Chapter 29: Only Comparisons Can Cause Harm

Jiang Lili kept her distance from the sick officers. She asked Xiaopang to bring her another KN95 mask, just in case she might get infected during the “consultation” later. At the same time, she poked their class monitor in the group chat, seeking help.

Xiaopang quickly brought over the mask, thermometer, and stethoscope.

[Jiang Lili: @Class Monitor, Class Monitor, I have an urgent matter to discuss with you!]

[Yan Chaoyue (Khan of the Grasslands): I’ve been looking for the class leader in the group recently, but he hasn’t replied. What’s he been up to?]

[Hou Xiaoxiao (Princess Consort of Jin): Yeah, the class monitor made an appearance on his first day out, and then vanished. I wonder where he’s been. Is he busier than I am with managing eighteen concubines??]

[Vice Class Monitor: Stop calling out. The class monitor is probably still studying hard by the light of a lamp, maybe he’s muted the group notifications. Lili, you have an urgent matter? I’ll go to the Tai Hospital to find the class monitor right now.]

The vice class monitor headed to the Tai Hospital while explaining in the group: [The class monitor has become the youngest director at the Tai Hospital. Since the first day he started, he’s rejected multiple consorts’ requests to meet and has been obsessively reading ancient medical texts.]

Jiang Lili understood. Their class monitor, Qi Yun, was the ultimate overachiever, the kind of person who would bring a workbook to the cafeteria and brush through questions while waiting in line. He would spend time figuring out three or four different solutions to the most difficult problems. Aside from eating and running drills, she had never seen him rest.

Now, after transmigrating to the ancient world, although he had inherited the original owner’s memories, this was far from enough for the overachiever. When encountering an area he didn’t understand, his drive was to be the best in that field.

Wang Zifu was also having headache and feeling uncomfortable. Those mountain bandits were really terrible. They always said they hated them for being thugs and ruffians, but in the end, who were the real ruffians?

This situation wasn’t going to work, so Wang Zifu agreed to Jiang Lili’s request. “Alright, you can temporarily borrow this cart. You can have a look and help the brothers.”

When the prisoners heard that Jiang Lili said she could treat the common cold, some of them looked at her with different expressions, hesitating whether to try and get on her good side.

Others were suspicious, wondering if Jiang Lili was just fooling them, since she had seemed unreliable throughout the journey.

Since it would take some time to contact the class monitor, Jiang Lili thought she might as well pretend to ask about symptoms. However, she didn’t expect someone to cut in—

“Captain Wang, could you also allow me to take a look at their cold symptoms?”

A woman in orange clothing stepped forward, not even sparing a glance at Jiang Lili as she spoke directly to Wang Zifu.

Her hair was neatly styled, her features delicate, with a subtle hint of arrogance.

Jiang Lili looked up, noticing someone trying to steal her opportunity. She was surprised to see a familiar face.

The woman in orange was Yang Yunzhao, the niece of Madam Yang.

Yang Yunzhao had once served as a lady-in-waiting in the palace. Her father was the head of the Ministry of Revenue, and their whole family had been exiled. However, they had deliberately kept their distance from the Marquis of Zhaoping’s family during the journey and had little contact.

However, the Yang family’s exile had nothing to do with the Marquis of Zhaoping’s family. They were punished for embezzling disaster relief funds.

The Yang family had been a parasite for many years, but they still had some backup plans. Before being dismissed from his position, Father Yang was a social butterfly in the official circles, with connections in the court.

The charges against the Yang family were not as sensitive as those against the Marquis of Zhaoping’s family, and they had managed to smooth things over during the exile, so their situation wasn’t as desperate.

“I’m a former lady-in-waiting from the palace. I served the Empress Dowager before and studied medicine with the female physicians of the Tai Hospital. It would be safer for me to treat them.”

Yang Yunzhao had initially looked down on treating the officers, but after seeing Jiang Lili use the cart as a bargaining chip, she was tempted.

She was too lazy to walk and wanted to ride in the cart herself.

Sure enough, after she shared her credentials, Wang Zifu immediately ignored Jiang Lili and the other officers crowded around Yang Yunzhao.

“Miss Yang, please take a look at me, I’m really suffering.”

“You served the Empress Dowager? Miss Yang, why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

The officers immediately felt that having Yang Yunzhao treat them was a great honor!

Jiang Lili saw the officers crowding around and quickly put on the mask Xiaopang had brought her, stepping back to maintain her distance from them.

As Yang Yunzhao watched Jiang Lili being “pushed out,” she couldn’t help but curl her lips into an arrogant smile.

In fact, her claim of serving the Empress Dowager simply meant that she had once been present when the head of the lady-in-waiting department had an audience with the Empress Dowager, and had handed her a cup of tea or replaced a spittoon once or twice.

But Yang Yunzhao wasn’t about to elaborate. She knew how to package herself, and just the fact that she had been a lady-in-waiting was enough to make her stand out among women.

The common cold was a minor ailment. She had learned a few general, universal remedies from the Tai Hospital that could easily treat it.

With a sense of pride, Yang Yunzhao called out to Jiang Lili, “Miss Jiang, for safety’s sake, let me handle the treatment. The result will be the same, and my aunt can also ride in the cart.”

The Marquis’ family could still owe her a favor.

Previously, Yang Yunzhao had intended to keep her distance from the Marquis’s family, but after the mountain bandit incident, she realized that smoothing things over during the journey wasn’t enough. When faced with an emergency situation, it was the martial strength of the Marquis’s family that was key to survival.

Yang Yunzhao looked at Jiang Lili’s mask with confusion. What was that thing Jiang Lili was wearing on her face? It looked so ugly.

Jiang Lili saw Yang Yunzhao speaking to some of the feverish officers without any protective measures and shook her head as she retreated.

Her own plan for treating patients was to avoid close contact, letting the class leader handle the consultation online, calculate the right dosage, since she was more than familiar with the bailiffs’ conditions.

“Miss Jiang, my Dabao is sick. Can you take a look at him?”

At that moment, a young woman carrying a child walked up to Jiang Lili, pleading.

The woman’s name was Yin Zhen. She was a concubine of a government official who had fallen out of favor with the emperor and had been exiled to Haizhou. As a concubine, Yin Zhen had no choice but to follow her husband into exile.

The child on her back was just over a year old, thin and frail, lying weakly on her back, looking pitiful and lacking energy.

Jiang Lili was puzzled. After all, the female official seemed far more reliable than herself. “Do you trust me?”

Yin Zhen’s voice was stubborn. “Yang Yunzhao’s father embezzled disaster relief funds, which were originally supposed to be distributed to my hometown. But after layers of exploitation, all that reached the villagers were just a tiny fraction. Over a hundred people in the county starved to death.

“No matter what, I will never ask them for help!”

Yin Zhen shoved the bracelet wrapped in cloth into Jiang Lili’s hands. “This is all I have left. If you can save Dabao, I’ll listen to your commands in the future. You can ask me to do anything.”

Jiang Lili sighed upon hearing this. Embezzlers truly deserved to die!!!

Yin Zhen brought the child in front of her, ready to kneel before Jiang Lili, but Jiang Lili hurriedly helped her up.

She crouched down to take Dabao’s temperature, and as she looked at the child’s features, she paused for a moment.

At a year and a half, the child’s features had already developed. He no longer looked as wrinkled as when he had been born, and there were signs of how he might look as he grew older.

The broad earlobes and prominent nose gave Jiang Lili a feeling of familiarity.

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