Chapter 40 - Lord Xia, You...
Chapter 40 Lord Xia, You…
It was already noon?!
The sky was overcast with no sign of time. Su Muge had no idea that she would wake up at midday, and the only thing she could remember was that she did not sleep well last night.
“So, what kind of plan do you have against the flood, Lord Su?”
Xia Houmo changed the topic of their conversation, and Su Muge was clever enough to contend with him. She said, “Lord Xia, please follow me to the study, and we’ll talk about the details there.”
“Sure.”
The two of them stepped in, and Granny Fang left after she served the tea.
A detailed topographic map of Zhou county was opened in front of them by Su Muge, and her hand pointing at the river that went through the whole county.
“In my opinion, it’s crucial to build a dam now, and to raise the river bank with sands and stones…”
At first, Xia Houmo only listened with a devil-may-care attitude. But then his face became more and more serious while Su Muge went further with her analysis of the situation. He grabbed the tea cup on the table and took a sip.
“Our duty now is to avoid any further loss caused by the flood, as well as taking precautions against any possible disease.” After finishing the words, Su Muge took up the tea cup on the table, and drained it. Too much talk did make her thirsty.
With a look at the empty tea cup Su Muge had put down, and another glimpse at a cup of tea that was not touched, Xia Houmo finally set his eyes on Su Muge, who was then struggling with something and frowned.
“The current problem is we don’t have enough people. There are too few young and strong people available in the county, and even fewer willing to contribute, which is rather urgent and needs to be solved.”
“I’ve got enough men.”
“You have brought people with you, Lord Xia?” Su Muge doubted since according to Master Li, this Lord Xia came only with a group of people less than ten.
However, that was of no importance at this moment compared to the words he had just promised.
“Thank you so much, Lord Xia.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I shall leave.” There was an enormous aura with the presence of this Lord Xia, which made Su Muge uncomfortable with great pressure. She didn’t like it.
“Lord Su, where are you going?”
With a swift movement, Xia Houmo stood up and walked to Su Muge’s side before he finished the words.
“Yesterday, when I checked the victims in the shabby temple, I found many of them sick. So I’m going to go there again to check those patients.”
“Then, I’ll go with you, Lord Su.”
What?! There was discontent fueling in Su Muge’s heart. Why was this capital official came out of nowhere kept bothering her? Why not find some cool and pleasant place for himself!
“Donglin, did you get Lord Su’s words?”
Donglin, who had been standing and listening to their conversation aside, echoed, “I understand.”
Xia Houmo looked at Su Muge, and said, “Lord Su, let’s go.”
Su Muge groaned angrily deep down her heart. She turned aside and left the study. After she fetched the medical box from her room, she came to the outside of the county yamen.
There was only one carriage.
During her hesitation, a voice came out from the carriage, which Su Muge felt extremely reluctant to hear. “Lord Su, what are you waiting for down there?”
Su Muge took a deep breath and climbed into the carriage.
It was not a large carriage, and the slim and tall figure of Xia Houmo had already taken up most of the space in it. Su Muge had to fit herself in the innermost corner.
A pleasant scent of tea from the man filled the whole carriage, and Su Muge was surrounded by it.
Inside the carriage, Xia Houmo sat in silence with his eyes lightly closed.
Su Muge tried to calm herself down from the previous anger, and started to recall about the scene yesterday when she was treating the patients.
There was this strange…yet comfortable atmosphere inside the carriage.
Just as Su Muge was obsessed with her memories, the carriage bumped over something and shook violently. She lost her balance and fell forward.
“Oops!”
“Humph!”
Two groans sounded at the same time.
Su Muge held her body with one hand, and covered her nose with the other.
“It hurts…”
Looking down, Xia Houmo saw a delicate hand holding on his chest and he frowned a bit.
“What’s going on?” Xia Houmo slightly pulled away the curtain and looked outside.
“It’s my fault. There was a puddle that I had run into accidentally. Sorry…”
“Watch out.”
“Yes.”
Su Muge didn’t recover from that violent bump for quite a moment until she found herself in the arms of Xia Houmo.
She quickly took back her hand from his chest, pulled behind her, and swore to herself with the other hand still on her nose.
“I apologize for my impoliteness just now.”
Xia Houmo closed his dark eyes again, and said, “Don’t mind.”
The carriage stopped only after a short while.
“Lord, here we are.”
Xia Houmo opened his eyes and disappeared from the carriage, whereas with a flash in front of Su Muge, she was left with nobody but herself. He was so fast!
With the medical box in her hand, Su Muge jumped off the carriage.
She led him to the shabby temple where all the victims were settled, and then showed him the temporary wards.
“Lord Xia, please wait outside.”
“Why?”
Why? Because you are in my way!
“I’m afraid some disease may be infectious…”
“No worries.”
After that, Xia Houmo stepped in, without waiting for Su Muge’s reply. Su Muge could only follow him unwillingly. It was really the matter about the higher the rank of an official, the ruder he would behave!
There was man rushing to Su Muge once she walked in.
“Lord, some, something is wrong! The child is in danger!”
Su Muge looked at the man in front of her, and found it was the yamen runner, Li Damao, who had been asked to take care of the sick child in fever yesterday.
“What happened to the child?”
“The child was not so hot when you left last night. But when I came to see him this morning, I found that he was as hot as a stove, and he didn’t respond to me.”
After hearing this, with her face hardened, Su Muge walked to the child with her medical box, leaving Xia Houmo aside.
She felt the pulse for the child, and his skin was so hot as if it could burn one’s hand.
The condition of his pulse was quite weak. His lips were dry, his whole body was red, and his heart beat fast, but the pulse sound of his other organs was very weak.
Yesterday, she had prescribed anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce the boy’s fever. According to the time now, the child should have taken them at least four times, yet those symptoms didn’t go away, instead, they were aggravated.
She took out a pill from the medical box and fed the child with it.
“Go and get some strong liquor. Then wipe his body with it to cool him down.”
Xia Houmo, who had been ignored by Su Muge since they entered the room, stood quietly aside, watching every moment of her.
“Yes, yes. I’ll go now.”
Su Muge opened the clothes of the child, put her head on his belly, and listened carefully. She then reached out her hand to press on it.
“It’s weird. His belly seemed larger than yesterday…”
The belly of the boy swelled as if there was a watermelon in it, and it was not flatulence. What could it be? Was there dropsy in it？
Su Muge felt his pulse again with caution, and found the pulse condition of his lungs was still unstable, as if they were stuffed with some muddy air.
“Lord Su, here, here is the strong liquor you asked for. I’m going to wipe the child now.”
“Wait. Hold on for a moment.”
With graveness on her face, she pressed her hands harder on the belly.
“Uhmm, uhhh…”
The next moment, the child in comma suddenly opened his mouth and puked with a noise of “splash”!
There was almost a tremble on Su Muge’s chest. She wore her gloves and walked over to check.
The vomitus was in dark red, very dark, with a stinking smell.
Su Muge dipped some on her glove and smelled it in concentration.
Seeing this, Xia Houmo raised his eyebrows a bit, and there was an unusual flash in his eyes.
“It’s extravasated blood.”
“Extravasated, extravasated blood?” There was the face of Li Damao in puzzlement.
“It’s no good going on like this. There’s no way to find out the condition of his organs. It seems that he needs a surgery.” Su Muge grabbed a pen brush and wrote down two prescriptions. She handed them over to Li Damao and asked him to buy some medicine accordingly.
“Go and get three copies of the medicine.”
Li Damao nodded while he took over the prescriptions. “Lord, don’t worry. I’ll get the medicine back as soon as possible.”
Su Muge stood up with her head a bit lowered.
Though it would be best for the child to have a surgery, she had no tools for it except some medicine. An unprepared surgery operated in a hurry could almost kill a person.
Wandering up and down, she stopped and looked at Xia Houmo after two circles in the room.
“I have a favor to ask for, and would you like to do me the favor, Lord Xia?”
She had this feeling coming out of nowhere that this man could do anything she asked for, fast and good.
Xia Houmo’s eyebrows raised a bit, and asked, “Lord Su, what are you asking for?”
“As you can see, the child has a strange sickness. Now we need to find out what’s wrong with the child in the shortest time in order to treat and cure him. I’m going to operate a surgery for him.”
There was a look of confusion on Xia Houmo’s face. “A sur…surgery?”
“Yes, it’s a kind of therapy.”
Su Muge explained in a roundabout way in case this Lord Xia would overreact on her treatment of opening someone’s belly.
“Lord Su, what do I need to do?”
“I need some tools, preferably having them made by tomorrow evening.”
“No problem.”
It was out of Su Muge’s expectation that Xia Houmo agreed on her without any hesitation.
“Thank you, Lord Xia. I’m going to draw the tools I need right now.”
Su Muge went to a separate room and asked people to bring her pen brush and ink. She then drew step by step the things she needed on a paper.
She felt fortunate at this moment that she had loved calligraphy and ink painting back in school. Though with a different body now, she still had the grounding in basic skills.
The picture she drew was in great detail with every tiny part marked. She was so focused and she didn’t notice Xia Houmo at her back.
There was both astonishment and bewilderment in his dark eyes when Xia Houmo was looking at the painting.
After Su Muge finished, her wrists were feeling numb. She dried the paper with some blows and saw Xia Houmo standing behind her when she turned her head accidentally.
“These are the things you want me to make?”
Xia Houmo grabbed the dried painting from the table, and he couldn’t understand.
“Yes.”
“Zuoqiu.”
Zuoqiu, who was guarding outside the door, walked in.
“Lord, what’s your order?”
With his eyes on the painting, Xia Houmo opened his mouth with a deep voice, “Get these things ready before dark tomorrow.”
Zuoqiu took over the painting, and looked at the drawing on it at a loss. The things on it were of no resemblance to any hidden weapon or a dagger, but he replied, “Yes.”
Zuoqiu left, taking the painting with him.
Before Su Muge could express her thanks to Xia Houmo, she raised her head and found that he was already in front of her with less than half a step between them.
“Lord Xia, you…”