Chapter 22: Strange disturbances around the globe
By the time Huang Jiutian arrived with the doctor, Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou were both back to normal.
"This is what you called critical?"
Qin Xiaoxia's attending physician, Qian Boming, stared speechlessly at Qin Xiaoxia eating an apple, then glanced at Doudou playing a game.
Huang Jiutian opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
"It wasn't like this a moment ago."
Qin Xiaoxia raised his apple.
"Jiu Tian, oh, Jiu Tian. A little acting was all it took to fool you. Anyway, Doctor, since you're here, could you check me over and see when I can be discharged?"
Qian Boming studied Qin Xiaoxia's complexion.
"You seem to be recovering well. Your problem was nutritional to begin with. Once you've replenished what you need, getting discharged should be straightforward."
Even so, the doctor examined Qin Xiaoxia and had the nurse accompanying him draw some blood.
"Doctor, how is he?"
At Huang Jiutian's question, Qian Boming suppressed his slight surprise.
"He's recovering remarkably well. If the lab results are normal too, he can be discharged anytime."
"See? There wasn't anything seriously wrong with me."
The change earlier had put Qin Xiaoxia in a wonderful mood, and he couldn't help showing off.
But when he received the itemized bill that afternoon, his expression darkened.
"I fucking slept for two days. Why does it cost over six thousand?"
"You have medical insurance. You actually only have to pay a little under two thousand."
Beside him, Doudou was even more indignant than Qin Xiaoxia.
"How many roast chickens and ducks could you buy with two thousand? How many lollipops and cakes?"
Supporting Qin Xiaoxia as he left the hospital, Huang Jiutian looked speechlessly at the pair, while Gou Junbao was already waiting in his car outside the inpatient building.
"Hey, now that you're discharged, how about I treat everyone to a big dinner tonight?"
Gou Junbao made the suggestion as they climbed into the car.
Qin Xiaoxia looked much thinner now, but nothing about his complexion suggested he had just recovered from a serious illness.
"I'm in!"
"I'm in!"
"I object!"
"Three to one! Jiu Tian loses!"
Doudou shouted excitedly.
"I want an imperial banquet! Like the ones in the movies!"
Everyone else in the car simply ignored that suggestion.
Huang Jiutian felt rather helpless. He had thought Gou Junbao was the only normal one, but it turned out he was just as carefree.
Noticing that Huang Jiutian seemed down, Gou Junbao turned back before starting the car and gave him a friendly smile.
"Jiu Tian, Xiaoxia's as tough as a cockroach. Besides, I'm here, aren't I? Even if you head back now, I can take good care of them."
Huang Jiutian felt helpless.
You being here is exactly what makes this less reassuring...
When Huang Jiutian showed no reaction, Gou Junbao suddenly "understood."
"Hey, Jiu Tian, let bygones be bygones. Look on the bright side. There's no need to mope."
Huang Jiutian gave him a puzzled look, feeling that Gou Junbao was talking so much he had stopped making sense.
"Forget it. If he doesn't care, why should I worry?"
Qin Xiaoxi was eating the grapes they had brought out of the ward, and Gou Junbao's words nearly made her choke.
At Huang Jiutian's response, Gou Junbao looked startled. Only after seeing Qin Xiaoxia's pointedly clenched fist did he come to his senses.
"If she doesn't care, you just... ahem. Good man! Very magnanimous!"
Gou Junbao gave Huang Jiutian a thumbs-up.
What was going on?
"Drive, drive! Why are we blocking the entrance to the inpatient building?"
With Qin Xiaoxia shouting "impatiently" from the back seat, Gou Junbao finally snapped out of it and drove away from the hospital.
Inside a small conference room at the Yue City Public Security Bureau.
Quite a few people were seated inside. Besides the leading figures in Yue City's law enforcement, there were even officials from the Provincial Public Security Department.
Zhao Ning and two colleagues who had also been at the scene, all only recently released from the hospital, entered the room under the guidance of an officer from the Municipal Public Security Bureau.
"Good, they're here."
The director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau personally rose from his seat.
"Officer Zhao, sorry to interrupt your rest. A special envoy has come down from the higher authorities to learn about the situation. Allow me to introduce everyone..."
As the director introduced them, several men in plain clothes also stood, shook hands with the three officers who had been at the scene, and briefly introduced themselves.
"Officer Zhao, we need to know exactly what happened, including any unusual occurrences before or after the incident."
Officers from a small local station had naturally never encountered such a gathering of central government personnel. Somewhat stiffly, they recounted what had happened once more.
As for the subsequent "fire," two of the three had passed out from toxic gas, while the third had been blasted off a rooftop by the shock wave.
Fortunately, all three had been lucky. The peculiar state of unconsciousness induced by the poisoning had instead spared the first two from dying of oxygen deprivation afterward. The officer thrown by the shock wave had landed on a market awning and miraculously suffered only scrapes.
The plainclothes man leading the group rested his chin on one hand, considering what he had just heard.
"Officer Zhao, as I understand it, you received a mysterious emergency call before the incident?"
Zhao Ning froze, then immediately remembered why he had been dispatched in the first place.
"Yes. Someone called to say that people were obstructing the river dredging and were planning to catch polluted fish to eat. We went over with the river management committee to maintain order."
"All right, understood. Thank you."
Once the three officers left, the screensavers on several laptops in the conference room were dismissed.
Live images of several National Defense Officials appeared on the screens. This was clearly a video conference.
One of them nodded to Special Envoy Tao.
Taking the cue, Special Envoy Tao switched on the conference room's projector.
He began repeatedly playing several videos recorded at the scene.
They consisted of footage from residents' phones and several surveillance cameras along the river, with repeated pauses and replays at crucial points.
Both the Yue City police and the higher authorities had studied these videos many times already, so although the playback was thorough, it did not take long.
To the Yue City contingent's surprise, Special Envoy Tao then opened several other videos unrelated to this incident.
Some were complete and others fragmentary, but most conveyed something eerie amid the chaos.
Two left a particularly strong impression.
One appeared to have been filmed somewhere in the Middle East. A ring of men who looked like soldiers, their faces wrapped in cloth, fired wildly at an earthen house. Some even shouldered RPGs and launched rockets.
Near the end of the video, chunks of flesh covered in black scales could be seen in one corner. They were still writhing, and the soldiers in the footage looked frightened.
The second appeared to have been filmed in a bitterly cold region. Ice and snow covered everything, except for one spot where spring seemed to have arrived. A broad expanse of green plants stood in stark contrast to the surrounding cold, and a group of foreigners who looked like university students appeared very excited.
They looked positively thrilled, as though they had discovered a fairyland amid the snow.
At the center of this "snowbound oasis," they filmed a beautiful flowering plant whose blossoms looked exceptionally large even on video.
Judging by the language spoken, it might have been somewhere around Russia. The person filming stopped recording after they finished exploring and left the oasis.
Everyone present was either a veteran detective or a criminal investigation expert. Amid the shifting, laughter-filled selfie footage, they could clearly see that the group of students had shrunk by at least a third.
The eerie part was that the students cheerfully discussed the wondrous sight and planned to tell more people about it, yet none seemed to realize that members of their group were missing or that anything else was amiss. It made the viewers' scalps prickle.
As these videos played, several senior Yue City police officials watched with particular attention. They had clearly received some information beforehand.
Once all the material had finished playing.
Only then did Special Envoy Tao, who led the group, finally speak.
"After making these comparisons, have our colleagues from Yue City and the Qiantang Provincial Public Security Department noticed anything?"
"That fire-the fire at the Qing Town Riverway-was too sudden. It was unlike anything in any of these videos."
The speaker was Tian Zhuang, captain of the tactical police unit.
"Exactly. None of our units reacted quickly enough to attack that location. That fire appeared on its own!"
"And the instant it appeared..."
Special Envoy Tao paused, then narrowed his eyes.
"It destroyed that alien creature."