CH 84

Maybe because human traffickers who looked like him were rarely seen, but that boy stared dumbly and wide-eyed at him for a good long while, then suddenly started to laugh merrily, even revealing small, cute dimples on the sides of his face.

Even though Yan Suizhi generally saw everyone as little fools, it was still quite novel for him to bump into a Little Fool™. 

“Are you going to play with me?” The Little Fool asked.

“…”

It must have been difficult for such a child, who invited wolves into his house, to have lived to see this day and age.

Yan Suizhi initially wanted to send this little imp off and leave. However, the boy quickly followed with another sentence, “Mama has gone out with the veggie-selling granny from upstairs. Are you here to play with me?” 

The veggie-selling granny from upstairs?

Yan Suizhi smiled and pulled up his coat hems, squatting down. He asked the boy, “You’re a clever boy; you even know the granny upstairs?”

The boy lifted his chin, saying with a touch of pride, “I know everybody upstairs.”

“Is that so?” Yan Suizhi was just about to say something when, all of a sudden, he heard a sharp wailing siren blare from inside the house behind the kid.

The boy jumped in shock, at a loss as to what to do.

Yan Suizhi stood up, mumbled an apology, then lifted his foot and entered the child’s house, following the siren to the kitchen and turning off the boiler.

Such outdated kitchenware was a rare sight in De Carma. In most cases, not even exposed fires could be found, preventing any hazards. However, the low-rental flats in the black market on this side were still stuck several centuries in the past, preserving these old-fashioned kitchenwares.

Leaving the water to boil whilst letting a young child run free at home really spoke lengths of how neglectful his parents were. 

“Next time you hear the siren, don’t wet your pants in panic, just come over and press this button to turn it off,” Yan Suizhi told the child.

“‘Kay.” The boy responded in a small voice, obediently nodding his head.

As Yan Suizhi was about to leave the kitchen, he glimpsed a pair of gloves resting on the counter. Someone residing in the house had taken them off by the basin. The tips of the gloves were, obviously unwashed, still smeared with a bit of residual water from meat and vegetables. But those gloves were unlike those usually seen outside; they had a temperature-regulating, anti-bacterial film that glowed pale blue in the natural light streaming in from the window.

In the past, he had happened to come across such surgical gloves that were specially provided to hospitals in De Carma, and knew that they couldn’t be purchased by regular means. 

“Does a doctor stay here?” Yan Suizhi asked.

The boy shook his head. “No. Mama goes upstairs whenever she’s sick.”

Yan Suizhi nodded. “Really? Is there a doctor upstairs?”

The boy raised his head towards the ceiling, and pointed a finger sideways. “Over there.” 

“…”

Over there was the roof.

While the little imp’s directional sense was beyond hope, pointing sideways did make sense, indicating that it wasn’t the apartment right above his head, but to the side. By using an arc of inclination so exaggerated that he might jab the western hemisphere in the next second, it was indicative that it was rather unlikely to be the apartment neighbouring the one above him, but even further off.

There was a doctor upstairs; coincidentally, there was also a doctor who received referrals for genetic modification surgery. This shouldn’t be pure coincidence. It was highly probable that they were one and the same. 

Yan Suizhi nodded. “Where did these gloves come from? Did your mother get them from the doctor upstairs?”

Although the boy was long-winded yet spoke exasperatingly slowly with repetitive vocabulary, Yan Suizhi still tempered himself to finish listening to his explanation, straightening out the story:

When winter came, the skin at his mother’s fingertips would crack severely. Touching washing detergent, or even water, would bring her pain. If she touched anything unclean, there was also a possibility that the cracked skin would get infected, endlessly cycling through infection and healing through the winter without respite. Fortunately, his mother was a friendly person who often helped her neighbours, thus the people who lived upstairs and downstairs would occasionally give her some gifts, such as these gloves.

“Have you seen that doctor before?” Yan Suizhi continued to ask. 

The boy solemnly nodded. “Yes.”

“How does he look?”

The boy’s face was austere. “He has hair, two long eyes, a long nose, and a red mouth.”

Yan Suizhi, “…” Sounds like a monster. 

He considered it then asked this little imp, “Then how do you think I look?”

The little imp stared at him for two seconds, then held up his fingers and began to count, “You have hair, two big and long eyes…”

Yan Suizhi, “…” I might be a praying mantis.

“Explain to me what big and long eyes are.” 

The little imp gave it another thought. “Good looking!”

Good looking my ass.

Ktf ilaaif lwq uijcmfv ja atf wjrx yibmxlcu tjio tlr ojmf jujlc, ublcu bc ab rjs, “Sgw… Tbe jirb tjnf tjio j cbrf jcv cb wbeat.”

“…” 

“Xba la.”

Ktf fraffwfv Ugbofrrbg Tjc cbvvfv, atlcxlcu ab tlwrfio atja, regf fcbeut, jii atf ilaaif lwqr lc atf eclnfgrf kfgf pera jrxlcu ab yf rqjcxfv, yea atfgf gfjiis kjr cbatlcu tf mbeiv vb jybea atfw.

Most children had deep impressions of people they had seen before, and the remaining would likely have good recognition. However, getting this boy to provide a description was a bit of a challenge. Probably, everyone to him was two eyes and one nose, at best topped off with a sentence of whether they looked good or not.

After going a whole round without much gained, Yan Suizhi decided not to waste his breath anymore. 

He eyed the gloves by the sink again. The slight greasiness smearing the outer layer had considerable destructive power against mysophobics; he refused to touch them. Further, if he did turn them over for a look, if his mother was finnicky with details, she would surely notice it and ask this little imp about it, who was sure to spill everything that could be spilled.

So he just took two photos of the gloves, then spoke some nonsense to this boy whose discursive rambling could round the galaxy, making sure that he wouldn’t remember his questions about the gloves.

Human Trafficker Yan Suizhi had this Little Fool wrapped dazedly around his finger and set his mind at ease, saying goodbye to the boy with a wave of his hand.

That little imp was actually slightly reluctant. “You’re leaving?” 

Yan Suizhi glanced at the time. Normally, in what circumstances would someone have the kettle on yet leave the house? Unquestionably, there were only two. The first would be if they just made a silly mistake when leaving, forgetting that they were still boiling water. The other would be if they didn’t intend to go far, perhaps stepping outside for just five minutes or so.

It didn’t matter if it was the former, but if it was the latter… if Yan Suizhi continued to drag his feet, he might run directly into the other party. Not only would it be hard to account for his unauthorised entry into another’s private property, undermining any favourable impression, if he was further dragged to the police station, that would be too disgraceful.

So, holding the door handle, he glanced out at the corridor through the peephole before opening the door to leave

Before he left, he spoke to the boy again, “Next time when a stranger knocks on the door, don’t randomly open it.” 

His guess was on the mark. Halfway down the stairs, two women chatting with each other were on their way up. One was a slightly plump old woman with white hair. On the other hand, the other woman was very young, appearing to be in her early forties, with slender eyebrows and wide eyes, along with a dimple that appeared on one side when she spoke, bearing palpable resemblance to that little impish kid. When she raised her hand to brush her hair behind her ears, Yan Suizhi could see that her hands were riddled with cracked skin, as well as a hint of red amidst those cracks, possibly seeping a bit of blood.

The woman said a few words then turned her head away, coughing, appearing to have fallen sick as well.

“Are you really not going to the hospital?” The old woman clicked her tongue, sounding a little distressed for her.

The young woman gave it a thought. “I could go upstairs for a test.” 

The old woman said, “That works too. Wait until tomorrow then; the doctor just left earlier, and the younger ones don’t really know how to administer the test.”

“Mn.”

Yan Suizhi brushed past them, calmly walking out of the stairway.

But his mind was whirling. From what they said, that blue-eyed man in an overcoat and scarf from just now should have been the alleged doctor. Aside from him, the others in that apartment might not have anything much to do with the hospital. Were they simply in charge of introducing clientele bases? Or maybe they were in charge of other aspects… 

The police were still patrolling the streets of the black market, and the plainclothes were interspersed amidst the pedestrians passing through. Yan Suizhi recalled the scene earlier when the two women entered the stairwell, and surmised that they had walked in from the west side of the street.

Since they knew that the doctor had just left, they must have bumped into him and conversed with him along the way.

Yan Suizhi turned westward and followed the street out of the black market.

It went without saying that he was only going through his thoughts as he walked along the road, and didn’t hold any hope in encountering that doctor. 

It wasn’t a day-off. He didn’t know if that doctor had left for home or for the hospital that he originally belonged to. Yan Suizhi pulled up a map of this area on his smart device. There were six hospitals down this way, as well as eight smaller health centres.

Yan Suizhi casually drew a circle on the map, leaving a marking.

—

Helan was probably the closest habitable planet to De Carma. 

The turn of day and night was short here, complexed with special seasons. If divided by weather conditions alone, Helan could have seven unique and distinct seasons in a year.

Because of its rich resources, it had always been one of the most popular spots for space pirates to patronise, with small skirmishes breaking out every forty or so years, mostly concentrated in its southern hemisphere, Zones 3-7.

The ceaseless conflict caused many of the younger generation to choose to migrate to other stellar systems. Also, the radiation spillover of several large-scale firefights had led to the birth of many children with congenital disorders that were passed down the generations.

This was the source of the physiological disorder that Yan Suizhi’s mother had. 

The many years of warfare over the resources on this planet had taken shape in two distinct features.

The first was the exceptional number of welfare institutions Helan had, stemming from the large number of orphans. A new wave would be orphaned every forty or so years; it would be impossible for the system to bear its brunt without the support of welfare institutions. It was perfectly normal for many people from Helan to have grown up as orphans; conversely, it was more unusual to come across people with complete families.

Another feature was that this environment had created a hub for merchants. It was once said that people from Helan were born to be merchants, for it was easy to seize hold of a resource line. However, the gentle and beautiful climate also gave the merchants with their roots here a refined and cultured aura, like inborn gentlemen.

“So even though my family has been in this line for generations, our business isn’t very successful. We make profits in one generation and lose it the next, just barely breaking even.” 

On the space shuttle departing Helan for De Carma, a young man with a lampshade mustache was seated next to Gu Yan, garrulously telling him about his family’s eight generations of trade. “I just wasn’t able to keep it going, geez…”

He gave a long sigh, saying, “I’m still so young; I haven’t had time to patch up the losses my dad made, it’s too early for me to die…”

Because they were made to wear masks, his voice sounded muffled, just as if he was on his dying breath.

“That’s enough already,” the young nurse, who was bending over and pressing his wrist, chided him, removing the basic testing kit on his hand and glancing at it. She read, “Your temperature’s normal, you tested negative for the virus, not even a fever. Don’t keep going on about dying every few sentences, what kind of person curses themselves like that?” 

Lampshade mustache guy immediately was reinvigorated. “Seriously? It scared me to death. Then why do I keep feeling like the air I’m breathing out is hot?”

The nurse said, “Placebo effect, maybe. We did find quite a number of infected people found on this shuttle.”

Seeing the test results, lampshade mustache guy was finally able to relax. But his incessant chatter didn’t stop, and he persisted in trying to chat with Gu Yan. “Eh look, you might be experiencing the placebo effect too, don’t sweat about it. I couldn’t believe it when I heard you report your birthplace to the nurse; you’re from Helan too?”

Gu Yan didn’t elaborate, simply humming in assent. 

The nurse unwrapped a new test kit, getting Gu Yan to stretch out his arm.

“Your temperature feels a little hot.” The nurse frowned the moment she touched his wrist, then efficiently set up the test kit on him. “Where have you been the past two days?”

Gu Yan’s voice was slightly hoarse. “Hospital.”

The nurse continued to ask, “Which hospital?” 

“The hospital in Tempur City.”

The nurse softly uttered an “ah.”

This was because the infected travellers on the space shuttle today were all sent to the hospital in Tempur City.

“Are you feeling drowsy? You mustn’t fall asleep.” The nurse reminded Gu Yan as she waited for the results to come out. She wasn’t a good conversationalist, and could only say to that chatty lampshade mustache guy, “Keep talking to him. He doesn’t look well; he appears to be having a high fever.” 

The lampshade mustache guy immediately did as commanded, patting Gu Yan. “If you’re from Helan, then there’s a good chance that your family are also merchants, right? Who knows, maybe our families even had business dealings in the past.”

Already intending to rest his eyes, this pat caused Gu Yan to pry open his eyes again. He didn’t like others prying into his family affairs, so he shook his head, saying, “No.”

Lampshade mustache guy flapped a hand at the nurse, mouthing theatrically: It’s useless to chat with him, he’s too tired.

Beep— 

The test kit showed the result.

“Body temperature, 39.2°C, eh? Wait, it shows an invalid test result for the virus.” The nurse wavered, but still steeled her heart to prod Gu Yan. “Mister, you might have to follow me to another area. You have to be tested with specialised equipment.”

Very cooperatively, Gu Yan nodded and got up.

The nurse notified her colleague, gesturing for her to help with checking the rest, then brought Gu Yan towards the medical bay set up in the middle of the space shuttle. 

This was the earliest space flight from Helan to De Carma, departing the port before daybreak and before the viral outbreak, thus weren’t made to go through a quick screening before boarding. It was only midway through the flight when several people showed symptoms in quick succession, as well as an emergency notice sent from Helan and De Carma, thereafter assembling the medical staff to start screening everyone on board.

Those confirmed to be infected would be quarantined in a separate cabin and sent straight to the hospital upon arrival at De Carma.

As for those whose test results were invalid, they would need to be tested again at the port before being allowed to leave.

When Gu Yan entered the medical bay, there were already two others sitting on the professional testing device. 

The machine looked familiar. He had used it on Yan Suizhi just a day before.

However, as the nature of the test was different this time, the usage was also different. He saw that the two men only had metal plates on their wrists and the side of their necks.

Due to the limited load of the space shuttle, there were only two specialised machines for testing on board. Gu Yan had to wait for a while longer on the side.

“Sit here. We can’t dispense your medicine yet as we’re not sure if you have been infected, so just bear with it for now,” a young nurse said, handing him a cup of lukewarm water. “Drink some water.” 

Gu Yan took the cup. “Thank you.”

One of the two men on the machines looked like he was in poor shape. His lips were dry and chapped, his head of red hair was matted, and the flush riding on his cheeks concealed most of his freckles. He was obviously feverish.

The other man had cropped black hair that was styled, raked backwards with hair wax, a high brow-line, and deeply-set eyes. He appeared energetic, not showing any visible symptoms.

The dark-haired man studied Gu Yan for a while, saying, “Are you also here because your result was invalid?” 

Inexplicably, this man’s eyes looked shrewd and without warmth, making people feel uncomfortable at his gaze.

Gu Yan had always been frosty by nature. Now, alongside a fever and not being in a very good mood, he merely glanced over at him and looked away without paying him any mind. The nurse interrupted, saying, “Yeah. Don’t move about in your seat, stop leaning forward.”

The dark-haired man smiled, leaning against the backrest, drawing out his vowels in complaint, “This seat isn’t comfortable to sit on.”

“Even so, you can’t keep moving around, or you’ll loosen the probing needle and affect the result,” said the nurse. 

The display screens of the two machines were side-by-side, next to the wall. The nurse was staring at them unwaveringly. Due to his height, Gu Yan was able to see a part of the screen as well from his angle.

A moment later, a machine beeped, and one of the screens refreshed its interface.

“Mr Gunter?”

The freckled redhead opened his eyes, saying hoarsely, “It’s me, are the results out?” 

The nurse smiled at him. “Yes they are, you can relax now. You haven’t been infected; it’s negative. However, you should still go to Cabin 2 to rest, the seats on that side are set aside and stocked to handle common fevers and colds, so you can just self-medicate based on what you need. The circumstances are a little special today as we want to avoid more people from showing symptoms, sorry for the trouble.”

The freckled redhead mumbled a little, and though it was with slight reluctance, he still nodded and came down from the testing device, coughing as he headed towards Cabin 2.

When he left, the other machine also started to beep.

“Mr Lee?” the nurse said. 

The dark-haired man nodded. “So it’s done? My skeleton has gone numb.”

Although the nurse had reminded him several times not to move around, he appeared uncaring to what was said and continued to fidget.

Gu Yan glanced at the screen and happened to read the last line.

Remaining efficacy period of genetic modification: 70 Years 

“Have you been gene-modified before?” The nurse looked at the results, hesitantly asking.

The dark-haired man nodded. “What’s with your expression? Why? Is there a problem with the results?”

“Uh… it’s positive.” The nurse said, “You’re infected.”

The dark-haired man’s face immediately clouded over. Finding it hard to swallow down, the volume of his words had also raised steeply. “Impossible. I don’t have a fever or a rash, how could I have an infection?” 

“It’s possible that your symptoms haven’t started to show yet,” the nurse promptly replied. “But that’s a good thing; early detection means that you can be treated before it escalates. There were patients who couldn’t be saved because they had assumed it was a normal fever and weren’t able to be treated in time.”

Whether or not this was true, it was at least somewhat reassuring.

The nurse immediately pressed a bell to call a few colleagues over, sending the dark-haired man to the quarantine cabin.

After he had walked further off, Gu Yan lifted his head and glanced at him again. For a brief moment, he felt that this man’s countenance looked slightly familiar from a certain angle. But this familiarity quickly flashed by; it was also possible that he had recognised the wrong person because of his fever. 

“Mr Gu?” The nurse was done sterilising the equipment. “Please sit over here.”

After Gu Yan sat on the machine, the smart device on his finger suddenly buzzed.

It was a new message, from Yan Suizhi.

-Has the second round of negotiations ended yet? 

When the nurse was about to stick the metal plate onto his wrist, Gu Yan said, “Give me a moment.”

Then, his fingers swiftly tapped out a response to the other:

-There’s still a while left.

In actuality, the test only took ten minutes to complete, but even this felt overly long to Gu Yan. Perhaps the fever had affected his patience, for he was abruptly able to understand why that dark-haired man was so impatient earlier. 

Beep—

The machine sounded. The nurse lowered her head, checking the screen. Gu Yan leaned back in his seat without moving, his eyes hooded as he fiddled with his smart device, waiting for her to speak.

“Good news. Although you are having a high fever, you tested negative,” said the nurse. “You can go back to rest. We still advise you to go to Cabin 2. Just take it as making our jobs easier.”

Gu Yan nodded. “Okay.” 

In contrast to the overcast expression of the dark-haired man earlier, the alacrity of his response surprised the nurse. She beamed. “Great, thank you so much for understanding!”

As he walked towards Cabin 2, he projected the messaging interface and glanced at the message that Yan Suizhi had just sent over. He typed in word by word:

-Done with negotiations. I’ll be back tonight.

Soon, the other’s response came in: 

-Will it be very late? Do you need me to leave the doorway light on for you?

Gu Yan gazed at it for a while, replying:

–Alright.