Chapter 1888 - The Difficulty of Changing Customs
Zhao Gui was momentarily tongue-tied. After standing dumbfounded for a while, he could only say, "Let's still have the criminal investigation comrades come take a look," and walked out in silence.
The criminal investigators came, examined the scene, and confirmed it was definitely suicide, issuing a death certificate. But though he died by suicide, because it occurred during the isolation observation period, he was still classified as a "suspected case." Laifu's grandfather was unable to achieve the "rest in peace in the earth" he had envisioned. Amid the wailing of his family, he was placed in a body bag by the corpse collection team, loaded onto a cart, and transported to Liuhua Bridge for cremation.
Laifu's father and Laifu wept as if they would die, desperately pleading. They kowtowed and tried to bribe with silver. Zhao Gui and Huo Junming also found it hard to bear, but the rules were set by the Australians, and with everyone watching, covering up this matter wouldn't be easy. If something went wrong, the lightest punishment would be "entire family exiled to the miasmatic lands of Taiwan"—to them, no different from having the whole family beheaded. They could only steel their hearts and "act according to regulations."
Watching the old man's corpse being loaded onto the corpse collection team's Whirlwind-style two-wheeled cart, Huo Junming filled out the corpse tag, tied it to the body bag, and tore off one half to give to Laifu: "Three days from now, take this slip to Liuhua Bridge to collect the ashes."
Laifu's father, kneeling on the ground, stiffly accepted it. But Laifu's grandmother snatched it, tore it to shreds, and glared with tear-swollen eyes, cursing: "Who needs your fake kindness! You've already burned him to ashes—what's there to collect! You plague-ridden, no-good-end cropped-Kun—sooner or later the court will have you all executed by a thousand cuts, ground to dust and scattered..." As she spoke, she flung her hand, and the paper fragments scattered like snowflakes over the two men.
"This is paper money burned for you..."
Laifu's father was frightened out of his wits. The Australians' decisive handling and ruthless methods were famous—the days when hanged corpses hung at every crossroads weren't so long ago. With his old mother cursing like this, A-Gui was okay—he was kindhearted—but the other one, who could say. He quickly gestured to Laifu: "Laifu! Help your grandmother inside!" Then he hurriedly apologized to Huo Junming and Zhao Gui, saying his mother was "overcome with grief" and momentarily confused, asking both of them not to take it to heart.
"Forget it, forget it." Huo Junming and Zhao Gui only felt fed up and fled Laifu's home as if escaping. Huo Junming felt only a suffocating sensation in his chest. Looking at Zhao Gui, his face was also dark. Neither knew what to say. The two carefully patrolled the remaining portions of the district, then slowly headed toward the temporary epidemic prevention station. Unexpectedly, halfway there, they spotted a naturalized citizen from the epidemic prevention station running toward them in a panic: "Finally found you! Quick, there's trouble at the epidemic prevention station!"
The epidemic prevention stations had been newly established, mostly occupying public buildings like temples, ancestral halls, and guild halls in the city. Besides epidemic prevention personnel, there were also dedicated doctors and health police. This was where they worked, treated patients, and rested. Corpses of disease deaths or suspected disease deaths collected from various places were also temporarily stored here, waiting to be transported out by boat at night.
The epidemic prevention station for this area had occupied the Shanxi-Shaanxi Guild Hall. That "haunted" back garden had naturally become the morgue—because the area was large and there was a river dock in the back alley. Not only were corpses from this district temporarily placed here, but corpses collected by nearby stations were also brought over.
Huo Junming really wasn't used to resting at the epidemic prevention station at night at first—he always felt the yin energy was too heavy. After a while, he grew accustomed—the daily epidemic prevention work left him so exhausted that he basically fell asleep the moment he lay down.
"What the hell, so many things today..." Huo Junming grumbled to himself, but his feet weren't slow. He and Zhao Gui rushed to the epidemic prevention station, finding a crowd of citizens already gathered at the entrance, clamoring and pressing at the gate. The police at the gate had already raised their batons but didn't dare act—the doorway was all commoners, and they hadn't attacked or tried to force their way in. They just shouted. Moreover, there were simply too many people at the door. Since no one had expected epidemic prevention stations would be mobbed, the guards had only batons.
"What's going on? What's all the commotion about?" Huo Junming ran to the doorway and shouted.
The crowd instantly fell silent, everyone turning to look at him with expressions of "finally someone in charge has come."
"Re... reporting. These citizens are asking to see you. They want to protest..." The sentry's face had gone pale with fear.
"Officer!" An old man who appeared to be the group's leader stormed up to him, full of anger. "This quarantine has already aroused heaven's wrath and people's resentment. If this continues, I say this Great Song is doomed!"
"What audacity!" Huo Junming was shocked—who dared say such things! "Ever since Guangzhou's liberation..."
"May I ask, Officer, what does 'liberation' mean?" The old man very rudely interrupted him.
"'Liberation' means releasing the people from being hung upside down. 'Liberation' means attacking tyrants like Jie and Zhou." Huo Junming gave the standard answer provided by the Elders' Council.
"Ha! 'Releasing the people from being hung upside down'! 'Attacking tyrants'! I have never heard of any dynasty in history 'releasing the people from being hung upside down' by digging up graves and violating corpses, nor any dynasty 'attacking tyrants' by burning bones to ashes!" The old man grew more agitated as he spoke, nearly poking Huo Junming in the chest.
"...You! Do you know that defying the Elders' Council's orders is the same as rebellion!" Huo Junming instantly understood—these people were protesting the cremation policy. "You dare defy the Elders' Council's edict! Are you not afraid of the iron fist of the Great Song's People's Dictatorship!"
"Rebellion? You treacherous ministers and thieves don't even deserve to accuse us!" The old man shouted even louder. "The people do not fear death—what's the point of threatening them with death! You Baldy Bandits! With such perverse actions, can't you see this plague is precisely the doom of your—" He couldn't finish his remaining words. Zhao Gui had already brought two police officers, blowing their whistles as they ran over, using batons to disperse the onlooking crowd. They rushed to the old man and struck him down with one blow.
"Publicly shouting reactionary slogans—arrest him!" Zhao Gui usually mumbled when speaking, but when arresting people and announcing charges, he was particularly fluent. The two police officers immediately acted, stuffing a hemp ball into the old man's mouth and dragging him away without further ado.
Seeing the batons already striking down—if they kept making trouble and brought the White Horse Squad or something, no one would have a good outcome—the crowd scattered instantly.
Huo Junming saw the troublemakers at the door disperse and finally breathed a sigh of relief. But then Doctor Fu Wuben came rushing out in a panic from inside—this Doctor Fu was no ordinary person. Though young, he was the personal senior disciple of the True-Born doctor Liu San, known for integrating Chinese and Western medicine. After arriving in Guangzhou, he had been practicing on his master's behalf for several months and had already made quite a name for himself. He was also the supervising doctor for several epidemic prevention stations in this area.
"What happened?" Fu Wuben asked.
Huo Junming actually wasn't clear himself, but an epidemic prevention team member answered: "Comrade Fu, do you remember three days ago during patrol, the one we caught burying a corpse secretly? His family's on Scissors Lane..." This team member was wrapped tightly from head to toe, his expression invisible. One could only see a forehead covered in sweat, whether from heat or anxiety.
"I remember. The household in East Fifteen Branch Alley, a private school. A young xiucai died—a typical plague patient. The family didn't report it but secretly dragged him out and buried him during the patrol interval. I went with Comrade Dagang from your station to dig him up and cremate him." Fu Wuben was somewhat angry. "Is today's mob their family's doing?"
"Exactly them," the epidemic prevention team member's voice carried a note of helplessness. "That old man just now was that xiu... Ming dynasty xiucai's father. He wasn't around when we went to handle the corpse. These past two days he's been coming to the door every day demanding an explanation, but the sentries have been turning him away. Then today this old fellow called a bunch of people to come together—all people dissatisfied with the cremation policy. Just those with records for secretly burying bodies include several households..."
"Next time this happens, don't panic. Though you're the Epidemic Prevention Battalion, you're still part of the National Army, the claws and fangs of our Great Song," Fu Wuben said to the workers. "Just beat them back! If they dare make more trouble, handle it strictly as assault on officials! Chief Liu said extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. You don't need to worry. I'll report this. Now hurry back to your work."
Fu Wuben was angry for good reason. Because of this policy of collecting disease-death corpses, epidemic prevention team members clashed with citizens almost daily, with constant conflict. Considering that people's moods weren't good when someone in the family had died and then had to be sent to isolation, Lin Motian had called on the epidemic prevention team and police to "be more understanding." Don't talk back when cursed, and let minor physical pushing and shoving slide rather than treating everything as "assaulting officials."
However, conflicts had only intensified under the epidemic prevention team and police's tolerance and accommodation—from verbal abuse and shoving to now actually mobbing the epidemic prevention station. How could Fu Wuben, who had received a complete modern education and was young and spirited, endure this?
Fu Wuben's report was another bucket of ice water on the already overwhelmed Lin Motian. These commoner matters really were hard to handle! No wonder Liu Xiang always said: matters concerning people's livelihoods must be handled with the utmost caution! Suddenly, two words he had previously detested bubbled up from the bottom of his heart: "Troublemakers!"
Having grown up in the city since childhood, Lin Motian was after all still too young, and he had followed a purely academic path from medical school to hospital, with limited contact with grassroots society.
As a doctor, he had naturally witnessed all sorts of absurd troublemakers in hospitals in the old timeline—in his view, this was merely due to individual greed and character issues. He hadn't considered the social emotions and psychology of the entire society, nor did he have any concept of what these measures meant in late Ming times. Even in the old timeline's 1980s New China, cremation wasn't an easy topic. Mandatory cremation policies had still caused considerable turmoil at the rural grassroots level, with cadre-mass relations becoming tense. And that was after decades of cities universally adopting cremation and national leaders personally advocating it by example. In this era, his proposal that all disease-death corpses be cremated was nothing short of a thunderbolt from a clear sky. The backlash was far beyond his expectations.
Author's Note: Next update will be Section 7 of Volume 7—Liangguang Campaign.
(End of Chapter)