Kang Yun soon learned the news and expressed willingness to provide grain, along with offering medicine and distributing gruel to the people.
Chen Xi showered him with flattery once again.
Kang Yun was more experienced than Qiu Tai; though the praise made him a bit smug, he still managed to keep his composure.
Qiu Tai acted swiftly. Based on the list Chen Xi gave him, he procured the medicinal herbs and had them delivered to Fengge Pavilion.
Time was life; there was no room for delay.
Chen Xi led his own people in brewing the medicine according to the prescription and went outside the city that very afternoon to administer it to the people.
Regardless of whether it was the First Prince, Qiu Tai, or others, they all tacitly agreed that Fengge Pavilion would provide both the prescription and the manpower.
It was a plague!
They didn’t want to get involved, afraid of being infected.
On the northern city watchtower, Hua Yuanyi looked helplessly at his daughter as she climbed up: “This is the watchtower—women shouldn’t be here, or people will gossip again.”
“That’s why I’m not wearing a dress,” Hua Ruo replied, dressed in soldier’s garb with her hair tied up in a male style.
Hua Yuanyi choked on his words. Even though she wasn’t in a dress, every soldier here knew who she was.
This disguise only fooled ordinary folk.
He didn’t mind it much, but the First Prince and some older ministers were quite averse to the idea, believing it unlucky for women to be on the watchtower.
Hua Ruo looked outside the city. Chen Xi and Muning were dispensing medicine to the people with their team. They wore strange masks and long-sleeved, cuffed trousers—fully armed for protection.
“I heard it was Fengge Pavilion that proposed going outside the city to give out medicine, and they also provided the prescription?” she asked, her voice calm.
Although the medicine distribution was done under the First Prince’s banner, anyone with insider knowledge knew the First Prince had merely nodded his approval.
Fengge Pavilion provided the prescription and the labor force, the Qiu family supplied the herbs, and the Kang family provided the grain.
She understood clearly: if the plague were truly controlled, the credit would inevitably go to the First Prince.
If the plague weren’t controlled or even worsened, Fengge Pavilion would inevitably take the blame, for they were outsiders.
And as outsiders with glass and more advanced papermaking techniques, anyone would want a piece of such a lucrative enterprise, the First Prince included.
Crucially, Fengge Pavilion had no solid foothold in Sizhou—one wrong step and they could be utterly doomed.
But, strangely, they still stepped forward. She couldn’t fathom why.
“That’s right,” Hua Yuanyi said, his gaze also fixed on the scene outside the city.
The common folk knelt and kowtowed to the Fengge Pavilion people distributing medicine. Shopkeeper Chen and the others quickly went to help them up.
It was too far to hear what was being said, but soon the people stood up, wiped their tears, and lined up to receive the medicinal broth.
Hua Yuanyi then looked further off, where preparations were underway to build structures—foundations were being dug, suggesting they planned to stay for a while.
But then again, it made sense. This was a plague. Those in contact with the plague victims couldn’t return to the city for the time being.
Chen Xi and his team could set up tents, but brewing medicine and cooking gruel for so many people was no small feat. At the very least, they’d need a kitchen, so they might as well build places to rest as well.
Hua Ruo frowned slightly: “I’ve never heard of any specific cure for the plague. If it’s really effective, the people might be saved.”
Hua Yuanyi’s eyes grew deep: “Whether it’s effective or not, the people will still find solace.”
All these people had no other options and had become refugees, enduring countless hardships and traveling great distances to what they thought was a safe place.
Yet here they were, unable even to enter the city. The Sizhou government had no means to settle them either. In Sizhou, they remained refugees—unwelcome, unsettled, and nationless.
Worse still, they had caught the plague.
And Jiuan City wouldn’t even allow them within a hundred zhang of the city walls.
They had only one path left: death!
Just as they were in agony, consumed by despair, a group appeared like gods descending from heaven, risking infection to administer medicine and treat the epidemic.
For that alone—whether the medicine worked or not—the people would only feel gratitude and, beyond that, warmth.
Hua Ruo pressed her lips together and said after a long pause, “We should also donate some grain.”
Hua Yuanyi gave a soft hum: “Alright.”
He watched from afar as Fengge Pavilion’s people, disregarding their own safety, came into close contact with the infected and didn’t disdain the refugees’ filth, his expression growing complex.
After a long while, he sighed: “Life is all suffering.”
Two days passed in the blink of an eye. Jiang Jin saw that Chunrong County and Shanguan County had mostly stabilized, and the matters needing attention were more or less settled. So she prepared to return to Gefeng.
She hadn’t been back to Gefeng since the attack on Shanguan County, now over half a month ago.
Luo Qingci and Yao Ji remained in Shanguan County, while most others followed her back to Gefeng.
But just as she reached Gefeng, she saw from afar a crowd of refugees standing before the southern gate, speaking with Yun Yu on the watchtower.
Yun Yu spotted her first and quickly called out a warning: “Lord, these people are infected with the plague—keep your distance.”
Jiang Jin tugged on her reins and halted, looking at these people supposedly afflicted with the plague.
There were about two thousand of them, with sallow faces and thin frames.
Many had flushed faces and listless expressions, and some lay on the ground, barely conscious.
The refugees turned to look at Jiang Jin following Yun Yu’s gaze.
Seeing a young woman, they were momentarily stunned.
They had just heard the Gefeng garrison commander address her as ‘Lord’—apparently, the Lord of Gefeng was a woman, and so young.
Without much hesitation, the men knelt before Jiang Jin with a thud, kowtowing as they spoke hoarsely: “We are people from Ze’a Prefecture. Our families were driven out because some were infected with the plague.”
“The Quzhao people told us that Gefeng had medicine for the plague, so we came. There are over two thousand of us in total, and some among us are infected.”
He grew sorrowful: “About half of us couldn’t make it to Gefeng. They all... fell ill.”
Ze’a Prefecture wasn’t too far from Gefeng—just a few days’ walk—but for the sick, it was like crossing an insurmountable chasm.
The others knelt too, kowtowing to Jiang Jin, but they couldn’t speak, only whimpering in fear and despair.
The man dared not lift his head to look at Jiang Jin. Beside him lay his unconscious niece, his last remaining kin.
He kowtowed again and shouted hoarsely, “We know the plague is hard to cure. If you have no medicine, we will leave at once.”
Jiang Jin frowned: “You say the Quzhao people sent you to our Gefeng?”
The man nodded and briefly recounted how Ze’a Prefecture’s soldiers had driven them to ‘attack’ the Quzhao army, followed by the standoff between the two forces, and how the Quzhao army had ordered them to go to Gefeng.
Dong Si was almost amused by the sheer audacity: “So this is how the Ze’a Prefecture elite clans behave—where is their dignity?”
He could understand what the Quzhao people did, as they were enemies of a different tribe, facing life-or-death struggle.
But for the Ze’a Prefecture clans to act like this—he couldn’t approve. Their schemes were so vile it was sickening.
Xia Chanyi snorted coldly: “Despicable scoundrels.”
Zhou Sui’s expression also turned cold.
Jiang Jin showed no emotion outwardly, but inwardly she sneered as well: what a well-played scheme it was. Unfortunately for them, she indeed had the medicine, and most of these people were strong laborers.
She looked at the man, noting that they had kept a good distance from the city walls, clearly trying to isolate themselves, and had honestly disclosed their condition.
For them to act with such integrity in the face of death was truly admirable.
