The most dissolute couple in the capital

The next morning, Li Chengjing dressed himself neatly and entered the Imperial Study without any hindrance.

The emperor had just finished court and was rubbing his throbbing temples when he returned to his study and received a summons from Li Chengjing requesting an audience. When he let him in, he saw that Li Chengjing was holding a bowl of calming soup and almost thought he was hallucinating.

"Are you crazy, or am I still dreaming?" The emperor took the soup, looking him up and down suspiciously. "Did the sun rise in the west? What are you doing here?"

Li Chengjing, unusually, did not have a joking expression. He performed a proper bow and said, "Your Majesty, I wish to go to the disaster-stricken areas in the south with the people from the Imperial Medical Academy."

The emperor nearly spat out the soup he had just drunk. He slammed the jade bowl down on the imperial table: "Nonsense! Is this a sightseeing trip? What are you going to the disaster area for? To teach the victims how to turn mud into rouge? Or do you think the Imperial Hospital's workload isn't heavy enough, and you have to add another burden to them?"

"Your Majesty!" Li Chengjing suddenly raised his head, looking directly at the Emperor. "I haven't been wasting my years following Elder Qi! The South is in dire need of physicians who can identify the properties of medicinal herbs and understand epidemic prevention methods. With the support of the Liang Prince's Mansion, I will take a large quantity of medicinal herbs there and will certainly not cause any trouble!"

The emperor frowned deeply. "Tell me the truth. Have you been through something? Or has someone been gossiping about you? Does Lady Cui know about this? Little Mingjiao is so young. Would she really let you go to such a dangerous place?"

Mentioning Cui Qingyi, Li Chengjing couldn't help but smile with a mixture of pride and helplessness: "Your Majesty, it was Qingyi who agreed. She said that if I could save the common people, she would feel honored."

He paused, then quickly added, "However, she also said that if I lose a single hair or anything else, she will never forgive me. So, Your Majesty, for my sake, you must allocate me two more squads of elite Imperial Guards!"

The emperor was amused and pointed at his nose, cursing, "In this Chang'an city, only the Cui family can control you! Since you're not afraid of death and insist on going, I'll grant your wish!"

With a sigh, the usually composed emperor finally softened his tone: "Since you're going, keep a low profile. I'll have three hundred elite Imperial Guards protect you. You're familiar with Xiao Jue from the Xiao family, so have him accompany you. Remember, if you feel any danger, come back immediately! I'd rather raise a useless person like you for the rest of my life than have an elderly parent bury a child!"

"Your subject obeys the decree!"

Two days later, outside the city gate.

There was no grand procession, no pomp and circumstance of officials seeing them off. A few simple but sturdy carriages, carrying the elderly Physician Qi with his full head of white hair, several young medical officers, and imperial guards disguised as ordinary attendants, quietly drove out of Chang'an.

The further south you go, the more gloomy the sky becomes, as if a tattered cloth soaked in ink is weighing heavily on your head.

At first, the official road was simply muddy and difficult to travel on due to the rain, and the wheels of the carriages often got stuck in the mud half a foot deep. But after traveling south for another ten days or so, the scene before them unfolded like a living hell.

Along the official road, groups of refugees began to appear in twos and threes.

Li Chengjing lifted the carriage curtain and saw a ragged middle-aged man pushing a broken wooden cart with only half a wheel. On the cart lay a emaciated old man, his life hanging in the balance. He saw a sallow-faced, emaciated woman tightly cradling a shriveled infant with a large head and a small body, the infant's cries sounding like a breathless cat. He also saw some people carrying no belongings at all, with only a chipped, broken iron pot on their backs, as if that was their only hope for survival.

No one was speaking; only the numb sound of footsteps and the occasional wail could be heard.

Li Chengjing's whole body stiffened.

In the prince's mansion in Chang'an, under the warm candlelight, "30,000 disaster victims" was just cold, lifeless ink writing on a memorial.

He even calculated in his mind how much silver it would cost to feed 30,000 people for a day.

But when these words transformed into living people covered in mud, with empty eyes, or even dead people, the weight that struck his soul was so heavy that he could hardly breathe.

"Stop the car!" Lee Seung-kyung suddenly shouted in a hoarse voice.

On the roadside ahead, an old woman was holding a toddler who was convulsing, desperately banging her head on the ground.

Li Chengjing jumped off the carriage, not even bothering to put on a raincoat, and strode over through the mud. He immediately took the child's pulse, checked his eyes, and quickly pulled a white porcelain bottle from his medicine chest. He poured out two pills and put them into the child's mouth, then turned to the guards behind him and shouted, "Go get a water pouch! And two more packets of medicine to dispel dampness and reduce fever!"

Upon seeing this, the old woman was stunned for a moment, then frantically kowtowed to him in the muddy water, crying, "Living Buddha! Thank you so much, Living Buddha, for saving my life!"

When the refugees saw someone dispensing medicine, they were as if they had seen driftwood in the vast ocean, and they all dragged their broken bodies to gather around.

"My lord, please save my master..."

"Sir, please give me some medicine..."

Surrounded by people, Li Chengjing had long since abandoned his former refinement. He tirelessly took pulses and dispensed medicine. His movements became increasingly skillful, but no matter how fast he treated patients, he couldn't outpace the surging crowds of refugees.

The convoy was forced to stop on the muddy official road, and for two whole hours, it only moved forward less than half a mile.

Just as Li Chengjing was sweating profusely and preparing to open the third medicine box, an old but strong hand pressed down on the lid of the medicine box.

"Your Highness, it's time to get in the carriage." The old imperial physician Qi appeared behind him at some point, his dark gray robe covered in mud, but his expression was as cold as ice.

"Elder Qi, there are still more than a dozen critically ill patients. Wait another half an hour..." Li Chengjing wiped the rain off his face and said urgently.

"We can't wait any longer!" Old Qi interrupted him in a deep voice, his gaze passing over the crowd and looking towards the darker south. "Your Highness, you've saved one person by stopping here, but there are thousands more waiting to die in the resettlement area ahead."

Li Chengjing was stunned, the half-packet of herbs in his hand hanging in mid-air.

"Compassion is the heart of a healer, but not their method." Old Qi's gaze revealed a profound and cruel understanding of the world. "These are just scattered refugees who have fled. After a true catastrophe, there will inevitably be a great epidemic. Our medicines and energy must be focused on the source of the outbreak. If we sacrifice the greater good for the sake of the lesser, and the plague spreads to the resettlement areas, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands will die! Can you save them all?!"

This was the first time Li Chengjing had been slapped hard in the face by reality.

He finally understood that in the face of a major disaster, an individual's medical efforts to save lives seem so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and might even lead to missed opportunities due to misplaced compassion.

He gritted his teeth, staring at the withered hands reaching for him, his eyes bloodshot. After a long while, he shoved the half-packet of herbs into the hand of the nearest refugee, turned and got into the carriage, his voice hoarse: "Keep going! Full speed ahead!"

The carriage rolled on again, leaving the heart-wrenching cries behind. Li Chengjing leaned against the carriage, closed his eyes, and felt a chill seeping into his very bones.

Three days later, the convoy finally arrived at the first major resettlement site—outside Jiangyuan County, less than 100 miles from the breach.

Before the carriage had come to a complete stop, a gust of wind blew by.

It was an extremely complex and nauseating smell.

The sour stench of fermenting sewage, the fishy smell of mud mixed with rotting corpses, and the bitter taste of boiling large quantities of inferior herbs created a tangible gloom.