Plague Doctor

Chapter 322: A Foreign Letter

“Hmm…” Wu Siyu woke up blurrily from the sofa and practically sleep-walked her way out of the morgue before returning. Just as she was about to slump down on the sofa, something struck her and she stopped. She turned around and stumbled over to the autopsy table. The autopsy had reached the fifth day. The autopsy team had switched multiple times but one figure had remained the same. Gu Jun was currently focusing on the dissection of the Deep One’s lower right ankle. When the fourth 24 hour passed, the completion rate was at 82 percent; there was another 5 hours to the next 24 hour. Once the 5th 24 hour was reached, the completion rate was 96 percent. It was close to the end now…

“Dirty-minded Jun, how about some water?” A fuzzy voice asked from behind. He turned and saw Wu Siyu. He put the scalpel down. “Sure, I’m so thirsty.” Over the past few days, Wu Siyu sometimes took over the job of the nurse. She went to grab a bottle of mineral water, pulled on Gu Jun’s mask and fed him the water.

“Miss Wu, your Uncle Dan is thirsty as well.” Uncle Dan on the other side grumbled. Cai Zixuan also stopped, waiting for her, “Siyu, you remind me of a poem by Alfred Noyes, Listen! On sweetening air/ The blackbird growing bold/ Flings out, where green boughs glisten,/ Three splashes of wild gold.”

“Malachite, you heard them, right?” After feeding Gu Jun, Wu Siyu ordered Malachite, “Go get some water for Uncle Dan and Zixuan.” She helped Gu Jun adjust his mask back on and shuffled her way back to the sofa. Peacock and Deng Ximei did not volunteer to take Malachite’s new job.

“Dear Lord, what is this differential treatment?!” Uncle Dan huffed, “Miss Wu, then how about some cheerleading or words of encouragement?”

“Uncle Dan, let it go.” Gu Jun chuckled, “You’d have a better chance requesting a team of cheerleaders from Phecda than to get one out of her.”

As if provoked, Wu Siyu turned around and jumped weakly, shouting, “Keep going! Keep going! Everyone is doing great! Go Phecda!” Then her eyelids dropped and she shuffled away.

“That was more like zombie cheerleading.” Uncle Dan grumbled. That lightened the mood in the room. In any case, the half-hearted cheerleading did invigorate Gu Jun. Over the past few days, his sleep debt caught up to him but he refused to lie down. With the system monitoring his vitals, he knew he was still quite a distance away from dying on the job. With the burst of energy given by Siyu, he decided to push for the last 4 percent of the mission.

After they were all given water, Gu Jun picked up the scalpel and pushed it through the Deep One’s webbed feet. The webbing between the toes appeared to form from muscular growth. They did not possess any blood capillaries; it was just a layer of skin…

Time ticked by. One hour later, the completion rate reached 98 percent. After another 2 hours, the last 1 percent remained. Under the soft shadeless light, Gu Jun blinked his bloodshot eyes and spliced out the scale on the back of the Deep One’s left ankle… After who knew how long, the melodious sound pinged in his mind. A few notifications arrived, “Abyssal Mission completed! You have completed the mission 45 hours before the allotted time, completion rating 10 stars. Rewards waiting to be obtained: Unknown. Please click to accept your reward.”

‘It’s over. After five days, it’s finally over!’ Gu Jun gave a long sigh. His energy left him immediately and his body teetered. He stopped working on the next scale but placed the scalpel on the metal tray. He told Uncle Dan, “I can’t do this anymore. I need a rest. All of us should take a rest. There’s no need to hurry anymore…”

He waved his friends’ concern away. He removed the gloves and washed his hands. Then he exited the morgue. After a quick shower and change, Gu Jun entered the small office provided for him. He collapsed into the sofa before turning to accept the reward.

A ball of light erupted in his tired mind. Something coalesced into form. At the same time, some messages appeared.

“You have obtained 1 scroll of the Deep One’s Language Mastery Textbook.”

“You have obtained a letter of correspondence.”

“You have obtained 1 Carlot Autopsy needle.”

“You have obtained one incomplete sweet dream from the Son of Steel.”

Gu Jun’s heart jumped with excitement. ‘An incomplete sweet dream from the Son of Steel? Does this mean I can communicate with Landon’s lingering spirit?!’ He immediately tried to enter this sweet dream bubble. It was colorful but blurry. The images were too bright to be made sense of. Gu Jun found he was denied entry into the bubble. Was it because he was too tired or there was a lack of connection?

He normally would not get the new Carlot instrument but based on his experience, these carlot instruments could help strengthen the bond between him and Landon. Therefore, Gu Jun instantly reached for the long autopsy needle. When asked, he’d say this was a new gift from the Zoogs. Holding the needle, he realized despondently that the connection was still too weak, he was missing something…

Gu Jun turned to the other two rewards. The “Deep One’s Language Mastery Textbook” was an ancient scroll. He could see some strange symbols and writing on the scroll, was this the same text that Jack Wales saw on the stone plaque?

Naturally Gu Jun was inspired. If he could learn the Deep One’s language, it would be of great help in the future. The timing of the system reward was opportune, it was as if the system knew what he needed. He attempted to study the language but his mind was not cooperating. He was too tired. Whenever he tried to focus, the writing wiggled away from him. Gu Jun had to stop. Finally Gu Jun’s mind fell on the envelope. He opened it easily and it contained a letter written in foreign language.

This was the first time he saw such handwriting. It was pretty, cursive yet austere. When he saw the letter was addressed to ‘my dear friend, Freud Landon,’ Gu Jun’s heart hiked up to his throat. This was a letter someone wrote to Landon. It contained a poem, a very familiar poem.

“That the play is the tragedy, “Man,” / And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.”

It was a letter written by Lydia on her deathbed…

Just the sight of the poem caused Gu Jun’s head to burst. Many illusions swam before his eyes, the power of darkness called out to him. He could feel the pain, struggle, despair and depression that Landon had once gone through… Landon did know Lydia, in fact they were good friends…

Lydia’s death and this poem clearly left a deep impact on Landon.

A scary thought crossed his mind and Gu Jun broke out in cold sweat. He bounced up from the sofa and ran towards the morgue.

…

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