Chapter 45
"Shen Wangyou is dead."
When these words reached Lu Ling's ears, it was like a bolt of lightning. Lu Ling's face turned pale immediately, and his hands and feet felt like they were not his own. He wanted to speak, but found that he could not utter a word.
Lu Ling fainted and Ye Rong brought her to the bedside.
When Lu Ling woke up again, Yang Gan had disappeared and only Ye Rong was left by his side.
Ignoring Ye Rong's obstruction, Lu Ling put on his clothes and ran out of the Beijing camp.
She wanted to see Shen Wangyou. How could Shen Wangyou die? He was obviously... obviously in good health. Even if he was infected with the disease, he shouldn't have died so quickly.
The more Lu Ling thought about it, the more he felt that Shen Wangyou was not dead, and he wanted to run over to see him.
Even though his body was sore and he felt like he was going to fall if he took one more step, Lu Ling still managed to reach the north of the city.
The surroundings were as silent as death. The once bustling place now looked like a dead city.
Many people came out of the cordoned off area one after another. Most of them were veiled soldiers carrying dead bodies, all of whom were infected with the plague.
Without exception, once they contracted the disease, almost everyone died.
Lu Ling didn't know if Shen Wangyou was still inside, so she wanted to go in and take a look.
After putting on the veil, Lu Ling was about to go in, but before she could go in, she was stopped by Yang Gan.
"You haven't recovered yet, why are you here now?" Yang Gan looked at Lu Ling worriedly.
As soon as Lu Ling opened his mouth, a gust of cold wind rushed into his mouth. Lu Ling coughed several times before he recovered.
"Is he in there? I want to go see him." Lu Ling's voice was hoarse.
"Those who left this morning have been carried to the back mountain." Yang Gan said tactfully.
Lu Ling knew where it was. The back mountain was outside the city, and there was a river at the foot of the mountain. All the infected people were transported there to cremate their bodies to prevent the disease from spreading faster.
What Yang Gan meant by this was that Shen Wangyou also wanted to...
Lu Ling didn't dare to think any more and ran out of the city again.
When he arrived at the foot of the mountain behind the city, Lu Ling could only see corpses lying one after another. Those people were piled together with haystacks, with many sores on their bodies, and some people's faces were already ulcerated.
Because there were too many people, many bodies were still piled there and had not been cremated.
Lu Ling looked at them one by one. Some of the bodies had already rotted. Lu Ling almost vomited several times, but he held it back every time.
Lu Ling searched for a long time, but he didn't see any trace of Shen Wangyou.
"Have all the people who died this morning been cremated?" Lu Ling was heartbroken, but he didn't show it on his face.
"Not yet, we're just about to burn them." The man below pointed to the pile of corpses in front.
Lu Ling ran over and took the torch from the soldier.
"I'll do the cooking, you wait outside."
The soldier was also a man who could read the expressions on the face. He took a look and then stepped aside.
Lu Ling walked around with the torch and finally saw Shen Wangyou.
In fact, she didn't recognize him at first, because the man's face was covered with sores and had rotten. But Lu Ling saw the clothes on the man, which were the ones she had sewn for Shen Wangyou stitch by stitch, and there was a plum blossom pattern on it that Lu Ling had specially sewn for him.
Lu Ling will not admit his mistake.
Tears welled up in her eyes, dripping onto the dress. Her hands began to tremble unconsciously, and she almost dropped the torch. Lu Ling didn't know what to do.
Shen Wangyou was dead. Lu Ling had always been unwilling to believe it, until this moment she really believed that Shen Wangyou was dead.
Lu Ling really wanted to go up and touch him, but he couldn't.
Lu Ling stretched out his hand in the air and then retracted it.
After calming down, Lu Ling brought the torch close to Chen Wangyou, and the fire slowly burned the person in front of her. Lu Ling watched the person she loved disappear bit by bit in front of her eyes, and finally turned into ash and dissipated in the air.
After Lu Ling saw everyone turned into dust, she finally couldn't hold on and fell to the ground.
Shen Wangyou's death was a huge blow to Lu Ling. Coupled with her previous overwork, Lu Ling was in a coma for three days and three nights. When she woke up, she was not in the Beijing camp, but in the Chu family.
As soon as Lu Ling opened his eyes, he saw Zhao Zhenzhen beside him.
Seeing Lu Ling wake up, Zhao Zhenzhen hurried to call Chu Liuyun.
Lu Ling still had a headache and sat up in a daze. Lu Ling had never stayed at the Chu family before, so he didn't know where he was when he woke up.
"A Ling, you're awake. Come, take your medicine." Chu Liuyun held a bowl of medicine in his hand, blew on it and was about to feed it to Lu Ling.
Lu Ling opened his mouth and drank a few spoonfuls, then stopped Chu Liuyun from feeding him and drank the medicine in one breath.
"Why am I here?" Lu Ling asked Chu Liuyun.
Chu Liuyun took the bowl from Lu Ling's hand and put it aside. He sighed and said, "You were still talking. Why didn't you tell us that you were not feeling well a few days ago? Why don't you take care of your body?"
"I……"
"Okay, after you fainted that day, the soldiers thought you were also infected with the disease. The soldiers were scared and hurried to find General Yang. General Yang brought the imperial physician to see you. The imperial physician said that you were just overworked, so General Yang brought you here." Chu Liuyun said.
There was another reason, but Chu Liuyun didn't say it.
This place is far away from the city, and Lu Ling would not think of going to the foot of the mountain behind the city.
"General Yang said that you should rest well these days and don't rush back to the barracks." Chu Liuyun said.
Lu Ling nodded and fell into a deep sleep again.
"Aling! Aling!" Lu Ling heard someone calling her from behind and turned around.
Behind him was a man with sores on his face and ulcers on his hands and feet.
It was Shen Wangyou, or to be more precise, Shen Wangyou before cremation.
Lu Ling wanted to speak, but as soon as he opened his mouth, his throat seemed to be blocked by something and he couldn't utter a word.
The man in front of him stretched out his hand and grabbed Lu Ling's neck, saying fiercely: "Why? Why didn't you come to see me one last time? Do you know how sad I was at that time? Do you want to see you again?"
With his neck being strangled, Lu Ling shook his head with difficulty, a few tears squeezed out of the corners of his eyes, and he grabbed the hand of the man in front of him with sores, fearing that he would strangle him to death.
"no……"
"No!"
Lu Ling woke up from a nightmare, covered in cold sweat, and his pillow was soaked with tears.
Lu Ling was too tired from this dream, and it really scared her. After that, Lu Ling couldn't fall asleep, and kept thinking about what Shen Wangyou said in the dream.
if……
If only I had gone in at the beginning.
*
"Why are you here? Didn't I tell you to have a good rest?" Yang Gan asked Lu Ling when he saw her coming over.
Lu Ling's face was pale and he looked very uncomfortable.
"I'm well rested."
Lu Ling's words were flat and it was impossible to tell what his emotions were.
After saying that, Lu Ling walked aside to give orders. If Yang Gan didn't let her go in, she wouldn't go in. She was very obedient.
Someone came to Yang Gan and whispered a few words in his ear. Lu Ling saw that Yang Gan's face changed instantly.
"What's wrong?" Lu Ling asked.
Yang Gan waved his hand to let the people around him leave, then leaned close to Lu Ling and whispered a few words.
Upon hearing this, Lu Ling suddenly looked up, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.
How did the emperor get sick?
Ever since the epidemic broke out in the capital, the palace began to take strict precautions, and the emperor was living in the inner court. Logically, the emperor would not be infected.
"So what's the situation now?" Lu Ling asked.
Yang Gan's expression was tense, and he shook his head and said, "Not very good."
The emperor has been postponing court appearances these days on the grounds of feeling unwell. Although he did not say that he was infected with the epidemic, the epidemic is rampant now, and some ministers in the court have guessed the real reason for the emperor's illness.
As a result, people in the court were in panic.
The emperor has been on the throne for less than three months and his foundation is not stable. Now he has not attended court for several days in a row. Not only the ministers in the court, but also the people have begun to talk about it.
The originally fenced-off area in the west of the city was evacuated because all the people in that area had died. Because of the plague, none of them survived.
Lu Ling had seen a three-year-old child being taken out before. He was so young and should have had a good life, but he was tortured beyond recognition by the epidemic.
The area west of the city became an empty shell. The imperial physician prepared some medicine and fumigated it inside and out.
There were fewer people infected in the north of the city, and most of those who got sick died within ten days.
Although Lu Ling had learned some herbal knowledge from military medicine before, he now found that he knew nothing about it, no less than anyone else.
Jiang Yun has been busy comforting patients these days and has been very busy.
There were fewer people these days, and he was not busy, so he went to look for Lin Yao, but after looking for several times, he did not see Lin Yao.
Jiang Yun saw Lu Ling and thought that Lu Ling should know where Lin Yao was, so he asked Lu Ling: "Miss, where is Lin Yao? Have you seen her?"
Lu Ling then remembered that he seemed to have never seen Lin Yao in the past few days, and he hadn't seen her since the day he fainted.
Lu Ling asked Ye Rong: "Have you seen Lin Yao in the past few days?"
Ye Rong: "No, I haven't seen her for a long time."
Lu Ling looked at Jiang Yun, and they both stood there in a daze.
Since the establishment of the women's army, Lin Yao came to the military camp to train with other female soldiers. No one in the women's army was infected with the disease, so where did Lin Yao go?
Lu Ling thought anxiously.
"Did you see her during the cremation?" Lu Ling asked Ye Rong.
Ye Rong: "No."
Lu Ling felt relieved. Since she was not among those people, it meant that she was still alive.
"Miss, please tell General Yang that I'm going to Ningzhou." Jiang Yun said as he found a horse and rode on it.
Before Lu Ling could react, Jiang Yun had already ridden away.
Looking at the figure disappearing in the distance, Lu Ling just hoped that Lin Yao was really in Leping Village.
*
At the foot of Baipu City, a group of people were riding horses outside the city. Leading the group was a young man with a high ponytail, wearing a black robe, a sword at his waist, and his hands tightly holding the reins.
Next to the young man was a man and a woman. The man was wearing black and the woman was wearing blue. It was obvious at a glance that they were the young man's subordinates.
The city gate was closed, so the three men rode their horses in front of the gate and looked at the people on the city wall.
"Lin Yu, didn't you tell me that no one welcomes me before you came?" the young man asked his subordinates.
"I don't know, so I'll go open the city gate." Lin Yu was about to walk over.
The young man raised his hand to stop Lin Yaoyu's actions.
"Who are you at the gate? Why are you coming to Baipu?" the guard at the city gate shouted.
The young man seemed impatient. He took out a token and shouted to the wall: "Look at what this is? I am your father!"
This sentence made the two people behind him laugh out loud.
Soon the city gate was opened, and several people came out. They said respectfully, "It turns out to be the Second Prince. I have failed to recognize a great man. Please, Second Prince, please do not see my fault."
"Forget it, let me in quickly." The man called the Second Prince spoke. He didn't want to waste time talking to these people now. He just wanted to get into the city and return to the palace as soon as possible.
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