Plague (24): Great news

“What do you mean by what you said?” Nie Cheng thought he was being restrained and calm, but in reality, every word he uttered trembled.

Wen Yi adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses: “Has General Nie’s brain been invaded by a virus, making his comprehension so poor? T1 is a vaccine for treating and preventing the X12 infectious disease.”

He paused, a hint of malice in his smile: “Of course, there will be certain side effects when you get vaccinated.”

Nie Cheng quickly pressed, “What side effects?”

“When you get vaccinated, it will be very painful, with the pain level possibly exceeding ten. But it will only hurt for at most an hour.”

This was a vaccine that shouldn’t even exist. If they wanted to take something from him, they had to pay a price. He saved these people’s lives; wasn’t it fair for him to take some pleasure in seeing them suffer a bit?

“Only pain as a side effect? No other effects? They won’t explode like blood mist, right?”

Wen Yi reigned in his smile: “I think, General Nie, you don’t seem to have any other choice.”

Nie Cheng opened the lunch box, which had four layers, containing exactly two hundred vaccines neatly arranged.

“Only two hundred doses?”

Nie Cheng had already believed about eighty percent of it in his heart, but if the vaccine was real, what good would two hundred doses do? The powerful and wealthy would fight tooth and nail for it, leaving no chance for ordinary citizens without power or influence.

“Two hundred doses are for your experimental use. As for mass production, you should ask the researchers.”

Looking at the light blue liquid vaccine, Nie Cheng inexplicably had a strong intuition: it was the key to his liberation.

He called out to Wen Yi, who was about to turn and leave, “Dr. Wen, wait a moment.”

Wen Yi paused, stopped, and turned his head to look at him. His eyes, under the light, appeared a crimson red like agate, and his tone, tinged with impatience, took on a hint of danger: “What else is there?”

Nie Cheng: “What do you want? I mean, if the vaccine is real, your contribution to the people of S City deserves a special merit. Do you have anything you want?”

Wen Yi’s expression suddenly softened: “There is indeed one thing, allowing the hospital to lift the ban so that the tested healthy medical staff can come and go freely. The mass production formula is at the very bottom of the vaccine. We need to restore normal order in S City as soon as possible, the sooner the better.”

During this period, work had exhausted him so much that he hadn’t even been able to be with Tan Xiao.

After finishing speaking, Wen Yi turned around and left, warning without looking back, “I’m going on vacation next, don’t contact me unless it’s urgent.”

The office building where Nie Cheng worked was the tallest building in the hospital, and Dr. Wen, wearing a blood-stained white coat, stepped onto the one-meter-high railing. With a light touch of his toes, he leaped down like a feather.

The shadow landed on the eighth floor, which was also the floor of the researchers’ dormitory.

Wen Yi silently advanced through the quiet corridor. The outfit he was wearing was the same one he had worn on the day of the academic conference: a white coat over a shirt and trousers, and dark leather shoes.

In this quiet environment, the sound of leather shoes stepping on the tiles in the corridor produced a crisp and rhythmic sound.

This sound of footsteps once instilled fear in countless people, but as he approached room 801, it was as if the leather shoes were equipped with silencers. The shadow quietly stood in front of the room marked with Wen Yi’s nameplate.

Unlike the hospital’s usual atmosphere filled with the smell of disinfectant, cold, serious, and terrifying, he opened the door to find the small dormitory meticulously arranged by Tan Xiao, exuding a warm, homely feeling.

Under the soft yellow glow of the small orange lamp, Tan Xiao lay quietly on the pillow, but the sound of Wen Yi’s return still disturbed his deep sleep.

The young man watched his lover come in wearing a white coat and, with his slightly messy hair, sat up. “Doctor Wen, is it time for work already?”

Sleepy, Tan Xiao rubbed his eyes, which were still a bit hard to open, and instinctively checked his phone for the time: 3:25 AM.

“It’s only 3:30, baby. Do you have to go to work at 3:30? That’s too hard on you!”

In the dim light of the small orange lamp, Wen Yi’s face appeared somewhat blurred. He seemed to see that Doctor Wen’s eyes were red, definitely from exhaustion!

As a researcher, Wen Yi worked very hard, basically getting up at six to go to work. Tan Xiao, as a volunteer, had a schedule that was almost in sync with Dr. Wen’s.

However, Tan Xiao’s working hours were much shorter than Wen Yi’s. When he was tired, he could play games or do part-time jobs. Dr. Wen’s job was really too hard; he was very worried that one day Dr. Wen would suddenly die on the job.

Wen Yi slightly shook his head: “No, I just went to the bathroom. Did I wake you up with my movements?”

Tan Xiao shook his head: “No, it’s just that I can’t sleep well in unfamiliar environments, my sleep is very light.”

The soundproofing in the hospital dormitory building was quite poor, and in the morning, people walked around and talked. Coupled with the invisible pressure brought by the infectious disease, Tan Xiao’s sleep quality had been very poor recently, and he easily woke up from dreams.

Wen Yi took off his white coat and casually tossed it onto the chair, lifted the blanket, and lay down on the bed. He naturally kissed the warm, soft right cheek of Tan Xiao and said, “Baby, you’ve worked hard. You can keep sleeping. Tomorrow is a holiday, so sleep well. Today, you can sleep until you wake up naturally.”

Tan Xiao wasn’t fully awake yet; he felt Wen Yi come up and skillfully stretched out his arm to pull his lover into his embrace.

Because he was too tired, Tan Xiao closed his eyes drowsily and mumbled, “Really? Is there a day off tomorrow?”

Maybe it was because working non-stop was too exhausting, but he dreamed of taking a day off. This was his summer vacation after the college entrance examination, and at such a young age, he had already experienced the hardships of working.

But ever since the outbreak of the infectious disease, the staff at Huaxi Hospital hadn’t had any days off. Tan Xiao felt embarrassed but took the initiative to be the exception.

“Really, General Nie Cheng personally confirmed it. When have I ever lied to you?”

Tan Xiao snuggled deeper into the down comforter, letting out a small cheer: “Great!”

His face moved closer, and he planted a kiss on Wen Yi’s cheek: “Goodnight, baby.”

As long as it was not dawn yet, it was still goodnight.

Wen Yi smiled as he touched the warm spot on his cheek, then casually turned off the alarm clock Tan Xiao had set.

In the conference room on the top floor, Nie Cheng administered vaccines to the most severely ill patients overnight.

Unlike T0, after receiving the vaccine, the patients who had been lethargic with illness were now writhing in pain.

The pain was at a level ten, something most people couldn’t endure. To alleviate the pain, they even tried to bang their heads against the wall.

Nie Cheng ordered the soldiers in protective suits, “Put on the restraints! Tie them to the hospital beds and gag them to prevent them from biting their tongues.”

In less than an hour, the patient suddenly stopped struggling and crying out in pain. He lay motionless on the hospital bed, as if dead.

Nie Cheng’s palms were sweating, regretting that he had actually believed Wen Yi.

Until a brave nurse stepped forward: “He’s not dead, he has a pulse and is breathing! Oh my God, the swelling on his face is going down!”

All the monitoring equipment was brought over: “All the data is returning to normal!”

Nie Cheng’s heart, which had dropped, suddenly lifted again: “Then why isn’t he moving?”

“He just passed out from the pain being too high.”

Nie Qing finally understood Wen Yi’s meaning; the pain would last at most an hour because most people couldn’t endure the pain and would faint within that time.

From 3:30 AM to 4:35 AM, Nie Qing went through a rollercoaster of emotions. He woke up the researchers overnight and then administered the vaccine provided by Wen Yi.

Although Professor Zhu felt hopeless, he still dutifully tested the vaccine: “This vaccine, it contains a very special active ingredient. This active ingredient can kill the virus of the X12 infectious disease.”

“General Nie, this… this is definitely an effective vaccine for X12. I don’t know where you got it from?”

Nie Cheng carefully took out the vaccine formula. Just to be safe, he immediately printed out hundreds of copies.

He handed these formulas to all the researchers except Wen Yi.

“Can this vaccine formula be mass-produced?”

“Yes, with this formula, it can definitely be done!”

General Nie’s always gloomy face finally showed a hint of a smile: “Then let’s ramp up mass production and immediately administer the T1 vaccine to all patients… By the way, the propaganda department should keep up, tell the public that vaccination will be open within 4 days, and after the whole city is vaccinated, we will lift the lockdown and restore production order!”

This was a huge gamble, but if he lost, he could just try again. He was willing to take the risk!

After experiencing despair, Wang Mingming was one of the first patients in the hospital to receive the T1 vaccine. He fainted from the pain while crying out for help. The last thought that crossed his mind before losing consciousness was: How cruel, so this was what it meant to fail the mission—being painfully killed.

However, two hours later, at 6 AM, he woke up feeling completely relaxed, as if he had never been sick.

On the familiar game panel, the (infected) status disappeared, replaced by the weakened status, with a small note saying (T1 vaccine administered).

The weakened status didn’t reduce health points; the vaccine was for curing, not a miraculous drug that brought the dead back to life. After being sick for so many days, his body was naturally very weak.

The system withdrew a warning, and the hell-level dungeon returned to the easy level. No, the difficulty level dropped to extremely easy.

Wang Mingming was in a daze, feeling as if he was dreaming.

He couldn’t help but slap himself: “Smack!” Ouch, that hurt.

The older brother in the next hospital bed couldn’t help but laugh: “Little sister, you weren’t dreaming. After getting that vaccine, we got better. My goodness, that medicine was really painful; it knocked me out cold. It hurt way more than when I got my foot smashed by a hoe back in the day.”

There were many patients in the ward crying; they were tears of joy for their own recovery.

Wang Mingming was taken aback for a moment, then realized the young woman was talking about himself, after all, he was using Aunt Zhao’s body.

This homebody, who had never really faced hardship, cried out loud: “Mom, I survived!”

Outside the window, the sun broke through the clouds, casting light everywhere. The sky in City S was truly brightening!