Some villages can be so hostile to outsiders that even if you ask a local how to get out of the village, they won't answer you.
They might even glare at you before walking away.
Of course, there are villages that aren't so closed off. Zhao Tiezhu said that his village wasn't very exclusive.
But the problem now wasn't about being closed off or not, the problem was that he urgently needed to find someone and ask for directions.
Zhao Tiezhu was looking for someone to ask for directions while pondering what to do when he met the chief.
If he was lucky and the chief happened to be sick, then after explaining why he was there to treat the chief, all he had to do was cure the chief's illness, and wouldn't everything be perfectly resolved?
But then again, what if the chief wasn't sick? He certainly couldn't just make him sick.
Although he could do that, it wouldn't be ethical. After all, he was now a doctor and needed to uphold medical ethics.