The Lucky Farmgirl

Director Xiao had been waiting for Zhou Man to file a submission against the Zhao Family or the three officials who impeached Manbao, but Manbao had not made a move.

However, he soon put the matter aside.

The scabs from the last test subject of the fourth batch had also fallen off.

So they tested whether he was immune to smallpox. After waiting for seven days, they confirmed that all test subjects were currently immune to smallpox. Then, overnight, he took Zhou Man and Imperial Doctor Lu to organize the data and write a report.

That night, Director Xiao squeezed onto a bed with Imperial Doctor Lu, not even having time to return home.

The next morning, he woke up refreshed, took the report and various data written the night before, and instructed the two, "You two should tally up the destinations of this batch of people. In the afternoon, I will bring Imperial Doctor Liu and others to meet you."

He smiled and said, "In this four-time experiment, Imperial Doctor Lu and Imperial Doctor Zhou are the main contributors. I reserved a place at Primus Pavilion, and in the afternoon we shall celebrate."

Having been locked up here sporadically for nearly three months, even Imperial Doctor Lu couldn’t help but be pleased, not to mention the ever-active Manbao.

She immediately asked, "Director, how many days will we have off this time?"

Director Xiao smiled and said, "We are the Imperial Hospital. Patients come constantly, so it’s impossible to give you long holidays, but five or six days should be possible."

Manbao then counted on her fingers, "Today is the eighteenth? Then the day after tomorrow is the Ministry of Personnel’s exam? Director Xiao, could you give us two more days off? It’s just right for spring outings, and we’ve spent the whole spring at the imperial estate without having had the chance to go on a spring outing..."

Director Xiao turned and left, "There’s no shortage of green things at the imperial estate. If you want a spring outing, just walk into the fields after reviewing the cases."

Granting more holidays was impossible.

In these three months, not only she and Imperial Doctor Lu were busy, but everyone else at the Imperial Hospital was also very busy, wasn’t it?

Originally, the time around spring was a season with many diseases, and the Imperial Hospital was short of two people, and the Imperial Medical Office also lacked two teachers, well, one teacher actually, because Zhou Man had been absent for a year, and Liu Sanniang had taken her place, so the students had gotten used to it.

But the courses of Imperial Doctor Lu were taken over by other doctors at the Imperial Hospital, and they occasionally had to come to the imperial estate to work on the vaccinations.

One could say the workload for everyone was multiplied during these three months; everyone was quite busy.

Manbao looked at Director Xiao walking away with regret.

Imperial Doctor Lu wanted to go home early, so he said to Zhou Man, "Let’s hurry, call all the estate managers over to tally things up. I’ll sort out the pharmacy, and over at the patient area..."

"I’ll take care of it."

In fact, they had already started wrapping up during this period, but there were so many things to do that it wasn’t finished yet. The medicines and various utensils in the pharmacy had to be gathered and sent back to various places, while the things in the patient area needed to be cleaned or burned, some could be permitted to be taken away, others had to stay for future use.

Manbao needed to oversee this.

The clothes, shoes, and socks worn by the patients could be taken away, but they had to be washed, recorded, and sun-dried; only then could they be taken away once confirmed to be fine.

Since they were thick clothes, to ensure nothing dirty was taken along, they had to inspect each piece of clothing.

But the quilts could not be taken, they were to be washed, dried, and stored in the ward, likely to be used when the next batch of patients arrived soon.

The managers at the estate knew they were about to be relieved, so they dared not make a mistake at this time. They meticulously recorded the destination of each case in their notebooks.

The two doctors in the estate, Imperial Doctor Lu had a big temper and was serious, while Imperial Doctor Zhou seemed to have a nice temperament but was very meticulous, with demands even stricter than Imperial Doctor Lu’s. When changing patients, she could tell if one or two quilts hadn’t been washed, and she would stand with her hands behind her, personally watching them wash the quilts.

Such work as cleaning was always done by the coarse maidservants at the imperial estate who had recovered from smallpox. They hadn’t done such rough work for many years.

Having Director Xiao as their backing, last time due to procurement issues, the entire imperial estate and even the palace went through a massive personnel change, so how could they dare to deceive these doctors?

So they worked very meticulously.

Manbao inspected the estate, nodded in satisfaction, and then ran back to find Xi Bing and Jiu Lan, telling them, "We can go home today, hurry up and pack our things."

Jiu Lan said, "Didn’t they say we couldn’t take our clothes out? They’re to be burned."

Manbao said, "We’re not taking them out, nor burning them. We’ll clean them up, dry them, and lock them in the cabinet. We’ll come back here afterwards."

"But make sure to take the jewelry; don’t leave anything behind." Manbao was also dissatisfied with the regulations set by the Imperial Hospital, muttering, "They can take their clothes, why can’t we?"

Of course, it was because they had fewer clothes. Moreover, the close-fitting clothes of the patients could not be taken out; they were to be counted later and burned entirely.

Because they were close-fitting, some of the infected smallpox scabs couldn’t be washed off, and Director Xiao always worried that even after washing, smallpox could linger on them, causing illness to people who came into contact later. So he strictly ordered that the innerwear worn by all smallpox patients couldn’t be taken out, only outer coats and padded jackets could be.

Besides innerwear, even the cloth towels, strips, and other items they used were not allowed to be taken out; all had to be burned clean.

So at noon, Manbao went to supervise, where each test subject stood in line with their belongings. Two sets of innerwear and inner pants, plus a cloth towel, because the items received were recorded in the register, so when handed back, they just needed to be checked against the register.

Manbao stood behind the manager, and the patients, according to their patient numbers, came forward one by one, reported their name and number, and handed over their belongings. A maidservant would then check and call out, "Two innerwears, two inner pants, one cloth towel—"

The maidservant was about to throw the checked items into the fire pit when the manager suddenly said, "Wait a minute, you took a new towel on the 2nd of April, where is it?"

Manbao then looked over.

A young man in his twenties suddenly blushed under everyone’s gaze, but he forced himself to say calmly, "I, I lost it."

The manager said, "Find it."

"How can I find it if it’s lost?"

The manager lifted his eyelid and looked at him, saying, "If it can’t be found, then you’ll stay in the patient area and not be allowed to return or leave this area."

The young man was stunned, "What would I do here?"

The manager pointed to the demarcated plot of land, saying, "Farming, there’s plenty of work to do, afraid you won’t find anything to do?"

The young man opened his mouth wide.

The manager then raised his voice to the crowd, "Anyone who doesn’t return their items completely won’t be allowed to leave. Do you think these are just things? These are items contaminated with smallpox. If you don’t return them completely, who knows what you’ll do with them if you take them out? So you better be clear-headed. We said when you took things, everything taken must be returned regardless of its condition, return them when told to return."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!