My Days as a God in Ancient Times
After calming the local populace and ensuring their complete evacuation, Lu Ziye finally had someone lead the way to the government office.
Along the journey, Chu Qiuze observed the surroundings, finally getting a sense of what an ancient metropolis might have felt like.
Shops and taverns lined both sides of the road, and the pedestrians were dressed in much more vibrant and refined attire.
However, none of the shops had closed for the day.
This was just asking for trouble.
Chu Qiuze frowned, "Lan Pengyou, didn’t I ask you to notify all the shops to close? With such a large flow of people, the infection rate is too high."
"If all the shops close, how will the common people manage their lives?" Lan An also didn’t quite understand the rationale behind closing all the shops.
Chu Qiuze suddenly realized that life in ancient times wasn’t as convenient as in modern times. The city’s residents had to go out to buy their daily necessities, unlike in modern times where one could shop online or order takeout.
This was indeed a difficult situation.
For the moment, Chu Qiuze couldn’t think of a reasonable solution and only instructed Lan An to notify that shops selling non-essential goods should still close.
After all, in such critical times, shops selling jewelry, cosmetics, fabrics, and clothing weren’t of much use. When people are fighting for their lives, who has the mind to dress up?
Also, taverns and brothels, places with high traffic, should all be closed.
Lan An had someone carry out the orders.
Chu Qiuze then asked, "How many physicians are there in Rujing City now?"
Coincidentally, the prefect of Rujing City arrived at that moment, kneeling before even reaching them and crawling to the front of the two.
"Your humble servant greets Wang Ye, greets the male god," the prefect said, trembling with fear. "It is my incompetence in governance that has led to the plague in Rujing City."
In this feudal dynasty, if a plague breaks out in a region and the local officials fail to manage it properly, the lightest punishment is losing their official hat, and the worst could implicate their entire family.
The laws here were as such, and Chu Qiuze had no interest in reforming them.
Lan An coldly looked at the pot-bellied prefect, "How many physicians are there in the city now? Has any treatment for the plague been developed?"
The prefect buried his head even lower, trembling as he replied, "There are quite a few physicians, but, but the plague isn’t something that can be cured just like that."
So, there was no cure yet, Chu Qiuze twitched the corner of his mouth, "Have someone summon all the physicians in the city to the county office, I have questions to ask."
The male god's reputation was far-reaching, and the prefect dared not offend, dutifully sending the bailiffs to carry out the task.
"Stand up and speak," Chu Qiuze then asked, "Has there been any tally of the infected populace in the city?"
"This, this" the prefect's legs, just stood up, were about to give way again, "We have not yet tallied, usually those who contract the plague are advised by physicians to return home, to eat and drink well while awaiting death, we didn’t think to tally."
To eat and drink well while awaiting death, how could he say such a thing.
"You"
Chu Qiuze pointed at the prefect, displeased, "Find people to relocate all the infected to one place, isolate and treat them, ensure people pay attention to safety, try to avoid contact with the infected."
This task was too dangerous, the bailiffs behind the prefect trembled in their legs, one careless move and they could be infected, it was a matter of life and death.
"Male god, let me lead the team," Lu Ziye stepped forward, "If the populace resists, the soldiers under my command can suppress them."
o0o
Chapter 24
Chu Qiuze waved his hand, "Go, pay attention to safety."
Not long after, all the physicians in the city were brought in.
Chu Qiuze didn’t exchange pleasantries with these white-bearded old men, getting straight to the point, "Do you now know how this plague is transmitted? And what exactly is this plague? If there’s no treatment plan, is there at least a mitigation plan?"
The white-bearded old men whispered among themselves, but no one stepped forward to answer.
The plague is just the plague, what other disease could it be? Since it’s the plague, it’s going to kill people anyway, even if mitigated for a few days, wouldn’t it still end the same?
As for how it’s transmitted, that’s even more unknown, isn’t it rumored among the folk that the plague god has descended?
Lan An was well aware of how pedantic these physicians could be, even the imperial physicians in the palace were the same, he said displeased, "The male god has called upon you to answer, yet you whisper among yourselves, do you not regard us with respect?"
The status of physicians was quite high among the common folk, but before the nobility, they were but mere specks.
A group of physicians incessantly knelt and kowtowed, begging for mercy.
It was giving everyone a headache.
"Enough," Chu Qiuze lost his temper and slapped the armrest of his wheelchair, "I called you here to discuss how to treat the disease, not to listen to your wailing."
Lan An raised an eyebrow, somewhat shocked to see Chu Qiuze lose his temper for the first time.
It must be said, it was quite intimidating.
Thus, the old physicians all shrank into a ball, not daring to wail anymore.
Chu Qiuze pinched the bridge of his nose, guessing that the medical technology of this dynasty was likely quite backward.
Somewhat helpless, he estimated that these physicians wouldn’t be of much help.
He took out the materials he had previously researched, about the plagues that had appeared in the history of Huaxia.
"Take a look at these," Chu Qiuze had previously printed them in traditional characters, which, although somewhat different from the characters of the Great Han, were still easier to recognize than simplified characters.
An old physician stepped forward to take the materials, then retreated to discuss with familiar physicians.
Chu Qiuze wasn’t idle either, "There are many types of plagues, different modes of infection require different treatments, it would be even better if we could find the source of the infection."
After a while, a gray-haired physician tremblingly stepped forward, "Male god, I observe that this plague bears some resemblance to the cholera you have recorded."
Chu Qiuze nodded, if it was just cholera, the situation was still somewhat optimistic, modern medicine could completely cure it.
The physician continued, "I have previously treated some patients with the epidemic disease, most of those infected were the elderly, weak, women, or children."
This was normal, the elderly, weak, women, and children had weaker resistance, when infectious diseases broke out, they were usually the first to be affected.
"Do they have anything in common?" Chu Qiuze asked again, "Did they eat the same food? Or drink the same water?"
At this moment, another younger physician stepped forward, "Male god, whether the patients ate the same food is unknown, but I roughly understand that since the drought this year, several wells in the city have dried up, and the residents have been drawing their daily water from the moat that surrounds the entire city."
Another old physician somewhat disagreed, "This moat has saved countless lives during the drought, generations before us have drunk from this river, there can’t be anything wrong with the water."
It was precisely because Rujing City had this never-drying river that countless refugees fled here during the drought seeking a way to survive.
"Stop!" Chu Qiuze was tired of listening to their arguments, "Go, have someone fetch a bucket of river water for me."
He intended to take it back for his elder brother to help analyze.
After thinking, he added, "Also, find me a patient." He would also draw some blood for analysis.
After all, these physicians didn’t seem very reliable, and currently, they could only roughly determine it was cholera based on the symptoms, not completely sure.
"Lan Pengyou," Chu Qiuze looked at the freshly drawn river water, murky and unappealing, he said helplessly, "Notify the populace, do not drink the river water for now, such dirty water, even if the plague didn’t come from here, drinking too much isn’t good for the body."
Lan An, who had remained silent all this while, nodded and instructed someone to carry out the task.
"Is there a solution?" Lan An asked.
Chu Qiuze shook his head, "Not yet. I’ll take the samples back and have my brother analyze them. Only then will we know exactly what kind of disease this is and how to treat it."
After speaking, he turned to the group of physicians and said, "For now, focus on developing a remedy to alleviate the symptoms. I’ll think of other solutions later."
For these physicians, creating a remedy to mitigate the effects of the plague wasn’t too difficult. Relieving the patients' suffering was something they could manage. After all, their centuries-old medical knowledge wasn’t for nothing.
Still uneasy, Chu Qiuze quickly searched on his phone for ancient methods of disinfection. "Lan Pengyou, please find a batch of lime and mugwort for sterilization and disinfection. Also, make sure the patients' feces and urine are handled separately. No one should come into contact with them."
Lan An was very obedient. He knew these were methods their Great Han dynasty had never considered.
After arranging all the necessary preparations, Chu Qiuze was ready to go home and seek reinforcements.
He wasn’t a doctor, so treating the disease was completely beyond his capabilities. He didn’t dare to use random prescriptions he found online either. The only option was to seek help from his brother, a professional in the field.
"Lan An, I’ll leave this place to you for now," Chu Qiuze said, still uneasy. He handed over all the disinfection supplies his brother had prepared for him to Lan An. "It’s best not to eat the food here either. Wait for me to eat together."
A warm feeling surged in Lan An’s heart. In his thirty years of life, no one had ever treated him this way.
Even the emperor, whom he respected, had only seen him as a capable assistant and never shown him much familial warmth.
Chu Qiuze’s feelings for him were so obvious that he couldn’t possibly miss them. But before this, he had never considered spending his life with someone.
Looking at the youthful face before him, he imagined what kind of remarkable person Chu Qiuze might have been if he had been born in the Great Han dynasty.
However, the distance between them was too vast. He didn’t dare to respond, nor did he dare to hold any expectations.
"Go back," Lan An said. "Be careful. If your brother isn’t comfortable with you coming back, don’t force it."
Chu Qiuze was displeased. "What nonsense are you spouting? Even if I weren’t doing this for you, there are still so many people waiting for me. Since I’ve promised to find a way to cure them, I won’t go back on my word."
Lan An fell silent, quietly gazing at him, as if trying to see through his eyes what kind of environment had shaped him into the person he was today.
Chu Qiuze felt somewhat uncomfortable under his gaze. "Why are you looking at me?"
"If you weren’t looking at me, how would you know I was looking at you?" Lan An replied instinctively.
The conversation felt all too familiar.
Chu Qiuze let out a long sigh. "Alright, I’ll head back now. I should have the results by tomorrow at the earliest."
After some thought, he decided to give Lan An a heads-up. "If my brother comes with me, don’t mind him. He’s a bit eccentric."
Lan An nodded and let him go.
He couldn’t fully understand, nor could he imagine, just how terrifying an overprotective older brother could be.
When Chu Qiuze returned home, he immediately called his brother and explained the current situation, as well as the samples that needed to be analyzed.
A plague was no small matter. Over the past few days, Chu Tianze had been thinking about how he could help his younger brother. Upon receiving the call, he rushed home from the company without delay.
If his brother needed it, he would even pluck the stars from the sky for him.
o0o