Back at the inn that evening, Lili had arranged everything and had no energy left to care about anything else, so she went straight to sleep.
Early the next morning, Lili and her people delivered the items up the mountain.
Zeng Yingfeng looked very energetic today, and he was arranging for his subordinates to help transport things.
Zeng Yingfeng smiled at Lili, and Lili returned the smile.
Yesterday, perhaps because she arrived late, Lili didn't see the family when she came.
Today was much livelier. A few households opened their doors, and some people wearing scarves were getting some fresh air in their yards, looking curiously towards the village entrance.
Lili glanced around, and the patched thin cotton coat reminded her of how she looked when she first arrived at the Shen family.
Xixiang County has never experienced such temperatures before, and these people probably don't have thick cotton-padded clothes.
It wasn't snowing at the time, and the sun was shining, making it very pleasant.
Shen Jiaqing watched with a beaming smile as sacks of medicinal herbs were carried in: "Great! There's purslane! It has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, cooling the blood and stopping dysentery, which is exactly what I need!"
"And there are cotton-padded coats too."
It was inconvenient for Lili's people to come in, and the only soldiers left in the village were the few who had been guarding the village entrance. They were extremely busy, moving medicinal herbs and distributing cotton-padded clothes.
Most households have someone infected with cholera and cannot go out.
The officers and soldiers could only distribute the supplies to each family individually.
Lili noticed that the villagers looked somewhat panicked. After the soldiers went to the next house to distribute cotton-padded clothes, they tentatively took one. Seeing that the nobles outside did not reprimand them, they knew that these cotton-padded clothes were specially distributed to them.
"What a thick cotton coat!"
"It must be very warm; a kind person has come to bring us cotton-padded clothes!"
Many villagers helped the elderly out, but they didn't go out themselves, probably because they were sick and dared not. They just stood inside the door and bowed to the group of people, saying words of thanks.
Xixiang County had never experienced such a blizzard. This blizzard was almost an unexpected disaster, and on top of that, cholera struck, and the people of Licun almost froze to death in this icy wasteland.
Everyone knows that cholera is a disease that leads to certain death once contracted.
No matter how much treatment is given, it will only prolong the time before death; ultimately, it cannot be saved.
But those doctors were willing to stay in the village, never giving up on them, and kept trying.
Now, some important people have even come to give them cotton-padded clothes!
The people were in tears, repeatedly saying thank you.
Perhaps they were ill, for their bodies were very thin, and they looked even more frail amidst the white snow.
Pear Pear felt a mix of emotions.
Everyone else sighed in unison.
After a quick lunch, Lili stopped Shen Jiaqing, who was about to go back to continue his research, and asked, "Fourth Brother, the heavy snow has been falling for a long time, but the villagers should still have some food left, right?"
Shen Jiaqing shook his head: "I don't know either. Every time we go to the villagers' homes, we come and go in a hurry. We can't stay long. I asked the village chief before. He saw that we were doing our best for this disease and didn't want us to worry about anything else. He just said we wouldn't starve."
"oh."
Lili nodded thoughtfully, released Shen Jiaqing, and went outside to get some fresh air.
Zeng Yingfeng was still helping to transport supplies. There were too few people, so he personally pushed the wheelbarrow to transport the medicinal herbs.
"Brother Zeng."
Lili greeted him with a smile.
Zeng Yingfeng breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed his lower back. "Lili, it's all thanks to you for these things. Actually, I had already asked someone to send some medicinal herbs and cotton clothes over, but... to be honest, the situation in Xixiang County is not good at all right now. There are countless outbreaks of flu, big and small. The land is frozen to death, and many people haven't had time to harvest their crops. They don't even have much grain left. As the prefect, I have to treat all places equally. If other places need these things, I can't just force them to come over."
Zeng Yingfeng sighed.
“What’s the big deal? Fourth Brother and Grandpa Sikong are here. I would do this for their sake.” Lili paused. “However, Xixiang County suffered a severe drought and famine five years ago, and it was already badly damaged. Now, with the blizzard raging, Xixiang County has not yet fully recovered…”
“Yes, Xixiang County itself has somewhat barren land, and then one natural disaster after another occurs... Sometimes, I can only watch helplessly. However, I have already explained this matter to the court and requested His Majesty to allocate disaster relief grain. Xixiang County’s granaries are not very full, but they should be able to hold out until the disaster relief grain arrives. If not, I will write a letter to borrow grain from several other wealthy counties.”
Zeng Yingfeng spoke lightly, but his expression gradually became serious.
The process of distributing disaster relief grain involves countless officials at all levels; it's not something you can just wait for.
Given the current situation in Xixiang County, it seems they won't be able to hold on until the Lunar New Year.
Lili suddenly thought of the large warehouse in Tiger Old Cannon's village.
That place is full of grain.
hey-hey.
Lili smiled.
Anyway, it was stolen food from her, so it's perfectly reasonable for her to use it, right?
If it wasn't stolen from her, then it's fine; it's still ill-gotten gains after all.
What's wrong with her taking some spoils of war after suppressing bandits?
The more Lili thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed, and her wings immediately hardened.
"Brother Zeng, is Lili delivering a batch of grain to you?"
"ah?"
The next day, the thick snow on the official road was cleared away by the soldiers, and large quantities of grain were transported into Rucheng.
Zeng Yingfeng ordered that the portion allocated to Rucheng be kept, and the rest be transported to the prefectural city for unified copying and allocation by the prefectural government.
When Gu Ziyi's men arrived at the village, the food supplies were already exhausted.
However, Gu Ziyi didn't care about the food. He directly surrounded the courtyard on the outskirts of the city and captured Tiger Laopao, bringing him back to Anding City.
Lili had a gut feeling that it was related to Ke An, whom she had met that day, so she asked Han Xi to pass on a few words to Gu Ziyi.
Han Xi wrote everything down, and finally said, "His Highness told Miss to be careful in her actions."
"Um?"
Lili was puzzled.
What does she need to be careful about?
"On the day of the Red Eagle Army's martial arts competition, a supply officer spoke with the young lady. Your Highness discovered that this supply officer, Lord Wang, had some contact with Ke An. Your Highness suspects that Lord Wang deliberately spoke to the young lady that day."
Lili paused for a moment, then replied, "Okay. By the way, how's Nanlin County? Did it snow heavily?"
Han Xi nodded, his expression not particularly serious, and he didn't say much. Lili understood that the situation in Nanlin County was still good.
At least, it's no worse than Xixiang County.
Han Xi escorted the man back to Nanlin County in a grand manner. At first, Lili was puzzled. Could the capture of enemy spies be done so openly and legitimately?
However, when Lili remembered what Gu Ziyi had reminded her of, she seemed to know what they were thinking.
Was it intentional?
Are they in cahoots?
That day, Lord Wang seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally talking about Gu Ziyi's special treatment of her. Was he trying to confirm whether he could control Gu Ziyi by using her?
Lili turned around and went back into the village. Looking at the village where all the doors were tightly closed, she felt very complicated.
"Pear!"
Shen Jiaqing ran over with 10,000 doses of medicinal soup, and Lili almost knocked over the teacup beside her.
Lili helplessly wiped away the spilled tea stains with a handkerchief: "Fourth brother, what happened?"
"I figured it out! I figured it out!"
Lili was slightly surprised, yet felt it was within her expectations.
The bowl of herbal soup was still steaming, looking dark and smelling extremely bitter.
"I tried hundreds of prescriptions, and even ruined two ceramic pots, but I finally figured out that this prescription won't cholera!"
Shen Jiaqing's face lit up with joy, she was very happy and excited.
He has been up all night for the past two days, and even the divine physician Sikong almost couldn't bear to watch him suffer.
But the more Shen Jiaqing failed, the more motivated he became, as if he was determined to win, and he became more and more energetic.
Although Physician Sikong did not support children staying up late, he seemed to know something and silently supported him.
Lili was much calmer than Shen Jiaqing: "Fourth brother, has this medicine been tested?"
“Of course, the effects of Master’s medicine wore off yesterday. Last night, I deliberately went for a walk without a gauze scarf, and sure enough, I got infected immediately. I had a reaction in the early morning, so I quickly tried dozens of prescriptions.” Shen Jiaqing excitedly held up the medicine in her hand and even brought her face close to show her. “Look, my left cheek was originally covered with pustules, but now they’ve all disappeared, leaving only marks!”
Lili was startled by the first half of his sentence. Her fourth brother had actually gone to get infected himself just to test the medicine.
It's fortunate that he figured it out; what would have happened if he hadn't?
"Fourth brother, you're taking too much of a risk!"
Shen Jiaqing didn't take it seriously: "Oh, what's the big deal? As a doctor, it's common to test medicine on yourself."
Shen Jiaqing was extremely proud. To a certain extent, he was the first cholera patient in the world to be cured.
Lili was quite helpless, but Shen Jiaqing was decisive and efficient, and since things had already come to this, Doctor Sikong probably knew about it too.
Even the Divine Physician Sikong didn't say anything, so what could she say?
"I knew you could do it, Fourth Brother!" Lili thought for a moment, "What about Grandpa Sikong? Even he couldn't figure out this recipe. Wouldn't he be overjoyed for you?"
“It’s not that mysterious. Actually, my master has been paying attention to this matter for many years. However, cholera has not been seen for many years, and we lack practical experience, so we haven’t been able to make any breakthroughs. I only managed to come up with the prescription by chance by referring to my master’s manuscript.” Shen Jiaqing scratched his head embarrassedly. “Last night, I tested the medicine on myself. My master stayed by my side in the outer room all night and is sleeping in the room now.”
Lili nodded.
“The villagers who haven’t gotten sick have already left, and the rest of the villagers should all leave Li Village today. Even Doctor Li and Doctor Zhang have already left. If we’re going to distribute medicine door-to-door, I’ll have to do it myself. Let’s hurry and prepare the medicine, Fourth Brother!”
The fact that someone could save him from cholera will definitely make my fourth brother famous if word gets out.
The two of them were busy, and the stove in the whole house was running.
Lili had only seen the festering sores that appeared after contracting cholera from afar, and it was rather gruesome.
Besides the physical pain, there was also the helplessness of watching one's body rot away bit by bit.
Ignoring the fluttering snowflakes, Lili went out the door with a bowl in her left hand and a bowl in her right.
Lili wasn't asking for trouble. She put the medicine at the door, knocked, said it was time to take her medicine, and then left for the next place.
The main point is to avoid trouble.
I'm not afraid of death, but I don't court it.
Shen Jiaqing was brewing medicine in the courtyard, while Lili was running errands for him.
It took most of the day to deliver the medicine to everyone in the village.
Lili wasn't too tired. In the past, she would run to the fields all day long, which was much more tiring than this.
Shen Jiaqing finally finished brewing the medicine and was counting the herbs next to the medicine cabinet.
Shen Jiaqing gave Lili several names of medicine.
“Lili, these are the most commonly used herbs, and we’re almost out. The villagers have been infected for a long time, and everyone’s constitution is different, so the dosage and amount vary. Some people might have to drink them for a month. Is there any way to get some more of these herbs?”
Lili silently memorized the names of the herbs: "Alright, I'll have Xiaoqi take care of it when I go down the mountain today. Don't worry, Fourth Brother."
Shen Jiaqing smiled with relief. The tension of the past few days had left him exhausted, and now he could finally get a good night's sleep.
For the next two weeks, Lili stayed with Shen Jiaqing in Rucheng.
When Zeng Yinfeng heard that Shen Jiaqing had indeed developed an antidote, he immediately organized a group of doctors to go up the mountain to help with brewing, delivering, and treating patients.
With the situation stabilized, Lili finally had some free time and no longer needed to go up the mountain every day.
With some free time, Lili reverted to her old habit and went into the field.
Gu Ziyi has already found out that the grain in Tiger Laopao's village did indeed come from Nanlin County, or even from the batch grown in Anding Village.
Feeling reassured about using her own grain seeds, Lili simply took some grain to use as seeds and studied them in the fields of Xixiang County.
It's still snowing heavily these days, so Lili had to have the thick layer of snow cleared away and take a bunch of soil back to the inn to make a simulated field in a very wide flowerpot.
The room was warmed by a charcoal fire.
The soil had been frozen, and it took Lili a lot of effort to bring it back to life.
Zeng Yingfeng had long heard of Lili's prowess. When he first took office as the prefect of Xixiang County, he sent someone to invite her to come and see the land of Xixiang County, but Lili refused.
Lili picked up her little hoe and dug at the soil, somewhat remorsefully saying, "Brother Zeng, please don't blame me. I really didn't intend to interfere in the affairs of other counties, even if it was something that would absolutely benefit the people."
"I understand."
Zeng Yingfeng never blamed her before, and he certainly doesn't blame her now.
After spending the last few days with her, Zeng Yinfeng had a very direct understanding of why even His Highness the Crown Prince admired a young girl so much.
Lili possesses a remarkably rational and composed demeanor.
She is kind, but not blindly so.
She is intelligent, but not presumptuous.
She can even see through many principles that even adults cannot understand. Perhaps those principles are actually very simple, but when people are deeply involved in them, everyone will have times when they cannot see clearly.
Lili is like a gentle lighthouse; she understands your temporary lapse in direction and will silently remind you.
Zeng Yingfeng smiled and said, "Actually, the reason I came to Xixiang County as the prefect was not because my father asked me to, but because I volunteered."
"Yes, I know," Lili said, planting the rice seed in her hand.
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