Chapter 61 Northland Plateau

The reason why Tang Ping suddenly became so reckless and acted recklessly must be because of Zhou Feng's permission.

What happened?

Could it be that - it has something to do with the big commotion the night before?

Chen Fa has stood up: "Either the patient's situation has undergone uncontrollable changes, driving him to get you over even if it means going against Zhou Feng's will and taking risks; or the patient's changes have affected Zhou Feng, and he has decided something and acquiesced to his behavior today!"

Yes, Shu Fu is the newest outsider in the entire team. Although she told others that she was her sister, not everyone believed her.

What was even more coincidental was that this new outsider was also sick.

If Tang Ping really was conducting some research on the patients in the small building, was there a better experimenter than Shu Fu?

He deliberately chose to come when Chen Fa was not around, just wanting to get the people over there first, not only Shu Fu, but also Chen Yuezhen.

When Chen Fa comes back and finds that both of them are missing, it will take some time to look for them. Even if he finds Tang Ping and confronts him for the people, he may ask her to choose between her grandmother and Shu Fu to take back.

Normally, if a normal person came in with a threatening attitude, being able to take one person away would mean recovering half of the loss. The other party thought that she might choose to temporarily settle the matter in order to protect her relatives.

Using one person to threaten another is a very despicable act.

"If Zhou Feng had condoned this privately, this matter would not have ended so easily." After all, she was the vice-captain of the team, and she had some teammates who had a good relationship with her. If she was angered, it would be tantamount to disregarding the integrity and safety of the entire team.

Zhou Feng is not a stupid person. If things were not extremely bad, he would not have condoned such behavior.

And if the patient's situation really gets this bad, then this team and this entire B&B area will no longer be safe.

Shu Fu also thought of this, so she stood up and went to the window to carefully check outside, then walked back and said, "No one is watching."

"Well, when I came back just now, there was nothing unusual outside." Chen Fa nodded. She and some of the team members who had a good relationship with her had an unwritten agreement that if something happened in the team when the other party was not around or was unknown, they would mark the windows of the small building where they lived as a reminder.

Every time she came back she would take a quick look, and today was no exception, there was no problem.

So, even if something happened, it is still in the initial stage. Tang Ping came here alone and wanted to act quietly.

Shu Fu thought back on the whole incident. The syringe that the other party used later was indeed hard to defend against. If she didn't have a cheat, even if she had learned fighting and self-defense techniques, she still might have been hit.

Seeing his perverted look of determination just now, he certainly didn't expect that he would lose to a new young girl. Because of this, he didn't make any arrangements or keep any backup plans. After all, he didn't think he would fail.

Chen Fa lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said, "He has no friends and is very strange. He doesn't socialize with people. Plus, today is not the day to deliver medicine, so no one should notice he is missing before tomorrow. But starting tomorrow morning, he will go to various places to deliver medicine, and he will also go to Zhou Feng's place. Zhou Feng is very worried about his girlfriend, so if Tang Ping doesn't show up on time, he will definitely send someone to look for him."

Shu Fu did not interrupt to ask, but waited quietly for Chen Fa's next words.

"I thought that by pretending to give my grandma medicine and dealing with him, I could delay it for a while, but I didn't expect..." When Chen Fa looked up at his friend again, there was only calmness and determination in his eyes, "Let's pack up and leave here before tomorrow morning."

As someone who can perform a ghost wall in a minute, Shu Fu was inexplicably nervous: "...Where are we going?"

"To the northeast, there is a col, close to the flood zone in the north, but some distance from the water. There is a warehouse on the col, which is quite sturdy. We will move there first and plan the direction of evacuation. It is close to the water and easy to leave."

Chen Fa was obviously well prepared. This preparation had nothing to do with whether Shu Fu appeared in Hexi Town. The only difference was Chen Yuezhen who had been ill for a long time and Chen Yuezhen who was almost recovered.

It was the appearance of Shu Fu that freed Chen Fa from all worries.

Whether studying or working, Chen Fa always has her own plans and pace. She never does anything without confidence and never puts herself in a desperate situation with no way out.

Such a person is actually very suitable to be a leader in this apocalyptic world. It's a pity that he didn't meet a good team and captain this time.

"Okay, I'll go pack my things now. Are we leaving now?" Shu Fu didn't ask much. She just couldn't leave the waters around Hexi Town, but as long as it was within the town, she could go anywhere.

As for later, if Chen Fa needed it, she could directly give her the inflatable boat bag and the prepared waterproof travel bag and let her take her grandmother away from here.

"Not now." She could come and go freely, but if she took Chen Yuezhen and the luggage with her, she would definitely attract the attention of others in the B&B. She said to Shu Fu, "Get your things ready. We'll leave after dark."

Shu Fu's brows twitched slightly.

She had been reminded several times by Chen Fa not to go out after dark, but now they had to take the risk of crossing the entire town at night to the mountains in the northeast.

Chen Fa thought about it, stood up again and went to the bathroom, squatted in front of Tang Ping, and began to search him.

A notebook with scribbled words that they couldn't understand at all, a bunch of keys, and a bottle of red potion wrapped in white gauze.

The bottle was small and made of transparent glass, like a medicine bottle. There should have been a label on it, but it was torn off. The bottle contained a red translucent liquid, and I didn't know what it was.

When Chen Fa picked up the bottle, she frowned slightly. Shu Fu, who was standing behind her, also frowned because she smelled a fishy odor.

"No wonder this pervert always has this smell on him, it turns out it's coming from this bottle." The bottle can emit this smell even with the lid tightened. It's hard to imagine what kind of horrible biochemical smell will come out once the lid is opened.

But this glass bottle was carefully wrapped in thick, soft gauze by Tang Ping and then placed in the inside pocket of his clothes. No matter what this thing was, it seemed to be very important.

Chen Fa wrapped it in gauze again. Shu Fu knew that she was going to take it away, so she went out for a while and came back and handed her a plastic bag: "It's better than nothing. It can isolate the smell."

She put the bottle wrapped in gauze into a plastic bag and carefully placed it in the zipper pocket of her clothes. Then she said to Shu Fu, "You and grandma wait for me for a while tonight. I have to go out after dark."

Shu Fu looked at the key in her hand: "Are you going to Tang Ping's small building?"

"Well, I'll be back soon."

"I'll go with you." Shu Fu's portable protective shield can wrap around one more person through her arms, and it won't be noticeable when in use. At this critical moment, she has to take good care of Chen Fa.

Chen Fa didn't hesitate and nodded in agreement.

For a while afterwards, the three of them packed up their things quietly and quickly.

Shu Fu originally only had one backpack with not much food in it. She had consumed some of it in the past few days, so it was lighter than before. During this time, she checked the black notebook in her room.

[Complete the check-in task of building 4 of Shanshui Homestay in Hexi Town, get 10% progress bar of level 4 of raft, get extra progress bar bonus of 10%, and get 1 turntable lottery. (Current progress of level 4 of raft: 45%)]

Although she only got one chance to win the lottery, she cares more about the bonus of the progress bar at this stage. She is very satisfied with the extra percentage of the progress bar this time.

As for this lottery draw, she planned to save it and wait for more opportunities to draw again. Maybe her luck would be better.

This mission was actually quite intriguing. It was hard to tell whether she had helped Chen Yuezhen unintentionally, or whether she had integrated herself into this matter and become the main reason behind certain things.

But after the BUG mission and the world-destroying tsunami mission, she has realized that not all missions have the same tone. Today, no matter how the world develops next and what kind of future it will head towards, it is no longer possible for her to stay out of it.

Chen Fa and Chen Yuezhen did not hesitate to pack their things. They only took the most needed items, such as water, weapons and rain gear, and left everything else behind to reduce the burden.

At this time, Shu Fu was glad that she didn't have time to take back the waterproof travel bag that was "hidden" outside, otherwise she would have to carry another bag at this time.

During the process, Tang Ping woke up once. Chen Fa went into the bathroom with a stun gun and asked him various questions. She turned down the power so that he could feel the pain but not fall into a coma.

However, Tang Ping's mouth was tighter than expected. He even kept laughing, and his laugh was ugly, like a pervert who enjoyed pain, or a God who knew everything and despised everything. It was not until Chen Fa said he wanted to burn down his small building that his expression changed.

He scowled and stared at Chen Fa gloomily. If eyes could bite, he would have torn a piece of flesh off Chen Fa's face. "Idiot! You don't know what you're doing!"

Chen Fa was also annoyed by his pretentious appearance, so he turned the battery up to maximum again and shocked him without saying a word.

Tang Ping lay down again. Shu Fu checked the ropes on his hands, tied up his legs, and finally blocked his mouth tightly. Then he tied him to the sewer pipe to ensure that he could not escape no matter what.

"Let's go out and eat something first. Eat some of what you can't take with you, and also save up energy for the evening."

**

That night.

There was a subtle sound coming from outside the most remote building of Shanshui B&B. Compared with the noisy rain around, this sound was completely negligible. Chen Fa skillfully cut off the power supply line of the building, and together with Shu Fu who was waiting at the door, he used the key to open the three locks respectively, and then entered the building.

Both of them were wearing two-piece raincoats, rain hats, and large black masks. Nothing was revealed on their bodies except their eyes.

Even if there were cameras installed in the house, their faces could not be captured. However, in a small town with poor conditions and scarce supplies, it would not be easy to find cameras to install even if one wanted to. Chen Fa cut off the power supply just in case.

The house was damp and stuffy, and the air was filled with a strong smell of disinfectant, as if to cover up the faint fishy smell that permeated the entire building.

Shu Fu took out two small flashlights from her waist bag and handed one to Chen Fa.

The internal structure of all the small buildings in the B&B is similar. They are not big and are divided into two floors. There is also a bedroom on the first floor. After checking the living room, the two went to the room on the first floor. This seemed to be Tang Ping's room. The smell of disinfectant inside was a little lighter. There were two white windbreakers of similar style hanging behind the door.

There were few things inside, and the two looked through them one by one, but found nothing special. After coming out of the room, they heard slight noises coming from upstairs.

Although Chen Fa had never been here after Tang Ping moved in, he had heard from other team members who had brought patients here that the several rooms on the second floor of the small building were where Tang Ping would house the patients. Zhou Feng also placed two beds in each room in accordance with Tang Ping's request, and focused on reinforcing the doors and windows of the upstairs rooms, almost sealing them up.

Although their team did not find any useful medicines when searching the small clinic in the town, some heavier medical equipment was left unattended. Since Tang Ping needed it, they moved as much as possible here for his use.

According to the team members, the entire second floor of the building is designed to look like a hospital ward, and it is a fully enclosed type of ward.

The two walked up the stairs with light steps. There were three rooms lined up in the corridor. The subtle noise they heard came from these rooms. The two looked at each other, and after tightening their weapons, they pushed open the first door.

The door panel has been soundproofed. After the door was opened, the noise inside became noticeably louder. There was a dull and suppressed roar, as well as the sound of metal colliding.

Chen Fa shone his flashlight over there, and saw a pair of bloodshot eyes, which was particularly terrifying in such a dark place where you couldn't see your hand in front of you. Shu Fu's flashlight quickly converged with hers, and soon the person on the bed was illuminated more clearly.

They are sick people, wearing patient uniforms similar to those worn in mental hospitals. The sleeves of these uniforms are extremely long, and can be used to tie the person up behind his back.

Not only was the man's mouth sealed with cloth and his whole body tied up, he was also firmly fixed to the bed with metal belts. No matter how he struggled and moved, he could not leave the bed that imprisoned him.

He was just like what Chen Fa had said before, his eyes were dull and distracted, and his facial expression didn't change when he saw people. He seemed unaware of their presence, and was just struggling subconsciously, as if his body was twitching.

But other than that, there was nothing unusual about him.

The situation was the same on the other bed next to them. There were only these two patients in the room. They shone the flashlight one by one. There were tables and cabinets around with some medical equipment, but they still couldn't find anything wrong.

They quickly checked the second and third rooms. There were two beds in each room, and on each bed was a patient tied up. Some of them had their eyes closed and were motionless, as if they were sleeping, while others, like the people in the first room, had their eyes open with bloodshot eyes, and were struggling unconsciously with a dazed expression.

The patient on one of the beds was originally sleeping with his eyes closed, but when the flashlight was swept over him for the second time, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and started jumping around on the bed, making an extremely frightening noise.

Chen Fa frowned: "I don't know if the illness is serious. I remember that when we stayed overnight at the rest stop, the two sick people were very quiet all night."

Shu Fu thought about it and realized that those who were sent here were lone travelers without any family members in the team, and those patients who still had family members around them should basically be placed in the rooms of their own small buildings like Chen Fa.

Those people might not be as cruel as Tang Ping to tie people up like this, so the noises she heard in other buildings every night before were probably made by these patients.

The entire second floor was checked, and nothing was found that was wrong as Chen Fa had guessed. Shu Fu knew that Chen Fa guessed that Tang Ping might use patients for experiments. After all, this was an unknown disease, and for a pervert who would get excited when seeing a patient, this was in line with their guess.

But now, the normality here surprised them.

"It's a bit abnormal, actually." Shu Fu said, "Didn't you say that Tang Ping claimed to be a Chinese medicine practitioner, and that he knew about herbs and acupuncture? But from the beginning till now, all the equipment and instruments we have seen are Western medicine, and there is nothing called Chinese medicine at all."

Thinking more deeply, since we didn't see any Chinese medicine utensils, how did he prepare the medicines for the patients?

Chen Fa also discovered a problem: "I have noticed the patients sent here before. I counted them. There are eight people in total." She paused and pointed the flashlight at the room. "There are only six people here."

The two looked at each other and asked at the same time: "Basement?"

**

Chen Fa's small building also has a basement, but it is very small. The corner of the stairs extends down half a floor, with a door, which is a small room like a small cellar. It is very low and can only hold a few things, not people, so at first, Chen Fa didn't even think about going there.

But the structures of each building here are slightly different. If Zhou Feng knew from the beginning what Tang Ping was planning to do, then when he initially arranged for Tang Ping to live here, it might not just be because of the building's remote location.

Sure enough, the basement of this building was completely different from the small building where Chen Fa lived.

After moving the cabinet used to cover the corner of the stairs, they used one of the keys on the key chain to open the door at the back and found that there was another floor underneath, an L-shaped corridor with two rooms.

There seems to be an independent backup power supply inside. There are two night lights installed near the ground in the corridor, which seem to be used for guiding lighting.

The four walls of the basement are all concrete walls, which looks like a rough house that has not been renovated yet. Not to mention the installation of surveillance cameras, even the night lights use circuits similar to extension strips. It looks like it was quickly set up in a short period of time and is very simple and rough.

The fishy smell in the air became stronger and stronger. The first room in the corridor was locked. The door was very new and out of tune with the surrounding environment. There was a small round glass window on the door, about the size of a fist, and it was pitch black inside.

The door was locked with a combination lock, and the keys in their hands could not open it, so they could only move forward. The door to the second room was open, and there was a table inside with various surgical instruments and chemical laboratory instruments on it. There was also a circle of glass cabinets around it with many bottles and jars inside.

Each bottle and jar had a label with the serial number of the experimental record and many professional terms that they could hardly understand.

There is an inner room inside this room with a white curtain hanging in the middle. Chen Fa found the light switch on the wall, and the lights inside and outside the suite lit up one by one. They were incandescent lamps, very bright.

Chen Fa was walking in front, her hand had already lifted the curtain, but she froze in an instant. She lowered the curtain, stopped Shu Fu from moving forward, and whispered, "...It's the dissection table."

They each took a deep breath, prepared themselves, lifted the curtain again, took a quick glance, and then lowered the curtain again to block their view.

Inside was the dissection room, and not only that, there was a half-dissected body on the dissection table...

It turns out that Tang Ping is conducting research on patients, but I don’t know whether this research is conducted after the patients die... or before they die.

Due to limited conditions, the inside was in a mess, like a murder scene.

But they both saw clearly that there was only one body inside. Where was the other person?

They left the autopsy room and continued along the corridor to the end. There was one last room, and the door was also locked. There was one last unused key left on the keychain, and Shu Fu tried it and successfully opened it.

There was no light inside, and it was very small, like a storage room with several glass cabinets.

Inside the glass cabinet, there were soaked organs from different parts of the body. They should be human, but they were all in strange shapes, which made them feel sick. There were also labels on them, some saying "medication XX" and some saying "injection XX".

The last cabinet contained no organs but two white medicine boxes.

Chen Fa took it out and opened it, and found that it was full of bottles of red potions, the same as the ones she had found on Tang Ping before. He seemed to have some obsessive-compulsive disorder, or because these potions were particularly important to him, so even though the bottles he had specially found were of different sizes and capacities, he arranged them very neatly.

Chen Fa took out three more bottles and put them together with the previous one. Although they had checked that there was no surveillance inside when they came in, because they had just turned on the light, she wanted to go out again to check if there was anything missing.

Shu Fu said that she wanted to check the storage room again, and the two of them acted separately. After Chen Fa went out, Shu Fu put the white medicine box back into the glass cabinet, but when she withdrew her hand, she slightly opened the lid of the medicine box and put all the glass bottles containing red liquid into the space.

She didn't know what these things were used for, but since Tang Ping attached so much importance to them, she might as well take them all away.

Anyway, if it's useless, you can just throw it away later.

She packed one medicine box, and then used the same method to pack the glass bottles in another medicine box. Just as she was about to go out, she heard some noise coming from the corridor outside.

Shu Fu gripped the stun gun tightly and rushed out quickly. The incandescent light in the suite in the middle of the corridor had been turned off. The light of the night light at the bottom of the corridor was dim and yellow, illuminating Chen Fa who was leaning against the wall on the other side of the corridor.

Her expression was somewhat frightened, her right hand slightly raised, tightly gripping her baton.

But fortunately, she was the only one in the corridor.

"What's wrong?" Shu Fu ran over.

Chen Fa half-leaned against the wall behind him, readjusted his emotions, and then gestured behind Shu Fu: "Eyes..."

Behind Shu Fu was the password door that they couldn't open. She remembered that there was a small round glass window on the door, about the size of a fist.

She slowly turned her head, and Chen Fa raised the flashlight in his other hand and shone it towards the small glass window. It was still pitch black inside. Just as Shu Fu was about to speak, suddenly, a bulging eye appeared behind the door.

It was an eye that had long been deformed, like the eye of a giant that had been soaked in water until it rotted and swollen, but unlike the giant, the owner of this eye was obviously still alive. The gray-white eyeball was covered with disgusting red bloodshot, and the flesh on the eyelid drooped down like mud.

But this eye was staring at them.

Shu Fu subconsciously took two steps back and reached out to grab Chen Fa.

Chen Fa said in a deep voice: "Found it, the last patient."