Zhou Yu'an took a deep breath. The knocking on the door outside did not stop.
The crisis he was facing was even greater. If Gu Man came up at this time, it would undoubtedly be much more dangerous.
He said in a calm tone, "There are a few people outside the consultation room on the third floor acting strangely too. I just watched the hospital's live broadcast."
"It might be a viral invasion causing their abnormal behavior. To use a term from movies and TV shows, they have, to some extent, become zombies."
"...Zombies?"
Gu Man didn't like watching these types of films, but she had vaguely seen some clips and behind-the-scenes footage.
Letting out a gasp from her throat, she said, "How is that possible?"
At this moment, Chu Liuyue spoke up, seemingly unintentionally, in a soft voice, "Dr. Zhou, is this your girlfriend?" Her voice was crisp and pleasant.
Gu Man, sharp-eared on the other end of the phone, instantly changed her tone and accused him, "Zhou Yu'an, what is the meaning of this? Why is there a woman's voice next to you?"
Zhou Yu'an rubbed his forehead in slight exasperation and said, "This is my patient."
"A patient? Not leaving after the consultation, but staying in your room to listen to your phone calls?"
Gu Man cared the most about other women coveting her man.
Whether it was someone she had already obtained or someone she hadn't.
In the past, Yan Qing was merely someone Gu Man liked, yet she could still torture Chu Yue so ruthlessly over him.
If anyone dared to approach her marriage alliance partner now, she would probably ruin their entire family.
Unfortunately, it was now the apocalypse.
The very first day of the apocalypse, at that.
Zhou Yu'an replied in a calm tone, "I had just finished her consultation when this situation suddenly erupted. Gu Man, for safety's sake, you'd better find an empty room with no one else and lock yourself inside."
"Wait for someone to call the patrol team. They will send people to control the situation."
Gu Man said somewhat reluctantly, "Fine, but you must remember to come find me, otherwise I'll be scared all by myself."
"Mhm." Zhou Yu'an hung up the phone.
Turning his head, he found the patient in front of him still looking at him timidly, blinking her eyes helplessly.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that just now."
"It's fine, her temper has never been very good," Zhou Yu'an responded lightly.
"Then... what should we do now? Wait for the patrol team in the room? Will they... come?"
Zhou Yu'an glanced at her and said in a deep voice, "We'll wait another fifteen minutes. If the situation isn't under control by then, we'll have to find a way to escape to a relatively safe floor."
"The sixteenth floor is the administrative level; there are fewer people there."
"Perhaps we can head up first."
Chu Liuyue nodded and vaguely pointed at his phone, kindly suggesting, "Dr. Zhou, do you want to call your girlfriend and tell her to run to the sixteenth floor too? It would be safer that way."
Zhou Yu'an agreed, "Alright, I'll send her a text message."
He originally wanted to say he would send a WeChat message, but then remembered he hadn't even added his marriage alliance partner on WeChat yet.
So, sending Gu Man a text message it was.
After doing all this, Zhou Yu'an returned to his office chair, gave her a slight nod, and said, "You can sit down and wait for now."
"Okay."
Chu Liuyue sat on the patient's stool, turning it to face the door, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the activity outside.
The prolonged knocking caused the door to shake violently, and the sound of the impacts grew louder and louder.
In less than three minutes.
The glass of the observation window was forcefully smashed to pieces by bare hands.
Several bloody palms and half a head poked through the frame.
"Ah—"
Chu Liuyue was the first to see this scene and fell out of her chair in fright.
Zhou Yu'an reacted quickly, reaching out to pull her up.
With the momentum, she unexpectedly fell right onto his lap.
Her light gray mermaid skirt rubbed against the fabric of his black denim jeans, and her head tilted backward, the crown of her hair bumping into his jawbone.
Zhou Yu'an let out a soft hiss.
The collision just now was quite solid.
When he recovered his senses and looked at the woman sitting on his thighs, he finally realized how awkward and inappropriate the situation was.
Just as he was about to push her away, he saw that Chu Liuyue seemed terrified by the bloody hands reaching through the door frame. She shrank back further, huddling entirely into his embrace.
Her voice trembled as she asked helplessly, "Dr. Zhou, what should we do?"
"We won't last fifteen minutes at all. In just a few more minutes, they're going to break in."
A faint scent of orchids wafted to the tip of his nose.
It was the scent on her body.
Zhou Yu'an called out once again, "Chu..."
"Chu Liuyue." She certainly didn't expect a doctor she had just met to remember her full name.
"Chu Liuyue, I need your cooperation."
"Okay, Dr. Zhou, what do we do now?"
"First, get off me." Zhou Yu'an lowered his eyes lightly, his fingertips curling as he suppressed a momentary flutter in his heart.
"O-okay."
The two of them walked a circle around the bed in the consultation room.
Chu Liuyue said in disbelief, "Dr. Zhou, are you saying we should dismantle the steel from the bed to use as defensive weapons?"
Zhou Yu'an gave a faint nod. "Yes."
"But this steel is so hard, how could we possibly..."
Before she could finish speaking, Chu Liuyue watched helplessly as Zhou Yu'an exerted a slight force with his palms, and the originally hard metal bent and snapped between his fingers.
The metal bed leg turned into a sharp steel pipe weapon.
This was simply not normal!
Zhou Yu'an repeated this three more times, dismantling all four bed legs.
He handed two of them to her.
"Hold onto these for now. When things get intense later, I might not be able to protect you well, so you have to take care of yourself."
"Mhm, okay!"
As Chu Liuyue took the steel pipes, her fingertips accidentally brushed against his palm.
Zhou Yu'an, however, seemed completely unaware, his expression remaining as usual.
"Ring, ring, ring—"
The phone suddenly rang.
Zhou Yu'an's expression changed, and he quickly answered the call.
"Dad, I'm at the hospital. What's the situation right now?"
An exhausted male voice came from the other end of the line:
"The research institute's newest experimental serum was secretly taken out and tested on live humans before being verified, resulting in severe side effects."
"Currently, apart from Jiang City, Guang City and Hai City have also fallen. The symptoms in those other two cities even appeared three or four hours earlier."
Zhou Yu'an took a deep breath and asked, "What is this experimental serum? Why would the side effects make those people look like they've mutated?"
He paused for a moment before saying, "Zombies!"
The voice on the other end said urgently:
"I can't give you the specifics, but this serum was originally targeted at incurable human diseases. The initial research direction was good."
"However, due to certain reasons, the substances within the serum were contaminated, leading to the current situation."
"Yu'an, remember. The genes of these mutated people have been reorganized; they are not the same as normal humans. When you encounter them, absolutely do not show mercy, and above all, do not get bitten!" Father Zhou said in a solemn tone.
