Seeing Fishtail Gorge ahead, he hurriedly rummaged through the bundle hanging from Old Man Sha’s waist. “Old man, take out the Miasma-Cleansing Pills! Are you saving them to breed?”
Xie Mingzhu was surprised to hear there actually existed something called Miasma-Cleansing Pills. If that were the case, why did everyone still avoid the miasma-filled mountains and forests so diligently?
Just as she was curious about what these Miasma-Cleansing Pills were,
Old Man Sha untied the bundle from his waist and tossed it to Yue Zhixian. “Be careful with them. Those kids from the Central Plains probably can’t handle much—make sure they don’t get drunk and pass out.”
“Got it, got it.” Yue Zhixian replied impatiently, pulling four betel nuts from the bundle with a look of disgust. “Only four left?” How could this be enough?
Xie Mingzhu stared at the betel nuts in his hand, completely incredulous. “These are the Miasma-Cleansing Pills?” She carefully recalled that in her world, betel nuts were prevalent in coastal areas, apparently because these regions were mountainous with rampant poison miasma.
Betel nuts were known to have some therapeutic effects against both poison miasma and plague.
But all medicine has its side effects. Chewing too much of this stuff would not only cause addiction but also irreversible damage to teeth, oral health, and the digestive system.
Moreover, the children were so young. Seeing Yue Zhixian already taking out a knife to split one betel nut in half, she quickly stopped him. “No need. They’re just children—they shouldn’t eat this.”
The children, meanwhile, looked curiously at the so-called Miasma-Cleansing Pills, thinking they resembled some kind of palm fruit seed.
Especially Xiao Yunnuan, who had seen people chewing them at the county magistrate’s office and was very curious. “Little Father, are these sweet?” If they weren’t sweet, why would people chew them as snacks?
Yue Zhixian shook his head, trying to explain to Xie Mingzhu. “These are Miasma-Cleansing Pills. After eating them, they’ll reduce the harm from the poison miasma when we enter the gorge later.”
This was a matter of life and death. For generations living in these mountains, countless people had died from poison miasma.
So Old Man Sha also stood on Yue Zhixian’s side this time and persuaded Xie Mingzhu, “A Xian’s wife, A Xian isn’t fooling you about this. Hurry and have the children eat them, so they won’t be in danger when we enter the gorge.”
Xie Mingzhu roughly understood—they were approaching the constantly mentioned Fishtail Gorge, where poison miasma lingered at all times.
But defending against poison miasma wasn’t limited to this one method, so she still firmly refused. “To me, this is no different from slow poison. Besides, they’re still so young—I don’t want them eating it.”
Now both Old Man Sha and Yue Zhixian grew anxious. “How can they not eat it? Your concerns aren’t wrong—all medicine has side effects—but this isn’t something they’ll eat regularly. Having it occasionally won’t hurt.”
Xie Mingzhu thought to herself that if she kept refusing without offering an alternative solution, they would never give up.
So she quickly said, “I have another way to protect them from inhaling the poison miasma.”
“What method?” Old Man Sha asked skeptically.
Hadn’t their families lived here for generations? Didn’t they know better than anyone what could prevent poison miasma?
Thus, he patiently advised, “A Xian’s wife, you should listen to reason. Our families have lived here for generations—we understand better than anyone how vicious this poison miasma is. If there were a better defense method, wouldn’t we already know about it?”
Yue Zhixian had quieted down by now. He didn’t know why, but hearing Xie Mingzhu’s resolute tone made him somewhat anticipate what she called her “method.”
Xie Mingzhu, however, asked them to stop the carriage first. “I need to make some preparations.” Seeing their confident expressions earlier, she had thought they had a better solution.
Who knew it would be chewing betel nuts? That was something she absolutely refused to do.
Old Man Sha, seeing her insistence and Yue Zhixian’s silence, grew irritated.
He complained to Yue Zhixian, “Why are you keeping quiet? Why don’t you help me persuade her properly?” But despite his grumbling, he still stopped the carriage.
Xie Mingzhu immediately jumped down and began assigning tasks to the children. “Xiaoshi, you stay in the carriage and don’t come down. A Yan, you take your sisters and gather all the mugwort from the roadside for me. The more the better. If the stems are too old and won’t break, just the leaves will do.”
Old Man Sha was quite surprised by her words. In their Silver Moon Beach, Ji Popo used mugwort to treat illnesses.
Could it be effective against the poisonous miasma?
That shouldn’t be possible? It might have some effect in repelling mosquitoes and insects.
If it worked against the poisonous miasma, how come their ancestors hadn’t discovered it over all these generations?
But seeing that Xie Mingzhu didn’t appear to be completely ignorant, he stopped trying to persuade her and instead wanted to see how she planned to use this mugwort.
The mugwort they usually used was always dried first, then burned in a fire basin.
“What about me?” Yue Zhixian asked, noticing that Xie Mingzhu had assigned tasks to all four children. He couldn’t just stand by and watch them work.
Xie Mingzhu’s gaze was already fixed on the palm trees about twenty feet away. “Help me peel some palm bark, about seven or eight pieces should be enough.”
She didn’t idle either, but went to search for discarded coconut shells among the roadside weeds.
After collecting eight or nine discarded coconut shells, she carried them back and borrowed a knife from Old Man Sha.
Old Man Sha grew increasingly puzzled. “What are you going to do with those?” Why did she need a knife?
Xie Mingzhu pointed toward the pine forest not far away. “I’m going to scrape some pine resin.”
There was a grove of chicken feather pines there. She wouldn’t go deep inside, just stay at the edge where it should be safe.
Holding a coconut shell that resembled a broken bowl, she headed toward the pine trees.
These pine trees were towering giants, and naturally, plenty of pine resin had accumulated beneath them.
The top layer hadn’t completely solidified due to the hot weather and remained quite soft, making it easy to scoop into the coconut shell.
But the resin underneath, having endured years of weathering, was extremely hard.
Yet precisely that type burned the longest.’
She pried with the knife tip for quite a while before barely managing to break off a piece.
Yue Zhixian had appeared at some point without her noticing. “How much pine resin do you need? I’ll do the prying.”
Xie Mingzhu calculated the burning rate of the pine resin and the three-li distance through Fish Tail Gorge. “About two or three jin would be best.” More would be better to be prepared.
“That’s simple. Go wait by the carriage.” Yue Zhixian immediately took over the task, now as curious as Old Man Sha about how Xie Mingzhu planned to counter the poisonous miasma in Fish Tail Gorge.
Xie Mingzhu didn’t refuse. “Then I’ll leave it to you.” She still needed to layer the soft palm fibers between pieces of palm bark.
Originally, she had thought of making masks, but the conditions weren’t suitable, so she could only use these palm barks as gauze instead.
Even with an N95 mask, it would be impossible to block all toxic microorganisms in the miasma. So as she folded these palm bark layers, she spread a layer of crushed artemisia annua between each fold.
Though Xiao Yunyan didn’t understand the purpose, he helped by crushing the artemisia annua, while Xiao Yunqing assisted nearby.
Each piece of palm bark was roughly one square meter in size. After repeated folding with layers of artemisia annua added in between, it now resembled a large stuffed bun.
Due to the heat, Xie Mingzhu and the others had taken off their prison uniforms, which had become unnecessary. Now, these uniforms proved somewhat useful.
They wrapped the large palm bark bundle in the prison uniforms, creating a makeshift gas mask.
But this only protected their breathing through the nose and mouth.
There were still the eyes to consider.
She wasn’t sure whether the miasma in Fish Tail Gorge contained irritating toxic gases.
So her idea was for the children to keep their eyes closed when the time came.
As for Sha, the driver, with his mostly blackened teeth, it went without saying that he chewed betel nuts. When he drove the cart, he could simply close his eyes as well.
Of course, these precautions alone were far from sufficient.
She had gathered coconut shells, and Yue Zhixian was still prying out pine resin. Later, they would divide the pine resin into small portions, place them in the coconut shells, and light them.
Even if the undried artemisia annua was added, it would be smoked by the flames, releasing its medicinal properties.
The steam carrying the artemisia annua’s effects and the smoke from the pine resin, in the absence of wind, wouldn’t dissipate immediately and should offer some protection within their small area.
With this dual protection, even if it couldn’t fully defend against the toxic miasma, it would at least provide some defense.
If the crushed artemisia annua wrapped in the palm bark could adsorb and filter out more toxic gases and microorganisms, that would be even better.
For now, she could only hope that the crushed artemisia annua would have such an effect.