The adjutant sat at the edge of the ship, watching as the rocks exploded and one ship after another sank into the sea. He clutched the sealed jar tightly, his posture upright. Because they were returning home, all the soldiers were very happy, and no one noticed that the adjutant, sitting there, had already silently passed away.

Everyone has their destined counterpart, a relationship of mutual creation and destruction, which defies reason. Having completed his mission, he did not know what he was thinking in his final moments.

Zhang Haiyan dug through the rubble on the rocks, climbing up to the surface. All the surrounding ships had been blown to pieces, leaving only a few hundred laborers huddled together on a small patch of rock like penguins. He coughed violently and pulled Zhang Haixia up. Zhang Haixia had lost all responsiveness. He could hear nothing; his ears and nostrils were filled with blood, and he felt as if his chest had been struck by a pile driver multiple times, likely reduced to a mushy pulp inside. Yet he still called out for Zhang Haixia with a heart-wrenching scream. As he called, he felt an unbearable itch on his hands. When he lifted his shirt, he saw that his body was covered in blood blisters.

These were not burn blisters. He turned to look at the other laborers, who also began to discover blood blisters on their bodies and started to scratch at them. Zhang Haiyan felt cold all over; he knew this was the spread of a plague after the explosion, rapidly invading the human body. With no ship or food, on such a small piece of rock, the coming months would be a true hell on earth. For him, the plague and hunger were indeed inseparable.

In the case file of the Panhua Sea Reef incident, there were several unsolved mysteries that, to this day, Zhang Haiyan had never disclosed details about. Six months later, the family of Chen Libiao came searching with a fishing boat and found Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia on the rock, bringing them back to Malacca, with no one else present.

Except for the confidential telegrams from the Southern Archives, no one knew where the others on the rock had gone. The Panhua Sea Reef case ultimately concluded as an unsolved case, meaning there was a result but it could not be disclosed. The single document was placed in the underground archive of the Southern Archives, while all other records were destroyed.

Why did the warlord from Guixi seek a plague ship in Nanyang to obtain the source of the five-bucket disease, which was then investigated by the Southern Archives’ southern region? Regardless of whether it was investigated, Zhang Haiyan would never know any subsequent news.

Three years later, at the Southern Archives.

As dusk approached, Zhang Haixia sat in a rattan chair while Zhang Haiyan quietly washed his feet. Zhang Haixia looked out toward the sea, where many children were running on the beach.

“You could just let me lie down; why do you have to move me around every day?” Seeing Zhang Haiyan wash his feet so earnestly, he still felt a bit embarrassed.

“For someone who is paralyzed, if you don’t move them, they will develop bedsores.”

“It doesn’t hurt anyway,” Zhang Haixia muttered.

“Whether it hurts or not, it’s still a sore,” Zhang Haiyan said as he poured the foot-washing water downstairs.

The official residence of the Southern Archives in Malacca was actually a two-story building belonging to Indians, with a small courtyard and an imposing archway. The building at the back was quite simple, but it was styled like a European villa, which were common on Gulangyu, a place Zhang Haiyan had seen before.

Inside, there are their two rooms on the second floor, and from the corridor, one can see the sea not far away. There is also a large room on the second floor that serves as a conference room, which has never seated more than three people. The conference room is equipped with a telegraph machine and a large nautical chart. Over time, the chart has become moldy and is now unrolled, serving merely as decoration.

The first floor has three rooms with the same structure, including an archives room, and two rooms filled with miscellaneous goods. Their imposing archway faces the street, leading passersby to believe that foreigners live inside, making them hesitant to disturb. Zhang Haiyan sets up a stall to sell some imported goods. His English is quite good, so he often attracts foreign customers.

The sign for the Nanyang Archives has always hung above the archway, but the people here don’t know what it is for.

“Is there still no news from the archives?”
Zhang Haiyan shakes his head while massaging Zhang Haixia’s feet: “Not only is there no news, but they’ve also stopped paying salaries. If it weren’t for the savings from a few years ago, I’d be begging by now.”

“What about the telegrams?”
“There’s no response.” Zhang Haiyan stands up and stretches his back. “I’ve heard that the Cantonese faction has taken full control of Xiamen. Could the archives be affected? Maybe they’ll be disbanded or shut down?”

“If they are disbanded, what will you do?”
“We don’t know how to do anything other than being spies. In chaotic times, there must be work for spies, right?” Zhang Haiyan replies. “I’ll go back to Xiamen, find a foster mother, and then switch masters to continue living day by day.”

Zhang Haixia laughs: “If it weren’t for me, you would have been promoted back to Xiamen long ago.”
“Don’t say that. It was my fault you signed the contract. We came together, so we’ll go back together.” Leaning against the railing, Zhang Haiyan looks out towards the coast and sees several plumes of black smoke far away. He wonders if there’s a fire or something else happening.

“What did that sorcerer from Dongjie Kou say when he read your fortune? Can he cure your leg?”
“He said it can’t be cured, and that I’m going to die soon, and even after death, I won’t find peace; I’ll become a monster,” Zhang Haixia replies. “It’s not about dying from my leg; it’s about dying from other things.”

Zhang Haiyan gets angry: “What nonsense! I’ll burn down his house later and see what he has to say.”
Zhang Haixia continues: “He said that I would die from things that should have killed me before.”

Zhang Haiyan falls silent for a moment and sighs. He knows Zhang Haixia is still troubled by what happened on the reef, but he doesn’t want to bring it up.

“By the way,” Zhang Haixia takes out a brief report torn from a newspaper from his shirt pocket. “Take a look at this. Is it what I think it is?”
Zhang Haiyan takes it and sees that the brief report is simple: a strange disease has appeared in Penang, with many cases reported in nearby villages, spreading quickly, suspected to be an infectious disease brought by foreigners—just like how they brought syphilis years ago. However, the newspaper includes a description of the disease, stating that in the early stages of the illness, patients develop numerous tiny blood blisters on their bodies.

Zhang Haiyan furrows his brow: “Is it the five-dou disease?”
“Although salaries haven’t been paid, the Nanyang Archives still has the responsibility to issue warnings. Now that shipping routes to Nanyang are convenient, with thousands of people traveling between Xiamen and Malacca every day, if it really is the five-dou disease, it could easily spread worldwide. Are you thinking of going to take a look?”

Zhang Haiyan lights a cigarette, a brand recommended by Zhang Haixia. He takes a puff against the wind and feels something is amiss.

“If it really is the Wudou disease, then could the unresolved case from back then be showing any signs of movement? What conspiracy lies behind it?
Zhang Haiyan said, ‘Penang, is it that guy’s territory?’
Zhang Haixia nodded, ‘Yes, it’s that guy. So you must be extremely careful when you go there. The people at the Nanyang Archives have a bounty of a thousand bucks per head in Penang. It’s best if you change your appearance before going—by the way, make sure to take a good shower too.'”