling a black tower, along with his wooden stick, fell backward, followed by a series of thuds, and a figure darted swiftly like a hare, kicking away all the villagers who were about to strike.
Sounds of sticks hitting ground, bodies falling, painful cries, and cursing erupted.
A person stood protecting Xia Wenjin, upright and tall, with a dignified face, gaze sharp as a blade, coldly scanning the ground strewn with villagers.
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