The Lucky Farmgirl

Everyone crowded together to watch Zhou Man get variolated. All things considered, Zhou Man was the first person to enjoy such an honor; half the Imperial Hospital’s doctors were here.

Director Xiao personally took the knife; after making a small cut on the inside of her arm, he implanted the cowpox matter. When he finished, Director Xiao said, "All right, Imperial Doctor Zhou, have a good rest."

There was no way she was actually going to rest. Although she’d been inoculated, she wasn’t moved into the infectious ward; she still lived in her own courtyard. It was just that her courtyard was locked, and Xi Bing and Jiu Lan had moved into the next courtyard over.

However, Imperial Doctor Lu moved quite a lot of stuff over for her—these were the pulse records and data of the current test subjects. "This is one third. In light of you getting variolated, I’ll take on the remaining two thirds."

Manbao: ...

She silently accepted the materials.

So other than eating a lighter diet and only being able to stroll around her courtyard to loosen up, Manbao’s daily life wasn’t much different from before.

By the next evening, Manbao was running a bit of a fever. She herself couldn’t really tell, but Imperial Doctor Lu came to check on her and saw at a glance that she was feverish. He touched her forehead—indeed, it was a low fever—then glanced at her arm.

Manbao stared at her arm too. "No pustules yet. Might need another day; let’s see tomorrow."

Imperial Doctor Lu nodded and reminded her, "Don’t stay up late tonight. Go to bed early. If you feel uncomfortable, call someone—we’re all next door."

Manbao agreed.

After he left, Manbao immediately asked Keke, "I’m okay, right?"

Keke: "You’re fine."

Manbao touched her heart thumping away. "It’s making me really nervous."

Keke: ...

Manbao decided to chat with Teacher Mo. Anyway, there was the sea of stars between them; even if they were face-to-face, there was no way she could infect him.

Teacher Mo was also very curious about her symptoms. After all, all the previous pulse records had been written up by her and then sent to him; he’d never actually seen the patients, let alone talked with one face to face.

Out of curiosity about people of that era, that world, Teacher Mo actually put down his experiment and went online especially to watch.

He had Zhou Man spin in place for him to see, but unfortunately it was only a light-screen projection and couldn’t be physically touched, so all he could see was that her cheeks were a bit flushed and the bloodshot in her eyes had increased a little. On the surface, he couldn’t spot much else out of the ordinary.

"That’s a normal sign of fever. What’s your temperature right now?"

Manbao asked Keke, and Keke reported, "Thirty-seven point eight degrees."

Teacher Mo said, "That’s a little high. At this temperature, you should be about to break out. Keep an eye on it for the next two hours. If it keeps climbing, then you need to be careful."

Teacher Mo said, "You have an antidote in your system. In theory, even if you did catch smallpox, you should recover faster than an ordinary person, and it should be less dangerous."

Teacher Mo was right; Zhou Man’s risk was indeed not great. Her highest temperature was only thirty-seven point eight. Shortly after she lay down, before she fell asleep, she felt an itch on the inside of her arm. She raised her arm to the lamp, and sure enough, she saw a pustule budding out.

Manbao let out a breath of relief and immediately asked Keke, "What’s my body temperature now?"

"Thirty-seven point seven."

It had even gone down a little.

Manbao’s eyes lit up. She resisted the urge to scratch, obediently folded her hands over her abdomen and went to sleep.

Although her arm really itched and she really wanted to scratch it, she was also truly exhausted. Today she had already整理汇总了一半 of the pulse records and data they’d turned over; she was tired, hadn’t taken a nap, and was just a bit away from finishing...

And having a fever really made her sleepy; her head felt a little dizzy. Manbao’s thoughts drifted; her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and she felt as if the itch on her arm was drifting far away from her. Then she fell asleep.

Manbao woke up once in the night, driven awake by the itching. She irritably tossed and turned a few times, enduring without scratching, and eventually drifted off again in a daze.

The next day, Manbao was awakened by bright light. She bounced up from the bed, yanked up her sleeve, and looked at the inside of her arm. Seeing three pustules crowded together, she reached up to touch her forehead and asked, "Keke, what’s my temperature?"

"Thirty-seven degrees."

"That accurate?"

Keke: "Yes."

Manbao was overjoyed. "That counts as no fever anymore, and I haven’t even taken the medicine yet."

Seeing her look so regretful, Keke couldn’t help asking, "Does the host want to make up a bowl of medicine on the spot?"

"No need for that," Manbao said quickly. "Let’s not waste it. Better to save the medicine for people who need it more."

Manbao got up to wash and dress. Jiu Lan and Xi Bing spoke to her through the courtyard gate. "Mistress, what would you like to eat? We’ll prepare it for you."

Manbao thought for a moment and said, "Forget it, give the meat sauce noodles to Imperial Doctor Lu. I’ll just have some porridge with a bit of pickles."

There was no way it would be just pickles. Jiu Lan also cut her a bit of meat—not very greasy—which Imperial Doctor Lu allowed.

Aside from egg water, Manbao could eat anything with gusto.

After breakfast, Imperial Doctor Lu came over to check her. He felt her forehead, then looked again at the pustules on the inside of her arm, and nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. Let’s see whether you still run a fever today. If you don’t get more pustules and don’t have a fever today, then the chance of more pustules appearing in the next two days is also low."

Imperial Doctor Lu asked her, "Do you want to take medicine?"

Manbao refused. "I think my body can heal on its own. No need for medicine."

Imperial Doctor Lu didn’t insist; her symptoms really didn’t look serious. He walked around the courtyard once, made sure she was fine, and left—only to come back shortly after.

Unlike Zhou Man, who had secretly slipped out last night to go teach, he was working overtime even at night. He had no choice; there was nothing to do at the imperial manor, and now that Zhou Man had been variolated, even the people he could chat with had been locked away, so all he could do was work overtime.

An overtime-working Imperial Doctor Lu was efficient; he had already整理好了 all the pulse records in his hands.

He brought the data over to Zhou Man, and the two of them cross-checked it and made a combined summary.

Thus, the data from these two trials was also compiled and could be filed directly away in the archives.

Imperial Doctor Lu exhaled and looked at Zhou Man. "Now we’re only missing your case."

Manbao was very confident in herself. She asked, "Imperial Doctor Lu, once I’ve been variolated, will you have your child come get it too?"

Imperial Doctor Lu: "My son is already older. It’s not suitable for him."

"Don’t you have a grandson?"

Imperial Doctor Lu: "...I don’t have a grandson yet."

"Oh, oh, a granddaughter is the same. How can you favor one over the other?"

Imperial Doctor Lu: "She’s not even a year old yet!"

"That is a bit young," Manbao thought for a moment. "I’ll talk to Doctor Xiao later. I remember he has a grandson who’s already six; that should be about right."

Imperial Doctor Lu said nothing and even gave a small nod.

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