Chapter 44 The Child, Is Missing!
“Lord, the man has confessed.”
Xia Houmo was reading through the map, and he paused.
“He confessed?”
“Yes.”
In fact, Donglin was also a little suspicious. After all, last night, the man was tortured almost to death and he said nothing. The man was stubborn and reluctant so that Donglin thought it would take him another two or three days before he would tell them anything. But now, he had confessed, not even managed to hold on to the next morning.
Gently stroking his jade thumb ring, Xia Houmo asked in a low voice, “What did he say?”
“He said it was on that Eldest Miss Su.”
Xia Houmo lifted his dark eyes. “On Su Muge?”
“Yes. He said he had hidden it on a boy, but when he went to the boy later, it was gone. The eldest Miss was with him all this time, so he said the eldest Miss must have taken it.”
Donglin glanced at Xia Houmo, and continued, “That child, Tong’er, was brought to county yamen by the eldest Miss. Lord, do you think it’s taken by her?”
“What does she need that for?”
“She…But she has been behaving strangely. Why did she disguise as her father? Doesn’t she know this is a felony?”
There was a hint of a smile that quickly flashed in Xia Houmo’s eyes when he thought of that tiny thin body. “Of course she knows,” he said. That’s why she was trying her best to be careful in front of him.
“Keep a close eye on the child since it’s still in county yamen.”
Donglin also felt that the situation was not so simple as it appeared. “Yes, I’m going to add more people to it right now.”
…
The eyelids of Su Muge kept twitching when she woke up in the morning, and she had this feeling that something terrible was going to happen.
After washing up and eating her breakfast, she carried her medical kit and was going to check the child.
It had saved her a lot of energy since Xia Houmo had helped to arrange the flood relief in the county.
When she walked out of her room, she took a quick look at the room of Xia Houmo subconsciously. Seeing his door tightly closed, she walked out immediately.
Xiaohu was taking a nap when Su Muge arrived at the ward. She reached out her hand and pinched his face. He woke up in a sudden shock, opened his eyes, and stand up to greet Su Muge immediately when he saw her.
“Never mind. There’s no need for these pleasantries. How about the child? How’s he doing?”
“The child is awake, and keeps saying it hurts.”
Su Muge didn’t enter the ward until she had changed into a clean set of working suit.
The child was awake, with his face twisted to one side in pain. He cried out when he saw Su Muge came in.
“It hurts so much! Boo hoo hoo…”
The child had an operation and the pain in the wound was normal after anesthesia.
“Be a nice kid, and don’t cry. Go through over this, you can soon become that strong young man skipping and jumping around after some time.”
Xiaohu looked at Su Muge with a bit dumbness. With a gentle smile on her face, she was moisturizing the child’s lips with wet cotton.
Lord Su looked…so gentle!
“After this, whenever changing the dressing for his wound, pay attention to it and observe whether the wound is inflamed.”
Xiaohu came to himself and promised her.
After that, Su Muge went to see other patients before she returned to the room where she had studied the illness.
That strange worm found in the lung she cut off yesterday needed to be explored further. She had to find out whether it was a parasite or something else.
…
Inside the Su Mansion.
Li Mama rushed in Flowery Blossom Courtyard in panic and drove all the maids out as she entered the room.
An looked at her in that way, feeling a little surprised, since Li Mama had always been prudent. “Mama, what’s wrong? Anything happened?” An’s face was hardened when she asked.
Took An’s hands in hers tightly, Li Mama finally managed to speak after quite a while, “Madam, the man I sent did not get any information of the eldest Miss, but…”
“But what!”
“But got the information of the Lord!”
There was a sudden twitch in An’s face. “The Lord. What news about the Lord?”
“The man came back and said the Lord had arrived in Zhou county several days ago. Now he and Lord Xia, who was sent by the imperial court, are managing the flood in Zhou county!”
“What!”
An stood up in bewilderment and looked at Li Mama unbelievably.
“Then, then why father…”
If Su Lun had been in Zhou county for several days, why didn’t the people sent by her father know about this? Was her father thinking the same way as she did? She had thought it would be impossible for the Lord to show up at Zhou county, so she didn’t even bother to send people there to check.
No, no way!
She knew her father well. He had always been meticulous and he was the most considerate one in her family. How could there be any mistake in the matter of someone’s life?
But if he did know the Lord was in Zhou county, why would he wrote to her saying that he was dead…
It was a mess in An’s mind and she had no clue.
“Mama, what should I do?”
Li Mama had not seen this complication come, either.
“Madam, maybe there was a flaw in the Minister’s arrangement. You should write to him and make it clear.”
An nodded. Both of them thought it was the Minister that made the mistake.
“Ok, I’ll write to my father now.”
…
“Bang bang bang.”
There was a sound of knocking on the door, and Su Muge frowned impatiently.
She hated to be interrupted no matter in the process of her treatment or her research.
But she had to put down the forceps in her hand and turn around to open the door since the knock sounded urgent.
Li Damao was there, standing outside.
“What’s up? What happened?” Su Muge tried to keep a calm tone.
“Lord Su, there, there’s no good! There are, are more patients with fever!”
Su Muhe was a bit stunned. “What? Show me.”
Su Muge followed Li Damao to the room where the patients stayed.
She had told him before that once more than two people were having similar symptoms, they needed to be isolated from the others at once.
“They are the ones.”
Three people were lying on the wooden bed- two grown-up women and an old man.
Su Muge checked them and found that their symptoms were very similar to those of the child. The only difference was that they were not that ill at the moment. They only had a fever, and their abdomen showed no obvious swollen.
She wrote a prescription and gave it to a young medical a.s.sistant to decoct according to it.
“Let them drink this medicine once in the morning and once in the evening. Pay attention to any change in their symptoms.”
“Yes, sure.”
Su Muge went back to the room where she had conducted the research. She put the worm from the lung into a clean porcelain plate and poured the prepared liquid medicine into it.
Now she needed to determine whether the worm was a parasite or something else, and then she could further study what kind of medicine could kill it.
After the white worm was soaked in the liquid medicine, it seemed that it was not affected, and its body was still twisting from time to time.
Su Muge looked at the hourgla.s.s and ignored the worm. Instead, she went to study the lung she had cut down.
The lung was turning black and was rotting at an extraordinary rate.
“This worm could accelerate the decay of organs…”
Su Muge went back to look at the worm soaked in liquid medicine when it was getting dark, and she was stunned!
“How can this be!”
In the dark grey liquid medicine, the white worms were particularly conspicuous. However, that worm which was only as long as a finger suddenly became many small ones, as if it were cut into several sections！
Su Muge picked up a worm with forceps and looked at it. It was alive!
She took out all the worms and put them in another clean plate. Then she observed them again. The worms became quiet and less active, but they were still alive!
“What the h.e.l.l are they?”
Su Muge tried all kinds of medicine, but they were all useless towards the worms. They were still alive and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with energy!
“Lord Su, Adviser Li is here for you.”
The young medical a.s.sistant at the door said in a soft tone.
Su Muge felt herself in a blind alley. She put down the liquid medicine in her hand and took off her gloves. Then she opened the door and went out.
Adviser Li was standing out there.
“Lord Su.”
Su Muge went forward and nodded. “Why are you here, Adviser Li? What’s wrong?”
Adviser Li frowned in embarra.s.sment. “Lord Su, the flood has been stopped, and the water has gradually receded in the past two days. If no accident occurs, seventy or eighty percent of the flood will recede in the next one or two days.”
“That’s great. The water has finally receded.”
“Yes, finally receded…But…the villages in Zhou county were seriously affected. Now many victims around have come…You, Lord, as you know, in a small place like Zhou county, there is not much public grain. With so many victims rushing in at the same time, I’m afraid the food in the granary in Zhou county won’t last long.”
Once the victims entered the county, they needed to be taken care of food and accommodation, otherwise, there could be riots such as smashing and looting.
Su Muge frowned and thought for a while. “How long can the food in granary hold now?”
“Three days.”
It should have been a season of harvest. However, the flood came unexpectedly, and not a single grain was reaped in the whole Zhou county. The grain in the granary was from last year.
“Three days.” It was the time the flood would almost completely recede and more and more people would return.
Su Muge pursed her lips tightly. “I see. I’ll try to find a way out. Go and comfort the people, and no riot is allowed.”
“Yes.”
Su Muge looked at the closed wards, feeling her head was going to explode.
Although she had no experience in the officialdom, she knew it was not that easy to deploy food reserves!
But if she couldn’t do it, it didn’t mean no one could. There was someone who was the son of the emperor!
Su Muge packed up her stuff, took some white worms with her to study back in the county yamen.
The carriage swayed ahead on the road.
On her way back, Su Muge felt that there were certainly more people in the streets. Most of them were in rags with a tired face. They were in despair of confusion.
Looking at the county yamen not far away, she slowly put down the curtain, and the carriage just stopped at the right time.
She lifted the curtain and jumped out of the carriage. Unexpectedly, someone rushed towards her as soon as she kept her feet.
Su Muge fixed her eyes and found it was Granny Fang.
“Lord, you are finally back! Tong’er, Tong’er is missing!”