Passing the Toad, Selling the Madman

Leprosy can be said to be one of the oldest and most terrifying chronic infectious diseases known to humanity, with a long history of prevalence and a wide range of transmission.

If you want to ask how powerful it is, just look at what it's ranked alongside—the world's three major chronic infectious diseases: leprosy, syphilis, and tuberculosis.

Leprosy has two terrifying aspects. One is its high disability rate; in the late stages of the disease, it causes bodily deformities, such as the shedding of fingers, nose, and other organs, making a person's appearance extremely horrifying, like a monster from a horror movie.

The other is that it has no effective drug treatment and is contagious, spreading through bodily fluid contact or droplets, which leads to severe discrimination against leprosy patients and the need for isolation.

That rich second-generation troublemaker was exactly like that. The person he invited to look into the matter might not understand pathology, but from experience, they knew it would bring disaster to the whole family and wanted to kick him out—in simple terms, to prevent infection.

Records of the Court and the Countryside contains folk records about leprosy: In the Chaozhou area of the Min region, there were many women infected with the disease. After contracting it, they would temporarily glow with radiance, their faces like peach blossoms. Taking advantage of this, they would seduce men into sexual relations, thereby transmitting the leprosy to the man, saving themselves from death. The man who engaged in intercourse would then be doomed to die. After passing the leprosy to someone else, the woman could marry another and live an ordinary life like anyone else. At that time, the common people called this behavior "passing the leprosy" or "selling the madness."

This is a folk legend with no scientific basis, but it shows the terror people felt at the time when talking about leprosy.

With such a terrifying disease, it's no wonder that when the Imperial Medical Academy heard about leprosy in the Eight Great Alleys, they made such a big fuss.

The source of leprosy is related to damp-heat toxins, mostly originating in the hot and humid southern Min-Guang region. Northerners know little about it, but the Imperial Medical Academy, as the nation's premier medical institution, naturally understands more than the common folk and was certainly anxious.

The Eight Great Alleys, a place of brothels and pleasure quarters, a breeding ground for infectious diseases—if leprosy were to spread throughout the Capital City, it would be disastrous.

Lin Shou also considered this. He lived a detached life and might not necessarily care about the livelihood of the Capital's citizens, but if the entire Capital were truly ruined by this infectious disease, that wouldn't be good either.

Citizens fleeing, shops closing, a significant drop in quality of life—how would he then enjoy himself?

So this time, Lin Shou rarely meddled in affairs, helping the authorities root out the leprosy hotspot.

Lin Shou secretly watched as the Imperial Medical Academy and the Three Judicial Offices sealed off the Red Person Hall. They would likely conduct a thorough investigation of the entire Eight Great Alleys afterward. He disappeared into the night and returned to the Corpse-Stitching Shop.

The next day.

Rumors indeed spread like wildfire among the people. The Eight Great Alleys were temporarily sealed off for a thorough investigation. With such a big incident, it was impossible to escape the burning gossip curiosity of the Capital's onlookers.

The "Heavenly Punishment" disease was also popularized to every commoner. As soon as they heard that contracting it could lead to disability, panic set in.

Then, all kinds of charlatans and so-called experts started to stir up trouble.

In the following days, Lin Shou saw many more swindlers on the streets, selling so-called "Heavenly Punishment medicine" under the guise of being able to cure the disease. They swindled people left and right, profiting from the national crisis and making a lot of money. Crowds of people bought their medicine.

Later, when the authorities began to crack down and arrest those selling fake medicine, they changed their tactics, selling "preventive" medicine for the Heavenly Punishment disease. "My medicine doesn't cure it; it prevents it. The authorities have no reason to arrest me now, right?" And again, crowds of people bought their medicine.

So, you see, among those struggling at the bottom of society, there are always shrewd people who find loopholes to make money.

Later, Tongrentang, the largest pharmacy in the Capital, saw this and thought, "This works? I'm the leader in the pharmacy business. How can I let you all take all the money? Alright, I'll sell it too."

They spent some silver to bribe the authorities and consulted the Imperial Medical Academy. Tongrentang also started selling medicine. Lin Shou even bought some and analyzed the ingredients using the Compendium of Materia Medica. It was mainly sterilizing herbs like realgar, similar in composition to the disinfectant from the Imperial Medical Academy.

Now, every day on the streets, you could see people from the Imperial Medical Academy, wearing those burlap protective suits, walking through the various streets of the Capital, spraying disinfectant.

Every day when Lin Shou opened his door, he saw a foggy mist outside.

This went on for about four or five days. The situation improved, and shops in the neighborhood began to open for business again.

When the clerks from the Bureau of Corpse Management came to Lin Shou's shop to deliver bodies, Lin Shou offered them some cold tea and asked, "If someone dies from this leprosy, how should the corpse be stitched?"

The clerk said, "All those with plagues or diseases are sent to the Six Afflictions Pavilion. The people there handle it, and the corpses come out already stitched."

They don't burn the bodies of infectious disease patients? They bury them whole? Lin Shou thought to himself about this strange emphasis on burial rituals.

However, he did get a piece of information.

There are also corpse stitchers inside the Six Afflictions Pavilion.

He had never heard of this before. After the initial training, everyone was assigned to one of the twenty-four corpse-stitching shops in the Capital. He had never heard of anyone going to the Six Afflictions Pavilion.

In any case, the Heavenly Punishment disease case was closed.

The Red Person Hall was sealed, the Eight Great Alleys were investigated, and all the Heavenly Punishment patients were sent to the Six Afflictions Pavilion for isolation. Fortunately, the epidemic was controlled in time and did not spread.

The only thing Lin Shou couldn't quite figure out was why Xu Linfang, that young male prostitute from the Red Person Hall, could still be kept there even when he was so sick.

"Whores have no feelings; actors have no loyalty."

The saying is harsh, but if you think a place that raises children to be catamites for money would willingly support a leprosy patient, Lin Shou didn't believe it.

That's even more absurd than the United States invading Iraq for world peace. Anyone with a brain wouldn't believe it.

Unless, the Red Person Hall was deliberately keeping such a pathogen source, intending to spread leprosy throughout the Capital... It seemed like another rebel organization's doing.

Tsk, there were too many terrorists in the Capital. Just a few days ago, there was the White Lotus Sect's massacre on the streets, and now someone was trying to poison the Capital.

Lin Shou shook his head and thought to himself, "If you were to directly storm the Forbidden City and kill His Majesty the Emperor, I would definitely applaud and cheer, even give you a few coins."

"But starting a biological war is wrong, completely against humanitarianism. If you ruin the Capital and leave no one here, how am I supposed to live my life? Where will I get my food, clothing, and supplies?"

This touched his own interests, so he had no choice but to intervene. Besides...

Lin Shou silently recited the Classic of Burial, feeling the qi circulating through his body in a cycle.

One cycle, increasing his cultivation by twenty days' worth.

The speed of increasing his cultivation had become faster again.

The method of the Classic of Burial could influence cultivation speed through feng shui arrangements. This feng shui was, of course, not limited to the small space of Lin Shou's Corpse-Stitching Shop.

Instead, it extended outward to the entire Caishikou Street, the entire Capital City, the vast territory of the Great Jing Dynasty, the flow of mountains and rivers, the auspicious qi of the land's talent—everything on this land, the people and events on this land, all influenced Lin Shou's feng shui.

A few days ago, the Capital was in danger of leprosy, and the feng shui showed ominous signs. Now that the danger had been removed and life preserved, the feng shui pattern naturally improved, and the cultivation speed of the Classic of Burial accelerated accordingly.

Lin Shou had no intention of being a hero. He just wanted to cultivate quietly. And coincidentally, doing a few good deeds along the way could increase his cultivation speed.

Afterward, when the effects of the leprosy completely disappeared, Lin Shou returned to his daily routine of cultivation, corpse stitching, and nurturing feng shui.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed.

The Capital's Examination Hall opened. The day of the Autumn Examination had arrived.