Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

Solutions to public health problems have been found and epidemic areas have been cleaned up.

When the group returned to that area, they saw that the canal was no longer dirty and the fishy smell was gone. Except for a few mosquitoes and flies that had not yet dispersed, the environment was relatively clean.

Doctor Ma and the three doctors received the news that Prince Duan was coming, and they were waiting outside after seeing the patients.

However, Liu Rusi's first question was not about their situation, but about Chu Shiyu: "Where are those who went to clean the ditch?"

Chu Shiyu did not answer, but looked at his subordinates. Six guards came forward, and one of them took the initiative to report: "Madam Liu, it was the ditch that we cleaned. The ditch was blocked by silt and rotten meat and vegetables..."

"Well! You've worked hard!" Liu Rusi first affirmed their work, and then immediately instructed: "The canal water is dirty, go take a hot bath and change your clothes. It's best to boil your clothes in boiling water for a quarter of an hour!"

Several guards looked confused, and Chu Shiyu said, "Ten taels of silver for reward. Do as Madam says."

Immediately, the guards' faces were filled with joy. What Madam Liu said was not a bad thing. As long as there was a reward, they would do it no matter how strange it was!

"Teacher Ma, have you seen the patient?" Liu Rusi asked respectfully. She regarded Doctor Ma as her teacher.

Doctor Ma bowed to Prince Duan before saying, "I have checked the pulses of all seven households. Based on my diagnosis of observation, auscultation, inquiry and palpation, I believe that this epidemic is caused by rats."

Chu Shiyu raised his eyebrows and looked at Liu Rusi. She had guessed it was plague based on the symptoms before she even saw the patient.

But Liu Rusi just nodded, and then immediately used her tricks on the doctors. "Teacher Ma and everyone else, thank you for your hard work in diagnosing and treating patients. Go take a bath and relax first."

Bathing is not a bad thing, but Doctor Ma shook his head. Another doctor spoke first, "It's not time to rest yet. It's best to check the pulses of the residents around here and find those who are not sick. Let them take medicine to prevent illness first."

Can we find out who is not sick by taking their pulse? Liu Rusi was surprised, but she did not give up her point of view. She first asked Chu Shiyu: "Can we have someone guard all the residents in this block and tell them not to go out?"

"Well, I also plan to implement a curfew in Hemiao Town. No one is allowed to go out from the first to the fifth watch. It's almost dusk now, so it's okay to go out earlier in this area." Chu Shiyu also implemented a curfew in Xingzhou City. After the disaster, the number of thieves and criminals will increase, and a curfew can solve many problems.

After receiving the answer, Liu Rusi said to the doctors again in a gentle voice: "If the residents don't go out, the possibility of them spreading the disease can be reduced. Teachers, why don't you take a bath first and come back to check the pulse tomorrow after wearing protective clothing."

Doctor Ma frowned slightly, while the doctor angrily rebuked him, "How can you just not spread the disease? Plague develops quickly and is very dangerous! The thirteen people who have already fallen ill may not get better even if they are given medicine, and the two people who are seriously ill and coughing up blood are even more uncertain about their lives! The sooner we find the carriers, the sooner we can treat them and prevent them from getting sick!"

Hearing the doctor scolding Liu Rusi, Chu Shiyu's eyes immediately turned cold. However, before he could punish her, the people around him predicted his reaction first. A small hand grabbed his wrist and pulled it back, meaning to stop her.

Liu Rusi still spoke softly and respectfully, "Teachers, you should know that plague can infect people. Patients who have fallen ill are the source of disease and death. Teachers will inevitably be infected when they diagnose and treat them. If they accidentally pass it on to ordinary people who are not infected, wouldn't it be more harm than good?"

The doctor got even angrier after hearing this. "As doctors, how can I not know if you have the plague? Do you know what death energy is? Who are you? How dare you come here and delay our treatment?"

Holding Chu Shiyu's hand tightly to prevent him from "running away", Liu Rusi quickly organized the words in her mind.

But Doctor Ma answered a question for her first: "This is Madam Liu. She is very good at treating external injuries. I have seen someone get bitten by a wild wolf on the way. He was covered with wounds. After Madam Liu treated him, the scars healed in ten days. There was no abscess or sequelae."

Doctor Ma had seen Prince Duan's wounds after they had healed, but when he later learned that Liu Rusi could not diagnose a pulse, he couldn't help but look down on her, thinking that she only knew some unorthodox methods of healing. But her ability to identify medicines by scent and her unique insights when she was studying changed his mind.

The doctor's expression eased a little, and Liu Rusi struck while the iron was hot, saying, "There is a saying that a disease starts from a tiny seed and eventually blooms. I think this also applies to diseases. When they are tiny, they are like insect eggs laid in water. You teachers are experts who can see mosquito larvae in the water, but you may not be able to spot something wrong when mosquitoes just lay eggs."

The doctor hesitated for a moment, but still didn't quite believe it. He asked in a somewhat stiff tone, "Is there any basis for this statement?!"

Liu Rusi explained calmly, "The death energy I just mentioned is a conclusion I made based on some facts. The plague seems to have been caused by rats, but in fact it should have been caused by floods. Did you know that the body of Zhang Zhizhou in Yingzhou City was found the day before yesterday?"

Doctor Ma had just arrived and didn't know the situation, but the doctor was a local and nodded and said bluntly: "Those greedy and thieving people don't deserve to die!"

Liu Rusi couldn't help laughing, but quickly held back and continued, "Zhang Zhizhou's body was swept to the foot of the nearby Zhangjiazhuang Mountain by the flood. When it was found, it was being eaten by countless black rats. The body was horrible to look at..."

"Great! This is exactly what the rat deserves!" The doctor had just heard about this way of death. The Zhang family had blocked the news of such an ignominious thing, and Chu Shiyu and the others were not the kind of people who would gossip.

"Regardless of whether Zhang Zhizhou died a worthy death, the death air I am talking about is the harmful air on the corpses of humans and animals." Liu Rusi began to promote his theory of death air.

"Death energy is so tiny that it is invisible and soluble in water. It is carried everywhere by floodwaters and will be swallowed by black rats that have eaten corpses. Rats are used to living in filthy places, so we are not afraid of them. However, if people are exposed to the death energy brought by rats, they may get an epidemic! If someone has just touched a black rat, can you diagnose who it is?"

Several doctors looked horrified. They were not gods, so how could they diagnose someone who touched a rat? This statement seemed to make sense, and finally the doctor's attitude softened a lot.

"If that's true, then Zhang Shiliang is really causing endless harm!" It was already dark, and it was too late to take his pulse. The doctor shook his sleeves and said, "I believe what you said. Now I'm going to take a bath and cook some clothes."

Liu Rusi bowed respectfully and said, "This teacher hates evil and hates evil. I admire him the most. May I know his name?"

"My name is Li Chunfu. I have to go back and prepare medicine after bathing, so I won't say more to you." The doctor greeted Doctor Ma, then turned around and left with his medicine boy without even greeting Chu Shiyu.

Chu Shiyu was not angry at all. He had just let go of his hand and asked curiously, "Who is this Li Chunfu?"

"This man has superb medical skills, perhaps even better than mine..." Doctor Ma spoke first.

Liu Rusi was a little surprised. Just like there is no best in literature, many doctors find it difficult to admit that others are better than themselves when it comes to medical skills. Doctor Ma must have real skills to be Chu Shiyu's accompanying medical officer.

The subordinate who was recruiting people to Hemiao Town added: "When I was recruiting a doctor in Xingzhou City, this man came to me on his own when he heard that there were signs of the epidemic."

It was getting dark, and Liu Rusi, Chu Shiyu and their group decided to return to their camp outside the town to rest.

As they walked along the road, Liu Rusi thought of something else and said to Chu Shiyu, "Can you have someone collect the ash from boiling water today? Then buy ten kilograms of lime and fifty kilograms of lard."

"Okay, what are you going to do?"

Chu Shiyu knew that she wanted to make something again. As soon as he finished speaking, a smart guard went to collect wood ash for boiling water today, and someone arranged to buy oil.

"You've seen soap making." Liu Rusi suddenly realized that the competitiveness of soap does not lie in skin care, but in cleaning and sterilization. Of course, she is not planning to make a profit from it now. She just hopes to quickly make a batch that can be used to prevent the spread of diseases!

After returning to the base, Liu Rusi's first thing was to urge the group to boil the masks and veils they had worn today! Then they took a shower and changed into clean clothes!

With her hair half dried, Liu Rusi sat down at the dinner table looking refreshed. They had been late for dinner for two days in a row.

Chu Shiyu was also sitting with half wet hair. Seeing her wet hair, his eyes were a little subtle. In the past, she would wash her hair after meals, and then hide in the carriage or room... Maintaining a relatively calm expression, he reached out and handed over a hairband and said, "Help me tie it up."

Liu Rusi glanced at him speechlessly. She could do it herself, so could he really not learn it?

"We have collected a lot of wood ash. Since we are going to make soap, how about we stay at the base tomorrow?" Chu Shiyu said, holding up the hairband.

Is this a threat?! Liu Rusi was too lazy to argue with him, so she simply took the hairband and walked behind him, tying up his long hair in a few seconds.

Chu Shiyu smiled secretly and enjoyed the quiet dinner for the two of them under the candlelight.

Although he was still worried about letting her come to the epidemic area, the benefits she was getting now were all things he had never experienced before, and he couldn't stop being happy.

As soon as she finished her meal, the first thing Liu Rusi did was to find some buckets of different sizes, weigh the collected wood ash, and then soak it in water that was twice as heavy as hers.

"Why don't we do it tomorrow? It's already midnight now." Chu Shiyu persuaded while helping to weigh. This time Liu Rusi did not try to avoid the servants, but she felt that it was better to do it herself than to order the maid to do it.

"It's quick. Just soak it after weighing it. We'll start tomorrow." Liu Rusi took the beam scale and used a small bucket to weigh the wood ash. When she counted carefully, the skills she learned after arriving in Daxia were trivial but not few. For example, she didn't know how to use this beam scale in her previous life.

Soon, the required wood ash was weighed and soaked in the bucket. Liu Rusi asked Chu Shiyu to instruct the guards on duty to stir it every half hour, which made full use of human resources.

Liu Rusi washed her hands and was about to go back to the tent to sleep, but Chu Shiyu coughed lightly and said, "There's dust on you..."

She looked down and saw that the front of her clothes was covered with dust! She glanced at Chu Shiyu. They were clearly covered with dust, so why was he so clean? !

"Why don't you take another shower? There's always hot water at the base." Chu Shiyu suggested.

Liu Rusi suppressed her embarrassment, patted the dust off her body, and said expressionlessly: "It's okay, things like plant ash look dirty, but they are actually very clean."

At night, as before, Chu Shiyu slept in the carriage and Liu Rusi slept in the big tent. The difference was that Liu Rusi arranged for Yang Xuefei to sleep in the other room.

Entering the tent, Yang Xuefei looked at Liu Rusi hesitantly and asked softly, "Sister Si, can I take a leave tomorrow?"

Yang Xuefei also has two ways of addressing her. She would call her Madam Liu outside, and call her Sister Si when there were no outsiders around. This was not what Liu Rusi had instructed, but Liu Rusi never corrected her.

At this time, Liu Rusi did not ask the reason, but just nodded and said: "Just remember to come back at night, and bring guards if necessary, but you must wear a mask when you go out, and try to remember to follow the hygiene knowledge."

Yang Xuefei smiled and nodded repeatedly, then half raised her arm hesitantly.

Seeing this, Liu Rusi took the initiative to step forward, raised her hand and hugged her, and then said in a gentle voice: "Go to bed early."

At one o'clock in the morning, the sky was slightly bright and Liu Rusi woke up naturally.

Leading Yang Xuefei to do morning exercises - this has become their group activity. Liu Rusi hurriedly washed up and had breakfast with Chu Shiyu.

Yang Xuefei went out by herself, while Chu Shiyu listened to the steward reporting the news to him while accompanying Liu Rusi to start making soap.

After the steward on his side left, Liu Rusi scooped the ash water onto the filtered cotton cloth and asked, "Have you prepared the veils, masks and gowns for the doctors and the pharmacists?"

"Well, we have all the masks for these people. We are still short of masks for the townspeople. We are currently giving priority to those who live close to the sick households."

Chu Shiyu wanted to join in when he was free, but he couldn't find his place. In order to speed up the production, Liu Rusi asked the maids she brought to participate and divided them into several groups to work simultaneously.

Liu Rusi scraped out all the plaster and poured it onto the cotton cloth. She then picked up the bamboo frame that fixed the cotton cloth to the bucket, hung it on the bucket, and used bamboo clips to gently rotate it to squeeze out the moisture inside.

"Be careful to be gentle and don't touch it with your hands! The lye may hurt your hands!" she shouted to the little girls beside her.

The maids followed her instructions seriously, and Chu Shiyu stared at her in disbelief and asked, "How did it suddenly become something that can hurt your hands?"

"Well...it's not that serious. You'd better just be careful. Also, wear a mask." Liu Rusi said calmly.

It will be even more powerful after adding lime... She doesn't add lime when making soap at home. Soap made with strong alkali is better at removing dirt and bacteria, but it is not as gentle.

Some people feel dry skin after washing with soap, which may be due to the alkalinity. However, what is needed at this time is a stronger sterilization ability, and the soap can be made faster.

After Liu Rusi finished her work, Chu Shiyu resolutely forbade her to do it herself again, which made Liu Rusi nervous when she directed him to add lime, fearing that he would splash the liquid on herself! She had already stopped the little girls from participating in this step, but several guards were ordered to take over.

"Do you feel hot?" asked Liu Rusi, who was forced to stay half a meter away.

"Yes, the stuff in the bucket has gotten hotter." Chu Shiyu stirred the solution steadily while looking at her with a squint. Seeing how nervous she was, this must be something very dangerous! But if he didn't say anything, was she going to do it herself? !

"That should be fine. Now let's filter the solution. Don't rush to pour it all in. It's best to use a stirring stick to drain it to prevent the liquid from splashing out... Let me demonstrate." Liu Rusi was going to step forward to take over. It would be a sin if the prince got hurt as a result.

"If you dare to come up here, I will have everyone throw away everything right now." Chu Shiyu threatened directly, forcing Liu Rusi to stop where she was...

Liu Rusi choked for a moment, then said helplessly: "Why don't you let the guards take your place? Instructing you verbally is the same as instructing others..."

Chu Shiyu had no objection to this, and quite naturally gave up his position to the guard. He did this just to prevent Liu Rusi from taking risks. Whether it was being a prince or having the experience of leading troops, he would not feel guilty about handing over dangerous things to others.

Feeling sorry for these hardworking guards, Liu Rusi patiently instructed them step by step on what to do, even if he was a little slow, to ensure that they would not get hurt.

When the lard reacted with the solution in the pot and became saponified and viscous, Liu Rusi spoke again, "It's really okay now! It's basically safe now! I'll show you how to pour it into the mold."

Chu Shiyu didn't believe what she said now, and directly asked the guards to fill the soap liquid into the prepared bamboo tubes that were split in half. Without her saying anything, he knew that these bamboo tubes cut in the morning were used as molds.

"Taping gently can make the soap smooth and remove the bubbles." Liu Rusi instructed, feeling like a cat scratching her heart. It was a pity that she couldn't get started. This process was her second favorite! The favorite part was cutting the soap...

Rows of bamboo tubes were placed in small grooves on the mud ground and covered with breathable cheesecloth. All the work on soap was done today, but if it was to be used, it would have to wait until at least the day after tomorrow.

It was completed a little late, but the soap needed to be matured, and two days was already much earlier than expected. Normally, she would keep the pure wood ash soap for a month before using it.

If the situation is not serious, she will only let the doctors and family members who have contact with the patients use it to wash their hands and clean things. After all, a little irritation is nothing compared to being infected with the plague...