Chapter 477: Which Was More Important, Life Or Money
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Xiao Jin’s well-defined fingers tapped on the desk. His voice was low but brimming with infinite chilliness. “Her Imperial Highness said that you tried to embezzle the Imperial Court’s official grain, Lord Wei.”
Wei Zhongming’s knees went weak and he knelt down at once. “I deserve to die. I was just possessed, my Lord. I beg Your Lordship to put in a good word for me in front of the Empress and spare my wretched life. Even if I have to slave away like a beast of burden for Your Lordship, I’ll do it.”
Xiao Jin let out a soft sigh. There was a hint of conflicting emotions between his brows. Wei Zhongming saw that there might be a chance for him, so he begged even harder. “My Lord, I haven’t touched a single grain in that cave. I’ll bring you there and we’ll move the grain out now.”
Xiao Jin raised his dark eyes. “Wasn’t the official grain burned? If you want to make up for your mistake, you should at least make up for the official grains that were burned, right? Otherwise, I won’t be able to plead for you in front of Her Imperial Highness.
“Lord Wei, don’t you think so?”
Wei Zhongming widened his eyes in shock and thought he had heard wrongly.
He said tentatively, “My Lord, those official grains…Isn’t that too much? I’m afraid I can’t gather so much grain in such a short time.”
Xiao Jin picked up the teacup on the table and took a small sip. “On my way here, I heard many rumors that are disadvantageous to you, Lord Wei. They say that there has been a drought in Luo City for a long time, but the Imperial Court has not received any news at all. How will Lord Wei explain this to the Emperor when the time comes?”
Wei Zhongming’s face turned pale, and he couldn’t even speak anymore.
On one side was money, on the other side was his life. Which was more important? Wei Zhongming could definitely figure it out!
Wei Zhongming put on a troubled look and pressed his forehead to the ground. “Don’t worry, my Lord. I will do my best to dig out the grains even if I don’t eat or drink anything. Please give me some time.”
“Three days. Three days later, I want to see evidence of Lord Wei’s repentance in the granary.”
“Three days…”
Xiao Jin raised his eyelids. “Too long?”
Wei Zhongming shook his head hurriedly, “No, no. Three days is fine. Three days is fine!”
“Go then.”
“Yes, yes. I will take my leave. I will take my leave.”
When Xiao Jin returned to the guest room courtyard, Su Ying had already exited the city. She still wanted to go outside the city to confirm if there were any patients who had yet to be cured.
However, the results surprised her. All the patients’ symptoms had disappeared, and everyone had returned to normal. There were no newly infected patients, whether inside or outside the city. The plague virus seemed to have appeared out of thin air and disappeared into thin air once more.
From a medical point of view, it was impossible for such a pathological phenomenon to happen, logically speaking, unless the transmission route of the disease was inherently self-eradicating in nature.
“Your Imperial Highness, those people who were infected first which you wanted to investigate have all died.”
“All dead?”
“Yes. Before Miss Zhou started treating these patients, practically none of them survived. The moment symptoms appeared, they would typically die within three to five days.”
The mortality rate of this disease was so high that it was a little scary. “How about corpses? Where are the corpses of the dead patients?”
“They were cremated and then buried.”
“Where are they buried?”
Zhou Qing went to look for an official to inquire. Two hours later, the official brought Su Ying to a deserted mountain. A large patch of newly excavated soil could be vaguely seen on the slope in front of them.
Su Ying gestured for the official to bring a shovel to her. She then told everyone to retreat to a place further away at the back. She then put on a gas mask and started digging.
One… two… three corpses which were burned until charred were dug out.
These corpses had probably been burned repeatedly, and they had already become charred black. Su Ying put on her gloves and cleaned up the corpses, only to discover that the organs of the corpses had all been burned away.
It was difficult to find anything useful from such a badly burned corpse. Many substances would have undergone material changes during the repeated burning process.
Su Ying dug out a few more corpses, but the condition of these corpses was even worse than the earlier ones. There was simply no way to check them. The bones had become so carbonized that they shattered with a single touch of the shovel.
Su Ying was still not satisfied. She kept digging and finally found something not quite the same.
Judging from the remaining body shape, it should be a female corpse. To be more precise, it was the corpse of a pregnant woman.
Su Ying furrowed her brows. The body had also been burned beyond recognition, but perhaps because of the fetus in her abdomen, there were still some organs left in the woman’s body. She took out a large bag and put the body inside. Then, she took advantage of an opportunity when no one was looking to put the body into her interspatial store.
Zhou Qing stood at the back of the forest and craned her neck to watch. If Su Ying hadn’t given an inviolable order that no one was allowed to get close to her, she would have gone over to help Su Ying.
The expressions of the officials standing at the side did not look too good. They all covered their mouths and noses tightly with cloth towels. Even so, they could still smell the stench that soared into the sky.
Su Ying dug for four hours. When the sun was about to set, she stopped and reburied the bodies she had dug out. She then sprayed disinfectant all over her body before walking over to Zhou Qing and the rest.
“Let’s go back to the city before it gets dark.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness.”
When Su Ying returned to the government office, Xiao Jin was already waiting for her in the guest room courtyard.
“Where did you go, Your Imperial Highness?”
Su Ying replied, “I went outside the city to dig up the corpses. I still want to see what kind of strange illness it is.”
Xiao Jin frowned when he heard that. “It’s too dangerous.” They still had not figured out how the disease was transmitted. Those corpses were all carrying the infection. What if she became infected?
Su Ying simply answered without arguing, “I’ll be more careful next time.”
Xiao Jin wanted to step forward, but he saw Zhou Qing standing motionlessly in the room with a swift side glance. “You can go out first.”
Zhou Qing looked at Su Ying but did not move. She felt that this lord’s attitude towards the Empress was not quite right. He did not show the due respect to the Empress that a subject should be displaying!
Su Ying thought that Xiao Jin had something to say to her and told Zhou Qing to bring her dinner.
Before leaving, Zhou Qing glanced at Xiao Jin warily before turning around to leave.
Xiao Jin sat down beside Su Ying. Even though he was wearing a mask, Su Ying could see the aggrieved expression in his eyes. “We’ll return to the capital city after the people from the Ministry of Works arrive.”
Yesterday, Su Ying hadn’t had the chance to discuss this with him. He was now the ruler of a kingdom, so how could he stay away from the capital for so long?
“Tell me first. How did you leave the capital?”
Xiao Jin grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips. He wanted to kiss it, but he smelled a faint rotting stench. His expression froze slightly. He then recalled that she had gone to dig up corpses in the afternoon…
Xiao Jin silently moved her hand from his lips to his chest. “I pretended to be sick.”
“How come you are so sure that the person in Luo City is me and not a trap set by someone?”
Xiao Jin’s dark pupils reflected Su Ying’s icy and elegant appearance. “Wei Zhongming described you in great detail in the letters he sent to the capital city. He bore deep grudges against you. Every detail he described was too similar to your character. At that moment, I felt that it must be you, Yingying. I knew then that you had returned..”