Qi Yue set down the two crystals in her hand, looking at the visitor with a hint of surprise.
This was a group of physicians from Yongqing Prefecture, all subtly signaling Doctor Zhu, whose standing with Qi Yue was clearly significant now; it was best for him to speak.
“Yes,” Doctor Zhu stepped forward and said.
“Is something the matter?” Qi Yue inquired, glancing down at the crystals in her hands, watching them overlap and separate, the characters on the paper beneath shifting and reforming with the motion.
“Yes, although we’ve completed a thorough epidemic control, we’re still uneasy, worried something was missed. Furthermore, patients who were quarantined are starting to return home, so we were hoping Madam could take a look,” Doctor Zhu said with a smile.
I see...
“Doctor Zhu, you can handle it,” Qi Yue replied with a chuckle.
“How can I?” Doctor Zhu quickly shook his head. “Besides, if you go, the common people will feel truly reassured.”
Stabilizing society and calming public anxiety after an epidemic was certainly an issue.
Qi Yue nodded, placing the crystals down.
“Very well, I’ll make a trip then,” she said.
Hearing her assent, the assembled physicians let out a collective sigh of relief, their expressions joyous.
What nonsense are they playing at, Qi Yue thought internally, shaking her head with a slight smile.
However, it was now confirmed that these people weren't plotting anything specifically against her.
Even though she had witnessed the continuous stream of dead bodies being carried out of the hospital, knowing what the scene would be like, walking down the street and seeing the sudden emergence of so many roadside graves, the paper money still fluttering like snowflakes, and the occasional wail of grief, Qi Yue still felt a deep sorrow.
The survival rate for this outbreak, even with the treatments available, had ultimately been only four out of ten.
Knowing how to save them, yet being unable to…
Qi Yue took a deep breath.
“Stop looking,” A’ru reached out and drew the carriage curtain, looking at Qi Yue. “You said that our situation here is different from where you come from. Therefore, you cannot demand the same results here as you would there.”
Qi Yue smiled at her, nodding.
“That’s right. Live in the present,” she stated.
“I’ve already sent word to Ah Hao that we are returning home today; she’ll surely have a table full of dishes waiting,” A’ru said cheerfully. “Second Madam will surely come over as well.”
“Yes, I will definitely be home for dinner. I won’t go anywhere else, no matter who invites me,” Qi Yue affirmed resolutely.
As they were chatting and laughing, the carriage abruptly stopped.
“What is it?” A’ru lifted the curtain to ask, then let out a short gasp and fell silent.
Qi Yue leaned past A’ru and could see the towering city gate.
“What’s wrong?” she also asked, leaning forward to look.
Standing before the city gate was a dense mass of people, yet at this moment, so many people were unnervingly quiet.
Qi Yue froze.
What did this mean?
“Madam Qi, collect the debt!”
Someone shouted loudly, and the voice instantly surged forward, deafeningly loud.
Then, the crowd parted, revealing the prison cart holding Wang Qingchun, presented before Qi Yue.
“Madam Qi, please alight from the carriage,” the physicians on both sides of the carriage exclaimed excitedly.
Qi Yue finally snapped back to reality, glancing at Doctor Zhu, then at the surging crowd before her, offering a wry, somewhat helpless smile.
So this was why they called her back...
Wang Qingchun sat slumped in the prison cart, entirely stripped of his former bearing, eyes closed as if already dead.
But playing dead wouldn't work. Seeing Qi Yue step down, the populace nearby began aggressively poking him with sticks.
“Kneel! Kneel!” they roared hatefully.
Wang Qingchun, jabbed until he couldn't maintain the pretense, opened his eyes.
“I kneel only to Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Kin, and Teacher! You people can forget it!” he shrieked, clutching the side of the cart, his gaze landing on the approaching woman. “Forget it!”
Qi Yue looked at him, walking step by step closer. As she approached, the surrounding clamor ceased, and the scene fell momentarily silent.
“How dare you even utter the word ‘official’,” Qi Yue said, raising her hand to point behind her. “What is an official! A magistrate to the people! Wang Qingchun, look now! See how your children are faring!”
Her sudden sharp increase in volume startled those nearby, who instinctively followed her pointing gesture.
Mantuan Graveyards, white mourning staffs—they were scattered everywhere.
This was only for those who had family and were given a proper burial; the unclaimed were simply burned in mass pyres and interred together in one pit.
“Wang Qingchun, a man like you kneeling to me is an insult,” Qi Yue stated, glancing at the camp guards standing nearby, clearly worried the crowd might damage the prison cart. “Excuse me, sirs, please open the door and let him down.”
The guard hesitated for a moment, then complied, opening the latch.
Wang Qingchun was dragged out. Suddenly without support, faced with the furious gazes surrounding him, he finally trembled with terror, his legs giving way as he collapsed to his knees.
“You don’t need to kneel to me. You should be kneeling to those who died,” Qi Yue told him, enunciating every word. “They might have had a sliver of hope, but it was extinguished by your egoistic struggle. Wang Qingchun, I know you were jealous of me, always trying to prove you were better. How ridiculous. One needs qualification to be jealous of someone. Do you think you possess that qualification? What are you to me?”
Having said that, she didn't spare Wang Qingchun another glance, stepping past him and striding toward the city gate.
Indeed, what is the loser to the victor? Ever since his first defeat, he had, in truth, always been kneeling, gazing up at this woman, though his heart refused to admit it.
Wang Qingchun slumped onto the ground.
The crowd parted, watching the woman walk steadily forward.
“Wang Qingchun, kneel!”
The shout erupted from behind her. Compared to the fawning excitement at the beginning, this sound was now filled with a furious, sorrowful indignation.
Kneel! Kneel to those who died!
Kneel! Kneel to those who hailed you as their magistrate!
Kneel! Kneel to those whose lives you failed to save!
Qi Yue turned her head slightly, watching as Wang Qingchun was forced to his knees. Someone grabbed his head and slammed it heavily onto the ground, again and again, facing the new graves outside the city and the populace still clad in mourning clothes.
Since Wang Qingchun still faced trial, the authorities could not allow him to die at this moment. The crowds were quickly dispersed, and he was loaded back into the prison cart. To avoid further complications, without waiting for the Prefect to arrive to escort the procession, the staff from the Governor’s Office swiftly departed with the prisoner cart.
The commotion at the city gate had not yet subsided; everyone was looking for Qi Yue’s figure and followed along.
Qi Yue was not in the carriage, as the crowd blocked its path, slowing down movement. She walked, and the crowd quickly caught up.
“Madam Qi, when will the Qianjin Hall in the city reopen?”
“Madam Qi, please return quickly, we can only be at ease then.”
They all chimed in.
Qi Yue answered them with smiles one by one. The crowd made walking slow. After only half a street, the people ahead stopped again.
What now?
Everyone looked over and saw a white cloth banner strung across the street not far ahead. In large, blood-red characters were the words: Where is the Justice of Heaven?
Where is the Justice of Heaven!
Such familiar words!
Such a familiar scene!
Looking closer, such familiar people...
Beneath the banner, a woman, a young woman, two adolescent boys, and a small child knelt in a straight line, all wearing mourning clothes.
The difference this time was that there was no corpse laid out in front.
In fact, according to the original intention of those people, there should have been a body. But the corpses had already begun to decompose; digging them up to display, while shocking, would have been more nauseating and frightening, likely driving away more than half the onlookers. If the scene lost its impact, they couldn't turn a good opportunity into a bad one, so this detail was abandoned.
The cheerful chatter vanished again, and the entire area fell silent.
“You, what are you doing here again!” an old man was the first to react. “Is there no end to this! We already said the last incident had nothing to do with Madam Qi! You, you all leave, quickly leave!”
They had finally managed to persuade Madam Qi back into the city. If she turned around and left again in a fit of anger, what would they do in the future!
Greedy people could not be indulged!
With the elder speaking up, more people reacted and urgently called out. Some even ran forward to try and pull the family away.
However, Qi Yue was the first to move.
“You’ve arrived at the perfect time! I was just looking for you! You’ve walked right into my hands!” she shouted loudly, rushing toward the family in a few strides. “Explain this matter clearly! This matter of you maliciously framing the Heir of Marquis Dingxi is not over!”
The crowd froze, and the Marquis of Dingxi, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, intending to be the first to welcome Qi Yue home—no, to take her to see Chang Yuncheng—also froze.
He heard the woman’s next words echoing in his ears.
“...Say, restore the innocence of the Marquis of Dingxi’s residence...”
Innocence! The innocence of the Marquis of Dingxi’s residence! Was this the first thing she intended to address?
The Marquis of Dingxi felt a sting in his nose, on the verge of tears right there.
Mother, you truly loved me the most. Even though you are gone, you found a daughter-in-law who knows how to manage and protect the household...
Qi Yue’s words brought the crowd back to their senses as well.
“Yes, yes, if Madam Qi said she couldn't treat it, then she couldn't...”
“...Right, right, so it wasn't due to delay...”
“Exactly, exactly, it must be so...”
The people present began murmuring, completely forgetting how vehemently they had insisted on justice, convinced that it was a case of delayed medical attention leading to death just moments ago...
The Prefect, arriving belatedly and listening from the back of the crowd, couldn't help but smile.
“What did I tell you? From this incident onward, if Madam Qi said the moon fell from the sky, everyone would believe her without question,” he remarked to the person beside him.
While the scene was chaotic, the family began kowtowing.
“Yes, yes, yes, someone instructed us to do this!” the young woman shrieked.
At these words, the noisy crowd fell silent.
Qi Yue also paused.
“Instructed you to do what?” she asked. “To slander my medical skill?”
“No.” The young woman raised her head, looking at Qi Yue.
After many days apart, two scars now marked her face. Her expression was one of sheer terror, as if she had endured immense fright.
She shuffled forward a few steps on her knees.
“Madam Qi, someone instructed us that if we failed to slander your medical skill, we were to instead accuse the Heir of Marquis Dingxi of being an overbearing tyrant,” she kowtowed. “I was threatened, Madam Qi, we had no choice but to...”
She finished by banging her head on the ground repeatedly.
What?
Slander?
The Marquis of Dingxi rushed out from the crowd.
“You, what are you saying? Deliberately?” he shouted, his face etched with disbelief. “What do you mean, deliberately?”
“It means, my father, my father injured himself deliberately, and then asked Madam Qi to treat him, all for the purpose of—of...” the young woman stammered, her breath unsteady, seeming as though she might collapse at any second, but she did not. “—to prevent Madam Qi from treating the Marchioness so that the Marchioness would die...”
At this revelation, the entire assembly was stunned.