Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 503 - 454 Vehicles

Shuo State City, train station.

A sea of heads bobbed as countless common people from Shuo State, laden with large and small packs, pressed against the station’s exterior, banging on the wooden fence.

"Station Chief Wang, just let us through, please!"

"Yes, Wang Liulang, none of us are sick; we’re all healthy! I even held you when you were a child. Considering your maternal aunt is my wife’s younger sister, please let us through."

"Wang Liulang! I am the steward of Shuo State Liuguang Bank. I need to take important account books to Luoyang. If there’s a delay in reconciling the accounts, postponing Shuo State’s tax collection, can you bear that responsibility?"

Inside the fence, Wang Liu, the Station Chief of Shuo State Station, was drenched in anxious sweat. He loudly explained, "Fellow villagers, the order to blockade Shuo State Station came from General Yan Hu, and the governor has also agreed. Trains passing through Shuo State will not stop here. There’s nothing I can do. Please, everyone, go back."

His explanation failed to placate the people; instead, it enraged the crowd.

"General Yan is unconscious! The governor ordered the soldiers to blockade the main roads, yet he hides in his mansion, refusing to show his face. Even your own official isn’t handling things, so why are you stubbornly holding out here?"

"How many people in Shuo State have died from this plague already? You still want us to stay here? Are you trying to get us all killed?"

"Station Chief Wang, I’m begging you!"

A young peasant woman, holding a baby and with another child clinging to her hand, pushed through the crowd, crying out, "My parents, older brother, younger siblings, my husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law—all of them caught the plague and died. My older sister was already married. When she heard of the deaths of our parents and siblings, she was overcome with grief. She ignored everyone’s attempts to dissuade her and insisted on coming to the village to mourn. She died too. Only my two children and I are left. There’s no one else. Station Chief Wang, please, let us take the train and leave."

Tears streamed down the peasant woman’s face. She untied the swaddling clothes from her chest, placed the infant on the ground, and kowtowed heavily towards Wang Liu. Her forehead struck the stone bricks of the train station with dull thuds until it was a bloody mess.

Wang Liu’s mouth was dry, his fingertips numb. The surrounding crowd also looked on with pity, trying to help the peasant woman up and urge her to stop.

However, as the peasant woman rose—perhaps from the violent kowtowing, or perhaps because she hadn’t eaten or drunk for too long—she suddenly coughed harshly.

"COUGH, COUGH—"

The faces of the surrounding crowd changed in unison. Like ripples spreading across a lake, they pushed and shoved backward, forming an empty circle around her.

"She’s sick!!" someone shrieked, their voice high-pitched and panicked. The crowd’s gaze, once sympathetic, now fixed on the peasant woman with hostility and suspicion.

"I’m not! I don’t have it! It’s just a common cold," the peasant woman stammered, snatching up her swaddled infant and trying to explain, but she only coughed more violently.

"Hit her! Drive her away!"

"You dare come out when you’re sick? Do you want us all to die? Don’t you know how terrifying this plague is?"

"Get back! Get back! Get back!"

The villagers, who just moments before had been united by a common grievance, instantly changed their expressions, yelling and cursing at the peasant woman.

Young men kept their distance, waving sticks threateningly.

Women pulled eggs from their baskets and hurled them at her.

Even a white-haired elder, trembling as he stood, lifted his cane to wave at her, his mouth, with only a few teeth remaining, spewing curses in a dialect few could understand.

Like a pariah, the peasant woman could only curl up, shielding her two children.

The infant in her arms wailed loudly, while the slightly older child beside her looked dazed and utterly lost.

Wang Liu watched the scene, his heart aching with pity. He turned to his subordinates and said, "There’s a small door at the back of the station. Take her through there and get her away from here for now."

"Station Chief, this..."

The subordinates exchanged glances, but no one stepped forward or spoke. They all avoided Wang Liu’s gaze as if his eyes were a viper’s fangs.

Over the past few days, the common people of Shuo State had come to deeply understand the terror of the epidemic.

Once the illness struck, the patient would suffer agonizingly—chest pain, coughing, difficulty breathing. Death was inevitable within two or three days, their skin bleeding, their corpse turning purple-black. It was incurable.

According to publications from the Academic Palace, such "infectious diseases" could spread in various ways.

The rate and intensity of this particular infectious disease’s spread far exceeded all past epidemics. It was even more untreatable than malaria before the development of effective medicine.

As station employees, they usually dealt with local hoodlums and troublemakers. They could even chase down thieves who stole railway tracks or road bullies who set up illegal tolls.

But they were just ordinary people with limited abilities. How could they possibly fight an invisible, intangible disease?

They had families too. If they risked their lives to save this peasant woman, who would save their own families?

Seeing his subordinates looking at each other, hesitating, Wang Liu gritted his teeth. He turned to the common people outside the fence and pleaded, "Please, don’t make things harder for her. Let her leave. I will write another letter and send it to Dai State. I trust someone will take responsibility..." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Before he could finish, a loud whistle shrieked in the distance.

On the horizon, a Spiritual Energy Locomotive was racing towards them.

"The train is coming!"

"Quick, everyone! Let’s push the fence down together! Let’s get on the train!"

"If the train doesn’t stop, we’ll stand on the tracks! Let’s see if they dare not stop!"

No one paid Wang Liu any mind. The crowd surged forward in a frenzy, shoving at the wooden fence and ramming their bodies against the barrier.

The wooden fence groaned and splintered, its posts slowly forced from the earth by the brute strength of the crowd.

BOOM!

With a loud crash, the wooden fence collapsed. The crowd, laden with bags, yelled as they scrambled up the steps and surged into the station.

The mere dozens of soldiers stationed there were utterly unable to stop the surging tide of people.

"Let them through," Wang Liu said, his expression bleak. He stepped over the fallen wooden fence, helped the peasant woman—now covered in raw egg and broken shells—to her feet, and handed her a handkerchief.

WHOO-WHOO!

The whistle shrieked again from afar. The driver of the Spiritual Energy Locomotive, apparently seeing the people swarming the tracks, repeatedly sounded the whistle.

However, the common people, convinced this was their only chance to escape Shuo State, linked arms and stood firm on the tracks, encouraging one another.

"The train will stop. It definitely will."

"This is Yu Country, where Yu Law is respected! Even if members of the royal family are on that train, they wouldn’t dare order it to run us over."

"Everyone, don’t panic! Stand firm! Once this train gets out of Shuo State, we’ll be saved!"