Chapter 94

The air in the ballroom stilled as if suspended in time. Politicians, businessmen, and ladies—every one of them—wore the same mask of terror. No matter how lavish the décor, how intoxicating the alcohol and lights, how elegant the gowns and collars, it all became nothing more than dead weight.

It was as if they had been stripped of their fine exteriors, forced to stand naked before the plague, awaiting a verdict no one could predict.

When had this man fallen ill? Was it the plague that infected him? Had he spread the virus to others without anyone noticing?

The man convulsed on the floor, and those around him shrieked, stepping on each other's heels, backing away farther and farther, until a woman shoved her way out of the crowd—

"Honey!" she cried out, throwing herself at him with tears in her eyes. "Joel! What's wrong with you? Answer me!"

Seeing her rush toward the sick man without a second thought, the people around her involuntarily took another step back. Even the spot she had just pushed through seemed to clear a path on its own.

When the fallen man gave no response, she turned desperately to the indifferent onlookers. "My husband is dying! Please help him! How can you all just stand there and watch?!"

But her plea stirred no pity. The waltz had stopped at some point, and a man's voice rang out from the crowd: "He's done for. We need to toss him overboard right now. If it's the plague, the whole damn ship is going down with him!"

Murmurs of agreement followed. "That's right!"

"I know him! He's just a nurse!" The implication being that discarding him wasn't such a loss.

"That woman got too close—she's infected too. Toss her in with him!"

People chimed in with malice toward the two at the center, yet no one dared step forward to help.

The standoff dragged on for a while, until a steward hurried over with a doctor in tow—"Move! Move! The doctor's here!"

"Thank goodness, it's Dr. Qiu Shisha! Dr. Qiu cured my stroke last time. With her here, everything will be fine!"

"I heard Dr. Qiu has been researching an anti-plague vaccine. Wonder if she's made any progress."

"Word is she's already sent a telegram to the Watchman, planning joint research. If we'd had a genius like Dr. Qiu during the Great Plague Era, maybe we'd still be living on the mainland."

"During the Great Plague Era, Dr. Qiu was just an apprentice!"

With the arrival of the female doctor, the anxiety in the crowd eased somewhat. Some even found the mood light enough for a joke.

Dr. Qiu crouched beside the man, quickly turning his head to the side to clear his airways and prevent choking before examining him. She pried open his eyes, checked his temperature with the back of her hand, and pressed her fingers into his armpits, neck, and groin. Her expression grew increasingly grim.

Upstairs, Lin Tu had already checked the infection levels of the crowd through her phone—

Most people were still safe, but a handful showed numbers marked in yellow, hovering around 6% or 7%. The stewards at the edges, likely sharing a cabin with a dozen others where infection spread from one to ten, were nearly all infected—some as high as 20%. And the most infected of them all... was the man collapsed at the center of the crowd—41%.

This was bad. The plague had already begun to spread.

Sure enough, Dr. Qiu looked up grimly and announced, "It's the plague."

The crowd, which had just been chatting and laughing, immediately erupted in panic.

"Everyone, stay calm," Dr. Qiu said, rising to her feet, trying to explain the situation. "We've essentially mapped the virus's genome—a monumental breakthrough since the Great Plague Era. As long as we reach the Watchman and obtain their data, we can develop an effective treatment very soon. Then we can finally return to shore..."

Before she could finish, someone shrieked in terror and bolted from the cursed ballroom, and others followed suit.

Dr. Qiu let out a helpless sigh and crouched back down to check on the man. She wore only a simple mask and gloves, no protective suit—something that worried Lin Tu above. Then again, for someone who believed so firmly in her ability to develop a cure, her fear probably didn't run as deep as most people's.

"Lay him flat and keep clearing the vomit from his mouth," Dr. Qiu instructed his wife, then told the steward, "Go to the infirmary and have them bring a stretcher. His condition isn't too dire right now—he just had a sudden convulsion and high fever during the ball. He'll be fine after lying down for a bit."

"But the plague..." The man's wife hesitated to touch him.

Dr. Qiu smiled at her. "It'll be fine. Everything will be fine."

The steward left with the order, and a fair number of people hurried out as well. Lin Tu crouched in a corner on the second floor, continuing to monitor infection levels through her phone. She had no intention of leaving just yet—in a crowd this mixed, it was all too easy to catch the virus.

However, things didn't go as smoothly as she'd hoped.

About a minute later, the people who'd just left—including the steward sent to the infirmary—all came filing back into the ballroom.

Behind them marched a squad of soldiers, escorting a politician. The soldiers, clad in protective suits, immediately surrounded the handful of people at the center. Several doctors in protective gear pushed past Dr. Qiu and began examining the man on the floor.

"Pang De!" This politician carried weight; Lin Tu heard people addressing him by that title.

After a moment, the examination yielded results. Pang De issued orders to his men, then picked up the ballroom's microphone, his voice heavy with sorrow: "Joel is an excellent surgical nurse. I believe he must have been accidentally infected while tending to someone's wounds. Yes—I've just been informed by the royal physician that he's contracted the plague!"

Before the crowd could erupt, Pang De continued: "As someone who lived through the Great Plague Era, I know full well the devastation this disease can bring. So I know we cannot afford to hesitate. We must immediately invoke the emergency laws of the Great Plague Era and cast Joel—along with these passengers suspected of infection—off the ship!"

"If they survive a week without showing symptoms, we will welcome them back. If not, then unfortunately, there's nothing we can do. It pains me deeply to do this, but my duty is to ensure the safety of every passenger aboard this ship. I'm certain Joel would understand and even accept this."

The crowd erupted into commotion. During the Great Plague Era, people had established extremely harsh laws to survive, and one of them was the exile law for the infected.

As Pang De had said: no food, no water, lock the infected in a small boat. Whether they lived or died within a week was entirely up to fate.

But such a law protected everyone else's interests. Look—they weren't directly killing the infected. Life and death were determined by heaven, wealth and honor by fate. If anyone turned out to be innocent and uninfected, they'd be welcomed back a week later with the highest honors, as a gesture of apology.

For a moment, not a single voice rose against Pang De.

"Pang De! Please don't do this!" Dr. Qiu shouted. "Our situation is different from the Great Plague Era now! We've essentially mapped the virus's genome—there's hope for a cure. There's no need to reinstate the laws of the Great Plague Era! There's no need to abandon our companion!"

Her words stirred some unrest in the crowd—

"Dr. Qiu shouldn't be exiled, right?"

"According to the law, Dr. Qiu touched the patient without a protective suit, so she should be exiled by rights. It's for our own safety."

"But..."

"Dr. Qiu was too careless. After all, who'd have thought the plague, absent for years, would make a comeback?"

"I will provide Dr. Qiu with food and water and place her in solitary quarantine." Pang pressed his hands down, putting an end to the discussion. "Now, everyone, please return to your cabins and monitor your temperatures for any unusual elevation. Doctors will check each of you!"

After listing a few more precautions, the crowd dispersed under the soft lighting.

Lin Tu glanced back at Dr. Qiu, now surrounded by soldiers, and furrowed her brow.

That night, after convincing the doctor that her extra medication was only for a stomach upset, Lin Tu lay in bed with her eyes closed. As darkness deepened, the Butler woke her.

Lin Tu donned her protective suit and opened the door in the dark.

—She was going to find Dr. Qiu. Her instincts told her that Qiu Shisha's research held immense value.

At night, the cruise ship was lit only by the emergency exit lights. The endless surge of the sea and the rumble of the engines filled her ears, occasionally punctuated by shrill human screams from some corner, lending the massive vessel an eerie, terrifying air.

In truth, everything Lin Tu had seen and heard during the day already convinced her this was a ship of horrors.

When disaster strikes, the first thought isn't to work together to solve the problem, but to get rid of the unfortunate soul. It was almost unbelievable...

Lin Tu made her way slowly toward the holding area based on the location she'd gathered after the ball.

Strangely, given how many soldiers had surrounded Pang De during the day, she'd expected this "prison" to be heavily guarded as well. But in fact, there was almost no one.

She walked the entire way and encountered only four men playing cards. Lin Tu took a bite of Night Blueberry, easily slipped past them, pocketed the keys, and arrived at the cell where the exiles were being held.

Lin Tu pressed her ear to the door—no sound from within.

She unlocked it and was greeted by four bodies sprawled haphazardly on the floor.

Joel, Mrs. Joel, and the steward—each had a clean, neat bullet hole in the forehead. And one more person, facing the cell door... eyes wide with fury, pupils dilated, body rigid—Dr. Qiu Shisha.

Lin Tu couldn't believe it and instinctively took two steps forward to inspect, but then remembered the plague.

She pulled out her phone and pointed it at the corpses.

Joel, who had been at 41% infection just hours ago, had spiked to 98% in death. And Mrs. Joel and Dr. Qiu Shisha, who hadn't been infected at all, now showed 79% infection on their bodies.

Lin Tu frowned and took a step back. Even with her protective suit, she didn't dare step into that cell. And as she retreated, a cockroach—or some other insect—silently crawled out from one of the corpses, slipped through the vent, and scurried into the ship.