The Gentleman at the End-Chapter 657 - 655 Destination: Flower Sea Village

Train Station - Conference Room

Once, only the leaders of the Railway Department convened here, but today the room was packed with high-ranking officials. Director Zhang of the Railway Department, once commanding great influence here, now had to sit on a plastic stool in the outer ring, maintaining 200% focus.

Leading figures from the City Health Bureau, the police headquarters, and even the Mayor himself had canceled their schedules for the day just to oversee the quarantine operations at the train station.

After a lengthy wait and the completion of all quarantine procedures, the submitted reports showed no signs of the plague.

Moreover, the ’fertility event’ that had erupted during the train journey also remained without an identified source.

Smack!

The Mayor slapped the conference table, a mixture of steel and solid wood, causing it to collapse completely and shattering the glass windows, frightening the Railway Department’s leaders to nearly lose their composure.

"The higher-ups have specifically instructed," he stated, " that this train might carry a plague from a foreign land. Not only that, but they also caused such a commotion during the journey.

A local pregnant woman gave birth prematurely to a Blood Baby, while the other pregnant passengers experienced intense gestational reactions.

Now that we have found nothing at all, are you all useless? How am I supposed to report this to the superiors?"

The Deputy Director of the Health Bureau, smiling cheerfully, responded, "Mr. Mayor, the incident occurred last night. It’s entirely possible that the suspects fled by jumping off the train immediately afterward and are now far from our city.

Since we’ve conducted the plague examination as requested, we just need to file a detailed report and submit the materials related to the absence of plague carriers.

If you’re still concerned, Mr. Mayor, we could conduct a citywide plague inspection lasting one week. I would arrange for replicas of our ’Divine Statue’ to be effectively distributed to every district and call in personnel from adjacent towns for a comprehensive search throughout the city.

Even if we don’t find anything, the superiors would be very pleased with our proactive measures.

Moreover, it would be even better if the police department could cooperate."

The Mayor, visibly pleased, responded with diminished ire,

"Hmm, not a bad suggestion. Let’s proceed with a week-long citywide plague inspection as planned. The police department will fully cooperate with the health department, and everyone will be happy if we capture the plague carrier that the superiors are heavily concerned about."

However, the attending Director had a look of deep concern,

"Mr. Mayor, currently our department is investigating a rather severe case of random killings. Beginning from half a month ago, there have been eleven victims so far.

The method is somewhat similar to the ’Immortal Murderer’ from three years ago, all the victims..."

The Mayor abruptly interrupted, "A certain similarity means it’s not the same.

It’s likely just an imitator, yet you’ve been investigating for half a month without being able to bring the imitator to justice. Chief Gao, is there a problem with your competence?

Moreover, the Linghai City Police Department should have ample manpower. It shouldn’t be a problem to allocate some of your staff to assist the Health Bureau, right?"

Director Wang, who took the serial killings very seriously, ignored the Mayor’s queries and continued, "In my view, the killer’s method is even more sophisticated than the Immortal Murderer’s!

All the victims, whether in crowded or deserted places, willingly exposed their necks as if accepting the killer’s beheading request.

The most extreme case happened the day before yesterday, at an illegally operated underground dance floor teeming with people and sufficiently lit. The DJ, in front of everyone, performed the act of exposing his neck, and was then beheaded.

No one saw who did it, and the shrine at the site had no reaction; only one camera captured strange yellow stains.

To my thinking, this is a higher priority than the suspected plague carrier mingling in our city."

As Director Wang finished his explanation, the Mayor, glaring with pale yellow eyes, looked ready to burst.

Suddenly, the portly Deputy Director of the Health Bureau interjected:

"Director Wang, it seems you’ve become quite tense about this case lately. Your thinking wasn’t this narrow before.

In my view, this situation doesn’t conflict with our quarantine operations. Our departments could collaborate, setting up numerous quarantine stations throughout the city could also help us capture this murderer, don’t you think?

Our health inspectors are not bad at observation; maybe they could provide some clues for you."

Director Wang nodded, "My department will fully assist with the quarantine operation."

The meeting ended on a barely normal note, and as the Mayor and others left, including the leaders of the Railway Department, many attendees rushed towards the restroom, each looking extremely anxious.

At the same time.

Not far away in a fried chicken shop, Catherine’s stomach was slightly bulging. Having drunk three large cups of soda, she slumped in her seat, continually burping,

which created a stark contrast to her relatively petite and beautiful image, attracting much attention from the other customers.

"William, can we take a few buckets to go?"

"We can’t. Fried chicken doesn’t taste as good after a while, and I don’t have much money left. I’ll buy you something else to eat when we get to our destination."

"Okay, okay~"

William’s thoughts, however, were completely elsewhere; he had been waiting the whole time for the man in yellow to find him, but after half an hour, he hadn’t seen a single sign of him.

It seemed that for now, the man didn’t want to meet.

As the trio got up to leave the shopping mall where the fast food restaurant was located, they saw a group of quarantine officers controlling the entrance of the mall, setting up temporary blood testing stations and placing a divine statue cradling a gourd.

"Since the carrier of the plague was not found at the train station, the search has been expanded to the whole city, huh? It’s really related to my absorption of the divine statue. Things seem to have gotten out of hand."

Without lingering, William hailed a taxi to head to the coastal area.

When the driver heard William’s destination, he looked puzzled:

"The seaside? But that makes sense, you guys are tourists from abroad, so you wouldn’t know about some of the conditions here... Although it might take some time, let me briefly explain.

Our Linghai City’s main source of income is port trade, so the control over the coastal areas is quite strict, and many areas have ports constructed and are no longer open to the public.

There is only one famous tourist destination, ’Flower Sea Village,’ that welcomes tourists, but even Flower Sea Village was suddenly locked down a month ago. It’s said that the tourists there offended the sea god, resulting in a large number of tourists and even local people dying.

The area hasn’t been reopened yet, and the main roads are still blocked.

Sorry, but Linghai City has many other places you can visit, and I could take you to some of these if you don’t mind."

"No need, thank you."

After bidding farewell to the taxi driver, William immediately looked up the so-called "Flower Sea Village" on his navigation app. It was more than twenty kilometers away from the city center, and the map software clearly indicated that the tourist spot was blocked.

Just as William was considering walking or cycling there,

a man in a striped short-sleeved shirt, sporting a big belly and chewing something, approached them, smelling strongly of oil and his shirt collar already greasy.

"Do you need a ride? Seeing you ask an officially-licensed taxi driver, it seems you want to go somewhere not easily accessible."

"Can you take us to Flower Sea Village? We’ve come all this way to travel, and we don’t want to miss out on the best coastal area of the city."

"No wonder the taxi wouldn’t take you~ If the price is right, I can indeed take you there, and we can take mountain roads and village paths without getting checked.

But I can only take you to the outskirts of Flower Sea Village; you’ll need to walk the last kilometer or two yourselves... That place is really cursed~ One of my buddies took a group of fearless youngsters there last time, and they still haven’t been heard from."

"How much?"

"Five times the usual rate would be fair, considering the risks we’re taking."

William pulled out the only remaining hundred yuan bill from his pocket, "Take this for now, I’ll give you the rest when we get there."

The unlicensed taxi driver, while picking his teeth with his finger, looked at the three well-dressed foreigners, his gaze particularly lingering on Catherine.

"Alright then, get in."

They crammed into a manual car that was over a decade old and quite shabby, officially heading towards Flower Sea Village.

The chubby driver occasionally stole glances at Catherine through the rearview mirror, almost bringing out her killing intent,

but as William handed her a cup of soda, Catherine instantly calmed down, choosing not to mind being stared at... Had it been earlier, the driver probably would have ended up as delicious fish feed.

Catherine sipped her soda while looking out the window, her mind filled with the bliss of dopamine.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eew𝒆bn(o)vel.com