As usual, Bai Long sat in the passenger seat, next to Avril, who was perfectly happy talking to herself.
Avril looked like a cool, aloof type, but she turned out to be surprisingly easy to get along with.
They’d only met twice, and she could already carry a whole one-sided conversation with Bai Long that ranged from heaven to earth: from what they’d had for lunch, to the zombie guy who’d gotten his junk cut off the day before.
“That sister is one ruthless woman. Heard she straight-up took a photo and posted it online. That trash boyfriend, well, I guess we should say trash corpse now, is officially dead, in both the physical and social sense.”
Bai Long thought back to the commission she’d seen at the time.
Bai Long: …
So someone had actually gone and done it!
But when they arrived at Sinai’s entrance, they didn’t get in as smoothly as before.
The one and only entrance to the Sinai compound was a total mess right now.
A whole crowd was packed at the gate, shouting and jostling.
The armed guards, afraid of hurting them, could only shout at them to back off while gripping their rifles tight.
“Stop pushing, stop pushing! Alright, they’ll be out in a minute! Keep shoving and you’ll all end up lying in there instead of walking in, is that what you want?!”
The captain of the armed guards had shouted himself hoarse.
A few of the guards struggled through the crowd to grab the iron railing blocking the gate, just barely keeping the surging crowd from breaking through.
“Hey! Ma, I’m over here!”
“Xiaojia! Xiaojia! Over here!”
“Come on, let’s go home!”
…
One after another, a steady stream of people walked out of the Sinai compound.
They reunited with the family waiting outside, then split off in twos and threes at the crossroads, each heading home.
“What’s going on today?”
Avril rested her hand on the car window and asked the guard doing the inspection.
“Ugh, don’t even get me started. The hospital developed a cure for the zombie mutation. All those people get to go home now. Worked us guys half to death, though.”
The guard’s words were all complaints, but there was a smile in his eyes.
“A cure for the zombie mutation?!”
Avril blurted out in disbelief.
Bai Long turned her head to look at this too.
A cure for the mutation?
No wonder all those people looked so radiant, those were rare, genuine smiles, the kind you hardly ever saw after the apocalypse.
“Pretty impressive, right? The doctors worked on it day and night for ages to figure it out.”
The guard practically glowed with secondhand pride.
“Alright, you’re cleared, go on in.”
So Avril and Bai Long made it to the outpatient building after all.
It was Lin Xi who came to meet them again this time.
“You’re here. Come with me.”
Lin Xi had two big dark circles under her eyes, but she looked happy, the corners of her eyes crinkled up.
“Congratulations! I can’t believe you really developed a cure for the zombies!”
Avril gave her a thumbs-up.
Bai Long smiled too. “Congratulations. You’ve all worked hard.”
Lin Xi tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and said shyly, “Healing the sick and saving lives is our job in the first place.”
“To be honest, I didn’t really help with much. It was all the teachers, working day and night to figure it out.”
When she mentioned the teachers, there was a light in her eyes.
You could tell she really revered her mentors.
“Then I guess things will be a little easier for you all for a while?”
Avril could tell they’d had a rough time during this stretch of closed-door research.
If she’d had her freedom taken away for months, she’d have gone stir-crazy long ago.
“Not yet. The drug’s only just been rolled out, and we still have to monitor how the patients do afterward. Plus, with the risk of zombie infection these past days, we turned away a lot of ordinary patients. We’ll probably start opening up again gradually.”
Thinking about the work still to come, Lin Xi looked like she could see a mountain bearing down on her.
They took the elevator to the third floor and happened to run into another doctor.
The doctor was still yawning, clearly someone who hadn’t gotten proper rest in a long time, obvious dark shadows under his eyes, hair all a mess.
Lin Xi saw the doctor and greeted him with a smile. “Dr. Wang, how’s that little girl from the day before yesterday doing?”
Dr. Wang immediately knew which child she meant. “Oh, she had a touch of gastroenteritis. Her mom said she’s pretty much recovered the last couple of days.”
“Is that so? Good to hear.” Lin Xi was visibly relieved.
Seeing this, Dr. Wang teased her with a grin. “Seriously, Little Lin, why don’t you come over to our pediatrics department? That little girl was even asking about you, you’re a real hit with the kids. Stop sticking around with the Demon King over in neurology.”
Lin Xi declined politely. “That would be an honor. But I have no plans to betray my teacher just yet.”
She blinked, showing a flash of the childishness natural for someone her age.
“Fine, fine, I know you worship your teacher most. I’m off, I’ve still got work. He really lucked out, snagging you.”
Dr. Wang was joking, and he soon left.
While the two of them had been talking, Avril noticed that something was off about Bai Long’s expression.
“What’s wrong? You look terrible. Are you feeling sick somewhere?”
Avril took the supply crate from Bai Long’s hands.
Bai Long didn’t expect an attack to hit her so suddenly at a time like this.
It felt as if all the blood in her body was flowing backward, the pain spreading to every part of her.
Cold sweat slid down the side of her forehead and dripped onto the floor.
The next second, before she could even get a word out, she completely lost consciousness.
“Chirp chirp!”
The little red bird circled around frantically, grabbing at her clothes with its beak, trying to hold her up.
Just before she blacked out, Bai Long thought she saw a white figure rushing toward her.
Like a beam of light.
…
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Bai Long felt as if she’d been wheeled somewhere, her nose was filled with the smell of disinfectant.
It felt like a needle had been stuck into the back of her hand.
She felt a faint prick and slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a sheet of snowy white.
“Are you okay? How do you feel?”
Lin Xi appeared in Bai Long’s field of vision.
“Chirp?”
The little red bird leaned in too, nuzzling worriedly against her neck.
“Barely still alive.”
Bai Long blinked, lifted a hand to stroke the little bird’s head, and noticed the gauze taped to her own hand.
“You’re a bit malnourished. I just gave you a nutrient drip, didn’t expect you to recover this fast.”
Lin Xi noticed where she was looking and explained.
“Thank you.”
Bai Long felt a little strength return and tried to sit up in bed.
“Don’t rush to move. Rest a while longer.”
Lin Xi stopped her.
“Where’s Avril?”
Bai Long didn’t see her around.
“Oh, she delivered the goods, and once she saw you were okay, she headed back to report in first. She said not to worry, she’ll cover for you on the work side.”
Lin Xi adjusted the flow rate of the IV, then turned and pulled up some medical literature on the light screen to read.
Only then did Bai Long notice that where she was wasn’t a hospital ward, it was more like an office cubicle.
“All the wards right now are full of patients turning into zombies, so it wouldn’t be safe for you to stay in one. That’s why I brought you here to our office.”
The doctors’ office had a small cot they used for temporary rest.
“Sorry for taking up your resting spot.”
Bai Long scratched her head, feeling that she really wasn’t in such bad shape.
“It’s fine. I wasn’t planning on resting anyway. And your malnutrition is actually pretty serious. I’m guessing you’re an esper, right? Have you just been too busy to eat?”
Lin Xi figured that compared to ordinary people, an esper at least shouldn’t have trouble keeping their stomach full.
“Uh…”
Bai Long didn’t know how to explain.
She knew this was an old condition of hers, but Lin Xi assumed it was malnutrition.
Could it be that a beastman’s body was just different from a human’s?
In the end she could only say vaguely, “I just get hungry pretty fast.”
Lin Xi smiled and tactfully didn’t press further.
Bai Long tried to change the subject. “You look like you haven’t rested in a long time. Shouldn’t you get some rest yourself?”
She pointed at Lin Xi’s dark circles.
“I’m fine. Besides, the more literature I read, the more conditions I’ll know about. If I run into a patient who needs it, I won’t be caught flat-footed.”
Half of Lin Xi’s face was lit by the warm yellow lamplight, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on the literature on the screen, taking notes now and then.
A hospital office is naturally shared by the doctors of the same department.
And now that all of Songdu’s doctors were gathered at Sinai Hospital, the office was even more crowded than usual.
Before long, a doctor in a white coat came in carrying a cup.
He paused when he saw Bai Long, then glanced at Lin Xi beside her and put on a knowing look.
“Little Lin, where’d you put the coffee? I can’t find it. Come help me look.”
The doctor shook his cup.
“Oh, sure.”
Lin Xi set down her pen and followed him out, pulling the cubicle door shut behind her.
Bai Long lay alone in the cubicle, everything around her quiet.
So quiet that she could clearly hear what the two of them were saying outside.
“Lin Xi, your old habit acting up again?”
The doctor had lowered his voice, probably afraid Bai Long would hear.
Heaven knows, Bai Long hadn’t meant to listen in.
It was just that a beastman’s hearing was too good. It would’ve been hard for her not to hear.
“Heh heh, won’t happen next time.”
That was Lin Xi’s placating voice.
“That’s exactly what you said last time, when you went a whole day without eating just to keep seeing patients.”
The doctor was clearly well acquainted with Lin Xi’s tricks and wasn’t moved. “On your first day in the department, the director must have told you.”
“Don’t empathize with the patients.”
After that line, there was a long silence.
Bai Long lay on the little cot with both hands behind her head, no particular expression on her face.
The tablet light screen Lin Xi had left on the desk suddenly lit up.
Someone had sent her a message.
Bai Long saw her lock screen.
It was the medical student’s oath.
【Health entrusted, lives placed in our hands.】
【I volunteer to devote myself to medicine… to heal the sick and save the dying, undaunted by hardship, in steadfast pursuit… and to strive my whole life for the physical and mental health of humankind.】
“Mm, I know.”
Lin Xi’s voice had dropped a little too.
“You know, but have you taken it to heart? You need to really let it sink in.”
The doctor’s tone carried a trace of disappointment, the kind you feel when someone won’t live up to their potential. “Keep this up and sooner or later something serious is going to happen.”
Lin Xi said softly, “But they came such a long way. Getting to the hospital really isn’t easy for them. Last time… someone came all the way from Region 103 just for it…”
Bai Long tilted her head slightly and saw a few little sticky notes pasted on the wall in front of Lin Xi’s spot.
【Bed 35, Auntie He’s catheter had a problem at two in the morning.】
【Bed 41, little Xinyi ran outside at night.】
…
One note after another, pasted neatly on the wall, reminding Lin Xi at every moment.
“But I can’t bear to see them disappointed… I want to save them…”
Lin Xi’s voice wasn’t loud, but she still couldn’t help arguing back.
“Lin Xi, you know we charge money to save people, right? We doctors aren’t gods.”
“To be honest, you’re not cut out to be a doctor.”
For some reason, Bai Long thought of Sun Shijing.
That zombie doctor she’d seen outside the city.
For an instant, she felt Lin Xi was a lot like him.
The sound of running water came from outside, Bai Long closed her eyes and turned to face away from the door.
Lin Xi gently pushed the door open and came in, stepping close to check on her IV before sitting back down at her desk.
Bai Long opened her eyes and saw Lin Xi sitting at her spot, staring blankly at those lines of the medical student’s oath on her lock screen.
“Knock knock…”
A knock came at the door, and a few young men and women who looked barely in their twenties came in.
They seemed to be students interning at the hospital.
The smile returned to Lin Xi’s face, and she gestured for them to keep it down. “Let’s talk outside.”
She pointed toward where Bai Long was lying.
The students made zipping-their-lips gestures and tiptoed back out.
The door was shut.
“Senior, about that cerebral hemorrhage patient you mentioned last time, there are a few things I don’t quite understand…”
“Senior, senior, that intubation you did before was so amazing! When you have time, could you teach me, heh heh…”
“Ahh~ when will I ever be as good as you, Senior… The patients all love you so much. Even old Mr. Luo in bed 9, who’s such a pain, likes you!”
…
“One at a time, I can’t clone myself, you know…”
Their voices gradually faded into the distance.
Once she could no longer hear them, Bai Long opened her eyes.
This one fainting spell had cost her the whole morning, by the time she came to, it was already afternoon.
She opened her star-ring and saw that Fang Ling had sent her several messages.
【Boss, where are you? What are we eating tonight?】
【Boss, why aren’t you back yet?】
【Did something happen, Boss?】
【Boss, are you okay?!】
…
Bai Long rubbed her temples and replied:
【I’m fine, got held up by something. I’ll be back soon.】
Fang Ling replied instantly, no telling how long he’d been waiting.
【Got it, Boss.】
【You scared me to death. I thought you’d been caught.】
Bai Long glanced at the saline bag, which was nearly empty, and was just about to pull out the needle and leave on her own when Lin Xi came back.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Seeing Bai Long moving to pull the needle out, she frowned.
It was the first time since Bai Long had known her that she’d seen Lin Xi make such an expression.
“You need to follow the doctor’s orders and not just move around as you please, understand?”
As Lin Xi spoke, she glanced at the saline bag and gently pulled the needle out for her.
“Make sure to eat properly once you’re back, okay? If you’re not careful, you might faint again next time.”
As she said this, she even handed Bai Long a cup of hot congee.
“Have a little something first.”
Bai Long took it and thanked her. “Thank you. I’ll transfer you the money, how much? Add in the saline and everything too. Let me go pay.”
“Payment’s at the front. As it happens, you’re the first patient since the hospital got back on track.”
Lin Xi didn’t mention the cost of the congee. She just walked Bai Long outside, then said she had to get back to her reading and left.
She didn’t give Bai Long the slightest chance to pay her.
Was this woman a reincarnated bodhisattva or something?
Bai Long, exasperated, decided to find a chance to transfer her the money later.
Back home, Fang Ling had been waiting on pins and needles for a long time.
Only when he saw Bai Long come back safe and sound did he relax.
“Get ready. We move tonight.”
Bai Long rolled her neck, it had gotten a little stiff from lying down so long.
“Tonight? Boss, are you sure you’re okay?”
Fang Ling saw the gauze still on Bai Long’s hand that she hadn’t peeled off and assumed she’d been hurt.
“I’m fine.” Bai Long peeled off the gauze, there was only a tiny needle mark on her hand.
“I just didn’t eat and got a little malnourished.”
Hearing that, Fang Ling immediately stood up. “I’ll go make you food! Eat first, then we’ll talk.”
And with that he rushed off to the kitchen in a whirlwind.
He’d lived alone before, and his cooking was actually quite good.
You could tell just from the lean-meat congee he made.
Bai Long had no masochistic streak, she decided to eat first and head out after.
Fang Ling’s skills did not disappoint her.
Considering she was a little weak, Fang Ling didn’t make anything too rich or greasy, he made a bowl of chicken-soup egg noodles.
Fine, rice-white noodles sat in golden chicken broth.
Fang Ling had carefully skimmed off all the natural oil from the chicken soup, leaving only a clean, savory broth.
The egg was fried just right, crisp on the outside and tender within.
Bai Long polished off three big bowls in one go.
Watching how much she ate, Fang Ling was momentarily stunned.
He hadn’t really noticed before, with hot pot and the like.
But now, watching her eat the noodles, it hit Fang Ling belatedly:
Is Boss eating too much?
By the time Fang Ling had cleaned up, Bai Long was ready to set out too.
“Let’s go.”
Bai Long nodded at him.
Fang Ling raised his hand, and the familiar black-purple mist appeared out of thin air, taking the shape of a doorway.
Bai Long was an old hand at this by now.
She passed through the mist, and the scene before her abruptly shifted to another unfamiliar place.
It was a cramped little stall.
She nearly stepped right into a toilet.
Bai Long: …
What a great spot he’d picked…
Fang Ling came through right behind her, but because the space was too small, only half of his body made it over.
His right half was still back home.
“Boss, this is the dormitory’s public restroom. There’s a camera outside.”
Fang Ling pointed at the corner in the upper right.
Bai Long raised her hand.
A thread of water ran up along the blind corner and finally smeared over the camera lens, forming a film of water over it that blurred the image.
“Done.”
She pushed open the stall door and walked out.
This freed Fang Ling to extract his right half too.
“Boss, do you know which dorm the person you’re looking for is in?”
Fang Ling withdrew the portal.
He’d worried earlier that the camera might catch them teleporting in, which was why he’d specifically found a restroom stall the lens didn’t cover.
He really was the boss’s good right hand.
“I saw it when I was at the hospital.”
As Bai Long spoke, she scanned the dorm wall for something.
“Their doctors’ dorms are also assigned by department. The director usually gets the first single room.”
She’d barely finished speaking when she spotted the target dorm.
“Found it.”
By coincidence, the psychiatry and neurology dorms had both been assigned to the same floor.
That actually saved Bai Long a lot of time, she didn’t have to sift through floor by floor.
The dorms all had electronic keypad locks.
Obviously the hospital wasn’t going to just leave the passwords lying around in plain sight.
So Bai Long messaged her off-site support.
【Your dad, what would he set as his room password?】
Chi Wan and Chi Zao nearly fell off their stools when they got this message.
【Boss… my dad loves my mom very much.】
Chi Zao tried to gently set Bai Long straight.
Mainly, the age difference made them a bad match anyway!
【…What is wrong with you? I’m outside your dad’s dorm, I snuck in. The password’s four digits.】
Now Chi Wan understood.
【0819.】
The instant Bai Long entered the password and the door opened, she also heard voices coming from the stairwell.
Sinai had just wrapped up the big project of zombie-suppression research, and quite a few doctors had earned a rare day off.
“Dead tired. Finally get a day to rest.”
“Hey, Dr. Zhou, that patient in bed 19 last time seems a bit mentally unstable still. Should we add some sedatives?”
“Is that so… Then I’ll go check on the situation first. You all go eat.”
“Director Chi, thanks for your hard work! Want to grab a meal together later?”
“Next time. I’ve still got a few papers to read. There’s a problem with the second phase of the experiment.”
“Alright then, we’ll head off first. Want us to bring you back some food?”
“No need. Round up Little Lin and go swipe my card, everyone’s been working hard lately, after all.”
…
“Click!”
“The door’s open, get in quick.”
Bai Long yanked over Fang Ling, who was still spacing out in the hallway.
The inside of the dorm was very tidy, with just a single bed, a desk, and a chair.
The furniture was pitifully sparse, it looked about the same as a prison cell.
After going in, Bai Long and Fang Ling didn’t wander around, they just hid near the door.
“Boss, we’re not gonna get arrested, are we?”
Fang Ling asked quietly.
“Mm, very possibly. It all depends now on whether Chi Shen still recognizes his kids.”
Bai Long’s face was dead serious.
They’d barely exchanged a few words when the door opened.
Fang Ling hid in the spot closest to the corner behind the door.
The door practically smacked him in the nose.
After Chi Shen came in, he didn’t notice the two people hidden in the blind spot, and walked straight toward the desk.
Bai Long was thinking.
She wondered whether Chi Shen, at his age… had any heart problems.
It’d be bad if they scared him into a heart attack.
After careful consideration, Bai Long decided this wasn’t a job she should do.
So she muted her star-ring and placed a video call to Chi Zao.
The call connected, and Chi Zao’s big face appeared on the screen.
Before he could speak, Bai Long aimed the video angle at Chi Shen.
“Dad!”
Chi Zao shouted.
Bai Long clearly saw Director Chi’s body give a little jolt.
No telling whether it was from fright or what.
In that instant Chi Shen heard the voice of his good-for-nothing son and jumped, startled, thinking he was hearing things.
He assumed it was from pulling too many late nights at work lately, only to look up and see Chi Zao’s silly face.
“Dad! I missed you to death!”
“Get lost, you brat!”
Director Chi’s grave, hospital-bigwig dignity vanished in an instant.
“Dad, are you doing okay?”
Chi Wan appeared in the video too, looking at her dear old father with no small amount of concern.
At the sight of Chi Wan, Chi Shen’s expression softened considerably.
“Good girl, you made it back. You didn’t get hurt out there, did you?”
Chi Zao was thoroughly ignored.
Chi Wan was reliable as always, summing up their whole journey for Chi Shen in just a few sentences.
Only then did Chi Shen notice Bai Long and her companion holding the star-ring, who had inexplicably appeared in his dorm.
Upon learning that she was the savior of his daughter and his foolish son, Chi Shen couldn’t be bothered to pursue the matter of their breaking in.
What’s more, Chi Wan had told him it was Chi Zao who’d given them the room password.
“I’ll deal with you later, you little brat.”
Chi Shen shot Chi Zao a glare, then turned to Bai Long and the others with a kindly smile.
“Thank you for saving my children. Please, have a seat. The place is a bit small, let me pour you some water.”
There was no tea in the dorm, so Chi Shen poured each of them a cup of water.
Chi Wan had already explained to Chi Shen why Bai Long had come.
“Dad, hurry and take a look at her.”
“It’d be best if you came to the hospital with me in the next couple of days. I’ll give you a full-body checkup.”
Hearing Bai Long’s situation, Chi Shen spoke meticulously.
“I’m a beastman. Will the checkup be a problem?”
Bai Long said it openly.
She’d never considered her beastman identity something hard to admit.
Wearing colored contacts to cover it up was just to save herself unnecessary trouble.
At her words, both Fang Ling and Chi Shen froze.
But Chi Shen quickly recovered.
“In that case, some things might not show up on the hospital’s instruments. But let’s go give it a try first.”
It was Chi Shen’s first time dealing with a beastman too.
Yet he acted perfectly naturally, just as if treating a patient whose condition was a touch puzzling.
A doctor must not discriminate against any patient, all patients must be treated equally.
Chi Shen had lived by this principle from his very first day in the profession.
“Do you have time right now? I’ll go arrange a ward for you.”
Chi Shen took out his star-ring.
Bai Long wanted to resolve the problem with her body as soon as possible too, afraid of running into another situation like fainting suddenly.
If it happened at home, fine, but if she suddenly fainted in the middle of fighting zombies, she’d be done for.
Ever since hearing the news that Bai Long was a beastman, Fang Ling had been sullen.
He silently trailed behind her, following her to the hospital and getting her settled in a ward.
Taking Bai Long’s special circumstances into account, plus the debt of gratitude for saving his children, Chi Shen arranged a VIP ward for her.
A single private room with its own bathroom, a desk with a big screen, and even a small balcony.
Chi Shen went off to arrange the specifics of the checkup.
Left in the ward were only Bai Long and Fang Ling, plus one bird.
Bai Long lay in bed. “You’ve got something to say?”
She’d noticed that Fang Ling’s mood had been off this whole time.
Fang Ling sat on the companion’s stool, head down, saying nothing, his hands restlessly fidgeting with the hem of his clothes.
“I’ll go get you something to eat.”
In the end he didn’t say anything, he just lowered his head and went out in silence.
Bai Long lay with both hands behind her head. She had a pretty good idea what was behind Fang Ling’s strange behavior.
In all likelihood it was because he’d found out she was a beastman.
She opened her star-ring and pulled up the esper center interface to browse.
The little red bird landed by her pillow and saw the teammate-recruitment page she was looking at.
It hopped a couple of steps closer and nestled into the crook of Bai Long’s neck.
A tiny little ball, ceaselessly passing its warmth to Bai Long.
Bai Long figured she might be about to go back to being a lone operator.
She didn’t feel much about it herself, it was just that finding a new teammate again would be a pain.
Just as she was browsing in earnest—
The ward door swished open.
At some point Fang Ling had draped the black cloth back over his face, his whole manner wild and unrestrained.
The only jarring detail was the lunchbox he was carrying.
To keep the doctors’ basic living standards up so they could research more effectively, Songdu had kept the hospital cafeteria running, delivering living supplies to the doctors every day.
Bai Long was a little taken aback to see him come back.
When she saw the lunchbox in his hand, she was even more surprised.
Knowing how badly Fang Ling’s social anxiety ran, making him go talk to the cafeteria ladies serving food was practically asking him to die.
What’s more, the hospital cafeteria currently served only doctors, you needed to swipe a staff card.
Where had Fang Ling gotten a card?
Bai Long just watched as Fang Ling, who should be called the Emperor now, carried the lunchbox over, set up the tray table on the hospital bed, and laid the dishes out one by one in front of her.
The moment she saw the food, Bai Long knew it had to be something Fang Ling had made himself.
“You…”
Before Bai Long could speak, Fang Ling cut in first. “These are tributes the Demon Dragon has presented to Us. We have long ceased to consume such garbage, it is all yours.”
Bai Long stared silently at the dishes on the table.
Cumin lamb chops, curry beef, agate-glazed lion’s-head meatballs…
It was practically a full imperial banquet, and every dish was meat.
These dishes definitely were not something a hospital cafeteria should have.
“You went back home?”
Bai Long’s expression was a little odd.
“How impudent!”
Fang Ling’s eyes drifted away. “We are the Dark Demon Emperor of the Eternal Night! How could We possibly cook?!”
Bai Long: Nobody said you cooked anything, did they…
Fang Ling seemed to realize he’d given himself away with that protest, and cleared his throat twice. “Thou hast concealed thy beastman identity from Us. We have decided to impose this Demon Dragon Banquet Array upon thee as a punishment. Should there be a repeat offense, We shall not let thee off so easily!”
As he said this, he even shot Bai Long a rather reproachful look.
Ahh~ so he was angry because she hadn’t told him she was a beastman first.
Bai Long didn’t expect that this was Fang Ling’s sticking point.
She looked at the painstakingly prepared dishes before her, clearly a fair amount of effort had gone into them, not to mention that many of the ingredients were hard to find in the apocalypse.
“This time I forgot to tell you. It won’t happen again.”
The look in Bai Long’s eyes softened.
For the sake of all this food, Bai Long figured there’d be no harm in telling Fang Ling more things going forward.
“As long as thou knowest!”
Fang Ling was very satisfied, arms folded across his chest as he watched Bai Long sweep through every dish like a whirlwind.
He grew even more satisfied.
Looked like she had a good appetite today.
The doctor said she was malnourished, he’d have to research more nourishing dishes from now on.
Fang Ling secretly resolved.
This was nothing special, merely a little consideration he, as the world’s number one emperor, showed toward his dearest friend.
Fang Ling’s self-brainwashing was a complete success.
Bai Long ate this meal very contentedly. Fang Ling watched very contentedly too.
…
Over the few days Bai Long spent getting checkups at the hospital, the news on the StarNet about Sinai developing a zombification suppressant kept growing.
【This is wonderful! With a zombification suppressant, we won’t have to fear zombies anymore!】
【Sob, the medical workers have had it so hard all this time! Thank you so, so much!】
【Right, right! They’ve already developed a suppressant, doesn’t that mean the apocalypse will be over soon?!】
The StarNet was all joy these past days, as if the apocalypse were already nearly over.
But Bai Long, inside the hospital, didn’t find the situation so optimistic.
“Little Wang, how did that second round of experiments turn out last time?”
“Not great. Several of the key indicators fell short.”
“The old man in bed 28 didn’t make it. The zombification was too severe, and he passed…”
“Bed 87 too. His mutation suddenly worsened last night, and he didn’t respond well to the drug. He couldn’t be saved by this morning…”
Doctors came and went, hurrying between the lab and the wards.
On the bright side, as more people were cured of zombification recently, quite a few beds had freed up, and some normal patients had been admitted.
Bai Long blending in among these normal patients wasn’t strange at all.
That day, Chi Shen came over as usual to give Bai Long her checkup.
“The imaging and test results from the past couple of days are in.”
Chi Shen had Bai Long step into the examination instrument.
The instrument was a long cylinder.
After Bai Long stepped inside, a semi-transparent blue light shone down from above her head, slowly scanning her whole body from top to bottom.
“I looked up a lot of material on beastman readings these past two days, but there are almost no records of beastmen in the lower districts.”
It was Chi Shen’s first time with a beastman patient too.
Before examining Bai Long, he’d consulted many specialist doctors and dug through reference material, but the results had been deeply unsatisfying.
“Going by the data, if we measure against normal human indicators, there aren’t many problem areas. The malnutrition is a bit serious, though.”
Chi Shen looked over this round of test results.
All the growth-and-development data for Bai Long’s body showed that she currently fell short of the level of a normal human her age.
“The numbers have gone up a bit over the last few days, though. You’ve been eating decently lately.”
Chi Shen lightened the mood a little.
“It has been decent, true.”
Bai Long nodded.
After a few rounds, she had a pretty good idea that getting a clear diagnosis at a human hospital was probably not going to happen.
They’d never had any beastman data before, and she couldn’t very well force them to produce results.
Besides, she really had been eating quite well these past days.
That was all thanks to Fang Ling’s cooking.
Hearing Bai Long praise him, a faint flush rose on Fang Ling’s pale white face.
But very soon, he started worrying about Bai Long’s health again.
The little red bird, once Bai Long stepped out, immediately returned to its throne and nuzzled her.
“While reading material these past couple of days, I found that the middle tier very likely has more data on beastmen. If you get the chance, I’d suggest you try going to the middle tier.”
Chi Shen pulled up the report and gently advised Bai Long.
“The middle tier?”
Bai Long had already been planning to go to the middle tier, just not so urgently.
But if it really was as Chi Shen said, then she might have no choice but to go.
“The middle tier is different from the lower tier. There are more opportunities and resources there. Medical technology too.”
When Chi Shen said this, his expression didn’t change much.
“Alright, understood. Thank you, doctor.”
Bai Long nodded.
They’d just finished talking when there was a knock at the consulting room door.
“Teacher, something seems off with this patient’s condition…”
Lin Xi pushed the door open and came in, freezing for a moment when she saw Bai Long.
“Oh, so the Demon King they all talk about is Dr. Chi.”
It clicked for Bai Long in an instant.
The earlier dorm arrangement was something she’d seen back in Lin Xi’s office.
The head director of neurology, Chi Shen.
At the time it hadn’t occurred to her to make that connection.
Chi Shen’s gaze suddenly turned complicated.
Lin Xi gave an awkward little “heh heh” laugh.
“I won’t disturb you two, then.”
Seeing that they had things to discuss, Bai Long took Fang Ling and left.
As it happened, she had other matters to attend to anyway.
“Oh right, Dr. Chi, I need to head out for a bit today. That’s not a problem, is it?”
Chi Shen: “Just don’t tell me about it.”
Bai Long gave a knowing smile.
By the time she got outside the hospital, security there had eased up compared to the previous days.
But there were still plenty of armed guards patrolling, mainly to keep anyone turning into a zombie from going berserk.
After Bai Long’s screening came back clean, she left Sinai without trouble.
“I’ve already tracked down the Black Iron Arrow’s shop.”
Fang Ling opened the map, a single marker blinked on it.
“It’s a bit out of the way, but still inside Songdu.”
Bai Long stretched her limbs. “Let’s go.”
Finally, they’d found it.
…
The shop’s location was very out of the way, down an old alley.
The alley was narrow and winding, the address plate long since blurred beyond reading.
One wrong turn and you’d wander into some household’s open back courtyard, and it would take you ages to find your way out again.
Bai Long looked at the storefront in front of her and turned to Fang Ling. “Seriously?”
Fang Ling’s face was red, but he nodded firmly. “Seriously.”
In front of them was a gaudy pink-purple light-up sign.
The kind of place that, at one glance… looked extremely sketchy.
On the left side of the sign there was even a photo of a buff guy, completely naked.
The shop’s name: Goodnight, Milady.
Bai Long: …
Just as she was looking, the frosted-glass door swung open, and the wind chimes on it jingled.
Bai Long had never seen anyone so beautiful.
How beautiful, exactly?
The kind that made her let out an audible “Wow” on the spot.
“Wow…”
Bai Long stared, unable to look away, at the gorgeous, alluring woman who was just about to walk into the shop.
The big sister had a head of brown, wavy hair, draped over her shoulders smooth as silk satin.
She wore a pair of sunglasses that covered most of her face, leaving her slightly pointed chin exposed, her skin fair and lustrous.
In the dim surroundings, she was so pale she seemed to glow.
Noticing the two people standing off to the side, the big sister tilted her head slightly, the corners of her sand-orange lipsticked lips curving up, and gave a light laugh. “Little miss, are you here to play too?”
Bai Long looked at this big sister, who was a full head taller than her, and fell uncharacteristically silent.
She only came up to the woman’s chest.
Looking straight ahead, all Bai Long saw was the slightly parted neckline of the big sister, and above that, her pale skin and the clean line of her collarbone.
Bai Long, who’d always had more contact with corpses than with living people, short-circuited for a moment.
Fortunately the big sister didn’t take offense, she just laughed meaningfully. “Have fun~”
With that, she stepped inside on her black stiletto heels, swaying gracefully.
“Boss, she’s gone.”
Fang Ling poked her.
“Fang Ling, I’ve made a bit of money lately, but I still can’t afford a gigolo.”
Bai Long’s expression was complicated.
“Huh?”
Fang Ling didn’t get it. “Boss, do you want roast duck for dinner?”
Bai Long fell silent for a second, feeling it was her responsibility to protect the innocence of this naive boy.
“I’ll go in first. You wait here.”
With that, Bai Long took a deep breath and pushed open the shop door.
It was dim inside the shop.
There was only a rather suggestive purple mood light.
This place looked more and more wrong the longer she looked, geez!
“This way, miss. First time here, right? What would you like to play with?”
A buff guy with bulging muscles emerged from the corner.
A buff guy wearing nothing but a tight pair of swim trunks.
You could even make out the shape of his bits down there.
Bai Long: My eyes, my eyes!
Fang Ling said with a perfectly straight face: “We’ll take you.”
Bai Long, shocked: Holy crap! Fang Ling’s that adventurous?!
The smile faded from the buff guy’s face, a storm was brewing.
Bai Long was thinking.
She was thinking about whether, when Fang Ling got beat up in a moment, she should run, or ditch him and run.
“Follow me.”
The buff guy looked at them expressionlessly.
Fang Ling followed along naturally.
Bai Long hesitated for a moment over whether she should follow, what if she saw something she shouldn’t?
But she decided she’d better fish her teammate out of trouble.
Bai Long followed them as they wound this way and that through the shop.
The shop looked like it had only one storefront, but the inside was unexpectedly deep, twisting around like a string of looped intestines.
At last the buff guy opened a metal iron door.
The iron door was all mottled rust, with unidentifiable grease stains on it besides.
Right then, Bai Long got the feeling this was the right vibe.
A place like this, you definitely had to go in.
Behind the door was a whole other unspeakable scene.
The walls all around were hung with swords, spears, blades, halberds, guns, cannons, fire lances…
Weapons of every kind, like a catalog laid open.
“What do you want?”
The shopkeeper sitting behind the dim counter asked listlessly.
Bai Long slapped the Black Iron Arrow down on the counter. “I want information on this person.”
The shopkeeper glanced at the Black Iron Arrow and went on listlessly, “This shop has principles. We don’t disclose customer information.”
Look at this whole shop of yours that ought to be hauled off by the cops, and you’re talking about principles?
Fang Ling was clearly more familiar with how things worked here. “Name a price. We’ll trade.”
The shopkeeper didn’t react.
“Boss, I’ll cover their price.”
Bai Long saw that gorgeous big sister again.
The big sister smiled at her and set something in her hand down on the counter.
It was a human arm.
And not a zombie’s, a living person’s arm.
The shopkeeper swept the arm away without changing expression, then took out a chip and tossed it to Bai Long.
“What you want is inside.”
Bai Long caught it cleanly and looked at the gorgeous big sister.
“What do you want?”
she asked.
The big sister’s smile widened. “To make a friend.”
She gave the star-ring on her wrist a little shake.
“My name’s Chuchu.”