Xu Rao carried the round food box back home. The courtyard was empty, with only a few lanterns lit under the eaves.
The early autumn evening breeze carried a slight chill. The room lights were on. Xu Rao carried the food box in, placed it on the table, and sat down, feeling a profound sense of desolation.
That feeling was aimless, like a piece of duckweed drifting aimlessly with the water.
Xu Rao propped her head up with her hand and remained motionless for a long time. The servants in the courtyard were not allowed to enter the room without permission. This was a rule set by Chen Zhaoci and Xu Rao. Even if someone wanted to come and talk to her, they had to greet her at the door first and be allowed to come in.
A maid who usually served Xu Rao her meals stood at the door of the room, wanting to ask Xu Rao if she needed dinner, but hesitating for fear of disturbing her peace.
Xu Rao didn't feel hungry, but he still had dinner served. He had to eat eventually. There were two cooks in the kitchen in the courtyard who had been working there for several years and knew the family's tastes very well. When they heard the maid say that the Third Master wanted dinner, they quickly made a bowl of clear soup noodles, along with some side dishes and freshly made chili sauce. Xu Rao ate a big bowl of it, sweating profusely. He walked around the courtyard a few times, feeling his mind clear, before returning to his room and forcing himself to go to sleep. He knew that he would face many things at the Ministry of Revenue the next day, and these things were closely related to his wife and children in Yun'an County.
It was another busy night. Chen Zhaoci sat by the fire and closed his eyes for a moment before waking up again. His whole body ached, and he groaned as he held his waist. Bai Wei and Bai Mi helped him to his feet.
Bai Wei and Bai Mi had tears in their eyes from heartache. Bai Wei said softly, "Madam, the three of us will watch over things here. Please go out and rest for a while."
Bai Mi chimed in, "Yes, Madam, the three of us are fine."
An elderly man's condition relapsed last night. He said that he already had a weak stomach, and after contracting the epidemic, his condition was the most serious, classified as severe. Chen Zhaoci dared not slack off and personally took care of him. Yesterday, the old man suddenly vomited and had diarrhea. After changing his prescription, Chen Zhaoci helped clean up his soiled clothes and bedding several times. Even the villagers who came to help thought that no one would believe that Chen Zhaoci was born into a marquis's family and was the wife of a third-rank official in the imperial court. She herself also held an imperial title.
After Zheng Boyuan prepared the meal at the village entrance, he asked Ma Guang to deliver it. Ma Guang personally led a group of people to deliver the meal to the ancestral hall.
Chen Zhaoci checked the contents and saw several kinds of food in the food boxes. The dry rice was for himself and his men, the thick and sticky millet porridge was for the patients, and there were also some pickled vegetables and steamed buns. After Chen Zhaoci and his men carefully disinfected the food, they ate and then started their work for the day again.
Xu Zhi and Bai Ying and the others have been helping with cooking and making protective clothing. Now, several hundred people have been stationed near Zhoujia Village. Some came from Beijing, some from Miaozhou, and some from Yun'an County. Under Zheng Boyuan's arrangement, everyone has surrounded Zhoujia Village like an iron barrel, trying not to let a single mosquito escape.
Everyone is on high alert right now. Fortunately, apart from Zhoujia Village, no other villages in the vicinity have reported any cases of the epidemic. Under Zheng Boyuan's supervision, Magistrate Li has disinfected all the villages in the county.
Disinfection was not so simple. As Chen Zhaoci instructed, the focus was on places with water, especially the wells in the village for drinking water. Many villagers disagreed, and Magistrate Li and his clerk, along with the county's constables, were very busy for two days.
Magistrate Li sat slumped in the back hall of the yamen, his face pale. His clerk, fanning him with one hand and holding a bowl of tea in the other, whispered, "Sir, didn't you submit your memorial? It's been several days, why hasn't the imperial decree arrived yet?"
Magistrate Li gave a wry smile and said, "Can't you see? Right now, Zhoujia Village is full of Zheng Boyuan's men. Even if we submit a memorial to the court, what's the use? I reckon the court is already fully aware of the situation here. The Imperial Guards are no ordinary guards."
The advisor was in a state of constant anxiety. His concubine had run away, and he had secretly sent all the money he had embezzled back to his hometown. He had also bought a lot of land in the names of his brothers, and his wife and children were all settled. He would have been willing to go straight to the gallows if he could, but they just left it to their own devices, with no one coming to question the account books or inquire about the assassination attempt on the advisor in the middle of the night.
That's how people are often. They have something to hide, and they know very well that others have figured out their hand. But the other party hasn't made any moves, and they can't deceive themselves by pretending that nothing has happened. So, this waiting period is very agonizing.
The clerk poured Magistrate Li a cup of tea. Feeling that the teacup wasn't very hot anymore, he handed it to Magistrate Li and said, "Sir, should we stay here and keep watch, or should we go somewhere else to take shelter?"
Magistrate Li asked in surprise and doubt, "Take a break? How can we take a break? Let me tell you, we should just do our job well now and hope that we can be spared when the reckoning comes. This time, we really made a big mistake. I've asked around in several nearby counties, and they all followed Zheng Boyuan's orders and covered the rivers, waterways, houses, and roads in the villages with quicklime. How could we have been so blinded by greed and disobeyed Zheng Boyuan's orders?"
The clerk was also filled with regret, but there's no medicine for regret in this world. He shamelessly said, "I originally thought Zheng Boyuan was just a martial artist, what could he know? Who knew it would be such a coincidence that we ran into him? Sir, are we just going to do nothing and wait like this?"
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