The Innocent Heart - Chapter 91

Guan Yueyao followed Huo Qubing back to the room in a huff. She refused to take any medicine, simply picking up a bowl of plain boiled water that still held some residual warmth from the pot and gulping it down. Only then did her throat feel a bit more comfortable.

It was a pity that the Han Dynasty lacked throat lozenges like Watermelon Frost or Ryukakusan; even though she was in such discomfort, she could only endure it.

“Ayao, go lie down and rest properly. Do not catch another chill and make your condition worse.” Huo Qubing remained uneasy, sitting opposite Guan Yueyao and unwilling to leave.

“Psh, I haven’t even coughed once, and I don’t have a fever. It’s just a common cold. Qubing, you don’t need to worry so much. If my throat didn’t hurt so much that I don’t want to talk, I would have cursed that charlatan a few more times just now.” Guan Yueyao waved her hand grandly, not taking Huo Qubing’s words to heart.

If you don’t want to talk, why are you still letting sentences pop out of your mouth one after another? Huo Qubing glanced sideways at his friend, silently criticizing her in his mind.

“You’re sick and only drink boiled water but refuse medicine—what sort of logic is that?” Seeing that Guan Yueyao only focused on drinking hot water when she wasn’t speaking, he became puzzled again.

“Ah, speaking of which—Qubing, quickly have someone go to the kitchen to get some salt. If I drink salt water, the ‘inflammation’ will go down faster!” Having moistened her throat with a few sips of warm water, Guan Yueyao regained the desire to talk and hurriedly issued her orders.

“Inflammation? What is that again?” Huo Qubing was about to ask more, but Guan Yueyao pushed him, urging him to have someone fetch the salt first before she would sit down to properly educate him.

“The reason my throat hurts is likely because there is inflammation in it. Drinking plenty of hot water can promote metabolism and reduce ‘internal heat,’ making the illness heal faster. As for adding salt, that is just to make it heal even faster. I don’t know the principle behind why salt water reduces inflammation, but back when my throat hurt, my coach would have us drink warm salt water. Heh, believe it or not, it really does work quickly.”

Huo Qubing listened thoughtfully, nodding with a mixture of belief and doubt as he replayed Guan Yueyao’s words in his mind.

The clothes and objects Guan Yueyao had brought from her original era—including a device she called a “mobile phone”—all appeared to possess a level of craftsmanship far exceeding anything in Huo Qubing’s time. The moment the screen of that phone lit up, he almost suspected she was truly an immortal descended from the heavens. Although shortly after that, Guan Yueyao announced the magical object had run out of power and it went dark, never to light up again.

It was precisely because he had witnessed so many things that would seem impossible to his contemporaries that Huo Qubing firmly believed the era two thousand years in the future Guan Yueyao spoke of truly existed. After all, Huo Qubing was no fool, nor was he an ignorant child who believed everything he was told. On the contrary, he was more thoughtful and insightful than most of his peers.

Perhaps because of this, whenever Guan Yueyao mentioned bits and pieces of that era—whether intentionally or in passing—Huo Qubing would always ponder them repeatedly in his mind, attempting to extract useful information from her words.

For example, Huo Qubing noticed his friend repeatedly mentioned drinking hot water in just a few sentences. In the Han Dynasty, the vast majority of people were still accustomed to drinking cold or raw water. If the weather was cold, they might drink hot beverages like soup, but they would not boil water specifically to drink it plain. Therefore, Huo Qubing reasoned that drinking boiled water must be beneficial to the body for Ayao to emphasize it so much.

At this thought, Huo Qubing poured another cup of warm water for his friend. Seeing the temperature was dropping, he took the pot and walked outside, calling to the servants waiting in the courtyard to have them go to the kitchen and boil another pot of water.

“So, why must the water be hot?” Huo Qubing returned to the room empty-handed. Still curious, he couldn’t help but ask again.

“I heard the teacher in health class say it’s because high temperatures can kill many disease-causing ‘bacteria’ living in the water. Many ancient ‘epidemics’ were spread through water sources, like dysentery or cholera. But if you boil the water, you can effectively reduce the spread of these ‘viruses.’ However, in the era where I used to live—whether in China or Japan—I never heard of anyone catching dysentery or cholera. It seems drinking hot water was more about preventing diarrhea, haha! For ‘health maintenance,’ you know.”

Guan Yueyao spoke casually, but Huo Qubing listened intently. She reached for her cup to drink more water, only to be suddenly grabbed by the shoulders and shaken by Huo Qubing.

“Are your words true?! Can diseases like dysentery and cholera be effectively prevented just by having the populace develop the habit of drinking hot water?!” Because he was genuinely agitated, Huo Qubing’s movements were a bit forceful, splashing quite a bit of water out of Guan Yueyao’s cup and soaking the front of his own robe.

“I don’t know! That’s just what the teacher said in class. I’ve never seen those diseases, so how would I know? As for whether the teacher was telling the truth, I assume he read it in a book.”

Guan Yueyao gave her friend a look of exasperation, broke free from his grip, took a silk handkerchief from his hand, and began wiping her clothes.

While Guan Yueyao was flustered, the salt Huo Qubing had ordered from the kitchen arrived, along with a pot of scalding hot water. Huo Qubing watched with total concentration as Guan Yueyao poured herself a cup of hot water and added a few grains of salt, as if it were a matter of great importance. His gaze was so intense that it made Guan Yueyao feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Stop staring; you’re making my skin crawl.” Guan Yueyao picked up the cup, blew on it, turned aside to take a small sip, and eventually placed the ceramic cup back on the table, unable to bear the heat.

“The place where Ayao lived before must have been very peaceful, unlike my era where disasters like earthquakes and floods occur frequently. Every time such a disaster passes, it is often followed by rampant plagues like dysentery and cholera. The people are already displaced, and after a plague, ten houses out of ten are left empty. If simply boiling water before drinking it can suppress the outbreak of a disaster, why would one not do it?”

Huo Qubing’s expression was solemn, as if the two were not engaged in casual after-meal chatter but were sitting formally to discuss grand national strategies. Influenced by Huo Qubing’s mood, Guan Yueyao also became serious.

Huo Qubing’s words had enlightened her. Indeed, the Great Han was not like the 21st-century China or Japan she had lived in—regions that were relatively peaceful and prosperous. Here, those infectious diseases still raged, hovering around people and always waiting for an opportunity to take the lives of the innocent. If the scraps of knowledge she possessed could spare more people from such calamities, then perhaps she could find the meaning of her time-travel within that.

She began to rack her brain, trying to recall other useful information her teacher had mentioned in that class, but she could only think of the Black Death.

“I remember the teacher also mentioned an infectious disease called the Black Death that took tens of millions of lives in medieval Europe. That disease was spread by rats, so it is also called the ‘plague.’ Oh, right—the teacher said some viruses originally live on animals. Humans get infected if they eat or come into contact with animals carrying these viruses. When I was very small, there was a period when ‘Atypical Pneumonia’ (SARS) was rampant back home. I remember my mom telling me it seemed to be related to civets.”

Huo Qubing nodded continuously, committing these things to heart one by one. He thought to himself that upon returning to Chang’an, he must find a reason to petition His Majesty to implement a national habit of drinking hot water for all families who were able.

Guan Yueyao did not know that because of her words, the experiences and lessons condensed from countless lives and tears in the modern era were about to bloom into a small flower in this time.

Following Guan Yueyao’s explanation, Huo Qubing stopped insisting she take the bitter medicinal soups that he himself disliked, allowing her to drink salt water to reduce the inflammation. After a night, aside from seeing his friend going in and out to the latrine, all was well.

Chen Zhi, on the other hand, grew much worse after being forced to drink that cup of ice-cold talisman water.

The next day, when Guan Yueyao woke up and swallowed, she found that the salt water had indeed worked. Although it still hurt slightly, she could feel her body gradually improving. Her nose, however, was still blocked and running with clear mucus.

Intending to challenge Wu Sheng, Guan Yueyao ignored the fact that she was still sick and shouldn’t move too much. She dressed, pushed open the door, and walked out. She did not plan to stay obediently in the courtyard today. Wu Sheng had claimed that if she didn’t drink the talisman water, she would either lose her mind or die a sudden death—so she was determined to wander all over the military camp, hale and hearty, to expose his charlatan lies before everyone.

Thinking this, Guan Yueyao swung her arms and hummed a little tune, skipping out of the courtyard.

Because she was ill, Huo Qubing—though he believed her words and was somewhat relieved—still hoped his friend would get more rest. Therefore, when it came time for morning drills, he did not wake her as usual, allowing Guan Yueyao to sleep until the sun was high.

When Guan Yueyao appeared grandly on the fortress’s drill grounds, it happened to be a break in the middle of the soldiers’ training. Most people in the Han Dynasty were very trusting of the words of shamans and sorcerers; even the Son of Heaven was not immune. Wu Sheng’s comments about Guan Yueyao had already spread through the garrison at Juyong Pass.

If not for their wariness of Guan Yueyao’s status as a close attendant to the Emperor and an Attendant, and with Li Ting suppressing them from above, they likely would have thrown her out of the Pass to fend for herself long ago. Yet now, this person who the Great Shaman from Chang’an claimed was possessed by a vengeful ghost appeared on the drill grounds looking perfectly normal!

The soldiers quickly noticed her. On one hand, the trio of Huo Qubing and the others didn’t usually interact much with the soldiers. On the other, the soldiers remembered the Great Shaman’s words upon seeing her and felt a sense of suspicious fear. For a moment, they even forgot Guan Yueyao’s name, picking up her most memorable comment and shouting:

“It’s that… that ‘Bullshit’ fellow! How is he out here!”