The red moon returns

Chapter 415: Secret Spread

Lynch now feels particularly fortunate for two things.

First, thanks to people’s living habits, all buildings in this world have had doors since the mythological era.

Second, thank the infected people for not learning to open the door.

Therefore, the situation was better than he had imagined, although only to a limited extent.

Among the other three guards’ homes, there was one family with only parents. The old couple couldn’t bear to eat themselves, and only prepared one portion of dinner for their son yesterday. The two of them ate the food stored at home, so they were safe and sound.

But the families of the other two families all ate a little, so all nine people were infected. Fortunately, their door was relatively strong, and before they could break down the door and attack passers-by, Terry arrived with the soldiers.

The situation was brought under control in time, but no one was happy about it. Anyone with a brain could see that the situation in the city was like a rotten, broken ship that could leak everywhere. Although the gaps that had already appeared had been blocked, no one knew whether the next gap would cause the broken ship to collapse directly.

There are dangers everywhere, but at least everything is okay now.

There were only nine more infected people, and the underground prison was almost full. But seeing that the drugs might be prepared tomorrow, it would be too cruel to purify these infected people directly now, and no one had the heart to do it, so they could only let these people squeeze in for the time being, after all, they probably wouldn't complain about the uncomfortable living environment.

Those foods that were suspected to be problematic were gathered together. One family had already eaten up all the food, leaving only empty bags and baskets. The remaining food from the other two families was gathered together. After estimation, the types and quantities of the four portions were very similar, and it was obvious that the food was prepared in the same way.

Lynch held his pipe in his mouth, staring at the food, and occasionally whispered a few words with the two ladies. The fully armed Knight Terry stood aside with his hands hanging down, carefully watching Lynch's expression.

"I'm thinking about something." Seeing the pitiful look in the rough knight's eyes, Lynch sighed and explained, "I've come across some stories about hard lives. Few people who are used to hard times are willing to eat all the exquisite food at once. It's normal to only eat a little bit like the other families, so what's the matter with that family with only empty containers left?"

"They...hid the food?"

"That would be the best, but I'm afraid it's not. I'm worried that they only kept a small amount of food for themselves, and the rest was sold before dinner yesterday." Lynch smiled bitterly, "This means that these dangerous things have been divided into countless portions and are being passed around the city. My only hope is that the people who bought them will not be willing to eat them for the time being, and at least have to endure until tomorrow night, otherwise..."

Knight Terry was stunned for a long time with a sullen face, and suddenly stamped his feet: "I will send people to investigate immediately, asking door to door, and find the things at all costs."

"Keep it strictly confidential. Sometimes panic is more destructive than the plague." Lin Qi reminded, "Also arrange for soldiers to go. Don't go by yourself. There is something we need to discuss with you now."

Knight Terry's heart sank again, and he arranged for the soldiers to check and question every household, and then hurried back. He did not dare to despise Lynch's words at all, and listened to every word of his as if he was listening to the king's will.

"I want to explore what the other party wants to do and to what extent." Lynch motioned to Judy to help translate, and explained to Knight Terry, "Before these four people, the other party's behavior was directed. Whether it was the travelers in distress, or Leonard and Kemit, they all had precise targets. Although the bites are contagious, at least they are directed from the source. We can regard this behavior as an experimental one." The armed knight nodded vigorously, but Lynch doubted whether he understood. After all, this man definitely had never been to a university laboratory in the 21st century.

But it doesn't matter. Lin Qi said this to sort out his thoughts. He continued to analyze, "But starting from the families of these four people, the behavior pattern has changed significantly, and the targets have begun to spread to their families and even unrelated people. This kind of change often has deep reasons. Well, it should be that the preliminary experiment was successful, and the other party is preparing to further expand the scope of the experiment to obtain more data."

"And now further experiments have begun to show results. What then? If he is satisfied and stops here and does other experiments, then we will be safe if we can control the existing infections."

While saying this, Lin Qi sighed in his heart. He also hoped that the plot would develop in this way, but the information he read in depth did not say this:
"But if the other party wants to continue to expand the scope of the experiment, or one of their goals is to spread the plague to the entire city and completely destroy the city, then we will not be safe for a second. Just like these foods that spread the plague, I can sense the abnormality now, but it is already very weak. I can't guarantee that I can still sense it if the concentration is lower, and I can't guarantee that I can still find the source of the next experiment. Maybe tonight we will eat the plague food without realizing it under the conspiracy of the manipulator behind the scenes, and we will all become infected lunatics together."

"So the situation could collapse at any time. We have to at least hold on until the drug is available, and we have to prepare for the worst. What if the antidote cannot be prepared or is not so effective?" As he spoke, Lin Qi suddenly froze, frowned and thought for a while, then he sighed softly, collected his emotions and continued, "The most effective way now is to walk on two legs, prepare the drug and find the person who caused all this at the same time. So, Mr. Knight, what do you think about this?"

Knight Terry kept his mouth tightly shut, his expression tense and he said nothing, but his eyes became quite complicated.

"We actually have an idea, but we are outsiders and our words are not credible." Lin Qi smiled and said calmly, "Now that the matter has been laid out in front of you, you have to consider the answer to this question yourself."

"I..." Knight Terry looked around and made sure that none of his men were around. There were only these few travelers around him, so he whispered, "Before Kemit and Leonard set out, the city lord specially met with them and told them how to report to their superiors. This is a very normal procedure, but after the meeting, they set out directly from the city lord's mansion and did not return to the fortress to collect rations."

"Isn't this normal?"

"That's normal, because the city lord cares about the soldiers and often prepares food for the soldiers on their missions from the kitchen of the mansion."

"Of course the food in the City Lord's Mansion is not the same as that of ordinary people. It must be high-quality and fine ingredients." Lin Qi smiled and looked at the plague food in front of him. "Is that all you want?"

Knight Terry pursed his lips and said, "Large chunks of bacon, fresh fruit, and fine flour. These are not things that ordinary families can afford, and they come in four identical portions. What you just said reminds me of something. A few days ago, Mr. Rocky, the butler of the City Lord's Mansion, came to me and said that he wanted to borrow four soldiers from me to help move some things in a couple of days. I asked him to choose the men himself."

"You think it could be these four? So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to meet the city lord and ask him about it in person."

"So Dr. Swen stopped you." Lynch rolled his eyes and said, "It would be the stupidest thing to do to question the city lord in person now. Instead of asking the city lord rashly, why don't you ask the magical... ask the butler first?"

As he spoke, Lynch pulled the knight and whispered to him. The knight nodded repeatedly, and then left with hope.

(End of this chapter)