Douzi sobbed, his words coming in fits and starts.
Shen Yuxi looked distressed, her gaze shifting to the old woman lying on the straw mat, barely clinging to life.
[System, can she still be saved?]
[Yes.]
[As long as she takes her medicine on time, the old woman will gradually recover in ten days to half a month.]
The system's decisive words instantly gave Shen Yuxi a pill to settle her nerves.
She was just about to comfort the boy when the system in her space let out a heavy sigh without warning.
Shen Yuxi had already developed a conditioned reflex.
Now, whenever the system sighed, she knew things were not so simple; there was more beneath the surface.
Sure enough.
The system said, [Host, you don't really understand the current situation. At least eight out of every ten households have contracted the epidemic and are isolated here for treatment.]
[There are few physicians and many patients. Medicinal herbs are needed in large quantities, and supply cannot meet demand.]
[The court takes the Qingzhou epidemic seriously and has ordered that royalty, nobility, and commoners alike must not be treated separately. Instead, resources are allocated according to the severity of their conditions.]
[This means the wealthy and powerful cannot enjoy better treatment and must share resources with commoners they would ordinarily disdain to associate with.]
[How could those people agree to that?]
A trace of anger crept into the system's voice. [They secretly banded together and bribed the soldiers and physicians, having the physicians deliberately exaggerate certain patients' conditions so the soldiers could take them away.]
[That way, they can enjoy more resources without being easily discovered.]
What!
Cui Mingjian's eyes widened. Someone actually dared pull this trick right under his nose. They had a death wish.
The two soldiers turned deathly pale.
Neither had seen Shen Yuxi's lips move, yet they clearly heard her and another voice exposing their crimes.
At first, Douzi was bewildered by what he heard. Once he understood, he was filled with utter rage and indignation.
His eyes were bloodshot, his fists clenched tight.
He wanted to ask Shen Yuxi whether what she had said was true.
A split second before he could open his mouth, Cui Mingjian lunged forward and clapped a hand over it, heedless of his dignity.
The emperor had ordered that no one was to reveal the matter of hearing her thoughts.
If Lord Little Shen realized they could hear her thoughts, everyone present, himself included, would meet only one end: death.
Cui Mingjian's sudden movement interrupted Shen Yuxi's exchange with the system.
Puzzled, Shen Yuxi asked, "Lord Cui, why are you covering his mouth?"
Cui Mingjian felt terribly guilty.
"I saw some food on his mouth, so I was helping him wipe it off."
He seized on an excuse and hurriedly said, "Lord Little Shen, I'll take him to find a physician first and have the physician check his grandmother's pulse. We can decide what to do once we know her condition."
"Yes. Use the physicians we brought."
"Yes!" Cui Mingjian answered.
Then he pulled Little Douzi away at a brisk pace, not forgetting to summon the two soldiers before leaving.
Those two also had to be dealt with somewhere Lord Little Shen could not see.
"Boy, pretend you know nothing about anything you just heard. And you absolutely must not mention it in front of Lord Little Shen. Understand?"
Cui Mingjian crouched down until his eyes were level with Douzi's.
He wore a specially made white gauze veil that left only his solemn, earnest eyes exposed.
"Why?" Douzi asked, confused.
"Because if you mention it, none of us-you, me, or your grandmother-will come to a good end."
"But my grandmother..."
"As for your grandmother, I give you my word as an official that I'll have her treated with the best medicine. Once you and your grandmother recover, I'll give you another twenty taels of silver. You won't have to worry about making a living anymore."
Twenty taels of silver was no small sum to Douzi and his grandmother.
Douzi was young, but he was quick-witted.
To him, his grandmother was the most important person.
Since Cui Mingjian had said as much, he would simply do as he was told.
As long as his grandmother could be well.
Only when Little Douzi nodded did Cui Mingjian's suspended heart settle back into place.
As for the two soldiers, they had already been dragged away and quietly executed.
Shen Yuxi knew full well that even with knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes, she could not resolve it through her own strength.
Although Cui Mingjian was the prefect of Qingzhou, he could not keep those powerful nobles in check at all.
The best solution was to tell Mo Xuanchen.
Only by having him intervene could they intimidate certain people itching to make a move.
Mo Xuanchen had not accompanied Shen Yuxi that day.
It was not that he did not want to. He was busy taking inventory of Zhao Panggua's assets and, along the way, leading men to wipe out a band of mountain bandits entrenched in western Qingzhou.
These bandits had hooked up with Zhao Panggua a few years earlier, and the two sides had agreed to work together.
Zhao Panggua protected the bandits from being wiped out, while the bandits gave him a share of the gold, silver, and jewels they plundered.
At first, there had only been thirty-odd bandits, making their living by robbing passing travelers.
After several years of expansion, their numbers had grown to over two hundred, and they had even openly built a "bandit stronghold."
The common people were so frightened that they scarcely dared travel that road.
Mo Xuanchen moved against the bandits with unexpected speed.
When the stronghold's chief learned that the fourth prince was leading troops to wipe them out, the wine cup in his hand fell hard to the ground with a clatter.
It made a sharp, clear sound.
"Chief, what do we do?"
"Why don't we run? If the fourth prince catches us, we'll suffer a fate worse than death."
Several subordinates offered suggestions, panic written all over their faces.
Naturally, they had heard of the fourth prince's fearsome reputation. A fiend who killed without blinking on the battlefield would certainly show them no mercy.
"Run? Where could we run?"
The third chief gritted his teeth. "All beneath heaven is the sovereign's land. Unless we flee the Mo Kingdom, the fourth prince won't let us off no matter where we run."
"Let's surrender outright and admit our wrongs to the fourth prince. Perhaps he'll spare our lives," the second chief said gravely.
Everyone turned to the chief.
In truth, they knew full well that escape was impossible, and resistance even more so. How could they contend against the imperial court?
Apart from begging for mercy, they could think of no other path to survival.
Ultimately, however, the chief still had to decide.
The chief swept his gaze over the brothers below him and closed his eyes tightly.
"Your Highness, the entrance to the stronghold is eight hundred meters farther ahead."
The soldier leading the way beside him said, "The terrain here is complicated, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The bandits are cunning. Your Highness, please be extremely careful."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the lead soldier turned his head.
What met his eyes was a densely packed crowd of bandits, all kneeling in unison at the stronghold's entrance, seemingly having prepared long in advance to welcome their arrival.
The lead soldier could not conceal his astonishment no matter how he tried.
The wind swept up dust with a faint rustle, but it could not drown out the perfectly synchronized, heart-shaking sound of marching footsteps.
Emperor Xuanzhao had ordered the imperial guards to escort Mo Xuanchen and the others. Mo Xuanchen had little regard for Qingzhou's local soldiers, so he had chosen a hundred imperial guards to accompany him.
At the very front of the imperial guards' formation rode Mo Xuanchen.
That day, he wore an ink-black brocade robe beneath a cloud-brocade cloak with subtle woven patterns, its edges embroidered with flood dragons outlined in silver thread.
The cloak snapped in the wind, making his figure appear even straighter and taller.
Rather than the ostentation of ordinary nobles, he possessed a greater measure of composure and aloofness.
His right hand held the reins lightly, its fingers long and slender, while his left hung naturally at his side. A split jade ring hung at his waist, making faint clinking sounds as he moved.
"This lowly one, Cheng Wuneng, kowtows before Your Highness the Fourth Prince-"