It is highly unusual that all three people fell ill at the same time and had similar symptoms.
The physician couldn't find any signs of poisoning; the symptoms resembled a cold, but how could three children catch a cold at the same time?
Ye Zhen sensed something was wrong and moved the three of them to a different place to isolate them from the others, while he asked the physician to find a way to reduce their fever.
Fortunately, the physician was truly skilled and his fever subsided for all three, and Sui Sui regained consciousness.
Before Ye Zhen could catch his breath, the three of them developed fevers again in the middle of the night, and rashes began to appear on their bodies. The physician was so shocked when he saw them that he backed away repeatedly.
"Smallpox! Young Madam, this looks like smallpox."
Smallpox is an epidemic disease. Before the onset of the disease, patients usually experience fever, headache, general weakness, and even nausea and vomiting, so it is often treated as a common cold.
After developing a fever, red rashes will appear on the patient's body, which will gradually turn into pustules.
This is a serious illness, and there is currently no way to completely cure it in Da Yuan.
Worried that Ye Zhen might not understand its importance, the physician covered his mouth and nose as he explained.
"Decades ago, when I was still a child, the Great Abyss erupted once, and almost all the children around me who were my age died, as did many adults."
It was only because my grandfather led the family to hide in the deep mountains in time, isolating them from the world, that we escaped this calamity.
"Young Madam, this disease is highly contagious. I don't know how these three children contracted it, but I urge you to seal off the mansion immediately."
Once it spreads in the capital, I'm afraid even the imperial palace won't be spared in the end.
At that time, the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion will become the source of disaster, and the entire family will be unable to survive.
Ye Zhen felt a chill run through his body. "Can you make a diagnosis?"
The physician nodded. "I decided to study medicine because of an experience I had in my childhood, and I have learned a lot about related matters over the years."
"Young mistress, I am ninety percent certain that this is smallpox."
"How confident are you in your ability to cure him?"
The physician shook his head in despair, "I have no confidence."
After studying medicine, he never encountered a patient with smallpox again, "but it's worth a try."
Ye Zhen breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Then please do your best to treat him. Please let me know what medicinal herbs he needs."
The physician had already been in contact with the three children and there was no possibility of him leaving the manor. In addition, he was over sixty years old and had studied for half his life. He also wanted to take a chance and told Ye Zhen everything he needed.
Ye Zhen carefully noted it down, tied her face scarf, and left the children's yard.
His hands, hidden under his sleeves, were clenched into fists.
The three children haven't left the mansion for the past few days, so how could they have contracted smallpox?
She immediately closed the gates of the mansion, citing the old lady's poor health and her need to attend to her, and refused visitors. No one in the mansion was allowed to go out either.
Replace the gatekeeper with armed guards to keep a close watch on the gate.
Ye Zhen had a gut feeling that this matter was related to the old lady, but despite her best efforts to guard against it, she never expected that the other party would use such an inhumane method.
Therefore, Ye Zhen first gave the old lady the pretext of being sick, which was both to isolate the Marquis's mansion from other people and to confine the old lady to the mansion.
If this plague is indeed the work of the old lady, then let her live and die with the Marquis's mansion; she will not escape.
He then ordered people to check each of the remaining people in the household to see if there were any others who had fallen ill like Chaolu and the others. If so, they were to be gathered together for treatment...
Ye Zhen acted swiftly and decisively, making various arrangements before personally going to the Ink Academy.
She wanted to ask the people from the Mo Academy to go out and purchase more medicinal herbs, food, and other necessities for survival to bring into the mansion.
The Mo Academy has its own side gate for entry and exit. In the entire Zhongyong Marquis's mansion, the only people who have had no direct or indirect contact with the three children in the past few days are the guards of the Mo Academy.
It is very unlikely that they will carry the epidemic out of the country.
Ye Zhen also wanted to ask Xie Tingzhou if he had any solutions for smallpox.
But Xie Tingzhou wasn't there.
Upon learning of the matter, Fu Guang's expression turned grave. "Young Madam, the master left the capital the day before yesterday and will likely return in three or four days."
I will write to him; please tell me the list of needed supplies first, and I will immediately have someone procure the medicines.
Ye Zhen stood outside the Mo Academy, at a safe distance from him, and relayed the purchase information to him.
Logically, she shouldn't have moved around freely since she had been in contact with the children, but the Marquis's residence needed her to take charge.
Ye Zhen was also worried that the servants would notice something amiss later and cause trouble.
In particular, there's a troublesome old lady.
Fu Guang wrote everything down and immediately gave instructions, telling him, "Don't cause any big commotion, and stockpile as much as possible."
Seeing that he had no intention of leaving, Ye Zhen kindly reminded him, "Fu Guang, the guards of the Mo Academy can withdraw from the Marquis's residence in time. After the medicine and food are bought, they can be sent in directly from outside the wall. There is no need for people to enter the residence again."
This is indeed a rational approach.
But Fu Guang shook his head, "Young Madam, if we abandon you and the Marquis's mansion, I'm afraid the Marquis and the Heir Apparent will not forgive us when they return."
"But no one can predict how far this epidemic will develop."
Ye Zhen pondered for a moment, "Fu Guang, there is another reason why I made this suggestion. The Marquis's residence needs support outside, and we can't all be trapped here."
If this goes on for too long, making up for lost living conditions will become a problem. Staying secluded for too long will inevitably arouse suspicion, so she needs to know what's going on outside in order to respond accordingly.
After a moment's thought, Fu Guang finally adopted a compromise: he withdrew half of his men from the mansion, while the other half stayed behind with him.
Fu Guang also felt that the smallpox outbreak was strange.
He understood Ye Zhen's place in Xie Tingzhou's heart even more clearly. With the young master absent, he had to protect the young mistress on the young master's behalf.
Seeing his determination, Ye Zhen didn't have time to say anything more before a guard rushed over.
"Young Madam, the Old Madam insists on leaving the manor, and we are afraid we cannot stop her."
At the entrance of the government office.
The old lady sternly shouted at the guards at the gate, "You blind bastards, you dare to stop me!"
"I have an appointment with Abbess Huikong at Shuiyue Nunnery. If you dare to delay my time again, I will sell you all off one by one."
When Ye Zhen gave the order, he instructed that the old lady must not be allowed to go out.
Now that Ye Zhen is in charge, the guards dare not release anyone without his permission.
The old lady was furious.
She had previously flattered the Marquis of Zhongyong and humbled herself to get close to Ye Zhen, all to make the servants in the Marquis's mansion believe that the Marquis of Zhongyong and Ye Zhen still respected her and that she could still have the final say in the mansion.
To her surprise, the guards didn't take her seriously at all.
Fortunately, Fu Jiang had assured her that this was not real smallpox, but it looked like smallpox during the acute phase, and that the fever would subside and she would recover after the blisters appeared.
Otherwise, wouldn't she also be in danger if she were trapped in the Marquis's mansion?
Their purpose in doing this was to make the people in the manor believe that it was smallpox, so that she could then use this to blame steward Ye Zhen for his incompetence in allowing the children to bring smallpox into the manor.
With Xie Bang not at home and Ye Zhen making such a grave mistake, and Xie Tingzhou being the grandson, only the old lady herself could step in to take charge.
Once she regains control of the Marquis's mansion, she will have a renowned doctor confirm that it is not smallpox, and the children will recover. The crisis in the Marquis's mansion will be resolved, but she will not hand over the management of the household to Ye Zhen again.
Things went smoothly until the children fell ill. As Ye Zhen and Fu Jiang had predicted, they thought it was smallpox and were terrified, so they quickly tried to suppress the news.
How could she let Ye Zhen have his way? She had to make a scene.
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