Plague (14): Conflict

Tan Xiao fell asleep and woke up naturally. He turned his face to the left and saw the empty, cold pillow. A day and night had passed, and the scent left by Dr. Wen was almost gone.

Even though he had only been living with Wen Yi for less than a week, he was already a bit unaccustomed to sleeping alone.

He picked up his phone and found a message from the other person: “Good morning, baby, photo.jpg”

The photo was taken by Wen Yi using the rear camera: a beam of morning sunlight fell on the open notebook, and the glass window in front of the desk reflected Dr. Wen’s gentle and handsome face.

The timestamp of this message was 6 AM, and now it was 8 AM.

He quickly sent a message: You woke up so early, dear Dr. Wen [cat heart emoji].

Tan Xiao waited for a while for a message, but as expected, there was no response. It was obvious that Dr. Wen had gone to work.

The young man rubbed his perfectly symmetrical face in frustration: He should have turned on message notifications!

He quickly set Dr. Wen as a special contact, then pulled back the curtains and opened the window, letting the sunlight stream in through the screen.

Tan Xiao took a picture of the morning sunlight and sent it to Wen Yi, so the other person could see it right away.

There were still a lot of dumplings left in the fridge, but after eating them for two or three days in a row, Tan Xiao inevitably got a bit tired of them. He thought for a few seconds and decided to have noodles for lunch today, a refreshing cold noodle dish.

He took the beef out and soaked it in water to thaw. Tan Xiao transformed into a diligent young man, starting his day of washing and drying. The family community didn’t have a shared area, but there was a large balcony.

After washing the clothes and bed sheets neatly, he took a photo of them under the sun to send to Dr. Wen.

After taking the photo, he put on gloves and started handling the frozen beef. Once it was cooked in boiling water, he skimmed off the foam and took it out.

He added the ready-made braising spice pack, chopped garlic, ginger, a bit of salt, dried chili peppers, rock sugar, and ginger…

Tan Xiao fixed the camera lens on the cooking process, and later, with some editing, it would become material for a food video. One task, two uses, perfect!

While the beef was stewing in the pressure cooker, Tan Xiao diligently swept and mopped the floor, ensuring the house was spotless and free of any space for mosquitoes to breed.

Time quietly slipped away amidst the trivial household chores, and soon it was lunchtime.

The braised beef had been stewed to a very tender state in the pressure cooker. As soon as the lid was opened, a rich aroma of braising sauce filled the air.

Tan Xiao picked up a piece with chopsticks to taste, and the flavor was just right. He took a photo and sent it to Dr. Wen: “If only you were here, this is the first time I’ve made braised beef, and it’s a great success!”

While waiting for the sauce to thicken over high heat, he took a bag of noodles from the fridge. These were packaged fresh noodles that he had bought with Wen Yi at the supermarket earlier.

A large piece of beef was pulled out and sliced thinly, carefully arranged on the cold noodles that had been rinsed in cold water. The cucumber and carrot were finely shredded, and then a spoonful of the delicious oil-splashed chili sauce drizzled over it. A plate of cold noodles that looked incredibly appetizing was perfectly ready.

Before picking up the chopsticks, Tan Xiao immediately took a photo and sent it to Dr. Wen: “I made sure to eat well today!”

As soon as the photo and message were sent, there was an immediate response.

Dr. Wen: “Looks amazing, I want to eat it so much! [Cat drooling emoji]”

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but smile: “Wen Yi finally got off work!”

He sent a message back with a shaking window: “Is it a good time for a video call now?”

Wen Yi replied: “I just got off work, and I couldn’t wait to reply to your message. I’ll grab lunch and go to the rooftop to video call with you. Baby, wait for me for two minutes.”

The hospital was filled with many scenes: patients with disfigured faces, cold corpses, blood-stained white coats, and family members of patients with tear-streaked faces…

These scenes were in stark contrast to the warm, healthy, and sunny scenes at home, and they were all stomach-churning images that were not suitable for his beloved little boyfriend to see.

Lunchtime was always a delightful time for eating and drinking together, but Tan Xiao finished his cold noodles in fifteen minutes, then washed the dishes while watching Dr. Wen enjoy his luxurious boxed meal.

Dr. Wen had an hour for lunch, but today, it was only half an hour after Wen Yi finished eating.

Tan Xiao looked concerned and said, “Is your work very tiring? Why don’t you lie down and rest for a bit? You can turn on the video, and just watching your face is quite relaxing for me.”

Wen Yi shook his head, “Not tiring. Research just consumes a lot of brainpower. Looking at your face, baby, is the greatest relaxation for me.”

Tan Xiao couldn’t help but smile, “I have that kind of effect, huh?”

He naturally expressed his longing to his lover: “I did a lot of housework today. How about you? Has there been any good progress with the research? I don’t know when it will end, I miss you so much.”

Even though they could see each other’s faces through the screen, they couldn’t touch each other’s warm skin, couldn’t kiss, couldn’t embrace without gaps, and couldn’t communicate deeply.

They were forced to separate right after establishing their relationship during the passionate period, making this longing particularly intense.

“The work of the research team is quite complex, but there has been some progress with the vaccine.”

Wen Yi didn’t go into detail about the work, not for the sake of secrecy, but because Tan Xiao couldn’t understand those complex medical terms and jargon.

“That’s really great, I hope the vaccine can be released soon!”

At this moment, Tan Xiao suddenly heard shouting from the screen, followed by several gunshots. He was startled and asked, “Dr. Wen, what’s happening over there?!”

Wen Yi turned his head to take a look. There was someone lying in a pool of blood downstairs, and soon people in protective suits came to clean up the scene.

Wen Yi casually said, “It’s nothing, a patient tried to break out, and the guards are on alert.”

Thinking of those soldiers, Tan Xiao thought the patients had been scared away and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief: “So that’s how it is. The atmosphere in the hospital sounds really oppressive. Isn’t there anything interesting happening?”

Wen Yi spoke in a calm tone about the hospital gossip: “The atmosphere in the hospital is quite oppressive. There are more and more patients, and the frontline medical staff are getting more irritable. Today, there was even a violent conflict with a patient.”

Tan Xiao asked in surprise, “Ah? What did you do?”

He remembered the previous incident of medical disputes: “You didn’t get involved in the conflict, did you? Is this patient one of those with a special infectious disease?”

Wen Yi comforted him, saying, “Of course, the troublemaking patients have been subdued. Don’t worry, the research team members and the patients live in separate areas. I wasn’t involved; I just overheard some gossip while getting my meal.”

Tan Xiao nodded. He clearly had a significant misunderstanding about his boyfriend: “In situations like this, you should stay far away and protect yourself first. You got your arm injured last time; now, during these special times, you absolutely can’t get hurt.”

Wen Yi nodded in agreement, “I will.”

“Dr. Wen, it’s time for you to get to work.”

A somewhat cold voice suddenly appeared on the screen. Tan Xiao saw a young, stern face. The other person was wearing a crisp military uniform, and even through the screen, one could feel the fierce aura coming from him.

Wen Yi quickly said to Tan Xiao, “Baby, it’s time. I have to go to work.”

He hurriedly hung up the video call and cast an unhappy glance at the adult man who had come over to ruin the mood.

The doctor, wearing a white coat, changed from his usual gentleness in front of Tan Xiao to a cold and hard tone, “What are you doing here?”

That annoying person who disturbed him should really be thrown off this rooftop.

The highest-ranking officer of the army, the 34-year-old General Nie, said, “I heard that there has been a breakthrough with the X12 infectious disease vaccine. Is it a positive breakthrough?”

“Probably,” Wen Yi replied in a nonchalant tone, sounding as if he didn’t care about the busy work he had been doing lately.

The cold and stern man asked again, “Was the person you were just talking to your boyfriend?”

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would find it hard to imagine such a gentle and sweet expression appearing on Wen Yi’s face.

Wen Yi’s eyes instantly turned crimson: “What do you want to say?”

Nie Cheng took a step back, raising his hands to indicate he meant no harm: “I have no other intentions. Falling in love is a beautiful thing. Your boyfriend would also want to live in a safe, virus-free world.”

Wen Yi glanced at him coldly: “General Nie, don’t expect me to take on this task alone. I’m just a young doctor.”

Nie Cheng silently stared at Wen Yi’s back of the head. As the highest commander of the army and a special NPC in the game instance, he would regain all his memories on the 10th day each time: City S was a city destined to fall into madness, where everyone would mutually destroy each other.

However, the illusionary people possessed real memories, blurring the line between falsehood and reality.

He seemed normal, but in reality, he was a madman who had only a facade of calmness left.

He would rather remain ignorant himself, yet he was forced to endure the repeated and doubled pain over and over again: the ban, accused by the citizens of being inhumane and violating human rights, was the best directive Nie Cheng could give after regaining countless cycles of memory.

Perhaps he should order the execution of all the sick people right now, even if it would face fierce resistance, with a lot of bloodshed and sacrifices. But the majority of the healthy citizens in S City could be saved.

However, this time upon waking up, he found that Huaxi Hospital had an additional doctor who shouldn’t have been there.

The genius doctor Wen Yi, who was supposed to die in the initial medical dispute incident, was bravely saved by an unsuspecting outsider and even established an overly healthy and beautiful romantic relationship with the savior.

General Nie’s dark pupils looked somewhat vacant as he stared into the void: The vaccine that initially brought hope to people but would ultimately fail, causing the citizens of S City to fall into madness—would it really have a chance to be released?

While Nie Cheng was lost in doubt, Tan Xiao in another building opened his computer and started browsing the news. When he saw a certain piece of news, his eyes suddenly lit up.