The old man finished speaking and, together with his wife, sat on the cart.

The two of them took the children from their daughter-in-law’s arms, each holding one.

Their family only had one cart, and their four sons took turns pulling it, while the two daughters-in-law walked alongside.

Because they carried little and had many strong laborers, they had managed to travel safely this far.

In their village, most people were stubborn and refused to leave despite the famine, so their family was the first to flee.

They had no companions on the journey, but fortunately, the old man was clever.

He instructed his sons to stay close to large groups of people, making it difficult for potential attackers to tell whether they were part of those groups or not, thus preventing any harm.

When they reached Linzhou City, the group they had been following chose to stay there temporarily, while they decided to continue traveling with the people from Dahe Village.

The old man’s name was Yang Zhiming.

His sons were Yang Chengji, Yang Chengxing, Yang Chenggao, and Yang Chengzhao.

Together, their names formed the phrase good fortune shines upon them.

The name was given by an old scholar from their village, and the old man was quite pleased with it.

They came from Yangjia Village.

Fortunately, only the eldest and second sons were married, and each had only one child.

The third and fourth sons, at sixteen and fourteen years old respectively, were still unmarried.

This allowed their family to travel faster.

The Yang family followed behind Dahe Village’s group, maintaining a reasonable distance.

The villagers had already noticed them. The village head also saw them but said nothing.

However, their pace was unusually fast, as if something terrifying was behind them.

The village head was worried that the refugee crisis might lead to riots, endangering their group, so he hurried everyone along.

Shen Qingwan, on the other hand, was more concerned about the plague and was eager to leave the area as soon as possible.

After traveling a long distance, the village head finally breathed a sigh of relief, but Shen Qingwan’s expression remained grim.

Bai Yong’an noticed and felt that her concern was not just about the refugee crisis.

“Girl, what’s wrong?”

Shen Qingwan was always carefree and unafraid, rarely showing such a serious expression.

She didn’t hide the truth and said bluntly, “It’s the plague. There’s an outbreak in Linzhou City. Some of those refugees were already infected.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Bai Yong’an’s heart dropped.

The plague—one of the most terrifying and deadly diseases in history—always left mountains of corpses in its wake.

The worst part was that the plague had no cure.

Every time an outbreak occurred, the imperial court’s solution was mass execution—slaughtering all infected individuals and those suspected of being infected to stop the spread.

The plague spread rapidly, and eradicating it always came at the cost of countless lives.

Now, with so many refugees moving across the land, it was impossible to know how many were already infected.

If the imperial court decided on a drastic solution, tens or even hundreds of thousands of refugees would die.

Dahe Village might not be spared either.

“If it’s truly the plague, even if the court doesn’t intervene immediately, Suzhou won’t allow any potentially infected people to enter,” Bai Yong’an said.

Though he was a merchant, he understood how the court operated.

Given the current internal and external turmoil, the government might send troops to suppress the refugees, opting for a brutal, all-encompassing solution.

If that happened, Dahe Village would be in danger.

Alternatively, the refugees could revolt, leading to chaos and bloodshed.

Shen Qingwan also feared that the court would act mercilessly, executing everyone without discrimination to prevent the disease’s spread.

“The most urgent task is prevention. Otherwise, before we even reach Suzhou, Dahe Village might already be infected.”

She had disinfectants, medical masks, and even protective suits in her space, but she couldn’t take out such modern items without raising suspicion.

Burning mugwort had some disease-preventing effects, but finding mugwort was difficult, especially while traveling.

Even if they had it, they couldn’t burn it continuously along the way.

“If we speed up, we can reach Linzhou City in two days. Once there, I can ask the medical clinic to prepare some herbal medicine to prevent infection,” Bai Yong’an offered.

Unfortunately, in these troubled times, the roads were unsafe.

Bandits roamed freely, and corrupt officials colluded with criminals.

If not for these dangers, Bai Yong’an could have arranged a carriage convoy to escort Dahe Village’s people to Suzhou with ease.

But under current conditions, such a convoy wouldn’t make it ten miles before being robbed clean.

Traveling in large numbers might even attract more danger.

Shen Qingwan didn’t refuse Bai Yong’an’s help but knew she needed to inform the village head.

They had to maintain distance from other refugees to minimize the risk of infection.

During a rest break, she explained the situation to the village head.

The moment he heard the word “plague,” he was so shocked that he couldn’t respond for a long time.

He had assumed Shen Qingwan, like him, had simply noticed something unusual at the city gates and urged a quick departure.

He hadn’t expected it to be the plague.

“The plague spreads extremely fast, and many refugees might already be infected. We must take preventive measures and hurry to Suzhou as soon as possible,” Shen Qingwan said.

The village head became even more anxious.

They had nothing—how were they supposed to prevent infection?

“How do we prevent the plague? We have so many elderly and children. If one person gets sick, the entire village will be doomed,” he said worriedly.

Shen Qingwan pulled out a piece of rough cloth, folded it into a small square, and explained how to make a simple mask.

“Cut the fabric into small squares like this, layer two or three pieces together, sew on straps, and wear them over the nose and mouth. This will reduce the chances of infection. Also, we must avoid contact with other refugees.”

The village head quickly nodded and relayed the instructions to the villagers.

However, to prevent panic, he didn’t mention the plague, saying only that they needed protection against disease.

Shen Qingwan agreed with this approach—if people panicked, they might act irrationally.

The village head told everyone the masks were for disease prevention, not mentioning the plague.

The villagers, already concerned about the rising number of corpses along the way, accepted the explanation.

Many understood that dead bodies left unburied could spread disease.

Some women complained at first, unwilling to cooperate, but after a stern warning from the village head, they obediently followed instructions.

Beyond Linzhou City lay Licheng. Bai Yong’an planned to part ways with Shen Qingwan’s group there.

Knowing Bai Yong’an’s background, Shen Qingwan considered giving him a prescription for treating the plague.

If the Bai family, a respected noble house, spread the formula, it would be more credible and effective.

The plague had not yet fully erupted, but when it did, countless people would die.

After careful thought, she decided to copy the formula from the medical texts in her space later that night.

Fortunately, back in the apocalypse, she had stored an entire provincial library’s worth of books in her space.

She had originally planned to use them to help rebuild civilization after the world ended, but now they were proving useful in an entirely different way.

Among the medical texts were many prescriptions for treating plagues, ensuring she could find an effective remedy.