Chapter 60: Northern Plateau

Half an hour later, outside the small building, several team members wearing raincoats waited for only Deputy Captain Chen.

Some team members couldn't help but ask about the situation.

"She's feeling a little unwell. She won't be going out today. The patrol will continue as usual."

"No, not feeling well?" The team member who asked the question had no idea what he was thinking about, and his expression changed subtly.

Before leaving, Chen Fa glanced at the closed door of the small building, pulled down the brim of his rain hat, and said one word neatly, "Let's go."

Inside the small building, Shu Fu waited until the footsteps outside the door faded away before slowly sitting up from the sofa.

Regardless of whether the task was delayed or there was a bug, since the deadline was 24 hours, to be on the safe side, she decided not to leave Building 4 of Shanshui B&B within 24 hours.

But this task came too suddenly, and she had no good ideas at such a critical moment. She could only pretend to have a stomachache and went to the bathroom three times in half an hour. Finally, she got her wish to stay.

Pretending to be sick is very useful in front of strangers, but not necessarily in front of Chen Fa. Chen Fa is very smart and he also understands her.

She didn't know whether Chen Fa saw through her poor acting skills. According to her original idea, she only needed to pretend to have a stomachache, even if she didn't go to the bathroom three times, Chen Fa would let her lie down and rest.

She always felt that Chen Fa seemed to have discovered her pretending to be sick, but she neither exposed her nor asked any more questions. She just watched her go to the bathroom again and again as if it was purely to confirm her determination to stay.

So in the end, Shu Fu gave up and just lay down on the sofa pretending to be exhausted.

She felt Chen Fa reach out and touch her forehead, then told her that he would be back for lunch, and if she was hungry, she could eat anything in the kitchen or the cupboard.

She responded vaguely, and Chen Fa left quickly.

At this moment, she was alone, sitting on the sofa in the living room of the small building in her going-out clothes, feeling a little dazed.

She looked up and around the room, slowly frowning. Would any accident happen here within 24 hours?

If something happened to the small building when Chen Fa was out on patrol, and she indirectly saved Chen Yuezhen or preserved the supplies in their house, would Chen Fa guess something?

After all, she is so smart.

However, it turned out that she was overthinking.

That day, until the evening, Chen Fa successfully completed all patrol work. The small building was still quiet and nothing happened.

Before going to bed, Chen Fa came to her again and asked if she wanted to go out together tomorrow.

Shu Fu had not received any notification that the task was completed at this time, and did not dare to relax, so she said that she would get a definite answer tomorrow.

The next day, 24 hours after the mission was completed, Shu Fu's bracelet was still quiet, with no prompt indicating that the mission was completed, indicating that the mission was still in progress. She hesitated for a moment, and finally, when Chen Fa came over to ask her if she wanted to go out today, she lay down weakly on the sofa again.

Chen Fa: ...

"Have a good rest." She still didn't ask any more questions. She patted her shoulder and quickly went out for patrol.

Shu Fu was weak for three days. In the end, even Chen Yuezhen came downstairs to see her out of worry: "You've had diarrhea for three days? Do you have medicine? Have you taken the medicine? You can't have diarrhea like this. You'll get dehydrated..."

"..." Shu Fu, who had been drinking porridge for three days because of "stomach discomfort", raised his head weakly and moved his "pale" lips, "It's okay, I haven't had diarrhea for a long time..."

"Well, I'm fine now, but how come the little girl has become like this..." Chen Yuezhen touched her face lovingly and said that she had lost a lot of weight since the first day they met.

Because she had to eat porridge every day due to "stomach discomfort", Shu Fu hid in her room and cooked for herself at night: ...

Chen Fa didn't know if he was used to it, but he didn't ask Shu Fu if she wanted to go out with him these past two days. She was putting on her raincoat. To facilitate movement, patrol members would wear split raincoats with buttons on the front. The raincoat and rain pants were separate, which was more troublesome to put on.

As she was getting dressed, she told Chen Yuezhen and Shu Fu that she was going to a power plant in the northeastern mountains today. The road was difficult to travel and it would take a long time to go back and forth. She probably wouldn't be back by lunch time and would have to return in the afternoon at the earliest.

"Lunch will be delivered as usual by a team member. Xiaofu will just need to open the door to receive it. By the way, remember to give the thermos cup that Tang Ping delivered yesterday to the team member and let him take it back."

Shu Fu responded to Chen Fa's instructions one by one. She knew what Chen Fa wanted to say: "Don't worry, I still have the strength to open the door... Grandma is not fully recovered yet, she has to recuperate in the room... It's raining heavily and the mountain roads are slippery, you have to be careful..."

"Don't worry about me, I have other team members going with me, just take care of yourself." Chen Fa put the baton he usually used into the sleeve of his raincoat, pulled up his rain hat, and went out.

This day was just like the previous few days, the whole morning was quiet. Chen Yuezhen did some basic physical exercises in the corridor on the second floor, went downstairs to check on her, and returned to the room before noon. Shu Fu knew that she was trying to avoid the team members who came to deliver lunch.

At around eleven o'clock, someone knocked on the door.

In addition to the team members delivering meals, there was also Tang Ping in white standing outside the door.

He held up an umbrella, raised the thermos cup in his hand, and said calmly, "I'll deliver the medicine."

"You came to deliver it yesterday." Shu Fu reminded him, because he always delivered medicine every other day and never came every day.

Tang Ping looked at her, and his eyes, which usually showed no emotion, slowly showed the concern of a doctor: "I'm here to bring you medicine. I heard that you have been sick for several days."

Shu Fu looked at him and frowned a little.

**

The team member who came to deliver the food felt the strange atmosphere, he put down the lunch box and left quickly.

Tang Ping was still looking at her, and behind the sudden concern he showed, there seemed to be another emotion mixed in.

Shu Fu looked carefully and found that he seemed... a little excited?

Eh...pervert.

"I'm not sick." Shu Fu picked up the thermos cup on the table and handed it back to him.

"You look so bad, and you still say you're not sick?" Tang Ping took it, changed his hand, and put it on the table again.

Shu Fu didn't say much, and directly wiped off the foundation on her lips with her fingers, revealing her rosy lips underneath: "It's fake, my sister and I were just joking, you can go now."

Tang Ping seemed stunned for a moment, but soon he started laughing.

I have seen Shu Fu many times since he moved into Shanshuiju B&B, but this is the first time I have seen him smile.

He doesn't seem to smile often, as his facial muscles lack the function to do so. Therefore, when he smiles, his expression is particularly unnatural, looking weird and ugly, which makes people feel a little upset.

He turned and walked towards the door. Shu Fu thought he was going to leave, but he reached out and closed the door, locking it with a click.

When he turned around again, there was a black object in his hand.

"Children who lie will be punished." He said in a strange tone and pressed the button of the thing with his finger. Suddenly, a stinging spark flashed from the front of the thing.

Shu Fu raised his eyebrows. It turned out to be a stun gun.

Tang Ping took the electric baton, walked to the table in two steps, picked up the thermos cup, and slowly pushed it towards Shu Fu: "I don't care if you are really sick or pretending to be sick, anyway, drink it, drink it all."

Shu Fu's fingers withdrew from her left wrist without leaving a trace. She picked up the thermos cup on the table and shook it: "What's in it?"

"Drink it." This time, the smile on Tang Ping's face disappeared.

Shu Fu raised the thermos cup. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that because he had touched the cup before, it had a faint fishy smell on it, the same as on him.

"I will drink if you tell me to. What can you do to me if I don't drink?" She raised the cup with a provocative tone.

Tang Ping's face was gloomy. He didn't say anything else. He just pressed the stun gun and the stinging electric sparks came towards her.

"You were the one who started it!" Shu Fu was prepared. She took two steps back and smashed the thermos in her hand hard at him.

The thermos was made of stainless steel and was not so easy to break, but it was very painful when it hit someone. The lid came loose when it fell to the ground, and the yellow-brown medicine inside spilled all over the floor, and even his "white coat" was stained.

Tang Ping looked down at his clothes and was instantly enraged. He swung the stun gun in his hand left and right, heading towards Shu Fu again and again.

The opponent's expression and movements were very fierce. If Shu Fu had not learned self-defense before, she might have been intimidated by the opponent, but now, she could find flaws in every move of the opponent.

She chose the right moment, dodged the stun gun in his right hand, grabbed his wrist, and pulled and twisted it hard.

Tang Ping screamed in pain, and the stun gun in his hand loosened involuntarily. Shu Fu grabbed his arm and tried to hold it behind his back, but a thin needle suddenly appeared in his left hand and stabbed it hard into the arm that was holding his hand.

The medicine in the syringe was ejected instantly. This was Tang Ping's life-saving method. It contained a powerful anesthetic.

This was the second time he had used this move since joining the team.

It's just that at this stage, strong anesthetics are hard to find, and this is his last dose of medicine. He didn't expect that he would have to use this trick just to deal with a little girl.

He raised his eyes, his expression even more gloomy than before, intending to appreciate the anxiety, fear and helplessness of his prey before it fell. He liked to see his prey in such a panic the most. The more beautiful and fragile they were, the more he wanted to destroy them.

But the next second, he felt dizzy, and when he reacted, his back had hit the table next to him with a bang. The table was a bit old and not very sturdy, and it broke into pieces when he hit it.

Tang Ping felt a sharp pain in his back, and then was hit hard in the face. He spat out a mouthful of blood with a "pu" sound. He could no longer hold on and slowly fell into coma.

Before he lost consciousness, he saw the young girl looking down at his face.

She was fine, nothing happened to her at all, and there was no expression of anxiety, fear or helplessness on her face.

"Despicable people will be beaten twice as hard..." She said, raising the chair in her hand towards him.

**

Chen Yuezhen was taking a nap in the room. After being awakened by the noise in the living room, he immediately ran anxiously across the corridor and walked down the stairs. He just happened to see Shu Fu picking up a chair and smashing it at the person on the ground.

Bang—the person on the ground was completely silent.

Chen Yuezhen, who was so worried about Shu Fu's weakness and thinness that she didn't even bother to put on her slippers: ...

Shu Fu noticed the movement on the stairs. She turned Tang Ping, who was like a dead fish, over and held his wrists behind his back. She smiled at Chen Yuezhen and said, "Grandma, do you have a rope?"

"……have."

As Chen Yuezhen finished speaking, Shu Fu felt a slight vibration on her wrist.

Mission accomplished.

That day, when Chen Fa finished his long-distance patrol and returned to the small building dragging his rain boots and raincoat covered in mud, he found that the first floor of the building was empty, but there was a sound of collision in the corridor on the second floor.

Something happened!

She frowned and rushed straight to the stairs without even taking off her rain boots. The baton slipped out of her sleeve. Chen Fa's expression was cold and fierce.

However, her steps as she rushed forward stopped abruptly at the stairs.

From this position, you can see the corridor on the second floor. A blanket is spread on the corridor. Shu Fu and her grandmother are holding each other's wrists and ankles and twisting into a ball.

Shu Fu tried to adjust the angle while asking, "Grandma...is it locked from here?"

"Right, right! Okay, that's it. From this angle, you can maximize your strength and achieve the effect of using only a little force to move a large object!" Chen Yuezhen was a little out of breath, but there was a smile on his face. "The person who taught you self-defense was quite powerful. Although he had few moves, they were all the most useful and suitable for you... But you probably learned too little, so you couldn't get some moves right when you practiced them by yourself... Remember, the human body's limbs and joints have their weaknesses. You must know how to find the right angle and hit the target with one strike—"

When Chen Yuezhen said this, she suddenly used force to reverse the lock and instantly locked Shu Fu, who had originally restrained her, on the carpet, "--making the opponent completely lose the ability to counterattack."

“Oh my… I get it… Grandma is so great… It hurts, it hurts…”

Chen Fa:……?

Shu Fu, who was pinned down on the carpet, happened to be face down. She saw Chen Fa down the stairs: "You're back! Hey... there's so much mud on your rain boots..."

Five minutes later, Chen Fa, who had changed his shoes, taken off his raincoat, locked the door, and mopped the tiles, followed Shu Fu into the bathroom on the first floor. Tang Ping had something stuffed in his mouth and his hands were tied behind his back. He was lying next to the toilet in an awkward position.

His hair was disheveled, his glasses were broken, there was blood on his lips, his face was swollen and bruised, and his always meticulous white trench coat was wrinkled, and in addition to the blood, it was also stained with yellow-brown stains.

Probably because he had been unconscious for a while, he gradually showed signs of waking up. Chen Fa frowned, took the stun gun from Shu Fu's hand, turned it to maximum power again, and hit him again.

Before Tang Ping on the ground could wake up, he continued to lie down twitching again.

"He came here for me today, thinking I was sick too. What should I do now?" Shu Fu was only worried that her beating up Tang Ping would bring trouble to Chen Fa. After all, she was the deputy captain of the team, and Tang Ping was the most important doctor in the team.

"No, he's not coming for you." Chen Fa looked down at Tang Ping, disgust flashing in his eyes. He raised his foot and stepped on his face twice, then looked at Shu Fu again and sighed slowly, "He's coming for... a strange disease."

**

After a while, Chen Fa poured himself and Shu Fu a glass of water and sat down on the sofa in the living room.

She told Shu Fu that she didn't know much. She had just joined the team when they retreated from Lucheng, and she only knew that someone in the team was sick. She had even seen sick people at that time.

One of them was a team member, and the other was the family member of another team member. At the rest stop on the national highway from Lucheng to Hexi Town, they got off the car with the help of their families to get some fresh air. Both of them were wearing masks, so Chen Fa couldn't see their faces clearly. At a glance, he could only see the other's eyes covered with red bloodshot above the mask.

Probably because of their illness, the two men walked unsteadily, and even when supported they walked very slowly. Their eyes were dull and they looked listless.

Chen Facang had just joined the team and was not familiar with the others, so it was not appropriate to stare at them too much at the time. However, there were other people in the team who were familiar with them. Some people came forward to ask about their illnesses, but the two sick people did not react at all. Their eyeballs moved slowly, but were still dull.

Before they could ask again, the people who were supporting the patients had already pulled down their rain hats to cover their faces and helped the patients away.

At that time, both Chen Fa and the people who came forward to ask questions had a strange feeling in their hearts.

It's just a cold and fever, why do they look so dull and lifeless? The two of them didn't even say a word from beginning to end.

Later, Chen Fa realized that it was not just an ordinary cold and fever.

Fever, aphasia, dullness, gradually unable to recognize people around me...

Chen Fa's understanding of this disease only ended there, because later their entire convoy arrived at the small town of Hexi, and the patient's family declined visitors, saying that their family member needed to rest. At that time, the team had more resources than it does now, and there were also medicines, including cold medicines and antipyretics.

Chen Fa thought that the patient would recover soon by resting and taking medicine.

But on the second night after she moved into Hexi Town, she began to hear bursts of shrill screams coming from other small buildings. Sometimes the screams would repeat for a long time. For some reason, the patients' conditions seemed to have worsened.

To make matters worse, a few days later, new patients appeared in the team, all with the same symptoms, starting with colds and fever.

At first he was just sick, but he could recognize people and was conscious. But gradually, the high fever recurred and his condition began to worsen.

During that period, everyone in the team was in a panic and everyone was in danger.

Tang Ping showed up at that time. He was indeed a doctor. He carried a suitcase and found Zhou Feng, the captain of their team. At that time, Zhou Feng's girlfriend Cheng Can was also sick, and all the reserve medicines in the team had been consumed for so many days and there was little left.

The patient will have repeated high fever in the early stage. If the temperature is not reduced by medication, it will be life-threatening.

Tang Ping said that he is a Chinese medicine practitioner who knows Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, and can help reduce fever.

That night, Tang Ping lived in the small building of Captain Zhou Feng. Chen Fa remembered that he heard shrill screams coming from the captain's small building that night, but this time, the screams quickly subsided.

After that night, Tang Ping gained Zhou Feng's trust, and Zhou Feng specially asked his team members to clean up an unoccupied B&B building as Tang Ping's personal residence. Tang Ping did not socialize with others, and every time he went out, he either went to find herbs or delivered medicine to the sick.

If Tang Ping's appearance can really cure the sick people in the team, Chen Fa will be grateful to him. In such a chaotic world, it is not easy to form a team. The Hexi town is remote and has few resources. Those large teams that kill, smash and loot look down on it. It is considered a temporary safe haven.

Tang Ping did stabilize the patients who would scream at night, but he did not cure them. Those people would just become quieter at night, but they still did not reappear in front of everyone.

Chen Fa gradually discovered that there seemed to be a special aura between the team members who had sick people at home, which no one else could integrate into. It was as if they were sympathizing with each other, or as if they had become tacitly aware of some secret that only they knew.

At that time, Chen Fa had a feeling that she was unconsciously excluded by the core members of the team. She didn't really care about the right to speak. The deputy captain was also elected by other people. She was willing to work harder and get supplies with her own hands. She just wanted to live a safe life with her grandmother.

But something worse happened. Chen Yuezhen caught a cold and had a fever after being caught in the rain.

It seemed as if overnight, she discovered that the backbone members of the team who had sick people at home opened up their unique aura towards her.

Later, Tang Ping showed up, just like he did today, holding a thermos cup and saying that it contained a decoction made from Chinese herbs specifically for this disease.

Chen Fa didn't believe that her grandmother had the same strange disease as others. She knew very well that she caught a cold and had a fever because of being caught in the rain. She had two cold medicines in her hand at the time, but they were just a drop in the bucket and were of little use to Chen Yuezhen.

But even so, she didn't want her grandmother to take Tang Ping's medicine.

Chen Fa explained to Tang Ping and refused to feed Chen Yuezhen the medicine that Tang Ping brought, but his refusal was futile. The captain personally appeared and told Chen Fa that if he wanted to stay in the team, he had to accept Tang Ping's treatment like everyone else.

Otherwise, he could only ask her to leave the team.

At that time, Chen Yuezhen was delirious due to fever, and it was impossible for Chen Fa to leave the team and go alone under such circumstances.

So she changed her strategy and started to deal with the other party.

Chen Yuezhen drank the medicine twice under the other party's supervision. Each time, Chen Fa locked the door after Tang Ping left and went upstairs to pick Chen Yuezhen's throat.

This was an extremely painful thing, not to mention that Chen Yuezhen was still ill at the time. Chen Fa almost cried while scratching until Chen Yuezhen vomited out all the medicine...

During those days, she didn't sleep a wink. She had to patrol during the day and deal with Tang Ping. At night, she had to stay with Chen Yuezhen and use various physical methods to cool her down.

Afterwards, Tang Ping went upstairs to see Chen Yuezhen twice. Her condition was up and down, and her fever kept coming back, which was similar to the initial condition of other patients. She would ask Chen Yuezhen to pretend to be dazed and aphasic when Tang Ping went upstairs, but in fact, Chen Yuezhen was always conscious.

Later, Tang Ping proposed to take Chen Yuezhen back to his own small building, where he would take care of her 24 hours a day. In addition to him, there were actually several other patients living in his small building, all of whom were lone rangers in the team, without family members.

She didn't believe that Tang Ping would be so kind. He worked so hard alone to research medicinal herbs and take care of the patients personally.

She was very suspicious of the real reason why he brought those people into his residence. The small building where he lived was located at the innermost side of the B&B, some distance away from the other small buildings. It was very secluded and usually no team members dared to visit him.

Once the door was closed, no one knew what he did to the patients inside, and no one cared because they had no family members.

Of course, Chen Fa couldn't let Chen Yuezhen go, but this time she didn't refuse directly. Instead, she thought of various ways to dissuade the other party from doing so in a roundabout way.

After that, new patients appeared in the team, and Tang Ping's interest in Chen Yuezhen gradually waned. He only delivered medicine to her and no longer went upstairs to check on her.

She stayed by her grandmother's side day after day and survived.

Then one day, Shu Fu appeared with life-saving medicine.

"So, he is really a pervert." Shu Fu looked in the direction of the bathroom. Only a pervert would show his excitement and interest when others are sick and in pain. But soon, Shu Fu realized something, "When grandma was sick before, he always restrained himself. Even if he wanted her to take medicine, he would put pressure on her through your captain, right?"

Chen Fa understood what Shu Fu wanted to express.

Although Tang Ping is a pervert, he always maintains a calm appearance and knows how to do things in a roundabout way.

But today, why was his approach towards Shu Fu completely different? He became unscrupulous and did things without considering the consequences.

Why?

Chen Fa and Shu Fu looked at each other for a moment, and their expressions suddenly changed: "This is bad."