Through this period of close interaction, Xu Yuehuai also learned the boy's name—Xia Sen.

“Before the plague broke out, those villagers wouldn’t let us escape. Now that the plague has broken out, they’re even less likely to let us leave.”

"If we try to escape openly, we have absolutely no chance. We can only secretly look for an opportunity to sneak away from here."

"Don't do anything unusual right now. Just stay where you are. If there's anything I need you to do later, I'll let you know."

"Now we can only support and help each other to find a chance to escape from here."

Upon hearing this, Xia Sen nodded obediently, pretending not to know anything, and sat quietly in place.

Xu Yuehuai was particularly fond of Xia Sen's obedient nature. If she were to escape with Xia Sen, she would want to keep Xia Sen by her side forever.

After all, Xia Sen's grandfather was seriously ill, and it was unknown how much longer he could live...

If Xia Sen's grandfather dies, Xu Yuehuai will help take care of Xia Sen and take her away.

But Xia Sen is unaware of this and is still thinking about taking his grandfather to a safe place.

When the people around learned that someone had contracted the plague, chaos erupted. They all shouted and tried to run to safety outside, but when they reached the exit, they were blocked by the people of Qili Village, who wouldn't let them leave.

"Let us out! There are people inside with the plague. Do you want us to die here?"

"Let us out of here right now! I don't want to die here!"

"There's a plague inside! If we stay here, we'll get infected! Let us out of here!"

The villagers of Qili Village kept stopping them, pushing them further inside and preventing them from coming out.

"Don't spread alarmist rumors here. How could anyone possibly get the plague?"

"You'd better go back right now. If you leave this temporary refugee camp, we won't help you anymore. Hurry up and go back!"

"Those people are just stirring things up; you absolutely mustn't believe a word they say!"

"Get back now! Stop causing trouble, or we won't be so polite!"

The villagers of Qili Village not only pushed back the refugees who wanted to escape, but also wanted to find someone to arrest those who spread rumors about the plague.

Xu Yuehuai couldn't bear to look at the villagers of Qili Village making such arrangements, so she stepped out from the crowd.

When Xia Sen saw this, he hurriedly tried to reach out and grab Xu Yuehuai's arm, but as soon as he reached out and touched a small part of Xu Yuehuai, Xu Yuehuai quickly got up and walked away.

Seeing this, he could only stay by Xu Yuehuai's side.

"Don't try to distort the truth here. Those people did indeed have the plague. If you don't isolate the safe people now, it won't just be those few people who get the plague. Perhaps everyone in the entire temporary refugee camp will get the plague later."

“You’ve been living with us refugees all this time, so you’ll probably get infected too.”

"The best approach now is to isolate those who have been diagnosed with the plague, then find medicine to treat them, and those who have come into contact with the plague should also be isolated in different places until they develop symptoms, at which point they should be re-isolated and sent to the plague-infected individuals."

"If you don't handle this properly, the plague will get out of control and everyone might die here. Can you bear the consequences?"

Upon hearing this, the villagers of Qili Village were filled with fear. If one person said the plague was real, they might think he was lying, but now that more and more people were saying that those people had the plague, they could no longer deceive themselves.

Now, facing the people in the temporary refugee camp, seeing that some of them have contracted the plague, if they don't deal with it in time, it might spread and affect the entire Great Zhou Kingdom. If that happens, they will be committing a terrible sin.

They didn't want such serious consequences, but if they did as Xu Yuehuai suggested, it would probably cost a lot of manpower and resources along the way. They didn't have the energy to deal with such a thing, so they could only immediately tell Xu Yuehuai.

"You're just a young girl, don't get involved here. What do you know? They definitely don't have the plague, it's just a simple fever and cough. Stop talking nonsense and go back now."

"If you're also looking to cause trouble, we won't go easy on you just because you're a girl."

"If you don't want anything to happen to you, you'd better go back quickly."

When Xu Yuehuai heard that the people of Qili Village were not listening to her advice at all and were even slandering her, she really had no choice but to retreat.

Xia Sen looked at Xu Yuehuai, and then followed her back.

After they returned to where they had been, they both fell silent and did not speak again.

While they remained silent, the people of Qili Village were still trying to persuade all the disaster victims, telling them that there was no such thing as a plague, and that it was all a lie told by others to scare them.

"You must not listen to what those people are saying. What do they know about the plague? They are just lying to make you panic. You must keep your minds rational and not let their words affect you."

"Everyone stay here quietly. The food will be delivered soon. Don't cause any trouble. Those who cause trouble won't get any food."

Upon hearing this, all the disaster victims nodded in agreement.

"So that's what happened. I was wondering why there was a plague all of a sudden."

"That person and that little girl, they're definitely lying to us. They're trying to make us panic so that once we rush out, there will be fewer people in this makeshift disaster camp, and they'll definitely get more food. I never expected them to have such a scheme. They're really malicious!"

"Yes, who can argue with that? I never expected that even at this crucial moment, they would still be playing tricks on us, almost fooling us!"

Those disaster victims not only failed to be vigilant, but also joined the people of Qili Village in slandering and framing those who claimed there was a plague.