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Chapter 15  Poisoning
Just then, Xiao An came back running again and said, “Lou Chen, someone is looking for you outside.”
Lou Chen slightly raised her eyebrows, unexpectedly to her surprise, today is no ordinary day, there is so much bustling, noise, and excitement.
It is only between 9-11am, there are already many patients waiting in line in the main hall of the hospital to be examined. Lou Chen just entered the hall; a small figure rushed over toward her arms, shouted, “Elder Sister!”
Su Tong?  After she saw clearly the little girl’s appearance, Lou Chen gently caught the child and held her on her bosom, and asked, “What happened?
“Sister, save mother and Aunt Mei!” Su Tong’s eyes were red and swollen and the sound of her voice is also very hoarse as if she came crying all the way.
Lou Chen patted her shoulder to calm her,  “What is the matter, tell me slowly.”
Lou Chen’s cool voice sounds particularly appeasing to the crowd.  Su Tong l finally calmed down, sniffling and in a trembling voice, “I do not know what happened, my brother and I woke up in the morning and we saw mother lying down in the kitchen. No matter how we shouted, she did not wake up. I went to find Aunt Mei next door for help, but I did not expect, Aunt is also unconscious! I also heard that it is not only them that passed out!”
Lou Chen eyes narrowed, “How many people were unconscious?”
Su Tong paused to think for a moment, anxiously shook her head, tears flowing down her cheeks, “Do not know, I heard that there are seven or eight families have fainted. Elder Sister, your medical skills so good, help mother please, save everyone. “
So many people become unconscious at the same time. It must not be an ordinary illness. Lou Chen caressed the head of Su Tong to comfort her and told Xiao An who was behind her, “Call over Fang Rui Hui.”
“Yes.”  Xiao An dared not delay and run immediately towards the small courtyard.
“Elder Sister, is Mother will be the same as Father … …will leave us?” Su Tong was tightly grasping Lou Chen, her innocent bright eyes is full of fear and anxiety.
Lou Chen strokes the girl’s forehead with her palm, looking at her eyes, Lou Chen whispered, “No, she will be okay.”
“Ah!” Su Tong nodded her head, as if in order to give herself more confidence.
At this time Fang Ru Hui also hurriedly came out, Xioa An probably gave him some information because few people were also following him.  Jin Yan Hen and Jin Ru also came with him. He walked to Lou Chen’s side and asked,“ What happened?”
Lou Chen lowered her voice and said: “The small village at the foot of Lou Shen mountain, for whatever reason, it appeared many villagers fell into unconsciousness. I am worried that it is an epidemic.”
After she finished, the faces of Fang Ru Hui, Jin Yan Hen, and Ji Ru all become suddenly serious. Feeling in the atmosphere that something is not right, Su Tong body began to shake trying to suppress her cry and blankly looked at Fang Ru Hui.
Fang Rui Hui thought for a moment, whispered, “I ‘m going to prepare some herbs, go and examine them and investigate, be careful.”
Lou Chen nodded, then right away she heard a sweet male voice, “I’ll go with you.”
Lou Chen turned to look; Jin Yan Hen came to her side and on his face was hanging a ruffian smile. Lou Chen glanced at him, she says nothing and did not refuse his company also.
Jin Ru twists her eyebrows and quickly interjected, “No, your poisoning is not yet cured. You don’t run around!”
Jin Yan Hen lightly pats his wrapped wounds, laughed, “I just took the medicine, and now I felt like nothing has happened. I will go to see the situation, if it is an epidemic disease, I will immediately inform the authority.”
Jin Ru glared at him and said, “Then, I also will go.”
“Aunt, you stay in the hospital, if it is really an epidemic, you and the authorities are friends and you can go to them and tell them and they will take the situation more seriously. Besides, the hospital is also keeping a dangerous person inside like  Xing Mu. Me too, I am not very comfortable.” Jin Yan Hen looked his Aunt with a serious concern which rarely seen with Jin Yan Hen, and he said it is clear and in very controlled manner. As he was talking,  Jin Ru was looking at him and it brought flashbacks from the past, extremely similar face and tone of voice, her mind went blank for a split second.
After seeing that Jin Ru fell in a moment of trance, Jin Yan hen flashes a dazzling look of sweetness, smiled as he usually does to her and said, “Aunt rest assured, with Chen’er, this is nothing. She can cure even a highly toxic poison, whatever disease it is, she can find a remedy for it.”
Jin Ru put her head low and thinking, she lifts her head and finally nodded, “ But you have to come back as soon as you can, don’t stay too late.”
Jin Yan Hen grinned, “Certainly.”
Jin Yan Hen bent over and picked up the little girl, however, he accidentally involved the hand with the wound and he gasps because of pain, paused, in that split moment, Lou Chen already picked up the little girl and held her in her arms.
When he looked up, the figure of sky blue has already gone with the little girl. He can only smile and follow behind.
“Give way! Step aside! Sister is coming!”
Outside the small courtyard of Aunt Mei’s residence, a cry of a little girl suddenly sounded, startling the villagers who surrounded the door. Looking behind them, they saw a man and a woman standing at the door of the house, the woman still holding a little girl in her arms and the voice sounded like it is little the girl from Su household.
Who is talking? The man and the woman have the little girl; their faces were covered with a white piece of cloth.  Before entering the village, Lou Chen asked them to cover their faces; after all, if it is really an epidemic, it will be contagious. So, naturally, she has to be careful.
Uncle Mei looked at the people that came in, ignorantly looked at Lou Chen and asked hesitantly, “You. Are you the doctor who lived in the Su house before?
Lou House nods and continued to examine the small courtyard. Even with the white piece of handkerchief covering her face, her eyes remains steely but with the faint trace of surprise.
Inside the small courtyard, whoever arranged it, they put the nine unconscious people side by side on few beds and their faces were surprisingly consistent, pale gray and slightly greenish in color. It looks like, these people were all been poisoned.
Their families were all on the sidelines watching anxiously. An old herbalist kept on shaking his head in disbelief. The people were asking him questions but he could not tell them the reason why.
Lou Chen put down Su Tong to a door next to the courtyard. She did not let the little girl go further. She walked inside and started to examine the bodies. As she raised one of the women’s wrist to take her pulse, she  asked, “  When they all fainted?”
The villagers looked at each other, they all know the this lady doctor, who suddenly appeared a few days ago and live with Su’s household and  they are aware also that she help cure their son’s leg. Although they don’t understand why she is covering her face, for her medical skill, the villagers believed her. The people glanced at each other before answering, “ Probably around chen shi  (7-9am modern time)”.
Lou Chen withdrew her hand and continued probing the hand of the second person.” Do they display any symptoms prior to fainting?”
This time no one hesitate to answer, everyone were rushing to  answer.
“No, they are really well.”
“My mother is still up in the morning!”
“My wife is healthy and this morning she even went out to fetch some water!”
Jin Yan Hen has been standing beside Su Tong and was listening to the villagers. When the villagers said that all have no signs of illness before, he was secretly relieved. So, this incident is not an epidemic.
Lou Chen continued her diagnosis.  Jin Yan Hen thought for a moment and asked, “What did they eat before fainting?” Several people shook their heads, “ It’s too early in the morning, they haven’t eaten anything yet.”
Aunt Mie’s son, about a 12-year-old boy, suddenly shouted, “Now, I remembered. My mother drunk a mouthful of water before she passed out.”
“Water? Jin Yan Hen asked immediately, “Where is it?”
The boy pointed to the bucket of water that was in the yard and said, “That’s the bucket. We took the water from the spring and directly drink from it.”
Jin Yan Hen went to the bucket, sat down carefully to take a look; the water is very clear. He scoop the water using a ladle and sniff, it has no peculiar smell. He put down the ladle and asked, “When did you fetch this bucket of water?”
Uncle Mei stepped forward, perplexed and replied, “I went to fetch it this morning, why?” Jin Yan Hen saw that Lou Chen was still busy checking the people that collapsed, he did not want to bother her, continues to probe, “Are this people that collapsed gets water from the same source?”
“Yes .”
“Well, been there.”
“Is there a problem with water? Impossible ah, we drink from the same spring water for more than a decade, it can’t be dirty.”
Not only people the people inside the courtyard have growing interest, even the crowds of villager standing outside were lively chatting about it.
Finally, after she finished taking the pulse of the last person, Lou Chen asked Su Tong after withdrawing her hand, “ Did your mother took some water this morning?”
Su Tong shook her head blankly, she did not know.
At this time, the person  standing beside Uncle Mei replied, “When I came back, I saw sister Su  outside carrying  water, with her body so weak, we are neighbors, so I helped her bring home the bucket of water. “
Lou Chen also walked went to check the bucket of water. Jin Yan Hen step on the side. Lou Chen dipped her hand on the water and fiddled it, then sniffed her wet hand. Her face frowned for she smell a very faint unusual scent.
Jin Yan Hen has been watching Lou Chen House closely and seeing her frown, immediately asked, “Is the water the culprit?
Lou Chen did not reply. In the small courtyard, the door opened and walking in is Fang Ru Hui with two drug attendants, all three are sweating profusely, and their faces were also covered with silk  and they are carrying a large medicine boxes containing all kinds of herbs on their shoulders.
Seeing Fang Rui Hui walking in, the eyes of the people in the courtyard brightened and  happily exclaimed, “ The doctor came! They are save!”
These differences in treatment between the two doctors were very obvious. Who could blame them, after all, Thousands of Grass Hospital have the reputation in Loushi town.  Lou Chen actually did not care, but Fang Ru Hui was slightly embarrassed. After acknowledging the crowd with a simple nod, he quickly went beside Lou Chen and asked, “How is the situation?”
“It is not an epidemic. This looks like poisoning. I do not know exactly what kind of poison it is. You should give them some vomiting medicine first. We will go and check the water source .”
After hearing that the cause of people collapsing is not a disease, Fang Ru Hui’s heart that was hung all the way  finally eased, nodded and replied, “I know, you go ahead.”
Jin Yan pats Uncle Mei’s shoulder and said, “You lead us there.”
Feeling the pain on his shoulder, Uncle Mei just remembered Lou Chen’s words and now it made sense to him, “Oh, good!”
Uncle Mei  with two other people from the village lead them towards the mountains, and just after few minutes, Lou Chen  and Jin Yan heard the sound of shallow water flowing.  They went around a small slope and Uncle Mei with the pointed finger, “ There it is.”