The Empress’ Livestream

The round moon in the sky was covered by a layer of grey clouds, the dim moonlight was darkened and downcast.

Outside of Shangjing city ——

The incessant sound of soil digging increased in volts, a shovel full of soil dug from the hole and thrown to one side. Those ignorant may think which robber is digging his ancestor’s grave. With the help of hundreds of people and their hard work, a large hole lies in the ground, by the side laid a huge pile of soil.

“This depth is about right, continue to dig outwards.”

If the depth is too shallow, when the rain comes, the soil on the surface will be eroded and the corpses beneath will be exposed.

Conversely, if its too deep, the labor of digging will be too immense, and their precious time cannot be wasted.

Jiang Pengji ripped open a bag full of lime beside the pit. Using both hands she laid a cloth over it, then she took a ladle full of lime out which she found at the rice shop.

“Spread this evenly over the sand in the hole.”

The live stream audience held their fears and watched throughout the night. At the thought of needing such a big hole for burying corpses, they felt a gush of cold wind run down their spines.

To lighten the mood, many audience members spontaneously came forth to share a joke, but sadly the effect was minimal.

As time passed, one after another, the corpses were sent into the deep hole. Jiang Pengji watched on solemnly while the others were silent.

The morning sunlight shone through leaves and to the ground, leaving motley traces. Within the hole, the scene could be covered all at one glance.

Even her personal troops, let alone the imperial guards, felt uncontrollably nauseous as the night wore on some squatted on the ground with their eyes reddened. Without sleep the entire night, no one dare complain they were tired, they all silently looked upon the dead bodies in the pit and were in a daze for some time.

All that could be heard was Jiang Pengji’s hoarse voice, “Cover the hole…this hole alone cannot contain all the corpses.”

After that, she used both hands to hold the shovel to cover the pit with sand. Just then, everyone understood, they followed her instructions with mechanical motions and blank looks on their faces. They overlaid a layer of sand, subsequently, she got men to carefully spread a layer of lime over, then continued to till the ground.

Piling up a towering grave, they packed the sand tightly to prevent any wild animals or hungry birds from creating a mess.

Lastly, they erected a wordless tombstone.

“Everyone is tired for the night,” she said, looking around at them all. “Proceed to wash your hands and face, eat some food and rest for four hours before we rotate our shifts.”

The early morning sunlight was as the flowing golden sand, dazzling and beautiful. Those imperial guards and troops who stayed up late to dig the pit had sore eyes. Exhaustion hit them and their eyelids desperately wish to stick together.

Before, they were nervous, but now each one desperately wished to lie down and sleep.

In spite of their exhaustion, filling their stomachs still came first.

The scent from the two giant containers of porridge and steaming hot buns drifted into the air, and their stomachs rumbled like thunder.

They were truly starved.

They queued to wash their hands and faces. Then receiving their share of porridge and a bun each, they randomly found a place to squat and ate voraciously.

The imperial guards ate with etiquette, while the troops appeared as if they hadn’t eaten in years, some ate so quickly that they almost choked.

In order to meet up with Jiang Pengji as quickly as possible, the troops under Qiguan Rang’s orders continued journeying on. Including the last night, they’ve not slept for three days and two nights. They had dark circles under their eyes and looked dazed, but after gulping down their hot porridge and steamed buns, they felt refreshed as if given a new life.

When their stomachs were full and their limbs felt comfortably warm, many leaned back against the trees and snored.

This sight was taken in by Jiang Pengji and she felt comforted. She focused on eating the food on her plate and ate it clean.

With a thousand imperial guards and another thousand private troops, the search and rescue efficiency is incomparable to before, as many more injured are sent to the camp base. Amidst the scorching heat of the day, the corpses unearthed from the ruins are immediately transported to be buried outside the city.

If other carcasses of small animals are discovered, they are burnt immediately, the camp base and its surroundings must be cleaned routinely and overlaid with lime.

—-

“What is this?”

Feng Jin pinched something with an odd shape. It was not solely his but also possessed by Qiguan Rang and the others.

“A mask.”

Jiang Pengji furrowed her brows and answered, the audience in the live streaming room reminded her of this item.

Masks did not exist during her era, rather, it has been obsolete for thousands of years. It belonged to the history books as an antique.

“What use is this?”

Feng Jin had stared at it helplessly for half a day but still don’t know how it functions. It doesn’t look like a handkerchief yet is too small to be a curtain.

“Cover the area around your mouth and nose, tie the four strings securely ’round the back of one’s head. Diseases often spread via the nose and mouth, if a mask is used to cover these susceptible areas and one is careful of their intake of water and food, most likely an epidemic outbreak can be prevented,” Jiang Pengji explained once through, then donned her mask to demonstrate how it’s used.

Feng Jin processed what was said and discovered the logic in it.

“This is good stuff,” he said in a muffled voice behind his own mask. “And it can also hide scents.”

At this point, the piles of corpses have been buried, but the camp base for the injured are still full of people. Occasionally there’ll be the severely sick who are incurable, and they’d be carried out.

The air is still filled with a concentrated bloody smell, however, after putting on the mask, the situation improved somewhat.

The mask that Jiang Pengji mentioned is not exchanged from the mall, realistically the mall was rubbish where masks are not sold there.

She tasked some servant maidens to find an airy material, after overlaying two to three layers, they sewed them together. A few sets were made. Under the scorching sun, it’d be bearable wearing them. The materials available are limited, those simple masks synthesized will be given to the most important people first.

After use, it could be sterilized in boiling water then dried to be re-used.

The sole reason to rejoice came roughly two days after the earthquake. The injured only had symptoms of fever and feeling faint. They had no other signs of diseases.

Even so, Jiang Pengji could not let her guard down too early, she had to prepare for what’s ahead.

Setting her sights on the pitiful city, she inwardly dragged the System out and mercilessly lashed out at it.

Rubbish!

The System who was grounded heard her rants and sneered.

Was she blaming it now?

Compared to the nuisance System, the viewers in the live streaming room were much cuter. Hearing that Jiang Pengji was frustrated over the epidemic outbreak, they brainstormed solutions together as three average people may devise a better strategy than one wise person. With a coalesce of 150,000 viewers, they indeed found a resolution.

Dahongzao: “Streamer, Streamer, I suddenly recalled a time travel book to Qing Dynasty I once read, the female lead treated the fourth prince’s strange illness using roots of reed boiled in water. Although I don’t know if it’s reliable, there’s no harm trying to boil it for others to drink. Perhaps it had prophylactic effects.”

Liushen Hualushui: “This can’t be true. Can groundless web novels even be trusted?”

One Chestnut: “En, roots of reeds when boiled functions to alleviate internal heat, induce sweat, stop nausea, aid in urination; it’s primarily used to treat fever and excessive thirst, it warms the stomach preventing nausea, reduces cough due to heaty throat, pain from extreme heat subsides and other functions … the above information is derived from Baidu. One remains ignorant without finding things out but is overwhelmed by shock with knowledge. Although the roots of reeds seem difficult to boil, many illnesses present with continuous nausea and diarrhea… Perhaps…they should be…useful?”

Shaunglu Dianchi: “#rubsface. Seeking an experienced Chinese medicine practitioner, the streamer needs your service badly.”

Jiang Pengji sighed briefly at the sight of the bullet screen.

Even if she had the manpower, it was useless in a shortage of medical herbs.

The medical herbs are most commonly found in the city market, albeit expensive, but now they can’t even be purchased.

Luckily, they saved a middle-aged man amid the ruins that is a doctor and he’s not severely injured. He has since replaced the maids in the mansion as the principal doctor at the camp base holding the sick and injured. All the available herbs from the damaged medical shops have been dug out by him to save the people.

Surveying the few medical herbs on display at the mall, Jiang Pengji adopted the audience’s suggestions and decided on exchanging for some mugwort leaves and roots of reeds.

The mugwort leaf has properties to suppress or eliminate various virus or sickness, it serves as a useful antidote and cure.

As for the roots of the reeds…they would exchange for them to prepare for the worst.