Returning to the place where they had met the Old Madam, Liu Ye sat alone on her bicycle, lost in thought.
Seeing the grim expression on Xiao Weiguo's face, she felt a little puzzled. How could Xiao Weiguo, who was always grinning and joking, go to the clinic and come back looking like this?
"Weiguo, what's wrong with you?"
"Liu Ye, we aren't going to sell goods today. We're heading back right now."
Xiao Weiguo's tone was heavy. In his past life, this catastrophic epidemic had lasted for several months, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. It had caused immeasurable economic devastation to the Lubei region at the time.
Now, having reached this exact crossroads in this lifetime, even though he knew how things would unfold, Xiao Weiguo still felt utterly powerless.
In the face of such a natural disaster, there was only so much a single individual could change.
Hearing this, Liu Ye was clearly taken aback.
"Huh? What's wrong? Why aren't we selling?"
"Sigh!"
Xiao Weiguo let out a long breath.
"That old lady from earlier has been confirmed to have the plague. This disease spreads with terrifying speed, so we need to take every possible precaution. Selling our wares will just have to wait."
"The plague?!"
Liu Ye's face drained of color at the words.
Those two words carried terrifying weight among ordinary folk.
Almost every time the disease broke out, countless lives were claimed. In their own village, many had succumbed to it—including Xiao Weiguo's parents.
"Then what do we need to do?"
Right, what could just two people possibly do? Their voices carried no weight; even if they went around telling people the plague was about to break out, nobody would believe them. If things went south, they might even be accused of spreading panic. Since they couldn't possibly shoulder that kind of blame, all they could do was look out for their own families first.
"Here's what we'll do: we head back, drop off the socks, and then the two of us will hit every supply and marketing cooperative we can find. We need to buy as many rat traps, rat cages, and rat poison as we can get our hands on."
"And if they have quicklime powder, we should buy some of that too," Liu Ye suggested.
Having studied for so many years after all, she knew a few basic epidemic prevention measures.
Xiao Weiguo nodded. Without another word, the two quickly pedaled toward their respective homes.
Xiao Shanshan had already taken her two younger brothers out to the fields. Xiao Weiguo dropped off his things and, without wasting a single second, rode straight to the county town with Liu Ye.
The supplies at the county cooperative were still fairly well-stocked.
Especially in this era, rat traps and other rodent-control tools were household essentials, so the two of them quickly gathered a huge pile of supplies.
In total, they got two hundred rat traps, fifty rat cages, and two large packs of rat poison.
In addition, Xiao Weiguo bought several bottles of floral water, a dozen boxes of mosquito coils, some insect repellent, and two mosquito nets.
At his suggestion, Liu Ye bought a matching set for herself.
Anything that could possibly help block the plague—if Xiao Weiguo could think of it, he didn't leave it out.
Fortunately, neither of them was short on money right now, and the entire haul only cost a little over two hundred yuan. They didn't hesitate for even a second.
When they finally asked about quicklime, the cooperative didn't carry any, but seeing how much merchandise they had just bought, the clerk told them it was sold at the lime plant in the suburbs.
Without pausing to catch their breath, the two raced over to the lime plant and bought two massive bags of quicklime—a hundred catties in total—at the steep price of five yuan a bag.
Their bicycles were loaded down with goods front and back. They didn't even have time for lunch, grabbing a few dozen large pork buns on the road instead as they hurried home.
At the entrance of the village, the two split up the purchased goods, half for each household, and went their separate ways to set things up.
When Liu Ye arrived home, both her mother and younger brother were there.
Her mother, Wang Guirong, was a middle-aged woman in her forties, dressed plainly and quick-handed, practically indistinguishable from any other rural housewife.
Her younger brother, Liu Qing, was fourteen and still in junior high. It was summer vacation, so he was idling around the house just like his older sister.
"Mom, stop cooking! I bought pork buns. Let's eat quickly so you can help me with some work afterwards."
Liu Ye parked her bicycle in the courtyard, stopping her mother, who was about to go start the fire.
"What on earth did you buy all this for? Burning money like there's no tomorrow? Oh, my goodness! A whole pile of rat traps and cages—what is this, are you craving rat meat or something?"
Wang Guirong grumbled as she helped unload the items from the bike.
"Mom, today when Xiao Weiguo and I were out selling socks, we ran into someone who caught the plague. Xiao Weiguo said it's about to break out around here, so we bought these things to bring back and get a head start on prevention."
Just then, Liu Qing, who had been inside the house, heard what Liu Ye said and bolted out in a single stride.
"Xiao Weiguo, Xiao Weiguo—you can't go three sentences without mentioning Xiao Weiguo! Do you have any idea how many people in school are laughing at me because you're hanging out with that good-for-nothing all day?"
Liu Qing was the same age as Xiao Weiguo's second brother, Xiao Jian. The two boys had originally been classmates and quite good friends, walking to and from school together every day.
Ever since Xiao Jian was driven away from home by Xiao Weiguo, Liu Qing's resentment toward Xiao Weiguo had grown deeper and deeper.
In his eyes, Xiao Weiguo was simply a scumbag who didn't even care about his own siblings.
Yet his own brilliant, highly capable eldest sister insisted on hanging out with that piece of trash. It made him furious while also subjecting him to the occasional mockery of his classmates.
This only made him loathe Xiao Weiguo down to his very bones.
Hearing Liu Ye bring up Xiao Weiguo, he charged out, boiling with rage.
Kids his age were in what people called the rebellious phase precisely because they lacked the ability to tell right from wrong, yet already had opinions of their own. No matter the situation, they tended to view everything strictly from their own perspective while completely ignoring the feelings of others.
Liu Ye looked at her angry younger brother, a sense of helplessness washing over her.
Xiao Weiguo's past behavior had indeed been just as Liu Qing described; to outsiders, he looked like a wastrel who didn't care about his own brothers and sisters.
But Liu Ye, who had grown up alongside him, understood the truth. The reason Xiao Weiguo had become like that was because the catastrophic sudden loss of his parents had dragged him straight from heaven into hell.
With no one left to lean on, the entire burden had crashed down onto the shoulders of a boy who was only fourteen at the time. How could he not panic?
Four young siblings all depending on him for everything—could he possibly shoulder that weight?
Back then, he hadn't even stepped out into society yet, couldn't even feed himself, and was suddenly forced to figure out how to keep each of his younger siblings alive. How could he bear it?
Liu Ye remembered clearly that the young Xiao Weiguo hadn't been like that. Back then, he was lively, energetic, and sharp-witted. His grades were always first in the class, leaving even Liu Ye—widely acknowledged as a talented scholar—slightly behind him.
Many neighbors used to joke back then that Xiao Weiguo and she were a match made in heaven, and even Liu Ye herself had half-believed those words.
It was only later that the death of Xiao Weiguo's parents changed everything.
He stopped being lively. He gave up his promising studies.
He learned to drink, learned to smoke, and learned to gamble, turning into a pariah that everyone pointed fingers at.
Only Liu Ye understood that he was simply running away.
He couldn't face his younger brothers and sisters because he fundamentally felt unequal to the responsibility.
The reason she could calmly do business with Xiao Weiguo now was because she knew his true nature wasn't evil. The day he finally woke up, he would undoubtedly excel.
Look at him now—hadn't he started making money? Wasn't he already trying hard to mend his relationships with his siblings?
And take his actions this morning: facing a complete stranger infected with the plague, he hadn't worried about catching it himself; instead, without a moment's hesitation, he had carried the person all the way to the township clinic on his back.
Wasn't that a great thing to do? Among ordinary people, how many could actually pull that off?
You had to remember that this was the plague—a disease that made people turn pale just hearing its name. Most people would consider themselves lucky just to run far away in terror, let alone carry someone on their back and sprint for several kilometers.
Those innate qualities hidden deep within his bones perhaps weren't even recognized by Xiao Weiguo himself, but the observant Liu Ye saw every single bit of it.
She sighed and softly said to her brother, "Liu Qing, you don't understand him. He isn't as despicable as you think."