CH 83

After the messages last night, perhaps because he was in a pleasant enough mood, nothing weighed on his mind. Yan Suizhi quickly fell back asleep, only realising the next morning, when he next opened his eyes, that he had slept nestled on the sofa chair the entire night.

When he stood up, his bones clicked frighteningly loudly, giving Professor Yan the disconcerting illusion that half his neck was already buried in the ground. 

No one would be comfortable after sleeping like that overnight. Although the room was temperature-controlled, continually doing this would only drive him to an early grave. When Yan Suizhi drank water in the morning, he felt like his throat was aching slightly.

He drank two cups of water in one go to force that somewhat uncomfortable feeling down, until he felt that he probably wouldn’t catch a cold, then changed his clothes and left the house.

He left the house very early today, which wasn’t when he usually did, so he was very relieved to not bump into Hobbes again.

Before stepping out of the door, he sent a message to Fizz, [I’m going off first, you don’t have to wait for me.] 

“You’re not hitching a ride today?” Fizz dialled straight over, asking. “Why is that? Are you intending to take the rail to the law firm? It’s very crowded; this stretch of road can squeeze you until you start to doubt your existence. When I first started working, I wasn’t able to buy a car and got squeezed for more than four years, my soul departing from my body every day. Normally when people get on the rail, they get packed near the doors, or if people get off, they get packed inside. I’m familiar with the security hottie on the rail. He heroically saved this damsel in distress many times now, fishing me out from the carriages.”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

This was his first time hearing someone using ‘damsel in distress’ to describe themself.

“I’m not squeezing myself onto the rail,” Yan Suizhi said. “I’ve got something to do in the morning. I’ll go to the law firm later.”

“Oh,” Fizz acknowledged. “Gu had already notified me that you might need to head out from time to time in the coming days and had gotten the leave paperwork done already. But what’s up with you? You sound a little nasally.”

Yan Suizhi, “It’s nothing, I might have caught a cold when sleeping last night.”

A hint of concern tinted Fizz’s tone. “Are you sure that it’s just a cold? There appears to be a new viral fever around lately; some people are even getting rashes. You haven’t been in contact with anyone in the past couple of days, have you? Do you have a fever?”

Yan Suizhi said, “I’ve heard about that. It came out from the genetic modification surgery from a clinic. I saw it at the hospital yesterday. I’ll drop by the health centre later and check it out. It shouldn’t be anything, don’t worry.” 

In actuality, the issue of the genetic modification surgery conducted in the clinic wasn’t completely irrelevant to Yan Suizhi. After all, he still wasn’t sure where exactly his surgery was done, who gave it to him, and whether it was that so-called ‘clinic’. The reason that he got up so early today was precisely that he intended to check out the place in the black market mentioned by Chen Zhang.

He was afraid that bringing up such a matter while Gu Yan was around would cause the other to worry. Now that Gu Yan wasn’t around, it was convenient for him to look into this.

There happened to be several health centres on the way from the city garden to the black market. As Yan Suizhi passed by, he picked one with relatively fewer people to register a place in the queue.

Even though he picked the least crowded centre, the waiting area was still packed with people. Basic stretchers kept coming and going, accompanied by the medical staff yelling, “Excuse me, make way, don’t come too close.” 

When Yan Suizhi entered, the receptionist stuffed a surgical mask into his hands.

He put it on and nodded at the other, his eyes curving. “Thank you. It seems to be rather crowded today.”

The receptionist said, “Yeah. It’s the thing from that genetic modification incident. It wasn’t to this extent the past few days, but I heard that they all got infected from Spring Ivy Hospital and, all of a sudden, from last night until now, people started streaming in. Maybe one person spread it to the next and suddenly caused an outbreak.

The receptionist was also wearing a mask. She spoke in a muffled voice as she explained to Yan Suizhi, but didn’t even forget to pass surgical masks to the other people who came through the door. 

“Put this on and stay away from the stretchers. You can go over there to wait for your number to be called. It’s a little crowded today, I apologise for the wait.” Beside her, several other receptionists reminded the people who came in, pointing to a signboard a short distance away, saying, “If you have a rash, go straight down this aisle for quick medical attention. Those with high fevers, go down that way. Those with unknown or non-obvious symptoms, please use the regular waiting area. Don’t worry, it’ll be quick.”

The receptionist looked at the chaotic waiting room and asked Yan Suizhi, “What are your symptoms?”

Yan Suizhi said, “I only have a slight cold, but I have previously… come into contact with someone who had been gene-modified, so I came to take a look.”

“Cr sbe rtbeiv.” Ktf gfmfqalbclra ibbxfv gfilfnfv. “Pa’r gfjiis ecmbwwbc obg qfbqif ab tjnf atlr asqf bo qgfqjgfvcfrr. P ecvfgrajcv lo sbe kjca ab ajxf rbwf wfvlmlcf ktfc sbe ufa j rwjii mbiv bg rbwfatlcu ilxf atja lc cbgwji mlgmewrajcmfr. Dea klat atf rlaejalbc, jr la lr cbk, la’r ralii yfra ab ufa la mtfmxfv bea. Ktfc, sbe mjc yf ja fjrf jcv jnblv lcofmalcu atf qfbqif jgbecv sbe. Vbwfalwfr ktfc rswqabwr olgra jqqfjg, la’r gfjiis fjrs ab mbcoerf atfw klat j mbwwbc mbiv bg ofnfg—” 

She lightly slapped her mouth. “Bah, look at what I’m saying. You should be fine, it must be a common cold. I’m just complimenting you for your preparedness.”

Yan Suizhi smiled warmly and said, “It’s okay, thank you for the compliment. I don’t mind, I don’t want to endanger the people around me.”

With this, he nodded at the receptionist again. “I’ll leave you to your work; thank you.” Then, he unhurriedly went to the normal waiting area.

Yan Suizhi sat down in an empty seat next to a young couple and heard the guy tell his girlfriend as he went through the articles on his smart device, “Hey, look, this thing seems quite serious.” 

His girlfriend leaned in to read the screen with him. “Quite serious? Why? Are there outbreaks elsewhere?”

The guy’s finger slid upwards, pointing to a few lines of text. “Look here, it says that it’s because a group of infected people sat on the space shuttle at the port. They had no symptoms at that time, but maybe the incubation period just ended? Anyway, there’s been a sudden outbreak. Just look at the health centre here, it’s only today that it got so crowded, right?”

It wasn’t comfortable for his girlfriend to read lying against him, so she yanked his hand over and looked carefully at the report on his wristband. “Did this report just come out this morning? Firecliff, Redstone, Tian Qin, Helan… gosh, there are so many!”

His girlfriend pulled up the list of affected stellar systems, gasp lowly in surprise. 

Yan Suizhi’s eyebrows knit.

Helan?

He immediately projected the screen of his smart device, running a search online. As expected, there were many social media platforms and scattered news reports discussing similar infections on a dozen or so stellar systems. Nevertheless, it wasn’t widespread yet; since it was quickly brought to attention, it had been contained in time.

The guy beside him closed the hologram, reassuring his girlfriend, “Don’t worry. Look, we don’t have rashes or fevers, just a small cold that we got from each other. It’ll be fine.” 

The girl nodded, saying, “Yeah we should be good; we’re usually as strong as oxen. Aside from mutually harming each other, we shouldn’t be able to harm anyone else. But it’s so crowded at the hospital today. Do you think that there are people who went in for something else, but due to their poorer constitution, accidentally got infected as well?”

The guy corrected, “It doesn’t matter how strong you are, since it’s highly contagious. Don’t jinx it, the schoolmates I heard who have been affected are also those who were usually in good health. Look, that guy behind you also looks strong but isn’t faring well, whereas the one beside me looks gentle but he still seems energetic.”

Yan Suizhi, “…” Do you really think that I can’t hear you because you’re keeping your voice down?

He listened to that chatty couple yatter on for twenty minutes, then, when it was around the time that people got up at Helan, he sent Gu Yan a message: [Where was the negotiation held yesterday? Was it in the hospital?] 

Afraid that Gu Yan had pulled an all-nighter and was still asleep, he didn’t dial a call over to avoid waking him.

However, Gu Yan was obviously already awake. Barely a moment later, his response came in. [Yes, why?]

[I just saw the news. There’s also been a breakout in Helan. How’s the hospital that you went to?] asked Yan Suizhi.

However, after sending the message, Yan Suizhi didn’t wait for Gu Yan’s response, dialling straight over. Since he was already awake, there wasn’t any need to tiresomely type it out word by word. 

The call rang twice, but was hung up by the other end.

Gu Yan’s message soon came in, [In the second round of negotiations, chat later.]

“Alright.”

Not long later, Yan Suizhi’s queue number was called. 

Perhaps due to the high number of cases in these past few days, all patients were strongly recommended to do an examination as soon as they stepped into the consultation room. The doctor tore the packaging off the disposable test kit and placed it directly on Yan Suizhi’s wrist.

A slim needle darted out from the end of the device, pricking his skin. 

Then, he felt a subtle heat and electrical current, just like the ‘zapping’ sensation he felt the other day at Spring Ivy Hospital.

“Press it down, wait until it beeps, then tell me the result.” The doctor had repeated this for god knows how many times already. He spoke quickly, the words memorised like the back of his hand. “You don’t have to look at anything else, just look at the fourth line and tell me if it’s positive or negative.” 

As he spoke, he began to busily type a long string of digits into the photon computer, then took out two injections from the drawer that popped open, looking all ready to go.

The detector on Yan Suizhi’s wrist beeped.

He lowered his head. The data shown on the palm-sized test kit reminded him slightly of what he got from the large-scale genetic testing machine in Spring Ivy Hospital, mainly that it was much simpler, comprising only four lines of data.

The first line was the body temperature; Yan Suizhi wasn’t having a fever. The second and third lines were data about his blood. The last line showed the rk13 viral strain, which was supposed to refer to the culprit in this virus that was going about. 

Yan Suizhi handed it over to the doctor. “Negative.”

However, when he passed it over, the last line of data flashed twice, but finally stabilised on negative. The doctor squinted at its contents, nodding. “Congratulations, you just have a normal cold.”

He smoothly dropped one of the injections back into the drawer and passed the other injection to Yan Suizhi, saying, “Go straight to the self-service kiosk to pay for it, don’t go to the injection room. They’re too busy over there; you’d probably have to queue for an hour. You can administer this injection for home use yourself.”

It was a relief to hear that he wasn’t infected. Yan Suizhi didn’t continue to hold up the doctor’s time, taking the injection and leaving the health centre. 

—

The black market was more lively than it normally was. Due to the medical case involving genetic modification surgery and the viral outbreak, De Carma had sent a large number of police to sweep various areas, including the two famous black markets, for a few days.

But black markets were black markets for a reason; they had their ways that allowed them to almost-brazenly remain operational in the city for so long.

The police busied for a few days but came up empty-handed. However, most of the clinics were based on the city outskirts. The police were really unable to ferret out any from the black market. They were as clean as a whistle, not leaving any cracks for the police to pry into. 

However, the police force couldn’t dally around here when they were getting nothing out of it, pulling back most of those on patrol and leaving only a small number to keep an eye on the black market, along with a few plainclothes police.

When Yan Suizhi arrived at the black market, he found that it was unexpectedly much busier than the last time he was here.

Back when he had first come back to consciousness and came here, the street was doused in an air of laziness. It was already promising if the shopkeepers remembered to open their doors. Let alone soliciting customers, most of their doors were closed; those without prior intel would probably never be able to find the shopkeeper. The entire place seemed to embody the philosophy of ‘come if you want’.

It was different now. This time, most of the stores had their doors wide open and were brightly lit, making them appear bustling on this dreary day. There were hairdressers, leather care shops, and electronic stores; pretty much stores of every sort, just nothing that the police wanted to check. 

Yan Suizhi thought to himself that he possibly had quite crap luck. It would be troublesome to try to scout around at this time.

This black market didn’t only consist of stores, but also many low-rent flats. As such, even if there were police on patrol, the number of people in this area didn’t decrease in the slightest. It didn’t make sense to bar people from their houses, after all.

Yan Suizhi calmly followed several pedestrians up the street as they slowly broke off into different residential buildings. Yan Suizhi walked to the seventh store and went up the flight of stairs next to it as naturally as one could.

It was a normal apartment flat from the second floor onwards. As they were low-rent accommodations, the building was poorly lit and wasn’t very clean, visibly dirty and dusty. Yan Suizhi coughed twice and pulled the mask higher up his nose bridge, blocking out the dusty smell; only then did he walk unhurriedly to the third floor. 

There were a total of six doors on the third floor, spread across the corridor. Each had a doormat at the entrance, a milk crate, a simple trash disposal bin by the front of the door, as well as random graffiti drawn by children. Two of the doors also had decorations on the doors. At first glance, this looked like any other residential building, and even looked more lived-in than some.

If it weren’t for the information Chen Zhang gave him, Yan Suizhi would surely have had a confused fog filling his head when coming to this place.

“I recall that it was the third house on the left side from the stairs. But it’s been a long time since, so I’m not sure if they’ve moved. At that time, I told them that I’m here on Mr Diamond’s recommendation, and they let me in.” This was how Chen Zhang had replied to Yan Suizhi when he asked for more details.

But saying this now would be too risky. First, the alleged ‘Mr Diamond’ wouldn’t randomly introduce someone under such special circumstances unless they had malicious designs. Secondly, even if ‘he’ were to introduce someone, at this time, they likely wouldn’t let someone in just based on this simple sentence. 

Yan Suizhi took out gloves from his pocket and put them on, then walked silently to the third door. Although the residential building was old, its soundproofing certainly wouldn’t be lacking; if even what was said inside the house could be heard from outside, they could give up on being a black market.

He had observed on the way up the stairs that there were no surveillance cameras in the stairwell, nor were there any odd sorts installed on the wall. Even if there was, they would probably have been removed to avoid attracting attention from the police in recent times. However, there was still a peephole on the door.

He avoided the visible radius of the peephole, stopping beside the trash disposal bin by the door.

Yan Suizhi bent down slightly and sniffed. He could smell the faint scent of smoke. 

Generally, trash bins would automatically clear once a day, sort and disintegrate the trash, then send it down to the ground through the connecting pipe at the bottom of the bin. This scent of smoke was indicative that the house was still occupied, and they had come out to throw the trash, smoking heavily, possibly worried about one thing or another.

He lowered his head, scanned the ground, then stepped two steps back to eye the wall near the bottom of the bin. He noticed a vegetable leaf that had accidentally fallen to the ground. This was telling that the people living inside still often went out of the house and would even buy groceries to make their meals, striving to maintain the image of a normal family spending their days.

Yan Suizhi serenely shifted his gaze away and considered the time. Completely composed, he walked to the stairwell, and went down the stairs to the second floor to wait.

As expected, about half an hour later, he heard a door opening from upstairs. Someone had left the house. 

He was standing between the two innermost houses on the second floor. He could hear exactly which door was opened based on the voices from upstairs—it was the second house this time.

Heavy footsteps came down the stairwell. An elderly obese man slowly made his way down the stairs step-by-step. He had poor eyesight and failed to notice that there was someone standing in the second floor corridor, continuing down to the ground floor before leaving the apartment building.

Yan Suizhi waited here for an hour and saw four or five people heading out. After all, it was approaching lunchtime.

He had extraordinary patience and wasn’t in any hurry. After waiting for a while more, the third door on the floor above finally opened. Yan Suizhi changed his position, randomly picking a door with childish scribbles adorning it to stand at, and when he heard the footsteps coming down the stairwell, he raised his hand to knock on the door in front of him. 

The man coming downstairs was in a grey overcoat. His steps were light and slightly dragged. He was wearing a wool hat and a black scarf, exhaling into his hands as he came down the stairs. However, when he reached the second floor, he keenly perceived that there was someone there and thus turned to look at Yan Suizhi.

The scarf blocked the lower half of his face, only revealing two light blue eyes. The hat was also pulled down to his brows, nothing distinctive immediately apparent.

Yan Suizhi’s gaze flitted past his hands. Perhaps the angle was just right, as when that man breathed warm air into his hands, Yan Suizhi glimpsed a scar between the thumb and the index of his right hand.

Then, as if it were just a cursory glance, Yan Suizhi averted his gaze and continued to knock at the door in front of him. 

Possibly as a result of his natural acting and the cold that could be heard from his low, nasally coughs, he didn’t seem at all like any kind of plainclothes police. Subsequently, that man didn’t continue to inspect him and made his way down.

When those footsteps descended to the ground floor, the door in front of Yan Suizhi opened.

A little impish boy with a head of hair like a bird’s nest looked up at him, confused and startled. After recovering, he asked, “Who are you?”

“…” Yan Suizhi smiled, pinching his face. “A human trafficker.” 

The little imp, “…”