Chapter 61: The Wanton Widow Weng

"No, brother, you have to take the medicine! How can you get better without taking it? For the sake of us two brothers continuing to fight side by side for the Emperor, you have to take it!!"

"Get up and take the medicine!"

They had only walked a few steps, passing the first barracks, when Wu Youke, Zhang Shize, and the others heard a burst of shouting and yelling — it turned out a camp soldier in red armor was trying to feed medicine to someone.

"Clatter—"

"What medicine should I drink, cough cough cough, have you forgotten how those before us died?"

Wu Youke had just stepped one foot inside when he found a medicine bowl smashed at his feet. He showed no reaction, but Zhang Shize flew into a rage on the spot, placing his hand on his sword hilt and bellowing:

"How dare you! This is the imperial physician His Majesty personally appointed to treat the plague — do you think you can act recklessly here!?"

"This humble one greets the Duke of Ying, greets the Director of the Western Depot, greets the imperial physician!"

Nowadays the Three Depots and One Guard enjoyed deep trust from His Majesty, each having its own eunuch director. To distinguish Wang Cheng'en, Fang Zhenghua, and Cao Huachun from one another, the soldiers had privately swapped around the titles of Eastern Depot Director, Western Depot Director, and Inner Depot Director — they rolled off the tongue quite smoothly.

These were all important figures before him, and even the sick soldier dared not throw any more tantrums, hurriedly struggling to rise and beg forgiveness.

"This hum... cough cough cough, this humble one greets cough cough cough..."

Hearing the word "imperial physician," Wu Youke shot Zhang Shize a white-eyed glare but said nothing, quickly stepping forward to help the patient up.

Wu Youke first picked up the broken bowl fragments from the ground and smelled the medicine residue inside, his expression grave. Then he turned to the patient and said:

"Come, stick out your tongue and let me have a look."

The patient was baffled, first glancing at Zhang Shize, and only when he saw him nod in approval did he hesitantly stick out his tongue. Wu Youke smiled slightly upon seeing it, patted him on the shoulder, and said:

"You can still be saved! Hey, you there — hurry and fetch my medicine chest!"

Although he was assisting by imperial decree, such menial labor certainly couldn't fall on people of Zhang Shize's and Fang Zhenghua's standing, so in the end a quick-witted Western Depot agent scurried out to carry it over.

Soon, Wu Youke wrote out two prescriptions and handed them to the soldier who had originally been trying to make the patient drink medicine. Looking around at all the Capital Camp soldiers in the barracks, he announced loudly:

"Remember this — everyone in this barracks right now may already have been infected with the plague, it just hasn't shown symptoms yet. Fortunately, it isn't too severe."

"You must be sure to follow the prescriptions exactly. Take the first prescription twice daily, once in the early morning and once before sleep, for five consecutive days. The second prescription is also twice daily, morning and evening — but don't stop until the court issues another announcement saying 'the great plague has been eradicated.' Understood?"

The soldier took the prescriptions as if they were treasure, immediately kneeling on the ground, cupping his fists and shouting:

"Thank you, physician!"

Walking through the barracks, Fang Zhenghua deliberately quickened his pace to come alongside Wu Youke, asking in a low voice:

"Physician Wu, when you smelled that medicine just now, what did you detect?"

"I detected nothing — why does Your Excellency ask?" Wu Youke's heart jumped with alarm, and he hurriedly tried to brush it off, his pace unconsciously quickening considerably. But Fang Zhenghua chuckled and said:

"Stop hiding things! Physician Wu, when I was climbing up step by step within the palace, you were probably still studying medicine at the pharmacy bureau. At a time like this, is there really anything that can't be said?"

Wu Youke fell silent again. After walking a few steps, seeing that Zhang Shize wasn't paying attention to them, he pulled Fang Zhenghua along and quickened his pace, speaking hastily:

"That medicine contains a full dose of Sichuan monkshood — it isn't meant to save lives, it's meant to kill!"

Fang Zhenghua's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly asked:

"Then those two prescriptions you just wrote..."

"My first prescription is only a purgative — a few days of diarrhea will expel the poison. No one in that barracks is actually sick, so the second prescription is Dayuan Yin, meant purely for prevention."

After saying this, Wu Youke hurried away directly to avoid arousing suspicion, leaving Fang Zhenghua standing there stunned.

This matter was serious indeed. The last imperial physician sent to oversee the Capital Camps, Weng Bingshi, had reportedly died of plague. After the previous physicians died of plague, no one had suspected anything about Weng Bingshi's death — but now it was clear this matter was far from simple.

Fang Zhenghua suddenly thought of something, quickly left the barracks, and hurried toward the palace to seek an audience with His Majesty.

"Outrageous!"

Upon hearing the news, the Chongzhen Emperor flung the memorial he was reading to the ground, laughing in fury:

"These heartless ingrates! The Great Ming has raised them for so long, showering them with grace and favor, and I have given them chance after chance — but instead of reining themselves in, they only push further and further!"

With that, the Chongzhen Emperor turned around and said coldly:

"Weng Bingshi meeting a vicious end is my fault. Though this matter is grave, we cannot startle the snake. Fang Zhenghua, have the Western Depot continue fully assisting Wu Youke with plague treatment. Secretly summon Wang Cheng'en and Li Ruolian — have the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard investigate this to the very bottom for me."

"If I don't drag out the mastermind behind this, I am unworthy of being sovereign!"

"Bang bang bang—"

That very night, the members of the Weng household were startled awake by a frantic knocking at the door. The steward led several servants to open it, only to find Eastern Depot Director Wang Cheng'en arriving with a squad of agents.

The steward was terrified, trembling and unable to speak. Wang Cheng'en strode in without ceremony, leading his agents inside, and said:

"Where is Lady Xie? Call her out — I have questions for her!"

The disheveled young widow, Lady Xie, whose face still carried the flush of spring, walked out from the inner chamber. Seeing this scene, she was greatly startled — but before she could say a word, two agents immediately came up and seized her from both sides.

Wang Cheng'en smiled coldly and announced loudly:

"Search!"

"What are you people doing?! My husband treated the plague for the court, and after his death you won't even let our household have peace!?"

Lady Xie naturally refused to submit and immediately began shouting and screaming. The performance was indeed well acted, but in the eyes of an old hand like Wang Cheng'en, her true colors were exposed at once — he showed not the slightest reaction.

"Director, this woman seems to be signaling someone in the room. Shall I—?"

"No need."

Wang Cheng'en shook his head, a strange smile on his face. Without saying a word, he watched as Lady Xie's scalp went numb with dread and her heart pounded with anxiety, all the while cursing under her breath about the dead eunuch and wishing his whole family a horrible death and so on.

A brief but not particularly fierce struggle sounded from within the room. Before long, Chiliarch Li Youcheng, who oversaw punishments, personally escorted out a man who was equally disheveled.

Li Youcheng knew nothing of pity. He delivered a heavy kick, sending the man sprawling to the ground, and ignoring his shouts and protests, pointed ahead and barked:

"Do you know who this is? This is His Excellency Wang of the Eastern Depot — hurry up and pay your respects to the Director!"

Lady Xie could never have imagined that Wang Cheng'en, the Eastern Depot's Director and a favorite of the Emperor, would suddenly come to the Weng household in person with a punishment Chiliarch in tow.

At this thought, Lady Xie's face instantly turned deathly pale. She immediately knelt on the ground, tightly clutching Wang Cheng'en's leg, and began wailing in a pitiful voice:

"Director, it was all this Li Shancai's coercion — this has nothing to do with this slave girl! My husband died treating the plague for the court — you must see justice done for this slave girl, woo woo woo..."

Li Shancai's eyes flew wide at these words, and he pointed a trembling finger at Lady Xie:

"You damned woman! That's not what you said in bed just now!"

Wang Cheng'en watched this amusing scene, then squatted down with a smile, took Xie-shi's delicate hands in his own and stroked them a few times—but the very next moment his expression suddenly changed, and he flung them away in utter disgust, turning his head to say coldly:

"Take them all to the Eastern Depot prison and subject them to severe torture!"

Li Youcheng nodded and waved his hand, saying:

"Men, take them away!"