Not long after Chu Fengqing returned from the palace, Li Yu came looking for him. He shouted from the front yard to the back yard, “Brother Chu! Why did I hear you were going to the South?!”
Chu Fengqing: “……”
He hadn’t told his family about this yet, but after he yelled, everyone in the family knew about it.
Mother and Father Chu, as well as Chu Yinyin, all surrounded him. Chu Fengqing’s forehead twitched slightly. Never mind. He would have to tell them sooner or later anyway.
Chu Fengqing put down the work at hand and said “en”, which was considered his agreement.
Mother Chu: “Isn’t there a flood in the south?”
Chu Fengqing pursed his lips, obviously not ready to say anything about this matter. He sighed lightly and said in a very calm tone, “After a great disaster, there will be a great epidemic.”
Mother Chu was slightly stunned. “Great epidemic? You mean the south…”
Chu Fengqing nodded. Mother Chu became anxious. She walked forward and held Chu Fengqing’s hand. “I won’t let you go!”
Li Yu also echoed, “Dog Ji…”
“Well, before he left, Governor Ji told me to take good care of you. If you run south now, how can I tell him? I’m afraid I’ll become an eunuch tomorrow.”
Chu Fengqing: “……”
Li Yu, this person is good, but unfortunately he has a big mouth.
He glanced at Li Yu lightly, and Li Yu blinks. He wondered if he had said something wrong, and his hair stood up uncontrollably. My goodness, why did Brother Chu’s eyes now look like when Ji Yujin wanted to castrate him?
Mother Chu was a little confused as to why he had to tell Ji Yujin, but she didn’t think much about it either. She was now focused on Chu Fengqing’s going south. Chu Yinyin, on the other hand, looked at Chu Fengqing a little longer. Although Father Chu had recovered a lot, but his reaction was still a little slow. For example, now he still didn’t understand why Mother Chu didn’t let Chu Fengqing go south.
Seeing that Mother Chu was anxious, the only thing he could do was to pat her back to comfort her.
Chu Fengqing skipped the private goods mentioned in his words and said, “His Majesty has already issued an order.”
Valuable words are as good as gold. It’s set in stone and cannot be changed.
Mother Chu held Chu Fengqing’s hand tightly and said, “Then I will go and beg His Majesty. Even if I risk my life today, I can’t let you go south. You are not an official appointed by the court, and you are not the son of an official. Our family was raided long ago. Why should we let you go to such a dangerous place?”
Chu Fengqing: “Mother…”
Mother Chu: “Don’t talk first. I’m a woman, I don’t understand what justice is. I just want my son to be safe and sound. I just want my family to be healthy and safe. I don’t ask for anything else in this life.”
She said in a tougher tone, “Qing’er, no matter what you say, I won’t let you go this time.”
Li Yu was also thinking of a solution. He hesitated and said, “How about I go to the palace tomorrow to beg His Majesty and ask my father to write a memorial? You can pretend to be sick—the kind that is terminally ill. I don’t believe that he can let a seriously ill patient go. There shouldn’t be no one in our dynasty, right?”
“Li Yu, don’t do anything stupid.” Chu Fengqing said softly, “Deceiving the emperor is a serious crime.”
“I will not go deep into the epidemic area this time. I will just judge from the symptoms on the periphery and will not have direct contact with the patients.”
Mother Chu opened her mouth, “But your body…”
“Mother, I’m fine. I’ve discussed this with the physicians in Imperial Medical. Although this plague is fierce, but it’s not completely hopeless. I’ve read many books about plagues before, and my master taught me several prescriptions about plagues. Some of them are for serious diseases. As long as I get in touch with them, maybe I can cure them.”
“Maybe there is a possibility. I am their only hope.”
Chu Fengqing’s voice was as cold and clear as the bright moon. “That means tens of millions of lives.”
As the saying goes, Those whose hearts are not as good as Buddha’s and those whose skills are not as good as those of immortals cannot be physicians.
Some things always have to be done by someone.
……
That night, Chu Fengqing talked with Mother Chu for a long time. Mother Chu did not agree at first, but she agreed in the end. No one knew what Chu Fengqing said to Mother Chu.
In fact, the emperor did not give him a second option at all. The imperial edict he issued had been drafted before he came. Even if he refused it during the court, the result would not change either.
The emperor must be extremely worried about this disaster. Even if there is only a glimmer of hope, he has to try it. Now he is that glimmer of hope. If he can really cure this plague, everyone will be happy. If not, there seems to be no loss except himself, so why not do it?
It just so happens that the two people’s goals are the same.
In the next few days, Chu Fengqing plunged into the Imperial Medical. Several old physicians, whose combined age was over 500 years old, followed him. They studied the disease based on the little information they had, determined the cause of the disease, looked up ancient books, and wrote prescriptions.
Chu Fengqing was visibly getting thinner day by day, and his face was as white as paper. Mother Chu felt sorry for him, but she couldn’t help him in other ways. She could only take care of him as much as possible in terms of meals. Sometimes she even wanted to take back her promise, but she thought of Chu Fengqing’s words and gave up the idea.
After working day and night for several days, everyone was still unable to come to any conclusion. The biggest contribution they made was just to give Chu Fengqing a preliminary understanding of the disease.
Just the day before departure, Chu Fengqing looked up from his pile of books and called Chang Wang: “Chang Wang, do you know where there is a tea garden?”
Chang Wang: “Young Master, are you asking about the tea garden where tea is grown?”
Chu Fengqing nodded, and Chang Wang thought for a moment, “There aren’t many places in the capital where tea is grown. It seems that there are only a few old tea trees in the west of the city.”
“But it should be frozen by frost. If you need, I can go and take a look.”
Chu Fengqing: “No problem, prepare a carriage for me, and I will go by myself.”
……
On the other side, Ji Yujin was very busy. He handled the corpses according to the book given to him by Chu Fengqing. He was very careful, but he didn’t understand why the plague still spread.
While he was looking for the cause, the most important thing was to control the spread of the plague. He gathered all the sick people together, and anyone who had come into contact with the patients was ordered to stay at home. The city gates were also closed, and people were allowed to enter but not leave.
Fortunately, although the flood affected a wide area, there was only one city where the plague occurred—Yucheng.
Many of Ji Yujin’s subordinates were also infected with the disease because he temporarily took over the dispatch of the entire city. As a decision-maker, he could not fall. If he fell, the people of this city would be truly hopeless.
Therefore, Zhao Li and others begged him not to leave this mansion, so he did not get sick for the time being. And because of this, everything in the city was still in order.
“Why hasn’t the court sent anyone yet? Many people have died of the disease today. If no one comes, many people will not be able to hold on.”
“The memorial we submitted should have arrived in the capital a long time ago, why is there still no news?”
“We can’t hold on any longer. The number of people infected is increasing everyday. Physicians in the city are helpless. Many physicians have even been infected. If we have another month and a half, the city will be empty.”
“The people are very opposed to posthumous cremation, and some even come to steal the remains of their families at night. The brothers are patrolling day and night, and I also can’t hold on any longer.”
Ji Yujin sat in the hall, listening to the chattering of the people below. He pressed his temple, his brows became more stern, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Just then, a messenger finally arrived with news: “A letter from the capital!!”
“Sh*t! Finally got the news.”
Everyone was ecstatic, and Ji Yujin’s eyes were also dark. After being busy for several months, even a body of iron would be damaged, not to mention that he was just a mortal.
“Read.”
“The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, proclaims…”
The first half of the letter was all nonsense, so Ji Yujin simply skipped over it.
“The Imperial Medical’s Chief Director, Li Jian, and the newly appointed Deputy Director…”
“Governor, something bad has happened!”
The man was interrupted halfway through reading, but because Ji Yujin heard Li Jian’s name and knew Li Jian very well and knew that he was a man of real talent, as long as he was not a good-for-nothing, Ji Yujin stopped listening and went to deal with other things.
Until…
When the people sent by the court finally arrived at the city gate, Zhao Li was responsible for meeting them. When he was standing on the city gate and saw Chu Fengqing sticking his head out of the carriage, he was completely stunned.
He stood there for a long time before he came to his senses. After that, he hurried to report to Ji Yujin.
Ji Yujin’s expression changed instantly, and he gritted his teeth and said, “Who did you say is here?”
