Overnight, bizarre scaffolding went up across the square of Qingniu Medical Hall. Wearing goggles folded from the pages of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art and holding a "magic wand" with a clove of garlic tied to the tip, Huwa shouted, "Attention, scientists great and small of the city! Today we're going to use experiments to bamboozle the dysentery bacteria! Anyone who succeeds gets a reward of garlic-flavored chocolate fondue from Xiaotao Eatery!"
The show dropped everyone's jaws right from the start. Dawa, an apprentice from Tibet, led out a yak that could "scatter powder." With every ring of the bell around its neck, it sprayed a disinfecting mist mixed with Tibetan herbal powder, accompanied by a Tibetan-style rap: "Om mani padme hum, scatter bacteria and viruses, begone!" Jin, the apprentice from Silla, was even more outrageous. He used an abacus and bamboo tubes to rig up an "arithmetic reaction kettle." By dropping stones of varying weights into it, he could calculate the corresponding epidemic prevention data. But during the test run, a stone flew out and almost smashed the Protagonist's medicine chest.
Garlic steamed buns became the "experimental stars." Huwa fitted the buns with tiny test tubes and droppers, and these "bun researchers" waddled around the venue, approaching anyone they met with, "Want to know why garlic kills bacteria? Come do an experiment!" A child followed a bun into an "experiment tent," only to be told to use mashed garlic as "glue"…
Chapter 535