Although Yuanye is only a sophomore in college, he has experienced hardships since childhood. He is not the kind of college student whose clear eyes are naive. Even though he is shocked at the suspected time travel, he remains calm and composed, for he carries two lives with him now—his own and his son's. Even for the sake of his son, he must stay composed, calm, and handle things properly!
His brain was rapidly analyzing the situation in front of him. He did not respond to Jinbei's words or acknowledge his courtesy. He glanced around nonchalantly, watching the people in the distance lower their heads before he countered Jinbei's question, "What are you doing?"
Jinbei found it very difficult to understand his words and raised his head in surprise, "Sir, what did you say?"
Yuanye slowed down his speech and repeated the words one by one.
This time, Jinbei barely understood with some guesses, re-lowered his head respectfully, and said slowly, "Our village's servant, Yakufujiu Lang, is seriously ill. We are holding a god-pleasing ceremony."
"Sick?"
Yuanye also guessed, relying on the few words he could understand to roughly figure out the situation in front of him. It seemed like he had heard of such Japanese folk customs when visiting the Aichi Prefecture Municipal Museum.
In ancient Japan, there was a lack of medical treatment, especially in rural areas. Some villagers never saw doctors in their lifetime. If they got sick or injured, they could only endure it, and then the custom of god-pleasing ceremonies evolved—someone who fell ill had to endure it, but if they became unconscious (the soul leaving the body), villagers would carry them to nearby mountains or wilderness, praying for the mountain god or some other deity to drive away the illness, retrieve the person's soul, and heal their body.
Usually, the patient would spend a night alone in the mountains or wilderness, making it convenient for the deity to demonstrate a miracle. Others would then come to check the next morning. If the patient woke up, they would cheerfully carry them back. If the patient died, it meant the deity had taken them away, and they would be buried on the spot. The others would continue with their daily lives happily.
This was undoubtedly feudal superstition without any scientific basis. Except for those with exceptionally strong constitutions, most would die. However, it was said to be a survival strategy at the time—patients would die sooner or later, and dying early was better than later, to avoid dragging the whole family down. Additionally, sending the patient out of the village could prevent the disease from spreading to weaker women and children, thus ensuring the future of the village.
Yuanye understood, touched the travel bag on his chest, pondered for a moment, and said to Jinbei, "Take me over to take a look."
He could turn around and leave now, thinking that the villagers would at most find it strange and were unlikely to pursue him. However, the food and water he had would last at most two or three days in the mountains, and Meng Ziqi, who was unconscious, needed a safe and warm environment to recuperate. So eventually, he had to come and meet people, and interacting with these seemingly decent villagers was better than running into unknown ruffians in the future.
Since the noble wanted to see the patient, Jinbei naturally didn't mind and immediately led him over.
Yuanye put down Meng Ziqi and glanced at the unlucky fellow abandoned by his fellow villagers, discovering he looked about forty, short but sturdy, wearing a plain jacket, covered with a blue six-circle short haori similar to Jinbei's, but with plenty of hair and no baldness, with a hair bun on the top of his head.
As for the illness...
Yuanye held his breath, leaned in to carefully observe the patient's face, turned his eyelids, and tested his forehead temperature with the back of his hand, slightly relieved. It didn't seem like a serious illness, just a severe cold. The guy was delirious, muttering nonsense, purely from a high fever.
He gestured for Jinbei and others to step back a few steps, reached into the travel bag to open an emergency kit, pulled out an emergency fever reducer and an oral antibiotic, considering the lack of drug tolerance in ancient people, he used them sparingly by breaking them in half, then stuffed it into Jiulang's mouth, turning to Jinbei and said, "Do you have water? Give him water to swallow the medicine."
Yuanye's ability to treat illnesses didn't surprise Jinbei. Having stayed in Hosokawa Castle for over a decade, he knew some samurai were proficient in Sinology, which included medicine. Many samurai would gather medicinal herbs and make various pills and potions to treat themselves, household retainers, family members, or friends.
Earlier, when Jiulang suddenly got a fever and fell ill, Jinbei had gone to Hosokawa Castle to ask the Maeda family for medicine. The family elder from the Osumi family granted him a package of herbs consisting of various strange grasses, leaves, and roots. Jiulang continued drinking it for three days, only to get worse, almost dying, so treating him again now was nothing.
It's like trying to save a dying horse.
He immediately half-raised Jiulang, waved his hand, and shouted something in a dialect. A middle-aged woman with a face full of sadness came over with a section of bamboo tube, uncorked it, and fed Jiulang water, helping him swallow the tablets. Yuanye, meanwhile, placed a cooling patch on Jiulang's forehead.
The scene fell silent for a moment. Yuanye organized his travel bag, checked Meng Ziqi's situation again, and then leaned against a rock patiently waiting, while recovering his strength, keeping his hand close to the electric stick.
Jinbei wasn't sure if he should continue praying to the mountain god, carefully studying the cooling patch on Jiulang's forehead, leaving him in the care of the woman before cautiously probing Yuanye, "Sir, now..."
"Let's wait a moment," Yuanye softly replied. The fever reducer, antibiotic, and physical cooling should theoretically reduce fever in up to half an hour, at least lowering the temperature enough to prevent brain damage.
As darkness fell, Jinbei commanded the villagers to light torches, probably fueled with soybean oil. The air immediately filled with a faint stench—ancient soybean oil lacked deodorization technology and was used more for damp-proofing and construction adhesive, even using it for lighting was uncomfortable, only poor people would use it.
A group of people waited silently amidst the smoky stench. Yuanye secretly observed their expressions, noting they stood huddled together, at most whispering among themselves, without impatience on their faces, exhibiting impressive endurance and compliance, further confirming they were indeed not a mob. They were likely for a long time under the stable rule of a certain force, relatively docile.
Then, his gaze shifted to the short haori worn by the half-bald Jinbei.
The short haori is a sleeveless coat, somewhat like a long vest. In the period Japan's Imperial Court was in power, the court nobles liked to distribute such coats to samurai during hunting and entertaining, distinguishing different teams by colors and emblems. Later, when the samurai gained power, the short haori gradually evolved into a "civil servant uniform."
No surprise bald Jinbei wore such a short haori, he should be a lower-level or peripheral member of some force, the important thing was which force he belonged to—the six white circles on the short haori should be the family crest, Yuanye was looking at this.
The six circles were five hollow circles closely surrounding a solid circle, like a flower drawn in a sketch. Which family did it represent?
Was it a warrior clan or an imperial court family?
In which era was this family active?
Yuanye was desperately trying to recall the information and descriptions he saw in museums and archives, mulling over it for over ten minutes without a clue, when suddenly, there was an elated voice from a woman beside him, "The fever's down, the fever's down!" She then fell to his feet, deeply bowing her head to the ground, crying tears of joy, saying, "Sir, thank you so much, thank you for saving our master, thank you for saving our family! We are truly, truly grateful!"
Yuanye also breathed a long sigh of relief, a wave of joy swelling in his heart.
Of course, not only because he saved a life but also because he and his friend might have found a relatively safe foothold in this strange world.
He thought, this family should treat their savior well, right?
He thought, as the savior, living a few more days and taking his friend to recuperate, they shouldn't mind, right?