After Zhao Qiuting went in, Suo Tian followed right behind her.
I hesitated for a moment before Shen Feng pulled me inside as well.
The others present didn't know who Zhao Qiuting was — they simply assumed she was an old acquaintance of ours.
As Xu Shu entered the tenth floor, she quietly asked Shen Feng something, but he only replied, "I'll explain later," and continued walking ahead.
I had thought that the structure of each floor in the building was exactly the same, but Zhao Qiuting led us to the innermost room — a place that should have been a patient ward.
Instead, it turned out to be a large double-door office.
The sign above the door had long gone missing, and after we entered, we could only guess from the remaining furniture that this used to be the private office of one of the hospital's senior staff.
After looking around and finding no one there, I asked Zhao Qiuting, somewhat uneasy, "Why did you bring us here? Where are the people who came with you?"
Perhaps because she'd bitten me in her fit of madness before, I had been wary of her the entire way.
Her expression still didn't seem normal, but since there were many people with us, my unease lessened a little.
Zhao Qiuting didn't answer.
Instead, she walked up to a massive bookshelf and stood in front of it.
Suo Tian glanced at the bookshelf, then motioned for one of the black-clad men to help him push it aside.
Only then did I notice a small door hidden behind it.
It looked like a small resting room, probably for the office's former occupant.
A few seconds after Suo Tian and the others moved the bookshelf, Zhao Qiuting stepped forward and knocked on the door.
Moments later, there were hurried footsteps from inside.
Then came the sound of a lock clicking open, and the next second, the door swung open.
When we saw who was inside, both Shen Feng and I froze.
Wang Jun, standing in the doorway, first looked stunned when he saw Suo Tian.
Then, as his eyes moved to me and Shen Feng, his face lit up in disbelief and joy.
He stood there dumbfounded for several seconds before exclaiming, "Chen Yang! Shen Feng! Suo Tian! It's really you guys? My god, I can't believe it — to actually run into you here?"
After opening the door, Zhao Qiuting quietly turned around, went over to the sofa in the office, curled up, leaned her head against the backrest, and closed her eyes as if to rest.
After exchanging a few words with Wang Jun, I glanced toward Zhao Qiuting on the sofa and asked, "Hey… what's her story?"
Following my gaze, Wang Jun sighed softly and whispered, "The day after you all left, Dr. Shu Guang somehow contacted us privately. He asked if we wanted to leave and look for you. Lili and I didn't hesitate — we'd never survive without you. I don't know what Dr. Shu Guang was thinking, but he brought this girl along. She had several episodes on the way and caused us a lot of trouble, but Dr. Shu Guang couldn't bring himself to abandon her. He just kept sedating her every time. But… not long ago, Dr. Shu Guang also…"
Hearing that, Shen Feng glanced at me, then asked, "So how did you end up here? Looks like you arrived even earlier than us."
Before Shen Feng could finish, Wang Jun waved his hands.
"We were totally lost once we left the county. Had no idea where you were, so we just got on the highway and kept going. After a while, we figured it was hopeless to find you — like looking for a needle in a haystack. Dr. Shu Guang suggested we head west since it's more sparsely populated there and there'd be fewer walkers. We stumbled around for months, had several near-death encounters, and finally found this place. We've been living here for over a month now."
Shen Feng was about to ask another question when Suo Tian interrupted him.
"There are others in the room?"
At that, Wang Jun's expression stiffened for a moment — a brief flicker of unease passed across his face before he quickly smiled and replied, "Yeah, my wife and a few others."
He slapped his forehead and added awkwardly, "Listen to me rambling. Come on, come in! I'm just so happy to see you all that I forgot to invite you in properly!"
Suo Tian motioned for the bearded men to stay behind in the office, then went in with the rest of us.
I had assumed it was just a small lounge, but the moment we stepped inside, I was taken aback — it was actually a two-bedroom suite.
Though not large, it had to be at least seventy or eighty square meters.
What kind of hospital official had the privilege of a "rest room" like this?
The place was big enough for an entire family to live in.
Three burly men were sitting on the living room sofa.
When they saw us, they all stood up.
Wang Jun introduced them one by one — the relatively refined-looking man on the right was named Zhang Qicong, the muscular man in the middle with arms thicker than Zhou Wen's was called Liu Rumiao, and the slightly bearded man on the left was Zhang Si, commonly called "Lao Si."
When Wang Jun introduced us, the three were very friendly — my impression of them improved instantly.
Lao Si reminded me of the bearded guy outside; almost every sentence he said came with a few swear words for emphasis, and his odd dialect somehow made everything sound funny.
Just then, the door to one of the bedrooms opened, and a plump middle-aged woman walked out.
Wang Jun introduced her as Sister Liu, Lao Si's wife.
But before he could finish speaking, my gaze locked onto the person walking out behind her — Song Meijing!
Suo Tian, who had been silently observing the room, also turned his eyes toward her the moment she appeared.
Song Meijing must have already heard mine and Shen Feng's voices from inside.
When she came out and saw us, she looked perfectly calm — but the instant her gaze landed on Suo Tian, she froze.
Her eyes stayed fixed on him for a few seconds before flicking back and forth between the two of us, and for a brief moment, a flash of anger crossed her face before she quickly concealed it.
Seeing that, I couldn't help but smile — talk about enemies meeting on a narrow road.
Wang Jun, who knew the history between me and Song Meijing, looked awkward and hurriedly said, "Uh… Meijing didn't want to stay at the school anymore, so when we left—"
I waved a hand to cut him off, smiling as I looked at Song Meijing, who was still staring straight at Suo Tian.
"Long time no see."
Only then did Song Meijing turn her eyes to me.
After pausing for two seconds, she gave a faint smile and replied, "Long time no see."
At that, Lao Si and Sister Liu both laughed and said, "Oh? You know Sister Song too? That's great!"
Judging by their expressions, they seemed very fond of her.
Zhang Qicong and Liu Rumiao didn't say much, but they both smiled and greeted her when she came out — clearly, they were quite familiar with her as well.
After glancing at Sister Liu, Song Meijing turned back and casually looked at my arm.
"Chen Yang, your arm's healed?"
Before I could respond, Shen Feng grinned and answered, "No need for you to worry about that."
At his words, Song Meijing turned her eyes toward Shen Feng, ignoring the jab, then looked past him and asked, "Where's Shen Xue?"
The moment those words left her mouth, both Xu Shu and I froze, turning sharply toward Shen Feng.
As expected, the smile that had been on his face just seconds ago had completely stiffened.
I patted Shen Feng on the back, worried, but a second later, anger surged up inside me.
I spun around and glared fiercely at Song Meijing, shouting, "Watch your damn mouth!"
"Hey! What kind of way is that to talk, girl?" Sister Liu immediately got offended when she heard me.
I ignored her completely and turned to Suo Tian.
"Let's get Uncle Gazi and the others upstairs first."
Suo Tian glanced at me, nodded, and turned to head outside.
Song Meijing watched his back as he left, then turned her head slightly to look at me before shifting her gaze to the still-frozen Shen Feng.
A faint, mocking smile tugged at the corner of her lips before she turned and went back into the room.
Lao Si, dragged along by the muttering Sister Liu, also went back inside.
Zhang Qicong and Liu Rumiao clearly had no idea what was going on — they stood awkwardly for a few seconds before following them in as well.
Xu Shu and I comforted Shen Feng for quite a while before he finally calmed down a bit.
He stared at the room Song Meijing had gone into for a few seconds, sighed softly, then turned and said, "Let's go downstairs and get Uncle Gazi and the others settled first."
Suo Tian had already contacted the men downstairs via walkie-talkie, instructing them to bring Uncle Gazi and the others up to the second floor.
After saying a temporary goodbye to Wang Jun, we quickly made our way down.
While we were tidying up the patient rooms on the second floor to prepare a place to rest for the night, I told Yangyang, Uncle Gazi, and Jun Di about what had happened upstairs.
When Yangyang heard that both Zhao Qiuting and Song Meijing were there, his whole face scrunched up, and he cursed viciously, "Damn leeches and toad skin! Can't shake them off no matter what!"
When Uncle Gazi got out of the truck, he brought a big sack of snacks with him.
We all ate a bit to count as dinner, then let Uncle Gazi and Jun Di take the three kids to one of the rooms to sleep.
Bruno had already become good buddies with Uncle Gazi — even with the language barrier, it didn't stop them from becoming close like family.
He happily followed Uncle Gazi to help put the kids to bed.
Dr. Yang had already regained consciousness.
Suo Tian had someone feed him some food and water before locking him in one of the patient rooms with guards rotating around the clock.
Ever since we left the valley, Dr. Yang had become as meek as a chick — even without sedatives, he just sat there with his head tilted, saying nothing, except when he needed to use the bathroom.
He was a wreck of a man now.
Once everything was in order, Shen Feng, Jun Di, Yangyang, and I had a quick discussion and decided to go back upstairs to check on Lili.
We hadn't seen her earlier because of all the chaos, and if we were right, she should be about seven or eight months pregnant by now — likely close to giving birth.
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