odessanovel Chapter 228
Chapter 228
Zhao Chengyu was the deposed crown prince under house arrest.Without the emperor’s permission, he couldn’t leave the capital.
So, his words carried immense credibility.
With the magistrate of Lai County, the soldiers guarding the town, and Zhao Meng as witnesses, the truth about the epidemic in Dayang Town was revealed to the public.
Everyone who heard the truth could hardly believe it, yet they were forced to accept it.
“Has the emperor gone mad? How could he order the burning of a whole town just to eliminate loyal officials?”
“Exactly! Dayang Town may not be large, but it has six or seven thousand people!”
“Most importantly, an epidemic is contagious. If something goes wrong, no one can escape.”
“To use three types of plague to harm the people and loyal officials—someone like that doesn’t deserve to be a ruler!”
Since their own safety was at stake, everyone was furious at the emperor’s actions, their curses growing harsher and harsher.
Qi Yanzhou let them vent for a while before saying, “Now that you know the emperor is a tyrant, you must watch your words and deeds carefully. Don’t speak out boldly and bring disaster upon yourselves.”
The moment these words were spoken, the angry shouts immediately ceased.
No one wanted to die from the plague only to be killed by the deranged tyrant instead.
“Rest assured, my wife is a brilliant physician who has stabilized the outbreak in Dayang Town. It’ll only take a few days before the danger is lifted.
But I still must remind everyone: stay indoors as much as possible, don’t go near the villages around Dayang Town, and I will arrange for people to conduct thorough checks one by one.
If anyone finds that people in their vicinity have recently visited Dayang Town, send them here immediately. Do not hide the illness out of fear, harming both themselves and others.”
After Qi Yanzhou finished, everyone quickly chimed in.
“Young Master Qi, rest assured. If we find anyone who has been to Dayang Town, we’ll not only urge them to come but also bring everyone they’ve come into contact with here.”
Everyone knew how terrifying an epidemic could be, and they wouldn’t pretend to comply on this matter.
Someone asked, “How much will the medicine to treat the plague cost?”
Qi Yanzhou instructed Han Chong to take the infected Zhao Chengyu back to the cellar before replying.
“This calamity was man-made. The magistrate of Lai County will first foot the bill for the medicine, then report it to the emperor, demanding he make up the cost.”
This proposal won the approval of all the townspeople.
“Since it was man-made, the one who caused it should pay!”
“Thank you all for coming to Dayang Town to hear the truth. While I can’t punish the true culprits who sought to harm the people, I can root out the corrupt officials in Lai County and restore peace here.”
“Young Master Qi is a man of honor, and we deeply admire him.”
Qi Yanzhou waved his hand. “The weather is scorching. Please go back. If you could help spread the word about the emperor’s tyranny and misrule, I, Qi, will be forever grateful.”
With that, he bowed deeply to everyone.
The crowd, unwilling to accept such a gesture, quickly bowed back, bending even lower.
“Go on, all of you!”
After Qi Yanzhou’s repeated urging, the crowd gathered outside Dayang Town soon dispersed.
The sun scorched the earth, and the kneeling soldiers were already dehydrated, swaying unsteadily.
Though the magistrate of Lai County had arrived only moments ago, he was drenched in sweat and trembling all over.
As Qi Yanzhou approached, the magistrate’s legs gave way, and he fell to his knees.
“Young Master Qi, I didn’t want to kill an entire town, but I’m just a minor official. The emperor’s orders are impossible to defy!”
Qi Yanzhou lifted the magistrate’s chin with the tip of his boot, letting out a sneer full of contempt.
“Is it really that the imperial decree couldn’t be defied, or did the promised rewards make you choose your career over morality?”
He cut straight to the magistrate’s despicable motives.
The magistrate lowered his head in shame, muttering to himself.
“I didn’t want this. If I had refused, I’d have been not only stripped of my office but also killed without a proper burial.”
He knew too much of the emperor’s secrets; collaboration was the only way out.
Of course, the desire for promotion and wealth was also genuine.
Qi Yanzhou dismissed the magistrate’s excuses. “When you do wrong, you must face the consequences. The thousands of lives in Dayang Town demand repayment.”
His cold words dispelled the summer heat, leaving the magistrate feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
His pale lips quivered, but not a single word of rebuttal or plea for mercy escaped them.
“You... what do you plan to do?”
His voice was broken, barely audible, as if stuck in his throat.
Instead of answering, Qi Yanzhou turned his gaze to the kneeling soldiers and asked, “What about these men? How do you intend to handle them?”
Hearing this, the magistrate’s eyes sparked with gleams of hope.
To him, it seemed Qi Yanzhou was hinting that if he would submit, he could shift the blame onto these soldiers as scapegoats!
“These soldiers are utterly depraved and deserve death. They must be beheaded as a warning to the people.”
Qi Yanzhou nodded approvingly. “The magistrate is quite right.”
The moment he finished, the kneeling soldiers began kowtowing frantically.
“We were only following orders! Please, Young Master Qi, spare our lives!”
“I have elderly parents and young children at home. If I die, my family won’t survive either!”
“It was the emperor who wanted to destroy the Qi family, not us!”
“What right does the magistrate have to behead us? He was the one who ordered the burning of the town!”
Listening to their desperate protests, Qi Yanzhou said, “Don’t worry. None of you will escape.”
Then he called Zhao Meng over.
“Execute the magistrate of Lai County on the spot.”
Without hesitation, Zhao Meng drew the saber from his waist and decapitated the magistrate in one stroke.
The head, its eyes still wide open in death, rolled on the ground, its severed neck drenching it in a spray of blood.
Though the soldiers weren’t strangers to executions, they had never witnessed something so shocking.
A seventh-rank magistrate had been killed just like that. What about them?
At that thought, one soldier decided he wouldn’t wait to be slaughtered like a lamb. He scrambled to his feet to flee.
But before he could even stand fully, a long blade pierced straight through his chest.
Zhao Meng’s icy voice rang out, “Anyone else who tries to run will have their entire family wiped out!”
At that, the rest of the soldiers abandoned any thought of escape.
Half an hour later, the deputy commander of the Northwest Garrison arrived at Dayang Town with two thousand soldiers.
The soldiers who had besieged the town were beheaded, their blood forming a circle around Dayang Town.
The air was thick with the choking stench of blood, enough to make anyone sick.
Yet the townspeople rejoiced, for they had finally witnessed evil punished in kind.
The severed heads and bodies of the soldiers were taken to a mass grave and burned.
With the recent extreme heat, piles of rotting corpses could easily spark an epidemic, so cremation was the safest choice.
Thankfully, a southerly wind blew, keeping the smell of burning flesh from drifting into the town.
With the magistrate of Lai County dead, the county’s affairs were temporarily handled by the deputy magistrate.
Ye Chutang listed all the medicine, its quantity and price, calculated the total, and had Wu Chenggang deliver the list to the county office.
“You must bring back the silver before dark,” she instructed.
Wu Chenggang had long lost the arrogance he’d had as an escorts officer. He accepted the list with respect.
“Yes, Madam Qi.”
Then, he pulled out a fifty-tael silver note from his pocket and handed it to Ye Chutang.
“Madam Qi, I profited greatly from you before. Now I return it with interest.”
On the journey ahead, they would surely face other life-threatening dangers.
If he could stay in Ye Chutang’s good graces, his odds of survival would improve.
Ye Chutang understood Wu Chenggang’s hidden agenda.
“It would be rude to refuse.”
She took the banknote and tucked it into her sleeve.
“Lord Wu, rest assured. As long as you obey, I won’t make your journey difficult.”
If something happened, she would prioritize protecting her own people. Only if she had spare time and energy, and it wouldn’t put her in danger, would she save someone she didn’t know well.
Wu Chenggang knew he had little ability and wasn’t highly regarded by the Qi family. To hear Ye Chutang say “I won’t make things difficult for you” was already enough for him.
“Madam Qi, rest assured. I know when to adapt to circumstances.”
With that, he took the detailed list of medicinal herbs and left the pharmacy, heading toward Lai County.
It was now noon.
Concubine Xu and Qi He’an were cooking. The weather was scorching, so the mother and son decided to make cold noodles.
Sun Chu’s wounds had yet to heal, so he returned to his room to rest and recuperate. Qi Yanzhou was busy arranging for the Northwest garrison to accompany the imperial guard into the villages to investigate the infected villagers.
Ye Chutang had nothing to do, so she decided to stroll around the town.
Just as she reached the entrance, Zhao Mingxu rushed over in a panic.
“Ye Chutang, hurry and save my son!”
Before he could finish his sentence, he reached out to grab Ye Chutang’s arm.
Ye Chutang immediately sidestepped to dodge.
Zhao Mingxu grasped at nothing and, losing his balance, fell to the ground. His sleeve was torn, the skin on his elbow scraped off, and blood stained the bluestone tiles dark.
As if feeling no pain, he knelt before Ye Chutang, tears and snot streaming down his face.
“Qingshu is my only son. I beg you to save him. Name any condition—I’ll agree to it!”
With that, he started kowtowing forcefully.
Ye Chutang listened to the loud thuds and caught sight of Zhao Simin leaning disheveled against the entrance of the fabric shop. She guessed what had happened.
It must be that Zhao Mingxu had tried to poison Zhao Simin with rat poison, but Zhao Qingshu had swallowed it by mistake.
If Zhao Qingshu had just taken the rat poison, she could still save him.
But she didn’t want to!
Ye Chutang looked at Zhao Mingxu, who had cast aside all dignity for his only son, and a cruel smirk curled at the corner of her mouth.
“Karma’s a circle. Serves you right.”
With that, she bypassed the kowtowing Zhao Mingxu and walked away.
Zhao Mingxu felt like the sky was falling. “Doctor! Doctor at the pharmacy! Please, save my son!”
If Ye Chutang wouldn’t save him, no doctor at the pharmacy dared to try.
“I have no medicine. I can’t help.”
Hearing this, Zhao Mingxu knew his only hope was Ye Chutang. He scrambled to his feet and chased after her.
“Ye Chutang, I was blind before. I helped the emperor scheme against the Qi family. Now I know I was wrong! If you’ll only save Qingshu, I’ll atone with my death!”
The plague had made him face reality. To the emperor, even a brother born of the same mother was dispensable!
He could no longer father sons, and his only son must not die—or the Zhao bloodline would end!
Ye Chutang couldn’t care less about Zhao Mingxu’s life. She completely ignored his words.
She wished every last person in the Zhao family were dead!
As she passed Zhao Simin, she asked with a smile, “How was last night? Unforgettable?”
Zhao Simin glared at Ye Chutang with venomous hatred, her scar-covered face twisting in fury.
“Even as a ghost, I’ll never forgive you!”
With that, she recklessly charged at Ye Chutang, desperate to stab her even if it meant dying.
But she had been tortured badly the night before and could barely walk from the pain.
Ye Chutang grabbed Zhao Simin’s wrist and kicked her knee.
The sound of bone cracking rang out, and a sharp pair of scissors clattered to the ground.
“Ah!”
Zhao Simin’s shattered kneecap hit the ground hard, and she passed out from the pain.
Ye Chutang released her broken wrist and kicked her toward Zhao Mingxu, who had run up behind them.
“Kill her. Avenge your son.”
Zhao Mingxu picked up the fallen scissors and, without a moment’s hesitation, plunged them into Zhao Simin’s chest.
The pain jolted Zhao Simin awake.
She looked at her father, whose face was full of murderous intent, and tried to say something.
But all that came out of her mouth were bloody bubbles. She died with her eyes wide open.
Zhao Mingxu, terrified by Zhao Simin’s staring corpse, collapsed to the ground.
“You poisoned Qingshu—you deserved to die!”
He threw away the bloodstained scissors and stumbled into the fabric shop.
Ye Chutang continued her stroll through the town.
After just a few steps, Ye Siyin caught up and knelt before her.
“Elder sister, I beg you to save Qingshu. Name any condition—I’ll agree. I don’t want my child to grow up without a father.”
Ye Chutang was not surprised that Ye Siyin was pregnant. After all, whenever she had the chance, she would spend the whole night with Zhao Qingshu.
“Any condition?”
Ye Siyin, surprised to hear there was room for negotiation, brightened.
“Anything I can do, I’ll agree!”
“Then wipe out the entire Ye family.”
Old Madam Ye, who was standing at the fabric shop entrance watching the drama, shrieked in terror upon hearing this.
“Ye Chutang, how can your heart be so vicious? I am your grandmother!”
Ye Chutang wagged her index finger.
“I broke ties with the Ye family long ago. To me, you old hag are nothing but an accomplice who helped kill my mother.”
Old Madam Ye had been frightened by Ye Chutang before the Ye family was confiscated.
During their exile, she often dreamed of Tang Wanning coming to claim her life, and was frequently startled awake. Her spirit had deteriorated, and she had lost a lot of weight.
Now, under Ye Chutang’s icy stare, she retreated a step, sweat beading on her forehead.
She quickly averted her gaze and looked at Ye Siyin.
“Yin’er, don’t listen to Ye Chutang. She wants us all dead!”
Ye Siyin had no intention of killing her entire family.
Not because she particularly loved her family, but because she had no reason to do something so unfilial.
Moreover, she didn’t really care whether Zhao Qingshu lived or died.
The only reason she knelt before Ye Chutang and begged for his life was to prove to the Zhao family how deeply she loved Zhao Qingshu and to use the opportunity to reveal her pregnancy.
To be honest, she wished Zhao Qingshu were dead!
Because if Zhao Qingshu died, no one would ever know she had drugged him, and the Zhao family would treasure her and her unborn child even more!
As expected, Zhao Mingxu rushed out of the fabric shop and asked excitedly, “Miss Ye, are you truly carrying Qingshu’s child?”
He had always looked down on Ye Siyin for her lack of self-respect, but now he treated her with unprecedented politeness.
Ye Siyin cried with tears streaming down her face. “Uncle Zhao, if you don’t believe me, you can have a doctor check my pulse.”
Then, still kneeling, she turned to face Zhao Mingxu and kowtowed.
“Uncle Zhao, I’m sorry. I can’t kill my entire family. I can’t save Qingshu.”
Zhao Mingxu immediately helped her up.
“Silly child, get up. This isn’t your fault. Go see Qingshu one last time.”
He shot a hateful glare at Ye Chutang, then helped Ye Siyin into the shop.
Ye Chutang glanced at Zhao Simin’s unclaimed corpse, lost interest in her walk, and returned to the pharmacy.
No sooner had she sat down than Zhao Meng, who had been standing guard outside the town, strode in quickly.
He looked at Qi Yanzhou. “Master Qi, Lord Xie of the Imperial Observatory is outside the town and wishes to see you.”