Time Travel: Brothel Maid

Chapter 142: My Skin is Tender

"I will do my best, but there are many patients infected with the plague in these villages, and the amount of medicinal materials needed is very large. In addition, this place is remote and difficult to travel, so the supply and use of medicinal materials may be a problem."

Tang Jingchen stepped forward at the right time, his posture was calm and his tone was steady and calm, "Old sir, just prescribe the medicine, don't worry about the medicinal materials. I will find a way, and I will definitely not delay the treatment of the plague because of the supply of medicinal materials."

Xiao Guoer nodded repeatedly and agreed, "Old sir, don't worry about anything else. Leave any difficulties to us to solve."

After all, the title of the Eighth Prince is not just a decoration. With Jingchen, a walking ATM, all human and material resources problems are not a problem!

The old doctor looked at the two of them deeply, said nothing more, and lowered his head to think about the prescription.

Xiao Guoer and Tang Jingchen observed Shanglin Village for half a day, and went over everything in their minds, from the villagers' daily diet to their behavior.

The meals that the villagers eat on a daily basis are very simple and plain. They are nothing more than some of the most common vegetables and grains in rural areas, such as corn and green vegetables, grown in the fields.

Meat is not eaten often. Only occasionally during festivals will they kill chickens and sheep and have some meat.

Before the plague, the men in the village would occasionally go hunting in the mountains behind. But now that they are sick, they don’t have the strength to go, and they haven’t eaten meat for a long time.

The drinking water comes from a small river along the village. According to Lin, it flows from a spring deep in the mountains behind the village. People here have been drinking this kind of water for generations, and it is sweet and refreshing.

Our ancestors have been drinking it for generations, so there shouldn't be any problem.

Because most people were infected with the plague, farm work in the fields gradually became neglected. After all, no one knew whether they could survive until the autumn harvest. Naturally, no one was willing to do such a futile task, so they rarely went out and just spent their days in chaos at home.

The clothes they wore, the items they used, and the things they touched were all normal and there was nothing unusual. At least Xiao Guoer could not see any suspicious cause of the plague.

At noon, Xiao Guoer and Tang Jingchen took the prescription written by the old doctor and walked out of Shanglin Village with the old doctor. Firstly, they had to go to the town to arrange the medicine, and secondly, it was time to eat. Since the source of the plague had not yet been found, they had to be cautious with both imported food and objects they touched, so they chose to eat in the town.

In the afternoon, we went to Meilin Village, which is a few miles away from Shanglin Village. From observation, we found that the daily living habits were no different from those in Shanglin Village. They also ate crops from the fields. Sometimes they would catch some pheasants or rabbits in the mountains. Occasionally, they would catch a wild boar with a trap, and the people in the village would share the food. Later, more and more people were infected with the plague, and fewer people went out hunting.

Next, they visited two other villages. Xiao Guoer noticed that people in these villages had the habit of going up the mountain to hunt in the past.

Xiao Guoer recalled the geographical locations of the several plague-stricken villages in the southwest corner of Huaiyang, and found that they were indeed all surrounded by the foot of a big mountain.

Could it be that there were some wild animals in the mountains that carried viruses, and the villagers did not handle them properly, so they were infected with the plague after eating them?

It seems possible. Aren’t many infectious diseases in modern times caused by eating wild animals?

But why did the plague keep recurring here? Since the plague hit, people in several villages have no energy to hunt and no longer eat prey from the mountains. Why did the plague recur after being cured?

This doesn't seem to make sense.

But just in case, Xiao Guoer still asked the people in these villages not to eat meat. Apart from the wild game in the mountains, they should also stop eating the poultry raised by the villagers. Who knows which small animal may be carrying the virus? It is safer to only eat vegetables.

After walking around all day, Xiao Guoer had a blister on her foot. She endured the pain and limped onto the carriage for the return trip, then quickly took off her shoes to free her poor feet from the crowded shoes.

Xiao Guoer relaxed her whole body and lay lazily in Tang Jingchen's arms, but her mind was full of thoughts that never stopped for a moment.

All day long, she thought about what the villages had in common and what made them special.

She always felt that she seemed to have overlooked an extremely important detail, but no matter how hard she tried to recall it, the key point seemed to be hiding in the fog, looming and making her unable to grasp it. This feeling was like being on the edge of the truth, but always just a little bit short, making people feel anxious and helpless.

She had a hunch that the cause of the plague was hidden in the mountain behind several villages, because there was only such a mountain in the southwest corner of Huaiyang and nowhere else.

But what exactly is the cause? Is it really because of the game in the mountains? Then how do we explain the repeated recurrences?

Xiao Guoer frowned in deep thought, completely immersed in the search for the truth that seemed to be obscured by thick fog. It felt like she was just a little bit away from seeing the truth through the fog, but she could never find a way and the thick fog would not dispel.

It wasn't until she felt a noticeable stinging pain in her feet that she came back to her senses, and she shrank as she felt the pain.

When she turned her head, she found that Jingchen had lifted her blistered feet at some point, and she didn't even notice it.

Tang Jingchen also noticed that there was a red bloodstain the size of a fingernail on the toe of her socks after she took off her shoes. Then he gently held her little feet in his hands and slowly took off her socks.

The blisters had been broken and the broken skin was stuck to the socks. When I took them off, the flesh and blood separated, causing a sharp pain.

The sharp pain made Xiao Guoer groan, and his body sat up uncontrollably.

Just when she was about to pout and complain to her boyfriend in a tender and coquettish manner, she unexpectedly saw that his face was as gloomy as water, the corners of his mouth drooped, his thin lips pressed into a straight line, and he looked like he was suppressing his anger that was about to storm.

Xiao Guoer put away the fake expression on her face, and like a vine, she gently put her hands around her boyfriend's arm, who was obviously unhappy. She leaned over and pressed her cheek against his broad chest. She felt inexplicably guilty and said in a coquettish voice, "My skin is tender, and these shoes are too small. They don't fit my feet, so they are worn out. It doesn't hurt much, I'll just apply some medicine when I get home. Can you buy me a bigger pair of shoes?"