Chapter 48 Resting at the Inn Perhaps what she lacked was precisely these acts of kindness, this…
South of Luzhou Prefecture, the north wind howls.
The weather was freezing cold, the vegetation was withered, and the entire Chengya County was shrouded in a deathly atmosphere, as if an invisible dark cloud was hanging over the sky.
Recently, doctors from various places have been arriving in the city one after another. They are all using their own methods to treat the disaster victims.
They prescribed decoctions for the sick in the city and distributed some herbal medicines for epidemic prevention to the city's residents who had not yet fallen ill, which they then used for fumigation.
Although there were some successes, this epidemic was more dangerous than any they had ever seen before. The number of people infected far exceeded the number of people who recovered, and often before the previous batch had fully recovered, new patients would fall ill.
The entire city is now like a frightened bird; if someone coughs, others will scatter in panic.
In the alleyways, you can often see patients with high fevers who have been kicked out of their homes by their families because they are considered unlucky. They huddle in corners, sick and cold, on the verge of death.
The passersby had long lost their kindness to help, and only cursed "bad luck" in their hearts before hurrying around.
Thick smoke lingered day and night at the cremation site outside the city, as people numbly sent off one dead soul after another, unaware that their turn might come next.
When the hermit Jingyun traveled here, this was the scene he saw.
She was practicing meditation in the temple, but a master noticed that she had distracting thoughts and was often distracted when copying scriptures.
Jingyun could not deny that she had been troubled ever since her daughter died.
She always thought that if she copied more scriptures, perhaps her daughter could rest in peace and be reborn into her life.
When she heard that the literary gathering in Luzhou Prefecture had been reopened and that the champion was a woman, her heart clenched even more.
If my daughter had been born at this time, would she have been able to stand out in the literary gathering?
Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs" in life.
At that moment, the master sighed and said, "You should go out and travel, do what you want to do, and not stay stuck in the same place."
She didn't even know where she could go.
But where could she go?
The Shen family had fallen on hard times, and the Cui family disliked her because she was a divorced woman and it was unsightly for her to stay at home. They kept arranging for her to remarry. She had no choice but to use her status as a nun to refuse, and only then could she have a moment of peace.
Cui Ling's elder brother once said indignantly, "You are merely practicing Buddhism with your hair still intact. You can return to secular life at any time. Why be so stubborn?"
She really wanted to become a nun, but the master always said that she had not yet severed her worldly ties and refused to ordain her.
Thinking of this, she suddenly pressed the departing master, asking, "Master, where is my worldly ties?"
The master looked slightly surprised, closed his eyes to deduce for a moment, then opened them and said, "In the southwest."
So Jingyun led her maid down the mountain and traveled southwest, doing good deeds along the way.
Halfway there, they heard that an epidemic had broken out over there.
"Layman, should we go that way?" the maid asked anxiously.
Her earthly ties are not yet severed; how can she stop?
Perhaps what she lacks is these good deeds and these merits?
Jingyun said calmly, "If you do not wish to come with me, I will give you some travel expenses and you may leave on your own. I will not force you."
The maid clutched the hem of her dress and finally said, "Wherever you go, we will go."
Of the three, none chose to leave.
Back when Cui Ling was in the Shen family, he treated them kindly. When they divorced, he was worried about implicating them, so he took them all with him.
After that, they followed "Jingyun Jushi" and never lacked food or clothing. They wore clothes that were even better than those worn by many young ladies in other families.
Knowing that the layperson was heartbroken after losing her daughter, they had come to regard them as her own daughters, offering them some comfort.
They were sold into the Shen family by their families when they were young, and had no relatives or friends. Over the years, only the lay Buddhist has treated them sincerely. How could they abandon her now?
So the master and his servants went against the flow of people and silently entered this isolated city shrouded in plague.
----
At this moment, a convoy from Luxi Village was also heading towards Funan.
To Wen Yu's surprise, there were as many as ten people on this trip.
After seeing Xin Bai and Du Ran off that day, when the group was getting ready to leave the next morning, four female students who were supposed to live in the academy dormitory were already waiting in front of the Wen family's house.
When they saw them come out, the girls excitedly crowded around them.
"We heard about the plague from Xin Baidu Ran, please take us with you!"
"Teacher, we want to study medicine with you too! We want to go!"
"Let me go, I can help!"
The girls chatted about this and that, and even had their bags packed and carried on their backs, as if afraid that they would find them troublesome, desperately trying to prove that they were useful.
They were all studying medicine, and Cui Pingchun and Chen Miaozhi had long been familiar with them. Although they didn't quite agree with it, they couldn't bring themselves to refuse.
Finally, Cui Pingchun could only sigh and say, "You must follow the instructions completely and must not act on your own!"
"Okay! We'll do as the teacher says!" the girls nodded repeatedly.
Upon hearing of the great plague, the rickshaw drivers outside turned pale at the mention of Fu Nan and repeatedly refused to go, saying, "You can't go! If you go, you won't come back!"
Wen Yu then offered his own carriage: "I can drive a carriage, and so can Qing Shi."
Chen Miaozhi volunteered to take turns, and Cui Pingchun also drove his own carriage.
The ten people set off in perfect unison.
During the journey, Wen Yu secretly hired a mid-level NPC from the system.
Liang Shuyan is a doctor specializing in infectious diseases.
While not comparable to top medical experts, this was the best network she could afford to hire.
Wen Yu had enough savings to hire her for two months, but she cautiously chose only half a month.
She thought that having modern doctors guide everyone through the most dangerous initial stage was probably the best solution at present.
If they can get through the initial stage, Cui Pingchun and her team should be able to develop a complete treatment process later on.
She kept the rest of the currency for a rainy day.
[Can the NPCs take the supplies I prepared?] Wen Yu tapped the system.
She was worried about how to explain the origin of the masks, anti-inflammatory drugs, and other items to everyone. If the NPC doctor she hired could carry them with him, everything would make perfect sense.
Even the herbs in her spiritual field space had an excuse; she could say they were brought by Liang Shuyan.
"Yes." The system readily agreed.
Wen Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
She glanced at Liang Shuyan's appearance; he was a doctor in a white coat with a serious face, who looked to be in his forties and seemed very reassuring.
The system promised Wen Yu that an NPC would be added to the team when the time was right, and that she would change into ancient clothing to avoid arousing suspicion.
"Xiaoyu, come inside the car and rest for a while." Suddenly, Wenyu heard someone call her from behind.
Wen Yu reined in his horse and turned around, seeing Chen Miaozhi sticking her head out of the carriage.
She was exhausted, and the north wind was making her cheeks sting. If she hadn't been wearing a face mask and hat, her face would probably have been frozen.
Wen Yu jumped off the horse and belatedly realized that his legs were also burning with pain.
In the past, whether it was filming or rushing to the city, I rarely had the experience of riding a horse for such a long time.
Chen Miaozhi took the map and came over to spread it out with Wen Yu for a closer look. They had been on the road for a long time, but estimated that it would take more than a day to reach Funan.
The largest county in southern Funan is Chengya County, which is surrounded by mountains. When they rested along the way, they heard from others that many refugees had tried to run into the mountains during this period, but the mountain roads were treacherous and many people had no choice but to turn back.
"The epidemic has become so severe..."
Wen Yu couldn't help but recall the time when she first arrived in Luxi and risked her life to climb the mountain to find some water, where she met Wen Yue.
That time... she encountered many wild wolves and almost lost her life in their mouths.
Now, these refugees are willing to face wild beasts in the mountains to escape the epidemic area, which makes her feel sorry for them.
The two of them sighed.
At this moment, Cui Pingchun's carriage also caught up.
Cui Pingchun dismounted and walked up to the two men: "How much further?"
Chen Miaozhi pointed to the post station on the map: "Let's rest for a while when we reach the next post station. We'll spend the night here and then head into the city in one go tomorrow."
----
The inn was sparsely populated, with only a few travelers sitting at the table eating in silence, barely exchanging a word.
Wen Yu led the girls to a table and ordered food from the waiter. Everyone was starving, so they didn't care about the simple or coarse food and started to wolf it down.
She didn't rush to eat. When her gaze swept across the corner, she indeed caught sight of the face she had seen on the system.
It is Liang Shuyan.
Wen Yu pretended not to know and deliberately raised her voice to discuss with her companion: "Sister Miaozhi, Doctor Cui, since we are going into the city, shouldn't we prepare the prescription in advance? If we prepare it according to the dosage in advance, it will save some trouble when we need it."
“That’s right. We can use the inn’s kitchen later.” Cui Pingchun nodded.
Fan Yizhen looked up and asked, "Are we almost there?"
Chen Miaozhi nodded, fiddling with the map: "Almost there. Let's rest today and travel at full speed tomorrow. We should be able to reach Chengya City by noon."
The diners at the next table overheard their conversation and interjected incredulously, "Good heavens, are you going to Chengya?"
"This is terrible! Going to that place is practically suicide!"
Someone shook their head and sighed: "Oh well, never mind. There are always fools who want to die. We went through so much trouble to escape, and now someone wants to jump into the fire."
They echoed each other, as if they had witnessed the biggest joke in the world.
Chen Miaozhi, however, remained calm and asked, "Did you all just escape from Chengya? What's the situation there now?"
"Oh! Don't even mention it, everyone in that alley either fled or died!" one of them sighed deeply. "All the able-bodied men in the neighbor's house collapsed, his child cried every day, and then he stopped crying altogether..."
“My child also contracted the disease and died.”
A man nearby chimed in, "Seeing that you are all frail women, whether you're visiting relatives or returning home, I'm giving you a piece of advice: don't go! You shouldn't go there!"
The moment the words "weak woman" were uttered, everyone frowned slightly.
Having lived in Luxi Village for some time, they hadn't heard such derogatory remarks about women in a long time.
Not wanting to cause any trouble, Chen Miaozhi calmly replied, "We are doctors, sent by the Prefect to Chengya County to quell the epidemic. We have a responsibility that we cannot shirk."
"A doctor?" one of them asked in surprise. "In this world, women can practice medicine? Instead of staying home and learning needlework, why do they come out and show their faces in public? Do their families even agree to that?"
He sized up the group of women, a playful expression on his face.
"Can you read and understand medical books? Be careful not to accidentally kill someone with your treatment, and then their family will come after you to settle accounts!"
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