Chapter 250 - 249: Abnormal Radiation Value

Chapter 250: Chapter 249: Abnormal Radiation Value

The sudden quarantine and lockdown, brought on by a suspected carcinogenic virus, left the medical staff, patients, and their families at the Qi Yue Medical Research Center feeling panicked and uneasy.

This was especially true for the forty to fifty people from the Qidong Medical Research Institute, who had come for check-ups and were now temporarily quarantined in the center’s building. They were in an uproar, filled with anxiety.

After all, they were the ones afflicted—the victims.

Fortunately, the hospital dispatched several psychological counselors and staff from the medical affairs department to help calm everyone down.

Qi Yue was also directing the center’s medical staff to comfort people while opening up empty patient rooms, examination rooms, and treatment rooms for the people from the institute to use.

The first-floor lobby and corridors of the center’s building were also urgently fitted with twenty to thirty hospital beds, serving as temporary places for the quarantined individuals to rest at night.

As for the five people from the institute whom Yu Zhiming had diagnosed with suspected cancer, they put on sealed protective suits and were cautiously transferred to the hospital’s infectious disease department for more thorough viral testing.

After an hour or two of such chaos, order and quiet were finally restored to the center’s building.

Yu Zhiming, who had been busy reassuring people alongside Teacher Qi, returned to his workstation in the main office and plopped into his chair. Immediately, a deep exhaustion washed over him like a tide.

He hadn’t slept well the night before, and today he had been working non-stop from 8:30 in the morning until nearly 9:00 at night.

Over twelve hours of high-intensity work, combined with the mental tension and pressure, had left him utterly drained, both physically and mentally. He didn’t even want to lift a finger.

Because the incident had occurred in the evening after work hours, of the center’s attending physicians, only Dr. Xie Jianmin was still present, aside from Qi Yue and Yu Zhiming.

Now, Doctor Xie had been assigned by Director Qi to the inpatient area, where he was supervising a few residents and interns on duty.

As for Qi Yue, after organizing all the work, he had gone to the center’s laboratory to investigate the potential cause of the cancer.

The only people in the large office now were Yu Zhiming, Qiao Lei, who had returned with him, and Zhou Mo, who had stayed behind.

"Dr. Yu, have a glass of milk first!"

"Thanks!"

Yu Zhiming thanked her and, forcing himself to stay alert, took the glass of milk from Zhou Mo.

As his hand touched the glass, Yu Zhiming felt its warmth.

He drank it all in one go. As the warm milk settled in his stomach, he felt a comforting sensation spread through his body.

Zhou Mo then placed a rather hearty dinner, served in several small porcelain bowls, on Yu Zhiming’s desk.

"Dr. Yu, eat something."

Zhou Mo explained softly, "These are the boxed dinners the hospital sent over; everyone got one. I put yours in my own lunch bowls and heated them up in the microwave."

Qiao Lei, on the other hand, didn’t receive such thoughtful service. He grabbed a cold boxed dinner and started scarfing it down.

Fortunately, the weather was still quite warm, so even though the cold food tasted a bit awful, it was still edible.

Yu Zhiming thanked Zhou Mo again for her thoughtfulness and picked up his chopsticks to eat.

He had been too tired to have an appetite, but after a few bites, it came roaring back.

Having been busy since noon, his body was being honest with him—it was genuinely hungry and needed energy.

When Yu Zhiming finished eating, Qiao Lei eagerly came over to clear the table like a suck-up. He proactively took the bowls and chopsticks to the washroom at the other end of the hall to wash them.

Full and satisfied, Yu Zhiming slumped lazily in his chair and looked over at Zhou Mo.

"Are you still scared?"

Zhou Mo shook her head, gave a little push with her feet, and scooted herself, chair and all, much closer to Yu Zhiming.

"I’m not scared anymore. Just like you said earlier, Dr. Yu, the chance of this being a virus is extremely low."

Zhou Mo added with a light chuckle, "Even if it really is an unknown carcinogenic virus, only one out of ten people has tested positive so far. I’m strong, healthy, and young, so my chances of getting it are very small."

"So, there’s no need to scare myself."

Yu Zhiming smiled faintly.

’Although only five people out of fifty have been diagnosed so far,’ he thought, ’more might develop cancer as time goes on.’

’The detection rate could end up being much higher.’

Zhou Mo hadn’t considered that, and Yu Zhiming wasn’t foolish enough to point it out and cause her needless anxiety.

Just then, Zhou Mo’s voice sounded in his ear again. "Hey, Dr. Yu, what did you tell Sister Xiang Wan?"

Yu Zhiming replied casually, "I told her I had an emergency patient to deal with and most likely wouldn’t be coming home tonight."

"As a doctor, it’s easy to find excuses."

"What about you, Zhou Mo? What did you tell your mom?"

The reason Yu Zhiming had lied was twofold: the situation was still unclear and he didn’t want his family to worry, and everyone quarantined in the center had been strictly instructed...

...not to leak any information, and certainly not to exaggerate the situation.

It wasn’t a complete information blackout, but rather a precaution. The main concern was that unverified information could spread to the public, where some might exploit it to fan the flames and cause unnecessary panic.

Zhou Mo giggled. "I told my mom I was going to the suburbs for a house call with you, Dr. Yu, and Qiao Lei."

"I said it was pretty far, so we’d probably be back late, or maybe not at all tonight."

"The director vouched for me, so my mom bought it."

Yu Zhiming couldn’t help but laugh. "Your mom isn’t worried at all about you running around with me like this?"

Zhou Mo giggled again and said a little guiltily, "My mom trusts you, Dr. Yu. That’s why she isn’t worried."

’She would never tell Yu Zhiming the truth.’

’Thanks to her previous efforts, she had successfully painted a picture of Yu Zhiming in her mother’s mind as a medicine-obsessed paranoid, a twisted deviant with no interest in girls.’

’That’s why her mom wasn’t the least bit worried about her being with him now.’

Of course, Yu Zhiming didn’t believe her, but he didn’t press the issue.

Just then, Qiao Lei returned with the washed dishes.

He handed the dishes to Zhou Mo, then dragged his own chair over and sat down.

"Dr. Yu, should we take some medicine to boost our immune systems? Antibiotics or something, just as a precaution?"

Yu Zhiming shot him a disdainful look. "How did you even get through medical school?"

"Medicine isn’t some health supplement. You can’t just take it whenever you feel like it."

"I’m positive it’s not viral. Stop worrying for nothing and scaring yourself."

After putting the dishes away, Zhou Mo also pulled her chair a bit closer to Yu Zhiming and sat down again.

"Qiao Lei, are you that afraid of dying?"

His pride stung, Qiao Lei retorted, "I’m not afraid of dying, I’m just being cautious."

"If I were facing a mugger, I’d charge right at them without hesitation. But this is an invisible, intangible virus, and it just makes my skin crawl with helplessness."

Zhou Mo stated definitively, "When you get right down to it, you’re just scared of dying!"

Before Qiao Lei could respond, she changed the subject. "We have to get through the whole night. We should do something."

"How about we play some games to lighten the mood?"

Yu Zhiming was completely listless; he was in no mood for games.

He suggested, "You two should get some rest. The time will pass faster that way. Just sleep, and it’ll be morning before you know it."

"Zhou Mo, you can go rest in the director’s office. The director and I need to stay on duty, so we can’t sleep."

Zhou Mo shook her head. "It’s still early. Besides, I’m in no mood to sleep. I’ll just stay here with you."

She had also noticed Yu Zhiming’s unconcealable exhaustion and tried to persuade him, "Dr. Yu, you’ve had a long day too."

"You should go lie down on the sofa in the director’s office for a while. If something really comes up, we’ll come get you."

Yu Zhiming refused. "I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I lay down. I might as well just stay up all night."

Just then, a staff member in a protective suit entered the main office and handed Yu Zhiming a large bag of snacks.

"Dr. Yu, these are from Dr. Bao Wan. She said eating snacks helps time pass more quickly."

Bao Wan’s snack delivery was just the beginning.

Over the next hour, Dr. Cui Zhitan, Dr. Wang Jiangyue, Dr. Ding Ye, Secretary He Yingjun, and Academician Tan Ying, among others, sent over food and drinks, either personally or through their assistants, to show their support.

This flood of support from so many people made Yu Zhiming realize something: the news had already spread throughout the hospital.

He took out his phone. Seeing no missed calls from Fourth Sister or Qingning, he knew the news hadn’t spread to the outside world yet.

Qiao Lei took a big bite of an apple with a CRUNCH and said indistinctly, "Even if there really is a problem, I’m not worried anymore."

"With so many people here, and especially with you, Dr. Yu, the country will definitely assemble a team of top medical experts to tackle the problem."

"Our country has always been good at pooling its resources to handle major undertakings and emergencies. It has never let its people down."

This remark from Qiao Lei earned him simultaneous eye-rolls from both Yu Zhiming and Zhou Mo.

Just then, a nurse ran in.

"Dr. Yu, the pregnant woman from the institute! She’s having severe abdominal pain and is bleeding heavily."

"Doctor Xie says she’s losing the baby."

The pregnant woman from the institute was only seven weeks along. When Yu Zhiming had examined her earlier, he had found the fetus’s development to be deeply concerning.

After the quarantine was confirmed, Yu Zhiming had a nurse arrange a hospital bed for her and start an IV drip with medication to help sustain the pregnancy.

’I didn’t expect things to go wrong so quickly.’

Yu Zhiming followed the nurse to the pregnant woman’s room and found Teacher Qi was there as well.

Yu Zhiming went to the weeping woman’s side, examined her, and confirmed that she had lost the baby.

He knew that in addition to the fetus’s own fragile development, the immense mental stress the woman had endured tonight was also a contributing factor...

As he followed Teacher Qi out of the room, Yu Zhiming asked quietly, "Teacher, the fetus?"

Qi Yue understood his unspoken question and replied softly, "It was sent to the expert team for analysis right away."

"A fetus that small is the most sensitive to stimuli. There’s a high probability we’ll be able to identify the source of the problem from it."

Sometime after 11:00 p.m., Yu Zhiming finally received some definitive news.

While conducting a comprehensive inspection of the Qidong Medical Research Institute, the expert team had discovered abnormal radiation levels in its cafeteria.

The radiation level was over two hundred times higher than the normal value...