The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 350 Side Story: A Brief Account of the Southern Expedition (3)

A month after the outbreak of the Purple Plague on the front lines, the first infected person appeared in Beast City, and the epidemic then spread rapidly within the city.

Ling Chengen had to devote more energy to the organization of epidemic prevention and control, and the research on antibiotics had to be entrusted entirely to Yu Shaochen.

Before nightfall, every household in Beast City had already closed their doors. Only a small number of public officials were going door-to-door in the streets to deliver messages and to count the number of infected people and their symptoms.

In the entire city, only the hospital had people moving around, but the atmosphere was very strange. The lobby and wards were so quiet that it was unsettling. Only occasionally could one hear a few heart-wrenching coughs, but the patients and their families who heard the sounds would avoid it at all costs, looking panicked.

After returning home, Ling Chengen first went to Ling Xiao's courtyard to take a look.

She didn't go into the courtyard, but only looked inside from the gate to confirm with her spiritual power that he was in good health before turning around and going to Ling Xiaoxi's courtyard.

However, seeing no one outside the courtyard, Ling Chengen pushed open the half-closed door and saw Ling Xiaoxi lying on the bed with her back to him. She asked loudly, "Xiaoxi, are you awake?"

Ling Chengen called out twice, but Ling Xiaoxi didn't respond.

She suddenly realized something was wrong, immediately stepped over the threshold and into the house. After lifting the curtain, she saw Ling Xiaoxi, whose face was burning red.

Ling Chengen skillfully examined Ling Xiaoxi's body and found a few purple bruises on her arms and shoulders, as well as wounds behind her ears that showed signs of ulceration.

After turning Ling Xiaoxi over, she bent down to carry her to the hospital, but perhaps the movement was a bit too loud, so the person in her arms woke up.

As soon as Ling Xiaoxi saw her, she immediately began to struggle.

Caught off guard, Ling Chengen let her slip out of his arms.

"get out!"

Ling Chengen stood by the bed without moving, watching her cover her entire body with the blanket, and frowned slightly, saying, "When did this strange thing happen? Why didn't you tell us?"

Ling Xiaoxi peeked out from under the covers, cautiously looking at Ling Chengen, coughed twice, and said, "Yesterday."

“I know this disease is difficult to treat and highly contagious, so…”

"So when I called you for breakfast this morning, you pretended to stay in bed and avoided me and your father?"

"Are you planning to wait until the body has cooled down before letting us know?"

Ling Xiaoxi pouted, looked at the sharp-tongued Ling Chengen, and said with teary eyes, "Well... I didn't want to get sick either, but who knew I'd be so unlucky..."

Ling Chengen reached out and pulled off her blanket: "Get up, I'll take you to the hospital."

“What’s the use of going to the hospital? It still won’t cure you.” Ling Xiaoxi moved to the inside of the bed to avoid Ling Chengen’s outstretched hand. She cried and bared her teeth, threateningly saying, “You’d better leave now, or you’ll get infected too.”

Ling Chengen reached out and rubbed his temples, then sighed, "It's okay if we don't go to the hospital. I'll take you to Yuheng's courtyard. His pharmacy has plenty of medicinal herbs, so it'll be convenient for him to get you the medicine."

Ling Xiaoxi asked, crying, "Sister, am I going to die?"

"Don't worry, evil people live a long life, you'll definitely live to be a hundred." Ling Chengen answered her question while tidying her clothes from the wardrobe and placing a pair of warm shoes by her bedside. "Put these on, you can still walk, right?"

Ling Xiaoxi nodded, hugged her pillow, put on her shoes, and watched Ling Chengen calmly pack his things. The panic she had felt before, knowing that she was sick and would not live much longer, suddenly disappeared.

Ling Chengen carried her things out, then looked back at the timid Ling Xiaoxi, draped the red cloak from his arm over her, and extended his left hand to her: "Let's go."

"I'll walk by myself, don't come near me." Ling Xiaoxi didn't want to infect Ling Chengen.

But Ling Chengen didn't care. He grabbed her arm, steadyed her staggering body, and led her out of the courtyard.

After settling Ling Xiaoxi in temporarily, Ling Chengen contacted Yu Heng directly.

After hearing the news, Yuheng remained silent for a long time before saying, "I'm still trying to find a solution, but for now, I can only reduce the patients' discomfort and temporarily stabilize the condition of non-critical patients, but as for a cure... I haven't found a way yet."

"I'll go back in a bit to check on Xiaoxi's health."

Ling Chengen sat down in the pharmacy chair and asked, "Have you used all three potions I gave you before?"

Yu Heng cleared his throat, but his voice remained deep and hoarse: "I used it."

"Is it effective?"

“Streptomycin has a very obvious effect, while the other two do not show clear effects, so it is impossible to determine whether they are effective or not,” Yuheng said.

Ling Chengen said, "Then it must be the plague."

Yu Heng asked doubtfully, "Is it the same plague that was prevalent within the rat tribe before? But when I used the medicine that was used to treat the plague on the purple plague patients, there was no sign of improvement."

Ling Chengen said, "It shouldn't be the same one. I can't explain the specifics in a short time. But since streptomycin is effective, there is hope."

Yuheng said, "I injected streptomycin into a critically ill patient, and the condition improved at the time, but on the third day, the condition deteriorated rapidly again..."

“One vial isn’t enough.” Ling Chengen took a deep breath. “I have a few more vials of streptomycin here. I’ll give them to Xiaoxi in a bit.”

“After you left, I’ve been trying to extract streptomycin, but the progress hasn’t been ideal. I succeeded once, but it’s very difficult to replicate that success. Yu Shaochen has taken over the work of extracting streptomycin. I’ll go ask him about the progress in a bit…”

Yuheng pondered for a moment and said, "I'll go back tonight and see how you extract it. Maybe I can help."

Ling Chengen did not interfere with his decision, only saying, "Alright, take care of your health too."

……

After Ling Chengen injected streptomycin into Ling Xiaoxi, he stayed by her side for two hours to make sure her high fever subsided before opening the door to go find Yu Shaochen. However, before he even left the yard, he saw Ling Xiao sitting on the stone platform of the flower bed in the yard.

There were only two lantern grass plants in the yard, and the trumpet creeper was located in a rather secluded spot, right in the shadiest part of the yard.

Ling Chengen walked over slowly, and Ling Xiao immediately picked up the mask that was placed aside, put it on his face, and looked at her with a sad expression, saying, "Is Xiao west's condition very bad?"

"The situation is alright, it's a mild case."

"It only takes one or two months for a mild case to develop into a severe case," Ling Xiao muttered to himself, lowering his head.

Ling Chengen thought for a moment and comforted her, "I have some medicine that is suitable for the symptoms, but because the quantity is relatively small, I am not sure if it will be enough for Xiaoxi. So I plan to go to Yu Shaochen's place to see. He has been researching this medicine for some time now..."

Ling Xiao stood up, supporting himself on his knees with both hands, and said, "You go ahead and do your work, I'll take care of Xiao west."

Ling Chengen asked, "What if you get infected too?"

Ling Xiao said with a wry smile, "If anything really happens to Xiao Xi, I'll be fine even if I'm alive..."

He has already lost one child. What if something happens to Xiaoxi too?

What else is there to remember about the rest of his life?
Ling Chengen knew he couldn't stop him, and finally sighed softly: "Father, when taking care of Xiao Xi, you must take good precautions."

Ling Xiao nodded and dusted himself off: "I know, you guys talk about these things every day, I know them by heart."

Ling Chengen watched Ling Xiao enter the house, then turned and walked out of the courtyard.

She knew very well that streptomycin had to be mass-produced as soon as possible, otherwise more people she cared about would leave her.

……

Yu Heng arrived at the research lab late at night. Ling Chengen opened the door, stepped aside to let him in, and reached out to take the fur coat he was wearing, but Yu Heng dodged it.

Ling Chengen paused, raising his hand, and looked up at him in confusion.

Yuheng put the items directly into his spatial storage. After disinfecting his entire body, he reached out and hugged her. He looked quite tired and said in a low, hoarse voice, "Don't be angry. I didn't let you touch me because it's for your own good. I'm in the front-line ward every day, so the clothes I wear outside are definitely not that clean."

Ling Chengen sighed softly, reached out and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her face against his chest: "I'm not angry."

Feeling the warmth in his arms, Yuheng's eyes softened. He raised his hand to pull her close, kissed the top of her head, and closed his eyes to enjoy the moment of peace and warmth.

However, he didn't have much time and had to return to the camp after dawn, so the two only hugged for a few minutes before parting ways.

Yu Heng tightened his cuffs and walked towards the room where streptomycin was being extracted, while asking Ling Chengen about the progress.

After Ling Chengen opened the door, he said, "Xiao Yu has succeeded twice more in the past few days. The success rate is higher than before, and she has gradually figured out some tricks. Stable extraction is probably not far away."

"After stable extraction, the next step is to achieve mass production."

Do you have enough equipment here?

Ling Chengen raised an eyebrow and said, "After successfully extracting streptomycin for the first time, I considered the issue of mass production."

"Research and equipment manufacturing are being carried out simultaneously."

"Some equipment needs improvement, but we only need to modify the existing equipment, which will save a lot of time."

Yuheng smiled and said, "You're the most reliable one."

"How is the situation at the front?" Ling Chengen asked.

Yu Heng asked in confusion, "Don't you receive military intelligence from the front lines every day? Why didn't Chang Tianchen report it to you?"

Ling Chengen raised his eyebrows and said, "The intelligence is usually sent back in the evening. I waited for a long time today but it didn't come, so I went home first. After that, I was busy with Xiao Xi's matter. I guess the intelligence was sent to the government office."

"The south is now in chaos due to the spread of the purple plague."

"Because our army is large, Chang Tianchen chose to blockade and hold the line, cutting off contact with other tribes, so the situation is better than those tribes that have no preventative measures."

"But military camps are densely populated, and many people have been infected."

"It has only been a month since the first cases appeared. Most of the first batch of infected people have not yet developed severe symptoms, but later on... we will see a large number of severe patients die."

"Without streptomycin, if the epidemic continues to develop unchecked, the size of the army could be halved in just six months."

Yu Heng stared intently at Ling Chengen with a solemn expression: "Therefore, the sooner streptomycin is put into mass production, the better."

Upon hearing their voices, Yu Shaochen turned around, glanced at them, then sat back down on the stool and continued to stare at the equipment.

There are two main challenges in streptomycin extraction: the cultivation of the bacterial community and the extraction efficiency.

Yu Shaochen spent more than half a month solving the first problem.

The second problem was something he had thought about for a long time, but he was still just a little bit short of solving it.

After Yuheng arrived, he inexplicably felt more confident and emboldened. After seeing Ling Chengen off, the two stayed in the research lab until dawn...

For the next few days, Yuheng returned to the city late at night and left at dawn, working almost non-stop without rest.

But the result of their collaboration was also very touching.

All the difficulties in streptomycin extraction have been overcome, and it can now enter the mass production stage.

With the introduction of streptomycin, more and more people in the City of Beasts recovered and were discharged from the hospital, and the soldiers on the front lines finally made it through the tough times.

The dark clouds that had been hanging over the entire Northern Wilderness orcs finally dissipated at this moment.

After Ling Xiaoxi fully recovered, she carried her luggage and skipped out of Yuheng Courtyard. Seeing Kong Mingming squatting on the steps at the door, she immediately let out an excited shout, rushed out with a howl, jumped onto Kong Mingming's back from behind, wrapped her arms around his neck, and vigorously rubbed her hair against the back of Kong Mingming's head.

"Mingming, I really miss you so much."

"I thought we'd never see you again."

"How have you been lately? Have any of the cubs at the shelter gotten sick? Are you feeling alright?"

Kong Mingming was nearly knocked unconscious by her chokehold. He frantically slapped her arm with his claws, but dared not use too much force. It wasn't until Ling Xiao came from behind, grabbed Ling Xiaoxi by the back of her collar, and lifted her up that he was able to catch his breath.

After putting Ling Xiaoxi down on the ground, Ling Xiao raised his hand and flicked her head a few times: "Do you miss him or do you want to strangle him? Can't you see he's almost suffocating?"

Ling Xiaoxi rubbed her head, which had been throbbing from the knock, and chuckled, "I was just too excited and didn't notice..."

Kong Mingming had caught her breath and turned to see Ling Xiao. She was instinctively a little scared, but then she maintained her composure and respectfully bowed to Ling Xiao, saying, "Greetings, Clan Leader. I'm alright. Xiao Xi didn't bully me."

Looking at Kong Mingming's obedient appearance and her delicate face that was beginning to show signs of maturity, Ling Xiao felt a mix of emotions.

He's really worried because both of his children are attracted to good looks and are precocious.

But whether a child is looking for playmates or adult partners, it's actually quite difficult to manage.

So sometimes all I can do is look at these children and sigh, unable to do anything about it.

Ling Xiaoxi and Kong Mingming have been close friends since they were little.

Xiao west is mischievous, impulsive, and prone to physical altercations; Kong Mingming is timid but calm and meticulous. He not only excels at being Xiao Xi's straight man but also cleans up her messes and takes the blame for her. They're a perfect match, one willing to give and the other willing to receive, and no one can interfere.