The Overlord of the Red Mansion

Chapter 290 Freedom!

In the third year of the Shengchao period, on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, it snowed heavily in Suzhou in the early morning.

"Waaah~Waaah~" The crying of a baby rang out in the dim lounge.

The woman on the ground changed her posture like a worm and continued to pretend to be dead.

After regaining consciousness, some of the women who were awakened tremblingly squeezed towards their companions, trying hard to share the quilts of people around them, whether they knew them or not.

The big red lanterns that were supposed to be hung all night have been taken down, leaving only a few for lighting, and the rest have been placed in nearby empty rooms to support the needs of the next few days.

It was only a ten-day blockade, and since they were all women with no way out, there was basically no impact other than earning less money.

There is no family, no relatives or friends, no future, and even less warmth.

So there is no extra sympathy to meddle in other people's affairs.

While everyone was pretending to be dead and not interfering in other people's business, a strong man slowly stood up from the crowd of women.

There was no shortage of women around him. When he stood up, the seven or eight women piled around him fell down in all directions.

On this cold night, the wind was howling on the roof, and the snow melted into water from the hole in the roof, dripping into a corner of the hall.

The night was exceptionally cold, and only the man had enough bedding and a warm, reliable body to lean on.

Women are like worms, trying to crawl over and parasitize men.

Jia Rong walked across the ground covered with rouge and powder. When he found no place to step, he simply stepped on the women's backs, legs and buttocks and walked out.

The brothel owner, Mama Kou, had already stood up. When she saw Jia Rong walk out, she quickly picked up the clothes beside her and walked over.

"Sir, are you going to the toilet? Put on my cloak to avoid catching a cold."

Mother Kou opened her cloak and put it on Jia Rong with concern.

Jia Rong didn't stop and walked upstairs.

Mother Kou followed with clothes in hand and said carefully, "It's still early and there's nothing to do during the day. Young Master, go to your room upstairs and sleep for a while. You can have breakfast when you get up."

Jia Rong walked to the second floor and soon arrived outside a room.

The child's crying continued, the noise never stopped.

Mother Kou felt that the woman surnamed Gu was in trouble. She had disturbed the peace of this grandfather and would definitely not have a good ending.

This grandfather is handsome, but he has a very bad temper. His words are extremely harsh, and he is cruel, ruthless, and moody.

Yesterday, a prostitute was grabbed by the hair and dragged out to the yard to freeze for an hour because she spit on the ground. This scared the hundreds of other prostitutes who liked to spit on the ground so much that they no longer dared to spit.

"Open the door." Jia Rong knocked on the door casually.

Not long after, a little maid opened the door and looked at Jia Rong with some nervousness and fear.

Jia Rong ignored the little maid who was in her early teens and went straight into the house.

Mrs. Gu, who was about twenty years old, stood up holding her child, who was crying loudly in her arms.

Gu Rou also realized her situation and knelt down hurriedly: "Master, the child is ignorant. I will feed him and he will stop crying! I will let the nanny take care of the child. I will serve you well!"

Jia Rong walked to the bed and sat down. The rooms in a brothel were different from those in ordinary people's homes. The distance between the door and the bed was shorter, and there was no partition in the middle.

"Bring him here for me to see. I'm a doctor. Your child must be sick. There's something wrong with his crying."

Gu Rou was very surprised when she heard this. Although she knew that this gentleman was a doctor, she never thought that he could save people.

"Yes! Thank you, sir! I am willing to serve you like a slave and repay your kindness!"

Jia Rong smiled and said, "You are not qualified yet."

After being humiliated, Gu Rou felt more at ease. The gentleman today looked no different from the gentleman yesterday.

Jia Rong soon took care of the child and treated the illness.

Jia Rong took the child and touched him. He found that the baby in the cradle was very hot and was most likely dead.

"Look at this child's face, it's blue and purple, and his body is hot. He must have caught a cold and eaten something unclean, which caused phlegm and heat to stagnate and the lung qi to be blocked."

Gu Rou asked hurriedly: "I fed him a few mouthfuls of milk just now, but he vomited it all. It must be that damn bitch nanny who didn't take good care of my son in the middle of the night and let him catch a cold!"

Jia Rong said casually, "You are all women, so you know that it is difficult to raise a child. There is a lack of everything here now. This child is only three months old, and the possibility of survival is not great."

Gu Rou looked at Jia Rong and knew that her only hope now was Jia Rong.

"Please, sir, save my son. No matter how much money you offer, I will repay your kindness by working like a slave for the rest of my life!"

Jia Rong laughed again and said, "I've told you that you are not even qualified to be my servant. Stop dreaming about good things all day long. I will definitely do my best to treat this child. Whether you repay me or not has nothing to do with it."

At this moment, Gu Rou was curious about the identity of this man and what kind of prominent family could produce such a man.

However, the crying of the child quickly brought Gu Rou back to her senses. Gu Rou hurriedly said, "Thank you for your kindness, sir!"

"Go get some paper and pen. I'll write a prescription and get the medicine." Jia Rong said as he took out the silver needles he carried with him. "I'll let his blood down first to reduce his fever, and then give him medicine to see if I can cure him. If I can't cure him, then there's no hope."

Gu Rou nodded repeatedly: "I will listen to you, Master."

Jia Rong took out a silver needle as thin as an ox hair, gently pricked the Shangyang acupoint on the child's index finger, and squeezed out a drop of black blood.

The child cried out "wah" and cried even harder.

It's not a bad thing for children to cry.

Mother Kou quickly took people to get paper and pen from the girl next door who knew calligraphy.

Soon, paper and pen were ready. Jia Rong picked up the pen and dipped it in ink, then wrote on the paper:

Three qian of ephedra, two qian of almond, five qian of gypsum, one qian of licorice, two qian of scutellaria, two qian of platycodon, three qian of mulberry bark, two qian of scutellaria seed...

"This is the modified version of Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang." Jia Rong still had some medical skills that he didn't know if they were real or fake, and he habitually explained to the patient, "Ephedra clears the lungs and relieves asthma, apricot kernel relieves cough and resolves phlegm, gypsum clears heat, and licorice harmonizes the other medicines."

"I added Scutellaria baicalensis to clear lung heat, Platycodon grandiflorum to clear the lungs and relieve sore throat, Morus alba bark and Lemongrass to resolve phlegm and relieve asthma."

Gu Rou took the prescription, but looked embarrassed: "Sir, is this medicine too strong? The child is only three months old."

Jia Rong said seriously, "I have always been cautious in using medicine. Although this prescription seems strong, the dosage has been carefully considered. The child is now suffering from phlegm and heat in the lungs. If the medicine is not used in time, there may be a risk of life."

Because he has received many stupid patients, Jia Rong doesn't lose his temper as usual when dealing with patients' families.

Of course, there is a limit. If someone really seeks death, Jia Rong will forget that he is a doctor.

Mother Kou had been watching from the side, and she quickly said, "There are a few prescriptions in Wanhua Tower. The girls usually keep some for treatment. I'll go see if I can find any. Can I get a few less?" Jia Rong said casually, "Sure, but I'd better get the full prescription."

Only then did Mrs. Gu and Mrs. Kou feel relieved and quickly asked someone to get the medicine.

Jia Rong also instructed: "When decocting the medicine, first use three bowls of water to boil it down to one bowl, and take it warm three times. Remember not to feed it all at once, so as not to hurt the spleen and stomach. In addition, you must avoid wind and keep warm for a few days, and feed milk in small amounts and multiple times."

Jia Rong also talked about the precautions for taking care of children. With so many children at home, fever, colds, and inexplicable headaches and stomachaches are inevitable. Jia Rong is quite experienced.

After taking care of the child, Jia Rong came to Qin Wan'er's boudoir and directly lifted the pink quilt of the previous year's top courtesan Qin Wan'er, revealing the panic-stricken beauty inside.

"I'm using this room, all of you go out and don't disturb my sleep."

Jia Rong quickly drove away a few delicate beauties, found some good pencils and paper, and began to write letters to people in the capital.

Although I still don't want to go back after being away for so long, now that I have found something interesting to do, I no longer have such a strong prejudice against those women at home who make me upset.

Anyway, those people will know what's happening here in ten days or so, so it's better to write a letter and arrange some things.

Jia Rong wanted to play Deserted Island Survival, and the kind that he could play with everyone.

Otherwise, it could be like attacking a mountain stronghold, or many other things that I haven't thought of yet.

So Jia Rong wrote a letter to report his safety and arranged the appointment of some officials.

It has been nearly five years since he ascended the throne, and it is time for the officials at that time to be promoted. This kind of thing is far beyond the ability of useless people like Jia Yuanchun and Jia Ben to decide.

As for various technical development directions and overseas military deployments, Jia Rong simply made a plan and asked his subordinates to make arrangements and supplement them.

It has been nearly five years since he ascended the throne, and highways have been built in various places for officers and soldiers to use, and the various provincial sections are connected into one section that goes directly to the capital.

In the morning, Jia Rong went out to buy medicine and handed the letter to the admiral.

After receiving the letter, the admiral immediately stamped the package and wrote four words in red: "Urgent"!
When the admiral personally handed the letter to the person in charge of the post station, the people inside quickly realized that something big had happened and immediately set off at full speed on their horses.

The file transmission of the Holy Dynasty relied on post stations. Generally, there was a post station every ten kilometers, and a resting inn every fifty kilometers.

With the capital as the center, there are thirteen main roads in the country, leading to fifty-seven provinces.

There were passages between provincial capitals, and there were more than 2,000 post stations that served both postal and express services, with more than 50,000 full-time service personnel and more than 20,000 post soldiers serving them.

Jia Rong even gave the best war horses for use in war to these post stations, and did not pay much attention to the iron cavalry and light cavalry. Most of the middle and lower-quality horses were sufficient to pull artillery and weapons.

The benefits are also obvious. Once some documents are marked with the words "extremely urgent", no matter if people or horses die, they must deliver the items.

The information in the document concerns the fate of the country. As long as you follow this path, you will kill anyone who stands in your way.

Normal people and horses will get tired and it is impossible to maintain peak performance all the time.

At this time, 70,000 to 80,000 people and more than 100,000 livestock had to serve the country.

Change people! Change horses! Relay!

Once such a red letter was delivered, not only would the fastest person be sent out to deliver the letter, but they would also have to work overtime to respond and wait for the court's reply document to arrive before sending it out quickly.

The delivery time is strictly monitored. The time from receiving the letter to sending it to the next post station will be recorded. Whoever delays will be in trouble.

In the case that the distance is ten kilometers, the time taken to complete emergency documents at each post station becomes the assessment standard.

The thousand-mile horse can no longer keep up with the times. No matter whether it is a dog sled, a ten-kilometer relay of two people in a rickshaw, or some random bicycles and roller skates, the emperor of the Holy Dynasty has always been the kind of person who only cares about the results.

The Holy Dynasty quickly demonstrated extremely high mobilization and intelligence transmission capabilities.

This wasn't the first time this had happened, nor would it be the last.

Although Jia Rong has never cared about border wars over the years, the speed of progress of military intelligence and emergency documents has been increasing with the advancement of technology.

Jia Rong delivered the letter at seven in the morning, and then waited for someone to bring the medicine before boiling it. He then counted the supplies with the young ladies who were also trapped, and counted the supplies in all the rooms one by one. With a frown on his face, he thought of countermeasures with everyone and discussed how to repair the leaking roof.

At noon, food was distributed according to contribution to work, and a meeting was held to discuss the food shortage.

In the afternoon, Jia Rong watched a singing and dancing performance, under the pretext of boosting morale.

There were a few empty gunshots outside in the evening, and since no one brought food today, everyone became depressed.

Many people placed their hopes of escaping the predicament on Jia Rong.

When it was time to go to bed at night, Jia Rong did not sleep in his room, but continued to rest on the luxurious carpet in the hall which was made up of hundreds of quilts.

The desperate young ladies and the extremely brave Jia Rong soon huddled together for warmth, warming up a large number of people in the hall that was still leaky and watertight.

***
At seven o'clock the next morning, when Jia Rong was still sleeping, Jia Yuanchun received a letter from afar.

After reading Jia Rong's letter, Jia Yuanchun burst into tears.

Everyone who was eating looked at Jia Yuanchun from afar.

Lin Daiyu stood up and walked over. "Sister, what happened? I feel like something is not right these days. What is it that sister is hiding from us? Can we sisters share the burden?"

Jia Yuanchun smiled and wiped away her tears. "It's okay. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I'll go to court first and tell you when I come back."

Wang Xifeng came over and asked quickly, "Is it a good thing?"

Jia Yuanchun gave a bitter smile and said, "I guess so. I can finally spend the New Year in peace."

Third Sister You had stopped crying a long time ago. She came over and asked carefully, "Is it about the Emperor?"

Jia Yuanchun knew that Third Sister You had probably guessed something, so she nodded and said, "I have been keeping it a secret from you sisters these days. The emperor felt too bored at home a while ago, so he went out to play."

Everyone looked shocked.

Shi Xiangyun walked over and said, "I thought that big brother really went to retreat, but I didn't expect that he actually ran out to play? When will he come back? Will he come back for the New Year?"

In order to stabilize the court and her family, Jia Yuanchun has not dared to tell too many people about Jia Rong's running away from home.

There was no way to hide it now, so he asked someone to take out the book of freedom left by Jia Rong, accusing his family and household of being a burden to him.

Yu Sanjie felt very guilty, but the others understood that it was not Yu Sanjie's fault and comforted this not-so-pitiful woman.

Becoming the emperor's concubine is not a pitiful thing, and this place is not as cold and dirty as the harem in the previous dynasty. Jia Rong has been very, very good to these women.

A group of women who think about love, freedom, happiness and consideration all day long suddenly panic when they find that their men start to think about pursuing freedom.

What they were thinking about no longer were the boring things like whether Jia Rong was good to them because he was hanging out with other women all day, but the realistic question of whether Jia Rong would run away or not.

(End of this chapter)