Chapter 46
The plague did not spread any further, but those who contracted it died without exception.
When Lu Ling's body had almost recovered, he went to command the soldiers.
The emperor fell ill and the people in the court were in panic. Yang Gan had not left the palace since he entered it, and Lu Ling was in charge of all matters in the Beijing camp.
The north of the city was still under siege, and no one could enter except soldiers and imperial physicians.
Yang Gan was not there, so no one stopped Lu Ling from entering. The curtain was lifted, and Lu Ling walked in slowly.
The house was vacant. When the cold wind blew, the spider webs on the wall swayed in the wind, and dead branches were scattered on the ground. Every step forward, an unknown little creature ran past.
Originally, these empty houses were inhabited by people, but gradually, as more and more people died, no one lived there anymore.
As the wind blew, a foul odor came with it. Although Lu Ling had a veil covering his face, he couldn't help but wrinkled his nose.
"Dad! Mom!"
Lu Ling heard the little boy's cry and hurried over to see.
Looking at the child, who was almost three years old, with many patches on his clothes and sores on his hands, he was weakly grasping the edge of the stretcher, while the soldier carried the stretcher and wanted to leave.
The person on the stretcher was dead and covered with white gauze.
"Mom, don't go!" The little boy grabbed the edge of the stretcher in vain.
Another soldier lifted a stretcher on the other side, and the little boy climbed over there, tears streaming down his face, "Dad!"
Lu Ling felt her nose sour and ran to the little boy. She wanted to reach out and hug him, but she couldn't.
"Your parents just went to another place, let them go."
Lu Ling took out a handkerchief, wiped the little boy's tears, and then handed the handkerchief to the little boy.
"You have to be strong so they can feel at ease."
The little boy nodded, tears streaming down his face.
There was no one left at home for the little boy, so Lu Ling asked the soldiers to take good care of him.
She originally wanted him to go to the neighbor's house, but when Lu Ling walked to the next house, she found that there was only one person left in the neighbor's house, and it looked like this person would pass away soon.
Lu Ling didn't want the little boy to experience the pain of life and death again, so he let him stay at his home.
As he walked out of the door, the sunlight just happened to shine in. Lu Ling looked up and prayed that the epidemic would end soon.
I went to several places in a row, and all I saw were people who were extremely sick. Some had sores on their faces, some on their hands and feet, and some on their bodies.
The imperial physician was boiling some medicine nearby. Lu Ling walked over and asked, "Imperial physician, is there really no antidote?"
The imperial physician paused as he was grabbing the medicine, then continued what he was doing.
"General Lu, the Imperial Hospital has been preparing the pharmacy and looking for an antidote, but this epidemic is so strange. We can only do our best to keep them alive for as long as possible."
The imperial physician spoke sincerely. Looking at the dark circles under his eyes, Lu Ling said nothing more and walked out alone.
The leaves rustled as his footsteps touched the ground. The sun was setting low, and Lu Ling's shadow was stretched exceptionally long.
"General, where are you going?" Ye Rong asked Lu Ling.
Lu Ling waved his hand and said, "Don't follow me. I'll walk by myself."
As he walked, Lu Lingbian arrived at his home.
There are already a lot of dead leaves in front of the door, many spider webs in the corners of the wall, and weeds in the cracks of the stones.
Lu Ling pushed open the door and walked in. The house was better than the one at the entrance. There were no dead leaves or cobwebs, and everything in the yard was the same as before.
Walking in, Lu Ling saw the calligraphy and paintings on the table.
A woman was standing under the plum tree, wearing a light purple dress. Snow was falling. The woman was very happy to see the snow and reached out her hand to catch it.
Lu Ling knew that the person in the painting was herself. She remembered that it was the first time she celebrated the New Year with Shen Wangyou. It was New Year's Eve, and the family was gathered together to stay up until the New Year. Not long after, it started snowing outside.
Seeing this, Lu Ling ran out of the house and went to play in the snow despite his mother's objection.
She remembered that Shen Wangyou followed her out later. Lu Ling took advantage of Shen Wangyou's inattention and threw all the snow at Shen Wangyou. He threw it too high and some of it fell on his neck. Shen Wangyou kept shrinking his neck.
Later, Shen Wangyou returned to the house. Lu Ling thought he was unhappy and was thinking about whether he should go and coax him. Just as he was thinking about it, Shen Wangyou came out again with a heater in his hand.
His voice is very gentle, making people feel like they are in the spring breeze.
"Cover yourself up quickly, don't catch a cold."
Lu Ling was stunned for a long time before she nodded.
There were a few words written in the upper left corner of the painting, and the words were written crookedly. Lu Ling couldn't help but smile.
As Lu Ling laughed, tears began to fall. The tears landed on the painting, forming a circle.
If I can become a pair of mandarin ducks, I would rather die than be an immortal.
Tears fell drop by drop, wetting the painting.
Lu Ling went to find the imperial physician, had the painting fumigated, and then took it away.
This is the only thing Shen Wangyou left behind that he can miss.
As soon as Lu Ling walked out, he saw King Chang'an standing outside.
"General Lu, what do you think after taking a look inside?" asked the King of Chang'an.
Lu Ling walked over and saluted, then said, "The epidemic is serious, and this part of the north city will soon become a deserted shell."
Prince Chang'an nodded and said, "I heard that General Lu was unwell a few days ago. Is he feeling better now?"
Lu Ling: "Much better, thank you for your concern, Your Highness."
"In that case, I won't bother General Lu anymore." After saying that, King Chang'an left.
Lu Ling glanced at the person next to King Chang'an and found that the person had changed and was different from the one he had seen before.
After Prince Chang'an left, Lu Ling asked the guard, "When did Prince Chang'an arrive here?"
"He just arrived not long ago and seemed to be passing by." said the guard.
Just passing by.
Why would the Prince of Chang'an pass by here? The north of the city had been sealed off long ago, so how could he pass by here? Lu Ling was puzzled.
When Lu Ling returned to the Beijing camp, Yang Gan was also there.
"How is the emperor?" Lu Ling asked Yang Gan.
Yang Gan frowned and said nothing.
In fact, Lu Ling should have realized that since contracting the disease, no one can escape the curse of death, it is just a matter of living one day more or one day less.
"General Lu, I need you." Yang Gan said.
Lu Ling agreed without hesitation.
*
"Why did you bring me to the restaurant?"
Lu Ling and Yang Gan were sitting in the most famous restaurant in the city. They sat by the window and could see what was happening outside by looking down.
Yang Gan didn't say anything, but put his index finger on his lips, signaling Lu Ling not to speak.
Lu Ling stopped talking and drank tea silently.
"Sir, what kind of wine would you like to drink?" A woman in a red gauze dress walked over.
The woman's head was covered with pearl hairpins, her lips were as red as fire, and her fair face was made up. The woman lowered her eyes and smiled, looking extremely beautiful.
Yang Gan waved his hand and said, "It's not a good day to drink alcohol." He raised the tea in his hand and said, "It's a good day to drink tea."
The smile on the woman's face immediately disappeared, and she said seriously, "Sir, please come this way."
Lu Ling wanted to follow, but was stopped by the woman.
"Miss, please wait outside."
Lu Ling didn't go in, but waited for Yang Gan outside while drinking tea.
Bored with waiting, Lu Ling glanced outside. Although the capital was plagued by the epidemic, there were still many people shopping on the streets.
Just for a moment, Lu Ling paused.
She saw an old friend whom she had not seen for a long time - Bai Xichen.
Shouldn't he be in Shuzhou? Why is he here?
Lu Ling was about to call him downstairs, but Yang Gan happened to come out, so Lu Ling did not call.
"What's wrong? What did you see?" Yang Gan asked when he saw Lu Ling's expression.
"No, no, I was mistaken. I thought I saw an old friend."
Lu Ling didn't dare to say that she saw Bai Xichen. After all, Bai Xichen was the King of Shu'an and was not allowed to enter the capital without an imperial edict. If she said it now, there would probably be another bloody storm in the capital.
"Walk."
Only then did Lu Ling see that Yang Gan was holding a packet of medicine.
"This is?"
"Medicine." Yang Gan said.
"What medicine?" Lu Ling had a vague answer in his mind.
Yang Gan glanced around and said, "I don't know if it will be useful yet. Let's talk about it when we get back."
When they arrived in the north of the city, Yang Gan asked the imperial physician to prepare medicine according to the prescription and feed it to those who were sick.
Lu Ling looked at these people nervously, but found that the man here was foaming at the mouth and died soon after.
"Imperial Physician, please take a look." Lu Ling looked at the person falling in front of him and hurriedly called for the imperial physician.
Although the person was dead, the imperial physician still took his pulse.
"How is it?" Lu Ling asked.
"The epidemic disease in this person has been eliminated. He died of foaming at the mouth because his body was severely injured. His sudden recovery is a bit unpredictable." said the imperial physician.
"Then this medicine can cure the epidemic, right?" Yang Gan asked.
"Yes, but you need to take a small amount and recover slowly."
"Okay, okay, as long as you can recover." Yang Gan said happily.
"Hurry! Prepare the medicine according to the prescription and deliver it to the people." Lu Ling said.
The imperial physician was preparing medicine when Yang Gan and Lu Ling entered the palace together.
On the way, Lu Ling asked Yang Gan how he found the pharmacy?
Yang Gan said, "This epidemic came strangely. Although many people were infected, when we went to accommodate the patients, we didn't get infected as long as we wore veils. Moreover, the soldiers carried so many corpses, but not a single one was infected. It's really strange."
Yang Gan paused, then continued, "Besides, the emperor is the only one in the palace who has fallen ill. Isn't that strange? Not a single minister in the court has fallen ill either."
Lu Ling thought about it and found that it was indeed strange. It felt that this epidemic was targeting specific places and people.
"Then how do you know where the antidote is?" Lu Ling asked.
Yang Gan shook his head and said, "I don't know, but I've heard that there's a poison in Baipu that's colorless and tasteless, and if you eat it, it'll cause sores on your skin and flesh. But this poison is hard to find, and not many people know about it. I just wanted to give it a try to see if it's this poison, so I went to ask for the antidote."
Yang Gan patted the recipe in his hand: "Oh, there is another recipe."
"I didn't expect it to be correct." Yang Gan laughed.
"That's right, that's good." Lu Ling murmured.
She thought to herself, if the cub could find out that it was poison in a few days, and find the antidote in a few more days, then more people could be saved, and her Shen Wangyou would not have to die.
Lu Ling walked numbly, and soon they arrived at the emperor's bedroom.
The emperor's eyes were closed, and Lu Ling saw that he also had sores on his hands, but not many.
Yang Gan gave the prescription to the imperial physician and the medicine was prepared immediately.
"Your Majesty, the medicine is here." Yang Gan called softly.
The emperor slowly opened his eyes and looked at the medicine in Yang Gan's hand.
He knew he wouldn't get better, and thought it was the same medicine he had taken before. The medicine was too bitter, and he didn't want to drink it, so he shook his head.
Yang Gan soothed him, "Your Majesty, this is not the medicine you used last time. This is the antidote. Drink this and you will be fine."
After hearing this, the emperor sat up and drank the medicine.
Then he noticed Lu Ling. He looked at Lu Ling with a smile and said, "You're here."
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