Qi Yue, annoyed, said coldly, "If I were you, I would seriously reconsider how this all began. When did the symptoms first appear? Did you consu anything unusual? Instead of discussing these pointless matters."
Huang Zai'an was cursing as well.
"Exactly, think hard. If you can't find the cause, none of you are going to make it!"
The group of maidservants were so frightened that they kept silent and started to reflect.
But soon, these won were staring with teary eyes again.
Because they had no leads, none of them could rember when things had started to go wrong, and as for unusual food, they claid they hadn't co into contact with any.
Qi Yue then inquired about Lin Keke's situation and approximately confird that the woman had left early in the morning the day Hu Keqing died.
At that ti, none of these people had shown any symptoms yet.
Upon hearing this, Huang Zai'an felt sowhat relieved.
"That's good, at least things outside Longnan County Governnt are safe!"
But Qi Yue didn't think so.
"Master, haven't you considered the incubation period of the disease?"
Huang Zai'an was taken aback.
"Incubation period? What is that?"
Qi Yue tugged at the corner of her mouth and explained simply, "For example, before an egg hatches, it undergoes a long heating process. It's the sa with diseases. You, old man, should know this better than !"
Huang Zai'an clapped his hands.
"I know this, how could I not know? It's just a different way of saying it!"
Seeing him struggling to maintain face, Qi Yue couldn't bear to expose him and handed him a sampling kit. She demonstrated first how to take samples and how to mark them with symbols. Once Huang Zai'an was doing it correctly, the two began to work together on sampling.
Soon she noticed a situation.
The people inside the Hu Residence were significantly more affected than those working outside.
Qi Yue speculated it was related to the order of infection.
The won of the Hu Family must have been infected first and then transmitted it to the servants.
The servants went out to buy vegetables and run errands, thus spreading the infection throughout Longnan County Governnt.
After asking Huang Zai'an, this was indeed confird.
"Disciple, your guess was not wrong. The first to show symptoms were mostly people involved in selling vegetables and at, and dealing with garbage. But these last few days it's beco unclear. Given the speed of transmission, I fear half the city's population is already infected."
Qi Yue felt a chill in her heart as she listened.
"Hasn't Chu Yuntian done anything about this? This situation should be completely quarantined!"
Huang Zai'an sighed.
"It's not that easy. The infected are all poor commoners. Besides, the disease does not cause pain or itching, and before these immobilizing symptoms, who would spend money on a doctor? Even if they saw a doctor, they would just take so dicine and ignore it. As for quarantine, forget about it—they're too busy working. Fortunately, Sir Chu wields so influence and has brought all the holess from the streets here, otherwise we wouldn't know what to do!"
After a pause, he suddenly exclaid in surprise, "Disciple, did you not address Sir Chu as your godfather just now but as Chu Yuntian? What's going on? Did Sir Chu offend you?"
Qi Yue frowned.
"I didn't say that, you heard wrong."
Seeing him open his mouth to ask more, Qi Yue glared from behind her helt.
"Master, do you want to continue working or not?"
Huang Zai'an imdiately sensed there was an issue and stopped asking.
Soon, they finished sampling and exited the house, their backs too sore to straighten up.
Upon inspection, their clothing was already spotted with unidentified liquid substances.
Qi Yue quickly stopped Zhao Xiyan, who was about to help her remove her protective suit, and took it off herself.
She then took out scissors, cotton swabs, and other items, collecting samples from both the protective suit and the helt.
"Burn the rest," she said.
As soon as she spoke, Zhao Chong and Zhao Tai imdiately got busy, throwing a torch down, and within monts, both sets of protective clothing had turned to ash.
The samples she collected went straight into a small bag at her side, which, in reality, was taken to the laboratory by her assistant for processing.
The bag, whether being stuffed or retrieved from, remained diminutive and flat, which piqued the interest of Huang Zai'an, who purposefully leaned in for a closer look.
His slight movent did not escape Qi Yue, who was about to scold him when Huang Zai'an spoke first.
"Apprentice, I have a question for you. Didn't I just send out a letter the day before yesterday? How co you arrived this morning? If you were in Yecheng, wouldn't it take several days and nights at least?"
Qi Yue, who was washing her hands with Spiritual Spring Water, stopped imdiately upon hearing this.
"I won't answer that question. Ask sothing useful, or else admit that you just tried to grab this precious little bag of mine."
Huang Zai'an shuddered his mustache, was about to explode in anger but, seeing Zhao Xiyan standing there with a cold face, quickly changed his tone.
"Apprentice, this won't do. All the people of the Hu Family are gone, who will take care of these people? I am responsible for nothing but preparing the dicine."
Qi Yue huffed.
"No need to prepare any dicine, your dicine is useless. Besides, they will soon be unable to eat anything."
Huang Zai'an was shocked, "What do you an by that?"
Qi Yue compressed her lips, sharing her suspicions.
"I just think there is no such inexplicable illness. Once their entire bodies petrify, I fear they won't be able to move their tongues either!"
"...Is that really possible?... Wouldn't they then die of starvation instead of the illness?" Huang Zai'an was stunned too.
"Let's hope my guess is wrong!"
At this point, it was already impossible to delve deeper.
Thinking that there might be countless infected people in Longnan County Governnt, Qi Yue's brain felt like gears grinding together; that feeling of wanting to do sothing but being powerless was too frustrating.
However, she still had to try to save them, being a doctor!
After pondering for a while, she decided to first use Spiritual Spring Water as a base to concoct a soothing broth to see if it was of any use.
Given the current circumstances, Spiritual Spring Water was the only thing she could think of using.
She imdiately found the well water at the Hu Residence, checked it, found no issues, and then infused it with a large amount of Spiritual Spring Water.
She then prescribed a formula to promote qi circulation, benefit the water channels, and detoxify, for Huang Zai'an to supervise the brewing with Spiritual Spring Water.
Before leaving the Hu Residence, she made another visit to Hu Keqing's courtyard, but found nothing of value amidst the desolation and nausea.
During her previous visit, she had already tested all the Immortal Bug corpses in the courtyard and found nothing that could cause the disease.
This inspection was the sa.
Recalling Hu Keqing's last words, Qi Yue began to suspect that the legacy he referred to was the poison affecting everyone in the residence.
Asking her to his room was rely an excuse.
Although she still didn't fully understand why Qing Nanzun's poisoned people were in the Hu Residence, or why Hu Keqing would watch his family die like this, she felt sowhat guilty.
If she had not cared about facing Chu Yuntian and had examined the Hu Residence in broad daylight.
Or if she had searched the entire Hu Residence that very night, she might have realized sothing was wrong with these people!
Sitting in the carriage on the way back to Qi Mansion, Qi Yue kept thinking about this matter, completely ignoring Zhao Xiyan sitting opposite her.
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