The Lucky Farmgirl

Chapter 2404: Chapter 2378: Contact

Zhou Wulang returned home to find Bai Shan already waiting. He asked, "Brother Zhou Wu, is there any word from Manbao?"

"No," Zhou Wulang replied, "I asked the guards, but they don’t know either. I just heard that Director Xiao went in with Imperial Doctor Liu before dark last night and hasn’t come out yet."

Bai Shan furrowed his brow, paced a couple of steps, and said, "I’m afraid something went wrong with the experimenters."

Zhou Wulang was anxious, "What problem? Will Manbao be held accountable?"

Bai Shan said, "After all, it’s an experiment, and it’s smallpox we’re dealing with. It’s normal even if someone dies, as long as it’s not due to human error. However..."

Bai Shan furrowed his brow and said, "It’s just that our experiments in the Western Regions went smoothly, and if it fails here, Manbao might not be able to accept it."

Zhou Wulang worriedly asked, "What should we do then?"

"I’ll write a letter, and tomorrow, when Fifth Brother delivers something, he can pass the letter to the guards to take it in."

But actually, even if the letter goes in, it won’t reach Manbao. Right now, Jiu Lan and Xi Bing can’t see her. She and Director Xiao and the others are all in the ward area and not coming out.

Two patients developed a fever by nightfall, much like Number One Hundred and Twenty-One, sudden and fierce. Fortunately, Director Xiao and the others were well prepared with acupuncture and herbal decoctions ready. They administered acupuncture and medicine as needed. In the end, for Number Ninety-Eight, they even used strong medicine, just managing to save their lives.

The four of them barely slept all night, taking turns napping for less than two hours. Even Manbao was a bit dispirited, not to mention Imperial Doctor Liu and the rest.

By now, they hadn’t closed their eyes for two days and nights.

Director Xiao carefully examined the pustules just emerging on them and nodded after a while, "They don’t look as red or bright as before."

Director Xiao tucked their hands under the blanket and, confirming the patient no longer had a high fever, said, "Imperial Doctor Lu, stay on duty. The rest of you, go get some rest."

Director Xiao thought for a moment and said, "Rest for two hours."

Imperial Doctor Liu and Manbao breathed a sigh of relief, saluted, and withdrew.

Director Xiao nodded at Imperial Doctor Lu and then left with them.

As soon as they exited the ward area, attendants immediately brought hot water. Manbao and the others washed their hair, bathed, and their clothes, shoes, and socks were directly burned.

Manbao only wore her undergarments and draped a cloak over herself, sitting on the couch. Jiu Lan hadn’t had a chance to deliver the letter Bai Shan sent before Manbao was already dozing off against the couch.

Jiu Lan quickly stepped forward, "Ma’am, eat something before you sleep."

Manbao mumbled, "Dry my hair, I’ll eat when I wake up..."

After two days and nights of sleep deprivation, Manbao felt nothing more appealing than sleep, not even food.

Jiu Lan could only carefully dry her hair, letting it practically dry before scattering it over the couch, then covered her with a blanket with Xi Bing’s help.

Manbao slept deeply, and it was Jiu Lan who shook her awake. Manbao remembered it was her turn to be on duty, quickly got up and dressed, washed her face with cold water to wake up, and then drank a bowl of soup Jiu Lan had kept warm. She grabbed a pancake and ate it as she headed for the ward area.

Jiu Lan followed with a food container, keeping pace closely, "Ma’am, inside are dishes kept warm on the stove, all packed for you. Take them in and eat."

Having fallen asleep without eating, Manbao was now starving. She finished the pancake before reaching the ward area, swallowed to soothe her throat, and then carried the food container in to relieve Imperial Doctor Lu.

Imperial Doctor Lu looked much worse than her, and upon seeing her said, "After the high fever, Number Ninety-Eight developed five more pustules, but they’ve subsided now. Keep an eye on them."

Manbao set down the food container, touched their pulses to confirm no significant changes, and nodded, letting Imperial Doctor Lu leave.

Manbao carried the food container to the yard to eat. Opening it, she found a letter tucked under the bottom of a plate. She took it out and saw it was from Bai Shan. Relaxing, she carefully stored the letter in her space and then, while eating, asked Keke, "Has Teacher Mo replied yet?"

"No."

Manbao felt a bit frustrated, "It seems Teacher Mo is really busy lately."

Just as she finished speaking, her email notification dinged.

Manbao widened her eyes, immediately put down the meatball pickled with her chopsticks, glanced around, then closed her eyes slightly to immerse herself in her consciousness to check the email.

Teacher Mo sent her a heap of documents. Manbao’s eyes blurred as she looked, and she didn’t recognize or understand at least half of the symbols.

This was different from the reports she had seen before.

She told Keke, "Send back an emoji with a head full of question marks."

Keke didn’t hesitate, directly choosing an emoji with the most question marks on top of the head and sent it.

Having just sent the email, Teacher Mo, who was about to log off, saw it and directly replied, "Sign on."

Manbao rubbed her chin, glanced around, then headed for the room where Number One Hundred and Twenty-One’s body was still located. She closed all doors and windows and told Keke, "Keep an eye out for me."

Keke agreed.

Manbao then entered the teaching room.

Teacher Mo held the report and projected it for her to see, "What don’t you understand?"

Manbao pointed and pointed, "I can’t decipher any of it."

"Oh, right," Teacher Mo rubbed his head in frustration, "I forgot, you’re not one of my PhD students, you haven’t learned any of this."

Manbao stared wide-eyed at him.

Teacher Mo frowned in thought, flipping through the documents page by page, "There are issues with the blood of the two people you provided, combined with the pustule samples, it seems the virus strain in their bodies has mutated."

Teacher Mo said, "Such mutations are either due to environmental changes or caused by a secondary differentiated strain infection..."

Manbao immediately took out pen and paper to take notes. Teacher Mo explained a lot and then said to her, "This type of mutated strain is always urgent and severe. When encountered, the approach is to use antidotes and detoxification pills directly. However, even against this virus, the cure rate with antidotes and detox pills won’t be very high."

"Detoxification pills can only reach an 80% cure and prevention rate for smallpox. Previously, I instructed laboratory personnel to extract the virus from their blood and then analyze it with antidotes, finding the extermination effect was less than 40%."

Unlike Zhou Man’s team, who needed extensive time for an experiment, Teacher Mo’s experiment speed was much quicker due to well-equipped facilities.

But for live experiments, the process would be much slower. Teacher Mo said, "If you want specific numbers, I’ll have a few of your senior brothers conduct some live experiments for you, but it’ll probably take about half a month to get results."

Manbao was taken aback and asked, "Are you using people?"