Chapter 21

After the broadcast ended, the sound seemed to still linger in the air. Jiang Fei whispered to Lanser, "Did you hear that?"

"I'm not deaf." Lanser stood aside. Even among a pile of bones, he remained calm and composed. His mental strength was extremely strong. Jiang Fei asked again: "This medical center has been abandoned for a long time, right? Is there still electricity now?"

The possibility of a backup power supply cannot be ruled out, but this is too much of a coincidence. Jiang Fei did not act rashly. Since there are people with superpowers in this world, it seems reasonable for other strange things to happen.

"We've entered their 'territory,'" Lanser said. "I thought it only existed in rumors, but it actually exists."

What field is this? What new term is this?

"What is that?" Jiang Fei seemed to hear rustling noises from the bottom stairs. At first she thought she had misheard, but as the thing moved upstairs little by little, the noise became more and more obvious.

Lance glanced in that direction and said, "I've heard that a large number of deaths at once can affect the magnetic field in that area, creating a so-called 'field.' Within that 'field,' nothing can be explained by common sense. The laws of nature and science are distorted to varying degrees."

As soon as she finished speaking, the thing downstairs suddenly sped up. Jiang Fei's light passed by there, and she saw that the thing had human limbs, but the head was nowhere to be seen. The whole body used its hands and feet to climb the stairs very quickly, but the movement posture was more like that of an arthropod insect.

If you look closely, you'll find that the creature's limbs are insect legs connected to a human torso. The scene is extremely weird.

Fortunately, Jiang Fei had brought a pistol with her before going out, but the thing was too fast, and she only hit one of its legs, exploding a sticky dark green liquid. Jiang Fei pulled Lanser towards her and shouted at him, "Go see if the door can be opened!"

Without any hesitation, Lanser followed Jiang Fei's command and rushed to the stairwell entrance where they came from. The door was not locked, and he even opened it very easily. However, the scene behind the door was not the same as before. His pupils dilated slightly because of shock.

"Is the door open!?" Jiang Fei shouted loudly.

This time, Lance was strangely silent. After a few seconds, his voice trembled as he said, "It's open..."

"Then why are you still standing there!" Jiang Fei shot the monster again, and this time he was lucky enough to hit its abdomen directly.

"It hurts so much, wuwuwu... It hurts so much." The voice was a clear child's voice, but the next second it turned into a strong male voice, "It hurts so much, how dare you hit me!?" In just a few seconds, the voice turned into that of a fierce middle-aged woman, "You have no eyes, how dare you hit me!"

Jiang Fei didn't care too much. She rushed to Lanser, grabbed his wrist, and led him out of the stairwell. She blocked the door with a dagger.

The monster continued to bang on the door. After a few bangs, the sound changed. This time it was the voice of an elderly person, "Please open the door for me. I am too old to open the door."

Lanser suddenly said, "You said that Carl and the others are still alive, right?"

"What?" According to the information from the human-faced hawk moth, they were indeed still alive, but Lance's strange tone made Jiang Fei less sure. She looked in the direction of Lance's finger, and saw several more corpses on the ground in the entertainment area that was empty just now. The corpse closest to Jiang Fei's feet looked very familiar to her. It was Captain Carl.

"How is it possible..." she murmured. Could it be that the Hawkmoth's information was wrong? No, although the Hawkmoth was sometimes too noisy and the information it collected was mixed, she had never questioned the authenticity of the information.

Jiang Fei cautiously stood still and didn't move closer. She said, "If this is a special 'territory', as you said before, nothing can be explained by common sense. This doesn't necessarily mean these are their real bodies."

Lanser recovered from his shock. "You mean this is an illusion within the 'realm', like a mirage."

"You can understand it that way." Jiang Fei pulled Lanser around the corpses on the ground. This time they changed to a safe passage. With the previous experience, they were very careful when walking in the stairwell, but this time it was surprisingly smooth. They did not encounter bones piled up on the stairs, nor did they encounter headless monsters.

Jiang Fei knew that Karl was trapped on the 45th floor, which meant that they had to go down three floors. Jiang Fei could vaguely feel that something was wrong with this place. They came to the 47th floor and the door of the stairwell was ajar. She heard the man outside the door mumbling to himself, as if he was in a neurotic state.

"Why can't we leave here?"

“Why why why why why—!!!” “I want to get out of here, I want to get out of here!! Let me get out of here!!”

Jiang Fei made a silent gesture to Lanser, and the two looked at each other. They both recognized that it was Carl's voice, that of Carl who was hysterical after falling into despair. Jiang Fei looked out from the crack in the door and saw the blood spreading on the ground. It had not coagulated, which meant that it had just flowed out of the body. She slowly moved her eyes upwards.

Suddenly, she saw an eyeball covered with red bloodshot.

"You're too late, too late, too late!! We can't leave here, we will all die here!!" Carl, who had been slumped on the ground just now, rushed in front of Jiang Fei at some point, his whole body pressed tightly against the iron door of the stairwell, and his face was stained with a few drops of splattered blood.

Jiang Fei stepped back suddenly. She wanted to close the door, but "Karl" on the other side went crazy. He banged on the iron door desperately, "I can't get out. I can't leave here!! Let me out!! You, you will all die here! Then let me kill you first!!"

"Come and help!" Jiang Fei tried hard to hold the iron door, but "Carl" was so strong that she felt like she was going to be knocked away along with the door. Lanser's whole body was also against the door, with his legs forming a 45-degree acute angle with the ground. The two of them worked together to hold back the crazy "Carl".

They hurried downstairs, and the sound of banging on the iron door echoed in the empty stairwell. Jiang Fei felt that her hands were still shaking slightly. She really regretted not bringing Jason with her. Now she had a weak doctor with her, and if a monster appeared again, she would have to let Black Cat deal with it.

She originally thought that this was just an ordinary ruin, which was at most a little dangerous due to the aging internal structure of the building, but she didn't expect it to be so dangerous!

"Are these hallucinations or..." Lanser guessed, "Maybe we have inhaled some hallucinogenic substances."

"Then can we still produce the same illusion?" Jiang Fei thought for a while, "According to what you said before, the 'field' will affect the magnetic field, so is there a possibility that it will also affect time and space?" The more Jiang Fei spoke, the more he felt that this explanation was the most reasonable.

"Is each layer a different space-time?" Lanser thought Jiang Fei was just daydreaming, but Jiang Fei's expression was serious. She recalled watching similar movies and TV series, "Under the influence of the magnetic field, isotopes from different space-times can meet."

Unexpectedly, a simple rescue mission would involve this. Jiang Fei felt a dull pain in her head. They came to the 46th floor, which was exceptionally quiet. Jiang Fei opened the door of the stairwell and looked around. She didn't see any blood or signs of fighting, but she didn't let down her guard immediately. On the contrary, the quieter it was, the more nervous she became.

I always feel like...something is going to happen.

Bang--

The bullet grazed her calf and sank into the floor beside her feet. She immediately looked in the direction of the shooting and saw only a figure flash by. Then there was a second shot, and this time the bullet almost pierced Jiang Fei's shoulder blade.

She hid behind the sofa. Lancer stood at the door of the stairwell. He said loudly to the "Carl" on this floor: "I am Lancer. I am here to save you."

"Lance..." The "Carl" murmured his name, "He's been dead for a long time, and she's the culprit! The source of all evil is because of you! You deserve to die!!" He gritted his teeth and rushed in front of Jiang Fei before she even had time to raise her hand. He slapped her hand away. With a gun, he clamped his hands tightly around Jiang Fei's neck, "It's all your fault! It's all because of you that the whole world is destroyed! I'll just kill you!"

Her neck hurt so much that she could hardly breathe. Natural tears welled up in her eyes. In her blurred vision, she saw "Karl" who was also in tears. What did she mean by destroying the whole world?

She was clearly... tricked by a wicked system into saving the world, okay!?

Lanser rushed over and tried to pull "Karl" away, but failed. He was even easily knocked to the ground by the other party with one hand. He struggled to get up, "Stop... She is not the Jiang Fei of your time and space!"

Carl laughed mockingly, but his tears kept flowing, more like crying in pain, "She will also destroy the world, she is a devil!"

Jiang Fei took advantage of the fact that his hand that was strangling her neck loosened a little and kicked him hard on the chin, but his hand still did not let go. As she was on the verge of death, her vision became more and more blurred. She heard another gunshot and the bullet passed through "Karl"'s head.

Someone came over and pulled "Karl"'s hand away, and Jiang Fei was able to breathe in big gulps of air. She coughed several times, and she had no doubt that her vocal cords were injured.

"Are you all right?"

"Which level are you... Karl?" Jiang Fei asked in a hoarse voice.

"The forty-fifth floor."

Jiang Fei breathed a sigh of relief. This was Carl from the original time and space. Lance was checking Jiang Fei's wounds. Except for the wound on his neck, the wounds on other parts of his body were just minor ones. But it looked funny that he had a big bump on his forehead and was being checked by others.

Jiang Fei said: "Why don't you take a look at your own wound first."

Lanser's face was expressionless. "It doesn't matter. I won't die anyway."

"Why are you here?" Carl looked at Lancer. As the base's doctor, he shouldn't leave the base at will, especially since the person in charge was seriously ill. Carl asked again, "Is the person in charge feeling better?"

"If you say that dying instantly is a good situation, then I can say it is a good situation, but the actual situation at the base is very bad." Lanser touched the big bump on his forehead and gasped in pain.

Carl was shocked. "But his condition had stabilized before we left! And he'll be able to move again as long as we bring the medical equipment back!"

"The problem is that someone doesn't want him to regain his mobility. Another faction in the base sent you away and killed the person in charge. They want to take control of the entire base."

The sound of a gun being loaded could be heard at the door. Jiang Fei looked over and saw the tattooed woman she had seen in the tower before. Her left thigh was injured, and she had only sloppily bandaged it. Blood oozed from the wound as she moved. She narrowed her eyes and asked, "Which time and space are you from?"

Jiang Fei raised his hands, "It's from the original time and space."

"Alice, put your gun down first. They are here to rescue us, and they have something more important to do," Carl said. "The person in charge is dead."

The woman called Alice didn't completely put down the gun. Jiang Fei saw that her index finger was still loosely on the trigger. Her tone was very calm, "I'm not really surprised. Surviving an intracranial hemorrhage is already a miracle, and dying is also common sense."

"What's worse is that others wanted to take control of the base, so they sent us away."

"Is it Eugene and the others? This bastard has never been one to stay quiet." Alice was filled with anger. She waved at Lancer, "Bandage my wound quickly. Isn't that your job?"

Lancer opened the medicine box, cut the cloth on Alice's leg with scissors, and then carefully cleaned the wound.

"Where are the others?" Jiang Fei remembered that their team had more than two people. Alice didn't even look up. "They're all dead, killed by us from different time and space. The craziest among them was Carl's counterpart."

Jiang Fei was still frightened when she recalled the experience of being strangled and almost suffocated to death. She said, "The space-time here is very unstable." If normal space-time is a piece of wool, then the space-time in this medical center is a tangled ball of wool.

"Now there are only two of us left," said Carl.

"So even if we go back now, there's no way to change the situation. They must have been planning this for a long time, right?" Alice really likes to pour cold water on others.

Jiang Fei frowned. "But what about the elderly, children, women and children in the base? Those people won't treat them well. Carl, do you want the base to become like this? The deceased person in charge also didn't want the base he managed to become like this."

“We are too short-staffed.”

She had been waiting for Karl to say this. If she rashly intervened in the affairs of D-1 Base on behalf of D-3 Base, she would be accused of having ulterior motives. However, Karl had spoken personally. She coughed lightly and said, "As a representative of D-3 Base, I have decided to help you resolve the chaos in the base."

Alice scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You? You don't really think you're a saint, do you?"

Carl used his eyes to signal Alice to stop talking. He looked at Jiang Fei and said, "Are you serious? But helping us doesn't have much chance of success, and our base is not very wealthy."

Jiang Fei didn't want temporary material rewards. She also wanted Carl to be on her side. If she had to manage every base, she might die from overwork before successfully saving the world. It was also necessary to develop some employees appropriately. Jiang Fei suddenly realized that her current thinking was similar to that of her boss when she was working.

Well, this is probably what it means to become the type of person I hated the most in the past.

"I'm sure, and the person in charge of our base has already given me temporary agency rights, so I can be considered half the person in charge of the base." Jiang Fei comforted Carl, reassuring him, and then expressed her true thoughts, "But after this incident is over, I hope that our two bases can establish a cooperative relationship."

Alice took the opportunity to chime in, "Is it really just a cooperative relationship? I think you want to take over our base? Forget it... It's better to have someone like you manage it than Eugene and the others." It seemed that she really hated Eugene.

Lanser bandaged her wound. The wound was so deep that one could vaguely see the bones, but she was still able to chat with them so calmly. Jiang Fei couldn't help but look at her twice more. The latter raised an eyebrow and said, "I am born without the sense of pain. Why, have you never encountered this before?"

"I haven't encountered it, but it's not easy for you to notice your injury this way..." By the time you really discover it, you have already lost too much blood and become dizzy, so this is considered a fatal weakness. Of course, it is also an advantage if used well in actual combat.

"It doesn't matter. The worst that can happen is death. What else can we do?" Alice stretched her other good leg. "Having said that, I advise you not to plan too much right now. Whether we can escape from here is still a question. Which floor did you come in from?"

"The 48th floor, but there's a monster in the stairwell there." Jiang Fei glanced at the black cat she had released, huddled in the corner of this floor. There was a hawk moth perched on its head. The two of them stood there motionless and very obediently, waiting for Jiang Fei.

Jiang Fei was afraid that they would be discovered by others, so she used her consciousness to tell them to quickly return to their own space. However, they were completely out of control and even approached Jiang Fei.

The voice of the hawk moth sounded in Jiang Fei's mind, and it felt very aggrieved.

[But I've already returned to my own space.]

The black cat also replied to her very briefly, [Replied.]

She thought of something and stood up in a flash. She knew that her selves from other time and space were about to appear. She urged Karl and the others to leave quickly, "Let's go quickly!"

Perhaps the two pollutants smelled a familiar scent on Jiang Fei, so they didn't attack immediately. Carl carried Alice on his back and protected Lancer behind him. The three of them ran up desperately. Carl turned around and called out to Jiang Fei, "What are you still standing there for!?"

Jiang Fei glanced again in the direction of the pollutants, but the area was completely empty, with no trace of any pollutants. She walked at the end of the group, her head full of questions. What were her other selves like in other parallel universes? Was it possible that her being chosen by the system to be the savior wasn't just a coincidence?

Thinking about what happened next, words like fate and reincarnation popped up in her mind, and she felt like her brain was overloaded.

On the way to the 48th floor, they encountered another monster. It looked very similar to the one Jiang Fei and the others had encountered before. Even though Carl was carrying someone on his back, he was still able to kill the monster easily with a gun. One of the main reasons why their team suffered heavy casualties was that isotopes from different time and space appeared at the same time, making it difficult to distinguish between enemies and friends.

Jiang Fei is still very confident in Carl's fighting value, otherwise she would not take the risk to save him. Having such a person as a companion on her side is a great help.

The hemp rope tied by Jiang Fei was still hanging on the window railing on the forty-eighth floor. They left the window one by one. Jiang Fei suddenly felt someone whispering her name.

"Jiang Fei——"

She didn't look back. The voice was very familiar, it was her own voice, but she knew it was from another time and space. "Jiang Fei" said again: "You can't do it. You can't save the world. You can't even save yourself."

"Shut up." Jiang Fei said softly. Only Lanser heard her whisper. "You can't decide my future."

Carl grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the window. The four of them sat by the broken window. No one spoke and the atmosphere was quiet.

After a while, Alice said calmly, "I feel dizzy." That was a sign of impending shock from excessive blood loss, yet she remained calm. "Well, I'm going to die in a while."

Jiang Fei hurriedly carried her to the back of the transport truck, which was driven by Carl and his men. Carl sat in the driver's seat, and Lance sat next to Alice, observing her condition all the time.

The engine started, the roar was deafening, and Carl stepped on the accelerator to the bottom.

Alice didn't say anything, and her breathing became weaker and weaker. Jiang Fei said to her, "You can't sleep. You mustn't sleep! If you fall asleep, you won't wake up!"

But her eyelids were still closed. Lanser pulled them apart and shone the flashlight into her pupils, but all he saw was the whites of her eyes. Alice's impatient voice rang out, "Why are you pulling my eyes out when I'm not dead yet?"

It turned out that she had rolled her eyes deliberately just now, which scared Jiang Fei enough. Lanser was no longer surprised. He said, "Well, when you die, the punk accessories and clothes in your room will be thrown away. Oh, and they may also be burned."

Alice suddenly became excited. "Say it again?"

"I didn't say anything." Lanser imitated her and said lightly, which was very irritating.

The two of them were arguing during the second half of the journey, and time passed by unexpectedly. When they arrived at the base, Jiang Fei saw Jason standing at the gate of the base with a cigarette in his hand, but he didn't light it. He saw the transport truck approaching and then stopping from a distance, and Jiang Fei helped move Alice out of the car.

Lancer said, "See, troublemakers always live a long time."

Alice slowly raised her left hand and gave him the middle finger.

"So you went to save someone?" Jason said. Jiang Fei saw some blood spots on the exposed skin on the back of his hands and neck. He probably thought there was a lot of blood on his black jacket as well, but it was not noticeable.

"Why are you outside the base? What's going on inside?" Carl replaced Jiang Fei's position, allowing her to walk to Jason's side.

"It's settled." He said lightly.

"Uh... I just asked you to deal with it, but what do you mean by 'settled it'?"

He played with the cigarette in his hand. In the end times, tobacco has become extremely rare and precious. He said, "Literally, I have it all."

Just as he finished speaking, another man walked out of the base with a flattering smile on his face. "Do you have any other instructions?"

Huh? Wait? Before she left, the people at the base looked completely different, right? Now, it's changed so quickly, like a complete reversal.

Jason didn't even look at the man. "Your captain has returned. He will be in charge of what happens next. But if you do the same stupid thing as you did today, I don't mind teaching you a lesson."

The man fell silent immediately, but smiled even more flatteringly and nodded continuously.

Jiang Fei was stunned by this scene. When she saw the man running back to the base in shame, she said, "I didn't expect you to have such talent."

Jason put the tobacco into his cigarette box. It was obviously given to him by others to curry his favor. He said, "They are just a bunch of bullies who only dare to fight back after being threatened once."

"That's true," Jiang Fei glanced at the cigarette in his hand and asked, "Do you still smoke?"

"I've already quit. This box of cigarettes on the black market can be exchanged for three months' worth of food for ten people." Scarcity makes things valuable, especially tobacco. He put away the cigarette box and said, "It's more cost-effective to exchange it for food."

"What you just said sounded very much like a househusband." Jiang Fei smiled. Now that the chaos at D-1 base had been resolved, and she had successfully won over Carl, she was in a very good mood, and her smile was brilliant. Jason's gaze lingered on her face for a few more seconds, and he said abruptly, "So you have dimples."

"What?"

Jason tapped his cheek. "I rarely see you smile so brightly. I just realized you have dimples."

Ever since Jiang Fei came to this world, she would worry about how to complete the task of saving the world every time she woke up. She worried about this and that, and there was no smile on her face all day long. Moreover, she was always with Jason in the training ground. As everyone knows, no one can smile brightly in the training ground. She would only grimace in pain from her sore muscles.

Jiang Fei said "Oh", "We can go back to the base now."

"No, I think it's better to stay here for a while. We need to deal with those traitors as well."

What he said made sense. Jiang Fei and him returned to the D-1 base. Jiang Fei asked him about the domain and summarized what she had encountered in the medical center. "How much do you know about the 'domain'? I encountered it in the medical center. The time and space there are unstable, like a big stew of different time and space merged together."

"I've heard of it, but that's all I've heard. I've also heard—" Jason paused, "that the new Archon's ability is similar to the 'domain' you just mentioned, but it's probably only able to manipulate time and space on a small scale. If it lasts too long, it's beyond the capability of humans. The 'domain' in the medical center is made up of the resentment of hundreds of thousands of dead people. It's not an energy that a single person can possess."

After hearing what Jason said, Jiang Fei became curious about the Archon, but the Archon lived deep in the Sky City, and the people in the Underground City might never see him in their lifetime.

After they returned to D-1 base, they first went to the medical station. Lancer methodically gave Alice a blood transfusion. Carl stood by and watched quietly. When he turned around and saw Jiang Fei and Jason, his expression changed. "I should thank you for this."

To prevent him from going on a long speech, Jiang Fei stopped him in time and said, "If you want to express your gratitude, please consider what I said."

"What did you say?" Jason asked.

"I plan to establish a cooperative relationship with the D-1 base so that the two bases can look after each other."

Jason said, "Is it like the 'cooperative relationship' that A-1 Base has with other bases?" A-1 Base usually relies on its abundant supplies to make unreasonable demands on other small bases that depend on it. Jiang Fei immediately retorted, "How can you be so abusive? Besides, this isn't a dependent relationship, but an equal cooperative relationship. We're all on equal terms."

"I haven't heard of such a statement." Even in modern society, equality cannot be achieved, let alone in the end times. Jiang Fei's words were difficult for people in this world to understand, so Jiang Fei had to explain patiently, "What I mean is that our base will not force other bases to make decisions against their will. The reason we cooperate is for a win-win situation, um... It's like getting better results and maximizing benefits. This is the icing on the cake."

"Your idea is really——"

Jiang Fei quickly answered: "It's really perfect, isn't it?"

"That's a wild idea," Jason commented directly, but then he changed the subject, "But you can give it a try. The world is already bad enough. Even if you try and fail, it won't matter. Besides, there's still a chance of success."

Alice, whose condition had gradually stabilized after the blood transfusion, half-opened her eyes. "It's so noisy! If you want to discuss something, go outside."

Carl nodded to Jiang Fei and the others, indicating that they should go outside to discuss things. When they walked out of the operating room, Carl said, "Your idea is very novel. I also think it can be tried, but before that, I have to restore the base to its original state. Here is my contact information. If you have any ideas for future cooperation, please send me a message directly."

Jiang Fei added Carl to her contacts. She actually had a lot of ideas now, such as building a bigger school so that children could receive unified education, integrating the medical resources of the two bases, and so on. There are still many things to do.

She clicked on the system panel and took a look.

[Successfully illuminated a base.]

[Light up the base mission progress (2/48)]

[Current reputation value: 30]

Base Overview:

Population: 113

Quantity of materials: Click to enter the details page

Base risk resistance: 1.5

Comprehensive evaluation: The second base you lit up surpassed 1.8% of all bases in the evaluation. Please keep up the good work!

Anyway, this time they gained a lot. Jiang Fei and Jason planned to stay at the D-1 base for one to two days and leave after the reconstruction work of the base stabilized. Jiang Fei sent this message to Coin.

*

Among all the collaborations, Jiang Fei cares most about medical care and education. There is no formal doctor in the D-3 base medical point, only a pharmacist. It is okay if it is just a minor illness, but if it encounters a critical situation requiring surgery, he can only watch the patient die.

Jiang Fei, who witnessed the whole process of Lancer rescuing Alice, became more and more determined to recruit Lancer. The day after Jiang Fei spent the night at the D-1 base, he specifically found Lancer. He also got up very early because many people were injured in the chaos yesterday, some with fractures and some with abrasions.

So before Jiang Fei even entered the medical center, he saw that the steps at the entrance were full of people who came to see the doctor. Some of them recognized Jiang Fei as someone from the D-3 base who came to help them.

"Mom, that person was yesterday..." the little girl whispered. Her mother beside her held her hand and said, "Don't point at others casually. It's very rude."

Jiang Fei smiled at the mother and daughter. She walked through the corridor of the medical center. Lanser was sitting in the consultation room, with fatigue hard to hide between his brows. Jiang Fei did not disturb him but found an empty seat to sit down, intending to discuss with him the integration of the medical resources of the two bases during his lunch break.

The position she chose happened to be against the corner of the wall. Jiang Fei scribbled on the draft paper she carried with her and wrote out the next plan in a mind map. Now the food problem in the base was solved by Nona, education was in charge of Lucian, and medical care required Lancer's help.

She had experienced too many things yesterday, and she was very tired not only physically but also mentally. Moreover, she had been brainstorming last night on how to better build the base. Her total sleep time was less than five hours. After sitting for a while, she felt sleepy. She crossed her arms over her chest and thought about taking a nap.

However, when she woke up, the corridor that was crowded with people just now was empty. It was Lanser who woke her up, "Are you sleeping here? Or are you here to see a doctor?"

"Neither, I just came to see you." Jiang Fei rubbed her eyes. She suddenly felt something in her hand. She opened her hand and took a look.

Hey, it’s a candy.

Lanser said, "A little girl put it in your hand. You were so soundly asleep at the time that you didn't feel it, did you?"

"Ah... maybe." Jiang Fei stood up. "Are you going to have lunch now?"

"No, I still have to sort out the medical records and prepare for the afternoon consultation." He usually just has a few bites of lunch. He even mixes up some nutritional supplements for himself to save time. "I just drink the nutritional supplements directly," he said.

"Nutrients? How can that be possible?" Jiang Fei knew Lanser was dedicated to his work, but she didn't expect him to be so dedicated. "Anyway, let's go to the restaurant to have lunch. I also have something to tell you."

Lancer sighed, "All right then." He went straight to the restaurant in his white coat, still with the stethoscope hanging around his neck.

On the way, Jiang Fei asked, "Have you considered training a few more doctors? Otherwise, wouldn't you be too busy to handle it all by yourself?"

"Studying medicine requires not only perseverance but also talent. Where can you find such people? Furthermore, training a doctor takes a lot of effort, so it's not worth it."

Jiang Fei was very confident, "We can always find it, we can find it!"

"You're always so blindly optimistic." He emphasized the word blindly.

"I'm not blind. After all, you're a very good doctor. Even a dull student can be trained by you." Jiang Fei knew very well that one should praise someone before asking for help. She was about to say a few more words, but Lanser pushed open the door to the restaurant and turned around. "Just say what you want to say directly. Don't beat around the bush."

Jiang Fei walked into the restaurant. The air was filled with the smell of fried food. She followed Lanser to the food window. The chef inside was particularly surprised to see Lanser. "Doctor Lanser, why are you in the restaurant today?" Then he turned to the others and said, "Quick, bring over the fried fish that just came out of the pan."

Lanser said, "Not too much. I don't have much appetite."

But they seemed not to hear Lanser's words and filled his plate full. The quantity was substantial, but Jiang Fei frowned when he saw the dishes: fried fish, French fries, boiled potatoes, and a pile of beans.

Ah, this is typical British cuisine! She suddenly understood why Lanser would rather prepare his own nutritional supplements than come to the restaurant for dinner.

Jiang Fei hesitated for a moment, then handed over the plate and said, "I don't need too much, a little bit is enough." Jiang Fei was afraid that they would repeat the same trick, so she repeated it several times.

They found a seat with a plate of fish and chips. Jiang Fei had no appetite for the fried food and sticky beans, so she reluctantly picked at the fries and ate. "Well, our base is short of doctors. I hope the medical resources of the two bases can be integrated. You can help train doctors, and we can provide medical supplies. Besides, our base's school is also quite complete, and your children can come and study with us."

"Sending the child to your side, isn't that really treating him as a hostage?" Lance used a knife and fork to pick at the fried fish pieces, but he didn't eat two bites after such a long time.

"Of course not."

"You think not, but others don't. Partnerships are supposed to develop gradually. If you start with these big moves, it will make people suspicious." Lanser really had no appetite. He simply put down his knife and fork. "Not everyone is as confident and optimistic as you."

Jiang Fei thought about it and realized that what Lanser said actually made sense. He was just considering it from a psychological perspective. Now that the chaos had just ended and the person in charge had passed away, the top priority was to stabilize the situation first.

"But, have you ever considered visiting our base first? The restaurant there will definitely not disappoint you." Jiang Fei even missed Hill's cooking. "Just think of it as a field trip. You can also pick out suitable candidates to be doctors first."

Lanser took a sip of water and asked, "Do you still want to hold me hostage?"

Jiang Fei twitched the corner of his mouth. "Are you suffering from paranoia? Or have you really been a hostage before?"

Lanser remained silent. Jiang Fei was right about one thing: he had indeed been forced to be a hostage.