On the other side, the two brothers tiptoed back to their home. Both of them felt their heart beating very fast, and the panic has not subsided yet.
"Brother, what should I do? I was so scared just now. If we get caught, we will be dead!"
"Why are you panicking? You haven't been caught yet!"
Their father was sleeping with his grandson. He heard the noise and came out and closed the door.
"Failed?"
Seeing his two sons nodding, the father sighed, "It's okay if we failed. The noise just now was so loud that Ruirui was almost woken up. I say you shouldn't have gone. We've been neighbors for many years, and Dr. Qiao's family is easy to get along with. They even sent two crossbowmen to protect our 20 buildings. We can't be ungrateful. If we want eggs and chickens, we should make some money and save them up to exchange with them. It's not like they don't want to exchange eggs. They will exchange eggs with the neighbors in the building every few days..."
The eldest son sat down dejectedly: "But it's expensive! Half a pound of food can only be exchanged for one egg, it's too expensive!"
"Then it takes eight ounces of food to exchange for one egg at the market! What can we do? The harvest has been poor in recent years. We are short of everything. Okay, okay, go to bed. It will be seven o'clock soon and you all have to go to work."
The two brothers went back to their room to sleep. The older one tossed and turned, while the younger one recovered from the fear and became active again.
"Brother, why don't we find someone else to cooperate with? If we show up as strangers, we won't be afraid of being recognized—"
The younger brother’s words woke the older brother up instantly!
"You're crazy! Isn't this inviting a wolf into the house? Building 20 is our home!" The brother finally came to his senses. "Okay, let's not talk about this. It's just an egg. I can change my job and get a chicken in the future! Do you hear me? Don't tell anyone outside. Our building is still safe. Don't mess everything up!"
He gave his brother a stern lecture, suppressing the idea that had just come up. The younger brother realized that his idea was too dangerous and radical: "I know, brother, I won't do it. I'm not stupid."
Later, Chi Yuxiu told her brother about this matter. Her brother asked his friends in the security team to patrol the Ping'an community more often in the past few days, which to a large extent deterred some people who had strange ideas.
Qiao Qingqing didn't know what was happening at home. When it happened, she had just finished her night shift and returned to the dormitory tiredly.
When street lights are on, some people will back off from committing crimes, but if you think about it carefully, the night shift is not any easier than the day shift. The brightness provided by street lights makes more people willing to go out and do business at night. With more people going out at night, it is natural that things get a bit chaotic.
After finishing the tiring night shift, Qiao Qingqing returned to the dormitory to change clothes first. The conditions here were not good and she couldn't take a shower and wash clothes every day, so she sprayed the clothes she changed with disinfectant to remove the bacteria on the surface. In the dormitory, Liu Zhaoyun was not there. She was on the day shift today and had already gone out. Qiao Qingqing closed the curtains. There were no candles or lights in the room. She took out breakfast from the space, a basket of steamed cabbage dumplings, a bowl of eight-treasure porridge, and a brown sugar bun, all hot. She didn't dare to eat food with a strong smell, but these few things were delicious enough.
She didn't wolf her food down, but ate slowly, leaning against the bedpost, letting the food slide through her esophagus, filling her stomach and driving away the hunger.
After swallowing the last dumpling, Qiao Qingqing exhaled a satisfied breath. She put the bowl and chopsticks directly into the space and went out to brush her teeth by the ditch.
"Hey Sister Qing, are you off night shift?"
Four or five meters away from the drain, Xiaopeng also came out with a mouthwash cup to brush his teeth.
Qiao Qingqing spat out the mouthwash and responded, "Yeah, you're off today?" If she went to work the day shift at this time, she would be late.
Xiao Peng smiled and nodded: "Yes! Today is my turn to take a day off, I want to go home."
The two chatted for a while and then continued brushing their teeth. After that, they said goodbye casually. Qiao Qingqing went back to the dormitory to sleep, and Xiaopeng packed his things and rode his bike home.
Qiao Qingqing fell asleep quickly, but was woken up by someone in her sleep.
"Sister Qing? Sister Qing, are you there? Sister Qing!"
She immediately opened her eyes and realized that the person calling her was a colleague, so she responded loudly, "I'm here!" and quickly changed her clothes and got out of bed.
"Sister Qing, Sister Meng is injured and bleeding a lot. Can you help take a look?" Xiaopeng shouted anxiously outside.
Qiao Qingqing paused, but still opened the door.
Xiao Peng had a flashlight hanging around his neck, the light was flickering unsteadily, and he was carrying Zheng Meng on his back, looking anxious and uneasy. When he saw the door open, his eyes lit up: "Sister Qing! Help!"
"Keep your voice down, the people on night shift in other dormitories are still sleeping." said Qiao Qingqing.
Xiao Peng knew he had done something wrong and was ashamed. Qiao Qingqing let him in. She turned on the light hanging on the iron nail on the wall. The whole dormitory was instantly illuminated, and Zheng Meng's situation was clearly displayed in front of her.
Zheng Meng was already unconscious, there was a large bloodstain on his back, his hands and feet were cold, and he had obviously lost too much blood.
"Put her on the table. Are there any other wounds besides her back?"
The two tables put together become the bed where Qiao Qingqing usually treats patients.
"No, no?" Xiao Peng put Zheng Meng on top. As soon as she lay down, she groaned in pain. The wound on her back bleeds more. Xiao Peng jumped up in fright, at a loss, "I, I——"
"Go to the cafeteria and get some hot water as soon as possible." Qiao Qingqing commanded calmly.
Xiaopeng felt as if he had been pardoned and rushed out to boil water.
"close the door."
"oh oh!"
Xiaopeng ran very fast and came back soon with a kettle. He stopped suddenly and knocked on the door.
"Sister Qing, hot water."
"Come in."
After Xiaopeng came in, he didn't dare to look around and put the hot water on the stool.
"Go find some clothes and I'll change them for her later." After a while, Xiaopeng took out a cleaner piece of clothing from his dormitory, put it down and went outside.
Qiao Qingqing had already cut open Zheng Meng's clothes and saw a long, deep cut on her back. She decided to clean it first and then stop the bleeding and suture it.
She has become an expert in treating external injuries over the years, so after Qiao Qingqing had sorted out everything, she called him in to explain the situation.
"...I don't know what weapon was used to make the wound, or whether it's rusted. You'd better ask her when she wakes up. To be on the safe side, she may need to go to the hospital for a tetanus shot." After that, Qiao Qingqing gave a detailed introduction to today's medical supplies, and finally said, "You brought her here, so you can charge her for the materials at a preferential price among colleagues, and five kilograms of food."
Xiaopeng was a little embarrassed, but he also knew that the price was very cheap. Not to mention the medical expenses, just the iodine gauze and sutures were very expensive. Sister Mengmeng was so seriously injured and wrapped in so many layers of gauze. If she went outside to find another doctor for treatment, 20 kilograms of food would not be enough. Sister Qing charged a low fee out of consideration for her colleagues, so when he saw Sister Mengmeng was injured, his first reaction was to send her back to the team for Sister Qing to treat her.
"I just sent my salary home, but it's not here... Sister Qing, wait for me, I'll go home and get it for you."
"Don't worry, just give it to me when you come back from vacation. Just send her home." Qiao Qingqing washed her hands.
"Okay, sorry, Sister Qing, I disturbed your rest. You must have been on night shift these days."
"It's okay. Human life is at stake. Be careful on the road and make sure the bumps don't cause her wound to open."
Xiaopeng thanked him repeatedly and left with Zheng Meng on his back.
Qiao Qingqing yawned as she tidied up the bed, washed the gloves she had taken off, and hung up the towels she had used to wipe the blood stains to dry. Not long after she lay down, there was another knock on the door. It turned out that another colleague on duty had been injured during work.
"That bastard stole things and killed people. I finally caught up with him and ended up getting stabbed!"
Qiao Qingqing tied the bandage into a knot: "Okay, don't touch water or eat spicy food. Come to me to remove the stitches after seven days."
"Thank you, Sister Qiao. It hurts so much. How much is the consultation fee?"
"Five pounds of food."
"Okay! I'll get it right away."
After trying twice, Qiao Qingqing's sleepiness completely disappeared. She spread a bamboo mat on the ground, sat on it, and pounded the baked cockroaches into powder, which she then bottled for storage. She also prepared some new ointment for bruises and injuries.
After a busy day, it was noon, and Qiao Qingqing went to the cafeteria to eat. The food here was much worse than that in Pingshan Community, but at least it was large and filling. Today's lunch was potato stew with rice and seaweed soup. The pot of chili sauce was a fixed guest, and it was all unlimited. You could take as much as you wanted. Qiao Qingqing took a big bowl of rice and a bowl of soup, scooped a spoonful of chili sauce on the rice, and found a seat to sit down and eat slowly.
There were many colleagues eating around, and everyone was chatting while eating. Qiao Qingqing could often hear a lot of information.
"Didn't I tell you that my cousin works in the collection team? She told me that the day before yesterday when they went to the wild to collect weeds, they met someone asking for help. The person asking for help was very miserable, with almost no clothes on. My sister said that she was mowing the grass, and when she pushed the grass aside, she saw the person. At first she thought he was dead! But guess what happened -"
Qiao Qingqing pricked up her ears like her other colleagues.
Seeing that her colleagues were listening intently, the woman became more interested in talking: "I didn't expect it was a living person! My cousin quickly called for help, but the woman was covered in blood. When I touched her, I felt her limp. Do you know why? A lot of her flesh had been cut off!"
Colleagues exclaimed.
"That person has been rescued and brought back to the base. He is now in the hospital. But I heard that he may not live long. How can a person survive without this outer layer of flesh?"
"Xiao Mei, why is that person so miserable? Was he eaten by rats?"
"Of course not. Didn't you hear Xiaomei say it was to be peeled off? If a mouse gnawed it, it would be chewed off!"
Xiaomei nodded: "It's not a mouse. My cousin said it was cut by a knife. She told me that there might be people eating people outside, so I should be careful. After all, we are outside the base and the order is very chaotic. If we are caught by bad guys and tied outside the base, we will be finished."
"Hiss, that sounds scary!"
"I have a very good imagination. Forget it. Let's not talk about this topic anymore. I'm going to throw up!"
"What's the big deal? The world has changed and anything can happen. When I was taking refuge at home, during the cold winter, one day I smelled a delicious smell coming from the neighbor's house next door. It was so fragrant for several days in a row that I was dying of cravings. My sister told me that the old lady next door hadn't gone out for several days and she suspected that she had been eaten. I didn't believe it at the time! Later, the whole family next door died of illness. We pushed open the door and saw that in addition to the two hard corpses, there was also a skeleton in the second bedroom. It was a real skeleton! It was exactly the same as what was shown on TV!"
"Ugh - stop talking!"
Qiao Qingqing drank the last mouthful of soup, picked up the cutlery and put it in the recycling bin, then walked out of the cafeteria and headed for the dormitory.
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