Dad, open the door. I'll bring your mistress back for you.

Seeing the dumbstruck servants of the Shen family, Shen Jingwan angrily shouted, "You useless bastards! What are you still doing here? Do you want to be sold out? Hurry up and drive these ignorant pariahs away!"

When the servants heard that they were going to be sold out, they came to their senses as if awakened from a dream.

They all mustered up their courage and surrounded Shen Jingwan as they walked quickly towards the city gate.

At this time, the officers and soldiers guarding the city noticed that a riot had occurred here and rushed over with spears in hand.

After a lot of hard work to drive them away and stop them, they finally succeeded in separating the people in the Shen Mansion from this group of emotionally out-of-control refugees.

These poor refugees were covered with all kinds of scars, some of which were still oozing blood, which looked shocking.

Moreover, they had not had a full meal for a long time, and they were all hungry and skinny, and weak.

Because of this, when faced with the soldiers defending the city, they had almost no power to resist and were quickly forcibly separated.

Although these refugees were extremely weak and even shaky when standing up, they were numerous after all.

In the chaos, although Shen Jingwan was not injured, her white dress was damaged.

The hem of the skirt was torn into pieces by the pushing and tearing of the crowd, revealing two white legs. This scene made the officers and soldiers guarding the city almost pop their eyes out. They stared at it with their eyes wide open and their saliva almost dripping all over the floor.

The clothes on her body were not spared either. They were touched by the refugees and became dirty and filthy, and the original color could no longer be seen.

At the same time, other families who were distributing porridge saw that there was such a big mess at the Shen family's porridge stall, and they were afraid that they would be implicated, so they hurriedly ended the porridge distribution, packed up their things in a hurry, and hurried back to the city.

Just like that, for several days in a row, no family in the city dared to go out of the city to distribute porridge!

The once bustling city gate became deserted, with only the porridge stalls run by the imperial court still struggling to operate.

However, even so, the poor refugees still found it difficult to fill their stomachs.

At the same time, the Ministry of Revenue was under tremendous pressure, and silver was flowing out like water.

Faced with such a serious situation, the matter eventually reached Emperor Jing.

When Emperor Jing learned the whole story, he became furious.

He specially summoned Shen Huaizhong to the imperial study and reprimanded him severely.

Shen Huaizhong returned home covered in dust and dirt, feeling extremely angry. He immediately restrained Shen Jingwan and ordered her not to leave the house again.

Now, those desperate and hungry refugees naturally blamed all the blame on Shen Jingwan alone.

Every day when they opened their eyes, they would start to curse Miss Wan from the Shen family. It seemed that in their eyes, Shen Jingwan had become the source of all evil that caused all the suffering.

Let’s look at Li Da, the city guard. He was severely punished with fifty strokes of the cane for dereliction of duty and accepting bribes.

He died after just a few days.

……

In the blink of an eye, nearly ten days had passed since Shen Chuning handed the prescription to Shen Huaizhong.

However, there was no news from the court about how to treat the epidemic.

At this time, infected people began to appear in the capital.

For a time, the whole city fell into extreme panic, and all shops closed their doors to customers.

Shen Chuning noticed something strange.

You know, Shen Huaizhong said that he handed the prescription to the fifth prince early the next morning after he got it.

According to common sense, large-scale medicine-making and treatment should have been launched by now, but strangely, there has not been even the slightest movement.

Xiao Yuanyi has not yet left the palace to build a mansion and is still living in the palace.

Shen Chuning originally planned to submit a letter to the palace to pay her respects to the Empress Dowager, and then find an opportunity to meet Xiao Yuanyi in the palace.

However, he was told that due to an epidemic in the city, people outside the palace were no longer allowed to pay their respects in the palace.

In desperation, she had to turn to Shen Huaizhong for help, asking him to do everything possible to arrange a meeting between her and the fifth prince.

Two days later, after some twists and turns, Shen Huaizhong finally succeeded in bringing Xiao Yuanyi out of the palace.

In Shen Huaizhong's study.

Shen Chuning and the fifth prince Xiao Yuanyi were sitting face to face.

As soon as he saw Shen Chuning, Xiao Yuanyi's face suddenly showed surprise, and he quickly said: "Sister Aning, when did you return to Beijing? Why didn't you tell me earlier? I should have picked you up."

However, in the face of Xiao Yuanyi's warm greetings, Shen Chuning stared at him coldly and asked mercilessly, "Don't you really know when I returned to Beijing?"

The bright smile that originally hung on Xiao Yuanyi's lips was instantly frozen on his face as if he had been cast under a spell.

He said softly with a slight embarrassment: "Prime Minister Shen mentioned it before, but maybe I've been too busy recently and forgot..."

After saying that, he lowered his head feeling guilty.

Shen Chuning, who was sitting opposite him, raised her eyebrows slightly, staring at Xiao Yuanyi with a sharp gaze. She said with her red lips slightly parted, "Busy? I wonder what the Fifth Prince has been busy with these days?"

Her tone seemed calm, but there was a hint of dissatisfaction and doubt hidden in it.

Hearing this, a deep look of loss suddenly appeared on Xiao Yuanyi's handsome face, making him look as pitiful as an abandoned puppy.

He murmured to himself, "Sister An Ning, why are you so distant to me? Before, you always called me Yuan Yi!"

However, in the face of his complaints, Shen Chuning seemed to be oblivious and continued to ask, "Did you receive the prescription that your grandfather gave you?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yuanyi's eyes suddenly became flustered. After a moment's hesitation, he whispered, "Received... Received."

As soon as she finished speaking, Shen Chuning's eyebrows knitted tightly together, her eyes widening as she questioned, "Since you've already received it, why haven't you used it yet? This is a rare opportunity to make a contribution."

Hearing Shen Chuning's words, Xiao Yuanyi's originally dull eyes suddenly lit up.

His face was filled with ecstasy, and he said excitedly, "I know that Sister An Ning cares about me the most. Whenever she has something good, she always thinks of me first."

But Shen Chuning was not moved by his words. Instead, she asked again with a stronger tone: "Let me ask you again, why haven't you used this prescription yet?"

At this moment, her expression was serious and she would not tolerate any perfunctory attitude.