CH 219

The slight sound of high heels could be heard. Tap, tap, tap…

Lin Chen suddenly sat up in his ward, which was pitch black. He listened carefully and heard faint weeping coming from somewhere, drifting in and out.

He unlocked his phone and checked the time: 9:11 p.m.. Xing Conglian hadn’t called since they started their operation, indicating that they hadn’t caught Shen Lian. It wasn’t normal for a single woman to not return home after 9.

Lin Chen felt increasingly uneasy.

Suddenly, he discerned the sound of an ambulance coming from outside the surrounding space.

One, two… It seemed like more and more ambulances were driving into the hospital.

He looked at the drip bag, which only had a little bit of saline left. Without hesitation, he pulled out the needle and walked to the window to look down.

There weren’t too many people gathered outside the emergency building, but he could vaguely see uniformed police officers and some frightened onlookers. Because he was on a high floor, it was difficult to tell exactly what was happening down below. Shortly after, another police car drove into the hospital. Lin Chen recognized the figure and the bright head from the person who got out of the car.

He immediately turned around and left the room. The corridor in the special care ward was empty, and the light at the nurse’s station not far away was blinding.

As he passed by the nurse’s station, someone called out to him.

“Hey, patient! It’s rest time now. You can’t walk around freely. Go back to your room.”

As the young nurse spoke, Lin Chen’s phone began to vibrate furiously. The number on the screen didn’t belong to Xing Conglian or Wang Chao. Lin Chen gestured for the nurse to wait and answered the call.

“Lin Chen. Please speak.”

“Are you at the hospital? The operation has gone wrong… The director has arrived, and we need you to come down immediately.”

“Where are you guys?”

“We’re at the emergency building. The media is probably going to show up soon, so please hurry.”

“I understand.”

Lin Chen ended the call and quickly explained the urgent situation to the nurse before sprinting towards the elevator.

When he reached the emergency building, the first thing he heard was crying. Of course, crying was normal in a hospital, but this sound was too sorrowful, as if someone’s heart and lungs were being ripped out. During a break in the sound of the emergency room door opening and closing, Lin Chen looked inside and could only see a large number of blood-stained gauzes. He almost collided with a nurse holding blood plasma as he backed out. Using the flow of people as a guide, he found the old director in a doctor’s office.

Director Wu was retiring in less than half a year and had always been calm and relaxed. Lin Chen had never seen him look so serious before.

“What happened? Where’s Xing Conglian?” Lin Chen asked.

Director Wu looked up at him and visibly frowned at the mention of Xing Conglian’s name. Lin Chen steadied himself by holding onto the desk and remained surprisingly calm. Several doctors were sitting across from him at the desk, and he glanced at their badges: brain surgeon, neurology…

Something must have happened for all of the brain science-related experts in the hospital to have been called in.

Seeing that the director didn’t say anything, the assistant police officer beside him spoke to Lin Chen. “Wait a moment, Consultant Lin. We’re waiting for the Criminal Investigation Department to arrive and have a brief meeting with the experts.”

Lin Chen nodded.

Just then, chaotic footsteps were heard in the hallway outside the office. The door swung open, and Xing Conglian appeared with his deputy captain, Zhang Ping. Wang Chao wasn’t with them.

Xing Conglian was covered in blood from his chest to his collar, his hands were red, and his coat was nowhere to be seen. Lin Chen met his gaze, and Xing Conglian’s eyes remained numb for a few seconds. Then he looked at him with grief in his deep eyes.

“Come over here and explain what happened today!” Director Wu slammed the table, and everyone in the office was shocked.

Lin Chen turned around and calmly looked at the angry director, saying, “You need to calm down.”

“I lost a police officer under my command, and you want me to calm down?” The director’s face became stern. He stood up, pointed at Xing Conglian, and cursed, “Xiao An’s girlfriend and parents are coming here soon. You need to explain to them why a routine arrest turned into this. And why did you randomly shoot in the downtown area? Who gave you permission to do that? Have you considered the consequences?!”

Lin Chen replied for Xing Conglian. “He was carrying out his duties on the front line, and only he knows whether or not he should have fired his weapon. It’s unfair to hold the front-line officers responsible without understanding the specific situation.”

He then dragged over two chairs from the corner of the room and motioned for the two who had just entered the room to sit down.

Director Wu was so angry that his veins were popping, but he didn’t say anything more.

“Did Officer An die in the line of duty?” Lin Chen sat down on a chair and asked.

Xing Conglian looked at him and nodded.

Lin Chen’s heart sank as he looked at Xing Conglian, who was covered in blood. He immediately understood where the blood came from. “Was it because of Shen Lian’s refusal to be arrested?” he asked Xing Conglian.

“No.” Xing Conglian finally spoke up but didn’t say anything more.

Zhang Ping said, “We didn’t even see anyone associated with Shen Lian.”

“What happened at the scene? Why did it turn out like this?” Crying and footsteps were heard in the hallway outside, but the office was completely silent, with only the faint flicker of the fluorescent lights.

“I don’t know,” Xing Conglian said clearly, one word at a time.

“You fucking don’t know?!” Director Wu slammed the table again.

Ignoring the furious director behind him and everyone else in the room, Lin Chen grabbed Xing Conglian’s hand. His hand was trembling, but he still tried to calm himself down and said softly to Xing Conglian, “The hospital experts are all here. The sooner we figure out what happened, the sooner we can solve the problem.”

Xing Conglian pursed his lips. For a moment, he showed a look of extreme indifference, and then his focus gradually converged, and he said, “We really don’t know where the problem came from. Around 21:00, there was interference in our communication channel, and then there was a disturbance at the barbecue stand in the alley. The stall owner and customers who were dining fought each other, and a police officer died in the line of duty while protecting the residents.” Xing Conglian’s report was concise and to the point. “During this process, I fired two shots, one hitting the barbecue stand owner and the other hitting the suspect who was attempting to kill the police officer. The ballistic evidence and eyewitness testimony at the scene can confirm this.”

Lin Chen’s thoughts raced, and he quickly figured out what the problem was.

He had faith in Xing Conglian’s marksmanship, but with Xing Conglian on the scene and clearly stating that he hit the suspect, the police officer still died. It was clear that this wasn’t a simple issue that could be explained away.

Xing Conglian seemed to be lost in deep memories. He said, “This was my mistake. I should have chosen to kill the suspect from the beginning instead of merely disabling him.”

“So your bullets didn’t disable him?” Lin Chen asked, looking up.

“No,” Xing Conglian said. “They seemed to have no pain response and acted solely on instinct. The incident happened too suddenly, and we still haven’t figured out what went wrong.”

“How is it possible that the bullets didn’t disable them?” a department head who had been very quiet in the office asked. “Did they turn into zombies?”

“The scene has been completely sealed off. People from the Food and Drug Administration and the Epidemic Prevention Center have arrived, and only then did we come back,” Xing Conglian said.

“The Epidemic Prevention Center?” Lin Chen asked.

“Because there were reports of people biting others at the scene of the incident, some members of the public were unable to control their own emotions, so they reported it to the Disease Control and Prevention Center,” Xing Conglian said.

“Is this a biohazard crisis?” Director Wu couldn’t contain himself and said, “We were just trying to catch a person. Why did it suddenly turn into people eating people?”

“How could this situation suddenly arise?” another expert said. “We haven’t had a case like this in our city in recent years.”

“You are all neuroscience experts and should know that the possibility of this situation occurring still exists,” Lin Chen said calmly.

“That’s right. It could either be a brain disease or effects from a drug,” another person said. “Rabies?”

“I believe effects from drugs are more likely,” Lin Chen said.

“That’s right.” The experts discussed it in a flurry. “But we need to do a detailed examination to determine which specific drug it is.”

“However, the approach taken by the Disease Control and Prevention Center is correct. I believe it is necessary to implement level-one biohazard isolation, and all personnel who have come into contact with the patient should be isolated and observed,” Lin Chen said.

Xing Conglian pursed his lips. When he heard the other side talking about isolation, he interjected forcefully, saying, “I suggest finding other reasons for isolation and observation to prevent public panic. After all, this case has already been sensational enough, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to use the phrase ‘mandatory isolation’ again.”

“This is understood, but how specifically should we phrase it?” the doctor asked.

“We should explain it as drugs. If we can confirm that those involved in the fight and violence didn’t have a history of subjectively taking drugs, then they must have involuntarily ingested the drugs. As the incident happened at a barbecue stand with heavy smoke, it can’t be ruled out that other bystanders may have also involuntarily ingested drugs. For the health of everyone involved, we hope that those involved can accept observation in the hospital,” Lin Chen continued to explain to the other party. “If the media asks you about the patient’s condition, you can use relevant cases that have occurred in the United States to explain. ‘A few years ago, in a town in the United States, there was a similar case where a homeless person turned into a zombie and attacked residents, biting their faces. The local police eventually determined that the homeless people were affected by a drug called ‘bath salts’, causing them to exhibit uncontrolled panic and attacking behavior.”

“Oh… I think I’ve heard of that, but if the media asks how drug users suddenly appeared at the barbecue stand and how those crazy bystanders ingested the drugs, how should we answer?” asked another expert.

Lin Chen remained surprisingly calm from beginning to end. “Experts, please tell the media that this part of the problem should be investigated by the police. You don’t know the specific progress of the investigation, so just push it to us,” Lin Chen answered calmly.

“Okay, then let’s go see the patient first.” Several experts stood up, one after another.

The office door opened, and the flashing lights and questioning voices of reporters could be heard outside the emergency center in the distance.

“I heard there were reports of cannibalism?”

“Is this a real biohazard?”

“Is the government hiding relevant information from the public?”

Several doctors walked to the door, and suddenly someone turned around and asked, “Why are you wearing our hospital patient’s clothes?”

Listening to the voices of the reporters, Lin Chen froze for a moment, then looked at himself from head to toe, and said, “I think I should go change my clothes now.”

Kinky Thoughts:

The incident Lin Chen is referring to is the Miami cannibal attack, where a homeless man was attacked. The assailant was Rudy Eugene, who bit off the homeless man’s face. Police sources speculated that he was high on “bath salts” which might’ve been a factor in his actions, but why he attacked remained unclear.

This is different from what Lin Chen is describing, as the homeless man is the victim, not the assailant.