by Ning er
“Please explain them explicitly, Empress Dowager!” Since it was Emperor Yu Qian’s verbal order, the few of them naturally wouldn’t dare to neglect.
“The severe plague situation this time, had already costed our Western Chu the lives of the more than one hundred thousand common people, the emperor had pondered about it repeatedly, and decided to shift the spring exam to an earlier date. In this way, the imperial court would spend more time understanding the plague, all of you, what do you think?” The Empress Dowager knitted her brows and told these words.
Hearing this decision, the few of them have the upsurge of huge waves in their hearts.
Yun Xuan Zhi lifted his eyes to look at the Empress Dowager, in his heart he couldn’t understand why Emperor Yu Qian will make such kind of decision.
Although it was considered as the emperor’s brilliance to consider his own common people, but to end the imperial examination in an earlier time, Qu Zhang Qing was still following behind Chen wang openly and without fear, when the time came when Chu Fei Yang haven’t returned back to the capital, it will be very likely that the situation inside the capital will become dangerous!
Particularly as to the extent of Emperor Yu Qian’s current condition, aside from the Empress Dowager and the few servants who had served Emperor Yu Qian, perhaps no one else knew about this, just in case someday when Chen wang will force the emperor to abdicate, perhaps the casualties inside the palace will be huge.
Will Emperor Yu Qian be willing to sacrifice the influential officials lives for the sake of the common people’s lives? Is this really a fair transaction?
The Empress Dowager’s words similarly gave rise to Chen wang’s alertness, if they were to say that Emperor Yu Qian was badly ill, Chen wang will be to believe in a thing or two, after all, men only ate grain crops other than rice and wheat, how can he not fell ill?
But the Empress Dowager definitely understood that, the imperial examination was something that Emperor Yu Qian had used to control his own weapons during the time when Chu Fei Yang was not around, why would they decide to shorten the time of the exam? This logic didn’t really make any sense? Or either one or the other, Emperor Yu Qian had already thought of the ways to handle him? Which was why he had deliberately fell ill, allowing the Empress Dowager to become a distraction? After all, both of them had already established their mother and son relationship for very long time, not to exclude the element of the common acts in their play.
The Empress Dowager carefully observed the slight changes in Yun Xuan Zhi and Chen wang’s eyes, then she spoke again “Since that is the case, then the metropolitan exam shall be commenced on the first day of next month. All the superiors, you must return back to make necessary preparations, not to allow anybody to see the loopholes for engaging in corrupt practices.”
“Empress Dowager, humble servant still have one more thing to report!” But Su Yuan was unwilling to give up, even if he was to carry the criminal charge for offending superiors, he would still speak out.
“Su daren’s words seemed more unusual today! You must know, the harem cannot be allowed to interfere with politics, I was just relaying the emperor’s order.” The Empress Dowager shot a cold glance at Su Yuan, almost seemed to reproach him for being rude.
“Please pass on this account book to the emperor.” Su Yuan fished out an account book from under his sleeves which he had already prepared, afterwhich he handed over to Yu gonggong who was beside her, then he retreated out of the room together with the others.
“Wangye, you see, what kind of conspiracy the Empress Dowager and the emperor was playing with?” Inside the horse carriage, Su Yuan nervously looked at Chen wang.
A while ago when he heard about the news concerning Emperor Yu Qian’s serious illness, in a short moment, Su Yuan’s heart was extremely delighted.
But, afterwards he stole a glance at Chen wang, seeing his unchanging expression, still same as before, he knew very well that perhaps there was some deeper meaning in this, Su Yuan immediately went silent while he was being reproached by the Empress Dowager.
“Su daren, it would be better for you to mind your own business!” Jiang Mu Chen just plainly glanced at Su Yuan, knowing clearly in his mind that Su Yuan didn’t eliminate the Yun brothers during the autumn exam, perhaps he wouldn’t feel satisfied merely by destroying Yun Yi Heng and Yun Yi Jie.
As long as Su Yuan wouldn’t touch his bottom line, as for Su Yuan’s actions, Chen wang will just consider them as tacit approval.
Su Yuan seeing Chen wang reproached him for making his own decision without consulting anybody, his tensed up heart had slightly loosened up.
During the evening of the twenty eighth day of the tenth lunar month, Yun Xuan Zhi received an imperial edict at his home, appointing Yun Xuan Zhi as the major examiner of the current metropolitan exam.
After the old madam heard of such strange imperial edict, she was so excited that she couldn’t speak any words, then anger that she had obtained a few days ago due to Yun Yi Heng not being the top-scorer had already dissipated more than half.
Even if she was facing Liu yiniang and Yun Yan, her face was full of smiles, then people were immediately assigned to announce the good news to the other courtyards.
But, after Yun Xuan Zhi had collected the imperial edict he turned around and returned to his own study room, causing people unable to grasp his way of thinking.
That night, Xi Lin arrived at Qi Luo Yuan, giving the letter which he just received to Yun Qian Meng.
Dismissing all the other persons, Yun Qian Meng sat on the desk and opened the letter that was sealed by wax, unfolding the fine writing paper, the atmosphere inside the page was majestic, upright and strong, the vigorous brush strokes in the letter were being read through her eyes.
Yet at this time Yun Qian Meng was not in the mood to appreciate Chu Fei Yang’s writing brush skills, she is now concentrating her attention completely as she was reading the details in the letter, in her heart she already felt puzzled as to why this letter arrived three days later than the expected date, after reading the letter, she was able to know that Chu Fei Yang had spent two days time to observe the symptoms of the disease, then he had recorded down all its possible symptoms.
Yun Qian Meng once again looked at the symptoms of the disease, seeing Chu Fei Yang had particularly indicated that: shivering, high fever, lacking strength, headache, aching of the four limbs, waist and back area, when the body temperature rapidly increases it would cause convulsions, losing of consciousness, the batches of skin will appear with rash spots, pimples, blisters, pimples containing pus, and when the common people got infected they will certainly die within fifteen to twenty days!
After reading this section, Yun Qian Meng was able to confirm that, the current plague was actually the smallpox!
And smallpox’s effect was ferocious, with the rapid growth rate, when a crowd came into contact with this, the death rate was quite rapid, and during the ancient times the medical science seemed to fall behind, without the advanced equipment and technology, people had considered the nature of this disease to be an epidemic, because once it had spread out, it can hardly be controlled, during ancient times, people who died because of smallpox were thousands upon thousands, but all of these incidents were due to lack of good procedures to keep the smallpox under control.
Yun Qian Meng closed her both eyes, her mind was carefully recalling the medical treatments that she had seen before regarding the smallpox, after a long while, she then slowly opened her eyes, immediately opening the lid of the ink stone, quickly grinding the ink stick, then taking out a piece of blank fine writing paper, listing down all the treatment methods that she could remember, afterwhich she carried out the elimination, the finally she planned to inform Chu Fei Yang the smallpox vaccination method.
Replacing another piece of writing paper, she indicated all the procedures of the smallpox vaccination method as well as the transition time for each of the procedure, the conditions that will
appear, soon after she reviewed them all over again, then made a few copies of it again, then she blow-dried the ink then put them into a few envelopes and handed them over to Xi Lin who was waiting outside.
“Quickly send them to Luo City, you must deliver them personally into his hands!” Separated by the cotton tree window, Yun Qian Meng instructed in a lowered voice.
But, Xi Lin looked at those five or six letters in his hands, his eyes couldn’t help but seemed puzzled, couldn’t understand why Yun xiaojie didn’t just put them in just one letter.
“Dispatch a few others to send them out separately, be careful to avoid being robbed! Within these letters were the prescriptions to save people, you must not commit any mistake!” Yun Qian Meng seemed to understand Xi Lin’s puzzled look, then she slowly explained.
“Not to worry, xiaojie!” Xi Lin nodded his head facing the person inside, then facing the secret protector hidden in the secret place he nodded again, afterwhich he turned around and went out of Qi Luo Yuan.
Yun Qian Meng had returned back beside her study desk, picking up the letter on the table, although she was a bit reluctant, yet she have no other choice but to burn it, she puts the letter near the candle flame, yet she discovered the lower left corner of the letter contained a small four-leaf clover which was drawn using the dark green ink, allowing Yun Qian Meng to knowingly smiled, in her mind she couldn’t refrain from thinking that, what would be Chu Fei Yang’s thoughts when he sees her own writing?
And at this time, the guest house where the numerous lower-income class exam candidates were residing was caught on fire due to unknown reason, and due to its occurrence in the dead of the night no one was able to detect it, numerous exam candidates who were already resting at the third and fourth floor weren’t able to escape from the guest house, and they were trapped inside and burned alive!
Only those exam candidates who were living at the first and second floor were able to escape, but, this time the guest houses within the capital were already fully booked, in addition to those exam candidates who were mostly from foreign land, under their fear of getting infected by the plague, all the guest houses refused to offer shelter to these exam candidates.
The constant changes in the human emotions, suddenly these lower-income class exam candidates who have their hearts filled with ambition, eventually have the feeling of being discouraged for the very first time.
At this time, having heard of the news, Chen wang came rushing by commanding the city defense troops to extinguish the fire, looking at these exam candidates who were full of ambitions yet didn’t have the chance to put them into use, Chen wang issued an order to let them temporarily stay at Chen wangfu, until the end of the imperial examinations.
For a moment, Chen wang’s actions had gained favorable impression from the low-income class exam candidates, only Han Che who was standing in the corner of the street, was watching everything before his eyes with his clear and bright eyes.
Chapter 116: Part 1 Who was the Arsonist that Burnt the Exam Candidates to Their Deaths? | Chu Wang Fei
All night long, all sorts of noisy sounds filled the streets; sounds of firefighting, people crying for help and wailing, lingered on incessantly.
At this time, when the physicians from Rong Shan Tang heard the news, they rushed over to help the injured scholars by dressing their wounds. Rong Yun He was standing across the restaurant that was facing the guest house, quietly watching everything unfold in front of him. His brows could not help but crease, in his mind he thought that tonight’s incident was really very fishy.
Only until the City Defense troops had finally successfully extinguished the huge fire in the second half of the night did the sound of people crying gradually lower down. Chen Wang himself had unexpectedly come to resolve this. The poor and humble scholars who had just been frightened were now extremely pleasantly surprised.
They had never expected that, this dreadful huge fire, would have resulted into an opportunity that only came once in a hundred years.
For them, not to mention that during ordinary days they would not have been able to see marquis or ministers, even the chance encounters with the government officials in the government office were rare enough, yet now they finally met their luck after suffering through a disaster to be able to reside inside the Chen Wang such luck could be regarded as a blessing they had earned from their previous lives, hence within their hearts they were extremely grateful towards Chen Wang who had provided help in their hour of need, as if they wanted to offer their lives in sacrifice, willing to devote themselves until their last breathe., Everyone’s face was brimming with cheerfulness as they followed behind Chen Wang’s saddle horse, their hearts surging with good moods as they walked towards Chen Wangu, from time to time they would whisper to one another’s ear to express their gratitude.
Jiang Mu Chen could hear the whispers behind him from his horse, annoyance flashed across his eyes. He couldn’t help turning his gaze up ahead, then he caught sight of a dark-blue figure standing around the corner of a gloomy street, two extremely dazzling eyes flickered in the dark like high quality obsidian, making people feel that they finally found the hidden treasure.
However those pair of eyes a contained strong mocking and disdainful gaze, which gave rise to Jiang Mu Chen’s curiosity. In a lowered voice, he called out for Ning Feng, instructing him to lead the group of scholars ahead to Chen Wang Fu, then he himself turned the horse carriage around, urging it to run towards the dark blue figure. Standing on the high ground, he stared down coldly at the young man who was standing in the dark.
Although the long robe that this young man was wearing looked somewhat tattered and filthy face appeared to be a bit pale, but his expression was calm and composed, unlike the other scholars whose faces had gone pale and frantic, in particular, that calm expression in his eyes made Jiang Mu Chen’s heart to have a whole new level of respect for this young man in front of him.
Carefully examining the facial appearance and expression of the young man, Jiang Mu Chen could not help but thought of that exam candidate he had seen in front of the doorway of Gong Yuan more than twenty days ago. Both appearance and physique of these two persons were practically identical, it was very likely that they were actually the same person.
Watching the young man before him showing his slightly sorry figure, Jiang Mu Chen questioned in a deep voice, “What is your name? Are you also an exam candidate staying inside that guest house?”
“Han Che is here to see Wang Ye, indeed I am an exam candidate staying in that guest house.” Hearing Chen Wang’s interrogation, Han Che responded evenly.
Hearing the young man stating his name, Jiang Mu Chen’s both eyes slightly tensed up. No wonder this young man’s expression was different from the others’, as it turned out, he was actually the top-scorer for this year autumn examination for the literary competition, sure enough he had an aura that stood out among all the others.
While other people were bursting with joy as they learned that they would be able to stay inside the Chen Wangu, yet he was the only person who appeared unexcited while standing in one corner. His face did not give any sign of joyfulness, even his eyes he looked not the slightest bit pleased. The young man merely standing in a corner with a face like tranquil water, with a pair of bright eyes, and with a clear mind he was watching all the things that had occurred before his eyes.
With such a talented person, it had attracted Chen Wang’s intention to recruit this man, then he slowly spoke, “Top scorer Han, why did you just stand here motionless? Didn’t you hear what I said a while ago?”
Having heard what was said, Han Che’s both eyes exposed a shallow smile, afterwhich he spoke in a clear voice, “Thanks a lot for your good intention, Wangye! But this lowly peasant fears that it might cause inconvenience for Wangye.”
“Presumptuous! How could you talk to Wangye like that? Who do you think you are? You are behaving rudely in front of Wangye, do you like to be accused for being disrespec
tful?” This time, the imperial guard standing behind Chen Wang scolded him.
Confronted by the booming voice of the imperial guard scolding him, Han Che was not in the slightest degree scared, instead he showed a bit of smiling expression as he looked at the imperial guard, the hard-to-detect sneering expression was concealed deeply within his eyes, but before he could speak further, Chen Wang’s cold voice echoed beside his ears, “Top-scorer Han, this is looking down upon benwang, you have the intention to oppose Chen Wang fu?”
Allthough Chen Wang’s voice was not that loud, but this light rhetorical question was full of austerity and severity, causing that imperial guard who had angrily rebuked Han Che to feel the temperature surrounding his whole body to be ice-cold. But when he looked at Han Che, he discovered that the opposing party was still wearing an indomitable shallow smile, but his words carried an obvious transformation: “This peasant wouldn’t dare! Wange’s magnanimity, this lowly peasant would naturally not dare go against Wangye’s great kindness.”
Finished speaking, Han Che cupped his hands then saluted facing Chen Wang, afterwhich he lifted his feet following behind the queue which had already left by far.
Jiang Mu Chen sat on the horseback, half narrowing his both eyes as he stared at Han Che’s figure. After a long while, he regained back his focus, immediately looked at Rong Yun He who was standing in a distant place.
Tonight, Rong Yun He was wearing a brocade long white robe with dark patterns, a head full of silver long hairs seemed more and more dazzling under the moonlight, but his figure was tall, back was straightened up, with moral integrity that contained his uniquely pure, honest, lofty, and unyielding character, yet it only made Chen Wang slightly wrinkled his brows for having an impression that he had encountered two persons with similar personality traits at the span of one single night, making his heart felt somehow uncomfortable.