Daomu Biji: The Southern Archives

Zhang Haiqi knew that Zhang Qishan’s inference was correct, and it wasn’t just based on his own thoughts. He must’ve had other evidence, but he didn’t want to say more, so he only revealed some details to them.

If so, this Mo Yungao was really a formidable person.

Zhang Haiyan lay on the bed and looked up at the ceiling, unable to sleep because of how humid Changsha was.

He had felt strange all day after Zhang Haiqi had said the word “patriarch”.

Ever since he was a child, Zhang Haiyan’s sense of the world had withered, and he had never experienced being a mediocre person in a crowd. But the word patriarch suddenly made him realize that this was a big and complicated family, and a lot of the family affairs were unexpectedly rushing toward him.

I have a patriarch, which means that I have a big family.

In this long-standing human world, this was a feeling that made people feel inexplicably safe.

Although the wealthy relatives treat me badly when I visit them, they’re still my relatives.

Patriarch… I wonder what he’s like?He’s clearly the type of person who can inspire someone to spread a huge plague and risk hundreds of thousands of lives just to see him again.

Zhang Haiyan sat up in bed. He couldn’t sleep, so he went out onto the balcony. He saw that Zhang Haiqi was standing on the adjacent room’s balcony in her pajamas, smoking a cigarette.

The moon was very big and the Xiang River was visible to the naked eye, with little dots of light scattered across it.

“So, is Zhang Qishan helping us or not?” Zhang Haiyan asked.

Finding evidence was certainly easier than killing Mo Yungao—especially considering how they were spies in the first place—but when he thought about it carefully, the evidence for such a meticulous plan should be in Mo Yungao’s mansion. This meant that they would still have to go to Beihai and sneak into his headquarters without being seen.

It wasn’t much different from killing Mo Yungao directly.

“What Zhang Qishan meant was that Mo Yungao was heading to Nanjing, so we should directly capture him there. We should interrogate him about where the evidence of the plague is and then send a telegram to Zhang Qishan’s people in Beihai so that they can arrest his people and shut his headquarters down.”

“We’re going to capture him in Nanjing?”

“He’ll help us get close to Mo Yungao,” Zhang Haiqi said.

Zhang Haiyan stayed silent. He had to admit that this was an ingenious plan only a soldier would come up with.

It could be inferred that Zhang Qishan wanted to completely compromise Mo Yungao’s defense areas and allow the coalition forces to enter Beihai. By doing so, he could prevent Mo Yungao’s capture from creating a power vacuum that would divide the country.

But if they tried to capture Mo Yungao when he was in Beihai, then those in the system he had managed for so many years might not immediately surrender. It was possible that they and Mo Yungao would be trapped in Beihai together with no way out.

Since ancient times, it was necessary to capture vassals in the capital.

“Can we trust him?”

“If we manage to capture Mo Yungao, we can take care of him however we want as long as we finish interrogating him. Zhang Qishan doesn’t trust us, either. With his plan, he can take over Beihai, and Commander Mo’s life will be in our hands.” Zhang Haiqi took a puff of her cigarette.

“If this is such a perfect plan, then why can’t you sleep?” Zhang Haiyan asked.

“I’ll test you. What do you think?”

“I’m thinking about why Mo Yungao is going to Nanjing,” Zhang Haiyan said.

This person had been laying low among the southwestern warlords while completely destroying the South Sea Archives. Not only should his plan be in full swing now, but he had such a delicate relationship with the coalition army. Why would he be going to Nanjing? If it were Zhang Haiyan, he would go as far as breaking his legs to get out of going anywhere.

What’s in it for him to go to Nanjing?

“Beihai and Nanjing are quite distant from each other. Maybe it isn’t Nanjing that he’s aiming for, but a certain place on the road?” Zhang Haiqi speculated.

Zhang Haiyan jumped from his balcony to Zhang Haiqi’s balcony. She looked at him and then continued, “If he sets off from Beihai, he must first go to Guangzhou by boat before taking a train through Changsha, Wuhan, and finally Nanjing.”

Zhang Haiyan’s mind raced and he suddenly thought of something. He entered Zhang Haiqi’s room to get a pen and a piece of paper and started drawing.

“These are the locations of the villages where the plague broke out in Malacca, and this is what the shape looks like when I draw lines between them. These are the locations of Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, and Nanjing.”

After the lines were drawn, the shape created by the Malaccan villages was exactly the same as the shape created by the four cities of Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, and Nanjing.

Zhang Haiyan fell silent. Mo Yungao really had been doing experiments in those Malaccan villages.

Mo Yungao had specially found villages that were at a similar distance from each other to release the plague so that he could study the transmission efficiency. And now he was going to play the real game in China.

“The plague in these Malaccan villages broke out at the same time. In other words, the epidemics in these four cities will also break out at the same time,” Zhang Haiyan said. “It’s important to know when Mo Yungao will arrive in Nanjing since that’s where he’ll send the signal from. Once the signal is sent, the plague will break out in these cities at the same time.”

Zhang Haiqi nodded in agreement. At this moment, they saw a car arrive downstairs.

“Who is that?” Zhang Haiyan asked.

“They’re picking us up. I had the same idea as you, so I already had the guards relay it to Zhang Qishan.” As Zhang Haiqi put her cigarette out, Zhang Haiyan noticed that her luggage hadn’t been unpacked at all. “Let’s go to Nanjing.”

***

Mo Yungao sat in the train’s dining car, looking at a small bottle in front of him.

There was a beetle in the small bottle that was a kind of seven-spotted ladybug from the southwest.

A young man stood beside him, looking bewildered.

Mo Yungao held a needle in his hand and pricked the young man’s index finger very carefully. He pushed the needle in so slowly and deeply that the young man felt as if it was coming out from the other side. The young man was in pain, but there were soldiers behind him, so he couldn’t move.

Then, Mo Yungao pulled the needle out. As the blood dripped from the wound, Mo Yungao squeezed it out very seriously and then dripped it into the small bottle.

The beetle inside wasn’t affected at all.

Mo Yungao put the needle down and looked at the young girl sitting in front of him. “It’s not working.”

A mountainous area flashed by outside as they passed through the hilly areas between Changsha and Wuhan. In the distance, the setting sun was shrouded by fog.

“You need to be patient.”

“I am patient,” Mo Yungao said to her. “Do I look impatient?” He tipped the beetle out of the bottle and put it on his finger, watching as it seemed to flounder.

He then squished it.

“I don’t like it when others define me casually.” Mo Yungao looked at the young girl again. “Have you found your sister?”

The young girl shook her head.

"I’ve sent some people to ask around at the major piers, which is embarrassing me a lot. In return, I hope you can find what I’m looking for as soon as possible.”

Mo Yungao stood up and gestured to a soldier, silently telling him to take care of things. The soldier came up behind the young man and snapped his neck, dropping him to the ground.

When Mo Yungao returned to his room, he carefully took off his military uniform, pants, and cap. After arranging them neatly, he lay on the bed like a corpse.

When he closed his eyes, he saw that young man. Was he a young boy or a young man? Mo Yungao couldn’t tell.

It had been so long ago, but every time he closed his eyes, he could see the young man looking at him with eyes as deep as a pool.

“I’m going to die,” Mo Yungao, who had still been a young man at the time, told the young man weakly. “You’d better not stay in this place for a long time, or you’ll die as well.”

“I won’t die,” the young man said to him. “I need to go into the mountain quickly. Do you know how to get there?”

“I also used to think that I wouldn’t die.” Mo Yungao smiled. “What are you going to do on that mountain?” He looked around. He was lying on a dirt slope where the fighting had just ended. All his soldiers were dead.

“There’s something coming out of the mountain,” The young man said to him.

****

Tiffany’s Notes: This is it. Poker-face is so charismatic that someone is willing to spread the plague for him. Meanwhile, Little Brother Zhang is there thinking, “Awww, I have a patriarch. Sweet.” lol