Chapter 405 – Poisoned

“Don’t worry, your son is fine. I just put him to sleep so it would be easier for me to treat him,” Li Yiyi turned to explain to the couple.

Only after hearing this did the color slowly return to their pale faces.

The woman leaned on her husband’s arm and struggled to her feet. She stumbled over to Li Yiyi’s side and said, “You scared me half to death, really.”

Li Yiyi first checked the boy’s eyes, then took his pulse. Not long after, her expression turned serious.

“How many more children like him are there in your village?” she immediately turned to Dazhu and Ergou and asked.

Dazhu replied at once, “Quite a few. We don’t even know what’s going on. These past few days, the kids in the village have all been complaining about stomachaches. At first, we thought they were just messing around and pretending to get attention, but then more and more of them started saying the same thing. That’s when we realized something was really wrong.”

“Dr. Li, did you figure out what’s happening to the kids in our village?” Dazhu asked boldly when he saw she hadn’t said anything.

Li Yiyi glanced at the three of them and slowly explained her findings, “It looks like he’s been poisoned.”

The moment she said that, the boy’s parents immediately shouted, “No way! How could he be poisoned? Our son lives and eats with us—we haven’t been poisoned!” Ergou protested loudly.

Li Yiyi pressed her lips together. “From my examination, your child has indeed been poisoned. As for why you adults haven’t been affected, that still needs to be investigated.”

“How could he be poisoned? Our little Goudzi has been in the village this whole time—he hasn’t gone anywhere! How could he be poisoned?” Ergou’s wife said anxiously, pacing in place.

In the end, Dazhu remained the calmest of the three. He called out to the panicking couple, “Alright, stop arguing. Whether Goudzi was poisoned or not, this is a serious matter now. We have to report it to the village chief immediately.”

With that, he turned to Li Yiyi and pleaded, “Dr. Li, could you come with me to see our village chief? Please explain the situation to him yourself.”

Li Yiyi didn’t hesitate to nod. “Alright, I’ll go with you.”

Dazhu beamed with relief and thanked her repeatedly.

Li Yiyi glanced at the child lying on the bed. Fortunately, she still had a little of her Hundred Poisons Pill left. This pill might be helpful in treating the poison.

“This is a pill I made myself. Give it to the child,” she said, handing a pill to the boy’s mother.

The mother took it but didn’t immediately feed it to the child. Instead, she looked over at her silent husband.

Ergou looked at their son on the bed, then at the female doctor in front of him. In the end, he chose to trust her.

“Alright, do as the doctor says. Give him the pill. She’s a doctor—she knows better than us. Let’s listen to her,” Ergou said, his face filled with helplessness and worry.

Hearing this, his wife finally walked to the bed, gently opened her son’s mouth, and placed the pill inside.

Everyone in the room watched the boy swallow the pill. Only then did they all finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“Ergou, you and your wife take good care of Goudzi. I’m taking Dr. Li to see the village chief,” Dazhu said to them.

When they stepped outside, those waiting outside immediately stood up upon seeing them.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ll take you to the place where you’ll be staying now,” Dazhu said apologetically as soon as he came out.

After all, they were guests in this village. Even if the others were a bit annoyed, they didn’t dare show it openly.

“It’s fine. As long as you’re here now, can you just take us over? We’re really tired and need to rest,” someone interrupted him.

Dazhu nodded quickly. He was eager to settle them in, too—he still needed to take Dr. Li to see the village chief.

“Alright, alright, follow me. It’s just ahead,” he said hastily.

Soon, the group continued walking down the narrow country path.

After walking for another minute or two, they finally stopped in front of a tiled house.

Judging from its exterior, the house had been renovated in recent years and looked fairly new.

“This place used to house the educated youth who came to the countryside. Later, when they all returned to the city, it was left vacant. It’s still quite clean inside—you can lay out bedding and sleep,” Dazhu explained.

Compared to sleeping in the mountains, where the ground was cold and they had to worry about bugs crawling on them, this was already much better. Everyone felt content.

Seeing that no one had any complaints, Dazhu walked over to Li Yiyi. “Dr. Li, can we go see the village chief now?”

Li Yiyi nodded, then turned to her companions. “Everyone, when I was treating that child earlier, I discovered signs of poisoning. And Dazhu just mentioned that there are many other children in the village showing similar symptoms. So I advise everyone—don’t eat or drink anything carelessly while we’re here, especially water.”

After giving that warning, she followed Dazhu out of the educated youth courtyard.

On the way to the village chief’s house, Dazhu looked like he wanted to say something. Li Yiyi noticed him open his mouth a few times, but he never actually spoke.

“Dazhu, is there something you want to ask me?” she asked, taking the initiative.

When Dazhu heard her question, he immediately looked a little embarrassed. After stammering for a bit, he nodded honestly. “Yes, I do want to ask you something, Dr. Li… if it’s okay?”

“Of course it’s okay. Go ahead and ask—if I know the answer, I’ll tell you,” Li Yiyi replied with a smile.

Seeing how approachable she was, Dazhu relaxed quite a bit.

He had been worried that someone from the city might be hard to talk to, but now that he saw how kind she was, he felt he’d really misjudged her.

“Then I’ll get to the point. Dr. Li, are you sure the children in the village were poisoned? But how? All the kids live here in the village—they haven’t gone anywhere. How could they have been poisoned?”