Chapter 34
It wasn't until he reached the fourth floor that Xiao Shengyun understood why this place was called a prison.
The doors were all locked tightly, and the wails coming from behind them converged and traveled with the wind through the corridor to every corner of the building.
The wails seemed to be everywhere—at the stairwell and in front of the doors. All the awakened ones immediately covered their ears upon going upstairs, as these sounds alone could create terrible mental pollution.
Everyone was wearing thick protective suits as they went to inject antagonists into the patients in the room.
Xiao Shengyun pushed open the first door in the corridor. As soon as the door opened a crack, the polluter inside struggled to crawl out.
"Let me out!"
This is a middle-aged man whose face is half rotten, leaving only white bones with some red flesh stuck to them, making him look extremely horrific.
He ignored Xiao Shengyun and dragged himself toward the door, inhaling the cool air in the corridor as if he were a dying man reborn.
Xiao Shengyun grabbed the polluter's arm. He didn't stop the polluter, perhaps because the polluter wasn't aggressive, or perhaps out of a little pity.
His gaze passed over the polluter's shoulder and looked behind him. There were some red things on the ground, soft in texture and even slowly wriggling. These were pieces of flesh that had fallen from the polluter.
The room behind the door is very small, only about ten square meters. It's not hard to imagine what kind of life these patients lead.
From the moment they were contaminated, the rest of their lives were confined to this small space. The heavy iron doors blocked out all the sobs and cries. The contamination began to spread, and their bodies and souls began to decay.
Ultimately, every polluter will be transformed into this inhuman, ghostly state. Antagonists cannot completely remove the pollution; the only way to relieve them is through death.
The middle-aged man cried and wailed for a long time before finally stopping. This was the first time in five years that he had tasted freedom.
He was just an ordinary worker who was sent to the hospital after the pollution incident. At first, he thought about his wife and children, but those thoughts were quickly replaced by physical pain.
"Doctor, please don't save me."
The middle-aged man spoke in a hoarse voice. As patients in the hospital, they were deprived of their freedom, deprived of one of the rights of normal people, but they still had one privilege—to decide their own death.
Looking at the polluter's slumped body, Xiao Shengyun suddenly thought of the stab Zhou Zhi had given Yu Wenliang.
What was that person thinking at the time? Did he also feel the trembling souls of those who wanted to die? Did he hear their sobbing pleas?
Is it because they have witnessed too much suffering that they are so resolute and decisive?
He watched as the middle-aged man took out the papers from the bottom of the drawer.
Body donation agreement
"I voluntarily accept death and donate my body to the Institute of Life Sciences, hoping to become a spark in the flame, watching over the dawn in the darkness."
The man signed his name on it—Chen Fan.
This is the judgment he issued to himself.
Xiao Shengyun watched from the sidelines. The other party had already chosen their own route and did not need outside interference. He locked the door, took the medicine, and went to the next room.
On the fourth floor, he saw another familiar face—An Tong.
She looked much weaker than the last time we met, lying quietly on the bed, tiny vines piercing her neck, with small green leaves growing on them, swaying slightly with the girl's movements.
Xiao Shengyun wanted to absorb the polluting particles just like he did when he saved Yue Ning, but pollution is like cancer cells—it can be killed, but it's difficult to eradicate.
An Tong was delighted to see an acquaintance: "Big brother, where did you go the other day? I couldn't find you anywhere!"
“I have to go to work, so I can’t play with you every day,” Xiao Shengyun replied patiently. He noticed a picture book next to the girl’s bed.
“Okay,” An Tong said dejectedly. She didn’t know what “work” meant, but she knew that this older brother, like the dean and the doctor, couldn’t be with her every day.
"But now I've been transferred back, so I can come see you every day."
"Really?" An Tong looked up suddenly, her eyes lighting up.
"Where is your brother?" Xiao Shengyun asked worriedly, unsure if An Nan's condition had also worsened.
“Down there.” An Tong pouted and pointed to the floor. She didn’t understand why her brother couldn’t be with her.
"That's good."
Although she couldn't see her brother, An Tong seemed very happy because she finally had someone to talk to.
She lay in bed, her eyes gazing at the sky outside the window.
Why can birds fly?
"Because they have wings."
"Then I can't fly because I don't have wings."
"That's right."
"But Brother Huang Yu has wings, so why can't he fly?"
"..."
The girl's questions were often strange and difficult for Xiao Shengyun to answer.
Even the most mature adults often struggle to understand the issues surrounding human infants.
But he was still happy to chat with An Tong, because An Tong's existence itself was a fairy tale, and she brought a touch of color to this deathly floor.
The most painful thing about being in a preventative hospital is not watching your body get contaminated and eroded, but the endless waiting.
Currently, the research institute has not developed any drugs to eradicate pollution, but only antagonists to slow down the rate of alienation in polluters.
Each patient receives one treatment per week at the hospital, with one side of the contamination level measured daily, and two injections of the antagonist daily.
In a sense, being a doctor is a physically demanding job.
There are nearly eighty patients on each floor, and Xiao Shengyun is only responsible for one floor. Running around, he still walks more than 30,000 steps a day.
Even more difficult than these are... dealing with all sorts of strange patients.
While most of the complaints were bitter, some were not included in this list.
The patient, let's call him A, grew strange scales on his body. He was so bored that he would pluck the scales off every day, and now his tail is almost bald.
Patient B grew vines on his body, and when he was hungry, he would eat the fruit that grew on his own, perfectly achieving self-sufficiency, and clamoring for the hospital to buy him plant nutrient solution.
Patient C has grown dozens of tentacles. Before entering the hospital, he was a pianist, and now he plays the piano every day with his dozens of tentacles. The patients upstairs are so bothered by him that they wish they could come down and beat him up.
There are probably dozens more with such unique art styles.
After arguing with Patient C for half an hour about which tentacle the antagonist should be injected into, Xiao Shengyun felt he should ask the dean for more compensation for emotional distress. He dragged his tired body back to the duty room, and as he passed An Tong's room, the girl's soft voice made him stop.
Xiao Shengyun originally wanted to get rid of the little guy as soon as possible and then rest for a while, but the moment he saw An Tong, he instantly sobered up.
The girl's neck and wrists were covered in a layer of black; the darker the black, the higher the pollution level.
How could this happen? I just had an antagonist injection this afternoon.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Xiao Shengyun led An Tong into the house and wrapped her up tightly in a down jacket.
"Big brother, could you please tell An Nan that I took my medicine and ate on time today, so he won't worry?" An Tong said.
She hadn't seen Anan for several days, and she didn't know any of the other doctors. It was only with great difficulty that she could run into someone she knew.
"Okay, I'll go to the third floor and talk to him in a bit. You should go back quickly," Xiao Shengyun comforted him, suppressing his worries. He could sense that every patient in the hospital was like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.
It's all because of those damn rats.
In the office, Li Qianfang had a blank face and, unusually, kept his sharp lips closed, staring silently at the person who came in. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he would be unable to help but curse out loud.
The people who came were dressed in red uniforms, and each of them had a badge on their chest with a long sword wrapped in iron chains.
The Inspection Department—the most notorious department in the entire Bureau of Supernatural Abilities.
The officers in the Inspection Department and the Operations Department have the most blood on their hands, but the Operations Department's blood is mostly contaminated with pollutants, while the Inspection Department's blood is contaminated with the polluters' blood.
Whenever a patient in an island nation exceeds a certain threshold, it is time for the supervisory department to carry out the execution.
Those who came this time were all elites among the Awakened. The man in the lead was nearly forty years old, with a tall and handsome figure. The fine lines at the corners of his eyes and the white roots of his hair added a touch of maturity to him, and he had the air of ease that comes from years of holding a high position.
His first impression was that of a business elite or a politician, but Li Qianfang knew how many lives this man's fair and smooth hands had taken.
He Jingming is the director of the Supervision Department.
He joined the Supervisory Department at its inception, and Li Qianfang had some impression of him because he was so young, either fifteen or sixteen years old—a minor serving as an executioner.
Back then, Li Qianfang criticized the supervisory department for employing child laborers, saying that such work would cause great mental damage. But time flies, and that child from back then has also smoothed out his rough edges and become the kind of person who is good at social maneuvering.
"You've all come from afar, why didn't you send a message beforehand? I would have been ready to welcome you with a feast," Li Qianfang said with a smile.
“No need. Our main purpose in coming here is to address the riot at Nanshan Hospital. After all, it is the largest contaminated site in Dongshan District, and its stability is related to the safety of the entire Dongshan District,” He Jingming said bluntly.
"Riot? It's just a minor disturbance caused by patients. You saw the situation at the hospital on your way here; everything is normal."
"If everything is as usual, then Dean Li, would you mind if I take a look at the patient's recent test reports?" He Jingming's tone was low and gentle, but his methods were extremely ruthless. He was certain that Li Qianfang would not falsify the test reports; that was a bottom line.
Li Qianfang looked up at him but didn't say anything.
“You want to protect them, but they may not want to live. You know what polluters are like. It’s better to die quickly than to live in agony,” He Jingming said gently.
“Their deaths should be chosen by themselves, not judged by outsiders. The death penalty is for those who have committed crimes, but every one of my patients is innocent, so why should their life or death be decided by others?” Li Qianfang was not fooled and retorted angrily.
“I’m here to find out the reason. You should know that there are countless island nations. You can protect this one, but you can’t protect all the polluters,” He Jingming said, relenting.
Ultimately, both sides compromised, allowing He Jingming to conduct a free investigation at the hospital. If he found any uncontrolled contaminants, he would take coercive measures.
However, as soon as He Jingming stepped out of his office, he sensed something unusual in the air. He looked up and saw a massive amount of pollution pouring out from the top floor, about to break through the barrier above the hospital.
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