There were many thunderstorms in midsummer, and a shower swept the entire Chang'an City in the middle of the night, and the rumbling thunder made Qiao Ran open her eyes from the bed. Listening to Pei Qingqing beside him and the red bean on the couch not far away, they were snoring slightly, and there was no sign of being alarmed by the thunder as always.

Qiao Ran sat up from the bed and glanced at Pei Qingqing beside her, sure enough, since she came to Chang'an, everyone in the family had slept very peacefully, except for her.

Whether it is getting up at night or getting up to drink water, Hongdou and Pei Qingqing, who will wake up with some slight movement in Jinling, sleep very soundly.

With an indescribable irritability flashing through her heart, she climbed out of bed, pushed the door and walked out.

It was dark on a rainy night, and only the lanterns on the houses on both sides shone faintly in the rainy night. But this little bit of light at this time seems to be not the slightest warmth of the plain day, but also has a strange and eerie feeling.

Standing outside the door for a while, Qiao Ran prepared to go back to the house.

A knock on the door came into her ears so suddenly, she was stunned, and the memory that was about to fade was suddenly raised: she had heard such a knock not long ago.

Because there was only one sound, and then it didn't sound again, she thought it was just the sound of something blowing on the door.

But standing here at this time, she heard this voice clearly again.

The coolness of the thunderstorm made her sense of hearing extremely acute at this moment, and the sound did not come from outside the door, but from under her feet, as if it was a sound from under her feet.

Hell, there's a knock at the door! Qiao Ran snorted softly at self-deprecation, and her expression became solemn. The muffled thunder rumbled in his ears, and the small grinding sound under his feet was also muffled by the rumbling thunder.

……

……

The rain fell overnight and will stop at dawn.

When Hongdou went out with a coat and yawning, he bumped into Qiao Ran walking around the yard.

"Miss," Hongdou called her, her eyes suddenly disappeared when her eyes fell on Qiao Ran's wrapped fingers, and she ran over in a panic, "What's wrong?" ”

"It's okay, I accidentally hurt my hand, it's no big deal." Qiao Ran said, her eyes paused for a moment on the tired red bean, and interrupted the red bean's words that she was about to ask, "Let's go cook when we get up!" ”

As usual, I went out with Tang Zhongyuan after eating, today is not a day off, and naturally there is no difference between normal days.

When he walked out of Wuling Alley, Qiao Ran suddenly stopped and looked back at the alley.

"Miss Joe?" Tang Zhongyuan shouted at her in some surprise.

This alley looks every day, is there any difference?

Qiao Ran snorted, said, "I'll take a look at it" and stepped out of Wuling Lane.

In the early morning streets of Chang'an City, there were already many people who got up early to buy breakfast, and these people gathered in front of the roadside breakfast stalls to urge and wait for the breakfast to come out of the pot.

A night of thunderstorms accumulated a lot of large and small mud puddles in the uneven dirt pits on the street, and a team of people and horses suddenly broke into everyone's sight and galloped away, and the hooves of the galloping horses stepped into the mud, and the muddy water splashed the pedestrians on the roadside, and after the people and horses left, they couldn't help cursing.

"What are you going to do so early?"

"Don't look at the road!"

"Don't scream, don't scream." The owner of the roadside steamed bun shop hurriedly grabbed two freshly cooked buns and wrapped them and stuffed them into the hands of complaining passers-by, "I'm going to catch smallpox patients." Yesterday there were two smallpox people caught in Datong Alley," the boss said with a stupid look, "I don't know how many people in this city have smallpox, it's weird and scary." ”

"What?" The pedestrian was stunned when he heard this, "Didn't you say that it was just people from the third street and nine lanes who had smallpox?" ”

"Haven't you heard about last night?" The owner of the bun shop sighed, "The Zhang brothers in Datong Alley are the eldest in Dali Temple, and the two of the twenty stammering doctors have also been arrested." ”

"Didn't the people of the government and the Five Cities Terracotta Division start sprinkling lime a long time ago and lock up smallpox patients?" Some people wondered, "How can anyone still get smallpox?" ”

"Who knows!" The owner of the bun shop shook his head and sighed, "Anyway, I heard that I had smallpox." ”

"The boss of the Zhang family bought a melon from me yesterday." The melon dealer who was carrying two loads of watermelons to sell on the side also had a bitter face, worried, "But I was scared to death, I saw him doing well yesterday, and I didn't see any acne on his face!" Why did you suddenly get smallpox? ”

The pedestrians who were buying breakfast on the side were immediately startled when they heard what the melon seller said, and hurriedly said: "Lao Wang, you won't have smallpox too!" ”

"I'm fine." Hearing this, the melon seller rolled up his sleeves to show everyone, and there was not even a pimple on his dark arm, "I didn't have any smallpox." ”

Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

It's good that this melon seller didn't get smallpox, it was hot in midsummer, and I don't know how many people bought melons from him, if he really got sick, then it really had to be spread all over the city.

"Compared with us, what we should be more worried about is the group of officials in Dali Temple!" A pedestrian said while nibbling on the bun, "These officials have only had a lot of contact with Zhang Duo, who knows if they have been infected." ”

As soon as these words came out, Qiao Ran, who had not yet left, immediately received a lot of looking eyes, and even passers-by hurriedly avoided her.

Look at the official robe on this girl: it's also from Dali Temple!

Tang Zhongyuan stepped forward, covered the eyes of those passers-by, turned his head and asked her in a low voice, "Miss Qiao, what should I do now?" ”

This arrested a scribe of Dali Temple, and made everyone avoid the people of Dali Temple as if they were avoiding the plague god.

Qiao Ran shook his head, glanced at the whispering passers-by, and said, "Let's go!" ”

When I walked into Dali Temple, I obviously noticed that today's atmosphere was different from the past, and as soon as I stepped into Dali Temple, two people wearing the official robes of the Imperial Physician Department came over and carefully observed and inquired.

"Someone in Dali Temple has smallpox and is locked up, you all have to check it." The two people from the Imperial Doctor's Department had confirmed that they had not contracted smallpox, and they breathed a sigh of relief and let them in.

A man who was fine yesterday was suddenly said to have smallpox. Which of these people in Dali Temple who are used to dealing with cases can't see the strangeness of this matter?

The symptoms of smallpox were different from those of the other plague, and they could be seen.

As for Zhang Duo...... In Dali Temple, there are really not many people who have an impression. I only know that he is a scribe who organizes files, honest and duty, and has never made any big mistakes after entering Dali Temple, and there is nothing brilliant.

It's really a strange thing that such a person, who is estimated to sit in the position of a scribe for the rest of his life, has actually offended people.

"How can such a person offend someone?" Zhen Shiyuan also felt strange, because he had said two words to him yesterday, and he was even more embarrassed, "I said two words to you and me yesterday, but now people have been arrested and thrown into the house where those smallpox patients are locked up, and now it is really unpredictable to live and die!" ”

"I was about to talk to adults about this." Qiao Ran raised her hand and closed the door, turned her head and said, "I was almost arrested like Zhang Duo yesterday." ”