DipNovel Chapter 3 The End of the Ordinary
Chapter 3 The End of the Ordinary
At 4:36 a.m., the emergency department of Lanshan Central Hospital.
Qin Wei rubbed her aching temples and pushed aside her third cup of cold coffee. She had been working non-stop for three days, and her white coat was covered in various stains—blood, iodine, and traces of a patient's vomit.
"Dr. Qin, the patient in bed number three has a fever of 40 degrees Celsius again."
Nurse Xiao Chen's voice was filled with undisguised exhaustion. This young woman, who had just graduated from nursing school, had lost the weight of her once round face, which was now sunken, and dark circles were visible under her eyes.
"Okay, I'll go take a look." Qin Wei stood up, her knees creaking under the strain.
The patient in bed number three is a middle-aged man who was brought in two days ago with a high fever. Initially, he only had common flu symptoms—fever, cough, and body aches. But starting this afternoon, his condition deteriorated rapidly.
Qin Wei walked to the bedside and reached out to touch the patient's forehead. The burning temperature made her frown.
"What about the family members?" she asked.
"I just went out to buy water," Xiao Chen said in a low voice, "Dr. Qin, please take a look at his eyes..."
Qin Wei bent down and gently pried open the patient's eyelids. The next second, her movements froze.
Those were bloodshot eyes. Not just ordinary bloodshot, but countless tiny blood vessels bulging, as if someone had drawn a net of red ink on the whites of their eyes. Even more eerie was the faint grayish-blue ring around the pupils, which looked particularly chilling under the stark white light.
"When did it become like this?" Qin Wei's voice was a little tense.
"About an hour ago," Xiao Chen's voice trembled, "and...and his pulse was very strange."
Qin Wei grabbed the patient's wrist. The sensation at her fingertips sent a chill down her spine—the pulse was rapid and erratic, like someone pounding a drum in the chest, but with no discernible rhythm. Even stranger, the patient's skin felt unusually dry, like a piece of leather that had been dehydrated by the sun.
"Prepare for blood work; I need a full set of tests," Qin Wei ordered decisively. "Also, notify the lab to expedite the process."
"yes."
Just as Xiao Chen turned around, the man on the hospital bed suddenly moved.
That wasn't a normal movement. His neck arched back at an eerie angle, his spine making a sickening cracking sound. His bloodshot eyes widened suddenly, staring straight at the ceiling.
"The patient is having convulsions!" Qin Wei shouted. "Hold him down!"
But it was too late.
His body sprang up like a fully drawn bow. His mouth opened wide, emitting a roar that was not human—a hoarse, broken sound squeezed from the depths of his throat. Most terrifying of all was his movement; his hands flailed wildly, his nails scraping the air with a piercing sound.
"Quick! Sedative!" Qin Wei rushed over and tried to hold down the patient's shoulders.
But she underestimated the strength of her opponent.
The seemingly frail middle-aged man suddenly unleashed astonishing strength. He shoved Qin Wei aside with such force that she stumbled and bumped into the monitor beside her. The monitor emitted a piercing alarm, and red numbers flashed wildly on the screen.
Qin Wei's mind went blank.
"Dr. Qin!" Xiao Chen screamed, "He...he bit someone!"
Qin Wei suddenly looked up and saw the man bite down on the arm of Nurse Chen, who was trying to approach. Blood gushed out instantly, staining the white sheets red.
"Someone come quick!" Qin Wei shouted, grabbing a tray and smashing it against the patient's head.
The metal tray made a dull thud, but the man seemed to feel no pain. He released the nurse's arm, turned his head, and his bloodshot eyes stared straight at Qin Wei.
In that instant, Qin Wei felt a chill run from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.
That wasn't human eyes. There was no reason, no emotion in them, only pure, primal brutality and hunger.
"roar--"
The man let out a low growl and lunged at Qin Wei.
At the critical moment, two security guards rushed in and together pinned the man to the bed. But even with two strong men, it took a tremendous amount of effort to barely restrain him. The man struggled wildly, emitting chilling screams.
"Tie him up! Quickly!" Qin Wei gasped for breath. "Call for a psychiatric consultation; this isn't just a normal fever!"
"Dr. Qin..." Xiao Chen clutched his bleeding arm, his face deathly pale. "He...he seemed to have stopped breathing just now..."
Qin Wei was stunned: "What?"
"I...I clearly felt he had no pulse," Xiao Chen's voice trembled with tears, "but...but he suddenly moved again..."
Qin Wei looked at the man on the hospital bed. Under the restraint of the security guards, he finally calmed down, but his body was still twitching slightly. His blood-red eyes were half-open, the pupils dilated, as if he had lost consciousness.
But she knew that things were far from over.
"Send him to the ICU," Qin Wei took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady, "and monitor him constantly. Notify me immediately of any abnormalities."
"yes……"
Xiao Chen was helped away by other nurses to have his wound treated, and the security guards carefully transferred the patient to a trolley. Qin Wei stood there, looking at the mess on the floor—overturned chairs, broken instruments, and glaring bloodstains on the sheets.
She had worked in the field for many years and witnessed countless life-and-death situations. But what she had just witnessed filled her with an unprecedented fear.
It wasn't an illness. What it was, she didn't know. But her intuition told her that something terrible was happening.
---
Zhang Xun was awakened by a slight noise.
The sound came from upstairs, like something hitting a metal railing. It was very soft, but it was particularly jarring in the deathly silence of six in the morning. He opened his eyes, his neck stiff and sore.
There were no footsteps or voices upstairs, only a kind of suppressed, intermittent sound, like a trapped beast pacing futilely in the dark.
"Little Sugar?" Zhang Xun sat up, his voice a little hoarse.
Footsteps sounded from the stairwell, stopping halfway down. Lin Xiaotang leaned out from under the railing, her eyes red and swollen, with dark circles under them, and she clutched her phone in her hand. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out; she simply shook her head.
Zhang Xun understood. There was no further news.
He stood up, stretched his stiff shoulders, and went upstairs. The bedroom door on the second floor was open, and the indicator light on the oven in the corner dining table was still on. Inside, a tray held a row of twisted cookies—the edges were burnt, the centers were white, clearly overbaked and forgotten to be taken out. The air was filled with a burnt smell, mixed with the raw aroma of flour; it wasn't sweet, but rather had a bitter, pungent taste.
"I...I wanted to make some dry food that would keep," Lin Xiaotang's voice sounded strained and hoarse, as if squeezed from her throat, "but...I kept looking at my phone and lost track of time, and it burned."
Zhang Xun walked over and took her phone.
In the chat history on Xunliao, the top part was filled with more than twenty missed calls she made to her grandmother over and over again;
Then came, "Grandma, I'm at Brother Xun's shop. I'm safe. I'll call you back when I see your message."
No read, no reply.
At the very top, it's all alone, stuck at 5:17 AM yesterday.
"Grandma, voice call not connected."
"Wait a little longer."
Zhang Xun looked down at the plate of slightly burnt biscuits, his fingertips lightly touching the charred crumbs at the edge. He spoke softly, "The quarantine point might have signal jamming, or the lines might be busy. There are a lot of people over at Cuiping Mountain."
Lin Xiaotang lowered her head, her fingers twisting tightly around the edge of her apron until her knuckles turned white: "What if... what if Grandma didn't bring her phone? What if..."
Her words were interrupted by a sharp cell phone ring. It wasn't hers; it was Zhang Xun's.
The screen displayed a name: Qin Wei.
Zhang Xun glanced at Lin Xiaotang, then walked to the corner and answered the call: "Feed?"
"Zhang Xun," the voice on the other end of the phone was tense, as if it might snap at any moment. The background noise was the distinctive din of a hospital, along with some kind of sharp alarm. "Are you at the store?"
"Yes. What's wrong?"
"I..." Qin Wei paused, lowering her voice even further, "I'll send you a video. Watch it, but don't tell anyone, delete it immediately. Also... if anyone asks you to go near a hospital recently, whatever you do, don't go."
The call ended, followed immediately by a text message notification.
Zhang Xun clicked on the video, which was shaky, as if it had been secretly filmed in a hospital. The camera panned across the corridor, where patients lay densely packed together, some receiving IV drips, others curled up on stretchers groaning. Medical staff in full protective suits hurried through the room.
In the video, someone says in a trembling voice, "Everyone...everyone really needs to be careful, this disease...this disease seems to bite...it bites..."
The screen suddenly froze, and a gray message popped up saying "Content suspected of violating regulations and has been deleted."
Zhang Xun stared at his phone screen, his fingers unconsciously tightening. There were no landmarks in the video, making it impossible to identify which hospital it was, but the chaos was undeniable. Cuiping Mountain Sanatorium was on the outskirts of the city; if the city hospitals had become like this, what about Cuiping Mountain, which housed even more people in quarantine? Grandma…
"I'll go check," he suddenly said, grabbing his electric scooter keys. "You stay in the shop and lock the door. If I'm not back in half an hour..."
"Don't go!" Lin Xiaotang grabbed his wrist, her nails almost digging into his flesh, her voice trembling with tears. "Didn't you hear in the video that it bites... If... if you also..."
Her voice choked, and tears welled up in her eyes, but she held them back.
Zhang Xun looked at her pale knuckles, then glanced out the window. The streets were still bustling with traffic, pedestrians wearing masks and hurrying along, seemingly no different from usual. But he knew that something had already spread in unseen cracks, like a tray of forgotten cookies in an oven, the smell of burning slowly seeping out.
"I'm not going to the hospital," Zhang Xun said, his voice steady as he tightened his grip on her wrist. "I'll just keep an eye on things at the Cuiping Mountain intersection. If buses are still going in and out, it means the evacuation was orderly and Grandma is safe. If that area is also sealed off..."
He paused, looking into her eyes, and said, "I'll be right back. Let's lock the door immediately."
Lin Xiaotang bit her lip, tears falling onto the back of his hand, burning hot. She stared at him for a long time, finally slowly loosening her grip, but her fingers were still trembling: "Then...you take a knife. The longest one in the store...and send me a message every ten minutes, or I'll call the police, and I'll come looking for you..."
---
At seven o'clock in the morning, Zhang Xun rode his bike towards Cuiping Mountain. Lin Xiaotang stood at the shop entrance, hugging the rabbit doll, watching his figure disappear around the street corner, her hand tightly gripping her phone, the screen lit up, ready to dial at any moment.
The plane tree leaves on the street rustled in the wind, as if countless tiny voices were whispering some ominous omens.
After riding for nearly an hour, the entrance to the winding mountain road leading to Cuiping Mountain Sanatorium was completely blocked off by several blue and white police cars. Traffic police and special police had set up a joint checkpoint, with eye-catching signs on the roadblocks: "Road closed, no passage allowed."
Zhang Xun parked his electric scooter fifty meters outside the police line. He saw several of the same white buses he'd seen that morning parked at the intersection, but they were all empty, their doors wide open, and the drivers squatting by the roadside smoking, their faces ashen. No one got on, and no one got off.
He walked over to a traffic policeman who looked older and offered him a cigarette: "Sir, is it still possible to get into Cuiping Mountain? My elderly relative was moved up there this morning."
The traffic policeman glanced at him, didn't take the cigarette, and shook his head: "It's blocked off. Those upstairs won't let you off, and those downstairs won't let you on. Do you have family members upstairs?"
Zhang Xun nodded.
"Just wait," he said, lowering his voice even further, "and wait for instructions. Nobody can get in now, and those inside... can't get out either."
Zhang Xun looked at the winding mountain road. Normally, there would be shuttle buses or private cars going up at this time, but now it was completely empty, with only the mountain wind swirling fallen leaves across the road. The mountain itself looked darker than usual, the shadows of the trees heavy.
He gazed at the desolate mountaintop and confirmed one thing: his grandmother had not been moved to a safe house, but to a deserted island.
The electric scooter emitted a low battery warning light, which flashed red. He turned the handlebars and went back.
---
At 10 a.m., Zhang Xun rode back to the shop. The electric scooter's battery was almost empty, emitting a weak hum.
Lin Xiaotang was still standing at the shop entrance, hugging the rabbit doll, staring at the street corner. When she saw him appear, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but then tensed up again—because she saw that Zhang Xun's face was even more somber than when he left.
"Looking for Brother..." she approached, her voice trembling, "Grandma..."
"The road is blocked," Zhang Xun said hoarsely as he propped up his electric scooter. "The entire Cuiping Mountain is blocked off; no one can go in or out. The bus is parked down there, but no one's going up... and I haven't seen anyone come down either."
Lin Xiaotang's eyes instantly reddened, but she bit her lip to keep the tears from falling. She just tightened her grip on the rabbit doll's ears.
"I...I called you, but you didn't answer..." Her voice was choked with sobs.
"I'm sorry," Zhang Xun reached out and ruffled her hair, his palms sweating. "The signal might be blocked up on the mountain... I..." He paused, "Let's go inside first and figure something out."
---
Back at the shop, Lin Xiaotang didn't cry. She just took the burnt cookies out of the oven with red eyes, broke them into pieces, and threw them into the trash bag.
"There are still three bags of flour left," she said, her voice soft but steady, "but the sugar is almost gone, and the oil is running low too. If... if we really have to last a long time..."
Zhang Xun looked at her pale knuckles, then glanced out the window. Pedestrians on the street were still hurrying along, but more and more people were wearing masks, and the lines outside pharmacies were getting longer and longer.
"I'm going out for a bit," he said, "to the wholesale market, to Old Zhou's place. I'll get some more compressed biscuits and canned goods... things that will keep."
"Now?"
"Now," Zhang Xun grabbed the electric scooter keys, while he could still buy some. He walked to the door, then turned back, "Pull down the roller shutter. I'll come back and knock. Don't open it for anyone but me."
"We need to get a new car."
He spoke as if to himself, yet also as if to Lin Xiaotang, "It needs to be able to hold things."
Lin Xiaotang hugged the rabbit doll, didn't say anything, just quietly looked at him.
He took out his phone, made a call to Lao Liu, and borrowed the BYD Qin that he had sold last year.
---
"Zhang Xun! What brings you here?" Wholesaler Lao Zhou greeted him warmly when he saw him.
"Brother Zhou, I'd like to stock up on some goods," Zhang Xun said directly, "compressed biscuits, canned food, water purification tablets, the more the better. Also, do you have any camping water tanks?"
Old Zhou was taken aback: "What do you need so many for?"
"Isn't the flu bad lately?" Zhang Xun smiled. "I want to stock up on some supplies, just in case."
Old Zhou's expression turned strange. He looked around and lowered his voice, saying, "Zhang Xun, tell me the truth, have you heard something?"
Zhang Xun's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't reply immediately. Instead, he took out a cigarette case from his pocket, shook out one, and twirled it in his hand: "Brother Zhou, what do you mean by that?"
Old Zhou stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly reached out and pulled him behind the shelf, his voice barely audible: "Tell me first, did you already know?"
Zhang Xun looked up at him, remained silent for two seconds, did not deny it, but just put the cigarette in his mouth without lighting it.
"Damn it!" Old Zhou cursed, his face changing. "Then tell me the truth—do you have any stockpiled goods in your shop too?"
"Hmm," Zhang Xun mumbled in response, "It started this morning."
Old Zhou stared at him for a while, then suddenly pulled his phone out of the drawer, swiped his finger across the screen twice, and tapped on a video: "Take a look at this... My cousin just sent it to me an hour ago, telling me to delete it after watching it."
The video is blurry, seemingly filmed at night. The camera is focused on the hospital entrance, where a group of people in protective suits are lifting several stretchers onto an ambulance. The people on the stretchers are covered by white sheets, but a hand is sticking out from under the sheets, its fingers frantically scratching at the air.
"This is..." Zhang Xun's voice was a little tense.
“My cousin works as a security guard at the hospital,” Old Zhou said in a very low voice, “He said these patients…it’s not the common flu. They bite, and…and they’re unkillable.”
"Can't be beaten to death?"
"My cousin said there was a patient who was hit by a car, his leg was broken, but he was still crawling on the ground, chasing and biting people." Old Zhou's face turned pale. "Later, the SWAT team came and had to use guns to take care of him."
Zhang Xun felt a chill rise up his spine.
He remembered Su Nian's receipt, the young couple hoarding supplies, and Qin Wei's video from that morning.
"Brother Zhou," Zhang Xun took a deep breath, "I'll take all the supplies you have."
---
At 2 PM, Zhang Xun returned home with a full load of goods.
His car was piled high with boxes of all sizes—compressed biscuits, canned goods, water purification tablets, water tanks, sleeping bags, and several sets of cut-resistant gloves. Old Zhou also gave him two extra boxes of candles and a hand-cranked radio.
"Zhang Xun, be careful," Old Zhou patted him on the shoulder. "I'm planning to close up shop and go back to my hometown tomorrow. This city... isn't safe."
Zhang Xun nodded without saying anything more. He knew that Old Zhou was right.
Back at the shop, Lin Xiaotang was anxiously waiting for him. Seeing him return safely, she breathed a sigh of relief, but was immediately stunned by the truck full of supplies, and her eyes were still a little red.
"Brother Xun, you...you bought so much?"
"Better safe than sorry," Zhang Xun said, starting to unload the goods. "Xiao Tang, help me move them to the warehouse. Any news about Grandma?"
Lin Xiaotang shook her head, her fingers unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes. "Still no signal... but I sent another text message. I told her to remember to reply if the signal picks up. Xun Ge and I are waiting for her here."
After working for more than an hour, the two finally moved all the supplies into the warehouse. There was a small warehouse at the back of the first floor of Zhang Xun's outdoor store, which was usually used to store inventory. Now it was crammed full, and some items were even placed inside the store because there was no room for them.
"Brother Xun," Lin Xiaotang said, wiping her sweat, "are these things... really necessary?"
Zhang Xun looked at her, his voice very soft: "I hope we won't need it. But if something really happens, this will be our lifeline. It's also... it's what gives us the confidence to wait for Grandma to come back."
Lin Xiaotang lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously picking at the sealing thread on the flour bag. The thread had come undone, revealing a white, gleaming piece. She didn't speak, only nodded.
After a long while, she finally spoke, her voice hoarse: "Then I'll do something else. I'll turn all this flour into some kind of dry food that can be stored."
She paused, looked up, her eyes still red, but her gaze hardened: "If we really have to hold on for a long time, we can't just eat those compressed foods. And... and if Grandma comes back, she needs something hot to eat."
Zhang Xun looked at her pale knuckles, didn't laugh, but simply hummed in agreement: "Okay, you go ahead and get started, I'll go see what else I can buy."
Lin Xiaotang placed the rabbit doll on the flour bag and began kneading the dough. Her movements were very gentle, as if she were afraid of waking something.
---
At 3 p.m., Zhang Xun received a phone call. The caller ID showed "Bai Mo"—the person who, over the past three years, would occasionally ask him about equipment specifications, help him buy outdoor supplies, and would also casually forward geological disaster warnings.
"Boss Zhang," the woman's voice on the other end of the phone said with a hint of amusement, "long time no see, you've learned to hoard goods."
Zhang Xun didn't reply, but simply walked to the window and glanced at the street: "Something wrong?"
"I'll go over there."
"OK."
"Don't rush to agree," Bai Mo paused, lowering his voice as if afraid of being overheard, "What I'm about to talk about might make you regret opening the door today."
The call was immediately disconnected.
Forty minutes later, the shop door was pushed open.
Bai Mo walked in, her steps slow, as if she were measuring every inch of the room. She wore a neatly tailored dark gray trench coat, its waist cinched cleanly, her hair loosely tied up, and thin-rimmed glasses perched on her nose. As she passed the shelves, her fingers unconsciously tapped the metal frames, three light taps followed by one heavy one, rhythmically as if silently counting inventory, or perhaps measuring distance.
"Sit down." Zhang Xun poured a glass of water.
Bai Mo didn't sit down. She slowly walked around the store, her fingertips brushing over the climbing ropes, first aid kits, and compressed biscuits, finally stopping on the pile of boxes she had just brought from Lao Zhou.
"So much stock," she said, her back to Zhang Xun, her voice devoid of emotion, "I went to three wholesalers, two were closed, and one had the police called. You're quick on your feet."
Zhang Xun remained silent, simply watching her quietly, his fingers unconsciously gripping the edge of the counter.
Bai Mo turned around, pulled a brown paper folder from her bag, and instead of handing it to him directly, placed it on the table and gently pushed it with her fingertip—as if revealing a trump card.
"My friend took this picture at the hospital a day ago." She opened her phone, and a photo immediately caught her eye: in a corridor, a person was pinned to the ground, with a security guard holding a riot fork next to them. "His leg was broken by a car, but he's still crawling and chasing after people, biting them." Bai Mo's voice was completely flat, as if she were stating the weather. "The city's CDC recommended activating a level-one response that day, but it was suppressed by higher-ups."
Zhang Xun opened the folder. Internal hospital reports, classified government documents, pathogen analysis—it was full of technical jargon he couldn't understand, but he could understand terms like "aggressive behavior" and "central nervous system damage."
"Why suppress it?" he asked.
"Because this isn't a natural disaster." Bai Mo took off his glasses, rubbed his temples, and revealed dark circles under his eyes. "There are twenty simultaneous outbreak points globally, and Lanshan is just one of them. Airports, ports, hub cities—all on the same day, at the same time. You're saying this is a natural mutation?"
Zhang Xun stared at her: "What do you mean?"
"It means someone put something in the airport's ventilation system," Bai Mo's voice lowered even further. "It's not that the higher-ups didn't know; they knew all along. There are people there protecting their positions, people protecting the deals behind the scenes, and people waiting for the 'right time' to announce it."
She put her glasses back on, her gaze still calm, yet like a frozen lake: "They're not protecting that investment conference, they're protecting a much bigger scheme, a secret that can't be brought to light. But this lid is about to burst. In three days, five days at most, the news will leak out. And then—"
She didn't finish her sentence, but Zhang Xun understood. The more people who knew, the more people would scramble for supplies, and the faster order would collapse.
Why are you telling me this?
Bai Mo pulled a business card from his trench coat pocket and handed it over. On the back was an address: "West Suburbs Warehouse District, my rented safe house. If anything happens here, come find me there. Don't bring too many people."
She walked to the door, then turned back to look at him again: "By the way, your neighbor girl... she's quite cute."
The door closed softly. The footsteps faded into the distance, as if she had never been there.
Zhang Xun stood there, looking down at the business card. On the back, besides the address, there was a line of neat, small handwriting: "Protect her, and protect yourself."
He gripped the business card tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white.
What surged in his mind was that torrential rain three years ago. Bai Mo, soaked to the bone, stood on the mountainside with her camera in hand, and was the first to discover that abandoned forest ranger station, leading everyone to survival. As she was leaving, she said, "I owe you a very heavy favor, and I will repay it." At the time, he took it as a polite remark, smiled, and didn't take it to heart.
Now that she's here, she says, "Protect her, and protect yourself too."
Outside the warehouse door at the back, Lin Xiaotang peeked out: "Brother Xun, who just came by? That name sounds familiar."
Zhang Xun put the business card away and turned to look out the window. The street was peaceful, and the sunlight was just right.
"An old customer you've met before," he said. "Little Sugar, go back to the shop early tonight. Check if there's anything else you need to bring, and take it with you."
"good."
The sound of the torrential rain from three years ago echoed in his mind, mixed with Bai Mo's cold words just now. He knew that an even bigger "storm" was coming.
This time, however, he was no longer the guide leading the way.
He and she were perhaps just ordinary people struggling to survive in this torrential rain.
---
At six o'clock in the evening, Qin Wei walked out of the employee entrance, the heat wave mixed with car exhaust fumes hitting her face. She took off her mask, and her lungs felt like they were stuffed with cotton.
She hadn't slept for fourteen hours; her white coat was stained with iodine and bloodstains, and there was a tear in her left sleeve—torn by the agitated patient that afternoon. She should have gone straight home, but her phone was weighing heavily in her pocket.
She hailed a taxi and gave them the street where Zhang Xun's shop was located.
The car stopped at the entrance of "Xunye Outdoor" at exactly 6:40.
Zhang Xun stood by the roller shutter door, a half-smoked cigarette in his hand. Seeing her get out of the car, his gaze lingered for a second on the tear in her white coat, then he stuffed the cigarette back into his pocket, turned, and pushed open the door: "Come in."
The store was dark, with only the twilight filtering through the window, and there was a fresh smell of plastic in the air.
"Do you have protective suits?" Qin Wei's voice was terribly hoarse. "Something that can protect against splashes of bodily fluids."
Zhang Xun pulled a cardboard box from behind the counter. Inside were two full-body dust suits, hooded, and sealed with tape at the seams. "I got these from Lao Zhou this afternoon," he said. "There are also masks and gloves. How many do you want?"
"Two sets of each." Qin Wei squatted down, her fingertips tracing the material. "Also, give me some antibiotics and iodine, and bandages too."
Zhang Xun didn't ask why, turned around, rummaged through the drawer, took out a medicine box, and put it into a bag.
"Something happened at the hospital?" he asked.
"Hmm." Qin Wei tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her wrist still trembling slightly. "The patient in bed number three, after being confirmed dead this afternoon... moved again. He bit a nurse and scratched two family members. Ward three is now sealed off, and the ICU is full."
She spoke calmly, as if reporting a medical record, but her fingers were tightly gripping the protective suit, her knuckles turning white.
Zhang Xun paused. He remembered that the road to Cuiping Mountain was closed that afternoon; he remembered that before Lao Zhou closed the shop, he whispered that his cousin had seen "man biting man" in the emergency room.
"We're not allowed to say this," Qin Wei looked up, "but you know, right?"
"I guessed a little bit." Zhang Xun stuffed the medicine box into the bag, then tossed in two bottles of glucose. "Are you going to work tomorrow?"
"Four o'clock in the afternoon." Qin Wei took the bag; it felt heavy in her hands. "From four o'clock in the afternoon to eight o'clock the next morning."
Zhang Xun frowned: "Given the situation, why still go?"
Qin Wei paused, as if she hadn't expected him to ask that. She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously tracing the opening of the bag, her voice softening: "It's already a mess inside, we're short-handed. At a time like this, without me, it'll only get more chaotic."
"And what about yourself?"
"I'm a doctor," she looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot but her gaze steady, "In times like these, the longer I hold on, the longer someone else can live."
Zhang Xun didn't speak, took the bag, and stuffed a flashlight inside. He turned and pulled an old-fashioned walkie-talkie from under the counter, tuning it to a non-public frequency: "Take this with you. I'll keep it on. If anything's wrong inside, call me."
Qin Wei took the walkie-talkie; the metal casing was cold. She suddenly remembered that rainy night eight years ago, before graduation, when he gave her a glass bottle filled with sand and said, "I'll wait patiently." Now he no longer said "wait," but said, "I'll keep it on."
"Zhang Xun," her voice tightened, "if this really gets out of control..."
"Then get out alive," Zhang Xun interrupted her, handing the bag back to her. "No matter what happens, you have to get out alive. Shift change at eight, right? I'll wait for you until nine. If I don't hear from you, I'll come pick you up from the hospital."
Qin Wei wanted to say "Don't come," but the words stuck in her throat. She simply nodded, picked up the bag, and turned to walk towards the door. As she pushed open the door, a wave of heat rushed in, and the sound of an ambulance siren drifted from afar, growing louder before fading away.
She didn't turn around. Because she knew that if she turned around and saw him still standing under that unlit sign, she might not be able to walk back.
Zhang Xun stood there, watching her figure disappear around the street corner until the white silhouette was completely swallowed by the twilight, before slowly pulling down the roller shutter. The shop darkened, with only a sliver of gray-blue daylight filtering through the window. He placed the walkie-talkie beside his pillow, tuned it to the desired frequency, and then got up to check the bolt on the back door again.
Lin Xiaotang poked her head out from upstairs: "Brother Xun, Dr. Qin has left?"
"I'm leaving." Zhang Xun lay back down, pulling his coat over himself. "Going home to rest. My shift is at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon."
He closed his eyes, but couldn't sleep. The walkie-talkie lay silently beside his pillow, like a thunderbolt yet to explode. Outside the window, the ambulance siren sounded again, this time closer, sharply piercing the darkening twilight.
[End of Chapter 3]