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Depictions of a pandemic, ableism
Wu Ruo narrowed his eyes; it had still happened after all.
In his previous lifetime, this incident had also occurred. Because the people of the human clan had taken a trip to the Yao clan and been infected by the common cold of the Yao clan, it had caused the entire Huangdu City and the neighbouring cities and towns to be infected by this sort of thermotoxin1热毒 ( re du): according to my Baidu search, this term is a TCM medical term that refers to when there’s too much stagnant ‘heat’ in the body, which develops into a pathogenic toxin. For those who are interested, you can look up heatiness in TCM or browse through this link.. To the Yao clan, it was something as common as a couple of sneezes but the same couldn’t be said for the human clan.
The human clan’s physical constitution was weaker than that of the Yao clan’s. When they were infected, it was equivalent to being infected by a type of influenza. The person would fall into a coma, their body also became so feverish that it was frightening. However, in all other aspects, everything was extremely normal. As the Four Clans Festival had been set up over a decade ago and nothing similar had occurred in all that time, so the human clan had no preventative measures against such a situation.
Nu Mu’s expression darkened: “So, the ones who have fainted have very possibly been infected by the common cold of the Yao clan.”
He had just finished saying this, when suddenly, one after the other, a dozen more people collapsed.
Everyone else’s expressions changed, one after another, they hurriedly shifted those who had fainted onto beddings. One after the other, the bodies of those who had fainted turned feverish. It was extremely scalding, frightening others.
Wu Ruo hurriedly instructed them: “Go take the Beast-rearing Grass and quickly brew it into herbal soup, then distribute that for everyone to drink.”
“Yes, sir!” The situation was so dire, everyone didn’t dare to hesitate.
“Beast-rearing Grass?” Nu Mu looked at Wu Ruo sternly: “Xiao-Ruo, tell me honestly, did you know from a long time ago that this fever would occur, that’s why you prepared a whole pile of Beast-rearing Grass?”
Wu Ruo no longer hid from him: “Yes, but I wasn’t very sure if the situation would actually occur so I didn’t say anything about it.”
In his previous lifetime, the thermotoxin influenza had been extremely serious. In the short period of just three days, more than half the people in Huangdu City and its neighbouring cities and towns had contracted the thermotoxin. After seven days, they had died one after another. Later on, someone discovered that the Beast-rearing Grass could cure the thermotoxin and that was how they finally managed to cure such a major pandemic.
Because Wu Ruo had been in Gaoling City, which was quite far from Huangdu City, so he hadn’t been very clear about the specifics of the matter. At that time, no one in Gaoling City had contracted the thermotoxin but everyone had taken the Beast-rearing Grass.
Nu Mu stood up: “Then I must write a letter to my clanspeople and inform them.”
Wu Ruo said: “Shifu, don’t panic. The Miaojiang Wu clan is very far away from here, how could they be infected so easily? If you let someone send a letter over, you might introduce the thermotoxin to the clan instead.”
These words weren’t without their logic, so Nu Mu gave up on that idea. In any case, the Miaojiang Wu’s information network was very well-connected and they had Beast-rearing Grass within the clan as well. There was actually no need to worry that they would get infected.
After half a shichen, everyone in Hei Manor had taken the herbal soup of the Beast-rearing Grass. As for those who had fainted, they woke up after being administered the herbal soup. Their condition turned into that of a regular common cold, as long as their bodies didn’t suffer from any chills2The chill here refers to the opposite of ‘heatiness’ in TCM. It’s not just about being exposed to cold climate/temperatures, even having a direct breeze blowing at you can cause a TCM ‘chill’. Same with TCM ‘heatiness’, this can also be affected by the kind of food you eat in addition to external environmental factors. then there would be no further issues.
When Nu Mu saw that his companions were recovering, in that instance, he sighed in relief: “I never thought that the Beast-rearing Grass would be able to cure the thermotoxin transmitted from the Yao clan. It was really unheard of prior to this.”
“That’s because something like this had never happened before, so naturally no one would’ve noticed that Beast-rearing Grass had other uses either.” Wu Ruo rotated a bit of Beast-rearing Grass in his hand, deep in thought.
Nu Mu didn’t disturb him either but he thought to himself that all the Beast-rearing Grass in Tianxing had probably been gathered into Hei Manor by his disciple, and now the fate of Tianxing was held in the palm of his disciple’s hand. He just wasn’t sure what his disciple’s future plans were.
Wu Ruo’s hand stopped moving, he stood up and said: “Shifu, I still have something to attend to, I’ll be leaving for a while.”
“Hn.” After Wu Ruo had left, Nu Mu shook his head: “This disciple of mine is quite remarkable.”
Then, he laughed loudly: “He’s worthy of being my disciple!”
When Wu Ruo returned to the pill refining room, he stored the Beast-rearing Grass into ten packets and instructed a guard of the manor to deliver it to Wu Xuanran and the others at the Wu estate: “Remember, you can only deliver the medicine to the Wu estate servants after you see Wu Chenzi alighting from his carriage.”
“Yes, sir.” The guard carried the ten packets of herbs and rode a horse to the vicinity of the main entrance that Wu Chenzi often used. After Wu Chenzi had returned from the palace and alighted from his carriage, the guard quickly rode his horse over to the Wu estate’s main entrance and handed the packets of herbs to the guard on duty at the entrance: “Our master is the madam of Hei Manor, who is also a descendant of the Gaoling City Wu family. Recently, some people in Huangdu City have contracted a type of thermotoxin. After they faint, they’ll remain in a coma. On top of that, their entire body will be scalding hot. Our madam heard that this sort of herb can prevent and cure the thermotoxin, so he instructed me to send ten packets over for the members of the Gaoling City Wu family. He said to tell them to brew it into an herbal soup and let them drink it.”
When the Wu estate guard heard that it was to be delivered to the Gaoling City Wu family members, they didn’t dare to carelessly delay the matter either. After all, the Gaoling City Wu family members had an imperial edict in hand that required the Huangdu City Wu family members to treat them well.
When Wu Chenzi, who had just alighted from his carriage, heard that the other person was a guard from Hei Manor, he raised an eyebrow. Only after the Hei Manor guard had left did he walk over to the entrance and ask: “What is this?”
The Wu estate guard hurriedly conveyed the Hei Manor guard’s instructions.
“Thermotoxin?” Wu Chenzi frowned. He had never heard of such a matter: “Open it up and take a look at what herb it is.”
“Yes, sir.” The Wu estate guard opened up one of the packets of herbs, when they took a look, it actually turned out to be Beast-rearing Grass that could be bought with just several wen of money3文钱 (wen qian): according to Baidu, 1000 wen makes 1 silver tael..
Wu Chenzi snorted in contempt: “Would those insatiably greedy Gaoling City Wu bastards even want his cheap herbs? On top of that, it’s for feeding yao beasts. They definitely won’t care for it.”
In a short period of time, he had already thoroughly understood these people.
Ever since they had come to the Wu estate, they had spent endless amounts of his money and rare, precious herbs. However, there was still no sign of any results to be seen. Their healths were still as it had originally been. Putting that aside, every day, they would think of all kinds of methods to secretly steal away expensive herbs and ingredients from him. They were really the limit of despicability. If there was a chance, he really had to ‘cure’4治一治 (zhi yi zhi): the word zhi here does mean ‘to cure’ in some contexts, but it also means ‘to control/regulate/govern over’. It’s a bit of wordplay here, since Wu Chenzi is under the constraints of the imperial edict to ‘cure’ these people. these bunch of people.
The guard asked: “Lord State Tutor, what should I do with these herbs?”
Wu Chenzi glanced at the other packets of herbs: “Take a look at what’s in the other packets as well.”
“Yes, sir.” The guard opened the other packets of herbs, and they were all Beast-rearing Grass.
Wu Chenzi thought of the imperial edict, so he instructed the guard to send the things over to the courtyard that Wu Xuanran and the others stayed in, then he left.
The guard packed the herbs back properly into their packages, then delivered it to the courtyard that Wu Xuanran and the others stayed in.
When Wu Xuanran and the others heard that Wu Ruo had sent herbs over, they assumed that it was precious herbs and hurriedly got their servants to open it up. Who would’ve thought that it was the commonly seen Beast-rearing Grass. Wu Xuanran was so angered that, on the spot, he smashed the herbs in his hands to the ground: “Wu Ruo! This bastard thing! How dare he use Beast-rearing Grass herbs to humiliate us!”
Wu Qianli said furiously: “Ever since this dog bastard married someone else, with someone to back him up, why would he give a hoot about us uncles?”
The people of the Northern main estate said sarcastically: “If my uncles had stolen my betrothal gifts, I wouldn’t give a hoot about these uncles either.”
Wu Qiantong was livid: “You speak as if your Northern main estate didn’t steal Wu Ruo’s betrothal gifts either! Pfft! Don’t speak so highly of yourselves!”
“Enough.” Wu Bofang, who had remained silent the entire time, slapped the table angrily: “All you know everyday is to quarrel and quarrel. Aren’t you tired of it? If you have so much time to spend on quarrelling, then why don’t you think of how to treat your own bodies? Look at yourselves! Amputees and blind folk; other than kicking up a fuss, what else do you know how to do? If there comes a day when you’re chased out of the Wu estate, I want to see what all of you will do for yourselves.”
These days, he had already tired of these people quarrelling. Every morning when he woke up, at the thought of having to come to the Wu estate to visit them, he would feel a headache coming on. If these people were not his own children and grandchildren, he really wanted to wash his hands off of them.
“…” Everyone fell silent in that moment.
The servants who were holding onto the packets of herbs carefully asked: “Clan Leader, what shall we do with these packets of herbs?”
Wu Bofang glanced at the packets of herbs and also got the feeling that Wu Ruo wanted to humiliate them, so he was about to open his mouth and tell them to throw the packets of herbs away, when he heard someone say: “Give it to me, then.”
Wu Bofang turned around to look. It was Wu Qiantong’s youngest son, Wu Bo. When the Infinite Gui had attacked, his spiritual field had been damaged. Yet after coming to the Huangdu City Wu estate, he actively cooperated with the treatment process. He ate whatever medication the physician prescribed to him and his attitude was also especially good. Right now, he was already practically completely healed unlike the others who wanted a shortcut to getting better, secretly and recklessly stuffing all kinds of expensive herbs into their mouths. Actually, doing this only resulted in the opposite effect.
“Give it to him, then.”
Wu Bo took the packets of medicine, then he picked up the herbs that Wu Xuanran had thrown away, packed them away properly and took them to the room that he stayed in.
Wu Xiao followed him into the room and said: “What do you want with the herbs that yao beasts eat?”
“It doesn’t harm anyone even if I keep them around. Who knows, they might really be useful someday.” Ever since the splitting of the family, Wu Bo’s personality had become much more steady and mature.
Wu Xiao pursed his lips but in the end he didn’t say anything else either.
That afternoon, many people fainted in the middle of the streets one after the other. This immediately incited the fear and anxiety of the commoners. Less than half a shichen later, the treatment halls of all the clinics were filled with patients and the family members of those patients. There were plenty of patients lying outside of clinics as well.
Yet the physicians couldn’t figure out the cause of the illness. Other than fainting and a fever, the pulses of the patients were all normal and showed no signs of any illness. The physicians were at their wits’ ends and had thought of all kinds of solutions, but they were still unable to wake the patients or lower their temperatures. On top of that, this sort of thermotoxin took everyone by surprise and was just like a contagion. It very quickly spread to every corner of Huangdu City, infecting one after another victim. Even the consorts, concubines and princes in the palace had also been infected.
In the span of two days, more than half the people in Huangdu City and its neighbouring cities and towns had contracted the thermotoxin. The Emperor was incensed, and immediately announced an imperial decree for all the officials to think of a way to end the pandemic. And this time, it was an opportunity for the princes to demonstrate their capabilities so Wu Chenzi was extremely vexed over this matter. However, he was unable to think of a solution to the problem. If they were able to resolve this pandemic, the Emperor and all the officials would see the second imperial prince in a brand new light and he would also be able to receive the love and support of the commoners. This would be even more beneficial to the second imperial prince’s chances of taking the throne.
Wu Chenzi hurriedly returned to the Wu estate from the imperial palace. He was just about to gather all the clan elders and his aides to discuss this matter when he saw Wu Bofang and his wife leading their clan elders, as well as the family members of those clan elders, hastily towards the courtyard where Wu Xuanran and the others resided.
At first, he didn’t want to bother with it. Yet he suddenly thought of the events from two days ago, when Wu Ruo had sent a guard to deliver some herbs over. He remembered from that day that the Beast-rearing Grass was used for curing thermotoxins.
When Wu Chenzi thought of this, in an instance, his adrenaline surged. He hurriedly followed behind Wu Bofang and the others into the courtyard where Wu Xuanran and the others resided.
The moment Wu Bofang entered the courtyard, he called out agitatedly: “Where’s Xiao-Bo? Is Xiao-Bo around?”
Wu Bo hastily came forth and asked: “Great-Grandfather, I’m here. Is there something I can help you with?”
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