A master of both medicine and martial arts, he picked up a beautiful CEO as his wife.

After those words, the gates of Luoxia County were opened.

The next morning, Director Zhou vacated the meeting room on the third floor. Old Mr. Luo brought over his pharmacy's account books from the past fifty years, stacked up to his chest.

"What do you want? Just tell me," the old man said. "I have everything I have here."

Ye Feng needed three things: medical records from the county hospital that couldn't determine the cause of his illness, five years' worth of prescription stubs from Mr. Luo's pharmacy, and Mr. Gong's purchase invoices.

The purchase order was delivered by Boss Gong himself. He drove over in his Land Rover on the third morning, unloaded two cardboard boxes, put them on the ground, and only turned back at the door to say, "My 50,000 is still here. Once you've sorted this out, you can keep it."

Three days later, Ye Feng wrote the results on the whiteboard. The total population of the county was 31,000.

More than 2,400 cases had clear discomfort, no identifiable cause, and recurrent episodes. Eighty-seven cases were severe.

"These eighty-seven are the heaviest," Ye Feng said, "and they live closest to the square."

He drew a circle on the whiteboard. "One layer outwards is two thousand four hundred."

"Further out, to the edge of the county town, it gets clean."

Director Zhou looked at it for a long time.

"We've been saying for the past two years that people are restless and under a lot of pressure these days."

"It's not that I'm under a lot of pressure."

"What is that?"

Ye Feng put down his pen. "Director Zhou, I have something to say to you, please don't take it personally."

"you say."

"Your county is sick."

Everyone in the room looked over. "It's not the person who's sick," Ye Feng said. "It's this place that's sick."

"People are influenced by this place."

He pointed to the circle on the whiteboard. "Look at all the people you've treated. They get better, go home for three days, and then get sick again. You treat them again, they go back, and they get sick again."

"You think it's because the disease wasn't completely cured."

"no."

"He went back to it as soon as he got home."

Director Zhou's face turned pale. "Then... what should we do?"

"Governing the region."

"How should local areas be treated?"

"Dig up that well down there."

The square was cleared on the day the well was opened.

It was done in the county's name; Zhu Wanqing handled the paperwork, and the report was for emergency repairs of the underground pipeline network. The perimeter fence was erected overnight, stretching over 200 meters.

When they dug to a depth of 28 meters, they encountered cement.

Just like the one in the west of Dongyang City: template marks, manholes, iron locks, ladders, a cement house, and a well in the middle of the house.

However, this well wasn't empty. The moment the stone slab was lifted, the people gathered around the well all took a half-step back.

There was a hint of white at the bottom.

It wasn't bright, but a hazy white, as if seen through a layer—Ye Feng recognized it. Half a year ago, when he stood more than four hundred feet underground, the color was exactly like that under the cover above his head.

Shen Yu's voice was hoarse. "This...this is just a small piece?"

"It's just a ladleful."

Ye Feng rolled up his sleeves. "A ladleful I scooped out of our well."

He didn't use acupuncture needles or medicine. He did something else entirely.

He spread his left hand out, palm down, and reached it into the well. The substance seeped out from under his palm, condensed into a thread, and went down.

It stopped halfway down. "It won't go down," Lin Yuqing said from the side.

"It recognizes what's down there," Ye Feng said. "It's afraid."

"What should we do then?"

"Once something is properly fed, it needs to be able to respond."

He pressed his hand down half an inch. The thread moved down again.

Upon reaching the bottom of the well, it dispersed. It spread out into a net, covering the white layer at the bottom of the well, pressing down inch by inch.

Ye Feng's forehead began to sweat.

This is different from governing a person. When you govern a person, that thing has a master—that person has a force resisting it, and as long as you connect with that force, the rest will go away on its own.

The contents of this well are unclaimed.

It's just there, belonging to no one. If you don't guide it, it won't move. If you guide it, it will climb up your hand.

Where to climb to?

It climbed onto the person who led it. One hour passed.

Two hours.

By the third hour, the white liquid in that well began to rise.

It followed the net, the line, and Ye Feng's hand, crawling all the way up his body. Ye Feng knelt by the well, his hands supporting him on the ground.

Shen Yu rushed over to help, but Lin Yuqing stopped him.

"Don't touch him."

"He even knelt down!"

"It broke when I touched it," Lin Yuqing said. "It broke halfway through, and the whole well spilled here."

The fourth hour.

The little bit of white at the bottom of the well is gone.

When Ye Feng pulled his hand out of the well, his entire arm was trembling. He sat back down on the cement floor, leaning against the well, and panted for a long time.

"Did it work?"

"It's done."

Shen Yu reached out to pull him.

Ye Feng did not allow it.

"Don't pull."

"You can't stand up."

"I know," Ye Feng said. "Let me take a break."

It took him half an hour to stand up. He had come up in a gondola.

It was evening outside the fence, and a light rain was falling over the county town. Lin Yuqing was waiting upstairs.

Ye Feng emerged from the hanging basket, still holding a bowl in his hand—it was the medicine Ji Qingyao had given him before he went down. There was only a little bit left in the bowl, and he had been holding it for more than four hours without putting it down.

Lin Yuqing walked over. Without saying a word, she took the bowl from his hands.

After taking the bowl, she handed it to the side and then grabbed his wrist. The spot where she pressed her fingers was the same spot he used to take a person's pulse.

"Three hours," she said.

Ye Feng was taken aback. "...What? Three hours?"

"You started feeling weak around the third hour," Lin Yuqing said. "I was sitting up there when suddenly everything went black."

"How long has it been dark?"

"One breath."

She lowered his hand. "I knew you'd do it."

That night, Han Jiuhe called from Dongyang. The old man had heard the news from Shen Yu. He asked three questions on the other end of the phone.

The first one: "Is it clean yet?"

"It's clean now."

The second question: "What is he like now?"

Shen Yu glanced at Ye Feng, who was leaning against the wall. "...He can stand up."

The old man asked the third question very slowly: "Where are the things from that well now?"

Shen Yu couldn't answer. Ye Feng took the call.

"Ninth Master".

"explain."

"On me."

There was a moment of silence. "How long do you plan to leave it there?"

"It won't stay for long," Ye Feng said. "It's a guest on my body, not the host. It can't stay; it needs to find somewhere else."

"Then where are you going to send it?"

Ye Feng did not answer. "Feng'er," Han Jiuhe said.

"exist."

"You two listen up."

"This isn't just your problem—your account and hers have been combined into one, so you're digging into both of their debts today."

"The moment you take this bite today, she will be dead for a second."

"Next time you need to eat three bites—"

The old man paused. "If it's black, it might not be just a breath left."

Ye Feng moved his phone a little further away.

Lin Yuqing took the phone from his hand.

"Ninth Master".

"Girl."

"I know," she said.

"What do you know?"

"I know he takes a bite, and I'll take a cut here."

"Then why did you let him get up?"

Lin Yuqing glanced at Ye Feng. "Ninth Master, if that well doesn't spring up, 30,000 people in Luoxia County will still be stuck in it."

There was no immediate response. After a long while, Han Jiuhe spoke.

He asked the question very softly, but all three people in the room heard it clearly.

"Then let me ask you a question."

"You two are planning to—"

"Where else to go?"