A trace of helplessness flitted across Zhou Yu'an's handsome face.
Frowning slightly, he explained patiently,
"I'm sorry, but this is the Department of Thoracic Surgery. If you want to check for lumps, you need to register with the Breast Surgery Department."
He reached out and pointed outside the clinic.
Chu Liuyue pressed her lips into a thin line, gave him a quick glance, and then whispered,
"Dr. Zhou, you are the best thoracic surgeon in the entire hospital. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a problem with my chest before changing departments."
"After all... it took me a long time to get an appointment with a specialist."
She mumbled the last sentence softly, "A specialist appointment is very expensive, three hundred for one."
Zhou Yu'an lowered his eyes, catching her final words.
It was true; a normal registration fee was only ten or twenty yuan.
His specialist appointment was indeed expensive for ordinary people, but usually, those who came to him were critically ill or patients other hospitals couldn't treat.
Someone like the person in front of him, who wasn't even sure of her symptoms yet dared to book such an expensive specialist appointment...
She was the first.
"Tell you what, take this slip to the billing window. I'll have your registration fee refunded."
Zhou Yu'an opened the blue curtain and strode forward, preparing to receive the next patient.
At this moment, a loud bang, bang, bang suddenly came from outside the door, someone knocking forcefully.
It was urgent and violent.
As if the person was using all their strength.
"Please wait a moment, patient outside. Come in when your number is called,"
he said gently, but the knocking outside didn't stop at all.
In fact, hearing the movement inside, it became even more frantic, the knocking turning somewhat terrifying.
Zhou Yu'an frowned slightly.
What was going on?
Was it a critically ill patient outside in a rush?
Thinking this, his hand reached for the doorknob. Just as he was about to open the door,
Chu Liuyue behind him had already jumped off the examination bed, quickly caught up, and grabbed his arm.
"What are you doing?"
She shook her head slightly and said to him, "Dr. Zhou, you can't open it."
Seeing his confusion, she handed over her phone.
It was the livestream channel of Jiang City Hospital. Usually, it provided online answers for routine medical inquiries and allowed people to check the hospital's daily foot traffic and registration numbers for various departments in advance.
It was considered a public service livestream platform.
But right now, the livestream, which was originally facing the consultation desk on the first floor of the hospital, was a scene of gore.
Many people fell down with twisted movements, and shortly after, they climbed back up with faces as pale as corpses in a funeral parlor.
Emitting hoarse, guttural sounds from their mouths, they staggered around with mangled bodies.
Besides the ones who had just gotten up and were moving sluggishly, there were others who seemed to have caught a scent, biting anyone they saw.
Someone's severed limbs were trampled upon, sending blood splattering everywhere.
But those maddened people weren't interested in the blood; their instinct was simply to bite.
Piercing screams echoed from the livestream.
"Oh no, someone's having a rabies outbreak!"
"Don't bite me, don't bite me, it hurts... hurry up and call the patrol team."
"This isn't rabies. Why are the people who get bitten dying and then getting back up?"
The outpatient hall on the first floor of the hospital was in total chaos. The smell of blood seemed to seep through the livestream screen and linger at the tip of the nose.
Cries, panicked footsteps of people fleeing, and the exclamations of the crowd.
All of this mixed with the intense knocking on the door right outside.
Chu Liuyue tightened her grip on his arm slightly and said,
"Dr. Zhou, if you open the door now, can you be sure that the person outside is a normal patient, or..."
She pointed at the screen.
"...like these lunatics who have completely lost their minds and are biting people everywhere."
Comments rolled across the livestream.
Some people staying at home hadn't realized the severity of the incident.
They were even making jokes.
[What's going on? Is the hospital filming a movie to attract more visitors?]
[How could it be filming? Didn't you see that guy just get bitten and his whole arm fell off, and there were intestines, tsk tsk... If this is filming, it's way too realistic.]
[Honestly, this doesn't look like rabies. Don't you guys think this looks a lot like...]
[Zombies!]
As soon as this word appeared, the other comments instantly went crazy.
[How is that possible? We made it safely through the pandemic, how could there be zombies now?]
[And there hasn't been heavy rain, nor continuous scorching sun, how could there be...]
[Those of you at home, absolutely do not go outside. Look downstairs in your own neighborhoods, see if it's chaotic there too.]
[We're doomed! I'm at work in my company right now, I'm so scared.]
Zhou Yu'an naturally saw this too.
As a medical professional, he spat out the word with some uncertainty.
"Zombies?"
His first reaction was that it was absurd, unbelievable.
How could a disaster usually seen in movies and TV shows actually descend upon real life?
But their hospital's livestream would absolutely never broadcast such a bloody scene publicly.
The knocking on the door outside grew more violent.
They even started kicking the door.
Fortunately, this hospital was a new campus, all the facilities were newly built, and the quality of the wooden doors was quite good.
But it wouldn't hold up for long.
Chu Liuyue nodded, still tugging at his arm fearfully, and asked,
"What should we do? Dr. Zhou, should we run away now?"
Zhou Yu'an took a deep breath.
He glanced at the hand she was using to grab him.
Chu Liuyue quickly withdrew her hand, looking at him timidly.
"Let me make a phone call first."
Zhou Yu'an turned and walked a few steps, pulled open a drawer, and took out his phone.
He called his father.
If there was really such a severe medical incident, or rather, a zombie outbreak, his father would definitely know more.
But the call wouldn't go through.
This was highly unusual.
Just as he was about to dial again, an incoming call suddenly popped up on the screen.
The name on the other end was: Gu Man.
It was his arranged fiancée.
Zhou Yu'an's expression was indifferent, and he answered the phone with a calm tone.
"Hello?"
The moment he uttered a single word, screams and panting came from the other end, accompanied by a sobbing voice,
"Yu'an, I'm so scared! I came to the hospital to find you today, but who knew that right after I walked in, I was almost bitten by a madman. Thank goodness I ran fast."
"Now the elevator area is completely crowded with those lunatics. I ran up the stairs through the emergency exit."
"You're in Clinic 311 on the third floor, right? I'm so scared, I'm coming to find you right now..."
The phone wasn't on speaker, but Gu Man's voice was simply too shrill.
So Chu Liuyue, standing not far away, heard it loud and clear.
