Chapter 198 - Doomsday Escape 04: Gathering Method (1/2)
The hospital where Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang were located was the People’s Hospital in the city centre. It was surrounded by financial buildings, shopping plazas, pedestrian streets, restaurants and countless companies. Currently, it was lunch time. The delivery drivers were on the street to deliver meals, the food areas were full of people and the fragrance of various foods floated in the air.
On the surface, this city looked bustling. The people rus.h.i.+ng down the street hadn’t noticed the huge crisis lurking in this peace. Xiao Lou walked to the intersection, looked at the pedestrians on the street and turned back to Yu Hanjiang. “What is the situation with the student you brought today? Are there many people infected at the school?”
Yu Hanjiang frowned. “This morning, I received a police a.s.signment to go to the Seventh High School. The injured male student was attacked by a senior, Zhou Yu of Cla.s.s 8. He suddenly attacked in the bathroom, biting off a large piece of flesh from that boy’s arms and also scratching several other boys. The school conducted a simple investigation. According to the head teacher, Zhou Yu was introverted and gentle. He never fought anyone. He just asked for leave in the morning to go home.”
Yu Hanjiang paused before continuing in a calm face. “He has obviously been parasitized. Unexpectedly, the IQ of the parasite is so high. It actually knew how to lie to a teacher and asked for leave to escape. There were more than a dozen students scratched by him. It was all skin trauma so they were left at school to be bandaged by the school doctor. If those people are also infected then I’m afraid that by this time, the entire Seventh High School has fallen.”
Xiao Lou, “……”
The parasites that could survive were extremely capable of reproduction and were extremely intelligent. Perhaps they would make an excuse to leave their teachers and students in the cla.s.sroom… who could imagine that the students they got along with were actually puppets of bugs?
This morning, the Seventh High School might’ve been infected by a large number of parasites.
At first, the infected people only showed ordinary flu symptoms. They might not even know they were parasitized. Then the students would go home from school at noon, infect their parents and their parents would carry the parasites to major areas…
Xiao Lou became more shocked the more he thought about it. There were so many infected people on the first day and he didn’t have time to adapt to the environment. He hurriedly stated, “We have to find our teammates quickly. They don’t know what is going on and it will be bad if they’re infected.”
Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Go!”
The two men strode out of the food street and shopping buildings and soon reached the square in the city centre.
There was a large sculpture in the middle of the square with many seats in the outer circle. Some old people were sitting on the seats to relax in the sun while some children were standing in front of the sculpture and excitedly taking photos.
It looked like an ordinary city square and there weren’t many people gathered.
Xiao Lou saw Ye Qi standing in the middle of the square with one glance.
Ye Qi was wearing a hood and ripped jeans, looking very fas.h.i.+onable. He held a guitar in his hand and was advertising loudly, “Uncles, aunts, handsome men and beautiful women, I will sing a song for everyone. I think I sing well so if you would like to give me some pocket money. Life is hard and I’m in pressing need. Thank you everyone…”
It was a familiar routine but Ye Qi felt really uncomfortable.
After seeing him jumping up and down in a lively manner, his voice clear and loud, Xiao Lou finally let go of his worries and immediately went to Ye Qi.
Ye Qi saw Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou and his eyes lit up.
His Guitar card could cause ‘sleep’ for three seconds in a wide range when using the skill but it was no different from a normal guitar when not using a skill. He could play it at will. Ye Qi wanted to play the guitar and sing but Xiao Lou shook his head to stop Ye Qi. Yu Hanjiang immediately followed and spoke softly, “You are the one who ran away from home, right? Your parents are looking for you. Come with me.”
Ye Qi was dumbfounded. “??”
How did he become a runaway?
Although he didn’t know what happened, he still packed up his guitar and followed Yu Hanjiang to leave.
The people who were just gathering to hear the song were dazed. This young boy obediently followed the police? it seemed that he had run away from home during his rebellious period and was caught by the police.
“It isn’t a case. It is just arranging ident.i.ties for us so we can gain some clues.” Yu Hanjiang looked at Ye Qi with a frown. “Where was your refresh point? Was anything strange or wrong around you?”
“I am in a music school and there was a cla.s.s in the morning. The floating box told me to follow instructions so I had to follow my cla.s.smates to cla.s.s.” Ye Qi took off his hood and stared at the distracted Xiao Lou. “Cla.s.s finished and it was noon. I inquired about the location of the square and came over immediately. What’s the matter? Why do you look so nervous?”
Xiao Lou questioned, “Did anything unusual happen during your cla.s.s?”
Ye Qi thought about it carefully. “Many students around me had a cold and someone was coughing. The teacher said that the temperature has dropped in recent days and reminded everyone to keep warm. I wore thermal underwear and a cardigan when entering the secret room this time so I didn’t feel cold.”
Previously, in order to prepare for the survival secret room, everyone went to the shopping mall to prepare several sets of clothing, with a complete set of winter and summer clothing. According to Old Mo’s suggestion, before entering the survival room, everyone wore several layers. If the environment was summer then they could take off their clothing. If it was winter then they didn’t have to take it off. Xiao Lou also wore thermal underwear and a cardigan inside. There was even a white coat outside so he wasn’t too cold.
He whispered to Ye Qi to explain, “The flu is likely to be a precursor to the mutation. It seems that many people in your music school have been infected. This time, we are encountering something much more terrible than the zombie virus. It is an unknown parasite that affects humans. It will live in the human brain, control the human body and attack other humans to reproduce. A large number of infected people have appeared in the hospital and Seventh High School.”
Ye Qi’s eyes widened. “Bugs?”
He s.h.i.+vered and got gooseb.u.mps all over his body as he made a disgusted expression. “Bugs are disgusting!”
Xiao Lou added, “The more terrifying thing is that the infected person will disguise themselves so they look no different from a normal person. We didn’t dare let you continue to sing because once you sing, you will be surrounded by a crowd. Perhaps an infected person will suddenly infect you. Now we can’t go to a crowded place. We have to find another way to meet our teammates.”
Ye Qi suddenly realized. “I see!”
The crowd in the square was too big. Once an outbreak occurred, people would bite each other. If they were caught or bitten during the escape, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Ye Qi thought of the students constantly coughing at his music school and couldn’t help feeling numb. “During cla.s.s, the students sitting in front of me and behind me were coughing. If a cold is a sign of a parasitic infection, will I be infected?”
Xiao Lou comforted him. “The currently known method of transmission is through the blood. You should be fine as long as you weren’t scratched.”
Ye Qi sighed with relief and spoke with a pale face, “Thank G.o.d it isn’t airborne!”
Xiao Lou’s gaze swept over the surrounding buildings and he soon found a good place. “Do you see that clothing store over there? It is a three storey building that looks like a book page.”
Yu Hanjiang and Ye Qi followed his gaze and saw that there was a clothing store in the southeast corner of the square. There were floor to ceiling windows on both walls, shaped like an unfolded page. There were crystal chandeliers hanging inside and the decorations were very luxurious. The clothing worn by the models in the store was made of fur and were obviously expensive at first glance.
Xiao Lou stated, “This store is luxuriously decorated and the clothes should be very expensive. There won’t be too many customers in the clothing store at noon. If there are only two or three employees then we can cope with them even if they are infected. We can use this as a temporary base to meet our teammates.”
Yu Hanjiang nodded in agreement. “A high-end clothing store does have less traffic at noon. However, others won’t know we are hiding in the clothing store. How do we notify everyone?”
Xiao Lou replied, “I have a way, Liu Qiao’s sky lantern is in my hands.”
Yu Hanjiang was slightly stunned. He remembered this card. In Liuxi Village, Liu Qiao placed a sky lantern on the mountain, hung a piece of cloth on it and wrote for the challengers to come there. He couldn’t help wondering, “Liu Qiao gave this card to you?”
Xiao Lou explained, “Before entering the Spades secret room, I was worried that Ye Qi’s method of singing wouldn’t work if everyone was separated and gathering would become more troublesome. Therefore, I asked Liu Qiao to give me her sky lantern. As long as I place the lantern above the clothing store, everyone will notice it the moment they arrive at the square.