The room was filled with stillness after Suyin"s attempt to diagnose the child"s symptoms. The trees howled with the sun setting up high in the sky, leaving its light through the open window in the room. The mother and Suyin observed as the child gradually drift off to sleep while they sat next to each other."I apologize, but what was your name?"
Suyin didn"t mean to just barge into their room. The mother gave her a small smile.
"My name is Xu Meifeng. My son"s name is Xu Yahui." Meifeng responded.
Suyin sprang up from the bed and bowed, "My name is Han Suyin." Now all the introduction had been placed, Suyin could start asking more questions then. Specifically, something that had been bothering her for a couple of minutes ago.
"Do you know anything about the bugs here?" Suyin questioned, looking around for the mosquito that was there a second ago.
Meifeng shook her head. "I apologize, but I don"t think I can give you an answer to that."
Suyin bit her upper lips, thinking about what she should do next. Now that she at least knew someone from the village, it was a good start.
"Do you think that there is anyone who knows about the village the best?" She stuttered, placing her hands up before Meifeng could speak. "B-Besides Shi Zhang! (Of course)" Suyin uttered.
She knew that Shi Zhang had the upper hand in this "trial" since he has the Prince and Weizhe at the grip of his hands.
"Ah.." Meifeng quietly thought about what Suyin said. "If it isn"t the Shi Zhang..." She turned around to Suyin, covering her mouth with her right hand. "I think there is possibly one person that can kind of help us," Meifeng commented.
***************
Meifeng and Suyin traveled to her older brother"s home, but upon arriving there, he was nowhere to be found. His neighbor suggested going up to the woods since he often gets wood at the forest nearby. The two marched off to find Meifeng"s brother, who somehow knows how the illness started.
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Meifeng"s brother could be seen from afar in the woods, a.s.sembling the chopped wood and neatly piled it on top of each other on a frame backpack. The woods were as dry as the are- opposite of the agriculture in their village. Tall, shriveled trees mostly fell from the wind and weather, and it was the best place to collect wood. Endless rows of trees were fallen with not a single leaf in sight in any of the branches, and a couple of people were scattered all over to scout for wood for their own homes.
Suyin and Meifeng had just arrived at the woods and had been searching for Meifeng"s dear brother. After noticing a familiar figure from afar, Meifeng had the biggest smile in her face- something Suyin hasn"t seen from the woman.
"Brother!" Meifeng yelled out his name, flapping her hands at him. After hearing his name being announced, he turned to see Meifeng"s hands waving in the air with an excited expression on her face.
"My dear sister!" He called out, greeting back to her with a smile on his face. He carried the backpack now filled with chopped wood on his back and went towards the duo, who waited for him at the bottom of the hill.
"How are you doing?" He said, turning to Suyin who gave him a small grin.
"Who is this?" His facial expression shifted due to an unexpected surprise. He recognized that Suyin wasn"t someone from the village, and it was strange for his older sister to be hanging out with someone out of town.
"This is Han Suyin." Meifeng turned to Suyin and shifted her attention back to her brother. "She is helping us with the disease that"s been spreading around." Meifeng had a lively and hopeful appearance on her face, opposite of her brother"s who had nothing but skepticism about the woman.
"Suyin, this is my brother, Huang Wen," Meifeng revealed. Suyin slightly bent her knees and clasped her hands to bow to her brother.
"It is nice to meet you, Huang Wen."
Huang Wen"s eyes were narrowed the whole time, suspecting her.
"What"s the point of finding someone out of our village to cure the disease?" Huang Wen blurted out to Meifeng.
Suyin was caught off guard, shocked at his response to her. Were they all always this obstinate and arrogant?!
"Brother, you have to understand that no one has found a cure to the disease yet, and if we don"t take the chance of having her help us, we would just let all of the other people die from this disease... including my son." Her voice began to tremble, holding back her tears.
Huang Wen began to loosen up, letting out a big sigh.
"My dear older sister, you do know that I only know that the possible thing that I have found so far is that it isn"t any illness that we may have confronted before." He shook his head and turned to Suyin. "I apologize about the doubts, but there is only one thing that I know for sure has a reason behind all of this."
Huang Wen, Meifeng, and Suyin headed to his house to put away the firewood. As they walked down the trail to head to Huang"s Wen home, little did they know that someone was secretly following them behind...
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Upon arriving at Huang Wen"s little house, he dumped his backpack filled with chopped wood at the back of his home. A little wooden fence surrounded the home to keep away wild stray animals to ruin his little home and garden at the back of the yard.
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Suyin and Meifeng volunteered to carry some wood by hand so they wouldn"t feel burdened to have him carry all of the wood and followed Huang Wen"s actions, dropping the wood at the designated area.
They headed inside the home, with Huang Wen brewing up some tea while the two girls sat down on a little round table.
"What do you think the illness could be?" Huang Wen addressed to break the utter silence. He placed the cup down, sliding it to Suyin and Meifeng, pouring the tea in the cup.
"There is a possibility that the illness that is spreading around is the chicken pox..." Suyin bowed her head, to thank the man for giving her the cup of tea. "On the other hand, I need to understand how this disease was spreading in the first place."
Suyin"s mind wandered off, staring into s.p.a.ce while Meifeng and Huang Wen listened. Suyin wanted to know how this all started and why? Suyin could only sigh, blowing on her tea to cool it off and took a full gulp, finishing the cup of tea.
Meifeng and Huang Wen"s eyes widened, surprised by the way how she drank the tea. Usually, tea is often enjoyed by taking a small sip, one at a time. But Suyin finished it like it was a cup of alcohol, causing her to drink more in stress as she poured more.
"Um... Miss Suyin." Meifeng commented at her actions. Suyin turned her head around and forgot about the presence of the siblings for the moment. She suddenly realized what she was doing.
"Ah! I-I apologize, I was thinking about the possibilities of diseases that could be spread here."
The thought of Qin Fuhua and Weizhe popped up in her mind. The expression that Qin Fuhua gave her before he left was something that was imprinted in her mind. She needed to save the town fast- for Qin Fuhua and for the people that lived there. This was the reason that Suyin wanted to become a doctor, to save the lives of people, and she knew that they need her the most at the moment.
"I"m sorry but, I don"t think you will belong here."
The male spoke out, causing Meifeng and Suyin to turn to him.
"What do you mean?" Meifeng glanced at Huang Wen.
Suyin"s vision began to blur, her sight deliberately not in sync with her as she shook her head.
"What did you do?!" Meifeng screamed. She tried to get up but was affected by the tea that Huang Wen had given to the two.
"I am sorry sister, I"m doing this for my survival. This is nothing but just a sleeping powder." Huang Wen a.s.sured.
Meifeng"s body began to give up and collapsed down on the ground.
Suyin tried to get up, toppling the cup on the ground as she tried to head to the door to get out of the house. With all her strength, she mustered enough to unlock the door and fell down to the ground.
The door swung open, with a figure at the entrance of the door.
"Suyin..." A male voice called her name sweetly.
That was the last thing she heard before everything blacked out on her, leaving her unconscious on the ground.