Plague Doctor
chapter-124

The dead bodies of the Nightmare Illness victims were stored in the Medical Department’s morgue. For the past two days, the people at the morgue had been very busy conducting autopsies on these victims. Since the autopsy had to be so detailed to the point that they checked every single nerve ending in the body, the people at the morgue had their hands full. Due to the time constraint and the large number of samples, the morgue had requested help from the clinical group. Members like Wang Ruoxiang, Cai Zixuan, and Sun Yuheng, who had joined Phecda due to their outstanding autopsy skills, were among the group of people rounded up to help.

They were busy from morning until dawn. The shift changed once every three to four hours. They would rest at the resting areas around the morgue before jumping back into work. When they arrived, the spacious resting hall of the morgue was filled with people in white coats. Some were slumped in chairs, while others were even lying down for a quick forty winks on the ground. Wang Ruoxiang and the rest, who had just finished their shift, were returning to their dormitory. They drank water and chatted casually in whispers.

“If only Tycoon Jun was here,” Cai Zixuan lamented softly. “His autopsy skills can rival all of us put together.”

“Hmm...” Wang Ruoxiang concurred as she was reminded of something. “There was this one visit that we paid the museum of human anatomy for a class in systematic autopsy. I remember Gu Jun hiding behind you all the time we were there. He did not even dare to chance a look. Then, there was the time we were learning how to execute the lab rats. He pulled until the poor rat’s tail broke, but the creature was still alive.”

“Indeed.” Cai Zixuan was drawn into the memory and couldn’t help but chuckle. “There was this other time when Tycoon Jun lobbed the rat around like a grenade when it bit on his finger.”

“And I was the unlucky victim who got hit by the rat.” Wang Ruoxiang sighed. “But of the whole class, he was the only one who was bitten by the lab rat. If that is not proof of his horrible personality, I don’t know what is.”

Sun Yuheng and Liu Hong were both shocked. Lab rats were usually docile creatures. It was rare that they would show hostility. With the topic of Gu Jun brought up, his two classmates from Eastern University did miss him. After all, it had been one and a half months already. But right then, Cai Zixuan’s phone rang. Wang Rouxiang’s also trilled almost at the same time. The calls were from their superiors...

The two shared a look. Their eyes spoke of shock and joy. Soon, a group of people walked into the resting hall. Prof Qin walked at the front, and Gu Jun was trailing behind him.

“Ah.” A gasp escaped from Cai Zixuan’s mouth. If not for the fact that he would interrupt his other colleagues’ rest, he would probably have screamed from excitement. Wang Ruoxiang also had a smile on her face. She was glad to see Gu Jun doing fine. In fact, he was more than fine; he appeared taller and more muscular.

“Elder Qin...” When the doctors in the hall saw Prof Qin, they all stood up, but Prof Qin waved them down. “Get your much-needed rest. Just ignore us.”

“Zixuan, monitor.” After reuniting with the two, he turned to greet Sun Yuheng and the rest.

“Go on ahead, we will wait for you here,” Prof Qin said. Gu Jun had told him earlier that he wished to do this with his peers only. The presence of other people might affect his sensory instinct. So, Gu Jun led the four toward their next decision.

Back then, it was a group of male students who went down to the university’s morgue to claim the cadaver of the Malformed Banyan Disease’s victim. There were Gu Jun, Zixuan, Xuhai, and Zhang Haoran. The members this time were different. There was Wang Ruoxiang, who was a girl, but that should not pose too much of a problem. Gu Jun believed that the specific individual was not that important. What he needed was the replicated scenario where there was a group with him when he encountered the cadaver.

The group sighed in relief seeing how great he was. Gu Jun felt the same way after seeing them in person. The depressing atmosphere was lifted slightly from this reunion. They knew that Gu Jun’s activity involved Phecda’s secrets, so they did not ask him about his previous whereabouts.

Cai Zixuan instantly got into his poet mode. “You arrived in the Wu region when icy rain rendered the river full. You could say that my heart is crystal clear and kept jadeite pure. Tycoon Jun, there is no need for words between us.”

“That’s a good poem,” Gu Jun praised. He was so afraid that he might not have the chance to listen to his friend’s storage of poems again. He then turned to subtly check out Wang Ruoxiang. She appeared to have gotten prettier from their short separation. But perhaps that was from the comparison with others who looked like hell. She somehow managed to have that dewy look. It was still an unsolved mystery how their monitor managed to have perfect skin despite their hectic schedule. Just look at Zixuan... his hairline had receded yet again...

“We were just talking about you.” The chiding barbs returned to Wang Ruoxiang’s smiling words. “We were just talking about your ‘kissing incident’ with the lab rat back in school.”

“That was just...” Gu Jun couldn’t help but chuckle. “Fine, you got me. I was too careless back then. I held the rat wrong.”

Listening to the banter between his old friends, Gu Jun’s heart was warmed. Since he returned from the banyan tree hole, this was the first time he felt he had actually returned to the human world.

At the Morgue Building, the floors aboveground were all autopsy labs. The actual morgues were all underground. The different morgues were assigned to cadavers of victims who had died from various strange illnesses. This was the first time the group, including Gu Jun, had visited at this place of death. The happiness from their reunion faded away, and it was replaced by a sense of depression. Other than that, visions started to swim around the edge of Gu Jun’s vision. He took a deep breath. The heightened ESP also meant that his connection to these things was more acute.

Walking down the underground corridor, as bright as the place was, there was an eerie mist of death that they could not shake off. Darkness appeared to fester in unseen corners.

“The second morgue over there is it.” The manager pointed out the path for them. He did not follow them because he had already been ordered not to disturb Gu Jun. Actually, the manager himself had no idea what Gu Jun was up to, nor did Wang Ruoxiang and the rest. All they knew was that Gu Jun wanted to see the cadaver of the Nightmare Illness in person.

Silence cloaked the hallway. As they moved forward, Gu Jun focused his ESP, not to see anything clearer but to feel the stillness of death around him. As he did during his training for the past month, he allowed the chaos to enter him and submerge into the nascent illusions.

Step by step, the strange spoke out to him. An abnormal whispering was humming in the air. However, when the five of them walked into this morgue, all the feelings instantly dissipated like smoke. All that was left was emptiness and silence. Not the heavy silence like outside, no... the emptiness there was more like a blackhole, blank and hollow...

“How is that possible?” Gu Jun looked around. In this large, clean room, there were rows of mortuary cabinets. There were hundreds of them, but according to his ESP, they were purportedly all empty from the feeling that he got from them. He turned around and said with confusion, “How can this place be so empty?”

“What do you mean by that?” Cai Zixuan was befuddled. Sun Yuheng frowned and asked, “How can you say this is empty? There are so many victims...”

“He’s referring to a kind of feeling.” Wang Ruoxiang understood him even though she did not know specifically what that feeling was.

“Yes, a kind of feeling.” Gu Jun felt like he was back in a Ganzfeld Experiment because his field of sight was covered in a singular color—white. The silence outside was blotted. It was polluted by colors made from pain, sadness, fear, and horror. But in this room filled with hundreds of dead bodies, it was completely white. But in this case, the thing that was missing was the anomaly.

“Zixuan, come and help me open these cabinets,” Gu Jun said heavily.

“I’ll help. I can’t just let the guys do everything.” Wang Ruoxiang rolled up her sleeves and walked over. The other three guys turned to Gu Jun. Females were normally exempted from such labor, but Gu Jun had a feeling he would offend Wang Ruoxiang if he forbade her from helping. Thus, Gu Jun shrugged. He walked toward the cabinet that was in the middle of the first room. With Wang Ruoxiang holding the handle on the other end, they gathered their strength and pulled at the same time. A stench of decay mixed with formalin rushed out at them.

Then their eyes turned to look inside the cabinet.