Chapter 240: Unable to Leave

 Chapter 240: Unable to Leave

Yan Mansion.

Early in the morning, Zhou Jingwan hurriedly arrived with a letter, looking for Daohua.

Daohua glanced at the envelope and smiled, "Is this a letter from your brother to your family? Why are you bringing it to me?"

Zhou Jingwan’s usual smile had faded, replaced by a worried expression. "Grandfather said the contents of the letter need to be known by your family, so you should read it for yourself."

Seeing Zhou Jingwan’s serious expression, Daohua’s heart skipped a beat. She quickly opened the letter. When she saw that her elder brother had been suffering from diarrhea for three days, her face changed. After reading that the situation had improved after taking the medicine she prepared, Daohua finally let out a sigh of relief.

After finishing the letter, Zhou Jingwan grabbed Daohua’s hand. "Daohua, my grandfather, father, and mother all want to thank you. If it wasn’t for the medicine you prepared, my brother..."

Her voice choked up, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Daohua also felt a wave of fear. She quickly calmed herself and reassured, "Both my brother and your brother are fine now. Those with good fortune will always have divine protection; there’s no need to worry."

Zhou Jingwan nodded but the worry on her face didn’t fade. "Grandfather said that my brother and the others might have been infected with something, perhaps the plague you mentioned before. The family is already preparing ships, and they plan to send someone to bring my brother back."

Zhou Jingwan continued, "I came here not only to tell you what’s in the letter, but also to ask if your family would want to bring your three brothers back as well."

Daohua frowned in thought, glancing at the letter in her hand. "I can’t make that decision."

Zhou Jingwan urged, "Then you should go tell your parents. This letter was written by our servant, and my brother didn’t want to worry the family, so he didn’t intend to send the letter at all. I suspect your brothers are probably doing the same."

Daohua nodded. "Let me borrow this letter for a moment." As she turned to walk toward the main hall, she paused and asked, "Will Xiao Yeyang and the others be coming back with them?"

Zhou Jingwan shook her head. "Prefect Magistrate Guo is in charge of disaster relief. He wouldn’t allow his nephew to stay in such a dangerous place."

Daohua thought for a moment before asking, "When will your family’s ship leave?"

Zhou Jingwan replied, "As soon as possible, either today or early tomorrow morning."

Daohua nodded, then took the letter to find Madam Li.

After reading the letter, Madam Li’s face turned pale.

Daohua quickly reassured her, "Mother, my brother is fine now. Please send someone to inform Father and ask him to return so we can discuss whether we should bring my brothers back."

Madam Li immediately responded, "We must bring them back." She called for a servant to go to the front yard to summon Yan Zhigao.

Meanwhile, Daohua sent Wang Man’er to find Qin Xiao Liu.

Daohua looked at Qin Xiao Liu. "Did you manage to gather the medicinal herbs I asked for?"

Qin Xiao Liu replied, "I collected some, but with such short notice, I couldn’t gather a large amount."

Daohua said, "Whatever you have, send it to Xiao Yeyang. I don’t know if he’ll come back with them, but the medicinal herbs will definitely be needed with Prefect Magistrate Guo there."

Qin Xiao Liu immediately went to prepare.

At this moment, Yan Zhigao rushed back from the prefectural office after receiving the news. After reading the letter, his expression darkened.

As the Prefect Magistrate of a province, he could understand the many concerns behind the letter that ordinary women wouldn’t notice.

Plague!

It seemed that a plague had broken out in Jiguang!

Yan Zhigao immediately made a decision. "Go, we must bring them back immediately."

His eldest son bore the responsibility of continuing the family line. Over the years, Yan Zhigao had placed great expectations on him. Now that he was grown, nothing could go wrong.

Wenkai and Wentao were both good children too.

---

Jiguang Province, Xingyun Mansion.

After taking the medicine, Zhou Chengye had noticeably improved. When he learned that the servant had secretly written a letter to the family, he didn’t scold them. Instead, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Even though he hadn’t gone outside recently, Zhou Chengye could clearly feel the growing panic in the city. More and more people were suffering from diarrhea and abdominal pain, and there were reports of people collapsing in the streets, many of them bleeding from their noses, with bruises on their skin and delirious.

Zhou Chengye, not being naive, could easily recognize these as symptoms of the plague.

"Let’s go, find Wenxiu and the others."

With the help of his servant, Zhou Chengye arrived at the courtyard where the three Yan brothers lived.

Yan Wenxiu was also in the courtyard, getting some fresh air. Upon seeing Zhou Chengye, he immediately asked, "What are you doing here? Your health isn't fully recovered, you shouldn't be out walking around."

This illness had almost drained his body. The imperial physician had said he needed to recuperate properly, or else, when he got older, he'd be prone to more illnesses.

Zhou Chengye's condition was even worse than his.

"I have something to discuss with you," Zhou Chengye said as he looked around. Noticing that Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai were not there, he asked, "Where are Wentao and Wenkai?"

Yan Wenxiu gestured for him to sit down and poured him a cup of tea before speaking, "They went out with the young prince."

Zhou Chengye immediately furrowed his brows, "At this time, why are they running around outside?"

Yan Wenxiu explained, "The number of injured soldiers in the army is increasing. The young prince is helping Prefect Magistrate Guo gather medicinal supplies. Don't worry, the young prince is always accompanied by physicians and guards, no one will be able to get close to him."

Zhou Chengye nodded and did not continue the topic, "My servant wrote a letter to my family."

Upon hearing this, Yan Wenxiu’s expression changed slightly, then he sighed, "Your grandmother and parents are going to worry again."

In recent years, the Zhou family and the Yan family had grown closer. Now that the Zhou family knew about the situation here, it was certain that they would receive news too.

Zhou Chengye said, "Yes, it's truly unfilial to make the elders worry. But, you need to prepare yourself. If my grandfather finds out, it’s very likely he will send someone to bring me back. Our family won’t hide it from yours, and I think your family will also send someone to bring you all back."

Yan Wenxiu frowned, "But what about the young prince and them?"

Zhou Chengye was silent for a moment before responding, "Then we should all leave together."

Yan Wenxiu shook his head, "The young prince probably won’t leave."

"Since your family is sending someone to bring you back, you should go ahead!" Just then, Xiao Yeyang returned with Yan Wenkai and a few others.

Xiao Yeyang's expression was also somewhat heavy, "You all probably know the situation in Xingyun. The imperial physician said it could be an epidemic. If I keep you all here, it would really be my fault."

Yan Wenkai asked, "What about you, young prince? Are you going to leave with us?"

Xiao Yeyang smiled, "You all go first, I’ll follow later. Don’t worry, if I want to leave, I can go anytime."

Yan Wenkai scratched the back of his head, "How about this, the ship that’s coming to take people away can leave first, and let my brother, Zhou Chengye, and the weaker ones like Hongxin leave first. I’ll stay behind to help out."

Yan Wentao glanced at him and added, "I’m fine too, I’ll stay as well."

Xiao Yeyang was touched that the two were willing to stay with him at this time and patted their shoulders, "Alright, we’ll all leave together. You two staying behind won’t be of much help."

Just then, there was a sudden sound of a muffled groan.

Everyone turned to look and saw several servants, sweating heavily and clutching their stomachs. One of them couldn’t hold it in and vomited on the spot.

"Quick, take them away!"

Defu hurriedly ordered the guards to take them away.

Xiao Yeyang quickly said, "Be careful, don’t let them touch anyone."

While the servants were cleaning up the vomit, Xiao Yeyang and the others looked terribly pale.

The reason was that these servants hadn’t been outside, and they weren’t from one courtyard either; they were from several different courtyards.

That evening, other patients started appearing in the courtyards.

Seeing Qin Shisan also suffering from diarrhea and stomach pain, Yan Wenkai swallowed hard and asked, "The place we’re staying at was specifically checked by the imperial physician, how could we still get infected?"

Yan Wenxiu’s expression was grave, "You can’t really prevent an epidemic."

"I want to leave here as soon as possible," Yan Wenkai said, and his expression became strange.

Seeing him like this, Yan Wentao immediately asked, "What’s wrong?"

Yan Wenkai broke into a sweat that was visible on his forehead and said, "The medicine... where’s the medicine for my big sister? Quick, give me two pills, my stomach hurts."

Yan Wentao’s face changed, and he rushed into the room to get the medicine.

Yan Wenxiu quickly helped him sit down, "It’s fine, it’s fine, take the medicine and you’ll feel better."

(End of this chapter)