Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 101: Strange Epidemic

For the next two days after leaving Silver Water Town, Anji learned how to set up an outdoor camp. Her brother was mostly useless when it came to camping. Gu Ying did most of the work, from gathering wood for a fire to fishing. He only offered to do night watch duty so Gu Ying could have a few hours of rest. Even Anji was more knowledgeable than her brother when it came to cooking and laundry. Thankfully, they did not need to spend much time setting up a tent because they could sleep in the carriage.

"I didn’t know carriages could be converted into beds," Anji mused when Mingshen removed a mechanism below the bench and opened the door at the back of the carriage so it could lay flat down.

Smirking, Mingshen did not tell his sister how the carriage had more than two doors. In case of any emergencies, the top part of the carriage roof would cave in, and the floorboard on the bottom of the carriage would open like a trapdoor if he reached for the hidden lever near Anji’s seat. It was not the usual carriage as this was designed by him for the Gentleman Club’s use.

"I’ll feed the horses," he patted his sister on the head and left to lead the horses to a water hole so they could drink and graze.

Unlike her brother and Gu Ying, Anji knew little about those gentle creatures. They were very tall, and even their breathing sometimes scared her, even though they were said to be gentle animals.

Camping was fun. Anji enjoyed the cool breeze and stargazing. For the two nights they spent outdoors, she would stay up late and learn more about astrology from her older brother until she fell asleep. Although Anji thought having hot water for baths was nice compared to the cold river water, she could understand why her father enjoyed sleeping outdoors during his younger days as a pugilist adventurer.

On the third day, they finally arrived at a small village. It was not a settlement marked out on their travel map, so Gu Ying went ahead to scout while Mingshen took over the horse reins in the driver’s seat while Anji remained inside.

After what felt like an hour, Gu Ying finally returned. However, her expression was grave. Anji thought the villagers were not welcoming of outsiders. After all, not everyone was kind and friendly. She had been taught that much by her mother and heard many stories of betrayal from Gu Ying and Lizi. Even Doctor He had a tragic background before he accepted her father’s offer to join the Celestial Dragon Sect. Although Anji had yet to meet any truly nasty people, she was not naive enough to think the world was full of only good people. The demonic cult was the enemy of all righteous cultivators. They were the people her parents were working hard to take down alongside the leaders of the Rainbow Alliance.

"What did they say?" Mingshen asked when Gu Ying returned and took back the horse reins.

Shaking her head, the Manchurian bodyguard reported that the villagers weren’t thrilled to receive any guests at the moment.

"There is a disease spreading that affects all the children in the village. When they heard about Anji, they advised us to leave immediately."

Hearing there was an epidemic, Anji’s medical heart shook. How could she leave when there were people suffering?

"Gu Ying, what are the symptoms? When did this illness spread? How are the children now?"

Seeing how worked up his younger sister was, Mingshen knew there was no stopping her now. He might not be around to witness Anji’s growth as a herbalist. However, if Anji was learning from Doctor He, she must also have picked up his stubborn selflessness. Even at the cost of her health and safety, Anji would not be able to look the other way if she knew people were suffering. It was the whole reason why she wanted to study medicine. Who was he to stop her?

Trained to assist Anji as a medical assistant, Gu Ying relayed how the children all suffered from high fever and tummy aches. The most concerning part was how they were vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea. Moreover, the children were in a constant state of thirst even though many looked close to skeletons.

After asking a few more questions, Anji formulated a plan in her head. A few adults also suffered similar symptoms. However, the adults were in a better state than the children. Not to mention, all the children had gotten the disease at a similar time.

"It’s not well water," she concluded. "The adults boil the well water before drinking. It’s likely to be cholera, but I cannot be sure until I see it myself."

Concerned that Anji might also become affected by the disease, Mingshen was stern and refused to allow Anji any closer to the village. Gu Ying agreed with the young master and offered to be the messenger between them and the villagers. freewēbnoveℓ.com

Unable to convince her guardians to let her make a diagnosis in person, Anji could only relent. Cholera was not a fearful disease. However, the speed of its spread and tremendous loss of water could lead to death without timely intervention. The most important thing was to understand where the source of the disease was and avoid it completely.

"How long would it take to cure cholera if it is confirmed?" Mingshen asked with worry. His plans to show Anji more of the world before she becomes isolated from it might be ruined if his sister insisted on staying until the disease was contained and cured.

"About a week," Anji replied. "However, I only need two days to know if these villagers will get better. The treatment is fairly simple. However, they need to procure a large quantity of herbs from a bigger town."

That was not a problem. With his connections, Mingshen could get any required herbs delivered within a day from Silver Water Town. When he learned that no acupuncture was required to treat cholera, he sighed with relief. There was no need for Anji to involve herself too deeply with passing strangers.

It took Gu Ying a while to finish the investigations. According to the villagers, the symptoms started a few days ago after a wandering merchant sold them candied haw. Most of the children ate the candies, and some of the teenage girls did. Soon after, they started falling sick. The village doctor was doing whatever he could, but every medicine concoction he brewed was soon vomited.

Frowning, Anji demanded to know what the concoction was. As if already knowing what her young mistress was going to say in advance, Gu Ying provided a handwritten prescription that the village doctor had given one of the patient’s parents.

"Do the children who suffer from this disease complain about nausea when vomiting? What is the colour of their stool?"

Unable to answer such questions, Gu Ying excused herself and decided to invite the village doctor over to talk to Anji directly. His nine herb diagnosis for cholera and acupuncture treatment should have worked. There was a high possibility this was a misdiagnosed case, but Anji had to confirm a few more points.

After twenty minutes, the frightened village doctor hurried over with Gu Ying walking behind him. The sight of a sword-wielding martial artist escorting what appeared to be two rich children passing by their village made him nervous. With such a severe epidemic, he might lose more than just his job for failing to cure the patients.

Once he arrived at the carriage, the village doctor immediately dropped to his knees in cold sweat and begged for forgiveness.

"I have lived my whole life humbly and dedicating my time to the well-being of the villagers. I’m sorry for being unskilled and unable to contain the spread of this disease!"

Mingshen raised a brow and opened his paper fan to hide his mouth behind it. Judging from the difference in the clothing the village doctor wore compared to the villagers, there was something more to this. The man was mostly lying about living humbly. There might be a possibility he was in cahoots with the candy merchant in order to make even more money from these poor villagers.

Gu Ying remained silent behind the village doctor. However, she read the coldness in Mingshen’s eyes and immediately decided to put more pressure on the village doctor. She rested one hand on the hilt of her sword and glared at him when he peeked at her from the side.

Anji remained safely inside the carriage, blocking the entrance from outside with her older brother’s body. She had no idea why this village doctor was terrified when she only wanted to know more. However, something about him, especially how shifty his eyes were, gave her a churning feeling in her stomach. The man was nervous for more unknown reasons. Could it be that he knew more about the strange epidemic than he told the villagers?