Chapter 49.1 – Tongwan Hospital (3)
◎ We Kidnapped a Big Star! ◎
Song Ke’s language system was in disarray.
She and Tao Tao, who was curled up in a blanket, stared at each other in silence. Tao Tao’s big eyes met her gaze for a moment, and then she turned her head away, disdainfully blowing a bubble of snot.
Oh! This dog, why is it still looking down on people?
Song Ke was furious.
Zhuang Qingyan was also unusually speechless. His original plan was to communicate with this child named Tao Tao and persuade her to temporarily suppress her abilities. Now it seemed that this task was even more challenging than he had imagined.
No, it should be said that this task had already surpassed the scope of what humans could accomplish.
“In your request, you mentioned that it’s your child who has a fever…” Zhuang Qingyan took a deep breath, carefully choosing his words.
“That’s right, Tao Tao is my child!” the woman responded confidently. “She has a fever, please hurry and take her to the hospital.”
Take a dog with a fever to a pet hospital? But was Tao Tao’s condition due to her awakened abilities, or should she be taken to a specialized radiation center?
Zhuang Qingyan rubbed his forehead. “Your… child, from our preliminary assessment, seems to have awakened her abilities. She sensed danger outside and created a protective field on her own, which is why you haven’t been able to leave your home for the past few days.”
“Really?” The woman was quite carefree and didn’t find anything unusual about her dog awakening abilities. She lifted Tao Tao affectionately and nuzzled her nose. “So, Tao Tao was protecting mommy? That’s amazing!”
“Woof, woof,” Tao Tao barked twice in cooperation.
V587’s three members watched the woman and the small dog perform their touching mother-daughter act without expression.
Zhuang Qingyan cleared his throat, interrupting this warm scene. “Now, Tao Tao needs to suppress her abilities before you can leave.”
“How do we do that?” The woman was cooperative and immediately asked, “What do I need to do?”
“You’re her mother, don’t you have some special way of communicating with her?” Xu Xing muttered.
“Tao Tao is usually quite obedient. Tao Tao, can we please suppress that thing?” The woman asked hopefully.
“Woof!”
“Is it done? Can we leave now?” The woman looked at them with anticipation.
Song Ke shook her head; the protective field was still in place.
“Let me try.”
Xu Xing volunteered and extended two small paws towards Tao Tao’s head, glaring menacingly. “Little dog, suppress your abilities!”
Tao Tao sneezed and sprayed him with saliva, her tiny dog face showing a hint of disdain.
“You do it!” Xu Xing wiped his face in annoyance and handed the problem over to Zhuang Qingyan. “Aren’t you usually good at this?”
Zhuang Qingyan was speechless. He could easily deal with this Corgi, but trying to reason with a dog—wasn’t that a bit too much for him?
The four people and one dog remained deadlocked for a while, unable to find a solution to make Tao Tao suppress her abilities.
Suddenly, there was a rustling noise in the stairwell, and a zombie crawled up from below, swaying unsteadily as it appeared in the corridor.
“Oh, a zombie!” Tao Tao’s mother turned pale with fright, clutching Tao Tao tightly and attempting to hide inside the room.
“Auntie, it’s alright. We’ll take care of it,” Xu Xing quickly stopped her, patting his chest to guarantee.
Song Ke turned around, her right hand flipped, a slightly thicker in the middle and slightly thinner at both ends, diamond shaped spiked cone appeared at her fingertips. She slid the ring onto her middle finger and, with a quick flick of her wrist, started spinning it rapidly. The zombie in the corridor had also noticed the living people and lunged at them ferociously.
Song Ke’s spiritual weapon, emei thorn, shot out from her hand, and with a twist of her fingers, she deftly intercepted the zombie. In one go, she thrust it, and the entire skull of the zombie was lifted off, rolling on the ground like a soccer ball.
The zombie, now headless, took two more steps due to momentum before crashing heavily.
“Sister is amazing,” Xu Xing, the cheerleader, applauded.
“Wow, that’s impressive,” Tao Tao’s mother was also quite impressed and followed with admiration.
Tao Tao peeked out from the blanket, her round eyes staring at Song Ke. She barked twice, “Woof, woof.”
“What, what is it saying?” Song Ke turned to Zhuang Qingyan.
Zhuang Qingyan: “…” She didn’t need to trust him so much; he couldn’t understand dog language.
However, he soon had a change in expression. “The protective field has been lifted.”
Tao Tao looked very excited, her short tail wagging rapidly. She propped up half of her dog body, placed her front paws on her mother’s arm, perked up her ears in high spirits, and barked at Song Ke again, “Woof!”
What did that mean? Song Ke had won the approval of a dog through sheer force?
It felt a bit strange.
…
At the Fifth Hospital, the doctor in charge of receiving patients looked at Tao Tao wrapped in a blanket on the counter with a troubled expression. “We’re not veterinarians, you know?”
“This dog has awakened its abilities,” Zhuang Qingyan sighed and had to explain again.
From stepping into the hospital gate to the triage desk, and then to the examination room, he had repeated it countless times and received countless strange looks.
“What? A dog with awakened abilities?!” The doctor’s tone changed.
The doctor who had just claimed “we’re not veterinarians” suddenly had a gleam in his eyes. He seemed to see his own shining future research paper. He took out his glasses from his pocket, put them on, and turned to say a few words to someone inside. Soon, a group of interns also rushed out with eager expressions.
“Come on, it’s called Tao Tao, right? Oh, you’re such a good dog. We’ll make you better, don’t be scared, okay?”
A group of doctors in white coats surrounded Tao Tao like they were observing precious research material, afraid that it might have a headache or fever.
Song Ke witnessed their dramatic change in attitude, her mouth agape.
The doctor looked at them, cleared his throat twice, and said seriously, “Let Tao Tao stay in the hospital for now. I will establish a specialized medical team to take care of her. As for the ward, you can apply for a single room.”
Tao Tao’s mother happily agreed. After leaving the examination room, Song Ke, Tao Tao, and Tao Tao’s mother said their goodbyes, and their mission here was considered successfully completed.
However, Song Ke still couldn’t understand, “Can dogs also awaken?”
This kind of thing sounded magical just by listening to it. Zhuang Qingyan tried to explain it to her in a simple and understandable way, “There are always exceptions in everything. Radiation is indiscriminate. In theory, animals can also potentially awaken, but compared to humans, there are clear deficiencies in terms of both the capacity to endure and genetic sequences. Animals like Tao Tao are just a rare occurrence.”
They didn’t expect such an explosive surprise hidden in a D-level mission. A few more missions like this would be enough to test their mentality.
Having completed their part-time work for the day, the three members of V587 relaxed and leaned against the corridor to enjoy the breeze.
The Fifth Hospital was quite different from the 119 Hospital where Song Ke had worked a few days ago. The 119 Hospital was always racing against time, with doctors in the emergency department and resuscitation constantly busy, and the 13th floor, the Radiation Specialist Department, was even more of a disaster area. Radiation outbreaks often resulted in patients becoming more zombie-like and a threat to the safety of ordinary people. Volunteers had to maintain strict vigilance and be ready to “clean” at any time.
But the Fifth Hospital seemed much calmer. In the small park below, there were lush trees, and hospitalized patients were chatting and walking. The overall atmosphere was peaceful and healing.
“According to the introduction, this is more of a therapeutic hospital,” Zhuang Qingyan said.
Tongwan Hospital had many branches, and perhaps different hospitals had different roles. Song Ke found this calm atmosphere quite pleasant. She lay on the railing in the middle of the atrium, enjoying the breeze, her gaze casually scanning the surroundings.
—Then, she spotted an extremely familiar figure.
The person was wearing black sunglasses, a high-end gray overcoat, and her long wavy hair was not tied up this time but fell smoothly on her shoulders, snugly pressed down by a woolen hat.
The woman moved gracefully, her expression cheerful, and after getting off a private steamship, she walked slowly towards the entrance of the Fifth Hospital.
The tall man silently following her must have received instructions. He nodded and took a detour to the hospital’s self-service supermarket.
Lin. You. You!
In her heart, Song Ke gritted her teeth as she pronounced the name. She recognized that figure even when it turned into ashes!
She paid no heed to the railing and was about to jump over it to confront Lin Youyou.
“Wait!” Zhuang Qingyan grabbed her coat and prevented Song Ke from getting her way. Her legs were caught on the railing, and she almost ended up falling headfirst.
She pouted and looked at the person stopping her, accusingly saying, “She, she cheated me out of crystal!”
Zhuang Qingyan was both annoyed and amused. He lowered his voice and said, “I didn’t say you couldn’t go confront her, but if you go down there so openly, what if she calls for reinforcements, and Su Cha comes back? By then, if you two have a brawl, and there’s a crowd watching, won’t that attract the Tongwan security team? We’ve finally obtained the admission permit; don’t mess it up.”
“But… But…” Song Ke felt so wronged, but she couldn’t swallow this anger!
Zhuang Qingyan stopped teasing her and quickly came up with an idea. “Don’t worry; I have a way to catch her. I guarantee it will help you vent your frustration.”
Emei Thorn –
