Chapter 296: Chapter 251 Tides
Qiu Feng said, bewildered and desperate, "How could this be? Prince Guang’s side is working hard to suppress the nail snails, and the sick house is continuously taking in patients.
Although the Grape Stone Medicine has some side effects, it can indeed eradicate the Blood-sucking Worms.
Everything is getting better..."
"I’ve told you, it’s useless."
Li Ang pressed his palm on the table and said solemnly, "I’m the one who created the Alum Medicine; how could I not know its side effects?
After taking the medicine, nearly ninety percent of the patients experience a rise in body temperature. Seventy percent suffer from loss of appetite and dizziness. Fifty percent cough and have headaches. Forty percent experience abdominal bloating, pain, and diarrhea. Twenty percent face chest discomfort, nausea, vomiting, and joint pain. Other side effects include enlargement and tenderness in the liver, chills, muscle aches, rashes, and itching. An overdose can even cause liver necrosis and, ultimately, death."
Potassium Antimony Tartrate is an emetic. Its oral absorption is extremely unstable, and it is very irritating to the gastrointestinal tract. Subcutaneous or intramuscular injections also cause intense irritation, so it can only be administered via IV. During the treatment period, patients experience severe reactions and suffer greatly. This is why, in the memories from the Otherworld, it was later replaced by other antimony drugs, such as Thiobenzyl Acetate, and other non-antimony schistosomiasis treatment drugs, like Furan Propylamine.
Qiu Feng stepped forward, placed her palm on the back of Li Ang’s hand, and gently caressed it.
As a fellow doctor, she understood Li Ang’s feelings. The sadness of feeling powerless, the anger towards the current state of affairs, the confusion about the future.
The young man before her—in the eyes of others, perhaps the Academic Palace Top Scholar, the Little Medicine King God who could cure a hundred diseases, a pillar of the court—but in that moment, to her, Li Ang was still that same young boy who had stepped out of the crowd at the inn outside Chang’an City, claiming he would cure Yong Hongzhong’s dizziness.
Li Ang silently watched the sunset outside the window, completely unaware of Qiu Feng’s approach or her fragrant presence, and suddenly said, "...Taihu Lake."
"Huh?"
Qiu Feng snapped back to attention.
"The Blood-sucking Worms in Taihu Lake are beyond control now."
Li Ang took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, east of Jintan, dykes and weirs such as Dan Pond, Wu Pond, and the North and South Xie Pond were built. In the east, Changshu was said to have ’twenty-four ports along the riverside of Gaoxiang, accommodating tides and providing irrigation, ensuring no worry of droughts.’ During the Former Sui, massive irrigation and drainage projects were constructed in Runzhou, Changzhou, and Suzhou. A few years ago, Meng Jian, the Inspector of Changzhou, opened the Meng Ditch west of Changzhou. It connected to the Yangtze River in the north and the canal in the south, stretching forty-one *li*. This waterway used river water to irrigate tens of thousands of acres of fields and also served for transport.
"Dykes, dams, ditches, sluice gates, fish passages... The area surrounding Taihu Lake, indeed the entirety of Jiangnan East Road, lies within a dense water network, all affected by these water control projects. Even if the Blood-sucking Worms in a single river are not fully eradicated, the whole of Taihu Lake will suffer..."
Qiu Feng bit her lip, unable to contain herself as she said, "But we have already issued a strict order forbidding anyone from entering the waters or the lake before the nail snails are eradicated..."
"Even if humans can maintain strict vigilance and control, what about animals?"
Li Ang shook his head and said bitterly, "Nearly all animals are susceptible to the Blood-sucking Worm. Just ten seconds of contact with infected water poses a risk of infection. Rats, cats, dogs, rabbits, sheep, cattle, pigs, wolves... They can’t read the signs we put up and will still scurry around in the underbrush and shallow banks, becoming infected with schistosomiasis. They will also carry feces containing Blood-sucking Worm eggs, spreading them to other water systems.
"A single cow defecating in the wild has a transmission capability comparable to over a hundred humans. And those countless wild mice? Their numbers might even surpass those of the fishermen and farmers. Do you understand?
"The shoreline of Taihu Lake stretches over eight hundred *li*. Within this entire water system, the total number of wild animals is like the stars in the sky. Could you possibly kill them all? How could that be possible? It’s impossible to kill them all; there’s simply no end to them.
"The whole of Taihu Lake is like a pot of epidemic broth, waiting for the spring plowing to arrive, for the sluice gates to open and flood the entire territory."
Li Ang’s voice was ethereal as he stared blankly at the sunset dipping behind the mountains, as if he saw some unspeakable, great horror in its fading light.
"This, but..."
Qiu Feng opened her mouth. "We can eradicate the snails. Dig ditches, sprinkle pesticides, cut the grass. There must be a way to reduce their numbers. Without the snails, the Blood-sucking Worms would also lose their transmission channels..."
"It’s just a temporary solution."
Li Ang shook his head. "The reproductive capacity of these snails far exceeds imagination. A pair of snails can produce two hundred and fifty thousand offspring in a year and a half. Countless hillsides, mudflats, haystacks, and riverbanks... Even if large-scale human eradication can kill ninety percent of the snails, the remaining ten percent can completely resurge within a year or two. Like the tide, ebbing and flowing. What we’re doing now is more like an emergency rescue, an attempt to save the spring plowing in Jiangnan Road."
Qiu Feng couldn’t help but fall silent, while Li Ang continued bitterly, "During this time, I’ve been using the Nearby Worm to contact Chang’an. I even asked the Mountain Master directly if there was any way to exterminate a specific species—for example, some first-level mutated object, or some kind of lost Taboo Magic from the annals of history. But the answer is no. Even the Academic Palace doesn’t have the capability to do this.
"The intensity of resources provided by the Yu Kingdom’s Court to Suzhou will eventually decrease. Once it’s understood that the Blood-sucking Worms can never be completely eradicated, the high officials of the court will quickly reach a consensus. They will agree that the epidemic’s range must be confined to a smaller, more ’acceptable’ area for the Yu Country. Like a festering sore, it doesn’t kill, but it brings prolonged suffering. And those farmers and fishermen who have no choice but to enter the lake water become the ones who must pay the price."
Li Ang raised his hand and wearily covered his face. "Heh, Little Medicine King God... The people here worship me, admire me, treat me like the real Medicine King God, building living temples in my honor. But I can do nothing. I know everything, yet I can do nothing."
"..."
Qiu Feng looked at the fatigued, self-reproaching young man before her and suddenly said, "Yan Ziming, Zou Hongda, Liu Bohong, Liu Guangji, Shao Zhan, Shao Jingzi, Jiang Hongli..."
She suddenly reeled off a string of names. Facing Li Ang’s puzzled gaze, she gently placed the thick stack of files on the table.
"These are some of the patients the sick house has treated in the past two months. When they arrived, parasites had riddled them with holes. And now, they are all still alive."
Qiu Feng extended a slender finger, quickly flipping through the pages, reading the names aloud: "Lin Xingye, Cui Yiyou, Jia Kui..."
The list was very, very long. To track the patients’ treatment progress, the sick house had also registered their places of origin and current addresses.
Every name represented a family.
"Risheng, perhaps the Blood-sucking Worms are indeed like the tide—impossible to completely eradicate. Perhaps this is a protracted war with no end in sight," Qiu Feng said, placing her hand on the thick pile of records. She looked directly into Li Ang’s eyes, her gaze firm. "But everything we’re doing is not without meaning."