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墨書 Inktalez
Late at night, at the Fan Bar.
The hands of the Brass Bell clock continued to move, the delicate short hour hand just passing the number "3." The bar was still lit by candlelight, and Yinuo sat at the counter, resting her arms and staring blankly. Yellow Dog lay at her feet, snoring softly, while a few kittens nestled in its embrace, purring sweetly as they slept. Occasionally, they would stretch their fluffy little paws and wave them around, as if they were dreaming.
Yinuo yawned. The bar door was left open, and the hall was empty; most people had already gone to sleep. Only here and the hospital across the street still glimmered with lights.
The coal team had encountered obstacles, and the search teams in the city had been forced to disband temporarily. The necessary equipment for the laboratory was still not ready. However, Dr. Zhong was not idle; perhaps due to some breakthroughs, he appeared full of energy. Since the boiler generator set was temporarily unusable, he asked Xiao Wei to bring over Roundabout's small Diesel Generator for use. Old Tian and Yuan An had been assisting him all along, busying themselves until now without revealing what they had discovered.
"Yinuo, go to sleep," Xiao Wei called as he ran down from the second floor, dressed neatly with a Thunderous Shotgun slung over his shoulder, clearly prepared for a night shift.
"Just a little longer; the hospital is still lit," Yinuo replied, her face weary as she rested her chin on her hand, her gaze somewhat vacant. "I wonder how Ming Ge and the others are doing."
"They'll be fine," Xiao Wei said confidently about the main group. He walked to the door and glanced at the brightly lit second floor of the hospital, puzzled. "What's going on with them working late into the night?"
"I don't know; I heard Yuan An say that Dr. Zhong seems to have discovered something remarkable." Yinuo couldn't stop yawning and wiped her eyes before stretching her body. "The patrols this afternoon reported zombies on nearby streets; be careful."
"I know; I'm bringing a walkie-talkie," Xiao Wei replied with a smile on his rugged face as he gathered his gear and stepped out.
Yinuo retrieved a bottle of Ming's Brew from under the bar, uncapped it and sniffed it before grimacing and putting it back. Her body felt exhausted, yet her spirit was quite lively, leaving her feeling restless. She wanted to talk but found no one to converse with. Bored, Yinuo wandered around a few times before deciding to check on the hospital and see what remarkable thing they had discovered that kept them awake at this hour.
Roundabout was quiet; there were no cicadas chirping. The militia guarding the iron fence were also weary; in the darkness, sparks occasionally flickered as they smoked to stay alert. Most combat personnel had been taken away by the main group, leaving only a few to endure their drowsiness through the night shift. Fortunately, nothing unusual had occurred.
The hospital still seemed to carry a lingering smell of blood; mountains of corpses had been transported to Cien Cemetery. The female militia members had thoroughly cleaned both inside and outside the hospital, using several bags of laundry detergent for scrubbing floors. While bloodstains were washed away, the eerie atmosphere that remained indoors could not be erased, adding an extra chill to the night.
Yinuo wrapped her coat tightly around herself and hurried down the dark corridor. A sudden sense of unease gripped her as she rushed up the staircase corner; she relaxed slightly upon seeing flickering firelight.
"Hey Sister Jia! What are you all doing here?" Yinuo exclaimed in surprise as she spotted Chef Jia, Pockmarked Girl, Yuan An, and others outside the sterile chamber, all focused intently on Dr. Zhong and Old Tian inside while Huihui sat quietly beside them.
Pockmarked Girl glanced at her with excitement, waving her hand and deliberately lowering her voice to create an air of mystery. "Big event."
Yinuo looked on with suspicion; the scene before her was nothing like the high-end biological laboratory she had imagined. Instead, it resembled a small stall at a village market where vendors showcased their crafts, surrounded by curious children and adults.
Behind the sterile barrier, Dr. Zhong furrowed his brow, speaking to Old Tian beside him. The operation table in front of them was a chaotic yet organized mess of various common laboratory instruments. Some were empty, while others contained strange liquids. Under the microscope, different slides were being examined, and there was a beaker filled with a liquid resembling Ban Lan Gen.
"You haven't rested?" Chef Jia asked, weariness evident on her face, though her eyes sparkled with interest, seemingly captivated by Dr. Zhong's work.
"Nope, I saw the lights on here and thought I'd check it out. I didn't expect to find you all," Yinuo replied with a wry smile, muttering, "You didn't even call me to join the fun."
"I just got here myself," Chef Jia said, ruffling Yinuo's hair. "Dr. Zhong discovered something."
"What is it?"
"Remember when Liu Yan collected some rainwater?" Chef Jia pointed to a basin-like container on the table that held some murky liquid.
Yinuo blinked and responded, "I remember. What did you find?"
"Dr. Zhong said he extracted some substances from the rainwater." Chef Jia shrugged, not fully grasping Dr. Zhong's technical terms. "It’s related to corpse transformation in hospitals."
Yinuo's drowsiness vanished instantly as she widened her beautiful eyes in surprise, glancing at Yuan An and the others, who had clearly already been shocked by this revelation. Yuan An still felt somewhat distant; she could only occasionally chat with them at Roundabout, speaking little while her eyes flickered with unspoken thoughts.
Timing was everything; not long after, the two men in the lab stopped their work, changed out of their sterile suits, and exited the isolation area with expressions that were hard to describe—mixed emotions of joy and concern.
"Sister Jia, is there any food left?" Dr. Zhong called out before he even approached, his stomach rumbling loudly.
"There's still some in the kitchen. I'll go make something for you all," Chef Jia said with a smile, beckoning a few of his assistants. "Come on, let's prepare some late-night snacks."
The night air was slightly cool, and as the hospital lights dimmed, the Seafood Restaurant lit up again with flames.
In the kitchen, Chef Jia ignited the stove and took out a large iron basin covered with plastic wrap, revealing a big piece of marinated meat. The girls had initially planned to just snag a bite of the late-night snacks, but seeing Chef Jia's enthusiasm, it felt like a feast was about to begin. They gathered around the two older men at the table, eagerly wanting to hear firsthand information.
"Don't rush, don't rush. Let me eat something first," Dr. Zhong said helplessly, sighing. "We're missing some items; I need to make a trip back to the train tomorrow morning."
"Weren't those things moved over already?" Yinuo asked curiously.
Dr. Zhong's face turned slightly awkward as he replied, "Well, back then, there were still some misunderstandings between us. I left some supplies on the train."
"How stingy," Yinuo rolled her eyes and pressed on, "Did you find out if the hospital's corpse transformation is really due to the rain?"
"To put it simply, yes," Dr. Zhong admitted under the persistent questioning from the girls. "I was just idle; the generator couldn't power other equipment. Liu Yan asked me to check on the rainwater, so I took a look."
"Let's talk while we eat." Chef Jia was quick and soon set up a small barbecue grill on the table, with a tray beside it holding skewers of meat.
"Having a private kitchen is great," Yinuo and Pockmarked Girl chuckled softly. Unlike Yuan An, they were less reserved and lit the charcoal to get it burning while eagerly asking, "So what happened next?"
"And then there was no 'next,'" Dr. Zhong said, staring at the meat skewers and swallowing hard. He frowned as he translated many technical terms into plain language. "Let me ask you a question first: do you know what rainwater contains?"
"Water," Pockmarked Girl rolled her eyes in response, expressing her dissatisfaction with his teasing.
Dr. Zhong chuckled bitterly and began counting on his fingers to explain. "That's right; the main component of rainwater is water, but it also contains sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The acid rain from a few days ago came with thunder and lightning and had small amounts of ozone molecules along with various dust and impurities from the air."
The group of women couldn't help but feel a bit drowsy, their enthusiasm waning.
Dr. Zhong grinned as he placed the skewers on the grill, teasing, "You all lack scientific spirit."
"As long as you have it, that's enough. Don't keep us in suspense, continue," Pockmarked Girl urged.
Old Tian chuckled to himself and picked up the conversation, saying, "The normal components in rainwater won't harm the human body. Of course, Acid Rain is another matter. But the key issue isn't Acid Rain; it's the contaminants attached to airborne dust."
"I don't understand," Yinuo pouted.
"You don't need to understand; just observe," Old Tian winked, picking up a pinch of fine salt. "For example, this is the airborne dust in rainwater." He then added some chili powder into the mix and said, "The chili represents the contaminants that have separated out."
"So, it's the chili that caused the corpses in the hospital to change," Yinuo shot him a glare.
"You hit the nail on the head," Old Tian nodded with satisfaction, evenly sprinkling the salt and chili powder over the skewers before throwing out the answer: "But that stuff isn't chili powder; it's Powdered Zombie Virus."
"Powdered Zombie Virus?" The women gasped in surprise, exchanging glances.
"That's right," Dr. Zhong sighed. "I was a bit confused at first; it all seemed bizarre. However, other impurities had no pathogenic effects. It was only those powdery substances that didn't dissolve in raindrops that were unfamiliar to me. I stumbled upon this by chance while testing and found that those powdery impurities indeed contained pathogenic factors from Liquid Zombie Virus."
The ladies fell silent, likely grasping Dr. Zhong's meaning.
"I fused Huihui's blood Antibody with the powdered virus, and just like before, the virus was stripped away and consumed," Dr. Zhong said, momentarily distracted by the aroma of the meat. He paused and added seriously, "But that's not the main point."
"This isn't even the main point?" Yinuo exclaimed in surprise.
"One of them, perhaps," Dr. Zhong said, furrowing his brow as he carefully chose his words, building suspense among the group. He continued slowly, "The key is how these Powdered Viruses came to be and why they appeared in the rain."
"What do you mean?" the Pockmarked Girl still refused to think deeply about it.
"You mean..." Chef Jia's beautiful eyes flashed with shock as she murmured, "Man-made?"
"Clearly," Dr. Zhong replied, spreading his hands as if relieved. "The Liquid Zombie Virus is artificially created. Transforming a liquid substance into a powdered form is no simple task, but the reality is right before us; whether we believe it or not, we must accept it."
Old Tian cleared his throat twice and added, "You've all heard of aerial pesticide spraying, right? I suspect these Powdered Viruses were spread in a similar manner. This rain might even be artificially induced."
Yinuo immediately thought of the Blonde Woman and frowned. "They must have invested heavily in this."
Old Tian glanced at her and shook his head seriously. "I don't believe this is targeted at you."
"Then..."
"You all know the situation with the experiments, right?" Old Tian shot a glance at Chef Jia and spoke deliberately. "Between Experimental Zombies, Ordinary Survivors, and Zombies, who is in the most dangerous and awkward position?"
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