Xi Zichu hurriedly returned to the City Lord’s Mansion.

The City Lord’s Mansion was also the Xi Mansion.

It was divided into a front residence and a back residence. The front residence was for official business, while the back residence housed Xi Mounan’s family.

The Xi family’s main estate was not located in Jia City, but in the suburbs. With a large population, it resembled a town in itself. Jia City was said to govern eight towns, but including the Xi family’s estate, it should be nine.

Stepping into a side hall of the front residence, Counselor Liu was buried at his desk, writing something.

As soon as he saw him, Xi Zichu gritted out three words: “Counselor Liu!”

“Oh, it’s Young Master.” Counselor Liu looked up at him, then buried his head again: “The City Lord has gone out and who knows when he will return. You should wait for him in the back residence.”

Xi Zichu walked up to him and pressed his hand on the paper he was writing on: “No, I’m looking for you.”

Counselor Liu thought for a moment, placed his brush on the inkstone, and looked up at Xi Zichu: “What does Young Master want?”

“Let me ask you, do you know what kind of disease is spreading in the city!”

Counselor Liu first stood up, walked to the door, closed it, and then looked back at Xi Zichu: “You know?”

Xi Zichu felt that all the composure he had cultivated in Dongwang Valley was wasted, and he said impatiently, “I’m asking you if you know!”

“I naturally know,” said Counselor Liu.

“Very good, then be prepared to apologize to my father!” Xi Zichu was furious and about to attack.

“The City Lord went out personally because of this matter,” Counselor Liu added.

Xi Zichu stopped his hand, surprised and suspicious: “My father knows too?”

Counselor Liu glanced at him faintly: “Otherwise, why do you think I can mobilize the city guards?”

Xi Zichu was utterly enraged.

He could endure the pig bone noodle vendor poisoning the people and even suppress his killing intent, first guiding him to attack Jiang Wang, because he had already prepared to kill this scoundrel afterward, allowing him to be of use before he died. There was nothing wrong with that.

But he couldn’t understand Xi Mounan and Counselor Liu’s reaction to the plague outbreak.

“You clearly know this is the plague, yet you don’t respond in time. This is dereliction of duty! This is poisoning! This is murder of hundreds of thousands of people in the entire region!”

Looking at Counselor Liu’s calm appearance, he wished he could kill him with one palm: “It must be this treacherous villain who has deceived my father!”

“What do you want to do?”

At this moment, the door was pushed open.

The only person in Jia City who could directly push the door open when Xi Zichu and Counselor Liu were talking behind closed doors was naturally the City Lord of Jia City, Xi Mounan.

“Father!” Xi Zichu turned his head abruptly, his voice agitated: “Do you know how dangerous the plague is? Do you know what the consequences will be if it breaks out?”

Xi Mounan looked at him quietly until he calmed down, then asked in return: “Do you know why I kept this from you?”

“Why?”

“Because of your useless and foolish behavior right now!”

In the space between their conversation, Counselor Liu quietly retreated and closed the door again, showing his proper behavior as a counselor.

Xi Zichu felt shocked and angry. He didn’t understand how he was being useless right now.

“Indeed, some people have been infected. What do you want to do?” Xi Mounan asked his son: “Announce it to everyone? Make hundreds of thousands of people in the entire city panic? Cause chaos in the world?”

“And then give the court an excuse to intervene, sweep our Xi family aside like garbage, and regain control of Jia City?”

“What are you thinking? Saying your father is a murderer?”

“Jia City is the hereditary fiefdom of my Xi family, and the people of Jia City are the foundation of my Xi family, my subjects! Would I murder them?”

Xi Mounan swept away the fatigue from his eyes and angrily said to Xi Zichu: “We are indeed sealing off information and not restricting travelers. But this is for the sake of the big picture! All the corpses of those who died from the plague are being disposed of in fixed locations. All the infected people are being confined to their rooms. We have already made the greatest effort! Otherwise, why do you think I’m still running around outside at this time! Do I not care about them?”

“But…” Xi Zichu was silent for a long time before replying: “The epidemic is still spreading, isn’t it?”

“This is only temporary!” Xi Mounan became somewhat uncontrollably irritable: “I should have known that the White Bone Path doesn’t have good intentions. That pig bone noodle vendor traveled thousands of miles to our Jia City, he definitely didn’t come just to eat a few people. This plague must be a conspiracy of the White Bone Path!”

“We should announce this to the public and overcome the difficulties together! The epidemic is spreading, Father!”

“The common people are ignorant, and ignorance is a blessing! Moreover, what role can they play in fighting the White Bone Path? The urgent task now is to find out the intentions of the White Bone Path. Find out their hidden manpower. We can request assistance from the court’s experts to deal with the White Bone Path demons, but the resettlement of the people of Jia City must be done by ourselves!”

Xi Zichu looked at his father and felt that he was very unfamiliar for the first time.

“So your method of resettlement is to let them wait for death?”

Xi Mounan looked at his son and finally couldn’t help but sigh: “My son, this is why I didn’t want you to know about this matter. You cultivate in Dongwang Valley, the medical path heals people, and the poison path kills and harms people. Dongwang Valley cultivates both medicine and poison, but ultimately medicine is the main focus. For patients, your cultivation makes it impossible for you to stand idly by. But you are the future head of my Xi family, and your actions must prioritize the interests of my Xi family… Your father doesn’t want you to make such a choice!”

Xi Zichu closed his eyes in pain: “But now the time has finally come to make a choice, right?”

“Our strategy to stabilize the situation cannot be changed, but since you know about the epidemic, you can help our physicians with treatment and see if you can find any ways to prevent and control it. As long as the overall strategy remains unchanged, and without causing panic among the people, all the physicians in the city are at your disposal, and you can be fully responsible for this matter!”

“In all the relevant medical records I have read, the first step to prevent the spread of an epidemic is to isolate the inside from the outside and prohibit travel. Then, clear it point by point. There is no other way!”

“You have cultivated for so many years, use your extraordinary powers to solve it!” Xi Mounan said in an unquestionable tone: “In any case, the five generations of Xi family’s management cannot be ruined in your and my hands! Otherwise, after a hundred years, we will have no face to meet our ancestors!”

These words struck Xi Zichu.

The history of the family for hundreds of years was like a heavy mountain, so real that it made him unable to turn over.

He didn’t remain silent for too long this time.

“Under the pretext of the pig bone noodle vendor creating the murders, impose a curfew for two months!”

“At most a month and a half, any longer and panic will be inevitable.”

“From now on, gather as much extraordinary power as possible in our hands, under my unified control. Ordinary people cannot resist the invasion of the plague.”

“Except for the necessary guard forces, the rest are at your disposal.” Xi Mounan thought for a moment and added: “Except for Counselor Liu.”

“All the corpses of those infected must be cremated in a centralized manner.”

“You can decide these things yourself.”

After a moment of silence, seeing that Xi Zichu had nothing else to say, Xi Mounan waved his hand and said: “Go!”