Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

In the following period, people were arranged around them to protect their safety.

Although everyone present knew that Henry’s death was mostly unrelated to the Charter Movement and was caused by his own troubles, Connor and Nestor still accepted Wu Chang’s protection.

They were not the ones who caused trouble, but they could be implicated.

The speed of Wu Chang and the others was swift; within ten minutes, they had loaded everything from Henry’s house into a cart and taken it away.

As they left Henry’s home, everything around seemed normal, yet everyone felt an inexplicable oppression and anxiety, making their return hurried.

Almost as they left Grimland East District, changes occurred in the East District.

The first change happened at John Shipyard, which was not far from the Bright Lamp Newspaper Office.

For John Shipyard worker Hansen, today was a special day.

Today marked the first day after the temporary end of the great strike; they were not supposed to start so soon, but the shipyard had an urgent batch of orders. To avoid delaying delivery, the owner had sent someone to contact them one by one last night, promising to pay half more wages to ensure they resumed work immediately.

Due to Prime Minister Glad’s concession, during lunch break, he overheard Bright Lamp Report’s editors saying that the big shots sitting in parliament were drafting a more comprehensive "Factory Technique."

He didn’t understand what more comprehensive meant, nor what "Factory Technique" was, since he was illiterate and couldn’t read what was written in the laws.

In his understanding, these words were only mentioned when being detained or when factory owners were exploiting them, and as for the meaning behind these words, it was up to those gentlemen to decide.

But he heard that it could transform their work from 16 hours to 14 hours a day, and if they got "Shipyard Disease" or "lead cough," they could receive compensation. He suddenly realized that the law could stand by their side.

The orders at the shipyard were already urgent, and the strike delay had made the deadlines even tighter.

To make up for the order progress, they could only work overtime with the lights on.

Around eight o’clock, Hansen and his colleagues were cutting metal sheets with a steam cutter, when suddenly they heard a loud bang.

At first, they assumed one of the steam machines had exploded. While they were examining each machine, they learned from the outside news that it was not a steam machine explosion, but the sky exploding.

They went outside and saw a big hole in the sky, through which Hansen saw the stars for the first time in a long while.

Hansen couldn’t remember how long it had been since he last saw the stars—three months, five months, or a year.

Looking back, it seemed like a heavy gray cloud had unknowingly covered their heads, and seeing stars at night had become a topic for their idle chatter.

This vast expanse of the starry sky made them feel both familiar and estranged.

Gazing at the starry sky above, a strange thought suddenly arose in Hansen’s heart.

Unveiling the clouds above, the scenery behind was so magnificent.

This surprising feeling was just like how he discovered after the great strike, that the law could stand with them.

No wonder the folks at the Bright Lamp Newspaper Office, despite earning less than them and working harder than them, remained so spirited every day.

What they were doing was also meant to explode open?

Before Hansen could understand it, the overseer’s whip began to urge them to return to their posts and continue working.

"Get back to work! The boss didn’t pay you half more to let you enjoy the scenery!"

Hansen and the others reluctantly returned to their workstations, but the work didn’t continue for long before it was interrupted again.

The reason was Hansen smelled a pungent smell like rotten eggs while working.

Initially, no one paid attention to the smell. As shipyard workers, they were used to the stench of Hills River.

In recent years, with Grimland’s industrial rapid development, factories and workers increased rapidly in the city, and large amounts of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage were discharged into Hills River every day.

Especially in Grimland East District, Hills River had become a stinking river of death.

Working by the river, they occasionally saw decomposing animal bodies floating on the surface, and if someone accidentally fell into the water, they couldn’t avoid getting sick after being rescued.

Hansen and the others even suspected that no living things existed in the downstream waters of the Hills River.

Working beside such a dead river, it wasn’t surprising to smell a stench.

However, before long, the workers noticed something was wrong.

Because the stench was increasing, becoming stronger, more than three workers had fainted due to the smell above.

Having just heard about the Vanslon Textile Factory incident, Hansen and the others couldn’t continue working under such conditions; ignoring the overseer’s obstruction, they left the workshop to find the source of the smell.

They followed the smell and arrived at the riverbank.

At this moment, the large opening in the sky had not closed, and with the help of the moonlight, they saw a peculiar color covering the surface of the Hills River.

The color was like soap bubbles during washing, but the texture wasn’t transparent; rather, it showed a turbid and greasy appearance.

The stench that Hansen and others smelled was coming from the colorful Hills River.

"Come out and look, the river has turned colorful!"

The anomaly of Hills River quickly attracted the attention of other factories around; people covered their noses and came to the riverbank, observing this spectacle.

"Splash."

"Splash."

Before they understood what was happening, sounds of people fainting to the ground continuously came from the crowd.