The Exiled Villainess and Her Shopping Dimension

Chapter 170

"Are you the Governor’s assistant?" Upon hearing Yueqian’s question, the emaciated old man bowed to her immediately.

"Yes, cough, cough." Although he wanted to say more flattering words, the more he spoke, the more he hurt himself. So, the old man only uttered three words, confirming the Governor’s furen’s assumption.

Yueqian nodded and looked inside the opened door. Unlike other bustling cities, there were no signs of people moving about. However, there were one or two individuals still working diligently, and their bodies appeared to be in good condition. This suggested they had either recovered from the deadly disease or had a natural immunity without showing symptoms. As a result, people were unaware that they had been infected and had likely spread it to others.

However, these people were among the very few lucky ones. For a body that had never encountered such a severe disease before, surviving without any lingering symptoms was quite rare. Yueqian believed that if these two were in her former world, people from the Medical Council would have sought them out, asking for their cooperation so that they could extract antibodies from their immune systems to develop a vaccine.

Afterward, they could prevent infections or severe symptoms. Of course, in this era, there was no advanced medical technology. However, the local herbs were highly beneficial.

In  the time Yueqian came from, many herbs never appeared. This explained why doctors and herbalists of this era sufficed. By using valuable herbs, no matter what serious illness they encountered, they could treat and improve it. The only downside was that it was relatively slow.

All of this was partly due to slow travel, delayed communication, and late government announcements. By the time they realized a major incident had occurred, many days had passed, leading to rapid deaths among those not in the capital. Village doctors lacked the knowledge of medicine compared to the doctors who were invited to the capital, so they could not help much. At most, they could only provide symptomatic care or common diseases that occurred frequently.

Reflecting on this, Yueqian glanced back at the Governor’s assistant, whose health was clearly deteriorating. If their group had arrived any later, this assistant might not have survived.

"Your condition is quite serious. Take this medicine for now. The ingredients come from the capital and should help a lot," Yueqian said, handing him a pill. Pills weren’t popular in this era, but transporting liquid medicine was quite challenging. Yueqian had spent two to three days boiling the ingredients down into pill form for emergency use.

The Governor’s assistant hesitated a bit, but ultimately, he couldn’t refuse the furen of the Governor in front of so many people. The old man tossed the pill into his mouth and chewed it until it was crushed before swallowing.

Yueqian, who hadn’t had the chance to tell him how to take the medicine properly, could only apologize silently. She didn’t speak up now because it was too late. The pill she made was very concentrated, and chewing it would definitely taste extremely bitter.

"Drink some water to help dissolve the medicine." Yueqian’s excuse almost made Mu Heng smile, but fortunately, he was quite good at maintaining a straight face. This made the Governor’s assistant not realize that he had just destroyed his taste buds.

The old man quickly drank the water, his face contorting in extreme discomfort. He felt like he could vomit at any moment but managed to hold it in. After nearly five breaths, he finally relaxed a bit, having finished the entire bottle of water.

"Whenever you feel a sore throat, drink ginger tea. You can add honey for taste. Don’t let it get worse to the point of needing treatment for a throat infection as well," the young woman advised further. Although ginger was rare and expensive, especially in the Bai Region, it wasn’t a big deal for the Governor’s assistant, so he nodded obediently.

In his mind, he thought he would take any medicine except the one he had just chewed, as it was too bitter. It was so bitter that he still couldn’t taste anything else.

"Go rest. Today, my soldiers and I won’t do much besides surveying the area," Mu Heng waved him off to go to rest. He didn’t need any help at the moment.

Because their journey had taken quite a while, he wanted to let the soldiers who had been on guard duty rest first. Additionally, he needed to arrange their accommodations.

The Governor’s manor here had quarters for the soldiers as well. If any soldier planning to settle down and start a family here, they would have to buy a house outside. This was a normal expectation they accepted. The 500 soldiers accompanying them now were all single young men without partners, having been trained from a young age to follow the Wang and engage in combat training in the camps.

This was essentially their first assignment. Only 10-20 of the initial soldiers had prior experience, while the rest were novices. This made them follow Mu Heng’s orders very well, without any complaints.

Therefore, initially, arranging accommodations for the 500 soldiers was their responsibility. Red Earth City, though remote, already had about 100-150 stationed soldiers—not a large number, but sufficient to deter potential aggressors. This didn’t include when disasters occurred, they called on the villagers for help or requested troops from other cities. Despite this, the presence of these 100-plus soldiers never made the tribes complacent.

Given the current situation, however, the stationed soldiers, though present, were unable to move around. Even patrolling soldiers, gatekeepers, or other officials were nowhere to be seen by Mu Heng’s group.

"Leader Mu, we’ve found nearly 100 soldiers in their barracks, but their condition is..." reported one of the soldiers assigned to inspect the area.

His expression was grim. The Governor’s assistant, who was still nearby and overhearing this, wanted to explain, but Mu Heng stopped him.

"I understand. Let them rest for now. Furen Mu has prepared medicine for them. You all help distribute it. Meanwhile, you will need to build your own accommodation. According to the maps I’ve seen, the Governor’s manor in Red Earth City has only 250 rooms for soldiers. We still need over 400 more rooms and have to prepare additional space for future personnel. While managing the epidemic, you should also handle the construction," Mu Heng explained the tasks to them.

The 500 soldiers looked at each other. Although they lacked construction skills, it wouldn’t be difficult for over 500 able-bodied men, who were stronger than average villagers. Besides, these were their future quarters. They didn’t know how long they would stay there or if they might die there. So, how could they afford to refuse or do a shoddy job?

"Leader, where should we set up the construction site?"

The layout of the Governor’s manor was divided into specific sections. The actual Governor’s manor of was surrounded by a separate wall, preventing visibility from the front. The main entrance of the Governor’s manor was attached to the exit on the other side, away from the bustling crowds, providing a high degree of privacy for the Governor.

Additionally, there was also a section for the soldiers, which took up a significant amount of space due to the training grounds, a storage area for weapons, armory, and other facilities for the soldiers. The current accommodations were only sufficient for 250 soldiers, which seemed to be the maximum capacity of the existing facilities. This area was adjacent to another wall. When the soldiers needed to patrol or went outside, they could use that door.

Next was the storage area, including granaries for tax collections to the capital, rooms for books, royal decrees, official documents, secret files, and other essential items. A notable part of the complex was the petition courtyard.

The petition courtyard had been established decades ago, even before the previous Governor. The people here lived quite far from the city itself, with some villages situated in valleys and others requiring a trek over small mountains to reach. Therefore, the 150 soldiers couldn’t oversee everything. To address the issue of the government not hearing the villagers’ requests, the petition courtyard was set up. If a major or important issue was reported, it would be forwarded directly to the Governor.

For minor issues, others would handle them first, and the Governor would only receive the results of these actions.

This was beneficial for the villagers and demonstrated the attentiveness of previous Governors. However, the latest Governor neglected the villagers’ petitions. He only let his subordinates do the work themselves. This neglect likely contributed to the rapid spread of the epidemic.

At the very least, he should have protected the main city first, closed off the infected village, sent medical personnel, and submitted a petition to the capital, reporting that a severe epidemic had been found and infected an entire village. Certainly, he should not have failed and abandoned the city he was responsible for, fleeing to save himself like this.

Returning to his brave subordinate’s question, Mu Heng pondered for a moment before looking at his beautiful wife. Yueqian, who had also seen the layout of the Governor’s manor, knew that all available space within the manor was already utilized. The only viable option for accommodating an additional 400 soldiers was to purchase adjacent land.

Next to the Governor’s manor, there were no inhabitants. People felt there was a lack of privacy due to the noise from the soldiers’ frequent training sessions and the need to avoid inappropriate proximity between men and women. Thus, the area adjacent to the Governor’s manor in the military zone remained unoccupied, even though it was in the city center.

Yueqian understood his intention. This approach wouldn’t cost them much money. Mu Heng could use the proceeds from selling his manuscripts for this purpose. Even if it wasn’t enough, Yueqian was ready to support him. She knew this decision was quite significant and that Mu Heng might gain more respect for his sacrifice.

Seeing that his wife understood and didn’t object, Mu Heng gave his orders immediately.

"I will purchase the land near the camp’s wall, then build a new wall around the barracks to be constructed. You can use that space. Also, find someone to handle the land purchase," Mu Heng said with a calm expression. The soldiers under his command exchanged glances once more.

They hadn’t expected that their new leader, rumored to be a mere commoner, would make such a decision. Although a Governor’s salary was higher than theirs, it shouldn’t be so high as to allow for extravagant spending on building accommodations for them, right?

As soldiers, they had already proven they could live in the wilderness for extended periods. If he wanted, he could have ordered them to camp outside or find their own lodgings in the city, solving the issue easily.

However, this former commoner, now their leader, didn’t think twice. Upon hearing the question, he took only a few seconds to decide, sacrificing his own resources for them. This was truly unexpected for all 500 soldiers.

"Leader, while we can build the accommodations, the land is quite expensive. The land near the Governor’s manor has been abandoned partly because of its high cost."

"And so what?" Mu Heng raised an eyebrow and asked in return. The soldier hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to say something else, but ultimately remained silent.

"You are my soldiers now, not just soldiers of Red Earth City. The Wang has entrusted you to my care, and I cannot neglect this duty. Moreover, now that you are truly mine, you are like my limbs. If my limbs are not well cared for, what will become of me?" Mu Heng shook his head and continued explaining.This was indeed his true sentiment. Suddenly receiving the favor of being entrusted with 500 soldiers was something for which he was genuinely grateful to the Wang and all the soldiers. In Mu Heng’s eyes, these 500 soldiers would become his trusted companions who fought alongside him from the very beginning. Ultimately, whether they achieved victory or suffered defeat in the future would depend on them.