NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: What’s the Curse?
“I am glad that you reached the consort just in time, Doctor Chen.”
The crown prince gently stroked the face of the woman, which had turned red with fever.
‘So this person is the crown prince’s concubine.’
Yui Mei grasped the true identity of the woman.
Now that she thought about it, the place where the woman drowned was near the crown prince palace, or so she was taught.
“We are also gratefully relieved. It was all due to this person’s foresight.”
The crown prince turned his head in surprise at Ziliang as he replied with a solemn expression.
“Doctor Chen, can she stay here?”
Ziliang knit his brows.
“Your Highness will not bring her back to the palace?”
“Even if I did, no one would be there to take care of her. She will be pitiful.”
The crown prince’s face clouded over upon hearing Ziliang’s question.
‘Nobody will take care of her?’
Yui Mei had no idea when to straighten up, so she had bowed her head all this time.
“There’s no way that’s true.”
Yui Mei mumbled in a barely audible voice.
“Is it because of the curse?”
“Yes, a very troublesome matter, indeed.”
The crown prince continued their conversation with a dark expression.
Yui Mei, who was not supposed to interrupt, couldn’t keep it anymore. She raised her head.
“Excuse me, what is this curse that you had been talking about since a while ago?”
Yui Mei rudely butted in their conversation. She had a feeling the crown prince’s attendant was glaring at her, as if saying ‘Don’t interrupt the Crown Prince!’. She ignored him. She had always believed in the saying that it was “better to ask the way, than to go astray.” As for diseases, it was always necessary to ask the details; else, it would turn into something that one cannot recover from.
“Why, you didn’t know about it?”
“I just entered the palace, and have been very busy from the start, so I don’t have the time to join in idle gossip.”
The crown prince was stunned that she didn’t know about the curse, so Yui Mei answered him honestly. The eunuchs were stupefied at her ignorance, while the crown prince looked at her with deep interest. She exasperatedly thought that they were too strict; it was true that she was very busy until yesterday, so she couldn’t help it.
Ziliang heaved a great sigh, and then he told her the story.
Apparently, it all started in a large outbreak of colds.
“We always have an outbreak of colds yearly at winter time, but this year was exceptionally harsh.”
The fever was higher, and most of the patients experienced fatigue and nausea. To make matters worse, it turned into pneumonia, and many commoners died due to delayed treatment. They tried to prevent the cold from spreading into the Inner Palace through strict control, but it was as if this epidemic had a life of its own. There was no way humans could completely control it.
“The regular merchants brought the colds, and in a blink of an eye, it spread.”
The clinic had already prepared large amounts of medicine for the common cold, but they were ineffective. They couldn’t eradicate the primary cause. They were currently trying to mass-produce a drug that effectively treats the symptoms.
‘Wait, isn’t this familiar?’
To summarize Ziliang’s story, this year’s infection was worse, and it was easy to exacerbate the condition. Symptoms included fevers that were higher than normal, fatigue and nausea. If it worsens, it would turn into pneumonia, and there had been casualties among the commoners. Cold medicines were not effective, and abnormal behavior could be observed.
‘Isn’t these the symptoms of influenza?’
Colds were transmitted through hand contact, whereas influenza infection could be an airborne infection, so its spread was instantaneous. The reason why those medicines were ineffective was because it was a different disease altogether. Be it western or Chinese traditional medicine, colds and influenza were treated differently.
In short, everything had been a mess because it was not handled properly, and influenza turned into an epidemic.
“Then where did that story about the curse come from?”
In her previous world’s Japan, there was also an era when people blamed ogres for the spread of diseases. However, this Sai Kingdom was relatively more modern than that period, and medical care was considerably developed.
Yui Mei thought about the reason why this disease was being blamed on a curse.
Ziliang shrugged his shoulders at Yui Mei’s query.
“It was already known that when a patient has high fever, he may exhibit abnormal behavior. This knowledge has been passed down among physicians since a long time ago. However, those folks can’t get used to it, and they thought it was creepy. That bunch of idiots made a ruckus, saying they were possessed, and the story spread.”
Rather than saying that they were devout, it should be said that they were just boisterous cowards. Ziliang tried to appease them through clarification, but his words fell on deaf ears, as they were too panic-stricken.
“And then those Taoists came butting in, saying it was a curse, and the empress dowager supported their claim.”
‘Whoah, what a horrid person!’
Yui Mei stopped herself from voicing her true opinions.
The empress dowager was the mother of the emperor, and she stood at the pinnacle of the imperial harem. Apparently, she was a devout person, and had always participated in religious activities.
“Because of those Taoists, the treatment of patients could not proceed. I was also in a hurry to secure the patient before the Taoists got to her.”
If those Taoists got the patients first, they would exorcise them for long periods of time, all in the name of eradicating the curse. Of course, those methods could not cure influenza, and the symptoms would progress. Occasionally, there were resilient patients who managed to recover, but the Taoists would just claim that their prayers had been effective.
Influenza was a highly individualized disease, so those were probable instances.
‘If they just gave them the right medicine promptly, then wouldn’t their symptoms be mild, instead?’
To make matters worse, people were terrified of being acknowledged by the Taoists as having the curse. The number of people hiding their symptoms increased, so many were discovered too late.
“Because of that, a large number of people who could have recovered had they taken the medicine died.”
The Imperial Palace sustained heavy damage due to the influenza, and a lot of places stopped operating. Of course, the Inner Palace also lacked manpower.
‘It’s no wonder they were anxiously gathering court ladies.’
So the court lady selection was not done to lure beauties into the palace. Yui Mei’s misgivings about her father being a womanizer somewhat eased, and she was a little bit relieved.
——-
T/N: This chapter was published in 2018, way before coronavirus, but totally relatable in our current time. I didn’t think I’d be encountering an influenza epidemic in this novel when I picked it; I was interested in the MC’s refreshing character. So, how will the ancients and a reborn girl deal with this so-called ‘curse’ in the harem? ? I haven’t read far into the story, so the future is also a mystery to me. That said, stay safe, everyone! ?