Yi Shier quickly left the county office grounds.
The drug's effects were fading rapidly. Propping himself against a tree with one hand, he shook his head. The turbulent river ahead resembled a giant serpent winding through the darkness.
He found several stones and tied them to his body, then walked step by step towards the river.
His mind was already flooded with the drowsiness induced by the Three-Day Drunk poison; he could barely keep his eyes open. Yet, he still rationally calculated the weight of the stones—enough to carry him away, but not enough to let him float on the surface.
The river would carry him far away, until fish devoured his body completely.
Yi Shier first threw his distinctive mask into the water, then let his body fall into the river.
In the last second before his consciousness faded, he heard a furious shout: "Yi Liuliu, how dare you! Your monthly allowance, milk tea, and storybooks are all confiscated!"
Yi Shier gave an involuntary shudder, his eyes opening a sliver.
Splash!
Two figures plunged into the water one after the other.
Two minutes later.
Qu Dubian, soaked to the bone, hauled the nearly breathless Yi Shier onto the riverbank. Coughing a few times, he unceremoniously dumped the man under a tree. Then, pressing two fingers against Yi Shier's wrist to check his pulse, he sent a thread of internal energy probing inside.
The internal energy sank like a stone into the sea.
Liuliu also had no fatal wounds.
Qu Dubian rarely swore, but a curse escaped his lips now. "Damn it, what's going on?"
Poison?
If he had been poisoned recently, Liuliu would have definitely told him. Unless... he had known all along, and understood that telling him wouldn't solve the problem either. That's why he made this decision.
Whether it was poison or not, he needed to make contact for the simulator to sense it.
Qu Dubian picked up a small stone from nearby and used its sharp edge to make a small cut on Yi Shier's palm.
Blood immediately welled up.
Qu Dubian held his breath, reached out, and smeared a bit of Yi Shier's blood between his fingers.
"Detect."
Simulator: [Toxin 'Three-Day Drunk' detected. Requires antidote every three days, otherwise death occurs in sleep.]
Qu Dubian's heart sank.
It was exactly as he had suspected.
A method used by the Imperial Shadow Guard Division to control Liuliu. No wonder... no wonder back then, when he had willfully insisted on having Liuliu, his cheap father had let him go so easily. There had been this backup plan all along.
This guy... why didn't he say anything sooner!
Qu Dubian quickly scanned through the items he had drawn from the lottery in his backpack. He remembered having Antidote Pills. Scrolling to the second column: Antidote Pills 2/2.
Two left!
Qu Dubian: "Can they cure his poison?"
Simulator: [Administer one Antidote Pill every four hours. Three pills are required to fully cleanse the toxin. The Antidote Pills obtained from the simulator lottery will not harm the poisoned individual's body during the detoxification process.]
The last sentence sounded almost like a boast.
Qu Dubian first used one Antidote Pill on Yi Shier, shoving it rather fiercely into his mouth.
It carried a fair bit of personal emotion.
"When you read those storybooks yourself, you told me you disliked characters who keep everything to themselves and hide things from their friends," Qu Dubian said, viciously pinching Yi Shier's cheek. "How come you completely forgot that when it came to yourself! You really infuriate me!"
"Thought I couldn't handle it, didn't you? I can handle it!"
It would just cost a bit of lifespan points, a little pay-to-win. He could earn it back by writing one reflection piece.
He quickly tore off a strip of his own clothing and tightly bandaged the small cut on Yi Shier's palm. Then, he wiped the trace of blood from his own fingertip onto a leaf before finally turning away to take a breath of air.
Qu Dubian checked Yi Shier's pulse again.
Good, it had stabilized.
Qu Dubian let out a sigh of relief, then proceeded to pinch and pull Yi Shier's pale face until it turned red and distorted, only then feeling somewhat satisfied.
Afterwards, he hoisted Yi Shier up, draping the man's arm over his own neck, and began dragging him back.
After dragging him for a while, he realized his own height was still somewhat insufficient. Liuliu was a size larger and taller than him. When he dragged Liuliu, Liuliu's feet would scrape along the ground, and one shoe had already been knocked off.
He caught his breath and glanced at Yi Shier's face.
He never thought the first time he'd see Liuliu's appearance would be under such circumstances.
Qu Dubian was a bit of a looks-person. He felt the best-looking person besides himself was probably his little uncle. As for Liuliu... his looks were somewhat unexpected.
He had originally thought Liuliu was the cold, aloof, cool type. And having been by his side for twelve years, he must be at least in his thirties. Bump him up a generation, and he'd be a cold, aloof uncle.
But.
Liuliu had quite a gentle face.
That wasn't the main point. The point was he looked very young, not an uncle.
Qu Dubian's thoughts wandered all over the place as he hoisted Yi Shier onto his back.
Good grief, how old was Liuliu when he started following him? Was he even eighteen? Had he been exploiting child labor? And the Shadow Guard Division was really inhuman.
Stumbling step by step, he made his way out of the riverside woods. Once he reached more open ground, he channeled his internal energy and sped swiftly back towards the county office.
The lamp in Yi Shier's room was lit.
Magistrate Hua summoned several servants and prepared two buckets of hot water.
Ye Xiaoyuan first shooed Qu Dubian back to his own room and dumped him into a hot water bucket, handing him a bowl of ginger soup.
Then, he also gave Yi Shier a quick rinse in a hot water bucket, had someone help haul him out and change his clothes, and finally moved him to the bed to settle him in.
Once everything was done, Qu Dubian, having dried his hair and feeling rather guilty, came to Yi Shier's room. He stole a glance at Ye Xiaoyuan's expression.
Seeing his young master's furtive look, Ye Xiaoyuan felt both angry and amused. "Your Highness, can you tell me what exactly happened?"
In the middle of the night, with rain falling, these two had gone out who-knows-when, and only one was conscious when they returned, both covered in mud and water.
Qu Dubian cleared the room of other people and explained the situation to Ye Xiaoyuan.
"If he hadn't come back at the last moment, I really would have thought he had wandered off to the jianghu like the protagonists in those storybooks. So, companion, you really can't blame me for this. Blame Liuliu. He's the one who kept it from us. He really deserves a beating."
Ye Xiaoyuan: "Is Lord Liuliu alright now?"
Qu Dubian: "The poison isn't completely cured yet. He needs to take the medicine two more times."
He poked at the simulator: [If he takes the remaining two pills on time, he'll wake up, right?]
Simulator: [He will also need to sleep for another day and recuperate for several days.]
Qu Dubian asked: [What if I hadn't used the lottery pills, but instead sought the antidote from my Imperial Father?]
Simulator: [After taking the Imperial Family's antidote, the poison can be cured, but all martial arts will be lost, and the body will rapidly decline.]
Qu Dubian gritted his teeth inwardly.
Knowing Liuliu's character, what difference was there between losing his martial arts, having his body fail, and needing to be cared for, and killing him?
He spent one month's worth of lifespan to purchase one more Antidote Pill. Wrapping it together with the remaining one from his backpack in a silk handkerchief, he handed it to Ye Xiaoyuan.
"Companion, give him these two pills. One every four hours."
He didn't trust anyone else with this. He even worried he might oversleep or get delayed by other matters. It was best to entrust it to Companion Ye. He was the most reliable.
Ye Xiaoyuan: "Your Highness has the antidote?"
Qu Dubian: "Yes. But this matter must not be known by the Shadow Guard Division. Once Liuliu wakes up, we need to discuss carefully how to handle this."
Yi Liuliu had been away from the capital and off the antidote for over three days, yet he had held on until now. He must have had some means to mitigate the poison's effects. They could ask him once he woke up.
Ye Xiaoyuan carefully tucked away the antidote pill. "Your Highness, rest assured."
A county adjacent to Le'an County.
Xia Fuyang was leading his team in rescue operations along the riverbank. The soldiers in his squad all wore cloth masks over their faces, as the areas they were searching sometimes contained bloated corpses, reeking of a foul stench.
For the soldiers' safety and to prevent the spread of disease, Xia Fuyang required everyone in his squad to take appropriate protective measures.
"Captain Xia, some villagers helping over there have fished out several bodies that came downstream. No one has claimed them. Should we bury them on-site, or what should we do?"
Xia Fuyang had left the capital at eighteen; he was now twenty.
Over the past two years he had been promoted from Zhiguo Commandant to Zhaowu Commandant, advancing from the seventh rank to the sixth. His once sharp edges had been tempered into steadiness, and his reputation was beginning to grow. He currently commanded between two and five hundred men, dispersed to oversee rescue operations along the river sections of twelve counties.
He had barely slept these past few days, his mind filled with images of swollen corpses and citizens crying for help.
"Take me to see them."
Xia Fuyang followed the soldier to the riverbank.
Four corpses were laid out, emitting a terrible odor.
Xia Fuyang frowned. "The level of decomposition... it seems they've been dead for several days, only now washing up here?" He looked upstream.
Personnel from the capital hadn't arrived yet, but they were expected soon. Even without explicit orders, the prefects of the three commanderies had all dispatched men to help contain the floodwaters.
But even though the river's flow had slowed considerably after the flood diversion, corpses decomposed to this extent should have been carried further downstream to the last few counties by now.
He used a branch to shift the clothing on one of the corpses, revealing a gold bracelet on the wrist and a jade pendant around the neck.
At the sight, the onlookers' eyes nearly popped out.
"Officer! Officer!" Someone pushed through the crowd, pointing eagerly at the bodies. "These are our family members."
Xia Fuyang scoffed coldly. "Your family members? You seem rather pleased about them being dead."
He struck the man's arm with the stick, then scanned the crowd. "A warning to everyone: don't falsely claim kinship, and don't covet the gold and silver on the bodies. How do you know the wealth you take isn't blood money?"
Those his gaze swept over took a step back.
Xia Fuyang tossed the stick aside and ordered the soldiers, "Burn the bodies and bury them. Collect all gold, silver, and jade ornaments, scald them thoroughly with boiling water, pack them separately. We'll try to find their owners after this is over. Any unclaimed items will be handed over to the orphanage."
"Yes, sir!"
A sense of unease lingered in Xia Fuyang's mind.
The military unit's procedure for bodies they recovered was to seal any valuables in boxes, but ordinary civilians wouldn't do that; they'd likely pocket them secretly.
Yet these recovered corpses all bore gold and jade ornaments. It didn't seem like a group of wealthy people had perished together; it felt more like a lure for people to steal.
The furrow between his brows deepened. After a moment's thought, he decided it was better to be cautious and summoned a subordinate.
Tell the brothers to endure a little more hardship. Try to keep the common people from assisting in this section of the river. Have them focus on rescuing the living. Any bodies recovered are to be burned immediately. Take all necessary precautions when handling them.
"Understood, Brother Xia."
However, the bodies didn't only drift to their current section of the river.
Several neighboring counties, including Le'an County, had also recovered corpses. Some people greedily claimed bodies to seize their belongings, and some county offices and soldiers failed to handle the corpses properly.
That very afternoon, people in the disaster area began experiencing low-grade fevers and dizziness. Most didn't pay it much mind, but by nightfall they suddenly developed high fevers that wouldn't break, their bodies shaking uncontrollably, retching violently, with pus and blood oozing from all six orifices.
Overnight, the severe cases had already turned cold. Those with slightly milder symptoms were burning up, their consciousness blurred.
A highly contagious plague began to spread through the counties bordering Nanning, rapidly gaining momentum.
The county office where Qu Dubian was stationed also began to see infected residents.