Quickly Go and See Who Came
“According to the Board of Astronomy, today will be the last day of heavy rain.” Feng Yu Heng stood in front of the medical clinic and looked out with a worried expression.
Xuan Tian Ming stood at her side with a melancholy expression. They still remembered what Jian Zheng from the Board of Astronomy had said. After the heavy rains, there would be extreme heat. Although they had already burned the corpses, disinfected the inside of every shelter and completely taken care of every person’s wounds, there was still some hidden danger. There was nobody who could know where the epidemic would start. They had only saved the people, but there was no way of removing the dangers of the mud below their feet or the air that they breathed. Moreover, there were still all kinds of animals dying.
They held each other’s hands tighter, and Xuan Tian Ming was able to feel that her fingers were ice-cold. He placed her small hand into his palm and began rubbing.
Not far away, the city’s gates were suddenly opened. Everyone heard this and turned to look. They saw a large procession of carriages coming out of the city. Each carriage was pulled by two strong horses, and the carriages were covered tightly. The thing inside the carriage seemed to be quite heavy for the horses to be pulling, thus it was clear that there was quite a large amount of stuff inside.
Feng Yu Heng counted and noted a total of 40 carriages; however, they were not all the same. Half were pulled by white horses, while the other half was pulled by black horses.
A soldier ran over to report: “General, county princess, his Highness the third prince and his Highness the fourth prince have brought out a large amount of supplies. There are food and clothing. They said that they received an order from the Emperor to come out and send it to the refugees.”
Xuan Tian Ming snorted, “The weasel has come to pay respects to the hen.”1
The soldier asked: “Should we allow them to distribute the supplies?”
Xuan Tian Ming nodded, “Yes, since they have already delivered it, of course, it must be distributed. You should go and help.”
With the assistance of the troops outside the city, the supplies were very successfully distributed. The third prince and fourth prince did not personally come outside the city, but they had their people specifically send food and clothes to Xuan Tian Ming and Feng Yu Heng.
Feng Yu Heng looked at the supplies and could not help but shake her head, “Go back and tell your masters that if they wish to do good things, they must work hard. Don’t just do something superficially. It’s not just his Highness the ninth prince and I that are outside the city. Their younger sister, imperial daughter Wu Yang is also here. How could they not think to prepare an extra set for their own younger sister?”
These words caused the servants from both sides to become red in the face. They understood that just sending supplies was really just going through the motions. Nobody had thought about imperial daughter Wu Yang.
Just as Feng Yu Heng was speaking, Xuan Tian Ge came over to her side. Looking at the things on the table, she snorted coldly and said: “It seems that I really must go and communicate my feelings with uncle Emperor. He has said that I am the old Xuan family’s only flower in this generation. Although I am a cousin, all of the princes must treat me as their own younger sister. How is it that after just a few years, third brother and fourth brother seem to want to rebel?”
The word rebel caused the two servants to tremble in fear. They quickly got down on their knees and began thinking of excuses for their masters.
Xuan Tian Ge, however, waved her hand and spat out: “If it’s not from them, it’s no good.” She then turned around and exited the shelter.
Xuan Tian Ming pulled his wife over to the medical clinic to sit down, leaving the two servants on the other side. The two thought for themselves and figured they might as well stop kneeling. They would need to return to their masters to report, thus they snuck off and directed the empty carriages back into the city.
Back in the medical clinic, Feng Yu Heng asked Xuan Tian Ming: “What do you think of this?”
Xuan Tian Ming thought a bit and said: “Old third and old fourth have never been virtuous people, but I never thought that old third would still covet the throne despite his current situation. Thinking about it, this matter definitely cannot be unrelated to the Duan Mu family.”
Feng Yu Heng nodded, saying: “Sooner or later, the North will belong to you and me. If the third prince is no good, there is still the fourth prince, and it’s even possible that there may be collusion with Qian Zhou. The Duan Mu family has controlled the North for so many years. Their ambition is definitely very grand.”
“Thinking about it, Ban Zou’s group should have returned.” Xuan Tian Ming said: “After the heavy rain, send announce their death to Qian Zhou. Every day that it can buy is important.”
That day, it was not just the two princes that sent things out of the city. Xiang Rong’s group also brought out even more clothes. She did not immediately begin distributing this batch of clothes and kept them to be distributed when the people needed clothes to change into because of the humid air.
Because there was no need to bring more clothes, Xiang Rong’s group had some more time to stay outside the city. Ren Xi Feng and Fung Tian Yu looked at Tian Ge. Xiang Rong also grabbed Feng Yu Heng and quietly spoke with her, telling Feng Yu Heng: “For some reason, the Bu family’s general did not accept the canceling of my engagement. The engagement letter that had been sent back was brought once more. Concubine mother An said that grandmother flew into a rage, but because I have been rushing about with helping the refugees outside the city and have greeted General Ping Nan and the people inside the palace, she did not cause me any trouble. However, I don’t know what might happen with the Feng family after this natural disaster.”
The news that she brought caused Feng Yu Heng to also feel a little confused. Normally speaking, this marriage should have been a simple transaction between Feng Jin Yuan and the Bu family. At that time, Feng Jin Yuan was the prime minister, thus he had the capital to perform this transaction. But now that he has been demoted to fifth rank, this marriage should have been canceled, normally speaking. Even if Xiang Rong did not cancel it, the Bu family would definitely take the initiative to come and cancel it. Why did this twist occur?
Xiang Rong saw Feng Yu Heng furrow her brow and felt a little disturbed: “Second sister, there is no need for you to worry too much for me. Xiang Rong is just a little confused and came to tell you. Right now, Da Shun is suffering a disaster. Second sister is someone that must do great things and must not divide her attention to worry about my insignificant matters.”
Feng Yu Heng laughed and patted the back of her hand: “The disaster is a big matter. My younger sister’s happiness is also a big matter, but, Xiang Rong, there is no need for you to worry about this matter. There is even less hurry to cancel the engagement. You are only eleven-years-old. A girl becomes of age at 15. You still have four years. That can be a very long time.”
Xiang Rong nodded, “I understand. Second sister, don’t worry. Xiang Rong has become strong and does not fear anything.” While saying this, she looked around. The inside of the medical clinic was filled with the smell of disinfectant. She had smelled this sort of thing in the past. It smelled the same as the medicine storage room of Tong Sheng pavilion. She knew that Feng Yu Heng was the only one with a medicine that smelled like this. “Second sister, the clothes brought today were part of the last batch. When we go back, we will not have much to do. Sister Ren and sister Fung said that they will be staying here to help. Can you also let me stay to help? I know how to make food, and I can help you take care of the sick. I just… don’t want to leave.”
Feng Yu Heng understood her feeling. Although she lived in Tong Sheng pavilion, all that separated her from the Feng manor was a single wall, and there would always be news coming from that side. This girl definitely would not like to hear about it. Thus she nodded, “Then you can stay with me to learn how to take care of the patients.”
On the last night before the rain stopped, aside from the refugees, nobody slept. Feng Yu Heng pulled out vaccine after vaccine from her space then personally directed the soldiers to carry out another thorough disinfecting. At the same time, she had to prepare for the first disinfecting job after the rain stopped.
Over the past few days, a little over half of the people had been immunized, and they had been given medicine. But the number of refugees was too high. With just her and Song Kang, who had been taught on the fly, how could they possibly manage to do it all. Feng Yu Heng had tried to teach Huang Quan and Wang Chuan a few times how to give a vaccination; unfortunately, they did not have the same understanding at Song Kang, so she could only give up.
On this last night, she and Song Kang once again began giving vaccinations. Each second counted. Song Kang once asked her during the immunization process: “This thing called a vaccine, can it stop an epidemic after it has been given?”
Feng Yu Heng helplessly shook her head. This was what she worried about the most, “This is just the most basic vaccine. It can only be said to be better than nothing; however, there is no way to guarantee that people who have been vaccinated definitely will not become infected. There are too many types of epidemics. There is nothing that anyone can do to forecast which kind of plague will strike after the heavy rains have stopped. Of course, it would be best if none came, but if one does… we can only hope for the best.”
Song Kang did not continue to ask. He just lowered his head and continued to give people vaccinations.
Like this, the two worked until the sun came up the next day before returning to the medical clinic. Following this, a ray of sun broke through the clouds and appeared. Feng Yu Heng, who was about to collapse from exhaustion, was suddenly frozen.
Song Kang also muttered: “The sun has come out.”
That’s right, the sun had come out, and the rain had stopped.
The refugees were completely unaware of the situation. They just knew that the heavy rain that had persisted for half a month had finally stopped. The people immediately let out a cheer, and they all rushed out of their shelters to happily bask in the sunlight.
Unfortunately, Feng Yu Heng, however, was unable to relax. The same applied to Song Kang. He was originally a medical practitioner, thus he naturally understood how high the chances were of a plague spreading after a disaster. Before waiting for Feng Yu Heng to say anything, he took the initiative to stand up and hand the disinfectant that had been prepared ahead of time to the soldiers to spray it inside the shelters. Most important were the two shelters that they did not have time to immunize. Those places would definitely need to be sprayed a little more.
After the soldiers left with the disinfectant, Song Kang ordered for the clean clothes that had been brought to be distributed among the people and have the old clothes collected. They would then be taken ten li away to be burned.
Feng Yu Heng watched him handle things in an orderly manner and let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there was this sort of person that could help her shoulder this burden. Otherwise, with so many patients, even if she died of exhaustion, she would not have enough time to treat all of them. It was not that she had not thought of bringing some doctors from the city, but would they all be able to understand the medicine and her tools? Even if people had been brought, without Song Kang’s learning ability, not everyone would have the ability to learn.
She sat on the floor of the medical clinic with only a raincoat under her. It was cold. When Xuan Tian Ming entered the clinic, he saw her and furrowed his brow. He quickly walked over and pulled her. He was both angry and distressed. But before the two could say anything, Song Kang, who had been directing the soldiers at the entrance of the clinic suddenly fell to the ground without any warning.
Feng Yu Heng was given a shock and quickly ran over to check. She saw that a bunch of small red bumps had appeared on Song Kang’s neck. Reaching out to check his temperature, she found that his temperature was scarily high.
Her heart tightened, as she looked at Xuan Tian Ming with a look of horror. This expression allowed Xuan Tian Ming to immediately guess the situation, and he could not help but wordlessly mouth: “Epidemic?”
She nodded then reached into her sleeve. Pulling out a vaccine, she gave him a shot then gave him a white pill, shoving it into his mouth. She then told a soldier to bring water. Saving people was done without stopping, but Xuan Tian Ming could see that her hands were shaking slightly.
He grabbed her wrist and wanted to say a few words of comfort; however, Feng Yu Heng was the first to speak: “You don’t know this, but once one case of illness has appeared during an epidemic, I alone will not be able to handle what will follow.”
Just as she said this, Xiang Rong, who had not returned to the city, quickly ran in. With a look of joy on her face, she tugged on a person’s sleeve. While running, she shouted to Feng Yu Heng: “Second sister, quickly look and see who came!”
1: Be wary of people with bad intentions