The person they mentioned is named Zhang Ruipu. The first task for Zhang Haiyan and his companions upon arriving in Penang is to assassinate this overseas Chinese from Nanyang. Zhang Ruipu operates two large rubber plantations in Penang, possessing immense land and wealth. The area is so vast that after getting lost in the rubber plantation, Zhang Haiyan and his group even discovered local indigenous tribes living within it.

At that time, the indigenous people of Perak still practiced headhunting. It is said that Zhang Ruipu had a good relationship with the locals and continuously purchased corpses to feed them in order to protect himself. This matter is unconfirmable, as Zhang Haiyan and his group did not know whether the locals were pursuing them to protect Zhang Ruipu or simply because they were hungry.

During that time, they were dodging the locals while searching for food and nearly found themselves trapped. By the time they finally located Zhang Ruipu’s residence, they were already exhausted and were instantly discovered, leading to a chase by guards that took them outside of Perak. Subsequently, a bounty was placed on them in Penang; whether by the police or gangs, anyone who saw the two of them would receive a reward of 1,000 coins, regardless of whether they were alive or dead.

Now, re-entering Penang is no longer as easy as it once was. Even after spending a long time in Nanyang, their skin color still differs from the locals, and combined with their facial features, which are different from the mixed-race Chinese here, plus the years of being wanted, it is likely that the children of Penang could recognize them.

To enter Penang, they not only need to change their skin color but also need to adopt the face of a local person. In the basic training at the Southern Archives, there is a course on human skin masks. Both Zhang Haiyan and Zhang Haixia graduated with overwhelmingly high scores, and Zhang Haiyan is famously fond of dressing as a woman, making disguise not a difficult task for them.

Disguise requires a high-temperature steam environment. In the past, whenever they did such things, they would always sneak into the hot water bathhouse of the Ipoh Governor’s Office. The capital of Perak, Ipoh, has a governor’s office established by the British, where the governor is the highest law enforcement officer with military and administrative power, residing in a luxurious mansion guarded by Indians, with local troops stationed outside.

Inside the governor’s office, there are hot water bathhouses that people here cannot possibly understand. Malacca is hot year-round, and bathing is usually just a matter of rolling in roadside puddles, but the British have retained the tradition of hot baths. After Zhang Haixia became paralyzed, he hardly ever went there, while Zhang Haiyan, feeling pressured by Zhang Haixia, caught a whiff of his own scent and realized it had indeed been too hot these past few days. He looked at Zhang Haixia and said, “How about we go take a hot bath?”

Zhang Haixia shook his head, “I’m not going to Penang, and besides, I’m not able to walk well. It’s not like the old days when we could sneak in together. You go by yourself; I’ll stay here to keep an eye on things and sell off some goods.”

Zhang Haiyan picked up Zhang Haixia and said, “I know the way well, and besides, I’m changing my face. I can’t do this alone.”

Zhang Haixia weakly struggled but smiled bitterly as he was carried away. This was certainly a reckless thing to do, but for Zhang Haiyan, allowing his friend to live as normally as possible, like before his paralysis, was his long-cherished wish.

To make a long story short, when Zhang Haiyan emerged from Governor Herman’s bathhouse, he had already taken on a completely different appearance. Afterwards, Zhang Haixia stayed behind in Perak while Zhang Haiyan went alone to Penang. Walking to Penang would take two weeks, and coinciding with the rainy season, plus needing to traverse a primitive jungle, by the time Zhang Haiyan arrived, it had already been over three weeks.

Malacca’s communication was poor, and when he arrived in Penang, he found the situation to be much more serious than he had anticipated, with unclaimed corpses littering the roads. In such circumstances of a plague, people’s fear of the disease had overtaken their sense of responsibility towards their loved ones. The weather was hot and humid, and the bodies were swollen and emitting an unbearable stench. A group of monks dressed in robes was burning the corpses, many of which were Zhang Ruipai’s workers.

From the condition of the bodies, Zhang Haiyan could completely confirm that this strange disease was the “Wudou Disease.” There was no medicine to treat this illness; it relied solely on the individual’s ability to heal themselves, with only about 10% of people ultimately surviving. Those who survived would never contract Wudou Disease again, even if they were surrounded by the corpses of the deceased.

Zhang Haiyan was the only person on the road who was completely unafraid, attracting surprised glances from passersby who admired his composure. He inquired widely and learned that the origin of the plague was not a single place, but three: three villages outside Penang. These villages were important centers for tin processing, with many merchants from Xiamen, Turkey, and India having workshops there. It was the first week of July, and in all three villages, people had fallen ill simultaneously.

Zhang Haiyan visited the three villages to investigate any similar occurrences during that week. The villages were even worse off than the city; decomposing and swollen corpses could be seen in puddles everywhere. During the rainy season, it was difficult to start fires, and these waterlogged bodies could not be burned, so they were simply left in the puddles. With each rainfall, the water in the puddles turned green and yellow, floating with grease.

Soon, he discovered that during the first week of July, people had returned from Xiamen to these three villages, and all three had arrived on the same ship to Malacca. The ship was named “Nanan,” a passenger vessel owned by the Dong family from Xiamen, and it was considered the largest passenger ship in Xiamen, with four hundred passenger seats.

Of course, these three individuals were already dead, and their bodies had long been cremated, making it difficult to gather much detail in this situation. At the village entrance, Zhang Haiyan saw a dazed little girl holding a boy who was about three years old. Zhang Haiyan lit a cigarette. Without asking, he knew that the girl’s parents had all died from the disease.

On his way back from Penang, he took the girl and her brother with him. Zhang Haixia was setting up a stall at the archway, and when he saw Zhang Haiyan holding the children, his expression turned sour.

“Don’t worry, I’ve waited outside the city for three days, and they haven’t shown any symptoms. They should be safe; I’ve disinfected and bathed them repeatedly. You and I are familiar with this disease; anyone infected will definitely show symptoms within three days,” Zhang Haiyan said. He then looked at the older girl, who was of Chinese descent.

“Zhang Haijiao, call me Uncle Xia.”

“Uncle Xia,” the girl replied in Cantonese.

Zhang Haixia looked at Zhang Haiyan, “You give the younger generation names using characters from the same generation?”

“My godmother said that those who drift overseas should all have the character ‘Hai’ to signify their separation and wandering,” Zhang Haiyan replied.

Zhang Haixia sighed as he looked at the children, “I am Zhang Haixia, with ‘xia’ meaning chivalrous. He is Zhang Hailou, with ‘lou’ meaning building. ‘Little building listens to the spring rain all night, how many years has the wandering hero been in Xianyang?'”

“Is this a damn poem?” Zhang Haiyan helped Zhang Haixia up and said to him, “Aren’t you still brooding over the matters concerning the reef? You’ve been like this about the past, and when I see these children again, I can’t just ignore them.”

Zhang Haixia looked at the children who had come over, and the gloom in his heart seemed to be swept away in an instant. After arranging accommodation for the children, the once quiet Nanyang Archives suddenly felt different with so many people. The children leaned over the railing to watch the sea, while Zhang Haiyan lit a cigarette and showed his notes to Zhang Haixia.

“Nanan No.?”

Zhang Haiyan nodded, “There was no outbreak of the Five Dou Disease in Xiamen; people were infected on the ship. Moreover, look at the locations of these three villages; they happen to be at the three average points of Penang. Someone picked these three individuals on the ship and made them fall ill simultaneously in these three villages to spread this plague as quickly as possible. At this rate, it will reach Ipoh in at most two weeks.”

Zhang Haixia pondered for a moment, his expression filled with confusion. “Why? If this plague is man-made, why Penang? If it’s a confrontation between the British and the Dutch, it should be in Singapore, or at least in Ipoh. Why Penang? That place is nothing but rubber trees.”

He looked up at Zhang Haiyan, “Have you inquired about Zhang Ruipu’s current situation? I have a gut feeling that this plague is aimed at him.”