The eldest sister-in-law became rich by farming in the mountains

When passing by the clinic, Xu Yingtao saw that it was still open, so she quickly purchased a large amount of realgar, mugwort, and medicines that have the effects of clearing away heat, detoxifying, cooling blood and relieving sore throat.

At the same time, she also instructed Chun Sanniang to buy several sets of ready-made clothes for each of them, as well as about 100 kilograms of rice, flour, grain and oil.

She knows too well the importance of stockpiling during quarantine.

Even though County Magistrate He promised to deliver meals to them every day, if things really get chaotic, who would be able to take care of them?

The place where they settled was not far from the county government office. It was a small courtyard with two entrances located in the downtown area and belonged to the private property of County Magistrate He.

There were two old women and two maids in the courtyard. When they saw Xu Yingtao, they didn't look at her or ask many questions. They just came forward respectfully and politely to help move things.

Xu Yingtao kept a long distance from them and asked, "Have you had any contact with strangers in the past two days?"

Several people nodded.

Xu Yingtao sighed.

She originally wanted to say that if these people had no contact with the outside world, then she would try not to contact them.

After all, she had been in close contact with County Magistrate He and even Zhu Shan before, so she might have become a "close contact".

Now that’s good, no one should look down on anyone else.

While Xu Yingtao asked the two to help move the things, she instructed Chun Sanniang, "Go and boil some hot water and add more moxa leaves. We will take a good bath later. All the clothes we wore today should be burned."

The reason why this matter was not delegated to others was that they were afraid that someone would see that the material of their clothes was too good and would be reluctant to burn them. If they were really infected with some invisible virus, it would be tantamount to poisoning.

Chun Sanniang should be.

It was already dark at this time. After Xu Yingtao finished cleaning up, she found that she had no appetite. She ate a bowl of egg custard and went back to her room early to rest.

And in the city, the atmosphere of terror continues to spread.

In just one night, more than 30 families died collectively as if their entire families had been wiped out. Even if there were individual survivors, they did not survive until dawn.

Last night, Magistrate He announced a city lockdown. As it was already late, it did not cause much disturbance in the city. The next day, everyone in the city learned the news, and the people in the city were suddenly in a panic.

At noon, an official brought a few bags of rice and flour to Xu Yingtao. Through the tightly closed door, he sighed helplessly and said, "My lord, the doctors in the city have held a joint consultation and unanimously determined that this is an epidemic. Please do not go out casually."

Xu Yingtao responded through the door: "I understand. Please take care, Lord He and everyone else."

Since falling asleep last night, Xu Yingtao has been worried about whether she and Chun Sanniang have been infected.

But fortunately, until this moment, there was no abnormality in their bodies, which made her feel a little relieved.

After dinner, she asked the maid in the yard to fumigate every corner of the yard with mugwort and sulfur, not caring whether it worked or not, just to give her peace of mind.

Inside the city, despite County Magistrate He's order prohibiting everyone from leaving their homes, people still died one after another. It was only after a full half month that the pace of this death race slowed down.

During that period, a small yamen runner would report the situation in the county to Xu Yingtao through the door, but today it was a different person.

After asking, Xu Yingtao found out that the little yamen runner who always passed messages to her was unfortunately infected with the epidemic and passed away yesterday.

In recent days, the death toll in the county has climbed to nearly 600 people.

In the southeast corner of the county town, black smoke billows every day, all of which are caused by unburned corpses.

From time to time, sad cries could be heard from every household, which made people feel extremely heavy.

Xu Yingtao felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on her heart, making it difficult to breathe.

She didn't understand why God was playing such a joke on her and the people in this city.

She looked up at the sky and wanted to pray for everyone, but in the end, only two words came out of her mouth: "Garbage."

At the same time, the news of the epidemic outbreak in Ruian County spread everywhere, and Nanxi Village naturally received the news.

However, the villagers had no time to care about Xu Yingtao's safety at the moment, because this sudden epidemic had already spread like a wild horse, raging in counties and towns.

Compared with Ruian County's decisive lockdown, the responses of other counties and towns were obviously much slower, resulting in the infected people fleeing everywhere and the situation becoming increasingly difficult to control.

On the contrary, the countryside has become the safest place.

Jiang's eyes were almost blind from crying these past two days. She always regretted not stopping Xu Yingtao that day, otherwise she would not have suffered such an unexpected disaster.

Xie Bai seemed particularly calm. He went to find Village Chief Zheng and told him his thoughts.

"What?" Village Chief Zheng's eyes widened. "You want me to dig up the road? No, no, that's the road that Yingtao spent a lot of money to build. How can we dig it up so easily?"

Xie Baitong analyzed the situation with him: "Grandpa, the Cao Gang sent a letter saying that Guiyun County is in chaos and the town has also been affected. Once medicine and food are in short supply, the people in the town will definitely find a way to flee to the countryside. It's okay if they just want to beg for food, but what if someone has bad intentions and takes the opportunity to rob the village, what will you do?"

Village chief Zheng was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Nowadays, no matter how poor the family conditions in their village are, they can easily come up with a few taels of silver. People from other towns have long been jealous of their village. Now that the situation is turbulent, there is no guarantee that no one will have evil thoughts and plan to attack their village.

At that time, losing property would be a small matter, but if someone were so cruel as to take advantage of the chaos to kill people and burn things, that would be a real disaster.

Therefore, Village Chief Zheng acted decisively and immediately selected a dozen strong men to dig up the road at the entrance of the village. Then, according to Xie Bai's request, they set up barriers and traps at each entrance.

At the same time, all the men in the village patrolled the entrances at all times to prevent any accidents.

If there are those who don't know what's good for them and dare to come to their village to rob, they will never return!

When Mrs. Zhou thought of her second son and his family who still lived in the town, she became extremely anxious and couldn't help wiping away her tears.

Although digging roads and setting traps could keep out bad people, they also kept Zheng Wu's family out of the village.

She didn't know if they still had enough food in the town. She heard that food was no longer available outside.

Xie Bai comforted her: "Don't cry, grandma. I will stop by the town later. Please prepare the food first and I will bring it to Uncle Wu and the others."

The Zheng family members all looked at him.

Mrs. Zhou asked anxiously, "Why are you going to town? You can't go! There's a plague!"

Xie Bai said with a firm look in his eyes: "I have to go to Ruian County to find my sister-in-law."

The room suddenly fell into silence.

They heard that the plague started in Ruian County.

Although the county magistrate sealed off the city in time, he was still unable to contain the plague.

They had not witnessed the horror of the plague with their own eyes, but just hearing about it from others made them feel a chill down their spines.

Xu Yingtao was in that closed county town, and there was no guarantee that she was still alive.

Although no one wanted to face this cruel reality, Village Chief Zheng still nodded and agreed: "Okay, let your Uncle Awen go with you!"

No matter whether Xu Yingtao is dead or alive, they cannot abandon her.

Xie Bai shook his head and said, "I will go there on horseback this time. It will be faster if I travel light. I hope you elders will take good care of my mother and aunt."