The cold came later this year. In late November, a severe cold wave suddenly came, and many people fell ill at once.
Ye Jun thought it might be the flu.
They quickly invited Shen Pingzhi to come and asked him to prepare a preventive prescription. He selected some of the most common and effective medicines, boiled a pot of it every day, and everyone in Zhao Chunxuan drank a bowl of it.
Influenza is something that can be either a serious disease or a minor one in today's underdeveloped medical field. It never hurts to prevent it.
Moreover, there is now a young prince, the Fourth Prince, in Zhao Chunxuan, so we need to be more careful.
But she was on high alert here, so people who didn't take other places seriously might get caught.
The Empress Dowager was old and in poor health, so she was the first to fall ill, followed by the Imperial Concubine Dowager.
Ever since her family fell into decline, Imperial Concubine Yao had become somewhat depressed, her health even worse than that of the Empress Dowager, and now she was ill and her condition looked grave.
Prince Ping was naturally worried, but since he was a man from outside, it was not convenient for him to stay in the harem for too long. He could only come to accompany Prince Ping for a while during the day. At other times, he would ask Princess Fang and Concubine Zhao to come in and take care of him.
The Grand Noble Concubine already has someone to take care of her, so naturally arrangements must also be made for the Empress Dowager.
Logically, since Concubine Shu had the highest rank, she should have taken the lead, but Ning Chen was worried about her personality, so he personally delivered the oral order.
Only the nine concubines and above were to come to attend to the illness, plus one Concubine Qian, and there was no need for anyone else.
That means Shufei, Defei, Hui Zhaoyuan, Ye Yun, Yi Shunyi, Wan Xiuyi and Qian Jieyu, a total of seven people, which is enough.
However, the next day after this arrangement was made, the Third Prince fell ill, and Yi Shunyi was also feeling unwell, with apparently the same symptoms.
Therefore, a concubine named Qi was added to fill the vacancy.
The Queen Mother was really ill this time, so she didn't have the energy to bother anyone. Taking care of her just meant serving her medicine and meals three times a day, and there was nothing else to do.
It's much easier than the last time many years ago.
Ning Chen also went to check on her every day and personally fed her a bowl of medicine or something.
However, Chinese medicine is slow to take effect, and influenza is contagious. For a while, not many people recovered, but the number of sick people increased day by day.
Ning Chen initially thought it might be another plague, but luckily the imperial physician checked and confirmed that it was not the case.
At this time, Ye Jun suggested that the Imperial Hospital in the palace should prepare medicine like the servants of Zhao Chunxuan, and the servants should drink a bowl of it every day.
Even if there is no medicine, there is always two bowls of ginger soup per person a day.
It's almost the end of the year, and everyone in the palace, from masters to servants, is sick, which is not auspicious.
Langhuaxuan.
Although Yi Shunyi was ill, she looked quite well. When she heard the news outside, she said nothing but sent someone to deliver some charcoal and thick bedding to Li Wanrong for the winter.
The two of them have always been close, and it would not be noticeable if they helped the unpopular Li.
Just three days later, Ning Chen was reviewing memorials in the imperial study when he heard from the servants that the Imperial Observatory wanted to see him.
"Imperial Observatory?" Ning Chen was puzzled.
Although Nanqi established this official position, because the previous emperor revered martial arts and did not believe in ghosts, gods, and celestial phenomena, Ning Chen had never paid much attention to the person in this position since he was a child.
That is to say, when the palace wants to choose a day to do something, it will go through the motions and usually ask the Imperial Observatory to take a look.
It was unexpected that he suddenly came to ask for a meeting today.
But after thinking about it, I decided to meet him anyway.
"I, Li Jin, the chief envoy of the Imperial Observatory, pay my respects to His Majesty."
The visitor was a man who looked to be in his fifties, with a thin build and a beard. He saluted promptly as he entered.
Ning Chen waved his hand, "No need to be polite, Lord Li, what is the matter with you?"
"Your Majesty, I have been observing the stars at night these days and found that the second of the seven stars of the Eastern Blue Dragon is shrouded in black fog. This star is Kang Jin, which represents plague and all kinds of medicine in the world. The abnormality of this star is related to the clouds in the sky southeast of the harem." Li Jin bowed.
The harem had indeed been sick for many days during this period, so what he said was somewhat correct.
However, these things were not hidden outside the palace, so it was not surprising that they were known, and Ning Chen did not take it too seriously.
"Birth, aging, sickness and death are common to all people. Sir Li, don't worry too much."
Unexpectedly, Li Jin bowed again and said, "Your Majesty, birth, aging, illness and death are normal, but if you ignore them and let them affect you, it may be detrimental to your offspring. As far as I know, the people living in the southeast of the harem are Zhongcui Palace, Qixiang Palace, Zhaochunxuan, and Fuyun Palace. Three of them have royal heirs."
Ning Chen's brows slightly furrowed after hearing this.
Concubine Jingde lives in Zhongcui Palace and has the second prince. Qin Wanrong is also pregnant and lives in Zhongcui Palace. Wan Xiuyi lives in the east wing of Qixiang Palace with the eldest prince. Zhaochunxuan is where Ye Jun and the fourth prince live.
When it comes to offspring, one has to think more about it.
"Then tell me, how can we decipher this astrological sign?" Ning Chen said in a low voice.
Li Jin bowed and said, "Your Majesty, this is a simple matter. Kang belongs to metal, and fire overcomes metal. So the Kangjin phenomenon is because the fortune of the people belonging to the fire element in the southeast direction is too strong in a short period of time. We just need to suppress it a little bit, and the crisis can be resolved when the sky returns to normal."
"What do you mean by suppression?" Ning Chen frowned.
"It means that this person should not receive too many favors, promotions, or other happy events in the short term. He needs to be calm." Li Jin said, paused, and continued, "In fact, if this person continues to be hot-tempered, it will backfire and hurt himself. Now he has hurt others. If he doesn't suppress it, he will probably hurt himself in the future."
Ning Chen's face darkened and he waved his hand, "Alright, you can leave now. I know what's going on."
After Li Jin left, he sent people to check the horoscopes of the concubines and the royal heirs who lived facing southeast.
Not long after, Yuan Jiu came back and found out that Ye Jun and Qin Wanrong were the people whose five elements belonged to fire.
This is really a coincidence.
Needless to say, Ye Jun's fortune was good. She became more and more favored and her status rose step by step. Qin's pregnancy was naturally a great joy.
It is understandable that these two fires combined collide with Venus Kang.
It fits so well that even though Ning Chen doesn't believe in ghosts and gods, he is still shaken.
Ye Jun is fine, he was just promoted on his birthday. Ye Jun will not be included in the promotion at the end of the year, and there will be no other actions in the near future.
However, the plan to promote Qin Wanrong at the palace banquet on New Year's Eve at the end of the year seems to have to be put on hold for now.
"Your Majesty, are you still going to send over those sets of jewelry and clothes that you made for Ming Zhaoyuan some time ago?" Yuan Jiu asked.
Ning Chen nodded, "Send it, why not send it if it's already made, but let's follow the rules for the New Year's reward."
Since we are told not to be too gracious, there will always be nothing wrong if we follow the rules.
Thinking of this, Ning Chen decided to go to Zhao Chunxuan.
I still have to tell that spoiled girl first, otherwise she will start to have wild thoughts and think that he is partial to her and doesn't love her enough.
So at dinner time, the emperor arrived in Zhaochunxuan.
Today Ye Jun was not taking care of the patient and was resting inside, so he came out to greet the emperor in casual clothes.