Chapter 367 - 329: Talk As If You Don’t Have Designs on Her
Chapter 367: Chapter 329: Talk As If You Don’t Have Designs on Her
The doctor froze, then his expression turned serious. He chided in a low voice, "Why didn’t you tell me something this important sooner?"
Wanai picked up his Detection Device. "You didn’t find anything?" He thought the emergency room doctor already knew.
The doctor snatched the Detection Device and began dialing the hospital’s internal line. "If it were this easy to detect," he said, "the cure rate for genetic diseases in females might have actually gone up."
And by extension, the problem of male degeneration might have been solved as well.
Genetic diseases in females are even more complex than male degeneration. The symptoms vary widely. Some can be detected early, while others can’t. Some females can stabilize their condition long-term with medication. Others might be perfectly healthy into adulthood or even middle age, only to have a sudden onset of the illness one day and die before they can even be treated.
Among the targeted drugs developed so far, there was a special Inhibitor that could temporarily slow the disease’s progression, used for acute onsets.
Fortunately, the 12th District was part of the Central District, so all hospitals, regardless of size, were equipped with the special medical supplies required for females.
The call connected quickly. The doctor told the person on the other end to bring the medicine from the pharmacy’s cold storage immediately. He also had them notify all doctors on duty that night to come for a consultation. Then, he hung up and turned to Wanai. "I don’t care what your relationship is with her. You need to get her guardian and family here."
Wanai glanced at his wrist. "They’ll be here soon," he said.
The doctor stopped questioning him. He took out a blood lancet, pricked the young female’s fingertip, and collected a small sample for testing.
Just then, the emergency room door was violently thrown open from the outside.
With a muffled CRASH, the entire door collapsed to the floor, and several figures burst in.
Wanai watched the panting Beastmen in front of him. ’Faster than I expected,’ he thought.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Don’t you know you’re supposed to wait in line?!"
From behind the crowd, two men roared angrily.
"Sorry, if you could please wait a moment longer."
Mingxi stopped the two who were about to charge forward, then picked up the door and propped it back in the frame.
"Wait my ass!"
"If we wait any longer, we’ll be cured on our own!"
"..."
The commotion and the sound of the collapsing door jolted Gu Ning into a state of semi-consciousness. She groggily pried her eyes half-open.
"Ningning!"
"Xiao Ning!"
When Alex, Barto, and the others saw Gu Ning on the medical bed, the color drained from their faces, and they rushed toward her.
Gu Ning heard their voices and turned her head. She forced the words from her dry, hoarse throat, "Alex? Barto?"
The light overhead was too blinding for her to make out the people or her surroundings. The sounds around her were muffled, swelling and fading as if she were in a dream.
She tried to sit up, but her body felt leaden. Several figures swam before her eyes. It sounded like people were arguing, punctuated by the sounds of a scuffle.
"All of you, stop!"
"Security! Security!"
"..."
"If you don’t want to die, get away from her!"
It was Barto’s voice.
"Barto..."
Gu Ning squeezed her eyes shut, and with a great effort, pushed herself up and tumbled off the medical bed—
Before she could hit the ground, she was caught in a scalding embrace.
Gu Ning looked up. It was Wanai.
He was wearing a surgical mask and panting, his chest rising and falling slightly. His heart was racing.
Wanai looked down, his eyes meeting hers. His large hand came to rest on her neck, tightening slightly. "Don’t move."
He was speaking to Alex and the others.
"I knew it! I knew it!" the ER doctor exclaimed, clutching the blood lancet in one hand while pointing furiously at Wanai with the other. "I said there was something not right about you! And I was right!"
"Let her go." Alex grabbed Barto’s shoulder, pushing him aside. His gaze was dark as he stared at Wanai. "We’ll let you leave."
Leighton, keeping a close eye on Wanai’s every move, wiped sweat from his brow. "Don’t do anything you’ll regret, man," he pleaded. "Just put her down gently. You can walk right out that door."
"Y-y-you can’t hurt Miss Gu Ning!" Belial stood beside the doctor, bent over and panting as he pointed at Wanai. "And to think... to think we trusted you before! You... you actually have designs on Miss Gu Ning!"
Wanai shot him a cold look. "As if you don’t have designs on her yourselves."
Belial retorted, "How can we be the same as you?! You’re a..."
Mingxi cut Belial off. "Put Miss Gu Ning down," he said to Wanai. "We promise we won’t touch you."
Gu Ning listened to them argue, wanting to speak, but the moment she opened her mouth, a coughing fit seized her. "COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..."
Seeing her like this, the expressions on Barto and the others grew even darker.
In less than a day, she’d become this weak.
Wanai pulled the young female tighter into his arms. "Get out," he told them.
"Calm down, everyone, calm down." The ER doctor stood between them, holding up his hands to separate the two sides. "Relatives, love rivals, and spouse-candidates can all wait outside..."
"Who’s a candidate?" Barto and the others demanded in unison.
The ER doctor shot back, "I don’t care who’s a candidate! If I were her guardian, I’d call the cops and have you all arrested! Is this any way to behave? Huh? Now all of you, get out!"
"I am a police officer," Leighton said.
The doctor fumed, "Then why haven’t you cuffed them all!"
"I don’t have my cuffs with me," Leighton replied.
"..."
The argument made Gu Ning’s head buzz. She coughed twice and pushed at Wanai’s chest. "Go."
Wanai looked down at her.
Gu Ning pushed him again. "Go. You need to go."
Wanai leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Trying to get rid of me? Do you realize I’m holding you hostage? Hmm?"
Gu Ning didn’t understand. She barely even registered what he’d said, but she was aware of Barto and the others’ hostility toward Wanai. She couldn’t explain the situation to them now, so her only option was to get Wanai to leave. She knew Alex wouldn’t actually attack Wanai at a time like this.
"Barto and the others," she said between coughs, "COUGH, COUGH... they won’t hurt you." Her gaze shifted to the slender, red-clad figure standing nearby.
Barto remained silent. She couldn’t make out his expression, but she had a feeling he would listen to her.
"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH—" Gu Ning was wracked by a violent coughing fit.
Barto took a step back.
Alex stepped back as well. Then, Leighton and the others all moved aside, pulling the doctor out of the way and clearing a path to the open doorway.
"Hurry, go," Gu Ning urged Wanai.
Wanai stood up, still holding her, his eyes fixed on a figure walking toward them from the doorway.
"Let me take her, child."
Hearing that familiar voice after so long, Gu Ning looked up from Wanai’s arms in astonishment.
Windsor stopped in front of them. She pulled down her scarf, revealing a gentle, loving smile for Gu Ning. "I’m sorry I’m late. This little Leopard runs too fast."
.
"The blood test results are in. I’ve sent them to your terminal."
Alex stood in the hallway outside the hospital room, speaking quietly to Lanuo on the other end of his terminal.
A rather long silence followed.
Nearby, Barto leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, his head lowered as he listened quietly to the conversation with Lanuo.
"It’s not a genetic disease," Lanuo stated definitively after a moment.
The tension in Alex’s expression eased, but Lanuo’s next words made him tense up again. "Her condition is more serious than last time. She’ll need different medication."
Alex’s voice grew heavy. "How serious is it?"
Barto glanced up.
Lanuo, who had just left his lab, leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his tired eyes and tilted his head back to look at the report. "There’s some inflammation. I’ll prescribe the specific medication after I’ve seen her in person. As it happens, Watson just told me to take a trip to the 12th District. I can leave tomorrow..."
"Come now," Alex said.
Lanuo paused, surprised. "Now?"
’He had only been probing to see what Alex would say. This blood test report, just like the previous genetic test from that Mixed Breed, contained data he couldn’t decipher. Then Watson suddenly told him to go to the 12th District. All these strange signs had piqued his curiosity, but he knew Alex was on a secret mission and couldn’t ask him about it directly.’
"I can’t leave right now. Getting out of Zone 5 is just as hard as getting in. That Alihot fellow is guarding the place like it’s a fortress. The earliest I can possibly leave is the ten a.m. train." Even as he said this, Lanuo stood up and started packing. He joked with Alex as he gathered his things, "Don’t tell me that guy knows you’re back and is on guard specifically for you?"
Listening to the coughs coming from the hospital room, Alex was in no mood for small talk. "I was the one who asked Teacher Watson to call you," he said bluntly. "Get here as fast as you can."
’Although they had a doctor on their team, none of them had ever studied the condition of a female from Sky Watch Point. After the ambush by the Heavenly Beast Clan, the fewer people who knew Gu Ning’s identity, the better. Lanuo knew medicine and genetics, and he was someone Alex could trust. For now, he was the best choice to oversee Gu Ning’s care.’
Hearing that, Lanuo raised an eyebrow. "You sound worried. A Mixed Breed’s body is resilient. A little inflammation won’t kill it."
Sensing the silence on Alex’s end, Lanuo glanced at the time, swung his backpack over his shoulder, and strode out the door. "Don’t worry. I’ll be there before dark tomorrow."
’He had to see for himself just what kind of Mixed Breed had Alex treating it like such a treasure.’