Chapter 67: The Reason for Healing

Liaochen had no intention of paying a formal call at the provincial governor’s office. Instead, he concealed his form and swaggered straight through the main gate.

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The plague’s power to intimidate was indeed considerable. Even the imposing provincial governor’s office had lost all its former liveliness. Apart from the occasional hurried clerk and the sparse guards standing watch, the vast compound was cold and deserted.

Liaochen swept the entire governor’s office with his spiritual sense, then went directly toward the secretarial office.

The secretarial office was where official documents were exchanged and confidential affairs handled. Apart from the treasury, it was usually the most heavily guarded place in the entire compound. Liaochen ignored the layers of guards at the entrance and passed straight through the thick walls, arriving at the governor’s place of work.

The governor was indeed still in his office, but he was not reviewing documents. Instead, he was discussing with his adviser how to shift the blame.

This was only natural. With such a grave disaster occurring throughout the province, at the very least, someone would have to answer for the government’s failure to provide proper treatment. As the highest-ranking official, the governor could hardly escape accusations of dereliction and incompetence. With so many people dead, it would have been strange if no one had reported him to the court for impeachment.

What Liaochen could not understand was why the authorities had acted so slowly this time and had delayed sealing off the province’s borders. Could the governor truly not fear punishment from the imperial court?

“Master, are we really sending this much?” The governor was clearly in considerable pain at the thought.

“My lord, what time do you think this is? Without influential men at court smoothing things over for you, you will lose not only your official hat but your head as well!” The adviser, waving a white fan, urged him earnestly.

“Ah, so in the end I am nothing more than a passing god of wealth. After all this toil, whom am I laboring for, and whom am I exhausting myself for?”

The governor simply closed his eyes, pushed the chest of money in front of him toward the adviser, and said, “I shall have to trouble you with everything.”

“Rest assured, my lord. I have served you for more than a decade. Do you truly distrust my character?”

The adviser accepted the money chest, but did not immediately carry it away. Instead, he left it on the table, found himself a chair, and sat down, continuing the previous conversation.

“Of course I trust you. I only regret it now. You advised me back then to seal the borders at once and devote every effort to stamping out the plague. I was bewitched for a moment and listened to others. I let those gentry and officials escape, thinking they would be grateful to me. Who could have imagined that every one of them would turn against me? They even had the audacity to impeach me. What utter nonsense!”

The governor slapped the table angrily.

Hearing this, the adviser could not help rolling his eyes. “My lord, you should never have accepted that money. If you had refused it, it would have been a favor. Once you accepted it, it ceased to be a favor and became a transaction. After settling the account, they naturally need to wash their hands of responsibility and place the blame on someone else. Unless they drag you down with them, they will never escape punishment.”

“What ungrateful wretches! I risked so much to let them leave the city. Was it not reasonable for me to accept a little compensation? I merely sent my wife and children back to our old home for a time. Am I not still here, staying behind? Why have they not returned? Instead, they accuse me of handling matters poorly and of leading the flight from the city. They even claim I am corrupt and derelict. They ought to take a look at themselves!”

The governor was still speaking when Liaochen could listen no longer. He thought bitterly that the people of Guizhou had truly been cursed to end up with such a governor.

With a sweep of his sleeve, Liaochen snatched away the money chest right before the eyes of the two men and swiftly departed. Whatever became of the governor and his adviser was no longer his concern.

No sooner had Liaochen left the secretarial office than the governor and his adviser realized what had happened. Several furious roars rang out, and the entire compound descended into chaos.

Liaochen chuckled inwardly as he walked out through the main gate and returned directly to Mo Mo’s home.

The moment Mo Mo saw him, he became so excited that he was about to kneel and bow his head in gratitude. Liaochen hurried forward and caught him by the arm.

“There is no need for that. It was nothing more than a small service performed along the way.”

Then he asked, “Has your wife awakened?”

Mo Mo said gratefully, “The Taoist’s talisman truly worked. You had barely been gone for a short while when my wife regained consciousness. She even drank a bowl of porridge before falling asleep again. Her fever has also gone down. We truly owe her life to you, Taoist. Otherwise, I fear the outcome would have been grim indeed.”

Liaochen smiled and waved his hand. “Your wife is a fortunate woman, and Heaven watches over the good. You give me too much credit, Master Mo.”

The two men returned indoors, and Liaochen cautiously began asking about the reputations of the provincial officials. As a scholar, Mo Mo naturally knew far more than the common people.

Upon hearing the question, Mo Mo gave a bitter laugh. Grinding his teeth, he said, “I wonder whether you have heard this verse:

‘Steal mud from a swallow’s beak, shave iron from a needle’s point, scrape gold from the Buddha’s face with the finest search—where could anything remain? Cut fat from a mosquito’s belly, split tender meat from a heron’s leg.’

Those lines describe nearly every official in this province. They are an entire murder of crows; you cannot find even one whose feathers are slightly less dark. Every one of them has wasted his study of the sages. They strip the people bare with ever greater ruthlessness, yet as their people’s fathers and mothers, they are more useless than the last.

“But then again, anyone with even a little promise would hardly come to this remote, impoverished backwater where Han and Miao live side by side. Those who come here know that the emperor is far away and that promotion is unlikely. Naturally, they do whatever they please.”

Liaochen had not expected Mo Mo to be such an impassioned young man. Whenever he spoke of the provincial officials, he ground his teeth with fury. Even a fellow scholar could no longer stand watching what they did. Their reputation among the people was easy enough to imagine.

Liaochen nodded. It seemed that what he had seen and heard truly matched his earlier deductions. Now everything depended on how Zhu Houzhao chose to deal with it.

That very night, Liaochen wrote two long letters. One was for Yunhua, asking after her recent circumstances. The other was intended for Zhu Houzhao. As emperor, he had a duty to give the people of Guizhou an explanation. Liaochen also warned him that if matters continued this way, the southwest might soon be plunged into armed conflict.

When the letters were finished, Liaochen folded them into two paper cranes. With a gentle breath, the cranes immediately transformed into two snow-white carrier pigeons. Flapping their wings, they vanished into the boundless night.

The following morning, Liaochen summoned Mo Mo.

“Master Mo, are there any shops nearby that are being offered for lease or sale?”

Mo Mo thought for a moment, then smiled. “Under ordinary circumstances, finding a shop to take over would not be easy. But now, there are shops being offered everywhere. Whatever kind of place you want, Taoist, you can find it. But may I ask what you intend to do with one? Are you planning to go into business?”

Liaochen smiled. “I wish to open a small medicine hall and do what little I can for the people of the city.”

Hearing this, Mo Mo immediately bowed deeply. “The Taoist is truly compassionate. This student is profoundly moved.”

After thinking for a moment, he continued, “However, medicinal herbs are difficult to find within the city these days. Do you intend to treat the sick with talisman water?”

He immediately thought of the miraculous medicinal water Liaochen had given him the day before.

Liaochen shook his head. “Talisman arts are a mountain hermit’s craft. They may save a hundred people, perhaps a thousand, but they cannot save everyone under Heaven. How many people in this world can truly draw effective talismans? Such practices merely give charlatans an opportunity to exploit the desperate.

“I can treat illness without talisman water. As it happens, I know of a prescription that should be able to cure this plague. If it can be spread widely, it may also spare our descendants from suffering the torment of malaria.”

Mo Mo bowed twice more. “On behalf of all the people in the city, this student thanks you in advance for your great compassion.”

After expressing his gratitude, he asked, “Apart from the shop, what else will you require?”