Yu Feichen examined Gerold’s corpse.
The shape of the burn wound on Gerold’s right hand was extremely irregular. The wound went deeper nearer the core of the wound, eventually so deep that bones could be seen, and the flesh and bone were completely charred. As there weren’t any blisters, it couldn’t be a burn from fire but from corrosion.
—exactly the same corrosion as the mouth of the canister.
Looking around, they could see a damp towel tossed to the ground nearby and many messy footprints extending from the staircase to this point. It wasn’t difficult to surmise a scene in which, after the gas was leaked, Gerold used a cloth to cover his mouth and nose to ward off the potent poison, staggering up the stairs and returning to Leanna’s side. Only after holding her hand did he throw the towel aside, calmly greeting death with a smile.
There was only one logical explanation that the chemistry teacher, who wasn’t supposed to be here, could have arrived so promptly—he was the one who had opened the valve of the toxic gas canisters; he was the murderer who caused everyone’s deaths.
Yu Feichen pried open Gerold’s hand. His palm was covered in crescent-shaped wounds, obviously caused by nails embedded deep into his flesh. Slipping his sleeves up, his arms were similarly covered in what should have been self-inflicted wounds.
One would only hurt themselves when under extreme pain.
On the other side, a folder lay on the dissection table detailing the experiments that Leanna had endured.
They had used electrocution, waterboarding, strangulation, flogging, poisoning, and a plethora of other methods to inflict harm on Leanna’s body, then monitored the condition of the fetus in her womb, investigating the relationship between a fetus and a mother.
Following this, they brought her husband in. At first, they assigned him and a few other men to move the purified bodies. The doctor later gave them the opportunity to interact so that he could observe any changes to the fetus as a result of intense emotional fluctuation.
In the end, the mother went deranged. She was unable to utter any meaningful syllables other than “end this”. The fetus’ indicators were likewise in chaos. They decided to remove this preterm fetus for closer observation.
In order to remove it completely, they chose to directly cut open Leanna’s abdomen with a scalpel.
No one could imagine the torture that she went through.
And what type of suffering did Gerold, who witnessed it all, go through?
As well as the cripples, dwarfs, and albinos lying on these dissection tables, and all other Koroshans in the concentration camp—the terror, pain, and torment that they had endured in their brief life here.
In the silence, the big-nosed man said in a shaky voice, “We should go… we should go.”
If they stayed here any longer, someone was bound to be driven to insanity.
***
“Honest to god, I never imagined this.”
They returned to the cell at four in the morning. The two corpses were still lying there. Bai Song tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and blindfolded the brawny blonde to prevent him from unintentionally opening his eyes. The brawny blonde sat down, stumbling to the ground as if all his strength had been drained out of him.
“My ma could be lying there.” His gaze was slack as he said, “But I don’t dare to look.”
Bai Song spoke up again. “I never imagined that they would hold so much hatred for Koroshans and that they would inflict such cruel torture on every prisoner. They seriously plan to do this to every Koroshan; they want to build a bigger concentration camp.”
The big-nosed man said, “And Gerold knew this.”
“Yeah, he was brought to work there. His job was to move the purified bodies to the furnace.” After grief, Bai Song gained a startling composure. “Anyway, he knew everything that was going on in this place.”
“That day when Leanna ran over to say goodbye to us and tell us about the people disappearing every day, she was so stimulated that she kept covering her abdomen when she went back. This told the Black Badge Army and the doctor that she was pregnant, otherwise, she could have concealed it. If she concealed it, she could have been able to protect her baby.”
He continued, “But in the end, she still wasn’t able to; she was discovered. The things that the doctor did to her… I’m not saying that the rest of their actions paled in comparison. They were killing the Koroshans like insane men.”
The brawny blonde murmured, adding, “Gerold went insane too.”
“Gerold was a chemistry teacher. He knew that they were researching toxic gases and probably even knew how it worked. Furthermore, when we were exploring the chemical plant together yesterday, he even got info on where each reagent was located. The deliberate gas leakage was something that only he could have done,” Bai Song said.
“To avenge Leanna, he wanted to kill the doctor and the Black Badge army. But he killed all his fellow compatriots as well.”
“You think it’s revenge? It doesn’t feel that way to me.” Bai Song looked up at the greyish-white ceiling. He whispered, “All of his compatriots were suffering. They were being tortured and will inescapably be sent to be purified, to their deaths. To end it all, maybe… maybe it was also a form of rescue. He loved Leanna, and he loved his compatriots.”
The silence drew out.
Oak Valley Concentration camp brimmed with an eerie and frenetic atmosphere, turning some men into executioners, turning the executioners inhuman, finally even warping the prisoners.
Sombreness enshrouded the cell. Bai Song and the big-nosed man had lowered their heads. Blindfolded, the brawny blonde didn’t move nor speak.
“Sir,” Yu Feichen said.
Anfield looked at him.
Yu Feichen, “Lend me a pen.”
Anfield took a pinned pen from his breast pocket and handed it to him.
Yu Feichen continued, “Paper.”
Expressionless, Anfield took out a notepad from his pocket.
Taking the paper, Yu Feichen began to write and draw on it. He didn’t know how to comfort people. His several limited attempts long ago had all backfired, so he chose to shut up and do something else instead.
The others remained motionless for a long time. After a spell, the big-nosed man choked out a sob. As if a switch had been flicked, the brawny blonde’s body began to tremble as well.
Yu Feichen finally heard Anfield speak.
“I suggest that you all get some sleep,” he said. “Alternatively, we could consolidate what we know.”
“But my heart is still pounding like mad,” Bai Song said.
Anfield’s voice turned uncharacteristically gentle. He said, “Ultimately, what you saw today hasn’t happened yet.”
—it hasn’t happened yet.
Midnight in the cell was a certain day in the future. On this day, the lethal toxic gas poisoned everyone to their deaths. They were either struggling for their lives in their cells or running in vain through open space, finally collapsing to the ground, their breathing ceasing. Because of an abnormally-induced twitching, their muscles pulled into a smile. This scene was purgatory on earth.
However… however… although they had witnessed this, these despicably cruel events had yet to occur.
The cloud of gloom that was stifling the cell finally dissipated a little.
Bai Song let out a long breath from where he sat on the straw mat. “So can we stop it from happening? Can we dissuade Gerold or something?”
Right after saying so, he refuted himself, “But even if Gerold doesn’t release those gases, the Black Badge Army will still kill us batch by batch.”
“First, we need to know what exactly we’re seeing after midnight,” Anfield said.
“A certain day in the future,” said Bai Song. “According to that doctor’s work log, it is someday after January 26… on that day, everyone died.”
“Did you also go out the night before I came?” Anfield asked.
Yu Feichen raised his head from the pen and paper, watching Bai Song contemplate briefly before opening his mouth to recount what they had seen when they went out last night. Just like that, this child freely turned coat to this enemy senior officer with pretty hair.
“There was no one in the concentration camp and the experimental floor was emptied.” Anfield distilled his description.
“Yes, sir.”
Bai Song, at this time, was like a student being called to answer a question in class. Anfield lightly asked him, “What do you think happened?”
“I think… At that time we thought…” Bai Song considered it, his face slightly ashen, “We saw the chemicals and the furnace yesterday too but we didn’t think too much into it. I kept feeling that things couldn’t be that bad. It was only after reading the log today that I realised how much I had underestimated the Black Badge Army.”
“There was no one in the concentration camp because all Koroshans had been put to death by poisoning and burnt in the furnace. Without prisoners, the Black Badge Army and the doctor left this place.”
The brawny blonde interjected, “They probably took their experience running this concentration camp to set up the bigger one, just like what was mentioned in the log.”
They got it spot-on. Yu Feichen watched this scene; without needing to, he wouldn’t explain the situation to others, and it was certainly impossible for him to lead them through this reasoning process as Anfield had done.
Not bad. Since the senior officer was more than happy to take the mantle, he didn’t have to waste his breath.
Then he heard Anfield’s cold, calm voice speak again, “This is a future of the concentration camp.”
“Yes, that was the future of the concentration camp we saw last night.”
Anfield didn’t say anything. Half a minute later, Bai Song’s eyes suddenly widened.
“A future? You’re saying, you’re saying—” His talking speed increased significantly. “What we saw yesterday of the concentration camp being emptied, that was a future. And today we saw Gerold release the tox gas, killing everyone. This is a future, too. The two futures are not the same.”
“Gerold was taken by the soldiers yesterday to Leanna’s barracks, which triggered the events that followed. So, the future we saw changed, right?”
Anfield said, “Perhaps.”
What they concluded was what Yu Feichen had instantly worked out the first moment he saw the corpses in the barracks earlier too.
The two futures they saw presented different outcomes. It didn’t quite make sense, but it told them one thing—the future was changeable.
In other words, those tragic endings might not necessarily turn to reality.
Anfield said lightly, “I want to know the exact date we’re in right now.”
After a pause, he continued, “It’d be better if you knew the date you were in last night as well. Although it might be too late to obtain it now.”
Right as he said this, Bai Song mouth fell open, suddenly looking at Yu Feichen with an almost demented expression.
Seeing Bai Song’s expression, Anfield frowned slightly and also looked at Yu Feichen.
Yu Feichen set down the pen and paper in his hand.
As if he had long prepared for this, he reached out, pulling the blanket that Bai Song had piled near the wall aside—
The dreary grey wall was exposed.
On the wall, where there used to be three finger-streaks of blood, there were now several vertical bloodstains of almost equal length lined next to them to the right. Due to the damp darkness of the cell, dark green mould had started to grow on the edges of the bloodstains, its growth density diminishing from left to right.
Eight in all.
Under Anfield’s gaze, Yu Feichen spoke.
“At midnight, January 19, I found three bloodstains here. At 5 a.m. the next morning, the cell returned to normal and they vanished.
“On the night of January 19, Bai Song unintentionally scratched out these three marks on the wall. I requested that from every day after that, which means to say starting from January 20, for him to make another mark. He had just finished making a mark right before you came tonight. You weren’t in time to see it.”
“At this time yesterday, there were seven streaks. Now, there are eight.” Stringing words together was exhausting; a faint drawl entered his voice. He said, “So, today is supposed to be January 21, but we’ve come to the early hours of January 29, sir.”
Now, he saw that the big-nosed man had also entered Bai Song’s demented camp, whereas the brawny blonde’s jaw had dropped open in bewilderment. So he was forced to supplement, “Starting from the 20th, eight new streaks would be the night of the 27th. On the 28th, Bai Song went to the brick kiln and died with everyone else. The corpses haven’t started to fester, so today is the morning of the 29th.”
Then, he used his eyes to gesture towards the original three bloodstains, continuing, “Every time we see it, it would decay a little more than the last time. The degree of decay can be compared with the marks next to it. Each new mark has a lapse of a day from the previous. So what I saw in the early hours of January 20 is January 28, and what I saw on January 19 was January 27. Both are eight days apart.”
“Do you have any thoughts, sir?”
Anfield gazed at those marks, not saying anything for a time, seeming pensive.
Yu Feichen looked at him—this senior officer always seemed to have a good grasp of the situation. But obviously, he didn’t expect that there would be another person who had also made all the necessary preparations in advance.
The glass oil lamp crackled softly. Anfield’s gaze shifted from the bloodstains on the wall.
Motionless, Yu Feichen met his eyes squarely, but neither spoke.
The senior officer’s gaze seemed to contain a touch of scrutiny.
Yu Feichen returned him an unperturbed look.
—In this dark and gloomy concentration camp, ever since the day that he had fought the soldier barefisted, he finally felt cheerful again.
Yu Feichen examined Gerold’s corpse.
The shape of the burn wound on Gerold’s right hand was extremely irregular. The wound went deeper nearer the core of the wound, eventually so deep that bones could be seen, and the flesh and bone were completely charred. As there weren’t any blisters, it couldn’t be a burn from fire but from corrosion.
—exactly the same corrosion as the mouth of the canister.
Looking around, they could see a damp towel tossed to the ground nearby and many messy footprints extending from the staircase to this point. It wasn’t difficult to surmise a scene in which, after the gas was leaked, Gerold used a cloth to cover his mouth and nose to ward off the potent poison, staggering up the stairs and returning to Leanna’s side. Only after holding her hand did he throw the towel aside, calmly greeting death with a smile.
There was only one logical explanation that the chemistry teacher, who wasn’t supposed to be here, could have arrived so promptly—he was the one who had opened the valve of the toxic gas canisters; he was the murderer who caused everyone’s deaths.
Yu Feichen pried open Gerold’s hand. His palm was covered in crescent-shaped wounds, obviously caused by nails embedded deep into his flesh. Slipping his sleeves up, his arms were similarly covered in what should have been self-inflicted wounds.
One would only hurt themselves when under extreme pain.
On the other side, a folder lay on the dissection table detailing the experiments that Leanna had endured.
They had used electrocution, waterboarding, strangulation, flogging, poisoning, and a plethora of other methods to inflict harm on Leanna’s body, then monitored the condition of the fetus in her womb, investigating the relationship between a fetus and a mother.
Following this, they brought her husband in. At first, they assigned him and a few other men to move the purified bodies. The doctor later gave them the opportunity to interact so that he could observe any changes to the fetus as a result of intense emotional fluctuation.
In the end, the mother went deranged. She was unable to utter any meaningful syllables other than “end this”. The fetus’ indicators were likewise in chaos. They decided to remove this preterm fetus for closer observation.
In order to remove it completely, they chose to directly cut open Leanna’s abdomen with a scalpel.
No one could imagine the torture that she went through.
And what type of suffering did Gerold, who witnessed it all, go through?
As well as the cripples, dwarfs, and albinos lying on these dissection tables, and all other Koroshans in the concentration camp—the terror, pain, and torment that they had endured in their brief life here.
In the silence, the big-nosed man said in a shaky voice, “We should go… we should go.”
If they stayed here any longer, someone was bound to be driven to insanity.
***
“Honest to god, I never imagined this.”
They returned to the cell at four in the morning. The two corpses were still lying there. Bai Song tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and blindfolded the brawny blonde to prevent him from unintentionally opening his eyes. The brawny blonde sat down, stumbling to the ground as if all his strength had been drained out of him.
“My ma could be lying there.” His gaze was slack as he said, “But I don’t dare to look.”
Bai Song spoke up again. “I never imagined that they would hold so much hatred for Koroshans and that they would inflict such cruel torture on every prisoner. They seriously plan to do this to every Koroshan; they want to build a bigger concentration camp.”
The big-nosed man said, “And Gerold knew this.”
“Yeah, he was brought to work there. His job was to move the purified bodies to the furnace.” After grief, Bai Song gained a startling composure. “Anyway, he knew everything that was going on in this place.”
“That day when Leanna ran over to say goodbye to us and tell us about the people disappearing every day, she was so stimulated that she kept covering her abdomen when she went back. This told the Black Badge Army and the doctor that she was pregnant, otherwise, she could have concealed it. If she concealed it, she could have been able to protect her baby.”
He continued, “But in the end, she still wasn’t able to; she was discovered. The things that the doctor did to her… I’m not saying that the rest of their actions paled in comparison. They were killing the Koroshans like insane men.”
The brawny blonde murmured, adding, “Gerold went insane too.”
“Gerold was a chemistry teacher. He knew that they were researching toxic gases and probably even knew how it worked. Furthermore, when we were exploring the chemical plant together yesterday, he even got info on where each reagent was located. The deliberate gas leakage was something that only he could have done,” Bai Song said.
“To avenge Leanna, he wanted to kill the doctor and the Black Badge army. But he killed all his fellow compatriots as well.”
“You think it’s revenge? It doesn’t feel that way to me.” Bai Song looked up at the greyish-white ceiling. He whispered, “All of his compatriots were suffering. They were being tortured and will inescapably be sent to be purified, to their deaths. To end it all, maybe… maybe it was also a form of rescue. He loved Leanna, and he loved his compatriots.”
The silence drew out.
Oak Valley Concentration camp brimmed with an eerie and frenetic atmosphere, turning some men into executioners, turning the executioners inhuman, finally even warping the prisoners.
Sombreness enshrouded the cell. Bai Song and the big-nosed man had lowered their heads. Blindfolded, the brawny blonde didn’t move nor speak.
“Sir,” Yu Feichen said.
Anfield looked at him.
Yu Feichen, “Lend me a pen.”
Anfield took a pinned pen from his breast pocket and handed it to him.
Yu Feichen continued, “Paper.”
Expressionless, Anfield took out a notepad from his pocket.
Taking the paper, Yu Feichen began to write and draw on it. He didn’t know how to comfort people. His several limited attempts long ago had all backfired, so he chose to shut up and do something else instead.
The others remained motionless for a long time. After a spell, the big-nosed man choked out a sob. As if a switch had been flicked, the brawny blonde’s body began to tremble as well.
Yu Feichen finally heard Anfield speak.
“I suggest that you all get some sleep,” he said. “Alternatively, we could consolidate what we know.”
“But my heart is still pounding like mad,” Bai Song said.
Anfield’s voice turned uncharacteristically gentle. He said, “Ultimately, what you saw today hasn’t happened yet.”
—it hasn’t happened yet.
Midnight in the cell was a certain day in the future. On this day, the lethal toxic gas poisoned everyone to their deaths. They were either struggling for their lives in their cells or running in vain through open space, finally collapsing to the ground, their breathing ceasing. Because of an abnormally-induced twitching, their muscles pulled into a smile. This scene was purgatory on earth.
However… however… although they had witnessed this, these despicably cruel events had yet to occur.
The cloud of gloom that was stifling the cell finally dissipated a little.
Bai Song let out a long breath from where he sat on the straw mat. “So can we stop it from happening? Can we dissuade Gerold or something?”
Right after saying so, he refuted himself, “But even if Gerold doesn’t release those gases, the Black Badge Army will still kill us batch by batch.”
“First, we need to know what exactly we’re seeing after midnight,” Anfield said.
“A certain day in the future,” said Bai Song. “According to that doctor’s work log, it is someday after January 26… on that day, everyone died.”
“Did you also go out the night before I came?” Anfield asked.
Yu Feichen raised his head from the pen and paper, watching Bai Song contemplate briefly before opening his mouth to recount what they had seen when they went out last night. Just like that, this child freely turned coat to this enemy senior officer with pretty hair.
“There was no one in the concentration camp and the experimental floor was emptied.” Anfield distilled his description.
“Yes, sir.”
Bai Song, at this time, was like a student being called to answer a question in class. Anfield lightly asked him, “What do you think happened?”
“I think… At that time we thought…” Bai Song considered it, his face slightly ashen, “We saw the chemicals and the furnace yesterday too but we didn’t think too much into it. I kept feeling that things couldn’t be that bad. It was only after reading the log today that I realised how much I had underestimated the Black Badge Army.”
“There was no one in the concentration camp because all Koroshans had been put to death by poisoning and burnt in the furnace. Without prisoners, the Black Badge Army and the doctor left this place.”
The brawny blonde interjected, “They probably took their experience running this concentration camp to set up the bigger one, just like what was mentioned in the log.”
They got it spot-on. Yu Feichen watched this scene; without needing to, he wouldn’t explain the situation to others, and it was certainly impossible for him to lead them through this reasoning process as Anfield had done.
Not bad. Since the senior officer was more than happy to take the mantle, he didn’t have to waste his breath.
Then he heard Anfield’s cold, calm voice speak again, “This is a future of the concentration camp.”
“Yes, that was the future of the concentration camp we saw last night.”
Anfield didn’t say anything. Half a minute later, Bai Song’s eyes suddenly widened.
“A future? You’re saying, you’re saying—” His talking speed increased significantly. “What we saw yesterday of the concentration camp being emptied, that was a future. And today we saw Gerold release the tox gas, killing everyone. This is a future, too. The two futures are not the same.”
“Gerold was taken by the soldiers yesterday to Leanna’s barracks, which triggered the events that followed. So, the future we saw changed, right?”
Anfield said, “Perhaps.”
What they concluded was what Yu Feichen had instantly worked out the first moment he saw the corpses in the barracks earlier too.
The two futures they saw presented different outcomes. It didn’t quite make sense, but it told them one thing—the future was changeable.
In other words, those tragic endings might not necessarily turn to reality.
Anfield said lightly, “I want to know the exact date we’re in right now.”
After a pause, he continued, “It’d be better if you knew the date you were in last night as well. Although it might be too late to obtain it now.”
Right as he said this, Bai Song mouth fell open, suddenly looking at Yu Feichen with an almost demented expression.
Seeing Bai Song’s expression, Anfield frowned slightly and also looked at Yu Feichen.
Yu Feichen set down the pen and paper in his hand.
As if he had long prepared for this, he reached out, pulling the blanket that Bai Song had piled near the wall aside—
The dreary grey wall was exposed.
On the wall, where there used to be three finger-streaks of blood, there were now several vertical bloodstains of almost equal length lined next to them to the right. Due to the damp darkness of the cell, dark green mould had started to grow on the edges of the bloodstains, its growth density diminishing from left to right.
Eight in all.
Under Anfield’s gaze, Yu Feichen spoke.
“At midnight, January 19, I found three bloodstains here. At 5 a.m. the next morning, the cell returned to normal and they vanished.
“On the night of January 19, Bai Song unintentionally scratched out these three marks on the wall. I requested that from every day after that, which means to say starting from January 20, for him to make another mark. He had just finished making a mark right before you came tonight. You weren’t in time to see it.”
“At this time yesterday, there were seven streaks. Now, there are eight.” Stringing words together was exhausting; a faint drawl entered his voice. He said, “So, today is supposed to be January 21, but we’ve come to the early hours of January 29, sir.”
Now, he saw that the big-nosed man had also entered Bai Song’s demented camp, whereas the brawny blonde’s jaw had dropped open in bewilderment. So he was forced to supplement, “Starting from the 20th, eight new streaks would be the night of the 27th. On the 28th, Bai Song went to the brick kiln and died with everyone else. The corpses haven’t started to fester, so today is the morning of the 29th.”
Then, he used his eyes to gesture towards the original three bloodstains, continuing, “Every time we see it, it would decay a little more than the last time. The degree of decay can be compared with the marks next to it. Each new mark has a lapse of a day from the previous. So what I saw in the early hours of January 20 is January 28, and what I saw on January 19 was January 27. Both are eight days apart.”
“Do you have any thoughts, sir?”
Anfield gazed at those marks, not saying anything for a time, seeming pensive.
Yu Feichen looked at him—this senior officer always seemed to have a good grasp of the situation. But obviously, he didn’t expect that there would be another person who had also made all the necessary preparations in advance.
The glass oil lamp crackled softly. Anfield’s gaze shifted from the bloodstains on the wall.
Motionless, Yu Feichen met his eyes squarely, but neither spoke.
The senior officer’s gaze seemed to contain a touch of scrutiny.
Yu Feichen returned him an unperturbed look.
—In this dark and gloomy concentration camp, ever since the day that he had fought the soldier barefisted, he finally felt cheerful again.
