Chapter 138 [VIP]
If it really is an epidemic, wouldn't it be very dangerous for the young lady to go there now?
Qin Chen hesitated for a moment. Gu Zhizhuo took a few steps forward and asked, "Qin Chen, did you see any villages nearby just now?"
"Yes. Not far ahead." Qin Chen caught up and sighed, "They're starving, but they're enduring it rather than going into the village to rob."
As Gu Zhizhuo walked, he said, "Young Master said that there is only a fine line between refugees and bandits. When they are still refugees, they have a bottom line and place their hopes on the government. They will obediently wait for the government to distribute grain in order to survive."
"But once a person crosses this line, transforming from a vagrant into a bandit, they become a scourge to the surrounding people."
"Perhaps the rabble won't be able to break into the county town, but they can certainly plunder, kill, or even massacre the villages in the vicinity."
Once you've killed someone, you're not afraid to kill again.
Those who have seen blood will become bloodthirsty.
“That’s right.” Qi Fu followed behind unhurriedly and echoed, “When I was young and hadn’t yet joined the army, the village near my home was massacred by bandits. The local government was inhumane. They originally just asked the government for some porridge, but several people starved to death without getting any. In a fit of anger, they stormed the county government office and killed the magistrate. After escaping, they became outlaws, frequently going down the mountain to rob, and were eventually wiped out by the imperial court.”
Qin Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks: "Young lady, she's just ahead."
Gu Zhizhuo looked into the distance and saw a small village not far ahead. It was dusk, and smoke was rising from every household.
She told them to wait where they were, and only she and Qingmei went inside.
There were homeless people nearby, and the fact that there were two men carrying weapons would definitely raise suspicion.
Even without the two of them, as soon as Gu Zhizhuo and Qingmei entered the village, everyone put down what they were doing and gathered around them.
Their expressions relaxed slightly when Gu Zhizhuo said they had come to buy clothes.
Gu Zhizhuo traveled light this time, wearing only ordinary riding attire, but in the eyes of these villagers, this riding outfit was already top-notch. Hearing that they were going to Yihe County, they assumed that they were afraid of being robbed by refugees if they dressed too well.
Gu Zhizhuo didn't explain much. She gave them a five-qian silver ingot and bought them all a set of coarse cloth clothes. The two of them borrowed a villager's house to change into their clothes, wrapped their hair in a floral blue cloth, and brought two coarse linen short jackets for Qin Chen and the others.
After they changed, they wrapped their weapons in cloth and crossed the small hill to reach Yihe County.
Just as Qin Chen said, Yihe County was already surrounded by refugees.
Most of these migrants brought their families with them. They sat on the ground in front of the county town gate, their faces sallow and emaciated from hunger and toil.
If it's just about expulsion, the three hundred elite troops that Gu Zhizhuo brought are enough.
To prevent them from being infected by the epidemic, Gu Zhizhuo drew several talismans to ward off the disease, gave one to each of them, and told them to stick it on their chests. He also used silver needles to prick several acupoints on their hands.
"Let's go."
"Qin Chen, go check on the west gate."
The county town has two city gates, one on the east and one on the west.
Qin Chen clasped his hands in agreement, and Gu Zhizhuo took the lead, walking towards the direction where the refugees were gathered.
Gu Zhizhuo bought coarse cloth clothes, but since she paid the money, the honest villagers brought out their best clothes, which were clean and had only one or two patches.
He was somewhat out of place among these people who had been on the run and in exile.
Gu Zhizhuo simply wiped the dust off the ground and rubbed it on his clothes and face.
There were only women, children, and some elderly people sitting or lying around; the able-bodied men were nowhere to be seen.
Gu Zhizhu walked straight towards a woman holding a child.
My wife is not yet twenty, but she is extremely thin, and her beautiful face is filled with vicissitudes and despair.
As Gu Zhizhuo approached, he noticed that there were indeed no children crying around. Many children were either sleeping on the ground or being held in someone's arms, but none of them made much noise, as if they were fast asleep or as if they were already dead. A foul stench permeated the surroundings.
"Auntie, Auntie."
Gu Zhizhuo squatted down and went to call the wife.
The woman paused for a moment, looked up at her, and said with dry lips, "Girl, I have no food left here."
"I have."
Gu Zhizhuo secretly slipped her a pancake.
The daughter-in-law's eyes lit up. She quickly covered her mouth with her sleeve, lowered her head, and took a bite, not caring at all that the pancake was dry. She wolfed it down. But she stopped after only one bite.
She thanked him repeatedly, saying, "Thank you so much, young lady."
"Where are the men?" Gu Zhizhuo asked, feigning ignorance. "Why are you the only ones here?"
Faced with her questioning gaze, Gu Zhizhuo explained nonchalantly, "My family lives in the village up ahead. I heard there were people from Qingzhou here, so my mother asked my older brother and sister to come and see. Oh, my mother married into this family from Qingzhou. When she heard about the earthquake in Qingzhou, she was terribly worried, fearing that my maternal grandmother and the others would also flee."
Oh. My wife didn't suspect anything.
The girl even gave her a pancake! They were starving, what could the girl possibly want from them?
She gave a weak laugh and said, "The men all go there."
The wife pointed in the direction of the county town and said in a hoarse voice, "The officials want to starve us to death, but we don't want to die. My little tiger girl is only four years old, and she doesn't want to die either."
As she spoke, she took a chipped rough porcelain bowl from her bundle, poured some water into it, and then broke the cake into small pieces and soaked them in the water.
The wife sighed and said, "The men went to the government to beg for grain. My husband said that no matter what, he would get a bowl of rice for my daughter and me, and told me to hold on for now."
She broke the pancake in half, put the other half against her chest, and smiled shyly at Gu Zhizhuo.
Gu Zhizhuo said to Chongjiu, "Brother, go look around the city gate. Maybe our cousin and the others are there."
Chongjiu: "..."
Gu Zhizhuo winked at him: "Go quickly."
Chongjiu responded in a muffled voice and placed the cotton bag he was carrying at Gu Zhizhuo's feet.
The bread in the rough porcelain bowl had softened from soaking. The wife picked up the child, supported her back with her arm, and gently called out, "Tiger Girl, wake up and eat some."
"You'll feel better once you've eaten something."
She tried to feed the child in her arms, stuffing softened bread into her mouth. But the child was barely breathing, fast asleep, and wouldn't wake up no matter how she called.
His wife was almost in tears: "Tiger Girl, please have a bite, okay?"
Gu Zhizhuo helped her support the child and casually checked the child's pulse.
After pondering for a while, she lowered her wrist, left under the pretext of looking for someone, and went to see another child not far away. It was a boy, about seven or eight years old, who was in slightly better spirits and could still speak. She gave him a piece of bread and he ate a couple of bites.
Gu Zhizhuo looked after several children in a row.
They first used pancakes to get close to the child's family, and then secretly took their pulses. The pulses were generally similar, indicating the same illness, just with different degrees of severity.
The heaviest one was the one called Tiger Girl.
Different children contracted the same illness; it was definitely an epidemic.
After taking a short walk around, Gu Zhizhuo returned to Hu Niu's place.
"Auntie, when did Tiger Girl get sick?" Gu Zhizhuo sat down next to her. "I see that a lot of children are sick."
"Five days, no, it's been seven days," the wife said absentmindedly. "She fell ill on the way here. My husband said that as soon as we reached the county town, we would go and find a doctor. We've already reached the county town, so why won't they let us in!"
"Are you trying to drive us to our deaths?" she said through gritted teeth, her voice tinged with hysteria.
After saying all that in one breath, most of the strength I had mustered dissipated, and I was panting heavily.
Why.
Gu Zhizhuo sighed inwardly.
Even if the young master had made some preparations, the disaster brought about by the earthquake could not be completely averted by prior planning.
Gu Zhizhuo supported her and took her pulse as well. Her pulse was the same as Hu Niu's, not as strong as Hu Niu's yet, but it would get stronger in a few days.
Epidemic.
An epidemic that can infect adults and children.
Looking around, Gu Zhizhuo realized that once an outbreak occurred, the refugees here would likely not be spared.
Without medicine, they would all die of illness before starving to death, and the disease might even spread to the people in the county town.
She thought of the plague in Dongyang County, Qingzhou in her previous life, in which the entire county's population was reduced to less than one in ten.
After pondering for a moment, Gu Zhizhuo offered, "Auntie, I've been learning medicine from my master since I was little, and I'm quite knowledgeable in it. If you'd like, I can treat Hu Niu."
Upon hearing this, the wife, who had almost lost all her energy, felt a sudden jolt in her heart. She grabbed Gu Zhizhuo's hands with a strength she didn't know she had, and pleaded, "Miss, Miss, please save Hu Niu. I, Kong Xiulan, will do anything for you."
"Don't move. You haven't eaten for too long, you might faint."
Gu Zhizhuo took out silver needles from his needle case and first pricked Hu Niu's earlobe. After a while, a drop of blood slowly seeped out.
He was extremely weak in terms of qi and blood, and was also hungry and sick. It is already extremely difficult for him to have survived until now.
"How...how is it?" his wife, Kong Xiulan, asked anxiously.
"Don't worry, Auntie," Gu Zhizhuo reassured her. "I'll give her the acupuncture first."
During an epidemic, acupuncture is not suitable; herbal decoctions are still necessary so that everyone can drink them in a short period of time.
However, we need to test how to use this medicine.
This child probably won't make it to that point.
Gu Zhizhuo applied acupuncture repeatedly, and soon the child's pale face regained some color.
“Girl…” Kong Xiulan was trembling all over, not daring to move, looking at Gu Zhizhuo with pleading eyes, her heart filled with trepidation.
"Don't move it yet, the needle needs to stay in for a while longer."
Another needle was inserted, and Tiger Girl let out a low groan.
Kong Jilan became excited and asked, "Is she about to wake up?"
She couldn't control her voice and attracted the attention of those around her. Seeing that Gu Zhizhuo was giving Hu Niu acupuncture, someone asked in surprise, "Sister-in-law Kong, where did you find this doctor?"
doctor?
Upon hearing the word "doctor," a woman carrying a child stumbled over and cried out, "Quickly, take a look at my son, Zhuzi!"
Gu Zhizhuo looked up and glanced at him. She had taken the child's pulse when she walked around earlier, so she said gently, "He's not seriously ill. Let's wait for now."
Acupuncture can only temporarily treat the symptoms and stimulate the child's vital energy to keep her alive. On the surface, the symptoms are relieved and she may look better, but the illness has not actually been cured.
Tiger Girl is seriously ill; if she doesn't receive treatment soon, she won't live for more than a few hours. This is the only way to keep her going.
Gu Zhizhuo planned to administer acupuncture to a few particularly severely ill children first, to help them survive.
She only has two hands; if it's not serious, there's no need to waste time. We'll use the medicine together after we buy the herbs from the county town.
"Why wait!"
Before she could explain, the woman lunged at her. Gu Zhizhuo was still administering acupuncture and was caught off guard, almost falling over. Fortunately, Qingmei intervened and said, "Get out of the way."
"It's a little girl, she's dead, why save her?! Zhu Zi is the only son in four generations of the Li family, you have to save him first." The woman, her hair disheveled, shouted arrogantly.
Kong Xiulan got angry too, pounced over and grabbed her hair, and without saying a word, bit the woman's face, making the woman scream and beg for mercy, and then viciously threw her aside.
She was far less robust than the woman, and her fierceness stemmed from her having eaten a piece of bread.
She spread her arms to block Gu Zhizhuo, blood still dripping from her mouth, looking as if she would fight anyone who dared to come closer.
"The doctor is saving my Tiger Girl."
"No one is allowed to make a sound!"
She yelled in a shrill voice, "Did you hear me?!"
During their escape, they had become somewhat familiar with each other. This woman was usually very delicate and spoke softly; no one had ever seen her so fierce.
Gu Zhizhuo couldn't make a move, so he gave Qingmei a wink.
Qingmei went over and grabbed the woman, shouting fiercely, "Does anyone know her? Quickly, pull her away! What, her son is her life, but other people's daughters aren't?"
An old woman quickly came over to pull her away: "Aunt Wang, stop making a fuss. We have to save them one by one. My little grandson is sick too."
As she spoke, she also looked at Gu Zhizhuo. Seeing that Hu Niu's complexion had improved a lot, she was overjoyed and pulled the woman even harder.
They didn't know where this little girl came from, but she was the only doctor they had encountered in recent days. If they missed her, they didn't know where they would find another one.
They have no money to give her, so she'll definitely leave at any time. If she can drive away the Wang family's daughter-in-law, she can at least show her little grandson around.
"Oh dear, don't bother the young lady."
Many people shared this idea, and everyone around gathered around, watching eagerly.
Aunt Wang was shoved aside and immediately became unhappy, shouting wildly, "Husband, you useless thing, your wife and son are going to be bullied to death!"
Qingmei rubbed her ears, thinking to herself: I don't know if she's really hungry or not, how come she's so full of energy?
“My family…” Qingmei almost habitually called her “my daughter,” but the title caught in her throat. “My little sister only has two hands, so you have to see them one by one.”
"Whoever causes trouble again."
She waved her fist and threatened, "I'm taking my sister with me, and I won't let you see any of them."
This won't do!
Someone quickly pulled Aunt Wang away to calm her down, lest the doctor actually walk away.
Qingmei gave them a sweet treat after the initial blow, first intimidating them, then speaking to them gently, asking soothingly, "We've come to find our relatives, but we haven't found them yet..."
The fact that they hadn't found their relatives yet meant they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Everyone was secretly delighted.
She said, "Could you tell us what's going on? Are the officials not letting you into the city?"
"No."
Speaking of this, many people are furious.
They sat on the ground, each complaining to Qingmei.
Most of them were from Wujiang Prefecture in Qingzhou. Wujiang Prefecture is located in the northeast of Qingzhou and was the very center of this earthquake, where mountains collapsed and the earth cracked.
"Sigh. All the houses in our whole town collapsed, and so many people died. The rocks blocked the road, and we couldn't survive in the town anymore. We had no choice but to come out. People always have to fight for a way to survive, right?"
"Are you all from the same town?" Qingmei asked.
"No, no, we met them on the road. We were begging for food the whole way. We were originally thinking of stopping when we reached a certain point, but then we heard someone say that the Prince of Chen had ordered all the counties to distribute grain and porridge to us. We were overjoyed and came to try our luck."
An old woman slapped her thigh and cried bitterly: "We finally made it here, thinking we could finally have a full meal, but the county magistrate won't give us a single grain of rice. He's deliberately trying to starve us to death."
"What Prince Chen? Prince Chen? Bah!"
"They deliberately lured us here to starve to death."
The people around him nodded in agreement.
Qingmei frowned, but seeing Gu Zhizhuo's focused gaze, she refrained from scolding him and asked, "And then?"
"later……"
"Something terrible has happened!" A teenager ran back from a distance, shouting as he ran, "Sister Xiulan, the soldiers have all come out, and your man is fighting with the officers."
Kong Xiulan was startled upon hearing this, and her face turned pale as she peered out.
"They probably didn't get any food."
"what to do."
"If we beat up the soldiers, will they be imprisoned and beaten to death?"
"And what about us?"
“No one will come to help us,” a young wife cried, covering her face. “The same goes for Prince Chen. And for all the officials.”
Gu Zhizhuo's pupils contracted sharply. She put away the last needle, and Hu Niu's eyelids suddenly twitched, causing her to open her eyes abruptly.
Gu Zhizhuo said, "No, that won't happen."
"Someone is thinking of you."
She smiled slightly, the light of the setting sun falling on her profile, which, despite being covered in mud, still carried a calming power.
She said, "Didn't I come?"
A note from the author:
I've started a new pre-order for "Reborn Back to the Day My Husband Had Two Houses," which you can find in my author page.
Chu Yanxin is the only daughter of the Chu family, the wealthiest merchant family in Jiangnan.
When she came of age, the Marquis of Jingwu's family came to plead for her, and her parents gave her half of their fortune as dowry.
People say that for a merchant to marry into a noble family is a blessing accumulated by her ancestors for generations.
In her previous life, Chu Yanxin thought the same thing.
However, it wasn't until her wedding day that she learned her husband would be married into two families, and two bridal sedan chairs would be brought into the house at the same time.
She married the eldest son's wife.
The eldest son of the Marquis of Jingwu died on the battlefield, leaving no heirs. The Emperor granted permission for his second son to inherit the family line, thus ensuring that his elder brother would have an heir.
And she was the unlucky one who married the eldest son of the main branch of the family.
In her previous life, she cried and made a scene, desperately trying to get a divorce, but as a mere merchant, she was worthless in front of the Marquis's mansion.
Later, she resigned herself to her fate.
The mother-in-law gave her husband's second son to him for adoption, and she raised the child and managed the eldest son's household.
Even though she and her nominal husband never saw each other again after the wedding ceremony.
She was also a stumbling block in their marriage, a source of arguments, and ultimately, she died young before she was even twenty.
She brought an enormous dowry, restoring the already impoverished noble family to its former glory.
In the end, all I got was the sentence: "The Chu family is unlucky."
Open your eyes again.
Chu Yanxin returned to the day she sat in the bridal sedan chair.
Since accepting your fate means you'll die.
Then let those who deserve to die die.
****
Lu Jin is the second son of the Marquis of Jingwu.
In his previous life, his elder brother died in battle, and he inherited both families, marrying a woman surnamed Chu, thus breaking his promise to Jiang Yuanyao to be his only love for life.
Fortunately, Lady Chu died young, and under his management, the Marquis's mansion prospered and was promoted to a royal mansion.
Unfortunately, there were always rumors that his success was due to the gold and silver brought by the Chu family.
Later, he died because of a rebellion.
He opened his eyes and found himself reborn.
He was reborn on the day he was married to two wives, one of whom was to be adopted into the family.
The male lead is not Lu Jin.
My ex-husband was all talk and no action; his ashes were scattered.
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