This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

The village head took a deep breath and said, ”Let everyone go to the square in Xialing Village. They salvaged a lot of their stuff, and now they’ve set up tents in the square. If everyone goes there, they can at least avoid the rain.”

”Alright, it would be good for everyone to move there. I will check on them.”

The village head sighed and began organizing everyone to head towards Xialing Village.

The distance between the two villages was not far, about 500 meters.

However, today, this 500-meter distance made a world of difference.

Shang Ling Village was gone, buried under the mudslide.

As for Xialing Village below them, although a few houses were washed away, the other families didn’t suffer any losses.

Seeing the crying villagers of Shang Ling Village soaked to the bone by the rain, the people in Xialing Village empathized with their situation.

They had already erected tents in the square, some made of plastic cloth, others made of canvas. Though it was an assortment, they all had a place to shelter from wind and rain.

However, the square was ultimately too small for both villages’ over six hundred people. Some had to find their own places to avoid the rain.

Regardless of how the village head arranged it, Du Heng began checking on those present.

The good news was that these people were indeed just bumped and bruised, as the village head had said, and their injuries were not serious.

The bad news was that they were all soaked in the rain and bone-chillingly cold.

Now, in the latter half of the night, coupled with the previous days’ rain, the temperature was unbearably low, and many people had started shivering.

Moreover, the incident happened suddenly, and the villagers were rushing to retrieve valuable items from their homes, leaving no time to bring warm clothes with them.

If they were to spend the night like this, they would all come down with a severe cold.

Young people might be able to withstand it to an extent, but most of those present were elderly and children, who wouldn’t be able to bear such a severe cold.

With no other choice, Du Heng had to find the village head again, ”Mr. Zhang, I’m sorry to trouble you, but we need to find clothes for everyone to change into. I’m afraid the elderly and children won’t be able to handle it if we spend the night like this.”

The village head looked around at the shivering people, lowered his head and went to find the head of Xialing Village. ”I’ll arrange it for everyone. You just take care of their injuries.”

As the village head left, Du Heng stopped worrying about the matter. After briefly explaining the situation on the phone to his superiors, he joined Du Fei and the other three village doctors in disinfecting and applying iodine to the injured villagers.

After treating several people, Du Heng suddenly wondered whether this act of applying alcohol to treat external injuries was considered effective treatment?

He had the idea, so sneakily checked the statistics on his phone and saw that the numbers had indeed increased by a few.

Effective!

Du Heng wanted to slap himself. He had been confused all this time, always thinking of effective treatment in terms of internal medicine, and never considering surgery.

But now, a brand-new door had opened for him.

It seemed like he’d found a way to exploit a bug in the system.

However, this still needed further testing.

He glanced at Du Fei and the others and brazenly called out, ”Fei, let’s divide the labor. I’ll apply iodine and alcohol for disinfection, and you guys just help with the bandaging.”

Du Fei and the others didn’t object; they followed whatever Du Heng said.

Du Heng held a cotton swab in one hand and a bottle of iodine in the other. No matter the extent of the injury, he would apply a few swipes of iodine.

As he walked and treated, he watched the numbers rise rapidly and felt like he’d found a way to exploit the bug.

Over six hundred people—it was a lot, yet at the same time, not so many.

Moreover, all Du Heng had to do was apply iodine and alcohol, so by the time the sky began to brighten, he was finished with his work.

In the latter half of last night, the incessant rain had finally stopped.

The village head not only found clothes for everyone but also brought a lot of firewood. Several small piles of firewood were placed under the tents to allow everyone to warm themselves by the fire.

With the fire and the dry clothes, the elderly and children inevitably showed signs of shivering and drowsiness.

The village head took a few heavy sighs, running in and out several times before finally gathering the courage to let the elderly and children stay in the houses at the edge of the village.

The adults, both men and women, all stayed in the square, ready to help evacuate the elderly and children if needed.

There were no objections from the adults, who all sat around the fire in the square. Although the smoke from the burning firewood filled the space under the tents, they could still feel a bit of warmth.

But the empty and confused eyes of everyone made Du Heng’s heartache in sympathy. Even though he’d exploited the bug and increased his numbers by over six hundred, he couldn’t feel the slightest bit of happiness.

Because these people’s homes were gone!

”Fei, I need you to help bring all the isatis root from your clinic. We’ll make some soup later. If this keeps up, they’ll all have severe colds by morning.”

Du Heng called Du Fei over to give him instructions, and Du Fei didn’t refuse, leaving immediately after receiving the order.

In fact, Du Heng had another option: not to take care of them. Wait for everyone to catch a cold and then use the cold-treating cards to exploit another wave of the bug, which should again increase his numbers significantly.

However, his conscience and professional ethics kept him from doing such a thing.

As the sky gradually brightened, people from nearby villages heard the news and came over one by one, carrying shovels.

Under the organization of village cadres from each village, everyone began to clear the debris from the outskirts.

The villagers of Shang Ling Village were all listless, eating food brought by Xialing Village sporadically.

Suddenly, someone saw the helping villagers digging out the buried village.

After a moment of confusion, he bit a piece of bread and rushed back to his village.

When one person moved, the others could no longer sit still.

One, two, three...

Everyone, men and women, holding food, rushed towards the buried village.

Du Heng didn’t sleep all night, his eyes were dry. Watching the people rushing back, he took out his phone, ”Wife, are you awake?”

”I couldn’t sleep last night, how are things over there? Are you okay?”

Du Heng looked at the group of people walking back, hesitated for a moment, and said, ”I’m fine, and there are no casualties here. The village is buried, and the financial losses are huge.”

”It’s good that no one was injured; we can still make money if we lose it.”

Earn?

It’s easier said than done.

They were all farmers, working hard all their lives without any skills or knowledge. Now they were getting old; where were they supposed to earn back their family fortune?

Without government assistance, some people might not survive this time.

”Wife, I want to discuss something with you.”

”Go ahead.”

”I won’t go to your house today, I want to...”

”It’s fine, I know, you can go to my house anytime, just stay busy over there. I’ll call my mom and let her know.”

”Thank you, Wife.”

Du Heng took a bread and followed the crowd up the hill.

Last night it was dark, and it was too dangerous to get close to the village, so he didn’t see anything; he just heard the village head say that the village was buried. A lot of scenes played out in his mind, but none of them had a direct sensory feeling.

When he saw the village, which had been leveled, and the mountain top, which had disappeared by half, Du Heng was speechless for a long time.

The village was indeed buried; the collapsed back mountain mixed with mud, water, and sand completely filled the entire village.

The newly built two-story building was in a slightly better condition; it didn’t collapse and the ground was exposed to the upper floor. The large bungalows were also strong enough, although the yards and rooms were filled with sand and stone.

The saddest part was the old houses, which were directly crushed by the sand and stone.

The brick and stone structured new houses could probably still find some belongings and furniture after being dug out, and the houses could still be used after reinforcement.

But those old houses, they lost everything.

The people who returned looked at the scene and felt a sudden wave of sadness, and their cries filled the air. Everyone ran towards their own houses, and the situation became chaotic again.

Fortunately, the head of Shang Ling Village was there and sternly scolded the disorderly behavior.

The village head gathered everyone again, took names, and organized a group effort.

However, the village head himself began to panic as he spoke and started to look around frantically, ”Who saw Zhang Xi?”

Everyone looked at each other, saying they hadn’t seen him.

The village head became even more anxious.

Last night, it was dark, and everything was chaotic. He had gone from house to house, but later he forgot to check on Zhang Xi, the bachelor, thinking he had already run out.

”Think about it, did any of you see Zhang Xi?”

Everyone still shook their heads.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd said loudly, ”We drank together last night, could it be he didn’t make it out?”

The village head’s eyes widened, filled with anger and disbelief, ”You guys were drinking? Was he drunk?”

The man who spoke also panicked, ”We drank about one kilogram of white spirit, and he was a bit unsteady when he left.”

”****,” the village head cursed, thinking about the one kilogram of white spirit Zhang Xi drank.

Without time to continue cursing, he turned around and ran towards Zhang Xi’s house.