Chapter 41
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Qingyu, along with Huantong and several guards, sailed south with Lu Baishuo. It would take at least a month to travel from the capital to Lin'an by water, round trip. He probably can only spend the Lantern Festival on the road.
Even though this trip was for a funeral, Lin Qingyu did not wrong himself. He rented two large two-story ships, one of which was specifically used to store Lu Wancheng's coffin.
It was the time to visit relatives and friends during the New Year. There were boats coming and going at the ferry in the capital, and the noise was deafening. Lin Qingyu helped Huantong onto the boat. Huantong looked out at the place where the river and the sky met, and said with emotion: "A few years ago, the young master left Beijing to study and traveled by water for a long time. I am most afraid of taking a boat."
The ferry is still the same ferry, the person is still the same person, only the state of mind has changed. Lin Qingyu then remembered that Huantong would get seasick: "Why don't you go back to the Lin Mansion?"
"That won't work." Huan Tong said firmly, "Wherever the young master goes, I will follow."
The servants carried the coffin onto the boat. During his lifetime, Lu Wancheng could sit instead of standing, or lie down instead of sitting. He went out only a few times a year. The exhausting journey by boat and carriage could not be overstated. It was enough to cost him his life. Lu Wancheng once said that he must be crazy to come out and suffer, but he didn't expect that he would have to follow him all the way after his death.
After everything was ready, the boatman weighed anchor and set sail. The boat left the shore, the voices gradually died down, and the view became wider.
The tide has just receded, the river is calm and windless, the fog is light, the water is vast and the clouds are bright, the morning sun shines on the water, and half of the river is rustling and the other half is red.
"Is the river view nice?" Lin Qingyu cleaned and arranged Lu Wancheng's spirit tablet. "If you can come back, don't be too lazy in the future. Go out for a walk more often."
Lin Qingyu wanted to say something else, but when he saw the words "Lu Wancheng's Tomb" on the tablet, he felt something was wrong. Ever since he saw the strangely dressed young man in his dream, he felt this sense of incongruity whenever he looked at Lu Wancheng's coffin.
Lu Wancheng is already dead, but that person may not be.
As we sailed south, the surrounding scenery kept changing, from the plains in the north to the mountains in the south. After a few days, we briefly stopped at Xunyang Ferry.
As an epidemic was raging in Hongzhou, their ship would not stay in Hongzhou, so they had to replenish supplies in Xunyang, a day's sailing trip away from Hongzhou.
Lu Baishuo asked Lin Qingyu if he wanted to go ashore and take a walk: "I heard that Xunyang's tea cakes are unique, do you want to try some, Mr. Lin?"
Lin Qingyu was not very interested and said, "No need, I'll wait for you on the boat."
"Then I'll buy some and bring them back for you." Lu Baishuo said, "Just as a return gift for the dish 'Hun Yang Mo Hu'..." When he went to Beijing to visit his relatives, Lin Qingyu and Lu Wancheng invited him to eat this dish. "Hiss, look at my mouth."
Lu Baishuo felt that he had spoken out of turn. He shouldn't have said these things in front of Lin Qingyu. The old friend is gone, and reminiscing about the past will only increase sadness, especially in front of the deceased's first wife.
Fortunately, Lin Qingyu didn't have any special reaction: "Then please trouble the Sixth Young Master to buy one more and let Wan Cheng try it too."
Huantong felt very seasick and wanted to follow along to relieve herself. Lin Qingyu said, "That's perfect. You can go to the city and find a shop and ask them to make a temporary tablet. It doesn't have to be too elaborate, just something that can be used."
Huan Tong thought that the young master wanted to set up another memorial tablet for the young marquis, so she asked, "Are those words also engraved on the memorial tablet?"
"No, just carve..." Lin Qingyu pondered, pondered, and pondered again, "carve the five words 'Jiang Dazhuang's Tomb'."
Huan Tong was confused: "Who is Jiang Dazhuang?"
Lin Qingyu said calmly: "A beast."
The Lu family's ship stayed in Xunyang for half a day, passed through Hongzhou, and continued to head south. Just a few days before arriving in Lin'an, Lu Baishuo and Huantong fell seriously ill one after another.
The two people's symptoms were exactly the same. They first had a high fever, vomiting and abdominal pain, and soon blisters began to appear on their bodies. There was a boatman who had fled from Hongzhou. He knew at a glance that the two men had contracted the plague.
"Xunyang is only a day or two away from Hongzhou, and there are many people in the city who have fled from Hongzhou. Although the government checked everyone when they entered the city, it is inevitable that some people who were infected with the disease sneaked in. These two gentlemen must have contracted the disease in Xunyang." The boatman covered his nose with his hand and stayed away from the two men. "Sir, don't think my words are harsh. If you have this kind of disease, you can only leave it to fate. Those with a strong fate can get better on their own, but for those with a bad fate, even the gods can't help you."
Inside the cabin, Lu Baishuo and Huan Tong were delirious with fever. Within a day of the onset of the disease, they were already unconscious, and blisters spread from their bodies to their necks.
Lin Qingyu wanted to check the pulse of the two men, but was stopped by the boatman: "Sir, you can't do that. This disease can kill people!"
Lin Qingyu opened the medical box Lu Wancheng sent him and said, "Just stay away."
Hu Ji had reminded Lin Qingyu early in the morning, and Lin Qingyu had been prepared for the epidemic, but he did not expect the epidemic to come so quickly and so urgently. He covered his mouth and nose with cotton gauze and asked the rest of the people on the boat to do the same. When they arrived at the next ferry, he asked others to get off the boat to buy medicinal herbs for him, while he stayed on the boat to take care of the patients.
Huan Tong had just finished vomiting and was somewhat sober. Seeing that Lin Qingyu was about to give her an acupuncture needle, she hurriedly said, "Master, don't come over here!"
Lin Qingyu held his shoulders to prevent him from moving and asked, "Do you believe me?"
Huan Tong nodded with red eyes: "Young Master is the best doctor in the world."
"Except for father and teacher." Lin Qingyu said, "I will try to use some medicine on you. Don't be afraid, they are all mild and good medicines. Even if they are ineffective, they will not hurt your body."
"Master, please feel free to use it. I trust you..."
Lin Qingyu applied medicinal powder on the two people's bodies and personally prepared, pounded and boiled the medicine for them. He was not completely sure and could only take it one step at a time, increasing or decreasing the amount of medication according to the conditions of the two people.
When the epidemic broke out last year, he exchanged letters with his mentor. In the letter, his mentor expressed a lot of his views on epidemics. He gained some inspiration from it and became quite adept at using medicine.
Under his careful care, within a few days, Huantong and Lu Baishuo's fever subsided, and the blisters on their bodies broke and scabbed over, with no signs of further breakouts. The two of them rested in bed for another two days, and then they were fine again, except that they had a lot of scars on their bodies. Fortunately, their faces were not injured.
Lu Baishuo was so grateful that he called Lin Qingyu his adoptive parents. Lin Qingyu said, "Forget about my parents. If possible, Sixth Young Master, please ask someone to send a letter back to Beijing for me and give it to Doctor Hu Ji."
He wrote down all the prescriptions he had given to the two people in the letter, hoping that it would be of help to the Imperial Medical Bureau.
Because of this delay, they can only spend this year's Lantern Festival on the boat. The boatman stopped the boat at the city gate ferry and Lin Qingyu went up to the second deck. The spring river tide and the faint sight of fireworks in the city were dazzling, which reminded him of the smiling look in that person's eyes when he looked at him.
"Master, look!"
Lin Qingyu looked in the direction Huantong pointed, and saw lotus lanterns floating down the river from the city, like stars. Lin Qingyu looked at it for a while and said, "Do we still have wine?"
On the other side, Lu Baishuo woke up from a nap and did not see the master and servants of the Lin family, so he went to the deck to look for them. In the frosty moonlight, a man in white was sitting facing the wind. His long hair tied with a silk ribbon fluttered like ink, his clothes were as white as snow, and his face was three times brighter than the moonlight when he tilted his head back to drink.
For a moment, Lu Baishuo thought he had seen an immortal, until the boatman saw him in a daze and called out "Master", then he came to his senses.
"Doctor Lin."
Lin Qingyu paused with his hand holding the wine jug, suddenly stood up and looked back, the moment he saw Lu Baishuo, the light in his eyes quickly dimmed.
Lu Baishuo was a little at a loss: "Doctor Lin?"
Ever since he had learned about Lin Qingyu's medical skills, Lu Baishuo felt that the title of "doctor" was more suitable for him than "young prince". That day, Lin Qingyu married into the Marquis's Mansion for the purpose of bringing good luck, which was really a waste of talent.
Lin Qingyu collected his thoughts and said calmly, "Nothing."
During the Lantern Festival this year, the moon and the lanterns remain the same.
One third of the 100-day agreement between him and that man had passed.
When they arrived in Lin'an, Lu Baishuo took care of all the arrangements for the burial, so Lin Qingyu didn't have to worry about it. When the Lu family's branch in their hometown learned that the male wife of the main family had arrived, they all wanted to see what was going on. Unfortunately, Lin Qingyu did not give them a chance. He did not even enter the Lu family's ancestral home and lived in an inn outside. He did not show up until the day of Lu Wancheng's burial.
He looked at Lu Wancheng with an expressionless face as he was buried in the Lu family's ancestral tomb. Those side branches cried their hearts out, and some of them had never even seen Lu Wancheng. He was so calm that many people talked about him, as if if he didn't show some sadness, the rumor that he was unlucky in marriage would be confirmed.
However, the person buried was Lu Wancheng, so it had nothing to do with Jiang. Mr. Jiang only borrowed this body for a year. He personally took care of the funeral arrangements for so long, which can be regarded as paying off Mr. Jiang's debt.
On the Spring Equinox in February, Lin Qingyu finally returned to the capital. Lu Wancheng's funeral came to an end. It is time for him to return to the Nan'an Marquis Mansion to prepare for the division of the family.
As soon as Lin Qingyu arrived at the Nan'an Marquis Mansion, Hu Ji came over and excitedly told him two good news.
First, his prescription for epidemic disease was indeed effective. After being slightly improved by the Imperial Medical Bureau, it was distributed to the 19 prefectures of Dayu. The epidemic was gradually brought under the control of the court and showed signs of dying down.
Secondly, on the northwestern border, General Gu Fuzhou was about to die, but somehow he came back to life and lived for two more days. During these two days, Lin Yuanpan finally found a way to cure this strange poison from Xixia. Now the remaining poison in Gu Fuzhou has been cleared, and he will recover after just resting.
"I heard that after General Gu woke up, he regarded the judge as his adopted father and insisted on recognizing him as his godfather. The judge refused several times but to no avail, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and accept him as his adopted son." Hu Ji laughed, "In this way, doesn't Shaojun become General Gu's adopted brother?"
Brother?
Somehow, Lin Qingyu felt a subtle sense of familiarity in his heart. Regardless, these two things are indeed good things. He breathed a sigh of relief after a long time and said, "Now that General Gu is safe, shouldn't my father also return to Beijing?"
"It should be so." Hu Ji said happily, "Mr. Lin, do you know that the emperor heard that it was the son of Lin Yuanpan and the wife of the young Marquis of Nan'an who came up with the prescription for the epidemic, and he summoned you to the palace to meet him."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
