Chapter 60

Half an hour later, outside the small building, several team members in raincoats waited, but only Chen Fa, the deputy team leader, showed up.

One of the team members couldn’t help but ask about the situation.

“She’s feeling a bit unwell, so she won’t be going out today. The patrols will proceed as usual.”

“Unwell?” The team member who asked the question seemed to have thought of something, and his expression subtly changed.

Before leaving, Chen Fa glanced at the closed door of the small building, lowered the brim of her rain hat, and curtly said, “Let’s go.”

Inside the small building, Shu Fu waited until the footsteps outside faded before slowly sitting up from the sofa.

Whether the task had been delayed or had a bug, since the time limit was 24 hours, she decided to stay in Shanshui Lodging Building 4 for the entire 24 hours to be safe.

However, the task had come so suddenly, and without much preparation, she had no better idea. She could only pretend to be unwell, making three trips to the bathroom in half an hour to create the illusion of discomfort, which allowed her to stay.

Pretending to be sick worked well with people she wasn’t familiar with, but with Chen Fa, it might not be as effective. Chen Fa was very smart and understood her well.

She wasn’t sure if Chen Fa had seen through her poor acting skills. Originally, Shu Fu thought that just pretending to have a stomachache would be enough; even if she hadn’t made the three bathroom trips, Chen Fa would have still let her lie down to rest.

Shu Fu felt like her act had been discovered by Chen Fa, though Chen Fa didn’t expose her or ask any questions. She seemed to observe her, letting her repeatedly go to the bathroom, perhaps just to confirm her determination to stay behind.

In the end, Shu Fu gave up and just lay on the sofa pretending to be exhausted.

She felt Chen Fa reach out to touch her forehead before telling her she’d return by lunch. If she was hungry, she could help herself to food from the kitchen or the cabinet.

Shu Fu mumbled a response, and Chen Fa quickly left.

Now, alone, Shu Fu sat on the sofa in the small building’s living room, still wearing her outdoor clothes, feeling a bit lost.

She looked around the room, slowly furrowing her brows. What unexpected things might happen within the next 24 hours?

What if something happened to the building while Chen Fa was out patrolling, and she ended up indirectly saving Chen Yuezhen or protecting their supplies? Would that make Chen Fa suspect anything?

After all, she was so clever.

But as it turned out, she was overthinking.

The entire day passed, and by evening, Chen Fa successfully finished her patrols. The small building remained quiet and nothing had happened.

Before bed, Chen Fa came back to ask if Shu Fu wanted to go out with her the next day.

Shu Fu still hadn’t received the task completion notification and didn’t dare to relax. She told Chen Fa she’d confirm tomorrow.

The next day, after the task had been ongoing for 24 hours, Shu Fu’s wristband was still silent with no notification that the task had been completed, meaning the task was still ongoing. After hesitating for a moment, when Chen Fa came to ask if she wanted to go out, Shu Fu once again pretended to be weak and lay down on the sofa.

Chen Fa: …

“Rest well,” she said without asking further. She patted Shu Fu’s shoulder and quickly went out to patrol.

Shu Fu’s “illness” lasted three days, and in the end, even Chen Yuezhen, worried, came downstairs to check on her. “Still having diarrhea for three days? Do you have any medicine? Have you taken it? This isn’t good, you’ll get dehydrated…”

“…” Weakly raising her head, Shu Fu, who had only been drinking porridge for the past three days due to “stomach discomfort,” moved her pale lips and replied, “It’s fine, I stopped having diarrhea a long time ago…”

“Sigh, I’m fine now, but how did you, little girl, end up like this?” Chen Yuezhen lovingly stroked her face, saying she had gotten much thinner compared to when they first met.

Because she had to drink porridge due to “stomach discomfort,” Shu Fu secretly prepared extra meals in her room at night: …

Chen Fa, perhaps used to it, didn’t ask Shu Fu if she wanted to go out the last two days when leaving. Today, she was putting on her raincoat. For easier movement, the patrolling team members wore separate raincoats with the buttons in front, and the raincoat and rainpants were separate, which was a bit troublesome to wear.

As she dressed, she told Chen Yuezhen and Shu Fu that she was going to the northeast to visit a power plant in the mountains. The road was difficult, and it would take a long time to get there and back. She probably wouldn’t be back by noon for lunch—at least not until the afternoon.

“Same as usual for lunch, a team member will bring it over. Little Fu, just open the door to receive it. By the way, remember to give the thermos that Tang Ping brought yesterday to the team member so they can take it back.”

Shu Fu agreed to Chen Fa’s instructions. She understood what Chen Fa meant: “Don’t worry, I can still open the door… Grandmother hasn’t fully recovered yet, she needs to rest in her room… The rain’s heavy, the mountain roads are slippery, so be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be with the other team members. Take care of yourself,” Chen Fa replied, pulling the collapsible baton into her raincoat sleeve, putting on the rain hat, and leaving.

It was another quiet day like the ones before. In the morning, Chen Yuezhen did some basic physical exercises in the second-floor hallway, then came downstairs to check on Shu Fu before returning to her room before noon. Shu Fu knew she was avoiding the team member who would bring lunch.

Around 11 AM, someone knocked on the door.

Outside stood the team member delivering the meal, along with Tang Ping, who was dressed in white.

He was holding an umbrella and raised the thermos cup in his hand, his expression indifferent as he spoke, “I’m here to deliver medicine.”

“You delivered it yesterday,” Shu Fu reminded him, as he usually came every other day to deliver medicine, never every day.

Tang Ping looked at her, and in his usually emotionless eyes, a trace of concern, like that of a doctor, slowly appeared. “I’m here to bring you medicine. I heard you’ve been sick for a few days.”

Shu Fu looked at him, her brows slowly knitting together.

**

The team member who brought the meal felt the strange atmosphere and quickly put down the meal box and left.

Tang Ping continued to watch her, and behind his sudden show of concern, there seemed to be another emotion.

Shu Fu scrutinized him. He seemed… a little excited?

Hmm… Pervert.

“I’m not sick,” Shu Fu said as she picked up the thermos cup he had placed on the table and handed it back to him.

“Your face looks so bad, and you’re still saying you’re not sick?” Tang Ping took it, changed hands, and placed it back on the table.

Shu Fu didn’t waste words. She directly wiped off the foundation on her lips with a finger, revealing her naturally red lips. “It’s fake. My sister and I were just playing around. You can leave now.”

Tang Ping seemed stunned for a moment, but soon he smiled.

Since Shu Fu moved into the Shanshui Guesthouse, she had seen him many times, but this was the first time she saw him smile.

He usually didn’t smile much, as he lacked certain facial muscle functions, so when he did smile, his expression looked particularly unnatural, awkward, and unpleasant, which made it a little unsettling to watch.

He turned and walked toward the door. Shu Fu thought he was going to leave, but instead, he reached out, shut the door, and locked it with a click.

When he turned back around, he was holding something black in his hand.

“Lying children will be punished,” he said in an odd tone, pressing a button on the object, and immediately, a crackling electric spark appeared at the front.

Shu Fu raised an eyebrow. It was a stun baton.

Tang Ping, holding the stun baton, took two steps to the table, picked up the thermos cup, and slowly pushed it toward Shu Fu. “I don’t care if you’re really sick or pretending. Either way, drink it, finish it all.”

Shu Fu subtly withdrew her left wrist. She picked up the thermos cup from the table and shook it. “What’s inside?”

“Drink it.” This time, Tang Ping’s smile disappeared from his face.

Shu Fu lifted the thermos cup. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt that the cup, because it had been in his hands, carried a faint smell of stench similar to his.

“Just because you tell me to drink, I should? What are you going to do if I don’t?” She raised the cup, her tone provocative.

Tang Ping’s expression darkened, and he didn’t say anything more. He pressed down on the stun baton, and the crackling electricity surged toward her.

“You started this!” Shu Fu, prepared, took two steps back and forcefully smashed the thermos cup into him.

The thermos was made of stainless steel, so it wasn’t easy to break, but it hurt when it hit someone. The lid came off when it hit the ground, and the yellowish-brown medicinal soup spilled everywhere, staining his “white coat.”

Tang Ping looked down at his clothes and was immediately enraged. He waved the stun baton and repeatedly aimed it at Shu Fu.

His expression and movements were fierce. If Shu Fu hadn’t learned self-defense, she might have been intimidated, but now, she could spot flaws in his every move.

She waited for the right moment, dodged the stun baton in his right hand, grabbed his wrist, and forcefully twisted it.

Tang Ping screamed in pain as the stun baton slipped from his grip. Shu Fu took advantage of the moment, grabbing his arm and trying to lock it behind him. However, his left hand suddenly produced a slender needle and jabbed it into the arm that had grabbed his hand.

The drug in the needle was instantly released—this was Tang Ping’s life-saving trick, a powerful anesthetic.

Since joining this team, this was only the second time he had used this move.

At this stage, effective anesthetics were hard to find, and this was his last dose. He didn’t expect to need to use it just to deal with a little girl.

He looked up, his expression darker than before, ready to savor the anxiety, fear, and helplessness of his prey before it fell. He loved seeing his prey show such a confused and helpless look. The more beautiful and fragile, the more it stirred his urge to destroy.

But the next second, he felt the world spinning. By the time he realized what had happened, he had already crashed into a nearby table with a loud bang. The table was old and unstable, and it shattered under his weight.

Tang Ping felt a sharp pain in his back, followed by a heavy blow to his face. He spat out blood, unable to hold on, and slowly lost consciousness.

Before he lost consciousness, he saw the young girl looking down at him from above.

She was perfectly fine, not the slightest sign of anxiety, fear, or helplessness on her face.

“Despicable people deserve to be beaten even harder…” she said, raising the chair in her hand.

**

Chen Yuezhen had been napping in her room, but the noise from the living room woke her up. She immediately rushed through the corridor, down the stairs, and just in time to see Shu Fu lifting a chair and smashing it onto the person lying on the floor.

Bang—the person on the floor stopped moving entirely.

Chen Yuezhen, who had been worried about the frail and delicate Shu Fu so much that she forgot to wear her slippers: …

Shu Fu noticed the noise from the stairs, and while she flipped Tang Ping over like a dead fish and locked his wrists, she smiled at Chen Yuezhen. “Grandma, do you have some rope?”

“…Yes.”

As Chen Yuezhen’s voice fell, Shu Fu felt a slight vibration in her wrist.

The mission was complete.

That day, when Chen Fa finished her remote patrol and returned to the small building with her rain boots and raincoat soaked in mud, she found the first floor empty. However, she could hear sounds of a struggle coming from the second-floor corridor.

Something was wrong!

She furrowed her brow and rushed up the stairs without even removing her rain boots. Her baton slid out from her sleeve, and Chen Fa’s expression turned cold and fierce.

However, just as she was about to step forward, her feet stopped abruptly at the staircase.

From this position, she could see the second-floor corridor, where a carpet had been laid out. Shu Fu and her grandmother were tangled together, each trying to lock the other’s wrists and ankles in a struggle.

Shu Fu was adjusting her angle while asking, “Grandma… did you lock them from here?”

“Right, right! Yes, from this angle, you can maximize your strength and achieve the effect of using four ounces to move a thousand pounds!” Chen Yuezhen was panting but smiling, “The person who taught you self-defense is pretty good. Though the techniques are few, they’re the most effective and suited to you… but you should have practiced more. Some movements are hard to get right when you’re doing them by yourself… Remember, every joint in the human body has its weaknesses, and you must find the right angle to strike…”

Chen Yuezhen said this as she suddenly reversed the hold, swiftly turning the situation around, and locked Shu Fu to the carpet. “—To render the opponent completely unable to retaliate.”

“Ow… Got it… Grandma, you’re amazing… it hurts…”

Chen Fa: …?

Pressed against the carpet, Shu Fu was facing down when she saw Chen Fa coming up the stairs. “You’re back! Hmm… your rain boots are all muddy…”

Five minutes later, after changing shoes and taking off her raincoat, Chen Fa locked the door and walked to the bathroom with Shu Fu. There, they found Tang Ping lying on the floor next to the toilet. His mouth was stuffed, his hands tied behind him, and his body was in a pitiful, awkward position.

His hair was messy, his glasses broken, his lips were bloodied, and his face was swollen with bruises. His usually pristine white coat was wrinkled and stained with both blood and yellow-brown marks.

It seemed that after losing consciousness for a while, Tang Ping was slowly waking up. Chen Fa frowned, took the stun baton from Shu Fu’s hand, turned it to maximum power, and gave him another jolt.

Before Tang Ping could fully regain consciousness, his body convulsed again and he slumped back down.

“He came for me today, thinking I was sick too. What should we do now?” Shu Fu was worried that her beating Tang Ping might cause trouble for Chen Fa. After all, she was the deputy captain of this team, and Tang Ping was an important doctor in the group.

“No, he wasn’t after you,” Chen Fa looked down at Tang Ping, a flash of disgust in her eyes. She lifted her foot and stepped on his face twice, then turned back to Shu Fu with a slow sigh. “He was after… the strange illness.”

**

A moment later, Chen Fa poured water for herself and Shu Fu and sat on the living room sofa.

She told Shu Fu that she didn’t know much about it. When the team had just retreated from Lucheng, she had recently joined and only knew that someone in the team had fallen ill. She had seen the sick person at the time.

They were a team member and a family member of another team member. At the rest station on the national highway to Hexi Town, they got out of the vehicle to get some fresh air, supported by their family. Both wore masks, so Chen Fa couldn’t clearly see their faces, but she caught a glimpse and noticed their eyes were bloodshot.

Due to the illness, both were walking unsteadily, even with help, walking very slowly. Their expressions were vacant, as if in a daze.

At that time, Chen Fa was new to the team and not familiar with others, so she didn’t stare at them too much. But some of the team members who knew them came forward to inquire about their condition. The sick pair didn’t respond much, their eyes sluggishly moving but still vacant.

Before anyone could ask further, those assisting them had already lowered their hoods to cover their faces and took them away.

At that moment, both Chen Fa and those who had approached to ask questions felt something was off.

It was just a cold and fever—so why did they seem so out of it? The two hadn’t said a word from start to finish.

Later, Chen Fa learned that it wasn’t just a regular cold.

Fever, aphasia, daze, and eventually, the inability to recognize familiar people…

Chen Fa only knew this much about the illness, because soon after, their entire convoy arrived at Hexi Town, where the family of the sick people refused visitors, saying they needed rest. At that time, the team had more resources, including medication, cold and fever reducers.

Chen Fa thought the patients would recover soon after resting and taking medicine.

But that night, on the second day in Hexi Town, she heard shrill screams coming from the other small building. Sometimes, they echoed for a long time. For some reason, the patients’ conditions seemed to worsen.

What was worse, a few days later, new patients began to appear in the team, all with the same symptoms, starting with a cold and fever.

At first, they were just weak and feverish but still recognized others and were conscious. But gradually, the fever persisted, and their conditions began to deteriorate in the same way.

During that time, the team was on edge, with everyone feeling insecure.

It was then that Tang Ping appeared. He was indeed a doctor, carrying a small suitcase, and he found the team’s leader, Zhou Feng. At the time, Zhou Feng’s girlfriend, Cheng Can, was also ill, and the team’s stock of medicine had dwindled after so many days of use.

The sick members initially experienced a recurring high fever, which could become life-threatening if not treated with medicine to reduce the fever.

Tang Ping claimed to be a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, skilled in herbal medicine and acupuncture, and offered to help lower the fever.

That night, Tang Ping stayed in Zhou Feng’s small building. Chen Fa remembered hearing the painful screams from the building, but this time, the cries quickly ceased.

After that night, Tang Ping gained Zhou Feng’s trust. Zhou Feng had the team clear out a vacant guesthouse for Tang Ping to use as his personal residence. Tang Ping didn’t interact much with others; when he went out, it was either to collect herbs or deliver medicine to the sick.

If Tang Ping’s presence truly cured the sick in the team, Chen Fa would be grateful. In such chaotic times, building a team was not easy, and with the remote location of Hexi Town and limited resources, the larger and more violent groups didn’t bother with it, considering it a temporary safe haven.

Tang Ping did stabilize the patients who would scream at night, but he didn’t cure them. They simply became quieter at night, but they still didn’t appear before the others.

Chen Fa gradually noticed that the team members with sick family members seemed to share a unique atmosphere, one that outsiders couldn’t easily join. It felt like mutual sympathy, or perhaps like an unspoken understanding tied to a secret they alone shared.

At that time, Chen Fa felt as if she was being unconsciously excluded by the core members of the team. She didn’t mind the lack of influence, as she had been voted into the position of deputy leader. She was willing to work hard and gather supplies herself, only wanting to keep her grandmother safe.

But worse things started to happen—Chen Yuezhen fell ill after being caught in the rain and developed a fever.

It seemed that overnight, the core members of the team with sick family members turned toward her, forming an atmosphere unique to them.

Then Tang Ping showed up, just like today, carrying a thermos and saying it contained a medicinal soup made from herbs, specifically for this kind of illness.

Chen Fa didn’t believe her grandmother had the same strange disease as the others. She knew it was just a common cold from being in the rain. She still had two leftover cold pills, but they were little help to Chen Yuezhen.

Even so, she didn’t want her grandmother to drink Tang Ping’s medicine.

Chen Fa explained and refused to give Chen Yuezhen the soup Tang Ping brought, but her refusal was in vain. The leader personally appeared and told her that if she wanted to stay in the team, she had to accept Tang Ping’s treatment, just like everyone else.

Otherwise, he would have to ask her to leave the team.

At that time, Chen Yuezhen was delirious with fever, and Chen Fa knew she couldn’t act alone in such a situation.

So, she changed tactics and began to negotiate.

Chen Yuezhen drank the medicine twice under supervision. Each time, after Tang Ping left, Chen Fa would lock the door, go upstairs, and force Chen Yuezhen to vomit the medicine.

It was an excruciating process, and at the time, Chen Yuezhen was sick, so Chen Fa cried as she did it, until Chen Yuezhen vomited all the medicine out.

During those days, she barely slept. She had to patrol during the day, deal with Tang Ping, and stay with Chen Yuezhen at night, using various physical methods to lower her fever.

Later, Tang Ping personally came upstairs to check on Chen Yuezhen twice. Her condition fluctuated, with the fever repeatedly returning, similar to the other patients’ initial symptoms. Chen Fa made Chen Yuezhen pretend to be dazed and speechless when Tang Ping came upstairs, though in reality, Chen Yuezhen was fully aware.

Later, Tang Ping proposed to take Chen Yuezhen to his own small building, where he would care for her 24/7. Besides himself, there were a few other patients living in his building, all lone members of the team without family.

Chen Fa didn’t believe Tang Ping would be so kind-hearted, working so hard, researching medicine, and personally caring for the sick.

She was suspicious of his true intentions for bringing those people into his residence. His building was located at the very back of the guesthouse, far from the other buildings, secluded, and no team members dared to visit him.

Once the door was closed, no one knew what he did to the patients inside, and no one cared because they had no family.

Chen Fa could never let Chen Yuezhen go there. This time, she didn’t directly refuse but thought of various ways to dissuade him.

Later, new patients appeared in the team, and Tang Ping’s interest in Chen Yuezhen gradually waned. He only delivered medicine and no longer came upstairs to check on her.

Day by day, she stayed by her grandmother’s side, enduring.

Then one day, Shu Fu appeared, bringing life-saving medicine.

“So, he really is a pervert,” Shu Fu glanced in the direction of the bathroom. Only a pervert would show excitement and interest when others were sick and in pain. But then, Shu Fu realized something, “When Grandma was sick before, he was always restrained. Even when he wanted her to take the medicine, he would pressure you through the team leader, right?”

Chen Fa understood what Shu Fu was trying to convey.

Although Tang Ping was perverted, he had always maintained a calm exterior and knew how to handle things indirectly.

But today, why was he acting completely differently toward Shu Fu’s approach? He had become reckless, doing things without any regard for the consequences.

Why?

Chen Fa and Shu Fu exchanged a glance, and her face suddenly changed. “This is bad,” she muttered.