Chapter 150: Worsening
Magistrate Chen rushed to the temple. Hearing that Su Yaoguang and Jiang Jing were both in the critically ill area and hadn’t come out, he called Zhaodi over and asked her about the situation.
“Lord, the patients here are almost all recovered. It looks like within ten days, everyone will definitely be fully healed and able to go down the mountain. Now they’ve brought in all this junk, dragging down those who were almost recovered and making their conditions worse. That’s not the scariest part. The scariest is that this has just begun. Looking at the momentum, the worst is yet to come! Lord, if this goes on endlessly, who can stand it? This epidemic is like an indestructible earth dragon that can reproduce! My daughter is still in there. If anything happens to her, I won’t be able to live either.”
“Eldest Sister-in-law Zhang, don’t worry. Boss Su is blessed by heaven and will be fine. Now the people call her the Living Bodhisattva. She is deeply loved and respected by everyone, and the Buddha will protect her fully.” Magistrate Chen comforted Zhaodi a few words, then stated his decision. “Since the others are almost recovered, clear this place out to prevent those with milder conditions from worsening.”
“Do you mean to let them go down the mountain first?” Zhaodi asked.
“That’s right. You take those with milder conditions down the mountain. This official will arrange a place for you to stay and let you care for them until they recover. I’ll send some doctors with superb medical skills here separately to help.”
“I’m not leaving.” Zhaodi said, “I want to stay with my daughter.”
Zhang Pandi and Zhang Yingdi were also unwilling to leave.
“If those doctors dared to come, they wouldn’t have pretended to be dead before. They’re afraid of death, so let them take care of those with milder conditions. We want to stay here to accompany Yaoguang and care for the critically ill patients.”
“Lord, another twenty have been sent.” A yamen runner hurried over. “I heard there are more behind. Wasn’t the neighboring city sealed off before, not allowing them to run around? How did so many more patients suddenly appear? Looking at these patients, each one seems to have only one last breath left. Could it be that the neighboring city deliberately sent them over?”
Magistrate Chen said seriously, “Send someone to inquire about the situation in the neighboring county town.”
“Yes.” The yamen runner said, “If they deliberately sent the patients here, their intentions would be despicable and shameless.”
“No matter what conspiracy they have, these are living lives. We can’t ignore them. But relying only on Boss Su’s family won’t do. Summon all those willing to come help. But first, make it clear to them that the patients from the neighboring county town are different from ours. Caring for them is more dangerous, and if not careful, they might infect themselves.”
The Abbot appeared and organized the monks to move those with milder conditions to the bamboo houses on the back mountain.
The bamboo houses there were places where the monks meditated in seclusion, never entered by outsiders before. This time, the monks opened their last forbidden area, allowing the patients to transfer there to condition their bodies.
Xiao Yanci stood in the crowd, looking toward the zen room where Su Yaoguang was.
In his previous life, she saved him and did so much for him. In this life, she saved those unrelated people, risking her life for those unrelated people. Whether in his previous life or this life, she was a foolish woman. But why did he feel moved by such a foolish woman? Why did he feel she was glowing, making it hard not to notice her existence?
Wen Shi tugged at Xiao Yanci and said, “Miss Jiang seems to have fallen ill too. Do you think Miss Jiang has the same condition as them?”
Xiao Yanci frowned: “No. That’s the condition from the neighboring city. Yihuan has never been in contact with people from outside the city, so how could she get such a disease? She has a common cold. Just give her some medicine for treating the common cold.”
“That’s good, that’s good.” Wen Shi patted her chest.
Xiao Yanci watched her action, his gaze lingering on that surging bosom, his cheeks flushing as he awkwardly turned his head away.
“Since Yihuan is ill, why aren’t you staying by her side to care for her? Why are you running around?” With that, he strode toward the zen room where he lived.
A smug look flashed in Wen Shi’s eyes.
All men in the world are the same, like a dog that can’t change its habit of eating shit. Xiao Yanci now treasures Jiang Yihuan like a precious gem and will sooner or later succumb to temptation and become her skirt-chasing minister.
Critically ill area. Su Yaoguang heard someone come in and turned to see Zhaodi and the others. She said angrily, “Why did you come in? Didn’t I say…”
“Say what?” Zhaodi grabbed Su Yaoguang’s ear, interrupting her.
“Ow, ow, ow…” Su Yaoguang begged for mercy, “Mom, my ear is about to fall off.”
“It’d be good if it fell off. Then you’d be more obedient.”
“Who says? If the ear falls off, I won’t even hear what Mom says, let alone obey.”
“Yaoguang, these patients were all sent from the neighboring city. Looking at the momentum, there are many more behind!” Wang Huanzhi said, “Even if you three work yourselves to death, you can’t care for so many people. If we don’t come in, are we supposed to watch you work yourselves to death here? Also, the County Magistrate was just here and said he’ll arrange another batch of people to come help soon.”
Su Yaoguang heard there was a large team coming later and knew they really needed manpower, otherwise even working themselves to death wouldn’t cure so many.
“Hiss…” Wangshu inhaled sharply.
“What’s wrong?” Su Yaoguang walked over, “Are you injured?”
“This person carries a dagger on him. I didn’t notice and got my finger cut.” Wangshu said, “I’ll just apply some medicine and it’ll be fine.”
“Jing’er, quickly check on Wangshu. He was cut by a dagger the patient carried.” Su Yaoguang called out.
Jiang Jing hurried over: “In this situation, you can’t get injured. Once injured, it’s easier to get infected. Quick, pour some wine on the wound, sprinkle medicinal powder, and wrap it with clean white cloth.”
The people the County Magistrate mentioned arrived soon. They were all familiar faces. Just not long ago, they came up the mountain as patients. This time, they came up the mountain to assist the doctors.
“Why have you come back?” Su Yaoguang saw these familiar men and women and felt a great warmth.
“You risked your life to save us without asking for any reward. We survived a great disaster, so of course we must pass this blessing on to more people.”
“Boss Su, just rest assured. We’ll take care of the people.”
“On the way up the mountain just now, we saw many being sent up. We only went down the mountain not long ago, and the patients from the neighboring county town are about to flood this place.”
“Those people are pitiful too. We have the County Magistrate and Boss Su, such kind-hearted people to save us. They don’t. The lord over there will just burn them alive!”
Su Yaoguang organized everyone to start rescuing the patients.
Jiang Jing was still drug testing the prescription, so they divided areas by condition, decocted different types of medicine for different areas, and first gave it to those patients to see the reaction.
