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Chapter 47 - Another Trouble Came
Chapter 47 - Another Trouble Came
Chapter 47 Another Trouble Came
“The illness has not been determined yet. You should not make any rumor about it!”
The young medical assistant was terrified by Su Muge, and he nodded with obedience.
“Ask Adviser Li to clean out several quiet rooms and arrange the patients according to their ages and genders.”
“Yes.”
Now it was certain that the general medicine would become the nutritious agent for those worms. Therefore, Su Muge hadn’t written any prescription to these people.
When she came out, Xia Houmo had gone.
“Adviser Li, go and find out whether there is anything in common among those people who have the disease.”
Adviser Li remained speechless for a while and scratched his head in confusion while watching the figure of Su Muge leaving. “Why did Lord Xia and Lord Su say the same thing? Can there be any connection between those who got sick?”
After thinking, Adviser Li sent people to investigate it immediately to avoid wasting any time.
The investigation did make progress, and Adviser Li was surprised.
All the refugees who had the same disease were from Dawang village!
Adviser Li listened to the reports from his men with a dark and gloomy face. This Dawang village had left him with a great impression!
The County Magistrate had been washed away by flood when he was visiting Dawang village!
Was it a coincidence or there was something else? Adviser Li dared not to wait any longer and went back to Su Muge and Xia Houmo to tell them about this.
Compared with the doubts of Adviser Li, the mood of Su Muge was much more complicated. She was unable either to laugh or to cry.
She was looking at the worms in the porcelain plate, which was not moving anymore, and couldn’t speak.
These worms were soaked in the potion by her last night as an experiment. She just wanted to see if the potion could kill them.
She had not expected that the worms could be killed!
Su Muge took a look at the dead worms floating in the potion with her forceps, and the white ones gradually turned into bloody red.
“Is it really necessary to poison these worms to death?”
To ensure the accuracy of the experiment, Su Muge planned to put another part of the worms into the same dose of the potion as yesterday. But the potion was put in the county yamen, and she had to go back to get it.
...
A group of men and horses stopped at the gate of Zhou county.
The man dressed in a set of neat suit riding in the front of the group stopped his horse, got down, and ran to a carriage in the middle of the group.
“Second Prince, we have arrived.”
“Let’s get in.” A pleasant male voice came out from the carriage.
“Yes.” The imperial bodyguard rode on his horse again and went forward. “Let’s go.”
As soon as Xia Houmo went back to the county yamen, there was new information from Yanxia pass.
“Lord, there was another unusual action in the land of the southern barbarians. Last night, they suddenly sent out troops to attack Yanxia pass,” Donglin said in a deep voice.
Zuoqiu snorted coldly and said, “Those reckless and blind barbarians! They thought they were playing with a cat?!”
...
When Su Muge looked at the carriage outside county yamen, there was a flash of confusion in her eyes. It was not Xia Houmo’s carriage.
She jumped off her carriage and went forward. Adviser Li was saying something to the person on the carriage, and he was reverent and respectful.
Not long after, the curtain on the carriage was opened, and a white figure appeared in front of her.
The man was delightful and handsome, with his black hair tied into a high bun with a jade crown on his head. His white robe was shining in the golden rays of the sun, and he carried a certain cachet in his every move.
Adviser Li was there beside him, with his waist almost bent to the ground.
What a good-for-nothing!
Su Muge was soon noticed by the man when she approached him.
The man looked at her carefully with doubt, which made her frowned a little bit.
“Second Prince, I didn’t know you were coming. I apologize for not coming out early to welcome you...” said Adviser Li, his lips trembling.
“Adviser Li.”
Adviser Li looked up at Su Muge. “Lord, Lord Su, you, you are back. I was going to send someone to look for you.”
Su Muge looked at the man in white. “This is...”
“How dare you! How dare you not kneel on the ground to greet the Second Prince!”
The imperial bodyguard scolded Su Muge, but she stood still in shock.
What?
Second Prince!
Another son of the emperor?!
Was there any silver or gold mountain hiding in Zhou county? Why did the emperor’s sons come here one after another?!
Su Muge looked down at the dragon pattern jade plate on the man’s waist. In the state of Chu, in addition to the real emperor, only the male offspring of the true dragon, the emperor, were qualified to use the dragon pattern.
Since Xia Houmo, the one with great authority, was in the county yamen, Su Muge was not afraid even if the man in front of her was fake.
“My greetings to Second Prince.”
There was a light smile on Xia Houkun’s face, which gave Su Muge a creepy-crawly feeling. “This is Lord Su from Shunyang prefecture?” he asked.
Su Muge faced him calmly as normal, and answered, “Yes.”
“I came here for the disaster relief at the order of the emperor. I was told that in these days, Lord Su had arranged the post-disaster affairs properly.”
“They were parts of my job.”
After a few exchanges of greetings, Xia Houkun went inside the county yamen.
Adviser Li followed Su Muge with his cold sweat out of fear and tension.
“Lord Su, there, there is only one room left in the county yamen...” And that one room was a utility room! If Xia Houkun was going to stay at county yamen...
Su Muge cast a sidelong glance at him. “Then how about dismissing you and let you go back home to accompany your wife at night?” Adviser Li had also lived in county yamen these days for the convenience of handling affairs.
“Lord, please don’t make fun of me.” He was now more cheered up than any period in his life. The emperor first sent Lord Xia to come here, and then his son. This showed the great importance of Zhou county in the emperor’s mind. He was almost too excited to sleep tonight!
“Since there’s only one room left, then clean it up. It’s Second Prince’s choice to stay or not.”
“Yes, yes.”
Xia Houkun didn’t go to the study. Instead, he directly went to the room of Xia Houmo.
Zuowei went into the room and looked at Xia Houmo with some unusual expression on his face.
Xia Houmo looked up at him, a bit stunned. “What happened?”
“Lord, Second Prince is here in Zhou county.”
Donglin and Zuoqiu looked at each other quietly.
“Why did Second Prince come to Zhou county at this moment?”
Xia Houmo turned his jade thumb ring slowly. “Things are becoming more and more interesting in this Zhou county...”
“If not heard from the others, I had no idea that the King of Jin was in Zhou county as well.” The voice of Xia Houkun came from the outside.
Xia Houmo looked at Donglin and signed them to leave.
The bodyguard outside let Xia Houkun in.
Xia Houkun glanced at Xia Houmo with a shadow of a smile and found himself a chair to sit down. He then poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and put it down with a frown between his eyebrows.
“I had almost mistaken you for somebody else before I saw Donglin. It seems that this face of the King of Jin is not suitable for you.”
Xia Houmo took a quick look at him, emotionless.
“So, King of Jin, did you leave your post without permission? I’ve heard that Yanxia pass was not peaceful recently. Aren’t you a bit too lazy to hide here?”
Xia Houkun came with this accusation towards Xia Houmo. If the commander-in-chief was absent during a war, disturbances would be created by the civil officials in the imperial court since this was a great felony.
Xia Houmo was not afraid of it at all. He just didn’t bother to deal with unnecessary troubles.
“Second Prince, my brother, so you are here in Zhou county for the disaster relief at the order of the emperor?”
“Sure. You are not going to tell me that you are also at the order of the emperor, aren’t you?”
Xia Houmo threw a letter on the table. Xia Houkun narrowed his phoenix-look eyes, which had a slight upward sweep at their tails, and grabbed the letter to read.
After a while, he put the letter back on the table.
“It seems that our father has attached great importance to the flood, otherwise he would not have sent both of us to come one after another. However, since our father has sent me here, you can leave it all to me, and deal with the turmoil in Yanxia pass.”
Xia Houmo lowered his eyes and looked at Xia Houkun with some coldness.
Seeing Xia Houmo in his silence, Xia Houkun continued, “You have been guarding Yanxia pass for years and our father always has faith in you. Not one slip can be made at this very moment.”
Xia Houmo curled up the corner of his mouth. “Second Prince, thank you for your concern.”
“We are brothers, and you are being too polite to me. It’s an emergency there in Yanxia pass, and you should head back as soon as possible.”
Xia Houmo stood up and walked towards the door.
Seeing this, there was a smile on Xia Houkun’s face since he thought Xia Houmo was leaving.
However, Xia Houmo suddenly stopped at the door. “I’ll never give up halfway.”
After saying this, he turned aside and looked at Xia Houkun. “I’m going to have a rest, brother. Please excuse me for not seeing you out.”
The smile froze immediately on Xia Houkun’s face. There was a twitch at the corner of his mouth. He tried to calm himself down and then walked to Xia Houmo. “Ninth brother, you are not listening to me. Are you afraid that I’m going to take all your credit?”
Xia Houmo watched Su Muge coming towards the yard indifferently. “Brother, actually, it’s unnecessary for you to come here at this moment.”
“You!” Xia Houkun was aware that this brother was never easy to get along with. However, his brother who was the favorite of their father held the military power, and thus could not be easily offended.
“Fine. Since my ninth brother thinks that the war over there in Yanxia pass is not so important, I’d better keep silent. You should act with propriety.” Xia Houkun flapped on his sleeve and left.
Su Muge met Xia Houkun rushing out while she was going back to her room for the potion. She lowered her eyes and backed off to make way for him. However, Xia Houkun suddenly stopped in front of her and looked at her with an unpredictable look.
“Lord Su, come with me.” He left immediately, with no time for Su Muge to refuse.
Su Muge gave him a contemptuous look secretly in her mind. How annoying those princes were!
Just as she was about to leave, the voice of Xia Houmo came behind her.
“Lord Su, come here.”
Su Muge paused, raised her eyes to look at the man leaning on the door with confusion on her face.
“Lord Xia, Second Prince asked me to go with him. I’m afraid he has something to tell me...”
Xia Houmo opened his eyes a bit wider and fixed on her lazily.
There was a feeling. Su Muge felt she was as prey, the prey which had been aimed at!
“You knew no more than Adviser Li. Aren’t you curious about what the patients had in common?” The man’s voice was low and hoarse, full of temptation.
“In common?” Did he discover anything?
This time, without hesitance, Su Muge walked towards Xia Houmo.
As ordered by Su Muge, Adviser Li cleaned up his previous room as fast as he could and did his best to arrange it for Xia Houkun. It looked not so shabby then.
There was nothing unpleasant on Xia Houkun’s face when he stepped in. He only asked Adviser Li to tell him about the essential circumstances of Zhou county.
“You mean, Lord Su has extraordinary medical skills?” Xia Houkun interrupted the words of Adviser Li and frowned.
Adviser Li nodded vigorously, and replied, “Yes. Lord Su’s medical skills are excellent!”