Grandmother Lian brought an umbrella and held it for Yang Haiyan: “Madam, madam, be careful.”

The two of them entered the neighboring tent and saw the doctor checking on Meng Qiu, while Mrs. Meng Qiu was holding her daughter’s hand, her eyes red with worry.

Over the years, she had only one daughter, Meng Qiu, and naturally loved her dearly.

Now that her daughter was sick, she wished it were herself instead.

While holding her daughter’s hand, Mrs. Meng Qiu anxiously asked, “Doctor, how is my daughter? Is she going to be okay?”

After examining Meng Qiu, the doctor said, “She has a severe fever, and if it doesn’t subside, it could become serious. Let her drink a bowl of the medicine that’s already been prepared.”

Fortunately, when it rained yesterday, the medicine had been pre-boiled and kept warm.

Otherwise, if the fever had come on suddenly and the medicine still needed to be boiled, it might have been too late.

Mrs. Meng Qiu, anxious, asked, “What if the fever doesn’t go down?”

The doctor didn’t answer directly, saying only, “Use cold water to help bring down the fever.”

Yang Haiyan knew that the traditional way of reducing fever in ancient times involved soaking a towel in cold water, wringing it out, and placing it on the forehead, or using the cold towel to wipe the body.

However, these methods could be quite dangerous.

In modern times, a cold is a minor issue, as safe as the simplest dental procedure. But in ancient times, even a cold could be life-threatening.

Looking at Meng Qiu lying on the bed, Yang Haiyan saw the little girl who was usually very well-behaved, always helping her mother collect firewood.

But now, her face was flushed, and she looked very sick.

Yang Haiyan sighed and said, “Granny Lian, ask Aunt Fan to prepare some rice porridge, and bring it for Meng Qiu to drink later.”

Grandmother Lian responded, “Yes.”

Mrs. Meng Qiu, hearing this, weakly said, “Thank you, madam.” But her attention was fully on her daughter, and she could hardly muster the strength to speak.

After Mrs. Meng Qiu, more people started coming in, most of them complaining of feeling feverish or having a dry throat.

Some even had runny noses.

After watching for a while, Yang Haiyan returned to the main tent.

As soon as she entered the main tent, Yang Haiyan said, “Granny Lian, stand guard at the entrance and don’t let anyone in, not even the general.”

Grandmother Lian was stunned for a moment, then quickly replied, “Yes.”

Although she didn’t understand the madam’s intentions, since the madam and the general were deeply in love, there must be a reason for keeping it secret.

The main tent consisted of three connected tents.

The middle one was used by Qin Fang for his work and as a dining area for the Qin family.

The left one was where Qin Fang and Qin Shoucheng slept, and the right one was where Yang Haiyan, Qin Siyuan, and Grandmother Lian slept.

As for Aunt Fan and Aunt Yu, they slept with the food supplies.

Yang Haiyan entered the right tent and then opened a platform.

It had been a long time since she last opened it.

Previously, when she opened it, it was to buy snacks, like cherries that could be eaten in one bite, as well as vitamins like calcium tablets.

She kept these things in her locked drawer, and no one dared to open it.

Even Qin Fang, when he was around, never went through her things, so it was very safe.

This time, Yang Haiyan was looking for cold medicine.

She bought some Western medicine, which came in blister packs.

She carefully removed the pills one by one, placing them in her pouch, and then burned the plastic and paper packaging.

Whether it was environmentally friendly or not didn’t matter—what mattered was that it would be inappropriate if anyone found out, so she had to burn it.

She only bought Western medicine because, in an emergency, it works faster.

Also, herbal cold medicines, like granules or liquid, wouldn’t be suitable because there was already a doctor prescribing herbal remedies.

When Yang Haiyan bought the cold medicine, she checked the instructions and found it wouldn’t conflict with the herbal medicine.

A faint burning smell wafted from the tent. Though not strong, Granny Lian, who was standing at the entrance, could smell it.

It was the smell of something burning, but she remained calm and stayed where she was.

After a while, Granny Lian heard the madam’s voice: “Granny, come in.”

Granny Lian lifted the curtain and entered the tent, saying, “Madam, everything is ready.”

Yang Haiyan said, “Let’s go and check on Meng Qiu.”

Since the tents were divided by gender, even families were separated.

So Mrs. Meng Qiu stayed with Meng Qiu, along with Meng An, Kun Zhangshi, Huang Xushi, Aunt Hong, Sister Lu, and Yang’s mother and daughter.

These were all familiar people, so it was appropriate for them to stay together.

On the other side, Kun Daying stayed with Kun Shi, Uncle Hong, Huang Huzi, Meng Ping, Tao Shan, Chen Dashi, Officer Yang, and Officer Lu—just a group of men.

In the women’s tent, Mrs. Meng Qiu was tending to Meng Qiu.

Meng Qiu had already taken the herbal medicine, but she still felt unwell. With red eyes, she looked up at her mother and said, “Mom, my head hurts.”

Mrs. Meng Qiu placed a handkerchief on her forehead and fed her a steamed bun. “Be good, try to sleep. Once you sleep, your headache will go away.”

Meng Qiu whimpered softly, “Mom, I can’t sleep. My head hurts too much, I can’t fall asleep.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Meng Qiu’s eyes reddened with tears, and she almost cried. Her daughter was still so young, and falling ill was such a hardship. She thought of how some children died from catching cold, and she was terrified her daughter might face the same fate.

“Everyone’s in here?” Yang Haiyan lifted the curtain and entered, seeing everyone gathered inside.

The tents here were not like the main tent; this one was only for sleeping.

To be precise, it was used for both sleeping and eating.

Fortunately, everyone was only eating steamed buns, so there wasn’t any bad smell.

When the group saw Yang Haiyan, they all stood up and greeted her, “Madam has come.”

Yang Haiyan said, “Sit, no need to mind me. I’m just here to check on Qiu’er.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Meng Qiu’s tears fell. “She has a headache and can’t sleep, madam. What should we do? The doctor said her fever must go down, but her forehead is still burning hot.”

Yang Haiyan patted her shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, I came just for this.”

Mrs. Meng Qiu’s eyes lit up with hope. “Madam, do you have a way? If you can save Qiu’er, I’ll serve you for life!” As she spoke, she was about to kneel.

Yang Haiyan, exasperated, thought, Is this really the time for that?

She quickly held Mrs. Meng Qiu back. “Don’t worry about that now. Qiu’er’s health is the most important.”

Yang Haiyan then took two pouches from her satchel and poured out nine pills. “Take this square pill, one before each meal, and take the round one, two before each meal. This will last for three days. Don’t worry, if all goes well, she’ll start to recover after three days. Also, this medicine will help her sleep, so she should be able to rest soon.”

Mrs. Meng Qiu hurried to give the pills to Meng Qiu, trusting Yang Haiyan completely.

If it were someone more skeptical, Yang Haiyan might have had to make up more excuses.

After taking the pills, Yang Haiyan didn’t leave but stayed with the others.

At first, Meng Qiu still complained of pain, but gradually she quieted down and fell asleep.

It took only about a quarter of an hour for the sleep aid to take effect.

Seeing Meng Qiu’er asleep, Mrs. Meng Qiu immediately knelt down and kowtowed three times.

Yang Haiyan felt helpless; Mrs. Meng Qiu was so stubborn about this.

After Mrs. Meng Qiu stood up, Yang Haiyan addressed the others in the tent, “I prepared these pills when I visited the county near the border as a precaution, but I didn’t expect to actually need them. However, there’s a limited supply of the medicine, and many people are unwell. So I hope everyone can keep this a secret. If word gets out and everyone comes asking for pills, I won’t be able to help.”

Yang Haiyan’s words served as a reminder: if people spread the news about the pills, every sick person would come asking for them, and soon there would be none left.

Faced with life and death, people naturally look out for themselves, so they all promised to keep it a secret.

Having made her point and leveraged the situation, Yang Haiyan left the tent.

She couldn’t stand by and watch those close to her suffer from a simple cold, but the best she could do was help the ones she knew.

For strangers, she would have to turn a blind eye.

If three thousand people caught a cold and a hundred of them asked for pills, she’d need to provide thousands of pills.

Even if she had them, she couldn’t come up with an explanation for where they came from.

Yang Haiyan sighed.

She didn’t know if giving Meng Qiu the medicine was the right decision, but for now, her excuse seemed safe enough.

Who would go back to the county at the border to check?

Besides, she hadn’t said which doctor prescribed the medicine.

After much consideration, she had decided to help Meng Qiu.

“Are you troubled, madam?” Back in the main tent, Grandmother Lian dried the raindrops from Yang Haiyan’s clothes with a towel.

Yang Haiyan replied, “Who wouldn’t be troubled in this weather? By the way, where are Shoucheng and Siya? I haven’t seen them.”

Grandmother Lian answered, “They went to play with Daying.”

Yang Haiyan didn’t comment further, but added, “Tell Aunt Fan and Aunt Yu to prepare more ginger tea. Three bowls a day for everyone. Also, have Kun Shi take some people to buy more ginger and brown sugar. At this rate, we’ll run out soon.”

Grandmother Lian replied, “With this weather, I’m not sure the county will have enough ginger and brown sugar.”

Yang Haiyan said, “Even if there’s no brown sugar, ginger alone will do. If the local county doesn’t have enough, go to the neighboring one.”

She sighed, wishing for modern cold medicine, which could have prevented all this.

Once again, she felt the helplessness of living in ancient times.

An idea began to form in her mind: if she could solve the problem of people dying from colds…

But providing Western medicine was impossible.

However, she could offer the formula.

Of course, she didn’t know the formulas herself, but the ingredients were listed on the packaging.

Translating them into understandable terms would be a big task, requiring her to brush up on her chemistry knowledge.

And even then, producing such a miraculous formula would likely cause trouble.

If she didn’t use Western medicine, perhaps modern Chinese medicine could be an option.

She could buy herbal medicines and use the product labels to find the formulas, then release them discreetly.

But this was just a fleeting thought.