The air inside the barracks of the Third Battalion was a solid, suffocating thing. It wasn't just a smell; it was a taste, a coating on the skin—a vile mixture of vomit, diarrhea, sweat, and the sweet, nauseating odor of rotting flesh. Flies formed a shifting, buzzing black carpet on the bodies of men too weak to swat them away. The groans that echoed in the dim space were thin, watery, the sounds of lives leaking away.
Lin Wei stood at the entrance, a cloth tied over his nose and mouth doing little to filter the horror. Sly Liu gagged behind him, and even Ox Li's strong composure seemed to falter. This was beyond battle wounds. This was a slow, undignified dissolution.
"[Environmental Biohazard: Critical. Airborne and contact pathogen load exceeds safe limits by 900%.]"
"[Recommendation: Full quarantine protocol. Full barrier protection required.]"
The system's cold analysis was a grim understatement. He had no barrier protection. He had rags, determination, and a truth no one else believed.
"Liu, Li," Lin Wei's voice was muffled but firm, cutting through the despair. "We start now. Ox Li, get a detail from our battalion. I need the strongest men, the ones still healthy. Tell them it's an order. Liu, find the quartermaster. We need every pot, every sack of lime, every bit of soap, every drop of vinegar and strong wine they can spare. Use Commander Xin's name."
He then turned to the horror within. He moved to the first man, whose skin was hot and dry as parchment, his eyes sunken into his skull. Dehydration. The primary killer. Lin Wei's system flagged the man as:
"[Terminal. Hypovolemic shock. Survival probability: <5%.]"
He moved on, his heart hardening into a clinical instrument. He was not here to save everyone. He was here to prove a point. He had to prioritize those who could be saved.
He found a younger soldier, shivering with fever but still conscious, his eyes wide with terror.
"[Subject: Acute Dysentery. Severe dehydration. Survival probability with intervention: 60%.]"
"Water," the boy croaked. "Please..."
"Not yet," Lin Wei said, his voice surprisingly gentle. "First, we clean everything."
What followed was a brutal, almost military assault on filth itself. When Ox Li returned with a dozen penal soldiers, their faces had masks of disgust and fear, Lin Wei put them to work with the relentless efficiency of a siege engineer.
"Get this foul straw out! Burn it all!" he ordered, pointing to the soiled bedding. "Scrub the floors with boiling water and vinegar! Every surface!" The men, horrified, initially hesitated, but Ox Li's grim presence forced them into motion.
Lin Wei and a few volunteers he quickly trained focused on the patients. They moved the men onto clean straw mats, stripping them of their fouled clothes and washing their emaciated bodies with rags dipped in hot water and soap. It was grueling, intimate, and humbling work. The patients cried out in shame and pain, but Lin Wei's calm, purposeful manner was a strange anchor in their dissolving world.
Next came the most critical part: rehydration. Using boiled water, salt, and a precious bit of sugar, Lin Wei prepared a crude electrolyte solution. He and his team began the slow, patient task of spoon-feeding it to the men who could swallow. For those who couldn't, he showed them how to drip it slowly into their mouths using clean cloths.
Physician Wang visited once, on the second day. He stood at the doorway, refusing to enter, his face a mixture of revulsion and smug expectation. "You see?" he declared to anyone who would listen. "This is butchery! This humiliation will kill them faster than the fever!"
Lin Wei didn't even look up from the soldier whose pulse he was checking. "The fever is killing them. I am cleaning them. Come back in two days, Physician. The results will speak for themselves."
By the morning of the third day, a change was palpable. The horrific stench had lessened, replaced by the sharp, clean smell of vinegar and soap. The constant, desperate cries for water had quieted. The flies, while still present, were no longer a solid mass. But most importantly, the men inside were different. The deathly grey pallor had left the faces of a dozen soldiers. Their breathing was deeper, more regular. The young soldier Lin Wei had first attended to was even sitting up, sipping a thin broth.
When Commander Xin returned, with a visibly nervous Physician Wang in tow, they stopped at the threshold, struck silent.
They did not find a barracks of corpses.
They found a scene of grim, orderly convalescence. The floor was scrubbed clean. The air, while still heavy, was breathable. And the men—the men who were supposed to be dead—were mostly alive. Weak, pale, and exhausted, but alive. Their eyes, which had been glazed with death, now held a flicker of awareness.
Physician Wang's face went from pale to ashen. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. The evidence before him shattered the foundation of his entire world.
Commander Xin's eyes scanned the room, his strategist's mind processing the data. He didn't see a miracle. He saw a result. He saw a process that worked. He turned to Physician Wang, his voice flat and final.
"Your methods are costing me soldiers," he said, the words falling like stones. He then turned his gaze to Lin Wei, who stood weary but upright amidst the men he had saved.
"Your methods, however unorthodox, preserve them." He paused, his decision made. "From this moment, the sanitation protocols of the penal battalion will be implemented camp-wide. You will oversee it."
He did not thank Lin Wei. He did not praise him. He gave him a larger burden. But in that burden was a terrifying, hard-won victory. Lin Wei had not just saved men; he had changed the rules of the game.
As Xin walked away, Physician Wang shot Lin Wei a look of pure, undiluted hatred before scurrying after his commander. Lin Wei met his gaze for a moment, understanding the silent message. This was not over. He had won the battle, but he had made an enemy who would wait for his chance to strike back.
The system interface, which had been silently logging vitals and outcomes, presented a simple, updated summary.
"[Barracks 3B Triage Complete. Mortality Rate: 33%. Projected Mortality Rate without intervention: 85%.]"
"[Conclusion: Hypothesis validated.]"