Ye Tang sat in the courtyard looking at some things. What she was looking at was a bit miscellaneous: recent newspapers, historical records of this country, and books that described the geography, climate, culture, and even myths of this country and its neighboring nations.
Claudia and Gloria played nearby with the newly bought black-and-white board game called Othello for a while. Seeing that their mother was reading seriously, they came over to look together with Ye Tang.
Claudia preferred recent news newspapers over dry history books. Gloria only liked content related to culture and myths. The two soon finished looking at what interested them and sat to the side looking a bit bored. Ye Tang then had them take two maids to the national library on Queen Road to see if they could find books that interested them.
When Claudia and Gloria left, they took one reluctant step and looked back three times. When they returned, their faces were flushed with excitement, as if they couldn’t bear to put down their books even during mealtimes.
They were at the age when feelings were budding. At first, Claudia and Gloria borrowed a lot of romance novels. They read the romance novels until their faces turned red and their hearts raced, afraid of being scolded by Ye Tang if discovered, yet unable to resist borrowing more.
After three nights of reading late into the night, Gloria was still interested in romance novels, but Claudia had started reading biographies and historical war literature.
“Because in those romance novels, every single one ends with the male and female protagonists living happily ever after.”
When Gloria asked her sister why she wasn’t reading romance novels anymore, Claudia huffed, narrowed her eyes with a disdainful expression, and replied, “Where in the world are there so many happily ever afters? And what’s with the princes and knights being princess detectors? No matter when or where the princess runs into trouble or encounters a monster, a prince or knight always pops up?”
“Why does the dragon have to kidnap the princess? Don’t dragons like shiny gold and gems? Is the princess made of gold? Or are her eyes gems? Even if the princess has a heart of gold, how does the dragon see that? Why can’t the prince and knight just negotiate properly with the dragon instead of having to kill it to bring the princess home?”
“Why does the witch have to be evil? Aren’t there any good witches in the world? Why does the female protagonist have to wait for her destined male lead to save her? Doesn’t she have a brain or legs to run away herself? …”
Claudia was quiet enough when she kept her mouth shut, but once she opened it, the questions came like a barrage.
Perhaps because she couldn’t answer her sister’s questions, or maybe because she thought her sister made sense, Gloria also put down the romance novels. She started reading—
Chemistry books.
In this era, chemistry was often mentioned alongside alchemy. Alchemy belonged more to the realm of mysticism.
Gloria liked myths and was very interested in mysticism. After encountering alchemy within mysticism, her eyes were opened. Reading chemistry books, which deconstructed alchemy and mysticism from a scientific perspective, was like discovering a new continent for a navigator; she roamed it daily, forgetting to return home.
Ye Tang never interfered with her two daughters’ choices of books. Even when Gloria’s hobby was unexpected, she didn’t take it to heart.
The maids lived in Hedelin House and inevitably saw the strange symbols Gloria was drawing in her books, or the descriptions of male-female romances in Claudia’s biographies. Soon, a few maids were gossiping about Claudia and Gloria behind their backs. They also subtly attacked Ye Tang for letting the two sisters read whatever books they wanted.
Ye Tang wasn’t surprised by this. She sent the gossiping maids back to the employment agency and hired a few new girls to replace them as maids.
A week passed peacefully like this.
“Oh my god…”
That day, Claudia let out a soft exclamation as soon as she got the newspaper.
“What is it?”
Ye Tang walked over. Her head now had a layer of fine fuzz, making her hair look less sparse. She had just been feeding the pigeons.
Of the three surviving pigeons, the one with the damaged beak ultimately didn’t make it. The remaining two fledglings also had no appetite; they wouldn’t eat grain or worms. In desperation, Ye Tang tried a last resort and tore up some bread to feed them. Unexpectedly, the two fledglings ate it willingly.
The fledglings ate eagerly, and Ye Tang fetched two small loaves of bread, which they devoured completely.
Even though the fledglings still looked at her with sparkling eyes, Ye Tang didn’t dare give them more bread—bread swells when soaked in water. These two fledglings were only half the size of her palm each, yet their tiny bodies had stuffed down an entire small loaf. She was truly afraid that when they drank water later, the swollen bread would burst their little stomachs.
So despite the fledglings flapping their wings at Ye Tang, she still turned and left the Little Beech Tree, instructing the maids and Hedelin House’s only little boy servant not to feed the two fledglings anymore that day.
She had been busy with the pigeons since early morning and hadn’t even had time to read the newspaper or eat breakfast.
Claudia, covering her mouth, heard her mother’s question and quickly summed it up: “The crown prince of Tartafu dropped dead! The newspaper says it was the Spanish Flu that killed him!”
Spanish Flu—that name made Ye Tang’s heart skip a beat.
Spanish Flu was the nineteenth-century name. In later generations, its official name was H1N1, one strain of the influenza A virus.
In the world Ye Tang had transmigrated from, humanity had never fully defeated H1N1. The bird flu and swine flu it caused often required mass burials of poultry and pigs to halt the spread.
In the early stages of human influenza caused by H1N1, enough people had to die for population density to drop sharply, slowly reducing the virus’s infectivity and calming the resulting chaos. By the mid-stages, though humans invented vaccines, the flu virus rapidly evolved variants.
The lives destroyed by H1N1 and its mutant family were too numerous to count precisely. And after H1N1 came a plague called the novel coronavirus that would sweep the globe—
Viruses were invisible demons, unobservable death gods, and the Sword of Damocles hanging over humanity.
Images of mountains of body bags and eerily empty streets flashed before her eyes. Even someone as strong-willed as Ye Tang paled slightly.
The royal family, and a crown prince no less, was a nation’s top priority for protection. Yet such a young man at the peak of physical and mental prime had died unexpectedly under H1N1’s scythe.
This was not a good omen.
“Mother?”
Claudia looked over worriedly. Ye Tang just smiled faintly.
“I’m fine.”
For now, the only fortunate thing was that Tartafu and Osnabrock… were separated by the vast Robro Sea, and winter had already set in.
Winter seas were unpredictable, requiring far more supplies for navigation. The harsh cold damaged ships severely, and bad weather and conditions crushed the crew’s spirits. Long-distance sailing in winter was extremely unwise.
Though it was only early winter, the long and cold season had begun. Ports around the Robro Sea had mostly halted shipping. The few ships that failed to reach Tartafu or Osnabrock on schedule headed to the island nation of Sailan Principality between the two countries to weather the harsh winter.
Winter kept most people indoors, and the halt in sea transport prevented the virus from spreading rapidly.
The real problem would come after spring.
So how to get through this winter before spring was crucial.
“Madam, Mr. Ted wishes to speak with you. Shall I let him in?”
Hedelin House’s only male servant asked Ye Tang timidly.
He called himself Ian, an orphan without a surname. Ye Tang knew it was a lie but didn’t expose him.
“Of course. Please bring Ted in. Also, bring out another set of teacups.”
“Yes, Madam.”
Ian responded and hurried out.
No matter how anxious, he only quickened his pace without running—this little boy’s deportment and upbringing were more noble-like than Claudia and Gloria’s.
In recent days, the wound on his forehead had scabbed over, so he no longer needed bandages. Ye Tang mixed the doctor’s anti-inflammatory powder for Ian into Vaseline to make an ointment, which he applied morning and night—the powder alone could cause pigmentation scars on wounds. Moreover, the amount of powder that could adhere to skin was limited and easily contaminated.
Vaseline wasn’t precious for Hedelin House, so Ye Tang casually bought a jar to make the ointment for Ian.
The Black man Ted arrived, visibly restrained. He stood before Ye Tang holding his cap, not daring to sit—he knew his place. He was just a thug for the employment agency. Even though the madam was a commoner like him, he had no right to sit as her equal.
“Sit down.”
Ye Tang poured Ted a cup of black tea.
Perhaps it was the winter sun’s warm illusion, but Ted felt the madam before him looked much gentler in appearance than a week ago, with a layer of mildness about her.
…Yet the pressure from this madam remained as strong as ever. When she merely lifted her lashes to look at him, the words of refusal stuck in his throat were swallowed back down.
“Then, Madam, I’ll sit.”
“Mm.”
Ye Tang smiled, and the pressure on Ted’s shoulders eased instantly.
He carefully picked up the fine teacup, politely took two sips, and was about to praise the tea’s flavor when Ye Tang asked, “So, Ted, have you found the talent I wanted?”
Ted hurriedly set down the teacup.
“As per Madam’s requirements, I’ve selected the personnel. Nine in total, each with a handle I hold over them. I believe they won’t dare betray Madam.”
“Is that so? I don’t think that’s guaranteed.”
Ye Tang placed a gold coin on the tea table, pressed its edge with her finger to stand it up, then flicked it to spin on the table.
Ted’s eyes were dazzled by the spinning gold coin. He kept swallowing, unable to tear his gaze away.
Ian had been bought for thirty coppers because Ted had misjudged him, leading to him jumping into the river and injuring his precious face. The employment agency boss hadn’t mistreated Ted openly but had withheld his pay for the month.
Ted didn’t want to lose his job entirely and could only swallow his anger.
When Ye Tang went to the employment agency to return maids and saw the dejected Ted, she asked if he wanted a job introducing talent for her.