Yan Hebi's face was filled with fear, but he still said firmly, "Little Ye Zi, don't be afraid. I will protect you!"
Xing Ye remained calm. "I'm not afraid, I'm just discussing the matter. When it comes to parasites, several methods come to mind, and no matter which method, contact is essential. The most widespread method of transmission is droplets, which can be spread through the air. If the parasite wants to, it can infect the entire hospital in a short period of time. However, the parasite we're looking for can only infect one person per day, so it's definitely not droplets.
Similarly, if it's a parasite that can become infested with just one bite, then there shouldn't be a need to treat one a day."
Yan Hebi said cautiously, "It can also be like the vampire's First Embrace. It requires exchanging blood. You can only have one First Embrace per night, otherwise you will lose your strength."
Xing Ye said, "That's a possibility, but that way we can have two parasites every night, right? Why does it take two parasites to spread one? The only way I can think of is reproduction. In fact, the spread rate is very slow, and the number is small, much slower than the two methods you mentioned before. Why are you not afraid of the first two, but think the latter is more terrifying?"
"It's disgusting...eat the eggs..." Yan Hebi looked like he was about to vomit.
"Have all the medical records been retrieved?" Xing Ye asked.
"Well," Yan Hebi said, trying to change the subject, "I designed a software that automatically screens the medical records as you mentioned, putting all the problematic ones at the front."
As he was scrolling the mouse, Xing Ye spotted his medical records. Without batting an eye, he asked, "Do you have a USB drive? Copy this information down."
"You said this yesterday. I sent one by express delivery within the city during the day." Yan Hebi said, taking out a USB flash drive from his pocket.
"Let me do it," Xing Ye said, "I'll just take a quick look at it on the computer before copying it."
"Okay." Yan Hebi handed the USB drive to Xing Ye.
While Yan Hebi was distracted, Xing Ye took a quick look at his medical records and quickly deleted them.
As expected, the medical record, under the "Changes in Condition" section, stated that the original owner's manic episodes had an uncertain frequency, but it was rare for two consecutive episodes to occur. Based on his medical history, if he wasn't sedated, he would have returned to normal after being tied up for half an hour. However, the patient's immense strength during an attack made restraining him difficult, so the doctor yesterday recommended a sedative.
After deleting his own information, Xing Ye looked through the medical records and two days' duty lists, quickly listed the ones he thought were problematic, printed them directly using the office printer, and then copied the data for easy comparison with tomorrow's changes.
Yan Hebi picked up the printed paper, there were more than a dozen sheets in total, all densely packed.
"So many? It will take a long time to look at them all." Yan Hebi said in despair.
Xing Ye said: "There are 5 doctors and 9 nurses who have been on duty for two consecutive days. Among them, 2 doctors and 5 nurses did not even take a break during the day shift today. These 7 people have the biggest problems.
There were 15 patients who should have been discharged but were not. Among them, 7 had their conditions suddenly worsened, and the remaining 8 simply did not want to be discharged and refused to leave.
In addition, there were 13 patients whose conditions suddenly improved, three of whom were the most interesting. One was a cancer patient who suddenly refused chemotherapy during the day, saying that she was fine, and her 17-day chemotherapy was interrupted; the second person was supposed to undergo an amputation surgery, but she suddenly became crazy and said she didn't want to do it, and refused to be discharged from the hospital without the surgery; the third patient had measles and was hospitalized in an isolation ward. He was not allowed to leave the ward, but medical staff found him in the emergency room in the morning and took him back.
Finally, there are patients whose conditions have worsened, but all of them are normal data. Some have deteriorated to the point of paralysis, with almost no mobility. I have printed these out."
As Xing Ye spoke, Yan Hebi read along. He frowned and said, "Xiao Ye, these records are all scanned copies. The doctor just wrote them in the patient's log, and someone scanned and uploaded them to the computer. I can't understand a lot of the words. How did you manage to read through them and sort through them in just half an hour?"
Xing Ye said: "Fortunately, I can recognize it."
Yan Hebi: "…"
Xing Ye focused on the three people whose conditions had improved and said, "We'll go find these three people tonight."
"Why?" Yan Hebi asked, "How can you tell they're parasitic?"
Xing Ye said: "I don't think they are parasitic, I think they are players. Why do you think a cancer patient who has been undergoing chemotherapy for 17 consecutive days would claim to be cured and refuse treatment?
There is also this person who had an amputation. His left leg became gangrenous due to frostbite. Now the amputation is only below the knee. After rehabilitation with a prosthesis, he can still move normally. If his condition continues to deteriorate, the whole leg will have to be amputated. All preparations for the operation have been made, but the patient changed his mind when he was about to go on the operating table. Isn't it very suspicious?
The most outrageous one is measles. If an infectious disease is not something important, would it wander around the hospital in the middle of the night?
Given the level of bad luck these three have, I suspect they are players, and players who defy fate."
Yan Hebi: "Oh, that... Xiao Ye, you haven't read everyone's medical records, right? There are so many that you can't finish reading, right..."
"Yeah," Xing Ye nodded, "I didn't see you being hospitalized for hemorrhoid surgery."
Yan Hebi: "…"
"What about your illness, Xiaoye?" he said angrily. "You look rosy-cheeked and healthy, and you hit me so skillfully. You don't look like a patient at all. Could it be hemorrhoids?"
"Amnesia." Xing Ye said calmly, "It's so obvious, can't you see it? I don't even remember what my initial skills were."
Yan Hebi said sadly, "I don't know whether I should envy you or be jealous of you."
"Compared to those players, you're considered lucky," Xing Ye said. "According to their luck, even if the players with good luck fall ill, their illness won't be too serious. And they're likely medical staff. Let's go find those patients first."
He still remembered that Xiao Jingzi had said that he had companions, so he decided to go and see if any of these people had companions.
Xing Ye looked at the map of the hospital. The closest place to them was the amputee girl on the 19th floor, so they decided to go up the stairs to find her.
As for why they took the stairs, Xing Ye had already explained to Yan Hebi yesterday that the elevator was a confined space and there was a high possibility that someone else had tampered with it. If someone came in in the middle of the night and it was a parasite, it would be difficult for the two of them to avoid it.
After climbing from the 12th floor to the 19th floor, Yan Hebi covered his butt uncomfortably.
As Xing Ye went upstairs, he saw a disabled but determined girl with her legs wrapped in gauze pushing her wheelchair up the stairs. She seemed to not want to take the elevator and wanted to walk up the stairs in her wheelchair. Wasn't that a bit too strong?
As soon as she saw Xing Ye, she stared at him intently and made a gesture on her chest with a puzzled look on her face.
Xing Ye walked over expressionlessly. Yan Hebi walked out of the stairwell behind him and said, "Xiao Ye, wait a moment. My physical condition..."
"Call me Xing Ye." Xing Ye glanced at the girl in the wheelchair with his peripheral vision, reminding Yan Hebi and hinting at the girl in the wheelchair with a double entendre.
Xiao Jingzi called him Xing Ye. In other words, his real name was consistent with his name in this world. If he was a trustworthy companion, he should know his name.
"Calling me by my name is so awkward. You should also call me Brother Yan... Hey, what are you doing? You're so strong!"
Yan Hebi was pushed aside by the girl in the wheelchair. The girl looked Xing Ye straight in the eye, sizing up and down his women's clothing. She said in disbelief, "Xing Ye?!"
If it wasn't in the ward at night, the girl would probably scream, Xing Ye thought secretly.
The girl propped up her wheelchair and looked Xing Ye up and down with a miserable expression. Suddenly she said, "My name is Cao Qian. You look like you can look in the mirror and put on makeup more often."
Cao Qian wasn't the name on the medical record. But just from that one sentence, Xing Ye was certain that Cao Qian was his companion. She even knew that she had a mirror.
He told Cao Qian, "I suffer from amnesia and mania. My amnesia resets my memory at 12 a.m. every day, and my mania attacks occur at irregular intervals. After yesterday's attack, the doctor wasted a whole day trying to inject me with a sedative, and I can't get another injection today. My mania attacks last half an hour, and I need someone to subdue me."
Cao Qian said, "My strength is fine, but my physical condition is too poor. I'm desperate to find Guan Ling to treat me. Yesterday, I climbed down from the operating table and spent the entire day in a wheelchair searching for Guan Ling in the hospital, but I couldn't find him."
Xing Ye touched the mirror, and the mirror began to shake violently in his cross-body bag.
The mirror believed her. We were indeed companions, but were companions trustworthy? I didn't even trust the mirror now. Xing Ye narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Cao Qian.
Fortunately, Cao Qian didn't notice this. She continued, "Oh, you don't remember Guan Ling. There are three of us. You and I are players who defy fate, and Guan Ling is a player who follows fate. He shouldn't be as miserable as us."
"Few of the patients who can be hospitalized are in good condition," Xing Ye glanced at Yan Hebi, who had just undergone hemorrhoid surgery. "According to what you said, our other companion should be a medical staff member or a family member accompanying him. If we want to find him, we should start with the medical staff."
He couldn't trust Cao Qian, but his former teammates were always better than Yan Hebi, a stranger. At least Cao Qian's performance proved that the Xing Ye she knew was a man, which meant that they did know each other before.
Xing Ye pushed Cao Qian's wheelchair downstairs. Yan Hebi said, "Oh, it's really not easy for you two girls. Let me help."
He endured the pain and lent a hand.
Cao Qian's eyes twitched when she heard the words "two girls," and she couldn't help but look at Xing Ye. Seeing Xing Ye's expression remain as calm as ever, she couldn't help but admire him. He was indeed a big shot, able to remain calm even after being thrashed like this by the system.
The patient's family members cannot find the information in the hospital computer, so they can only look for it among the medical staff.
Xing Ye's first target was the isolation ward on the 20th floor of Inpatient Building No. 1, the ward where the measles patient lived.
"The measles patients should be players who defy fate, right?" Knowing they were going to look for their companions, Yan Hebi said he wanted to protect the two girls. Xing Ye couldn't drive them away. While carrying Cao Qian, he asked, "Aren't your teammates players who obey fate?"
Xing Ye said: "The measles patient may not only be a player who defies fate, but he may even be infected by a parasite."
Yan Hebi thought about the records in the medical history and felt that he could not come up with this conjecture at all. Cao Qian, on the other hand, looked calm. The boss said there was a possibility of parasitism, so it was 99% certain.
"W-why?" Yan Hebi asked.
Xing Ye said, "The medical records state that the measles patient was found in the emergency room on the first floor of Building 3 that morning. He was running a high fever and was in a semi-comatose state. Measles itself is accompanied by a high fever. The medical staff suspected that his condition worsened due to being exposed to the cool breeze outside at night, but I think there is a big problem."
The fact that a patient with an infectious disease would walk from the 20th floor, the top floor of Building 1, to the emergency room on the first floor of Building 3 speaks volumes about what he was looking for, proving he was most likely a player who defied fate. But how confused would a player who had experienced so many worlds have to be to collapse in the emergency room? In such a weakened and helpless state? This in itself symbolizes something.
Cao Qian said, "I understand. He fainted because he was parasitized last night. He's no longer a player, but a parasite. But we're going to find Guanling. We don't have enough manpower, so we shouldn't confront the parasite head-on, right? I can't even defeat it right now."
Xing Ye said, "During this day and night, a total of seven medical staff members have not rested at all. Two of them are in the infectious disease department: a doctor and a nurse. The medical staff in the infectious disease department are already in danger. Why would they not rest and continue to work?"
"You suspect these two people are players who obey their fate." Cao Qian suddenly realized.
"Not only that, the measles patients being parasitized makes me even more certain that one of them is a player who obeys fate." Xing Ye said, "Because there may be parasites in the infectious disease department, the measles patients are in trouble. We know that two parasites can only infect one person in one night, so we can conclude that these two people are not parasitized. Being next to the parasite makes it easier for them to obtain information than us. They were lucky enough not to be selected by the parasite. Who else could they be but a player who obeys fate?"
Cao Qian has gotten used to it. She didn't have a notebook, so she had to use her mobile phone to take notes and then copy them down after buying a notebook.
Yan Hebi was numb after hearing this. He didn't dare to talk to Xing Ye directly, so he turned to ask Cao Qian, "Xixi, has Xiaoye always seen the world from this God's perspective?"
Cao Qian was shocked by the name "Little Leaf", but when she saw that Xing Ye did not intend to reveal his real gender, she respected the boss's choice and did not expose him.
She sighed and said, "The system's malice has already sapped a lot of his intelligence. Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken us two days to reunite. If his memory is correct, he should have been able to gather Guan Ling and me on the first day."
Yan Hebi: "...When Xiaoye gets married, she will definitely be able to control her husband completely."
Cao Qian looked at Yan Hebi with horror. What was this man thinking?
Xing Ye pretended not to hear the conversation between the two and continued to explain, "I can't tell which player is our companion Guan Ling, but if we go to the infectious disease ward, we can at least find clues. If we encounter a companion among them, it would be a pleasant surprise, killing two birds with one stone."
"I understand." Cao Qian recorded everything he said.
Seeing Cao Qian recording, Xing Ye remembered that all the information in his room, including his phone, had been reset, so he said, "I can't guarantee that your recording will be cleared tomorrow. You'd better remember this and write it down. Then recite it to me tomorrow. Maybe I will believe you."
"Okay." Cao Qian completely trusts Xing Ye. "I think even if you lose your memory, you'll be able to tell immediately whether we're truly teaming up with you. I'm not worried about your judgment. The same goes for Guan Ling. He must be crying somewhere right now, begging you to save him."
Even though Xing Ye had lost his memory, Cao Qian felt as if she had found her backbone after seeing him and felt very safe.
Do I trust my companions so much? Xing Ye thought secretly, and he felt a little happy.
At this moment, Xing Ye was more likely to trust others than when he had his memories. He was absolutely confident in his own intelligence and was not affected by the experience of betrayal. He was more likely to accept others. He even reluctantly regarded Yan Hebi as a temporary companion.
After passing through the passage, the two carried Cao Qian to the 20th floor. Fortunately, the distance between the 17th floor and the 20th floor was not far, otherwise Yan Hebi might have to undergo a second operation.
This is another reason why Xing Ye chose to come to the infectious disease department. They have difficulty in moving around, so they naturally have to go to the most convenient place to find someone.
The smell of disinfectant on the 20th floor was even stronger than on the other floors. Yan Hebi frowned and said, "We have to be careful. We don't want to get an infectious disease before we find the parasite."
Cao Qian and Xing Ye glared at him at the same time. As a player who defies fate, please don't always say such things, okay?
The three of them went directly to the nurses' station, where most of the nurses on duty rested.
There was no one at the nurses' station, so they found three masks and put them on to avoid being infected as Yan Hebi had said.
There are two nurses on duty for infectious diseases tonight, but neither of them is resting in the duty room, which is very strange.
The lights in the corridor were dim at night, giving it a horror movie vibe.
Xing Ye did not go to the doctor on duty's office, but stood in front of the nurses' station and observed.
"Why don't you go find someone?" Yan Hebi asked in a low voice.
Xing Ye found the medication records of measles patients at the nurses' station. He would take some antipyretics orally, with a daily dose delivered by the nurse.
Xing Ye found the measles patient's medication in the treatment room, opened the box of antipyretics, and counted them. "I just checked the dosage of the medications he took tonight that haven't been entered into the medical record yet. Adding the prescription medication in the medical record, he should have taken a total of five antipyretics. But look at this one, it's newly prescribed, so he only took four, one extra pill."
Yan Hebi recalled Xing Ye's earlier discussion of egg analysis and felt a chill run down his spine. "Then the one he missed, could it be..."
"We can't rule out this possibility, so be careful," Xing Ye said. "Don't take any medicine given by anyone these days, and buy unopened food and water from the supermarket downstairs. We know nothing about parasites right now, so we can only manage our diet."
"I had a hemorrhoid surgery and I have to clean the wound every day. Could it be that he was drugged?" Yan Hebi asked.
Seeing him like this, Cao Qian couldn't help but shake her head and sigh.
Yan Hebi looks like a handsome guy no matter how you look at him, but it's really tragic that he was tormented by the system and developed such a disease.
"Otherwise, you can just buy some medicine yourself," Xing Ye sighed, "or just bear with it."
"I..." Yan Hebi was about to cry.
Xing Ye ignored him and continued to analyze: "That doctor who was on duty for a day and two nights, could he not have noticed this?"
Cao Qian said: "Maybe he noticed it, but he was parasitized tonight. We have to find him."
She pushed her wheelchair and was about to rush out to look for someone, but was stopped by Xing Ye.
"Why are you running? Just make a phone call." Xing Ye said steadily.
"Phone number, do you know that doctor's phone number?" Cao Qian asked, "Where did you get it?"
Yan Hebi immediately raised his hand to claim credit: "Me! I hacked into the hospital's personnel database and medical records. Xiaoye found you through all the patient files. But, there are so many phone numbers, did you remember them all, Xiaoye?"
"Yeah." Xing Ye nodded calmly.
Cao Qian acted as if it was a matter of course. Isn't it normal for Xing Ye to remember phone numbers? He can even remember QR codes.
Xing Ye took out his cell phone and made a call. Soon, the phone rang from the bathroom.
Someone answered the phone: "Hurry, hurry up and save me, there's a monster!"
Xing Ye and the others looked at each other and walked cautiously to the place where the bell rang. They saw a man in a white coat sitting under the sink in the bathroom, and opposite him was a... very disgusting creature.
It was a humanoid creature with pustules all over its body. Its arms had turned into tentacles and mucus was constantly flowing out of the pustules. It opened its mouth towards the person under the sink. It had at least 40 teeth. Its saliva dripped down and the ground turned black. It was acidic, but not strong.
"Help, help!" The doctor huddled under the sink, looking at the three people pitifully. "My initial skills can only last for three minutes, and now the time limit is almost up."
Hearing his words, Cao Qian immediately confirmed the doctor's identity and said to Xing Ye: "Xing Ye, he is Guan Ling!"
"Xing Ye?" Guan Ling almost screamed when he saw Xing Ye in women's clothing. Such a young and beautiful girl with long legs and a slim waist is more terrifying than being targeted by a parasitic monster, okay?
Xing Ye nodded expressionlessly and said puzzledly, "Strange, why did this monster only attack him? It didn't even look at the three of us standing here?"
"Is it really okay to be so calm at this time? Save people!" Yan Hebi said with a look of despair, "This thing is too disgusting!"
As he spoke, he raised his phone, selected a QR code and clicked on it.