The Price

Xu Chen let out a soft breath after he finished writing. He looked at the string of circles he had drawn, lost in thought.

Finally, Xu Chen solemnly folded up the paper covered in circles and tucked it into a pocket inside his clothes.

He was, after all, someone connected to a supernatural creature. If he died in the end, even if he didn't get the kind of grand send-off an academician like Old Ge would, they would at least have to send a couple of criminal investigators to see what had happened to him.

Then someone would learn of his suspicions.

He hadn't realized, however, that what he had written was actually nothing but strings of meaningless circles. No one would be able to understand what they meant.

Now Xu Chen planned to ask his senior schoolmate Ouyang Xing for help. After all, Grandpa Yang had told him before he left to go to Ouyang Xing if he needed anything, so that couldn't be wrong.

At Central Hospital.

Captain Chu leafed through the report Xiao Wu had submitted, his expression grim.

It recorded that, during his time at the Nanhua Military Region Hospital, a full six Taihao disease patients had died in a very short time for unknown reasons. Two of them were members of the support team.

"Notify the equipment department. I want to speak to Dean Yang... No, I want to speak to Xiao Wu."

"Yes, sir!"

Captain Chu waited a moment before the landline on his desk rang. He eagerly picked up the receiver while watching the monitor. "Xiao Wu?"

"Oh, oh, I'm here."

"I saw the report you submitted. What exactly happened to those six people? Weren't they doing fine when I left?"

Xiao Wu's voice came through the receiver, sounding helpless. "I don't know. Dean Yang told me it seemed to be... some kind of price."

"Where's Dean Yang?"

"He's in the physicians' office by the nurses' station. Do you want to speak to him?"

"Not yet. Tell me how they died."

"Well... on the morning of the fourteenth... I heard a vital signs monitor sounding a continuous alarm. These patients can't move, so they wouldn't normally knock a sensor loose. I ran over to check right away and found that the patient in bed 32 wasn't breathing, had no pulse, and his heart had stopped.

"I gave him a quick examination. His pupils no longer responded to light, so I started CPR and called Dean Yang. He came over with several kinds of emergency drugs, dopamine and epinephrine and the like, and brought an AED along. But after examining the patient, he stopped me and wouldn't let me continue resuscitation.

"He said the man was already brain-dead and couldn't be saved."

Captain Chu listened closely for a while, then couldn't help asking, "Wasn't there anything unusual?"

Xiao Wu was taken aback, then asked cautiously, "What would be unusual? Patients who suffer this kind of inexplicable brain death die very quietly. Even if there was something, you couldn't tell, could you?"

"I see. Go on."

"I couldn't accept it. The patient's readings had been quite normal before, and then he'd just died for no apparent reason. I wanted to keep trying to save him. Dean Yang looked at me, sighed, and agreed to let me try the resuscitation equipment, but just then another patient's monitor went off.

"This time it was the patient in bed 12. By the time the two of us got there, he was in the same condition as the first one who died. He was already brain-dead.

"After that, another patient's monitor would sound a continuous alarm every so often, all the way up to the sixth. He was in the bed next to the fifth, so I went straight over when his monitor sounded.

"He seemed to have suffered brain death in an instant, for no apparent reason. I couldn't find a cause at all.

"I was terrified and blaming myself terribly. That's when Dean Yang told me not to be sad. He said this was some kind of price."

"What price was he talking about?" Captain Chu asked.

"I don't know. I was very upset at the time and didn't ask. Later, Dean Yang comforted me. He said, what doctor could guarantee that a patient wouldn't die? All a doctor could do was grow accustomed to life and death and cherish patients' lives."

"All right. Get Dean Yang. I want to speak to him."

There was a commotion on the other end of the line, and Xiao Wu fetched Dean Yang.

Dean Yang's voice sounded a little tired and puzzled. "This is Yang Tianyou. What is it, Captain Chu?"

"I'm calling to ask about the six people who died," Captain Chu said, keeping his emotions in check. "What happened? They'd been fine for so long. Why did something go wrong in the last two days?"

"I don't know. You can get a forensic examiner to determine the cause of death. The facilities here aren't very good, so all I could tell was that they suffered sudden brain death."

"I'm not asking about the cause of death. You seem to know why they suffered brain death?"

It was a contradictory question, but Dean Yang understood what he meant.

Dean Yang fell silent for a while, then murmured, "Taihao said this was the price He paid to do something. If He hadn't done it, it would have led to an even greater disaster.

"We don't have much time left. Delaying the disaster's arrival as much as possible and buying time are the most important things. This price was well worth it."

Captain Chu's gaze sharpened. "Taihao... What did He do?"

"..."

Dean Yang kept his lips sealed and said nothing.

A technician beside Captain Chu warned him that the person on the other end was experiencing intense emotional fluctuations, but Captain Chu refused to give up and kept listening. The question was crucial, and he wouldn't allow himself to miss this piece of information.

"If you won't tell me, I'll come to your floor and confront you myself. I want the key information so I can make the appropriate judgment. Yang Tianyou! Don't let the country down."

There was still silence on the line. Then a halting voice sounded. "You... why... bother? I... have... my reasons."

"I'm telling you, as long as these people are still lying here, this won't end like this. Since you can speak to this so-called Taihao, if you're still loyal to the people, you shouldn't hide anything!"

"Captain, Yang Tianyou's emotional state has reached its peak. Please be careful how you communicate!" the technician warned.

"Sigh, you won't understand... You can't understand..."

"You won't understand..."

"You won't understand..."

Captain Chu angrily hung up. He looked at the technician and said, "We can't let this go! Get me a set of equipment. I'm going to confront him myself."

The technician jolted. Looking at Captain Chu, he couldn't help trying to dissuade him. "Captain, the Academy of Sciences has advised against direct contact and conversation with Yang Tianyou and the others until the transmission mechanism of Taihao disease has been identified."

"You know that's only a recommendation, don't you? I suspect he has some extremely crucial information. We have to find out what he's hiding."

"Yes, sir! But we don't have much equipment here..."

"You can't go! I'll go alone!" Although Captain Chu had made up his mind to see Yang Tianyou, he understood the risks. He didn't intend to take anyone else with him.

"Yes, sir!"

To deal with emergencies, the command room kept several sets of Level A hazmat suits and voice-filtering devices resembling tactical headsets. The technician carefully opened a case, took out a hazmat suit, and carefully helped Captain Chu put it on according to standard procedure.

Once Captain Chu was fully equipped, he went upstairs.

After decontamination, he went to confront Yang Tianyou.

Xiao Wu was leafing through a book at the nurses' station. It was a medical textbook, one of the items that had been inspected and permitted inside. After reading a few lines, he noticed a noise in the stairwell and immediately looked over.

"Captain Chu! What brings you here?"

"I'm here to see Yang Tianyou. Where is he?"

"Um... in the room, but he's not very emotionally stable right now."