Chapter 329: Chapter 336 Wrapped in a Bath Towel
Therefore, when preparing the prescription, it’s necessary to choose medicinal materials that are commonly available to everyone.
At the very least, they should be available in the pharmacy one hundred percent of the time.
However, whether such prescriptions can completely cure the disease is another matter.
Besides Zhang Hao trying to find a solution, other doctors were also judging what was going on based on the symptoms described by the patients.
Some even took blood samples out of the village to send to testing centers, waiting for the results.
For several days, they lived, ate, and treated patients in this village.
The number of patients was steadily increasing by three to five each day.
According to the prescriptions issued by Zhang Hao, villagers, accompanied by doctors,
went to the pharmacy to get their medications, which were available but of poor quality.
Although the quality was not good, they were passable for use. The primary concern was to treat the illness first.
That day, Zhang Hao finished preparing the medicine and notified the nurse to distribute it.
Just then, he saw the village chief’s daughter coming over with a pot.
The pot was still steaming.
Thinking it was soup, he was surprised to find that it was cooked mung bean soup.
"My dad says it’s been tough on everyone. He cooked a pot of mung bean water to help solve our village’s problem,"
"to help everyone cool down. Don’t worry, this water is clean mineral water bought from the small supermarket."
Even though the initial assumption was that the water source might be the problem, the annual income of the local residents was very low.
Asking them to cook with bottled water three times a day would be a substantial expense.
They would rather drink the unhealthy well water themselves and reserve the cleaner mineral water for cooking as a sign of respect for others.
Everyone received a bowl. Zhang Hao, having had a bit of a conflict with the village chief’s daughter before, felt a bit awkward getting too close to her.
So, he stayed seated at his spot, continuing to monitor the patients’ health changes.
Unexpectedly, the village chief’s daughter approached him with a bowl.
"You sure think highly of yourself. Everyone else went to get theirs; you’re the only one making me bring it to you."
To this, Zhang Hao could only reply that he didn’t like mung bean soup.
"You have to drink it even if you don’t want to. What if you get a heatstroke? Then you’ll become a patient yourself," she retorted.
Zhang Hao looked at the mung bean soup in front of him, thanked her, and was about to drink it when a nurse ran over in a hurry.
"The fever has gone down, the fever has gone down! Right after drinking the medicine that Doctor Zhang prepared,"
"one of the patients’ body temperature dropped, and their consciousness cleared."
Upon hearing this improvement, Zhang Hao was naturally the happiest, quickly putting down the mung bean soup and heading towards the ward.
The ward was a makeshift tent where all the sick villagers were gathered.
This way, there was no need to visit each and every home daily.
Seeing that the patient was improving, Zhang Hao took his pulse. His pulse was not as weak and floating as before; now it had some strength.
"What about the others, how are the others doing?" Zhang Hao inquired.
The nurse reported, "For now, the others are still in the same old condition; only his symptoms have improved."
"Have the symptoms of the others worsened?" Zhang Hao asked again.
"No, that hasn’t happened either; it seems like the situation is under control."
As they were speaking, a doctor’s phone rang. After excusing himself to the others, he immediately answered the call.
"The test results are in. Alright, send them over to me," he said.
After a few minutes, the results of the blood and water quality tests were sent over.
The patients’ blood contained a kind of bacteria that could cause fever, confusion, diarrhea, and overall body aches.
As for the water, no identical pathogens were found.
Since it wasn’t the water that was the issue, it could be something else.
The moment the test results came out, they overturned the previous speculations.
It seemed that the source of the disease was still hiding!
Once it was certain that the water was not the issue, all the villagers breathed a sigh of relief.
They didn’t want to fall ill, and had been afraid to even drink the water these days.
"Why don’t we have my grandfather take a look? My grandfather is a renowned practitioner of Chinese medicine, he has seen countless patients, maybe he has encountered this situation before."
Qin Miaoke suddenly suggested, but considering Elder Qin’s advanced age, coming all the way here would be a great strain on his health.
Zhang Hao was the first to object to Qin Miaoke’s suggestion.
"With the situation now under control, we have enough time to find the cause of the illness."
"I think it’s improbable that these pathogens suddenly appeared inside the villagers, so it must be related to this village."
"Today, I walked around the village twice and noticed some strange plants on the back mountain. Let’s all go take a look when it gets light tomorrow."
At that moment, a surgeon approached Zhang Hao.
"You are a practitioner of traditional medicine, you should be very clear about which herbs are toxic, shouldn’t you?"
"That plant on the mountain, shouldn’t you be able to identify it at a glance? Why do we need to go with you?"
Zhang Hao wasn’t offended, "I can identify it at a glance, but I am just suspicious because that mountain is neither too far nor too close to the village."
"Besides, that plant reproduces hermaphroditically, not like fungi which spread through spores."
"Spores would drift through the air into the village and fall into the water."
During the rare rest time, Zhang Hao was alone in his room, locking the door from the inside.
However, it was still too hot, a small fan labored on feebly over his body.
It didn’t make much of a difference, but once he stopped to notice the oppressive heat, it would come surging back again.
The village was too backward, difficult to find even a few air conditioners.
Zhang Hao couldn’t help but hope to get the situation here under control quickly so he could return home sooner.
He wasn’t accustomed to luxury and indulgence, but he felt there was no need to continue enduring such hardships.
What was key is that here mobile phone signals were spotty at best, with no reception being the norm.
He wondered how the villagers living here managed to pass the time.
By eight o’clock at night, the village chief’s family had already turned off the lights and gone to bed.
Zhang Hao didn’t feel it was right to keep the light on either, recalling the novels he had read before.
Zhang Hao found one, read for a while to bring on drowsiness.
Before leaving, he had said he would video call He Qianhui every day.
Now it wasn’t just about a daily video chat, even one every three days was wishful thinking.
Every morning he would send a message to He Qianhui, only to see that the message wouldn’t send for ages.
By the time it did go through, half the day had already passed before he received a reply from He Qianhui.
It was usually by the time he was going to bed at night, and although the signal here was slow and poor, at least he could send messages.
He could assure He Qianhui of his safety, so she wouldn’t worry about his wellbeing from thousands of miles away.
The village chief’s daughter’s attitude toward Zhang Hao hadn’t changed noticeably; she just no longer mentioned liking or disliking.
That day, Zhang Hao led the doctors around the back mountain and uprooted several of those strange plants.
They planned to send them out for testing and see if there were any other substances on the plants.
After taking care of all this, Zhang Hao returned to his accommodation, drenched in sweat, and immediately went back to his room.
Upon opening the door, he discovered Qin Miao sitting on his bed, wrapped only in a towel.
