Wang Xiaoliang said nothing after hearing that.
Only after a long while did he speak. "How did it end up under military control?"
"Who knows?" Wei Zijin's voice was still very soft. "A group of soldiers suddenly showed up one day and started confiscating phones."
"Just like that? Nobody said anything?"
"What do you think?" Wei Zijin gave a soft snort. "It wasn't a discussion. It was an order. They registered everyone, one by one-names, phone numbers, contacts, all entered in a register. They said it was temporary control and we had to cooperate with the investigation."
"Then what?"
"They returned the phones four or five days later, but it was no use. The signals were blocked. There was no network of any kind anywhere around Seventh Hospital, for who knows how far."
Wang Xiaoliang frowned.
Wei Zijin paused, as though weighing whether to continue.
"One of the experts who'd been with us all along let something slip in private-the virus might have been man-made."
Wang Xiaoliang was shocked. "Man-made?"
"Seventh Hospital was the source of the outbreak. If someone deliberately released it, that was the primary scene. Would they let people freely send information out from the primary scene?"
Wang Xiaoliang said nothing.
Deliberately released.
The words kept turning over in his mind.
At the very least, it was a terrorist attack.
At the other extreme...
"No wonder," he said.
"Secrecy comes first." Wei Zijin sounded very serious. "We all signed a Commitment Letter saying we couldn't mention it to anyone after we got out. I'm telling you this, but don't tell anyone else either."
"I understand."
"Xie Hui mentioned it briefly when she came that day, too. If that's what happened, we really can't talk about it."
"Have they found out, then? Was it or wasn't it?"
"I