Chapter 40 Chapter 40 A man's heart is like a needle in the sea. She doesn't understand, she...
A carriage with red wheels and embroidered hubs was parked outside the refugee market.
When Yuan Fuxue got off the carriage, he realized how harsh the environment here was.
At a glance, four out of ten houses had collapsed, broken beams were sticking diagonally into the ground, dozens of tiles had fallen off, and broken pottery jars for collecting water were hanging in the holes.
What’s even more pitiful is that the residence here is so cramped and crowded that even the bright sunlight can hardly penetrate.
Yuan Fuxue only needed a quick glance to see the body slumped on the couch through the crack in the window. The crowded alleys were filled with all kinds of excrement, even soiled clothes, and the stench was truly unbearable.
In the middle of summer, if the corpses are not properly disposed of, the alleys will be filled with flies and insects, and the stench will be unbearable. How can such an environment not breed plague?
Yuan Fuxue frowned and immediately ordered someone to take out the silk scarf that had been prepared in the car.
This item has been soaked in mugwort and can be placed over the mouth and nose, tied behind the head. It is a must-have for doctors when preventing and treating epidemics.
When Xie Tingyu took the silk scarf handed to her by Yuan Fuxue, their fingertips inevitably touched, and she said thank you softly.
Yuan Fuxue felt his fingertips numb, as if chilled by the snow. He quickly tucked his hands back into his sleeves, his knuckles unconsciously rubbing against the skin.
The maid behind him stepped forward and knocked on the door a few times. Seeing the person inside open the door a crack, she said softly, "Could you please let me in..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the door slammed shut, making her nose sting. The maid, with a wry smile, apologized to Yuan Fuxue and knocked on the next door. After being turned away five times in a row, she finally gave up and retreated behind Yuan Fuxue in disgrace.
Xie Tingyu stopped Yuan Fuxue's steps and said, "I'm afraid you can't get in if you're like this."
"Then what's your trick?" Yuan Fuxue was puzzled.
"Just watch mine."
Yuan Fuxue saw Xie Tingyu straightening his collar and straightening his lotus crown.
She took a white jade whisk from her attendant, twisted her wrist, and placed the tail on her forearm. With her other hand, she formed the Ziwu seal and spoke aloud, "Wulian Tianzun! I have come here on my journey and see that this place is filled with evil spirits. I fear that evil spirits may be at work. I have come to exorcise these demons and bring peace to this area."
Last night she was a war goddess who killed people without blinking an eye, but today she has turned into an enlightened master.
With the lower corner of her mouth hidden by the silk scarf slightly raised, Yuan Fuxue felt that the person in front of her was very interesting, completely different from most of the noble ladies she knew in Jiankang City.
Xie Tingyu didn't even have to raise his hand to knock on the door; the wooden door creaked open.
A woman came out with red eyes, rubbing her rough hands together. "Master, please save my child. He's been vomiting for some reason and is too sick to get out of bed." She wiped her eyes, "My little girl just passed away the day before yesterday. She was always strong, but she died of illness after fleeing here from the north."
Xie Tingyu's expression was serious. "It must be the evil spirits from the northern border that have haunted you." She pulled out from her sleeve a thick stack of ghost-drawing talismans she had just drawn this morning. "Let me go in and stick these talismans in your room to scare away the evil spirits." She pointed at Yuan Fuxue and said, "This young man is with me. He is a skilled doctor who specializes in treating various difficult and complicated diseases."
"Okay, okay, okay. Thank you, sir."
The woman couldn't even speak straight, and she bowed to lead Xie Tingyu and others in.
The two men each performed their duties. Xie Tingyu dipped the talisman in water and Yuan Fuxue took the child's pulse and treated the disease.
The little boy was breathing rapidly, vomiting continuously, his eyes were droopy, and his limbs were limp and weak. After a careful examination, Yuan Fuxue found that he did not have any dangerous symptoms such as high fever and convulsions, which made him feel relieved.
Seeing Yuan Fuxue approaching, Xie Tingyu asked in a low voice, "How is it?"
"Vomiting and diarrhea, this is cholera." Yuan Fuxue lit the wormwood. "Fortunately, it was discovered in time."
"Luckily, I haven't developed a high fever or coughed up blood. If I wait until then..."
There was a sudden pause at this point and no further information was given.
Xie Tingyu looked up at Yuan Fuxue blankly, and saw him move two steps to the side with a serious look on his face. Xie Tingyu suddenly realized that he thought she was too close.
She immediately understood and took two steps in the opposite direction, looking at Yuan Fuxue with a look that said, "Is this distance enough? If possible, you can continue your story now."
Yuan Fuxue was stunned and felt very uncomfortable. It was obviously he who realized that they were too close and moved away first. Now seeing the distance between them widened greatly, he inexplicably felt a little disappointed.
"In short, it can be cured and saved."
Yuan Fuxue filled every corner of the house with mugwort to dispel the foul air. But this was just one household; there were thousands more in need of treatment. The supplies were limited. Sharing them equally among everyone would be a drop in the bucket, but giving them away for free would likely spark competition. So, they had to make do with as much as they could.
He carefully instructed: "You need to boil the water for half a minute before drinking it. Don't drink cold water anymore." He gave a look, and the people below brought in some firewood and a little salt.
Xie Tingyu followed suit and, using the excuse of a Taoist priest exorcising ghosts, took Yuan Fuxue into one room after another. The whole process went extremely smoothly.
"Why can't my Yuan family's people knock on the door, but you can do it as a Taoist priest?" Yuan Fuxue was curious.
"Who wouldn't believe in ghost stories?" Xie Tingyu tapped his knuckles against his temples. "Although I have my doubts, I wouldn't dare gamble my life on them."
The two continued to interrogate people until the afternoon.
When Xie Tingyu was posting the talisman, he questioned the refugees in detail on the pretext of tracking down the traces of evil spirits. After asking several people, he sorted out the clues in his mind, picked up the pen and dipped it in ink, and wrote quickly on the back of the yellow talisman.
Seeing that Xie Tingyu did not avoid him, Yuan Fuxue leaned over to see what she was writing.
As he watched, he unconsciously moved closer, so close that he could smell the fragrance of agarwood on Xie Tingyu's body. The fragrance was like the plum blossom stamens wrapped in snowflakes in winter, pleasant and refreshing.
He read the contents of the paper together and then quietly read aloud, "There are three root causes of the epidemic and riots. The first is that the heavy rain destroyed houses, so we should investigate the construction materials and land. The second is that many people have accused the porridge at the porridge stalls of being mixed with sand and gravel, causing people to vomit after eating it, and some even died suddenly from abdominal distension. The third is that strangers have infiltrated the streets and incited the people to riot."
Yuan Fuxue frowned, and when she was thinking seriously, her head would tilt slightly downwards, a few strands of black hair would flutter by, and the ends of her hair would seemingly brush across the back of Xie Tingyu's hand where he was holding the pen.
Xie Tingyu silently put away the yellow talisman. Seeing that dusk was deepening, he immediately ordered the people from the Yuan and Xie mansions to go door to door to collect the bodies. Whether they were inside the house or piled up at the end of the alley, they were all taken to a higher place.
She had chosen a slope far from any water source in the afternoon and ordered a deep pit to be dug. First, a thick layer of quicklime mixed with wood ash was spread on the bottom of the pit, and then the bodies were piled up layer by layer. Each layer was covered with an inch of lime, and this process was repeated until the first quarter of the evening hour.
Before leaving, Yuan Fuxue ordered people to light bundles of moxa, and with the smoke swirling around each person, they circled three times to drive away the epidemic.
Xie Tingyu looked up at the purple clouds in the sky, and suddenly remembered that the man looked very handsome in the purple robe decorated with calamus.
She kind of wanted to meet Ji Lian.
Xie Tingyu jumped on her horse and said to Yuan Fuxue in the carriage, "It's getting late. Mr. Yuan, please return to the city as soon as possible." Without waiting for a reply, she spurred her horse and drove towards Ci'en Temple.
The last ray of purple clouds in the sky gradually disappeared, dusk surged in like a tide, and a crescent moon was hanging on the top of the parasol tree.
The window was propped open by a fork, a ray of silver light streamed onto the window frame, and white fingers slowly circled on the window frame.
Ji Lian looked up at the moon and murmured, "The bright moon rises over the sea, and we share this moment across the world."
Today, he and the abbot had been cleaning up the hall and scripture pavilion destroyed by the thugs. His fatigue had largely dissipated. He had just bathed with soap, and the faint scent of green wood still lingered around him. A few strands of his half-dried hair lay against his collarbone, rising and falling slightly with his breathing.
Ji Lian stroked the black hairband in her hand, "I wonder what she is doing now."
He gently placed the headband over his eyes. Suddenly, a gust of night wind blew through the hall. When he opened his eyes, the black headband had already flown out the window.
Ji Lian hurriedly reached out to grab it, but saw a bony hand grab the hairband in mid-air.
Xie Tingyu wrapped the hairband around her wrist and leaned forward with one hand behind her back. "I heard that Your Highness seems very curious about what I'm doing?"
The moonlight streamed through the window lattice and flowed between the two of them.
…She appeared so suddenly.
"I didn't, you heard it wrong." Ji Lian bit the soft flesh inside her lower lip and forced herself to remain calm.
Xie Tingyu suddenly leaned in closer, and the refreshing scent of bath beans from Ji Lian's body filled her face. She suddenly showed a dewy peony from behind, the petals still trembling with the night dew. "Flowers are for you, my beauty. I saw them on the way here just now and wanted to pick them for you."
Ji Lian took the peony and sniffed it lightly, the smile on the corner of her mouth was a little difficult to suppress, "The flower is quite nice." She turned around and put the peony in the porcelain vase on the table.
Turning back, she saw Xie Tingyu still standing outside the window. Ji Lian deliberately put on a stern face and said, "Now that the flowers have been delivered, why haven't you left yet?"
Xie Tingyu's eyebrows drooped immediately, and he put on a pitiful look. "I came all the way here, Your Highness, won't you pour me a glass of water?"
The sound of clear spring water flowing into the cup is refreshing.
When Ji Lian handed the ceramic teacup to Xie Tingyu, she clasped her five fingers in her backhand and he did not struggle.
He stared at Xie Tingyu as she finished the cup of tea, his eyes unable to move away from her crystal clear lips wet with tea.
Her Adam's apple rolled up and down. She was so annoying. Why did drinking water make her lips so...smooth and beautiful?
My gaze shifted to her eyes. Bright eyes, white teeth, and even the curve of her nose was just right.
Her whole face is pretty too.
His gaze gradually shifted downward. I hadn't noticed in the dim night, but she was actually wearing a Taoist robe today? Wait... something seemed to be tucked into the front?
Ji Lian reached out her hand, grasped the white spot with her fingertips, and gently pulled it out. It turned out to be a plain white silk scarf.
He carefully stroked the silk surface; it felt cool to the touch, its texture fine, clearly the finest Yue silk. Turning it over, he suddenly noticed a small "Yuan" embroidered in the lower left corner.
His heart suddenly tightened. He brought the handkerchief to his nose, and the bitter aroma of wormwood mingled with a familiar hint of sandalwood. It was the favorite incense of the noble sons of Jiankang City.
Yuan.
The smell of mugwort.
sandalwood.
Was she... with the young master of the Runan Yuan family today? Among the Yuan family's sons, only Yuan Fuxue was proficient in medicine. Furthermore, Yuan Sanlang's appearance was... truly exceptional in Jiankang City.
Ji Lian tightened her grip on the silk handkerchief, and her heart began to run wildly like a wild horse: "What a Xie Tingyu! She is with the young master of the Yuan family during the day, and flirts with me under the moon at night. She also collects other people's silk scarves... It's really... It's really..." Her knuckles were pinched white, and she couldn't find the right words to scold her.
Xie Tingyu watched Ji Lian's gentle smile transform into a face as icy as the unmelted snow on the mountaintops. He couldn't help but smack his lips in amazement: "How come these gentlemen's expressions change like the weather in June? They change so quickly?"
The next moment, the fork was suddenly pulled away, and the window sash slammed shut. A cold voice came from inside, "Thank you, Taoist priest, it's late, please go back."
Xie Tingyu was about to open his mouth to speak: ...?
A man's heart is like a needle in the sea. She doesn't understand, she really doesn't understand.
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The author has something to say:
I don’t know if the subsequent updates will be smooth.
Shit, the review process locked chapter 45 in my draft box 55 times, and I revised it 55 times. Man, let me out.
Every reviewer should be given 5 slaps
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