The Taoist (2)
"Hmm... No matter how carefully I look, there is nothing wrong with your body."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. If your vital energy is running low, I could compound a tonic to suit it, but..."
I had been making the rounds of the physicians, flushing out frauds one by one, and at the sight of a genuine article I gave a small nod.
"Good. No problems with this one."
"I beg your pardon?"
Startled by my abrupt remark, the physician who had just finished examining me put on a puzzled look. Meeting his eyes, I answered in a calm voice.
"It's nothing. Just talking to myself."
"Ah... Yes. Of course."
The physician, who took me for nothing more than an ordinary patient, nodded in a daze.
Or perhaps he didn't see me as an ordinary patient at all? With my hair pitch-black, he had most likely pegged me as some fallen scion of the imperial house from somewhere or other. Truthfully, my brown eyes and the black eyes the imperial family carried were hard to tell apart unless you stood close and looked carefully—and few people bothered to take that much interest in an acquaintance who would brush past and be gone.
Smiling at the physician, who still wore his doubts openly, I said,
"Thank you for the examination. Keep the rest of the payment."
"Th-this is far too much!"
"Well then, farewell."
Before the startled physician could collect himself, I hurried from my seat and turned to the brown-haired woman waiting nearby.
"How many does that make now, roughly?"
"That makes twenty."
Zhang Jue answered my question in a courteous voice.
"Fourteen con artists and six physicians, to be exact."
"I see."
Honestly, what times we live in. Just how many damn con artists were there? As I had explained before, the climate of Gangdong let crops flourish, so the common folk there were comfortably well-off as a rule. The only catch was that opening up the land and securing fields to farm was punishingly hard. But settle down, and the money came rolling in—which was exactly why con artists came flocking in droves. No mystery there. It was not as if Gangdong's public order was anything to boast of, either.
Outside, the Shanyue tribes and bandits swarmed, hungry for your throat; inside, con artists wriggled about, scrambling for every scrap of profit... What a fantastic team effort. It was a miracle the place hadn't gone under already.
With a physician's heart—treating the wounds that showed on the surface and cutting out the tumors festering within—I set about resolving the problems one at a time.
"A con artist. Drag him out."
"At once, my lord."
"Wh-what is the meaning of this! Do you have any idea who I am—!"
Just how many of those raving fools, disgracing themselves in every way imaginable, did we haul off to prison that day?
"My lord."
"Hmm? What is it?"
Guan Yu, who had been commanding the nearby escort with a stern, dignified expression, came over to me and reported.
"I am told a suspicious group has appeared directly ahead."
"...A suspicious group, of all things."
What on earth was left now? I sighed inwardly and spoke.
"There's no reason to go out of our way to avoid them. We advance as planned."
"As you command."
Might as well use this chance to see just what this "suspicious group" actually was. Ignoring strangers who had appeared out of nowhere and taking a knife in the back for it later—that, I could do without.
Moving slowly with such thoughts, before long I could see the group in question, precisely as Guan Yu had reported.
"Master Taoist! Master Taoist!"
...To be specific, it was a crowd of commoners bowing to the ground before a single person.
The sight of people burning incense and prostrating themselves in the middle of the street made for a distinctly uncanny feeling. And what if the one receiving those bows looked, at a glance, to be anything but ordinary? A cloak of bird feathers draped across his shoulders, and in his hand an enormous goosefoot staff, gripped just the way wizards in fantasy tales always gripped theirs.
It was the sort of outfit that would make anyone who saw it think, That man is no ordinary man. And yet there was exactly one problem. We happened to be on our way back from throwing men who had been playing Taoist and running scams into prison. In other words, you might say the timing left something to be desired. It would hardly have been strange for the generals, beholding this scene, to react with, Con artists again?
"What in blazes are those people playing at—"
"Wait."
"...My lord?"
Sun Ce, brows knitted and looking ready to fell the man before us then and there, stopped dead at my word.
Now, I wouldn't deny the fellow looked suspicious. If a man in outlandish robes, clutching a giant staff and receiving bows in the middle of the street, didn't count as suspicious, what on earth would? And yet I knew, by instinct alone.
...That man is the real thing.
"Fufu."
Zhang Jue, having caught the faintly flabbergasted look on my face, smiled a little.
To Sun Ce, who looked ready to spring forward at any moment and denounce the man as a charlatan, I said in a level voice,
"Hold back for now, and let us watch."
"...If that is your command."
So his temperament truly had been tamed. The Sun Ce of the original history I knew would never have acquiesced so meekly—he would have voiced his objection outright. Though perhaps his spirit wasn't entirely broken, for he still radiated an air of, Try anything foolish and I will cut you down on the spot.
We settled into a spot slightly out of sight and observed the suspicious figure. How many minutes did we stand there watching?
"Oh, Master Taoist! Please, save my child!"
A haggard-looking man burst out from among the bowing commoners, pleading in a desperate voice.
"For days now my child's body has burned like fire! He won't wake up!"
……
And true to his word, cradled against the man's chest was a child, unconscious and moaning feebly.
A fever high enough to steal consciousness... Even I, who knew precious little about disease, could tell how dangerous that was. So how would the man before us handle it?
I watched with a flicker of curiosity, and the one who had been receiving the people's bows spoke in a calm voice, without the slightest sign of alarm.
"He will need medicine. Follow me."
"Yes—yes, sir!"
As we watched the suspicious figure lead the man away, Guan Yu asked,
"My lord. What would you have us do?"
"Follow him, obviously."
My instinct was still shouting that the man was a genuine Taoist—but what if, just this once, it was wrong? Then all that would come of it was one innocent child dying over there.
Having settled the matter in my mind, I turned my head and asked Zhang Jue her opinion.
"How does he look to you?"
"I do not believe you will be disappointed."
Zhang Jue, who until now had cried con artist the instant she spotted one, offered a favorable verdict for the first time. With a guarantee from a trustworthy expert on top of that, I had no reason whatsoever to hesitate.
"Good. Then we move."
Blending naturally into the crowd of commoners trailing the suspicious figure—no, trailing Yu Ji—I shifted position along with them.
Yu Ji, having brought the man along, performed the treatment in full view of every eye, as though he had nothing whatsoever to hide.
"The illness that has befallen this child is one of the endemic diseases that commonly sweep through Gangdong."
……
"What makes this disease so vicious is that it strikes chiefly at young children—and spreads with alarming ease."
Going by the description alone, it was the measles virus to a T. Well, I suppose if plants and animals thrived, that also meant viruses found it just as easy to parasitize and mutate alongside them...
Having finished his explanation, Yu Ji drew out an herb with a thoroughly practiced motion.
"According to the Taiping Qingling Shu, the method of treatment is..."
Now that was a familiar-sounding title. Hadn't the book Zhang Jue had studied gone by the name Taiping Yaoshu?
……
Feeling something odd at that, I turned my head, and Zhang Jue met my gaze with her usual faint smile.
"Is something puzzling you, my lord?"
"...It's nothing."
The finer details escaped me, but one thing was clear: whoever wrote these books was deeply fond of the word Taiping—Great Peace. Could the author of the Taiping Qingling Shu be Nanhua Laoxian as well? Hmm... Her tastes certainly ran consistent.
While I amused myself with idle thoughts, Yu Ji appeared to bring the treatment to a close and spoke to the man.
"He will regain consciousness before long. Tend him well, and the illness will pass."
"Th-thank you! Master Taoist! Thank you!"
At Yu Ji's words, the man's face lit up, and he bowed again and again. Then he drew a small pouch from within his clothes and held it out respectfully.
"It isn't much, but it is my thanks for healing my child! Please, accept it!"
"No. I have no need of it. Put it away."
Yu Ji refused the pouch of money without hesitation.
"Bindo—'poor Taoist,' a humble self-address meaning 'one of little virtue,' the way monks and Taoists lower themselves—merely seeks to enlighten and deliver the people. I cannot take what belongs to another."
So basically, volunteer work.
"As expected of the Master Taoist!"
"What boundless compassion!"
Watching the crowd extol Yu Ji, I nodded to myself. A Taoist who healed people free of charge. Popularity like that came built in.
"And now, it seems, I must go welcome my honored guest."
"Huh?"
...Don't tell me he noticed me? As expected of a Taoist—his instincts were razor-sharp. Realizing that Yu Ji's gaze had, for a single instant, come to rest on me, I couldn't help but put on a slightly sheepish face.