Plague Doctor

The storm had not abated. Gu Jun walked to the foyer window on the second floor and looked out. He saw the change in the lands around the manor. It seemed that color had returned. Despite the pouring rain, he could hear the sounds of cheering coming from the village. The whole of Warsong village had come alive.

“Mr. Chandler, Mr. Chandler!” Another excited call came from outside the house. It was the young watcher. The watcher risked the heavy rain and ran over to bring the good news. The rain soaked through his gray clothes, but it did not dampen his good cheer. He said joyously, “The Carlot doctors are here! They have pushed their schedule ahead. Did you hear? Even the Son of Steel is here. Mr. Chandler, you are going to be saved. The whole of Warsong is going to be saved. We are all saved!”

Gu Jun wrapped his bloody left pinkie in bandages. That was the only thing he could do for now. He’d work on the wound when he had more resources. He put away the scalpel, picked up the sword and oil lamp, walked down the staircase, and headed to the front door. The young man was standing five meters away from the open door and allowed the rain to lash on his young and innocent smiling face. “This is such wonderful news!”

“Yes…” Gu Jun stared into the watcher’s smiling face, knowing full well what would happen in the real foreign world later. That was why this was a nightmare. But a nightmare was in essence a dream, and wasn’t a dream supposed to be completely separated from real life? No matter what happened or what would happen in the real world, that was not part of the dream. A dream was a dream. Gu Jun noticed that the entries of the watcher’s diary in his mind after he had made this new entry had been wiped clean. The pages filled with words had all turned blank. This dream was already changing, and Gu Jun was the one responsible for it.

Gu Jun flashed the watcher a smile. Ignoring the pain from his bleeding pinkie, he summoned his focus to continue writing in the diary. “I immediately brought this uplifting news to Mr. Chandler. It had the same resuscitating effect on Mr. Chandler as I hoped. The wailing and incoherent words were no more. Color returned to his face, and charm oozed out of this perfect gentleman again. It was around then that I realized Mr. Chandler had not kept his own company inside the house. After he was infected, his good friend, Miss Tamarine had slipped into Warsong to accompany him and had slipped away from the guards’ detection. Over these past few days, it was Miss Tamarine who had been taking care of Mr. Chandler’s recovery. So, the black shadow that I saw behind the second floor window all this time was actually Miss Tamarine.”

One would think writing did not require much mental power, but it was surprisingly taxing on Gu Jun. Nonetheless, he had to finish this entry. Tamarine had the meaning of Siyu in the foreign language… When he was walking down the staircase, Gu Jun had noticed that Wu Siyu was not seen on the first floor. She might still be trapped inside the nightmare. Gu Jun had been reimagined as the zombie Chandler, while she was placed in the role of that incorporeal shadow. If she did not have a firm enough mind or some other issue arose, she might be drawn into this nightmare manor and etched into a part of its nightmarish existence. Like the young man, she would be posted behind the second-floor window, keeping an eternal watch.

Of course, Gu Jun was not going to allow that to happen. This damned house did not even have a comfy couch for her to sit on. Gu Jun gritted his teeth to help him focus as he continued to jot down the diary entry.

“I finally saw Miss Tamarine in person. She did not show any symptoms of the disease, thankfully. She was a beautiful young woman in her prime. Dressed as she was in an ordinary cotton dress, it did not take away from her graceful presence. But probably due to her vigil over Mr. Chandler, her eyes looked rather tired. In any case, after I met her, the worry that had been troubling me finally washed away. There was nothing strange happening inside Mr. Chandler’s house. Everything could be explained with reason.”

After he finished writing the last sentence, Gu Jun felt a tightening in his brain, but at the same time, he could feel something rippling into existence behind him. He turned to look, and a familiar, slender figure reappeared beside him. She was carrying the medic kit and held a bag of food and a long bow in her hands. Her expression was one of confusion and mischief.

“Hmm?” Wu Siyu looked around. “Weren’t we on the second floor earlier?”

“We have come down,” Gu Jun said.

“What happened to your finger?” She noticed it immediately.

“I cut off the end of my fingertip,” he said plainly.

“Oh?” Wu Siyu frowned, but she did not dwell on it. “How are you going to make pinky promises in the future? Oh well, your loss.”

Gu Jun felt relief wash over him. This was definitely Wu Siyu. That tone, the irreverence and indifference, it was Dirty-minded Yu alright. Seemed like she had not ventured up to the third floor. After she stopped at the second-floor window, she had been sucked away from Gu Jun. The one that followed him after that was no longer the real Wu Siyu.

“Mr. Chandler, what are you two talking about?” the young man asked with interest. “What kind of language is that?”

“It is the local language where Miss Tamarine comes from,” Gu Jun answered in the foreign language. “Do you mind giving me a moment to explain the situation to my guest, young man?”

He pulled Wu Siyu to the side and briefed her on the general situation. In the end, he concluded, “I am going to turn this nightmare into a sweet dream, which will definitely deliver a huge blow to the Nightmare Illness. This is our chance to turn this around.”

“So, in other words, you can shape this dream.” Wu Siyu got it immediately. “Then, can you magic out a flock of penguins for me? That’s the only reason I agreed to come on this trip, after all.”

“No can do.” Gu Jun shook his head. “There is no such thing as a penguin in the foreign world, but there are Carlot Doctors.”

He took a deep breath. The rain seeped into the ground, and it brought out the fresh smell of spring. It rejuvenated Gu Jun and allowed him to continue writing.

“Even though the rain showed no sign of stopping, the Carlot Doctors immediately jumped into their rescue mission. Since Mr. Chandler was a famed researcher in the study of medicine in town and was once a hopeful candidate to study at Carlot Academy, the doctors rushed over here at first notice. They hoped that they could get more information about the epidemic and its pathology from Mr. Chandler. Thanks to that, I was given the privilege of being in the presence of these patrons of the Goddess of Life.”

As Gu Jun wrote down the entry, the young man practically jumped out of his skin from sheer joy. His face was flushed with excitement. “Look, the mayor is bringing them here!”

Gu Jun and Wu Siyu turned to look. They saw many people hurrying over from the forest path that they had taken earlier. The luscious foliage provided shelter from the pouring rain. The people that headed the group had clear faces. They should be the people and the mayor from Warsong. Their simple faces were enchanted with joy and laughter trailed in their path.

But the few figures that followed at the back… all of them consisted of blurry shadows. Their bodies and faces were blurred out like characters in a faded photograph. They only bore the shape of a human.

Gu Jun understood the implication. Just like the literature they found inside the house, they only had the appearance but no content. Since this was the watcher’s dream, the uneducated young man would not be able to dream up the content of complicated literature.

Similarly, the watcher would have no idea what these Carlot Doctors look like.

“Mr. Chandler, Miss Tamarine, here they come!” The young man’s voice was shaking from nervousness. He straightened his shirt, and his eyes burned with passion. “Look, just from their presence. You can tell they are set apart from the others. They are blessed by the Goddess… and that has to be Landon. Praise to the Goddess! We’re saved! We’re all saved!”