A husband found in the village? I bought a regent for a penny!

Gu Xixi, He Jinglan, and Shi Tou had already reached a consensus.

In order not to frighten Aunt Zhang and the old doctor, and to avoid causing a disturbance in the village.

The fact that my home was broken into by a thief with a knife today must be kept completely confidential; I cannot disclose any details to anyone.

(In He Jinglan's explanation to Xiao Shitou, the organized and premeditated killer turned into a robber who only wanted money.)

Stone promised to keep the secret and assured that he wouldn't mention a word about Gouwa, his closest friend.

Gu Xixi thought that the matter was over and done with.

But before him, the old doctor twitched his nostrils and his brows furrowed, as if he had sensed something.

Gu Xixi and He Jinglan looked at each other in silence.

The sentiment is unanimous: It's over!

The old doctor turned to the two girls, "This place was just now..."

He Jinglan gasped.

Gu Xixi forced a smile and replied, "I swept the floor just now, and seeing that it was hot, I sprinkled some water on it."

"Artemisia leaf water?" the old doctor said.

He raised his hand to stroke his messy, graying beard, and nodded, saying, "I knew it, nothing can escape my nose!"

Gu Xixi was greatly surprised.

What exactly did her master smell? In a flash, she considered every possibility.

The smell of medicine?

Smell of blood?

The smell of death?

But for safety's sake, before calling He Jinglan and Shi Tou back, she had already swept up the scattered poison and the blood-stained soil.

To completely remove the smell, water was poured and swept twice, and finally, mugwort water was sprinkled on to remove the odor and ward off evil.

Is it even possible to find out from this?

So many thoughts flashed through Gu Xixi's mind, but in reality, it was only a moment or two.

The old doctor's brow unfurrowed, and he smiled with satisfaction.

"I was planning to come back today to talk about this."

"But it's good that you've already realized this."

Huh? Gu Xixi and He Jinglan looked at each other in confusion.

He Jinglan asked silently, "What happened?"

Gu Xixi shook her head, not knowing.

The old doctor continued, "Malaria, our master discovered long ago that mosquitoes can transmit malaria between people."

"It may be caused by the mosquito's blood-sucking process, but the specific reason... still needs to be investigated."

"Xixi, you sprinkled mugwort water to repel mosquitoes. Although the effect was a little weak, your awareness of this is exactly what I was thinking."

Gu Xixi was taken aback. Malaria? Mosquito repellent?

She suddenly realized, "Oh...yes, we should protect ourselves from mosquitoes in the summer."

He Jinglan breathed a sigh of relief and asked curiously, "Why did Elder Jiang suddenly think of malaria? Is there something wrong with today's patient?"

The old doctor said, "Today's patients are not serious; they just have gastrointestinal issues due to summer heat. A couple of doses of medicine will do the trick."

"But when I was eating at his house, his mother mentioned a relative from her own village, which made me suspicious."

"Everyone else complained of the heat during the hottest days of summer, but he kept shivering and rummaging through drawers and cabinets to find a thick quilt to wrap himself in. Even when everyone else was sweating and exhausted, he was still shivering. Gradually, he couldn't get out of bed, and he passed away a few days later."

He Jinglan exclaimed, "Isn't this just malaria?"

She had heard of this disease before; people with malaria only appear in the summer.

Some people treat this illness as possession by evil spirits, and resort to shamanistic rituals and drinking talismanic water.

But in the end, nine out of ten cases are incurable.

The old doctor nodded. "Judging from the symptoms, it sounds like malaria."

"However, it is said that no one else in that village has contracted the same disease."

"Perhaps it wasn't malaria, or perhaps we were just lucky and he didn't infect anyone else."

At this point, the old doctor, full of energy, said, "I need to prepare a mosquito repellent medicine. Simply boiling mugwort in water won't be enough."

He Jinglan agreed, "It's not just about preventing malaria; being bitten by mosquitoes is also very annoying!"

Gu Xixi felt a vague unease in her heart.

She knew that there was no effective treatment for malaria in ancient times, and historical records documented the devastating effects of malaria pandemics.

It can be transmitted through blood and from mother to child, and has a very high mortality rate.

He Jinglan keenly noticed the change in Gu Xixi's emotions and comforted her, "Xixi, don't worry, it may not be a real epidemic."

"Didn't you hear what Old Jiang said? No one else in that village has been infected."

Gu Xixi smiled at her, "I'm fine."

Aside from mother-to-child transmission, malaria is not transmitted from person to person.

Compared to other infectious diseases that spread rapidly among humans, malaria is much more controllable.

Just as the old doctor said, this disease may not necessarily spread widely in the local area.

However, Gu Xixi still wanted to take precautions to feel at ease, so she started mosquito prevention and control from her own home.

As she pondered, she said, "The window screens at home need to be reinforced. The mosquito nets are all newly replaced, so there won't be any problems."

"The only remaining loophole is the doorway. The curtain isn't tight enough, so we need to install some screen doors."

In summer, it's hot indoors. During the day, if people stay indoors with the doors closed, it must be unbearably stuffy and hot.

Screen windows and doors can solve this problem, keeping out mosquitoes and rodents without hindering ventilation.

There's still some leftover fabric from pasting window screens in the spring.

Taking measurements, cutting wooden strips, nailing the frame, installing hinges...

He Jinglan assisted Gu Xixi, helping her with things such as holding them up and handing them over.

As the first screen door was nearing completion, Aunt Zhang returned home in the afterglow of the setting sun.

She still smelled faintly of alcohol, and shook a withered, bent seedling in her hand.

"Xixi, can you take a look and tell me what's wrong with this?"

Gu Xixi looked up and saw, "Buckwheat seedlings?"

Compared to the work she was currently doing, it was something directly related to her major, which made her feel much more at ease.

"This is damping-off disease in buckwheat, which usually occurs after the seedlings have emerged."

Aunt Zhang said, "He really is sick."

"The buckwheat seedlings planted by Matchmaker Zhao suddenly turned into this. When she saw that the other seedlings were also gradually turning yellow, she kept saying that they couldn't be saved and that she probably wouldn't be able to eat buckwheat noodles this year. She was very anxious."

"As the drinking session went on, it ended up with me drinking alone with her."

Gu Xixi understood and smiled, saying, "It can be cured."

Aunt Zhang asked excitedly, "Really?"

Gu Xixi nodded, "Except for the one you have that's beyond saving, the others can still be treated."

Aunt Zhang said proudly, "I told that old woman to let my Xixi take a look, maybe we won't end up with nothing."

Gu Xixi lowered her head and continued hammering nails. "I still have some of the medicine I prepared earlier. I'll take a packet later and you can give it to her."

"It can be used after being diluted with water, and the usage and dosage are all written on it."

"That matchmaker Zhao can write rosters, so she should be literate, right?"

Aunt Zhang laughed and said, "She's like me, she doesn't know many words."

"She asked someone in the village who had received an education to help her write the booklet."

"But it's alright, she can just have that person read it to her again."

Aunt Zhang was still a little tipsy and wanted to talk to someone.

So she sat down beside her and then sighed.

"There was a reason why Matchmaker Zhao valued that half-acre of buckwheat so much."

"She always seemed to be smiling and going around trying to find a match for people, but little did she know that she was brewing a bitter pill in her heart."

He Jinglan was very supportive, "Oh? There's a story behind growing buckwheat?"