Weather Station

Dean Yang found the pharmacy where medications were prepared, then brought over a stool and sat down. He wanted to say a few words to everyone, but they could only look at one another in silence.

Apart from epilepsy triggered by stimulating light sources, they could find no other reference for an illness triggered by images. They had even debated the possibility of epilepsy from every angle for an hour, only to rule it out in the end.

That was because the people newly infected over the past two days had not seen the typhoon wind field map.

They finally understood the helplessness the doctors in the next room felt.

The patients were right there beside them, and they had endless medical support and all kinds of expensive testing equipment. Yet even after drawing on everything they had studied and learned throughout their lives, they had found no clues. They had hit one wall after another, without even finding anything they could suspect.

They had even begun to think that the problem lay not with the patients, but with themselves.

"Ding—"

Dean Yang instinctively pulled out his phone and found a text message.

It seemed to be from the military, too.

He opened it and took a look.

It said that Taihao infectious disease had begun to spread in three other locations. The military had recognized the gravity of the situation and deployed all local chemical defense units. Everyone who had come into contact with patients had been ordered to restrict their movements and forbidden to leave, or they would be dealt with under the relevant laws.

Then everyone's phones began ringing one after another, just as they had when the level-one response was announced a few days earlier.

It went without saying that they had received the same message as he had.

Dean Yang breathed a sigh of relief. If chemical defense units could be deployed, it meant the higher-ups considered the situation extremely urgent, to the point where they were willing to risk a serious public backlash.

In that case, perhaps the military had some way to deal with it.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

Someone knocked impatiently on the door next door.

"Who is it? The door isn't locked. Why are you knocking?"

"Huh? Who are you people? Weren't you told no one else was allowed up here?"

The person closest to the door was not Dean Yang, but an elderly doctor with gray-white hair. He glanced at Dean Yang, then opened the door.

Outside stood a group of people in dark green Type A chemical protective suits, arranged in an orderly line. The one in the lead was talking to Xiao Wu.

Some of the doctors had sharp eyes and noticed that the last few people in the line seemed to be holding something.

"They have guns! Who are you people?"

The gray-haired doctor who had opened the door widened his eyes, stood up, and joined in the reprimand. "Who are you? Why did you bring guns in here?"

The leader in the protective suit stared at the gray-haired old man in bewilderment, then looked at the wary Xiao Wu. Helplessly, he showed them his right arm and pointed to the national flag on it.

"You're from the military?"

Dean Yang asked.

The leader nodded.

Only then did Dean Yang notice that their dark green protective suits were heavier and looked more tightly sealed. They were indeed military issue. After all, chemical defense units had to deal with more than just biochemical viruses and microorganisms; they also had to handle chemical and nuclear attacks, so there were more factors to consider.

Still, they had arrived remarkably quickly. The text message had only come a few minutes ago.

"Why aren't you speaking?"

The leader gave a wry smile. "Our orders are to avoid talking to you as much as possible. This filter isn't perfect; it's only a prototype, and we don't know if it works."

"What filter?"

"This one." The leader pointed to his ear. Dean Yang stepped forward to take a look and discovered that they were wearing earpieces.

"Earpieces? What are those for?"

"For filtering. The Academy of Sciences suspects that a certain virus can spread through sound. These earpieces can process sound and block the transmission of the sound virus."

Dean Yang once again looked as though he were questioning everything he knew.

"You said you were to avoid talking to us as much as possible?"

"Yes. They suspect you may have been infected as well. Now it's your turn to cooperate with us. We hope you won't make things difficult for us."

Dean Yang nodded. "All right. What do you need us to do?"

"Just stay here, don't wander around, and keep quiet. We need to collect the infected people's voices."

Dean Yang was speechless for a moment. He felt things had taken an utterly absurd turn, but he couldn't give any specific reasons why.

The idea of an illness caused by images had been far-fetched enough, but at least there was photosensitive epilepsy to go on, so it wasn't entirely without basis. An illness caused by sound, though, was simply unimaginable.

But this was the military's business. In any case, he was out of ideas and had no suggestions to offer, so he decided to see what they could accomplish.

"All right, we'll cooperate. If you find anything, could you let us know?"

The leader hesitated, then nodded. "I'll pass your request on to my superiors. Thank you for your cooperation."

Xiao Wu looked at the military personnel suspiciously. After watching them walk away one by one, leaving only one armed soldier standing there, he came over.

"Dean Yang, we stared at that wind field map until our eyes went blurry, and we still couldn't find anything. You were right. We really were being a little fanciful."

Dean Yang glanced at the soldier too and pressed a hand to his forehead. "What are you apologizing for? The military thinks sound can cause illness. Isn't that even more fanciful?"

Xiao Wu shook his head. "But that was the judgment of a bunch of leading experts at the Academy of Sciences. If they're saying that, shouldn't they have their reasons?"

"Right is right, and wrong is wrong. What do you mean, they should have their reasons?"

"But what if... they really are right?"

Dean Yang froze, frowned deeply, and rubbed his chin as he thought.

"That possibility you raised makes sense. If that really is the case... those people are among the most intelligent in the country. Nobody could get in by bluffing their way through... and dare to say something like that."

Xiao Wu remained cautiously at his side, not wanting to interrupt Dean Yang's train of thought.

"Suppose—if we suppose what they say is true, then those people really were infected through the typhoon images... But that still doesn't make sense. There are so many meteorological stations along the coast, all monitoring the typhoon. Why were only those four stations affected?"

Dean Yang suddenly turned to Xiao Wu. "Tell me, what's special about those four meteorological stations? Why did infected people turn up at those four in particular?"

Xiao Wu thought for a moment. "Maybe... those stations are all in big cities?"

Dean Yang shook his head. "Fangjiang isn't a big city. It isn't one of the coastal provincial capitals."

Xiao Wu pulled out his phone. "That's not right. I saw it in the news: Fangjiang has a unique geographical setting and a strong academic atmosphere. The government invested heavily in building and renovating a lot of facilities to develop something or other along the lines of local science-led development."

Something Xiao Wu said suddenly caught Dean Yang's attention. He put a hand on Xiao Wu to stop him from continuing. "What did you just say? Renovating facilities?"

Xiao Wu froze, then thought of something and nodded.

"Was the local meteorological station one of the facilities they renovated?"

This time, Xiao Wu shook his head.

"No?"

"I don't know."

"Then what are you waiting for? Look it up."

"Oh." Flustered, Xiao Wu deleted the few characters he had just typed and started over.

Dean Yang wasn't idle either. He took out his phone, found a number, and called it.

He had his own channel for reporting information. Besides requesting support, he could also use it as a source of information. After he explained his question, he waited on the phone for a moment, and a document was promptly sent to him.

"Dean Yang, I found it. The weather station really was among the facilities renovated and upgraded. The climate there is quite typical, making it an indispensable climate monitoring point on the coast. It installed the latest weather radar the year before last." Xiao Wu's voice held both excitement and fear as he spoke. He had realized something too.

Dean Yang nodded to show he understood.

"Good. Do me another favor: log in to this email account for me and print out what's in it."

Xiao Wu nodded, his breathing growing heavier.