Taihao

"Taihao—Taihao—"

"Taihao—"

Inside the Coastal Meteorological Bureau's research institute, a vast panel displayed a weather map of the enormous typhoon. Its swirling, converging patterns resembled a giant eye.

Below it, more than a dozen people stared blankly at the typhoon's giant eye as though possessed, murmuring two syllables in low voices.

Taihao—

The two syllables sounded like sleep talk, indistinct yet noticeable enough.

"How are they? What's wrong with them?"

An elderly man anxiously questioned the medical staff examining them.

After examining them, the emergency doctor looked baffled. "I've never seen anything like this. Their bodies are all perfectly normal, but mentally, they're showing symptoms of delirium."

"Mental symptoms? Oh, what are we going to do? They're all my students! I put too much pressure on them and caused this. I've let their parents down."

The elderly man's eyes filled with tears, and he was heartbroken.

"Dr. Wang, this isn't your fault. Everyone's been working overtime lately, and you've been on the front lines too. No one expected this to happen."

"That's right. To be honest, those youngsters haven't been working as hard as we have. It might not be your fault."

Dr. Wang's colleagues tried to console him.

Dr. Wang shook his head, worry still in his eyes. "Even if it isn't my fault, it's still my responsibility. I started the research project and brought them here. Whatever happens to them, I'm responsible."

The doctor looked at the dozen or so students in the hall and finally gave his assessment. "I really can't tell what exactly is wrong with them. Even if it were a brain disorder, it's unlikely they'd all develop it at once. And from what you've told me about them eating and living together, it doesn't seem much like food poisoning either."

"Then, then what is it?"

"I suspect mass hysteria, but it's rare, and I'm not entirely sure."

Despite his worry, Dr. Wang was stunned for a moment. "Hysteria? You're saying they have hysteria?"

"That's what I suspect. But don't worry. I'll report it to my superiors. A physician with more expertise than me will come to examine them, and then we'll arrange to transport them."

"Old Wang, don't worry. Didn't the doctor say it was a mental issue? It's nothing serious, just stress at most. Once the higher-ups send reinforcements to relieve us old-timers, we'll check on them and give them a good long break."

Dr. Wang ignored him and looked at the doctor instead. "If that's the case, why are my students the only ones with this hysteria? Why don't we have it?"

The doctor looked around the institute and said uncertainly, "I don't know much about mass hysteria either, but in this case, I suspect it might have something to do with age."

Dr. Wang also looked around and saw that the students he had brought were indeed the youngest people at the institute. He couldn't help questioning his assumptions. "Are young people under a lot of pressure these days?"

The doctor thought for a moment and nodded with certainty.

"Taihao—"

Hearing this, Dr. Wang looked over. His students were still murmuring blankly, and he grew anxious again, checking on them one by one.

After reporting the situation, the doctor stayed where he was to await support from his superiors. He was also curious about what had triggered the mass hysteria.

He put his ear close to their mouths, trying to hear what they were murmuring.

"Taihao—"

The doctor frowned deeply and murmured along, "Taihao? 'Very good'? What are they supposed to lift properly?"

Following their gazes, the doctor looked at the giant eye on the wind-field map.

"Dr. Wang, this typhoon has a name, right? Is it called Taihao?"

Dr. Wang shook his head. Another elderly researcher beside him chuckled. "Typhoons aren't named at random. According to the international typhoon naming list, this one should be called 'Sanda.'"

"Not Taihao?" The doctor rubbed his chin, unable to think of any words pronounced taihao.

Ambulance sirens sounded around the institute, and its doors were hurriedly flung open.

"Where are the patients?"

Dr. Wang immediately looked up and saw a group of people in white coats rushing over, including several older doctors. Realizing the emergency doctor had called them in, he was delighted. "Here, doctor."

The large group of doctors hurried over, instruments in hand. After a quick look at the patients, they began examining them.

In the end, they reached the same conclusion as the young doctor: they suspected mass hysteria. The patients' lives were not in danger, but they needed treatment.

The students would all be taken to Central Hospital for treatment, with the costs reimbursed by the government.

That put Dr. Wang considerably more at ease. Central Hospital's medical capabilities were among the best on the coast and even in the entire country. If they couldn't treat the students there, there was no hope anywhere else either.

The hospital had sent enough ambulances this time. If everyone squeezed in, they could take all the patients to the hospital in one trip.

After the last ambulance left, the remaining physicians tidied up briefly. Having given Dr. Wang their instructions, they too prepared to turn and leave.

"Taihao——"

The voice sounded like sleep talk, and there seemed to be longing in it.

The people at the institute paled and turned toward the source of the voice.

It was the young emergency doctor.

He too was staring at the typhoon wind-field map as though possessed.

"For this to happen at a time like this, the higher-ups are paying close attention to us. Those students are Professor Wang's precious charges at the meteorological bureau. We need to find an appropriate treatment plan."

"Dean Feng, you're the leading expert in psychiatry. You'll be in charge from here."

"All right, I'll start. We don't have much information on mass hysteria either, so for now, the treatment plan should focus on conventional therapies."

"And that doctor from the emergency department developed mass hysteria after just a few dozen minutes. We may be able to investigate the principles behind its onset and transmission. All of this needs to be recorded in detail..."

Bang—

The door to the hospital conference room was flung open, and a physician stared at the people inside in terror.

"This hysteria is contagious! Physician Wang and the assistant nurse from psychiatry have both caught it!"

"What?!"

The physicians were stunned.

The head of Central Hospital, who had called the meeting, also recognized the danger and acted decisively. "Immediately initiate emergency procedures under the infectious disease regulations, and report it to the higher-ups."

"This... does mass hysteria count as an infectious disease? If we handle it that way, we'll have to close the hospital."

The director hesitated, then gritted his teeth. "It does. Report it quickly, in my name."

Dean Feng was a deputy director, and he had the strongest reaction upon hearing that Physician Wang had caught it, because Physician Wang was a doctor under him. He rushed straight off to see Physician Wang, though he at least remembered to take precautions, putting on a hazmat suit to guard against microbial infection.

But to be honest, the contagion was extremely strange, because before admission, no obvious infectious pathogenic microorganisms had been detected on the patients.

Physician Wang and his nurse were both in the office. Everyone else, in accordance with the infectious disease regulations just announced, had voluntarily begun cleaning, disinfecting, and isolating themselves.

Dean Feng opened the door and saw Physician Wang sitting in a chair, murmuring, with the nurse beside him.

Afterward, several doctors from the conference room, including the director, arrived belatedly. Also wearing hazmat suits, they crowded around the office door and looked inside, and they too heard his murmuring.

"Taihao—"