Chapter 152
Chapter 152
“This medicine keeps our conditions under control. Yours isn’t serious yet, so there’s a good chance it can cure you.”
“Then what about you?”
The woman’s earnest words convinced Wang Weiwei even further, and she could not help worrying about her.
“I’m beyond saving. This medicine can only control my condition and slow its spread so you don’t contract it all at once. That’s why you should take it. I don’t ask anything else of you. All I want is for you to do one thing for me after you get out.”
“Tell me.”
Tears of emotion filled Wang Weiwei’s eyes.
“Open that cabinet and take out what’s inside.”
Wang Weiwei walked over and opened the cabinet. An envelope lay within.
“There are two bank cards and a letter in that envelope. I want you to give the card with a name written on it and the letter to my son.”
The woman smiled bitterly.
“My son is getting married soon. I’ve been a useless mother. Not only have I failed to care for him since he was young, I’ve done nothing but cause him trouble. When I heard this place was recruiting test subjects, I came here. I never imagined I’d earn the money but be unable to send it out. So, young lady, you’re the only person I can ask!”
Wang Weiwei placed the envelope safely in her System inventory, then spoke with determination.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I promise I’ll take care of it.”
The woman wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Young lady, the medicine will make you a little drowsy. Lie down and get some sleep. You don’t need to worry about anything else. I’m here, and I won’t let them hurt you.”
Her voice was resolute.
Wang Weiwei was moved beyond words. Sure enough, she began to feel drowsy after taking the medicine. She clutched her employee badge tightly, lay down on the patient’s bed, and fell asleep.
Once she was asleep, the woman lay down as well. Her illness prevented her from doing anything else.
Wang Weiwei slept straight through until noon. The woman woke her and told her to go eat lunch.
“Young lady, remember this: you must follow everything in your Caregiver Rules. You have to eat your meals, and you have to sleep for a full eight hours every day. Otherwise, those illnesses will spread through your body incredibly fast.”
The woman repeatedly emphasized each warning.
Wang Weiwei nodded and went downstairs. Just as she was about to leave the ward, however, she felt as though the doorway had grown slightly larger.
She really had been infected.
Her heart tightened. She hurried to meet the others and tell them what she had learned.
The others had already reached the cafeteria, but the atmosphere was grim.
Zhang Yanyan occupied an entire table by herself, and its surface was buried beneath plates of food. Without the slightest concern for her appearance, she shoveled food into her mouth.
She swallowed many things without even chewing. Her stomach had swollen visibly, yet she continued eating without pause.
Wang Weiwei understood. Zhang Yanyan must have been infected.
She immediately found Li Wei and the others and told them everything she knew.
They were all shocked, especially Li Wei. If Wang Weiwei’s information was true, then switching badges would be useless.
Even if they exchanged badges, they had already been infected. With the diseases progressing this violently, none of them would survive until the seventh day.
“No wonder my shoulder has been hurting for the past few days.” Sun Miao rubbed her shoulder in terror. She knew exactly what the patient in her ward looked like. The thought of becoming the same way filled her with despair.
Wang Fugui looked equally grim. He had lost most of his appetite the day before.
At first, he had written it off as a minor digestive upset. But noon had arrived, and he still was not hungry. Looking at the delicious food spread across the table only made him nauseated. When he looked in the mirror that morning, he had also noticed that he seemed thinner.
Li Wei was the only one who felt nothing unusual. He alone had followed the manual to the letter: eating on schedule, falling asleep the moment ten o’clock arrived, and binding his employee badge so tightly to his body that no one could remove it.
He had also made his patient take every dose delivered by the nurse. Fortunately, the patient was fairly cooperative. Li Wei therefore concluded that even if he had been infected, his illness should still be in its incubation period.
Even so, he was troubled. How were they supposed to clear this mission?
“If everything Weiwei said is true, why don’t we hold back the medicine we’re supposed to give the patients and take it ourselves?” Wang Fugui suggested. “Maybe that will keep us alive until the mission ends.”
Wang Fugui’s patient suffered from anorexia. Getting her to swallow medicine was harder than killing her, and she had refused both doses over the past two days. Wang Fugui still had all of them.
If she would not take them, he reasoned, then he might as well. After all, the medicine was meant to control their conditions.
Li Wei felt it could not be that simple. He was uncertain whether Wang Weiwei’s information was genuine. It was not Wang Weiwei herself he distrusted. Her face radiated such pure, transparent stupidity that there was no reason to suspect her.
He distrusted her patient.
The manual had explicitly warned them not to believe anything the patients said…
Li Wei froze.
His eyes suddenly widened as a thought struck him. He took out the note he had discovered earlier.
1. Do not believe Director Jia.
2. Do not take the medicine.
3. Stay away from anyone wearing a red wristband.
4. Do not press the green button.
These four lines seemed to contradict the Caregiver Rules. But if his theory was right, everything made sense.
“Everyone…”
Li Wei placed the note on the table and addressed them with a grave expression.
“If you want to survive, you need to follow my instructions from this point onward.”
Everyone looked at him, confused by the sudden declaration.
Li Wei pushed the note toward them.
“I found this earlier. Since it differed from the rules in our manual, I kept it to myself. But what Wang Weiwei told us just now helped me understand something.”
The others read the note.
“This isn’t the same as the rules. Which one is right?” Wang Fugui could not help asking.
“Both of them. They’re simply written from different perspectives. Don’t forget, what we have is the Caregiver Rules. Every line is directed at us as caregivers. This note, on the other hand, must have been written by a patient. The Taboos on it belong to the patients!”
“Then… what does that mean?”
Wang Fugui still did not understand.
“It means we must obey the Caregiver Rules as long as we’re still caregivers. Their instructions protect us from infection. If we follow them, we either won’t be infected at all, or the infection’s progress will slow dramatically. But…”