20 – Are all the surgeries tonight over?
Ye Yuntong raised her eyes, her gaze brimming with a roguish, mischievous light.
“Tongtong, isn’t that the man you extorted money from today?”
Dong Qi, bald-headed and not wearing his wig tonight, turned from the driver’s seat to look at Ye Yuntong in the back, frowning as he asked, “You’re not still holding a grudge, are you?!”
A smirk curled at the corner of Ye Yuntong’s lips as she watched the red dot on her phone ticking closer and closer to the hospital. “Exactly. Who told him to cross me?”
Crossed her…
Hearing this, Dong Qi couldn’t help but offer a silent prayer for that guy.
Why on earth would you provoke anyone but Tongye?
Better pray for yourself!
Maternity and Children’s Hospital.
Qin Dingzhang’s mind kept replaying the details of this mission.
It was just about apprehending an unarmed pharmacist.
Although the hospital was crowded and chaotic, making it difficult to locate someone, compared to missions like capturing drug dealers in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia or maintaining stability and combating pirates along the Panama Canal, this search-and-find task seemed almost too simple.
They had been given Bruce’s appearance, height, weight, even his vocal characteristics.
They didn’t necessarily need to capture him directly; just forcing him out of the hospital would suffice.
Yet, at the same time, the information provided to them ended there—nothing more.
Bruce, a Chinese national with Y citizenship, occupation: community pharmacist.
Crime committed: classified; threat level: S.
They didn’t even know what crime he had committed.
That in itself was the biggest problem!
Qin Dingzhang had been pondering the mission in the car. On the surface, it didn’t seem particularly challenging, yet it felt full of unknowns.
He entered the hospital using his work badge.
All internal information about the hospital had been sent to them: details of all doctors and staff, as well as patient records.
Of course, the large number of people flowing in and out of the hospital was hard to track, but it still helped narrow down the search significantly.
Moreover, this Bruce had chosen a clever hiding spot—a public place like a hospital with high foot traffic, making it difficult to clear out forcibly. But even with 24-hour surveillance outside, Qin Dingzhang didn’t believe Bruce was trapped…
Instead, he felt Bruce had deliberately hidden here, as if… waiting.
But what was he waiting for?
As he entered the outpatient department, the electronic sensor doors closed and locked behind him.
Only the emergency outpatient area at the front desk remained lit. The nurse on duty was dozing off in the office, and the two expectant mothers scheduled for delivery tonight had already been taken to the operating room.
They had backup power, so a blackout wasn’t a concern.
Once inside, Qin Dingzhang headed straight for all the blind spots indicated on the map: restrooms, regardless of gender, the underground morgue, emergency stairwells, the rooftop. Everywhere he went, he left behind an infrared thermal sensor.
Any living being with body heat would be detected!
He and Xu Dongzhi were working simultaneously—one in the outpatient department, the other in the inpatient ward.
This time, they were using the most straightforward method to find their target: searching floor by floor, covering every surveillance blind spot.
The building’s exterior was already under 24-hour satellite surveillance. They refused to believe that, once the infrared sensors were fully deployed, Bruce would have anywhere left to hide.
“Countdown, power outage imminent.” Li Weifeng’s voice sounded in his ear.
Qin Dingzhang looked up at the clock on the wall in the lobby.
Countdown…
Three…
Two…
One!
“Power’s out!”
Almost simultaneously, the maternal and child health hospital, which had operated for seven or eight years without ever experiencing a power outage, plunged into darkness at that very moment. Even the billboards outside and the streetlights in the hospital’s open spaces flickered before extinguishing completely with a soft click.
Fortunately, all staff on duty tonight had been notified in advance that the power would be cut for fifteen minutes due to circuit maintenance. After a brief moment of surprise, the staff understood the situation and remained calm, showing no signs of alarm.
Similarly, it was already half past eleven, and the few people staying overnight to accompany patients were not overly alarmed by the blackout. The inpatient wards had already turned off their lights at ten o’clock, so the only additional effect was the corridors also losing power, which had little impact.
The brief power outage did not cause significant panic, but it officially marked the beginning of the cat-and-mouse game.
After Li Weifeng’s monitor went dark, it lit up again, switching directly to infrared thermal imaging mode. Each small grid clearly displayed people in the wards or corridors.
In his computer, the entire hospital transformed at that moment. Every location equipped with surveillance cameras had them simultaneously rotate to wide-angle views, analyzing and presenting everyone within their range directly into their computers. In areas without camera coverage, the infrared thermal sensors placed earlier by Qin Dingzhang and Xu Dongzhi began moving, scanning every accessible space they could reach.
The hospital building seemed to have been placed inside a scanner, layer by layer turning completely transparent. No matter how people inside moved or hid, they could not escape the building-wide scan.
Even if Bruce managed to escape the building at this moment, waiting for him outside would be 24-hour satellite surveillance.
No one could possibly hide.
Layer by layer, the floors were rapidly analyzed in Li Weifeng’s computer. All imaged individuals were quickly matched with numerical values. At this point, the previously provided information about Bruce’s height and weight became extremely useful. While thermal imaging could not reveal a person’s true appearance, these numerical values provided sufficient reference.
Anyone with even slight similarities would undergo detailed matching and be screened one by one.
“First floor clear!”
“Second floor clear!”
“Rooftop clear!”
“Inpatient wards fully cleared, no suspect found!”
“Outpatient department fully cleared, no suspect found!”
Time passed minute by minute. After ten minutes, there was still no sign of Bruce!
It was truly baffling! Even cabinets that could potentially hide someone were no match for infrared intrusion. Where could he possibly be hiding?!
“Impossible!” Xu Dongzhi, stationed at the junction between the inpatient and outpatient buildings, exclaimed. “We placed infrared detectors in every possible angle. Weifeng, check if any of our surveillance cameras or detectors have been damaged!”
“All data transmissions are intact!”
“That’s really strange! I even walked through the cafeteria. Where else could someone hide? Could he have already escaped? But that’s impossible too!”
Qin Dingzhang stood at the emergency passage entrance, frowning deeply. He stared at the glowing green emergency notification sign in the darkness, his gaze sharpening. “In the operating rooms!”
Tonight, there were two women waiting to give birth!
The operating rooms could still hide someone!
The third-floor operating rooms were adjacent, with family members in the corridor grumbling and complaining.
“My wife is still giving birth! How could the power go out like this?!”
“Sir, please don’t worry. The operating rooms have backup power and won’t be affected,” the duty nurse patiently reassured them.
“How could there be a sudden power outage?! Even in a hospital?!”
“Please don’t worry, it seems to be a circuit inspection. Power will be restored by midnight!”
The two accompanying family members reluctantly quieted down after hearing the explanation. At that moment, a man in a white coat hurried over in the darkness.
“Have all the surgeries for tonight been completed?!”