Beside her, Wang Rui frowned slightly and looked at Lin Chu.

“When I left, he hadn’t woken up yet.”

It seemed that someone inside had heard the commotion outside. A string of hurried footsteps approached, and the next second, the door swung open from the inside.

A sweat-drenched head poked out from behind the door.

“Captain Wang, you’re finally back!”

The round-faced girl, who had just been on the verge of tears, lit up instantly at the sight of Wang Rui, as if seeing a savior.

“What’s going on?”

Wang Rui asked as he strode inside.

Lin Chu followed closely behind.

The round-faced nurse quickly stepped aside to make room for them.

The scene inside the room came into view.

It was a small double-occupancy hospital room. The bed closest to the door had been pushed to the corner. Only one bed, the inner one, was occupied.

Or rather than lying in bed, the person was tied to it.

His limbs were bound to the iron frame at the head and foot of the bed with hemp rope. Two more ropes circled his waist, strapping him tightly to the mattress.

The man on the bed—Assistant Wu—was visibly agitated, occasionally struggling.

His eyes were shut tight, his skin flushed red, veins bulging.

The places where he had been bitten by the giant black fish in the morning were all bandaged.

Dark red stains had seeped through the white gauze—his wounds had ruptured from his struggles, and blood was continuously oozing out.

From the degree of swelling under the bandages, Lin Chu could tell that the wounds were likely severely inflamed, now badly swollen.

Even ordinary inflamed wounds can be extremely painful—let alone these, caused by a bite from a giant black fish.

Floodwaters are full of microorganisms and bacteria. Even Lin Chu, who had no wounds, would experience itching in her ears after exposure to the water.

Now imagine the mouth of a giant fish that lived in those waters year-round—who knows how many microbes and bacteria lived on its teeth.

What’s more, the fish was a product of the post-catastrophe world.

Whether it was venomous or not, no one could be sure.

This Assistant Wu was truly suffering.

Standing next to his bed was a tall woman in a nurse’s uniform with a high ponytail. She held a vial of medication and a thick syringe.

Lin Chu immediately recognized it as a sedative.

The nurse looked ready to administer it at any moment.

Judging by the dosage, it looked potent enough to knock out a bull.

“Dr. Lin, please take a look…” Wang Rui turned and called out to her, only to see Lin Chu staring at the syringe in the high ponytail nurse’s hand.

He quickly explained, “Dr. Lin, Assistant Wu had an episode like this earlier this afternoon. The nurses didn’t know what else to do, so they gave him a sedative. But the effect wore off too quickly.

Nurse Bai has no other choice now but to stay ready—if he suddenly lashes out again, they won’t be able to restrain him.”

Lin Chu nodded in understanding and stopped looking at the nurse, focusing her attention back on Assistant Wu.

On the way here, Wang Rui had already given her a rough overview of the situation.

Assistant Wu had been bitten earlier that morning and had remained unconscious since.

Dr. Liu from the base had gone to Base 1 to get medicine, so the only two nurses available had taken turns caring for him.

They disinfected the wounds, applied anti-inflammatory medication, and bandaged him up. They’d expected him to regain consciousness soon—but by the afternoon, he had suddenly developed a high fever and turned red all over.

While trying to bring down his temperature physically, he suddenly went berserk and nearly hurt a nurse.

Fortunately, Wang Rui had come by at just the right moment and managed to subdue him.

A sedative had finally calmed him down, and they tied him up to prevent another episode.

The two nurses had taken shifts using ice to cool him physically, and they had just barely managed to bring his temperature down.

Originally, they’d planned to wait for Dr. Liu to return the next day.

But just a while ago, Assistant Wu’s body had turned red again, and it seemed the same thing was happening all over again. Mayor Li, fearing the worst, had ordered Wang Rui to bring Lin Chu.

Lin Chu placed her medical kit on the operating table beside her and walked to the sink to wash her hands thoroughly.

The round-faced nurse quickly came over and handed her a pair of sterile gloves.

Gloved, Lin Chu walked to Assistant Wu’s bed, lifted one section of the bandage, and—just as she’d suspected—the wound underneath was badly swollen, the flesh turned outward, oozing yellow-white pus.

The skin around the wound had a faint bluish-gray tint, eerily similar to the zombie skin she’d seen in the last mission world.

Lin Chu’s brow furrowed sharply.

Treating an inflamed wound was no big challenge for her.

As a forensic doctor, her education included clinical medicine.

With the exception of certain specialized surgeries, she was qualified for almost everything a general physician could do.

Dealing with external wounds was basic stuff.

But this bluish-gray discoloration… was not normal.

Considering that the injury had been inflicted by a post-apocalyptic creature, Lin Chu had a bad feeling.

Seeing her hesitant expression, Wang Rui grew anxious.

“Dr. Lin, what do you think? Can he be treated?”

He didn’t wait for a reply before hurriedly adding, “Don’t worry about anything. Just do whatever needs to be done. Even if you can’t cure him, we won’t blame you.

Mayor Li said, whether you succeed or not, you’ll still be rewarded with five jin of rice and five cans of meat. I’ve already sent someone to fetch them.”

Gulp.

As soon as Wang Rui finished speaking, someone in the room audibly swallowed.

Everyone turned to look.

The round-faced nurse stood quietly nearby, blushing furiously.

From her reaction, Lin Chu could tell that this was quite a generous reward.

Five jin of rice could last a week.

And those canned meats—Lin Chu recognized them. They were the same kind she had found in Jiang Da and Jiang Er’s stash last time.

Because canned goods stored well, the authorities were distributing meat almost exclusively in cans now.

Each person only got a small monthly allotment. Even those two brothers had only hidden a few dozen cans total.

Getting five all at once—Mayor Li was indeed generous.

Since she’d be compensated either way, Lin Chu didn’t delay further. She opened the medical kit, took out sterilized instruments, and got to work.

She had to cut open each abscess to drain the pus, then disinfect, medicate, and rebandage the wounds.

Most importantly, the areas with bluish-gray discoloration were visibly spreading by the second.

Lin Chu suspected this was the key cause of Wu’s persistent fever and pus-filled wounds.

But figuring out how to treat it would require careful thought.

Assistant Wu had more than twenty wounds of various sizes.

Lin Chu started with the most severe.

It was on the left thigh.

Lin Chu had seen it clearly through the window at the time—the giant black fish had bitten down on that exact spot first, dragging him off the speedboat.

It was also the area with the worst discoloration.

As her scalpel descended, her mind was already made up.

In ancient times, Guan Yu scraped poison from the bone. Now, Lin Chu would carve out rot to cure poison.

As a patch of bluish-gray flesh was removed, the man on the bed let out a blood-curdling scream.

Lin Chu’s hand paused slightly…

Oops.

She’d worked with the dead for so long, she almost forgot—

The living can feel pain.