Time passes quickly; a hundred and twenty years in the blink of an eye.
In Youzhou, Luo County, Tianhe County, deep in the folds of the mountains, lies a Miao village of several hundred households.
Green-tiled wooden buildings built against the mountain, a place that ought to be peaceful with the sounds of chickens and dogs, is now shrouded in a layer of deathly silence.
A dozen makeshift tents have been set up at the threshing ground at the village entrance. Under each tent lies a pale-faced man, each with a belly swollen like a woman about to give birth, breathing so faintly as if the next moment it will cease.
The village elder leans on a cane at the side of the tent, eyes clouded with despair.
This strange plague came suddenly, knocking down over a hundred strong men in half a month. The village brewed pot after pot of herbal medicine, to no effect, and some people even started coughing blood.
