When the plague first spread, Bai Jiaxuan fell into extreme fear. When he attended the funeral of Lu Huishi, the third woman of Lu San, he still maintained the patriarch's generous and loving mood as usual, and carefully helped Lu San to take care of this unfortunate funeral; And when he later confirmed that Lu Wyeth had taken the lead in the plague, his fear grew. Bai Jiaxuan seemed to be in a rare panic, and ran to ask Mr. Leng: "My big brother Leng!" Is there really no way to cure it?" Mr. Leng said: "If there is no disease that cannot be cured, there is a prescription for cure." Bai Jiaxuan stared at a little panicked eyes and wanted to ask: Then why can't you even stop a person who is putting flowers? Mr. Leng made a contemplative demeanor and said: "It seems that this is not a disease, it is an evil spirit, and it is a catastrophe. Prescriptions can only cure diseases, but they cannot drive away evil spirits. Bai Jiaxuan nodded and said, "I also thought about this in the past few days...... But what can be done? Waiting to die?" Mr. Leng said: "There are still Fangzi! You have to ward off evil spirits. As he spoke, he took out a brush and wrote a big word "peach" on the hemp paper, and after a pause, he wrote the word "Ai". When Bai Jiaxuan returned home that night, he asked Lu San and Xiaowu to bring axes and wheelbarrows to the peach orchard in the north of the village to cut down a bundle of peach branches, and to brush and tie a row of peach stakes outside the street gate, and then tied one under each of the two bluestone gate piers at the street gate, and a peach stick was also tied horizontally to the place where the "ploughing and reading heirloom" plaque was embedded in the gatehouse, and a bundle of mugwort branches was hung on the two gates, and the peach wood pegs were also pierced under the threshold of each small house outside the back door and in the courtyard, and I suddenly felt much more secure. The villagers discovered Bai Jiaxuan's behavior and walked into the peach orchard with axes, and the peach orchards of each family were quickly cut into bare by the axes.

In the trend of planting peach wood to ward off evil spirits, Liu Mou'er, a long-term worker of Lu Zilin's family, drove an ox cart to pull back a large pile of quicklime, and picked up a few loads of water to pour on the lime pile. Lu Zilin personally carried out the shovel and spread the white ash powder on the ground at the foot of the courtyard, and even the square table dedicated to the ancestral god was also covered with half a foot thick white ash, and the inside and outside of the street gate was dazzling white; The cowshed and horse number managed by Liu Mou'er were also sprinkled with white ash inside and out. The villagers were puzzled and asked Lu Zilin, who said: "This plague is infected by germs, and lime kills it!" People were even more confused when they opened their eyes to these strange terms, and some even turned their backs and uttered nonsense: "Then let's just move to the lime kiln to live!" Bai Jiaxuan went to consult Mr. Leng again: "If the method used by Zilin works, let's also go and pull a cart of lime back." Mr. Leng said: "Zilin told me the day before yesterday that it was his second goods who came back with a letter to open to him!" Zilin has been foreign for the past two years, and he has been speaking foreign words and doing foreign things and going out of the foreign party!" Bai Jiaxuan was secretly shocked when he heard Mr. Leng's words, and Brother Leng, who had always maintained an equidistant relationship between him and Lu Zilin, ridiculed his in-laws for the first time, and called his son-in-law Lu Zhaopeng's ** a foreign party! Bai Jiaxuan couldn't help but make up for it: "If lime can cure diseases, Brother Leng, you can just open a pharmacy and open a lime kiln!" The two of them laughed heartily. After laughing at Lu Zilin, Bai Jiaxuan's heart surfaced with worries again: "Almost every household in the village has a peach tree peg, and it still keeps dying...... This evil spirit cannot be refuted. Mr. Leng said openly: "If you can't get rid of it, you can hide." Can't you hide if you can't provoke it?"

Bai Jiaxuan walked through the streets of Bailu Town and walked into Bailu Village, with familiar faces circling in his mind, these faces were only more than a month ago, and they were still greeting him in the village lanes or fields or markets, and they are now leaving their parents and leaving their wives and children to enter the netherworld, neither fulfilling their filial piety as a son of man, nor fulfilling their responsibilities as a father and unfulfilled their hearts! Their ghosts roam the villages, alleys, fields, and market towns, looking for the weaker ones to act as stand-ins...... Bai Jiaxuan called the whole family to his mother, Bai Zhao's east house, and announced in an indisputable and strong tone: "Xiaowu, you go to your uncle's house in the mountains with your mother and your house, and let Xiaoyi follow you." He turned back to Bai Zhao and said, "Mom, you bring your two grandsons (Xiaowen's children) to my eldest sister, the academy is quiet." Bai Zhao said: "I have nothing to do with that nerd, I won't go." Bai Jiaxuan thought that his mother had always valued his brother-in-law Mr. Zhu before and after the eldest sister passed the door, and then he gradually became a little annoyed, and he couldn't say the specific reason for the annoyance, but he was just blindly annoyed, so he said: "Then you go to the second sister's house in the city, or go to the mountains with Xiaowu." Anyway...... I've got to get up and go tomorrow!" Xiaowu asked, "Dad, what should you do?" You go into the mountains with your family, and I watch over the house. Bai Jiaxuan said coldly: "You can't hold it, you go." The next day, the whole family's escape plan to escape from the plague god was implemented. The only one who violated Bai Jiaxuan's plan was his wife Xiancao, she didn't say why, she just didn't leave, so she stayed. Lu San yelled at the ox cart to send Bai Zhao and Xiaowen's two babies out of the west entrance of the village, Xiaowu led his younger brother Xiaoyi and his wife out of the east entrance of the village, Xiancao walked back to the empty courtyard with her husband and said, "How can I leave you behind?" Am I more valuable than you?" Bai Jiaxuan was sadly moved: "Then let's fight together, let's see who has the greatest fate!" Xian Cao shook her head lightly and said, "If you have to leave one person in this house, you can only go to me." Bai Jiaxuan also shook his head and said: "Speaking of which, only I'm a waste, I'm leaving!" I'm afraid that whoever goes or doesn't go can't be on their own, and it doesn't matter who is important and who is not. Xiancao Gesen shivered and raised his hand to cover Jiaxuan's mouth. The two watched silently and didn't say a word for a long time.

The day after the family was sent out separately to hide, the fairy grass was infected with the plague. She pulled it three times a day, and she didn't care much about the yellow feces that were like thick paste; The second time she pulled it down in the afternoon, it became watery, but the color was still yellow, and she still had a trace of luck; The third time interval between running the thatched hut was greatly shortened, and there was a sense of urgency, she walked to the backyard while untying her trousers, and before she could step on the stones of the thatched pit, she pouted her buttocks, and there was a sudden sound, like the sound of children shooting water arrows with bamboo tubes; She hurriedly turned her head to see a green thin falling from the firewood ash in the pit. At that moment, her heart rattled, and a black mist rose in front of her. The popping sound seemed to originate in the ribcage of the chest, and it seemed to come from the back; It's like a heart bursting, and it's like a broken spine. She stood up from the edge of the pit sadly, her arms so sore that she couldn't hold the belt of her trousers, and when she looked back at the green with green-headed flies falling in the pit, she muttered to herself, "There's no me, there's no me now!"

When Bai Jiaxuan came back in the evening, he happened to see Xiancao sticking his neck on the steps of the courtyard and vomiting. He went out early in the morning to Bailu Academy to find his sister and brother-in-law Mr. Zhu, since Xiancao insisted on not wanting to go far away to avoid the plague, it was better to live in Bailu Academy not far from home for a while. The seowon is located in a secluded place that is neither next to the village nor a shop, and I have not heard of any gentleman who wrote the prefectural chronicle having two or one end of flowers. The elder sister and brother-in-law sincerely expressed their willingness to accept their younger brother and daughter-in-law to come to the academy for refuge, and Bai Jiaxuan rushed back to Bailu Village non-stop, preparing to send Xiancao out early tomorrow morning; Unexpectedly, the invisible claws of the plague god grabbed the hair of the fairy grass first. When Bai Jiaxuan stilted his waist into the second door, he heard a "whoosh" sound, and when he raised his head, he saw a green soup sprayed out in an arc, glowing with the red light of the remnant sun that was slanted from the west wall, like a rainbow shining with a ghostly atmosphere. There was a rattle in his head, and he stood motionless in the courtyard in the second gate, his hands hanging down from his back on his slumped back.

The fairy grass seemed very calm. After pulling out the green in the afternoon, she concluded that she was going to die irrevocably, and quickly calmed down from the initial panic, until she vomited for the first time, and saw Jiaxuan's stiff body standing stiffly when she flashed into the second door, but became more and more calm. She took out a blue cloth and wiped the filth from the corner of her mouth, and greeted her husband who came out as usual calmly and warmly: "Give it to you?" Bai Jiaxuan's stiff body trembled, stumbled over from the brick floor of the courtyard, stepped on the green filth and almost slipped, grabbed the arm of the fairy grass with both hands and cried. Xiancao had never seen what her husband would look like when he cried since she entered this house, and this was the first time she was very moved. Bai Jiaxuan only cried one time before he stopped abruptly, raised his face and asked pitifully like a child: "Ah, oh my God, why do you leave me behind...... Xiancao smiled softly and said: "I said I'll go first!" I'll take your place when I'm gone, that's fine. ”

Bai Jiaxuan wiped away the tears hanging in the folds of his cheeks, and pulled Xiancao to the town to see Mr. Leng for a doctor. Xiancao broke free from her husband's strong hand and said, "I didn't see anyone who took medicine to save their lives." This is God's birth mile, and it is impossible to escape the catastrophe. You don't know Zhang Luo grabbed the decoction of medicine, you look at the empty space and nail it up for me. I'll take you away with you. Don't need thick plates, two inch thin plates will suffice for me. After that, she washed her hands and tied up her apron, went to the dough urn to dig noodles, scooped water in the water tank, and kneaded the dough and cooked for her husband in the basin. Bai Jiaxuan looked at the woman's calm behavior in surprise, turned around and walked out of the street to find Mr. Leng. He then returned with a stack of medicine bags, set up three bricks in the courtyard and set up a clay pot, and almost lay on the ground blowing firewood. A pillar of green smoke rose across the eaves and lingered on the roof.

Xiancao refused to drink the medicine: "I don't drink anything, I don't drink it." Let me die peacefully, and let people drink bitter soup and bitter juice when they are dying. Bai Jiaxuan had no choice but to call Lu San to persuade him. Lu San rubbed his palms on the placket of his clothes and became angry: "You are a clear person, why are you suddenly numb?" Why don't you drink medicine!" Xiancao calmly looked at Lu Sancheng's innocent face, reached out and picked up the bowl and drank it all; wiped the purple medicine on the corner of his mouth, and as soon as he put down the medicine bowl, he spit on his feet. Lu San immediately covered his face with his hands and squatted down and sat down on the threshold. Bai Jiaxuan picked up his fist and smashed it down, and the medicine bowl on the table flew to the ground with a loud bang, and blood dripped from his hand to the ground, merging with the purple medicinal juice.

The silence of the fairy grass shocked the two masters and servants of the Bai family. She ran to the hut more and more often every day, pulling less and less each time, and vomiting was as common as spitting. In the interval between running and vomiting, she calmly grabbed scissors, clicked and cut her old clothes, and then threaded needles and threads to sew the cut pieces of cloth into shirts, jackets, cotton jackets, skirts and trousers; This is the simplest outfit for spring, summer and winter. During this period, she still cooked for her husband and Lu San three days a day, and the patterns and flavors of the meals changed frequently, making Jiaxuan and Lu San sobble when they ate and chewed. It wasn't until she had even sewed her footcloth that it was a sunset evening, when she pulled the thread and bit the white thread with her teeth with the crisp sound that her eyes were blind. She shouted "Dad's—" to the world that had become dark in an instant, and fell to the bottom of the kang. Bai Jiaxuan was beckoning the carpenter to cut the coffin, and when he heard the cry, he hurriedly ran into the inner room from the front yard, picked up the fairy grass that fell to the ground, and found that her blind eyes and thin face were covered with a layer of glowing green light. She touched his hand and said apologetically, "Who is cooking for you and the third child?" Bai Jiaxuan held her in his arms, looked at the eyes that were completely blind but still pleasant, and opened his voice and said, "me to this point, I have to grit my teeth and bear it if I can't stand it." Now you speak, what do you want to eat and drink, what else do you want me to do, I can't do anything except pick the stars, you can say anything...... I'm doing my part!" After he finished speaking, he felt her body squirm slightly, her wide eyes immediately closed, and she was silent for a long time and begged: "You call the foal and Lingling back for me to take a look...... Jiaxuan then asked: "Do you still call our mother back?" What about Hyo-moo?" Xian Cao shook his head: "They just hid, so they stopped screaming." Xiaowen and Lingling, now I don't know what they look like?" Bai Jiaxuan said: "Okay! I asked Lu San to go to the county and enter the city tomorrow, first call Xiaowen and then call Lingling. ”

Bai Jiaxuan went to Ma Hao that night to tell Lu San about Xiancao's thoughts, and Lu San immediately agreed to get up in the county when the chicken crowed. Bai Jiaxuan took out two pieces of hard ocean from his waist and stuffed them into Lu San's hand and said, "Go to the county first, and then enter the city, and the road will go like that." You go to the county to see filial piety, and you go to the city to look for the spirit. He expected Lu San to be surprised, and then he made it clear and said: "These two disobedient things, I said that you are not allowed to step on my threshold again, and I will invite them back again?" Lu San opened his mouth and blushed: "But the baby is about to breathe?" Bai Jiaxuan said with a cold face: "Even if I die, I won't allow them to come back!" Then he softened his tone and said lightly: "You go to the county for a walk first, and then go to the city, tomorrow night you go to Sanyi Society to watch a play, you can eat whatever you want, and when you come back after dark, you will say that the two sea beasts have not been found." ”