Chapter 324 What a Crazy and Heartless Trick

However, Lin Mengya gave a thoughtful smile and said to Fanglan, “What do you think? Now, there are only three of us here. I’d like to hear it from you, and let this innocent little girl learn from you.”

Although she said this, intelligent Fanglan could more or less understand that maybe the princess was testing her.

Then she managed to make herself calm down and also smoothed out all the clues in her mind before saying slowly, “I been in the palace since childhood. Although I haven’t served in the masters’ palaces, I’ve heard some things more or less. Five years ago, there was an outbreak of a plague in the palace. With my own eyes, I’ve seen that the belongings of those servants who got the plague were disposed of in this same way.”

Lin Mengya nodded and had a better feeling for Fanglan in her heart.

Not only was she calm, sensible, bold, and careful, she was also well-mannered. Maybe there was more to her than she had ever discovered.

But there was one thing that was certain: this girl was meant for bigger things.

Seeing the faint smile on Lin Mengya’s face, Fanglan knew that she had made a very close guess. With her heart skipping a beat, an anxious look arose on her face.

“If this is the case, then isn’t… isn’t the whole palace in danger?”

She still had a vivid memory of the last plague.

At that time, she was just a little maid in training. Many of her friends who entered the palace with her fell ill for no reason. And in the end, they were carried out of their small yard and never came back. When seeing that, she felt a stab of pain in her heart.

“You’re right. Pearl is indeed infected with the plague, a highly infectious plague. If I didn’t ask you to stay away from her by coincidence these days, I’m afraid you would also have gotten the plague by now.”

Actually, things were far from being as bad as Lin Mengya said.

Now the Shen Nung system could detect not only poisons derived from plants and animals but also infectious germs that were harmful to the human body.

This plague was similar to diphtheria, but with a longer incubation period.

In modern times, there might have been a cure for this disease. Even in her own body, the vaccinations she received in childhood had already brought antibodies to her immune system.

But in the ancient world, the plague was synonymous with death.

“What? Master, shall we tell others?”

In Lin Mengya’s eyes, the plague might be just a word recorded in a textbook. However, both Baisu and Fanglan had experienced it for themselves.

In modern times, because of the popularization of medical knowledge and vaccines, such a widespread pandemic would rarely occur. But in this world, the plague was like the sickle of the dead coming to harvest life.

Fanglan, who was always calm, could not help getting nervous. She looked at Lin Mengya anxiously.

“Pearl won’t make it through the night. Besides, even if we tell others now, I’m afraid it’s too late.”

Although she did not know how Pearl had gotten the disease, there was one thing that she was certain of: once the disease broke out, Pearl would be dead in 24 hours.

In other words, Pearl would die of this plague before the sun rose tomorrow.

In fact, Lin Mengya also wanted to tell more people about it to avoid innocent casualties.

But Pearl’s inexplicable move just made her think of one thing. When she met Pearl in the yard, Pearl had not coughed vigorously.

However, when Pearl kowtowed to her, she coughed badly and nearly fainted.

In that case, there was only one possibility.

That was Pearl already knew that she had been infected with the plague. Moreover, she wanted to infect her by coughing vigorously.

She got a chill down her spine.

It was not until now that she realized just how vicious Pearl was.

If she did not already have antibodies against this germ in her body, she would definitely be infected with this plague virus because of what had happened!

Thinking of this, Lin Mengya suddenly came up with an idea.

“Perhaps… Pearl got the plague deliberately!”

Lin Mengya made an attempt to speak out her guess.

But Baisu and Fanglan stared at her in shock. “How could that be?”

“How could that be? Master, are you overthinking it? No matter how much Pearl hates you, she’d not use this method, would she? Even if she can really infect you, she… she’ll die also!”

Baisu frowned. It was a way to perish together with the enemy.

Fanglan also agreed with Baisu, and she had her own reasons.

“Right. I heard that this Pearl is not a common person and comes from a failing royal family. So if she can get the favor of the masters, she’s likely to be given a good marriage. Even if she cannot get a marriage, a few years later when she can leave the palace, she still can reunite with her family. Even if… even if she can get benefits from it, it’s just ridiculous.”

However, Lin Mengya felt that it was a very real possibility.

The one who hated her the most in the yard should be Pearl.

And Baisu had told her that Pearl had secretly made a doll with her name on it.

It showed that she must have wanted her to die.

Moreover, she had seen Pearl’s eyes filled with hatred. That kind of hatred was almost crazy and distorted.

But Lin Mengya could sensitively sense that her hatred was not because of the use of controlling needles in the Imperial Hospital that day, or not entirely because of that.

If Pearl had reasons to hate her even more, maybe…

“Don’t you think it’s strange? The plague has a very long incubation period. In other words, Pearl has gotten this disease a long time ago. But not to mention you, even Agate, who eats and lives with her, has not been infected. Do you think that Agate has immunity to all diseases?”

Lin Mengya’s words instantly confused the two maids.

But when they figured out the trick, Baisu and Fanglan gasped.

“Did she… did she let herself get the disease just to…”

Baisu was in disbelief. Her eyes opened wide, full of astonishment.

Lin Mengya nodded, confirming their suspicions.

“Just to let me get the disease, too.”

She sacrificed herself just to get Lin Mengya in trouble.

What a crazy and heartless trick.

“That’s to say, Pearl knew exactly what kind of disease she has, and she tries her best not to infect Agate. Does it mean that aside from her, there is no one else in the palace who has gotten the plague?”

Fanglan finally understood why the princess was not in a hurry at all.

The princess was right. Even Agate, who was closest to her, had not been infected, indicating that Pearl had been trying to control the spreading speed of the disease and avoiding contacting the crowd.

“Ah, I remember when she left, she coughed hard in front of Master. Master, you won’t be infected by her, will you?”

Baisu, who was rather slow, immediately cried out.

But Lin Mengya rolled her eyes at her. This girl had become more and more stupid since they entered the palace.

The smile in the corner of her mouth was somewhat helpless, but she still patted Baisu’s shoulder and said, “By the time you think it through, I’ll be a dead body. Don’t worry, I have the antibody to this virus and will not be infected.”

Baisu and Fanglan looked at Lin Mengya together, and their round eyes were full of doubts.

Lin Mengya coughed softly, then lowered her eyes and explained it.

“It’s… the antidote. I took the antidote to this disease when I was a child. Now, it doesn’t work on me anymore.”

“Shit, I spoke so heedlessly and even almost said the word antibody out loud.”

She had to replace it with the simplest similar word. Lin Mengya could not help smiling bitterly. If her teacher knew that as a graduate student of medical school, she could not even use a noun every day, she did not know how he would feel.

“Oh, I see! You scared us to death. Then, is it also the antidote to the disease that Master asked us to take?”

What they just took was called a Fragrance Pill with a Hundred Herbs.

It was sent to her by her teacher through Long Tianyu. Such a small pill was full of essence.

This plague was actually a virus with high morbidity and infectiousness. Therefore, the Shen Nung system would analyze the most effective drugs according to the current situation.

And the Fragrance Pill with a Hundred Herbs could just prevent this plague.

Thinking of this, Lin Mengya almost wanted to thank Pearl for being clear-cut on what to love and what to hate. Otherwise, Baisu and Fanglan, as well as the 10th prince who had just returned to his mother, might also have to suffer from it.

They could infect her with the plague without transmitting it to innocent people. Aside from Pearl herself having to pay attention, Lin Mengya thought that someone else must have taken some measures.

This person certainly did not want a large-scale outbreak of the plague in the palace.

Moreover, Pearl was fine a few days ago, so how did her disease suddenly break out? There had to be an invisible hand behind her, pushing the situation forward.

If she wanted to find out who was behind the scenes, she might only know it from Pearl.

“Baisu, come with me. Let’s go to visit Pearl.”

Lin Mengya made up her mind and then took out a deep-purple cotton-padded jacket from the cabinet.

It was pitch black outside. And she wore dark clothes, which should be hard to recognize. Besides, if she was right, in order to not infect more people with the plague, she chose this time, which was probably the least guarded time around her yard.