From behind the tightly shut doors and windows, a tremendous boom erupted, as though heaven and earth were splitting apart, as though ten thousand thunderbolts had struck. The roof tiles trembled, shedding showers of dust. Who could have imagined that the battle between the witch and the plague demon would be so terrifying? The ward residents watching outside went pale at the sound, frightened out of their wits, and the more timid turned and fled.
A moment later, the door creaked open, and a pungent smell of sulfur rushed out. Zhou Qingyang emerged unscathed. She shut the door behind her and immediately ordered the owner to stuff the wet rags prepared beforehand into the gaps around the doors and windows, sealing the entire house airtight.
She brushed the grains of gunpowder from her clothes and announced, "Do not panic. I have destroyed this plague demon. Keep the house sealed for three days to purge every trace of evil." The onlookers gazed at her in awe. All around her, not a bird stirred, and for a time no one dared speak.
Zhou Qingyang knew that ordinary families had little to their names. Making them burn their clothes and household belongings would be no different from taking their lives. So, under the pretext of exorcising demons, she set off firecrackers inside homes where patients had died, fumigating them with sulfur to thoroughly purge the pestilential air.
At the time, fireworks were still a fashionable amusement for wealthy households in the eastern and western capitals. The common people of Hebei had never heard of them; the deafening explosions alone left them trembling.
Zhou Qingyang repeatedly cautioned everyone that drinking water and food must be boiled before consumption, or the plague demons would poison them.
Having witnessed Zhou Qingyang's miraculous medical skills, Han Yun