Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Chapter 1201 "What I Saw and Heard"

"vomit--"

"vomit--"

"Ugh, vomit, vomit—"

A moment later, before Jiang Zhiming had returned, the officials returned amidst a chorus of retching sounds.

Their faces were pale, their steps were unsteady, and they entered the council chamber by holding onto the door frame.

"Lord Shen, if this poison is not eradicated, my Great Zhou... I fear there will be no more peace." This was the first thing Huo Tao said after entering the room, his attitude completely different from before.

Shen Zheng took in their disheveled appearance, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes: "What did you see?"

It's just Huai Shaoyong who's unconscious, it shouldn't be enough to scare them like this, right?

Shen Zheng's question only made things worse. The officials' faces paled again, as if the acid they had so painstakingly suppressed was now surging back up: "Ugh—"

Xu Yunyan frowned, stood up, and stood between them and Shen Zheng: "If you want to vomit, go outside."

The officials felt as if they had been granted a pardon, and they ran out bowing.

Shen Zheng was very curious and sat there for a while. Just as her patience was about to run out, the officials finally helped each other and stepped into the hall again.

"Please sit down," Shen Zheng gestured with her chin, then asked, "Who will tell us what happened?"

After the officials sat down, they all poured themselves a cup of tea. Ning Bufan raised his hand and said, "My lord, let me speak."

Shen Zheng nodded, and amidst the increasingly pale faces of the officials, Ning Bufan slowly recounted what they had seen and heard.

It's not about what you see and hear literally, but about what you actually see and hear.

"Before we even entered, a stench assaulted our senses... The stench wasn't like that of excrement, but rather more like..."

"The stench of a corpse." Yi Mingli suppressed the nausea in his stomach and replied, "Sir, in my years of investigating thieves, I have seen several human corpses. The stench is extremely similar to the smell of rotting corpses in the summer."

Upon hearing this, Shen Zheng leaned forward, her nostrils twitching slightly, and indeed smelled a faint stench on the group.

The scent was faint, yet it instantly made the hairs on Shen Zheng's body stand on end.

Shen Zheng recalled a document she had read in her previous life.

Literature indicates that the stench emanating from human corpses is an "unacceptable stench etched into our genes."

Once humans smell the stench of their own kind in the environment, their genetic instincts will react before their brains do—the stench of their own kind is a signal of a "danger zone," which will cause humans to instinctively reject, fear, and flee.

Shen Zheng roughly knew what Yi Mingli and the others had gone through.

Can......

"Huai Shaoyong is dead?" Shen Zheng frowned.

Even if Huai Shaoyong really didn't make it, his body shouldn't have started to rot so quickly, right?

"No, he's not dead..." Ning Bufan clutched his stomach, his voice hoarse from vomiting, and continued his narration, "Back then, after smelling that stench, we still pushed open the door and went in. Once inside, we found Huai Shaoyong with his eyes closed, vomiting incessantly. The doctor, worried he'd choke on his vomit, was turning him over..."

Shen Zheng paused upon hearing this, thinking, "What a clever 'flip'!"

"And then?" Shen Zheng asked.

"Then the doctor said that Huai Shaoyong needed to be changed into a new outfit, and asked if we should leave..." As he spoke, Ning Bufan was almost in tears: "We thought that we had come to see him, and since we are all men, there was no need to leave, so we all stayed in the room."

Little did they know that this decision would become the one they would regret most in the years to come.

"At that time, Huai Shaoyong was lying face down, his back up, completely naked after the doctor stripped him of his clothes. Then the doctor called over the apprentice, and just as he was about to change him into clean clothes, he... he actually... vomited—"

"?" Shen Zheng was listening intently and pressed for an answer: "What happened to him?"

“He, he…” Ning Bufan swallowed hard.

Yi Mingli listened anxiously, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth: "He expelled a huge pool of black blood! Ugh—the black blood was pasty and very sticky, spreading down his groin... all the way to the bed, and, and the stench was extremely foul, even more like the stench of a corpse than the previous vomit... Ugh—"

Pulling black blood...

Just hearing their description made Shen Zheng's abdomen spasm.

One can imagine the visual and olfactory shock that Yi Mingli and others experienced at that time.

Ning Bufan opened his mouth, about to continue speaking, but Shen Zheng immediately raised her hand to stop him: "There's no need to go into details."

She roughly knew what Huai Shaoyong's situation was.

—Long-term use of heavy metals can cause damage to the digestive tract, resulting in mucosal congestion and erosion.

However, Yi Mingli and his group were really unlucky, as they happened to witness Huai Shaoyong's body rapidly deteriorating.

After a moment of silence, Shen Zheng looked at them and added, "You...you've suffered. What about the doctor? How is he? And what did the doctor say about Huai Shaoyong's current condition?"

Yi Mingli took another sip of tea, his lips pale. "Reporting to Your Excellency, after the doctor and I went outside to vomit, we covered our mouths and noses and went back inside... He said that what Huai Shaoyong expelled was most likely necrotic intestinal tissue. Huai Shaoyong is now on the verge of death, and it is still unknown whether he can survive..."

Upon hearing this, Shen Zheng lowered her eyes and rubbed her temples.

It's really a coincidence that the government office ran into them.

If Huai Shaoyong really loses his life, there will be a lot more trouble. Hopefully, Li Shiyuan will arrive soon and save Huai Shaoyong's life.

As Shen Zheng was thinking, Huo Tao suddenly stood up, his face trembling and turning blue, and said, "My lord, I was short-sighted before and failed to recognize the harm of 'Spirit Powder,' which almost ruined a great matter. I beg you to punish me!"

At this moment, Huo Tao could no longer utter words like "the autumn harvest is of utmost importance".

Yes, the autumn harvest is indeed very important, and ensuring the people's basic needs are met is of paramount importance.

But if a person loses their life, what's the point of eating...?

He simply didn't have the courage to experience that scene a second time.

Just as Shen Zheng was about to speak, a figure appeared at the hall door. Turning her head, she saw Jiang Zhiming, who had been gone for more than two quarters of an hour.

Jiang Zhiming's face was ashen, his eyes glazed over. He stood frozen at the hall door for a long while until Shen Zheng called out to him, "Lord Jiang?"

"Ah? Oh!" Jiang Zhiming came to his senses, stepped into the council hall, and forced a smile, saying, "I have been away for a long time, and I have kept Lord Shen and everyone waiting."

Jiang Zhiming's strange behavior was almost obvious. Shen Zheng frowned slightly and guessed, "Lord Jiang, has the 'Spirit Powder' also been found in Fuzhou Prefecture?"

Jiang Zhiming suppressed his trembling hands and shook his head: "It's not 'spiritual powder,' but Lord Shen... I believe that this matter... may be more urgent than investigating 'spiritual powder.'"

Shen Zheng was greatly shocked.

Is something more urgent than investigating the "spiritual powder"?