Acuerdo de Mu Yucheng

Capítulo 105

Since she couldn't appear before Zehua, she probably couldn't stay in this courtyard house either. And not knowing where else to go, she decided to find a place to stay in Rongyang first.

"Madam, before the Prince of Yan left, he asked Xiao Luzi to give me a purse." Lan Wu said as he handed over the blue purse in his hand.

He didn't ask her any questions about her sudden decision to leave the courtyard house. However, it was really not advisable for them to travel far at the moment. Her body had been tossed about in the flood and she had been running a high fever for several days before she regained consciousness. Given her pregnancy, it would be best for her to find a place to rest quietly.

Wanlan took it in surprise, opened it, and found some silver coins and a note inside.

Take out the slip of paper and unfold it. There is a line of text on it, which seems to be an address.

"What's this?"

"Xiao Luzi said that the Prince of Yan asked him to tell the lady that if she has changed her mind, she can stay here temporarily."

Startled for a moment, Wanlan suddenly burst out laughing. Zhao Dezhao was indeed a rather arrogant fellow! He had long guessed that she would definitely follow his wishes and not see Zehua again, because she really didn't dare to joke about Zehua's life.

"Let's go."

"Madam!" Lan Wu rushed to him. "Madam, are you really planning to never see the Prince again? Have you considered how desperate the Prince would be if he couldn't find you? If he truly believes something has happened to you, then—"

"Lan Wu." Wan Lan glanced at him quietly, then turned and walked past him, continuing forward. "Let's go."

She knew, of course, that Zehua would be panicked if he couldn't find her, but Zhao Dezhao's concerns were not unfounded. Zehua was already terrified after hearing that she had gone missing in the flood, and once he found her, he would be even more determined to leave. If she saw Zehua now, she would absolutely not be able to harden her heart and ignore his worries to ask him to stay.

Zehua impulsively broke off the relationship because of her accident. She didn't know if he would regret it in the future, but she couldn't afford to gamble. It was better to avoid seeing each other for the time being and let Zehua calm down first.

She plans to stay here until Zehua returns to Rongyang.

However, she did not expect that the silver left behind by Zhao Dezhao would be completely useless.

As he said that day, the people in the city had already bought and stored up food because of the flood, and the grain and oil shops in the city had closed down half a month ago, so they had nowhere to buy food.

Left with no other choice, Lan Wu returned to the courtyard house and moved all the food and supplies stored there over, enough for them to last for more than a month. She couldn't help but wonder, when Ze Hua returned to Rongyang and found the food gone from the courtyard house, would he suspect that she had returned or that the place had been robbed?

The place Zhao Dezhao found for them was a small village outside Rongyang City. The village originally had thirty or forty households, but now only about ten households remain. She and Lan Wu lied and said that they were siblings and were disaster victims from Rongze County. Because they did not want to go too far from home, they wanted to stay here temporarily and wait for the court's relief.

The villagers who remained were mostly elderly people who didn't want to leave the place where they had spent most of their lives. They readily accepted their explanations. She suspected that Zhao Dezhao must have investigated the area before deciding to give her this address.

But he never imagined that this place would almost ruin her.

At the end of July, a couple with a child came to the village. They were dressed in rags and looked miserable. When Wanlan asked them, she learned that they were disaster victims who had died in Baima County. They had gotten separated from others and couldn't tell which way to go, so they wandered around aimlessly and ended up in this place.

Seeing that they were so weak from hunger, Wanlan couldn't bear it. After discussing it with the village elders, she let the family stay and even took out some of her remaining food to give to them.

At first, Wanlan had no idea why this family had gotten separated from the others, and even if they were wandering aimlessly, they shouldn't have headed towards Rongze, the area most severely affected by the disaster. However, a few days later, in a state of panic, she finally learned the reason.

Because there weren't many people in the village, and everyone was worried that if something happened, they wouldn't have time to tell each other, so about ten households lived in the same row of houses. Children hadn't been seen in the village for a long time, and the elderly people were very fond of the one-year-old baby of the newly moved-in family, often gathering around to play with the child.

Wanlan's health showed no signs of improvement. Ever since waking up with a high fever in Red Maple Town, her body couldn't tolerate any strenuous activity, so she rarely went out unless necessary. Lanwu, on the other hand, went out every day, saying that even if he couldn't meet the prince now, he at least needed to know the prince's whereabouts.

Wanlan went with him; if they could really find out about Zehua, she would feel more at ease.

She never imagined that the small village would be shrouded in gloom at this time.

As August arrived and the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, the weather, which had been sunny for several days, suddenly turned cold and was followed by a torrential downpour. Several elderly people in the village suddenly fell ill at this critical juncture, and their illnesses came on rapidly, causing panic among everyone, including Wanlan.

After visiting the sick elderly, she was horrified to discover that the village seemed to be afflicted by a plague, and that the family of three was very likely the source of the plague, since the sick elderly were the ones who were closest to the child in that family.

Despite the panic, Wanlan decisively isolated the family, forbidding them from contacting anyone else, and placed the infected elderly people separately according to their severity. Apart from that, she didn't know what else to do, so she could only send Lanwu to the city as soon as possible to see if there were any doctors who hadn't moved away.

Their luck wasn't completely bad; Lan Wu really did manage to bring two doctors from the county town. After handing the patient over to the doctors, Wan Lan finally relaxed her nerves, which had been tense all day. However, the exhaustion that followed made her lean weakly against the earthen wall behind her. She struggled to remove the cloth covering her face, which was meant to protect her, and then she didn't want to move anymore.

“Madam,” Lan Wu, who was standing beside her, spoke in a muffled voice.

Wanlan didn't even bother to lift her eyes, only giving a soft "hmm".

"We can't stay here any longer, we need to leave immediately."

Wanlan slowly looked up at him, shook her head with a bitter smile, "Lanwu, I can't walk anymore..." Her legs went weak, and she fainted.

If I leave... where can I go?

At that moment, Wanlan suddenly realized that Zhao Dezhao had cornered her with no way out.

Chapter 96 Two Places of Contemplation, Each Knowing Its Own Understanding (1)

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the second year of the Taiping Xingguo era, one month and eleven days had passed since the Yellow River breached its banks and flooded Xingze. Li Chongju, who was ordered to inspect the Yellow River, had already comforted most of the disaster victims, and the work of repairing the river embankment was already on track and proceeding intensively.

Xue Weiji, who had promised to find Zhao Defang for Wanlan, found Zhao Defang near Yingchang, south of Zhengzhou, and told him that Wanlan was waiting for him in Xingyang. Five days had passed since then.

Zhao Defang rushed back to Xingyang overnight, only to be shocked to find that Xingyang had become a ghost town. There was no one there, not even a mouse!

Standing at the entrance of the dilapidated courtyard house, Zhao Defang gritted her teeth and tried her best to control the urge to roar.

After searching for her for over a month, just when he was about to despair, Xue Weiji brought him the news that she was safe and sound. He was overjoyed at the sudden joy. However, he did not expect that when he returned to this place and found that she was not there, the joy that lasted for less than a day was once again completely swallowed up by panic.

Since Wanlan said she would wait for him here, she would not leave easily unless something happened to her!

"Lan Wen!"

Zhao Defang clenched his fists, struggling to control his trembling body, and called out in a tense voice to the person beside him, "How did Xingyang become a ghost town? Go and find out immediately!"

Lan Wen paused for a moment, then turned to leave. "Yes!"

The clatter of hooves grew closer, and the rider, upon seeing them, disregarded the horse's still-unstable footsteps, leaped up, and galloped towards them, urgently calling out, "Wait!"

The man who arrived was Xue Weiji. He was dressed in plain blue clothes and rushed to Zhao Defang, saying hurriedly, "There's no need for Lan Wen to investigate this matter. I have already inquired about the whole story from Lord Li."

Zhao Defang suddenly looked up and glared at him, his throat choked with emotion, unable to utter a question.