Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

She then turned and gave Xie Ning a brilliant smile.

Xie Ning couldn’t help but think, ’For a seemingly plain, middle-aged woman, that smile is truly beautiful.’

Doctor Fang was still chattering in her ear. ”Look how well she’s doing now—so quick and deft! And she switched careers to get here, right?”

”So, switching careers is no big deal. The bar for getting into the medical field isn’t that high. If you think it is, that’s just a common misconception people have about us!”

”I’m telling you, Xiao Xie, it’s never too late to get into our line of work. As long as you’ve got the brains for it...”

”I don’t have the brains for it,” Xie Ning rejected him flatly.

Doctor Fang was at a loss for words.

’This kid... how can she be so stubborn!’

The round-faced nurse nearly snorted with laughter.

’What a comeback. That’s hilarious.’

Doctor Fang pursed his lips in resignation, glanced at the X-ray in his hand, and got back to the point. ”The child’s chest X-ray came back. Everything looks perfectly normal.”

”Then why does she have a persistent low-grade fever and a dry cough? Isn’t it a problem with her lungs?”

”Well, a low-grade fever and a dry cough can be caused by many things!” Doctor Fang’s eyes lit up as he continued trying to reel the young woman in. ”If you were to join our infirmary, you’d be able to learn all about the various issues...”

”I’m not a Healing Ability User, thanks.”

’I hadn’t realized it before, but this Doctor Fang is a real windbag.’

Xie Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at how he was constantly trying to rope her into this.

”Oh, of course it’s great when a Healing Ability User joins our medical team. But it would be even better if you joined! We wouldn’t turn you away, not at all!”

The corner of Xie Ning’s mouth twitched. She habitually ignored the doctor’s spiel and asked the only question that mattered, ”So, what’s her condition?”

”Since it’s not her lungs, it could be... a bacterial infection, a viral contagion, something like that. Could she have eaten something contaminated? What has she been eating and drinking recently?”

”Everything she ate and drank was distributed by the base. And a bottle of water gifted by a Water Ability User...” Yu Xiaofei’s mother explained in a frantic rush.

”Everyone is eating the same food and drinking the same water. It’s impossible for only our Xiao Fei to have this kind of reaction.”

Tears welled up in Cen Yun’s eyes, threatening to spill over.

If she hadn’t been fighting it back with all her might, Xiao Fei’s mother would have already broken down into sobs.

’Her daughter was the only family she had left. If something happened to her, she didn’t know if she would have the courage to go on living.’

Doctor Fang pondered for a moment, then nodded with a frown. ”In that case, the situation might be more complicated. We’ll need to run a full-body examination on Yu Xiaofei.”

”Hey, could she have been bitten by a zombie animal? Or a cockroach or a rat? A low-grade fever... she’s not about to turn into a zombie, is she?” a patient lying in a nearby recliner on an IV drip suddenly blurted out.

Her loud outburst made every other patient in the room turn to stare warily at Yu Xiaofei and her mother.

They stared as if the mother and daughter were harbingers of plague, their gazes chilling.

Yu Xiaofei’s mother met their eyes and a shiver ran down her spine. Her resolve faltered instinctively.

Seeing her reaction, several patients inexplicably felt she must have a guilty conscience.

A patient in the next bed couldn’t help but chime in, ”Yeah, ma’am, how old is your kid? Children have weaker immune systems. If she was really bitten by something, you can’t just hide it! A fever isn’t a good sign.”

”No, that’s impossible! It’s not true!” Yu Xiaofei’s mother, her face filled with terror, shielded her daughter and yelled furiously at the crowd. ”Stop talking nonsense! My daughter has never been bitten by anything! Stop making baseless accusations! Just mind your own business!”

Several patients started talking over one another. ”What guarantee can you give? If she really was bitten, you’d just cover for her.”

”That’s right! And it’s not like you watch her twenty-four hours a day. How would you know if she got bitten by some tiny bug somewhere?”

”Maybe she got infected when you weren’t looking!”

”You can’t be so selfish, ma’am. If she really was bitten and infected with some virus, you have to tell us! Don’t put everyone else in danger.”

”Exactly! If you want to die with your daughter, then go right ahead, but don’t you dare drag the rest of us down with you!”

”Can’t that IV drip shut your big mouth?” The young nurse shot the woman who had spoken a glare and slammed a new IV bottle down on the small table.

”If a cockroach or rat really did get into the underground shelter, do you think you’d be safe? You think it can tell the difference and would only bite a little girl instead of you?”