I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 230 - 198: The Hungry Xia Chan
After the matter ended, the room was filled with suppressed crying and coughing.
He Buning let Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu inspect again, only to find that an epidemic was spreading in the village, it was smallpox.
The village chief, Yang Jisheng, knelt before He Buning, kowtowing continuously. He didn’t dare say that once an epidemic broke out, most government officers would seal off the village, leaving them to their fate, and in worse cases, to prevent the appearance of Plague Ghosts, they would directly kill everyone and set the village on fire.
Smallpox had just begun to spread in the village, and currently, not many were infected.
Before Sang Que could suggest modern treatments, He Buning instructed Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu to isolate those who were sick, explaining the method in a completely modern way.
Then He Buning asked Sang Que if he had been inoculated with cowpox, and only then did Sang Que realize that the Deceit Dynasty already had a method of cowpox inoculation to prevent smallpox. He didn’t know if it was passed down from modern times or was the wisdom of the people of the Deceit Dynasty.
Sang Que nodded, Xia Chan was one of the Evil People and was not afraid of these things. He Buning and Xiao Wu had been inoculated with cowpox in Shengjing when they were young, and Xiao Liu received the inoculation arranged by He Buning after joining the Evil Suppression Bureau under him.
Although the Deceit Dynasty had this method, not everyone could be inoculated. The suffering ones were still the poor and marginalized common folk.
The people of Meishu Village were lacking clothes and food, and with the cold winter season, with smallpox in the village, they wouldn’t survive until the next spring no matter what.
Faced with this situation, He Buning felt quite melancholic, there wasn’t much he could do to help.
After some deliberation, He Buning wrote a letter, stamped it with his official seal, and handed it to Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu.
"You two take separate routes, first go to the two nearest postal stations and have them transport the station’s grain stock and extra winter bedding over."
Xiao Liu looked troubled, "Boss, this is smallpox, eating well alone won’t cure it."
Xiao Wu tugged at Xiao Liu, "Got it, we will first go to transport grain, and you..."
Xiao Wu originally wanted to tell He Buning to be careful alone, but suddenly saw Sang Que and Xia Chan nearby, remembered the scene where Sang Que and Xia Chan dealt with the Sickness Ghost together earlier, and realized that he and Xiao Liu were the weakest among everyone, so he swallowed his words.
The two left overnight, the village chief and villagers, upon hearing He Buning’s words, knelt and kowtowed to thank He Buning for sparing them.
The village chief was literate, so He Buning wrote down the methods to deal with smallpox one by one and handed them to the village chief, asking him to strictly isolate the villagers, not to mix utensils when eating, and to cover their mouth and nose when contacting patients, among other things.
It was late at night, and the villagers dared not go out, so the village chief had those not yet infected help separate people temporarily using a few rooms of the private school.
While writing the prescription, He Buning paused; you simply couldn’t buy medicinal materials nearby, and in winter it was easy for cold-related illnesses to break out, leading to a shortage of many medicinal materials. Even if you had money, you might not be able to get them.
Seeing this, Sang Que spoke up, "You write it down, I have a way to get the medicinal materials."
He Buning looked up at Sang Que, his eyes filled with inquiry, "What’s your background, exactly? If I’m not mistaken, the crossbow arrows used in your hand crossbow have arrowheads made of Ten Victory Stone, and your hand crossbow is more refined and powerful than the ones used in the military."
For the endlessly capable Sang Que, she didn’t need to think before responding.
"If you investigate, you should find that not many people in Dongyang County know me. I left Dongyang County to travel at a young age. I have a master, but I can’t say much about him. I can ask him to solve the medicinal material issue, and the hand crossbow is made by my junior sister. The arrowheads are indeed from Ten Victory Stone. I used four just now, and I’m unsure if the Evil Suppression Bureau can make up for my loss."
Sang Que’s subtext was clear: don’t ask, and if you do, reimburse me for the crossbow arrows first.
Their eyes met, and Sang Que remained utterly fearless, standing her ground, leaving He Buning unable to find any flaw.
"Next time you instantly teleport, bring me along, so you can save your crossbow arrows."
"I can’t pull you along, you’re wary of me." Sang Que said bluntly.
Indeed, she couldn’t pull him along; firstly, He Buning’s level was higher than hers, and secondly, He Buning never fully relaxed when she was around, instinctively resisting when she tried to use the Evil Mist to teleport him, which would cause the teleportation to fail.
Sang Que’s bluntness about the matter left He Buning a bit embarrassed, not knowing how to continue the conversation. He thought to himself how she managed to navigate the bureaucracy with such straightforwardness, just like Cui Cheng, stubborn as a mule.
He Buning didn’t continue Sang Que’s line of conversation, instead lowered his head and began writing the prescription. Ten Victory Stone was a Holy Object of the Buddhist Sect and was controlled by them; the Evil Suppression Bureau received a fixed quota every year, and there were no extras for Sang Que.
As for Sang Que’s master and junior sister, as long as Sang Que remained on the Evil Suppression Bureau’s side, He Buning wouldn’t investigate further. There were quite a few hidden experts in the world; it was wise not to offend them unless necessary.
Sang Que had connections, and for now, that was beneficial to the Evil Suppression Bureau.
He Buning swiftly jotted down the prescription and the required quantities, his handwriting bold and vigorous, akin to iron and silver hooks. Sang Que felt a tinge of inferiority upon seeing it.
Fortunately, the medicinal herbs on the prescription had the same names as modern ones: plantain, Oldenlandia, crabgrass, dandelion, and Isatis root—easy enough to ask her mother to buy.
The money was considered on her tab for now; she would repay her mother after she earned it.
After carefully keeping the prescription, Sang Que left the private school alone; He Buning didn’t follow nor ask how she’d contact her master. Everyone had secrets; He Buning, too, concealed his true origins. Mutual respect meant not probing into each other’s secrets.
Deep in the quiet night, the moonlight was dim, casting a desolate feel over the entire village. A cold wind blew against the white lanterns under the eaves of several houses, with occasional Wandering Soul silhouettes flashing by.
Xuan Yu concealed himself in the dark, his pair of emerald-green cat eyes scanning the surroundings. The lantern inside the donkey cart cast a shadow on the window, showing a jaw wide open, crazily gnawing at something, accompanied by snake-like writhing shadows, spreading around.
Sang Que abruptly pulled open the small door of the carriage, and Xia Chan turned her head fiercely, clutching a cold and hard roasted chicken, her face smeared with grease, surrounded by bits of food debris, with half of all the food in the cart devoured by her.
Her long black hair draped and writhed, growing from her shoulders to her chest.
"Sister, Little Chan is so hungry, why is Little Chan still hungry after eating so much?"
Xia Chan pleaded pitifully, sniffled, and continued to gnaw at the cold and hard roasted chicken.
Just earlier, Xia Chan had restrained the Sickness Ghost, consuming most of her hair. While at the private school, seeing the small, thin children, all she could picture in her mind was images of freshly roasted, oil-dripping chicken, with its enticing aroma tempting her, provoking a strong urge to grab a few kids and devour them.
But Xia Chan remembered her mother’s words, she must never eat humans, no matter how hungry or uncomfortable. Xia Chan could only run back to the donkey cart alone, frantically eating all the food.
As she ate, Xia Chan began to cry, "Little Chan is so hungry, Little Chan can’t eat enough..."
Sang Que entered the carriage, rubbed Xia Chan’s head, and hugged her, "It’s alright, it’s alright, sister will figure something out. Watch over the donkey cart, don’t let anyone approach, especially He Buning, I’ll go find you something to eat."
Using the carriage door, Sang Que returned to her home and, after discussing the medicinal materials with her mother, vanished into the night using the Evil Mist to hide her presence, heading to a slaughterhouse in Yu City.
She brought a wad of cash from home, but inexplicably lost half on the way, leaving her with just over two thousand dollars to place at the slaughterhouse. She hadn’t touched the money with her hands and carefully cleaned it, leaving no fingerprints or anything behind.
At most, the people at the slaughterhouse might think it was haunted.
Avoiding the workers inside, Sang Que procured two buckets of pig’s blood and half a freshly slaughtered pig carcass for Xia Chan, bringing them back to the Deceit Dynasty.
Seeing the blood and raw meat Sang Que brought back, Xia Chan’s hair almost instinctively reached out to it, but she tightly gripped her hair with her hand.
"Sister, can Little Chan really eat this? Wouldn’t Little Chan turn bad by eating it?"
Sang Que suddenly felt a pang of compassion for Xia Chan and sincerely said, "Go ahead and eat. This is pig’s blood and pig meat, not human. Little Chan is a good child; you can eat it in peace."
Upon hearing this, Xia Chan let go of her hair, allowing it to instinctively dive into the pig’s blood and drink deeply. As the fresh blood was absorbed, Xia Chan’s hair rapidly grew. The new strands wrapped around the pig meat, writhing on it like living creatures, slowly devouring the pig meat.
At this moment, Xia Chan’s hunger was finally alleviated.
