Chapter 191
Feng Zhiwei’s heart skipped a beat and she began moving as quickly as she could up the rocky path. A huge log blocked the road as thick, dark smoke rose up in the village behind it. Nervous Yamen Bailiffs rushed and there with firewood while distant officials oversaw them.
The shocked butler spluttered: “That log was not here when I left.”
The Yamen Bailiffs approached, yelling out: “This place is locked down. No one can enter. Go back! Go back!”
Before he could finish speaking, Helian Zheng snapped his whip into his face and called out: “Move aside!”
“How dare you!” The bailiff cried out, clutching his face. “This grandpa is telling you for your own good...”
“Whose grandpa?” Helian Zheng called, his whip lashing out and pulling the Yamen Bailiff over the log.
“Gentlemen, why are you attacking our men!” The officials strode over, pausing in shock when they saw Helian Zheng’s face.
Feng Zhiwei called out calmly: “Magistrate Liu.”
“Master Imperial Envoy!” The Magistrate of Feng Zhou called back, hurriedly bowing as he asked: “What is Your Honor doing here?”
Feng Zhiwei finally remembered where she had heard the name of the village. When she had gone to visit the Magistrate, his subordinate had said he had gone to investigate deaths in the Ren Ji Village. Before she could speak, Liu Rui continued: “Is Your Honor also here to investigate the plague?”
Plague?
Feng Zhiwei lifted a brow, finally understanding the log blocking the road.
“I am not here for this matter.” She announced, her momentary surprise already suppressed. She explained the emergency and called out, demanding: “Take the log away. I need to pass.”
“Your Honor, you cannot!” Magistrate Liu called out hurriedly. “This is a horrible sickness that’s taken almost every member of every family in the village. We were just about to set the village on fire, and the bailiffs have already begun! You cannot go in!”
“Put out the fire.” Feng Zhiwei called back as she resumed her walk forward.
Just as Magistrate Liu was about to protest again, Feng Zhiwei turned and stared.
Her icy calm eyes gleamed a dark indigo, reflecting the cloudy skies above. Her gaze was too cutting to meet, and Magistrate Liu felt his words stick in his throat.
“If you speak again, I will have to ask you to come into the village with me.”
A dazed Magistrate Liu could only step back. Ning Cheng had already marched forward and kicked the log aside, and as a forward facing Feng Zhiwei followed him into the village, she called out: “It’s dangerous. Ning Cheng and I are enough, everyone else will stay.”
Everyone silently ignored her and followed.
Feng Zhiwei did not say anything more. There was no way Gu Nanyi would leave her side, and Helian Zheng and Yao Yangyu were both stubborn donkeys. The guards had their duties and deserting their posts was a capital crime.
Since it has come to this, let us face this terrible plague together!
“Great one!” A voice called out as another person ran over to join the procession. “This commoner is called Li Zheng. I am from the Jiu Jie Village at the foot of the mountain. I need to go back anyway, so this peasant can lead the way! This peasant also knows of medicinal herbs to protect
Feng Zhiwei nodded and their line pushed aside the wood railings, stamping out the flames before plunging forward.
Magistrate could only watch in helpless amazement, shock filling him to his core. After staring dazedly for a moment, he stamped his feet and called out: “Send news back to Feng Zhou!”
Inside the death village.
This little village in the mountains was already a ghost town; tools lay scattered about as the sparks of flame grew. Large stacks of dark smoke rose up high among the deathly silent haylofts and houses. Not even corpses were in view, and one could only imagine that inside those burning barns and houses lay tragic, disease ridden bodies.
Jiu Jie Village’s Li Zheng marched anxiously, avoiding the various objects on the ground as his eyes scanned the village. Suddenly, he darted to the side.
Stopping suddenly in a vegetable field, he knelt and began digging.
Feng Zhiwei’s eyes narrowed. The dirt in the field was loose and dark and had clearly just been dug. As the man dug, the ground gave way and revealed a skinny child’s hand, curled powerlessly and reaching for the sky as if seeking justice from an indifferent heaven.
This child had been buried alive!
Yao Yangyu exclaimed and immediately stepped forward to assist, but Feng Zhiwei stopped him with her hand.
Anyone buried here almost definitely had the plague. No one could touch him, and she still needed to pass through the mountain to reach the Ancestral Temple. She could not bring the plague with her.
Useless pity would only harm even more people.
“If you want to bring this child with you, you must go.” She announced.
The child was now fully unearthed, his face still covered in dirt, but fortunately he had not been buried deeply and seemed to have been underground for only a short while and his chest still rose with breath.
“Great One! This is my nephew, he is not sick!” Li Zheng cried out, cradling the child as he knelt before Feng Zhiwei. “My nephew has always had a strange physique and never gets sick. He is never bitten by insects, and the poisonous creatures all avoid him. He does not have the plague! Master Liu did not believe me, so he buried him. I... I asked to join you in order to save him!”
He lifted up his child, revealing a face that clearly did not have the indigo darkness of the plague.
Feng Zhiwei was already intrigued by the claim that poisonous creatures avoided him. The mysterious legends of the deep mountains of South Sea and Minnan had been on her mind for a while, so she wondered if this child’s blood held something special. Keeping him around might bring some good.
“Alright, let’s go.” She announced decisively, wasting no time on self doubt. She flicked her hand and her team began marching forward once more. Gu Nanyi took the rear, flicking out burning sparks as they passed, setting the dry hay rooftops ablaze behind them.
Feng Zhiwei strode through the fiery blaze, never looking back.
After taking the medicinal herbs, the group soon passed through the mountain.
Before the Yan Family Ancestral Temple came into view, they could already see a countless swarm of people marching like gather ants, all heading in one central direction.
“They are everyone related to the Yan Family in this area.” Li Zheng explained. “The Yan Family is a large clan that has been growing for many hundreds of years, and you can see their numbers. In all of Feng Zhou, there are tens of thousands of people related to the Yan Family, and if you count their relations and their relation’s relations, you could say that 40% of the people are related to the Yan Family.
“Normally, such remote relations mean nothing; the Yan Family can’t take care of os many people, and most are only hired workers, but when it comes to matters of the Ancestral Temple, the South Sea people believe that when the Ancestral Temple is offended, calamities will strike out at nine generations. Every relative has responsibility, and so even the most remotely related person must show up.”