Chapter Seventy-Five: Keeping People Under the Knife
Sean rolled over and sat up, and looked out of the cabin, only to see a large number of people gathered on the wooden staircase leading to the foredeck, all chattering about something, and at the same time a burst of shouting and swearing came from the deck. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
The two didn't know what was going on, and after discussing it for a while, they decided to go out and have a look together. Sean squeezed a path in front of him, and Helen followed behind with his coat draped. When they walked up to the deck and squeezed to the front of the crowd, they were surprised to find that the ragged homeless old man was rolling his eyes and falling on the deck convulsively, covered with green vomit all over his body and beside him.
The captain stood in the crowd with a grim face, still holding his pipe in his hand, but not lit, and Sean observed that his hands were trembling slightly. Next to the captain stood a woman with her hands on her head, screaming in horror, "That's the red eye plague! Oh my God, this old man has been infected with the red eye plague!"
The crowd of onlookers was in an uproar, subconsciously covering their mouths and noses, involuntarily retreating, and even many people turned their heads and hid in the cabin.
Sean frowned and stared at the homeless old man up and down, only to see that he was convulsed all over, his eyes turned upward, revealing the whites of his eyes that were blood-red, and the placket of his clothes and legs were full of green sauce that he vomited, which was obviously a typical symptom of the "red eye plague" that made people talk about it.
No one knows when or where this highly contagious plague began, no one knows how to treat it, neither vomiting nor bloodletting has any effect, and even the pastors of the Church of the Fathers of All Gods are helpless against it.
It had had a large-scale outbreak in the East before, and thousands of people died because of it, and Sean's family survived because they lived in seclusion in the Sunset Mountains, but Sean heard his father talk about the tragic situation of corpses everywhere in Golden Deer City, the capital of the East, due to the Red Eye Plague at that time, and he still shuddered to think about it.
And right now, such a patient infected with red eye plague is lying on the deck not far away, not to mention ordinary crew members and passengers, even Sean is a little afraid, after all, this is a recognized murderous terminal disease today.
"Get rid of that guy or we'll all get infected!" one passenger shouted.
"Maybe we've been infected, oh my God, I'm still single, I haven't confessed to Monica yet, it's a shame to die like this!"
"Shut up, what are you panicking about!"
The captain fiercely stopped the shouts of the onlookers, took off the captain's hat and wiped the sweat from his head, and his falcon-like eyes scanned the people around him.
"The pastor of the Church of the Fathers of All Gods said that after contracting the red eye plague, he would soon become ill, just like the old fellow, with convulsions, high fever, and vomiting. The fact that you are still standing here means that you have not been infected. This is my territory, and whoever screams and bewitches the people, I will throw him into the river to feed the fish. ”
Seeing that the passengers around him were afraid to say anything, the captain shouted at several of his crew members: "Push that old guy into the river and use a long-handled mop." ”
A few bold sailors nodded, grabbed their mops and were about to step forward.
"Wait, you can't do that!" shouted Sean from the crowd.
The captain turned his head and stared at Sean for a moment with squinted eyes before asking, "Young man, what do you want to say?"
Sean pointed to the wandering old man who was still convulsing and said: "If you push him down like this, it will pollute the river of miracles, and there must be many people on both sides of the canal who take water from the canal, maybe the plague will spread from this, and then the father of all gods will not forgive us." ”
The captain sneered and before he could answer, the bucket-waisted woman next to him once again pressed her hands on her head and screamed: "I remember, he helped the old man on the boat! The old man had no money, and the captain did not let him get on the boat, and it was this man who somehow helped him pay for it, so he brought the plague to the ship." ”
As soon as the woman said this, the surrounding travelers immediately glared at Sean, as if he had caused this dangerous situation at the moment. Sean was extremely embarrassed for a while, he paid for the homeless old man out of pure kindness, how did he know that the old man was infected with such a terrible epidemic, and it happened to be in the middle of the boat.
The captain looked at Sean, who was in a state of anger, sneered twice, bent down and picked up an iron chain attached to the mast to fix the sail, and threw it at Sean's feet with a bang: "Young man, since you don't agree with my method, then you can deal with the trouble you caused yourself, and hang this old guy with an iron chain and burn it." ”
The surrounding travelers nodded their heads, and burning the people who had the plague was indeed the best way to stop the spread of the plague.
Several sailors nearby also breathed a sigh of relief, after all, hanging people with chains is completely different from pushing people into the water from a distance with a long-handled mop, and they need to be in close contact with the old man, maybe they will be infected with this mortal plague, so they were afraid that the captain would order them to do it, and now that this guy who was angry with the public did it for them, these people hugged their shoulders and watched the excitement with peace of mind.
At this time, there were already impatient passengers who began to urge: "Hurry up, what are you waiting for!"
"yes, hurry up and burn this damn sick man, do you want us all to be infected?"
"Haha, burn it quickly, while the old man is not dead, burn it quickly!"
In this era, the life of ordinary people is obviously extremely boring, working day after day in order to feed and wear, there are no channels and extra money to receive education, as for the horse club, drama, it is a luxury that only nobles can have. Watching a prisoner execute once in a while in the town is already a rare pastime.
Right now, on this boat, the scene of burning the living is going to be staged, which immediately arouses the bloodthirsty desire in the hearts of these onlookers.
"Burn, burn, burn while he's not dead!"
The cries of fear and excitement were heard endlessly, and those who had just run back to the cabin frightened by the plague also returned to the deck, unwilling to miss the good show.
But Sean didn't want to get in with them.
The wandering old man lying on the deck was not a heinous criminal, he was just a poor man infected with the evil plague, and although he would die if he got the red eye plague, Sean didn't want him to suffer such pain before he died.
His right hand quickly swiped over the water shield and pulled out a sharp dagger.
Then he glanced back at Helen.
The girl sighed and drew a cross on her chest: "The red eye plague cannot be cured, even if it is the touch of St. Wende, it can only treat external injuries, and there is no way to deal with the plague." Give him a good time, and may he return to the Father of all gods as soon as possible, away from the pain and suffering of the world. ”
Sean nodded, and stepped forward with a dagger in his hand amid the extreme dissatisfaction and boos of those onlookers, ready to give a break to the old man in convulsions.
But at this moment, from the exit of the cabin, a hurried voice suddenly came:
"Keep people under the knife!"