End of the World: The Doctor 7.9

Pleasing Start-Over Chapter 87: Arc 7 Part 9

Author: 橘子

T/N: Surprise! It’s my birthday soon (the 23rd of Nov. in my time zone is in a few hours), and what better way to celebrate then to work! Haha just kidding, but thank you all for putting up with my suddenly slow schedule! To be honest, today was the first day since my country shut down where I felt joy. That’s part of why I translated an extra chapter. I gotta share the happiness somewhere! I’ll be done with this series soon. There are only 103 total chapters and we are at 87! I’ll see if I can translate shorter stories in the future. I don’t know how people do those 500+ chapters in a reasonable reading time frame. Props to them!

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In order to eliminate the risk of an infectious disease from spreading, Long Ao issued an order and forced everyone to give blood samples for testing. Since the disease was likely to be brought in by the people from the 03 base, the soldiers from 03 Base needed to be checked first. Commander Feng, who concealed the fact that people contracted some sort of infectious disease on their side of the base, knew he was in the wrong. In order to avoid expulsion from East One Base, he took the initiative to hand over a lot of their food and supplies to the East One Base as an apology.

Zhang Gang, as a person who exhibited symptoms of contacting this disease, was the first to undergo an examination. Qiao Chen personally drew the blood from him for the lab tests. Then he followed up with a physical examination. Qiao Chen determined that it was a case of a food-based poisoning. There was something that he ate that he shouldn’t have. Zhang Gang didn’t have any signs that pointed to either a bacterial or viral infection.

Zhang Gang tried his best to recall everything he had eaten in the past few days. After spending some time thinking about it, Zhang Gang concluded that it was probably during the munitions factory mission in the mountains. He had picked a stalk of glass and held it in his mouth. This was probably what caused his poisoning. Fortunately, this was a poison with a simple structure. Qiao Chen understood it easily. Qiao Chen helped prescribe him medication that would help. He would be back to his regular old self within two to three days.

Long Ao gave him a severe reprimand, “What kind of times are we living in now? What kind of environment are we in nowadays? How could you just grab a random piece of grass and stuff it in your mouth?”

Zhang Gang lowered his head and accepted the criticisms without a single idea of arguing or defending himself. However, he still felt that he was lucky enough not be infected with any infectious diseases. Qiao Chen called Commander Feng and Sun Bin into his office after the results for the first batch of soldiers from 03 Base were complete. Long Ao was naturally Qiao Chen’s messenger, so he was the one to call them over.

Qiao Chen spread copies of the inspection results on the table and said, “Of the initial batch of soldiers from 03 Base that were tested, three of them have this infectious disease you were talking about in their bodies.”

“Th- three?” Commander Feng looked at Qiao Chen in shock and uttered. Qiao Chen had actually found three soldiers who were infected with the disease in only the first batch to be tested.

Qiao Chen looked at Sun Bin standing behind Mr. Feng and said, “You are one of them.”

“Impossible!” Sun Bin glared at Qiao Chen and said loudly. “How wouldn’t I know if I really contracted this disease? If I truly were infected, then how would I be asymptomatic? I’m sure you just slandering me to exact you revenge on me!”

Qiao Chen threw the test report over, “You can rest the results yourself. If you still can believe it, then why don’t you ask one of your doctors? We’ll provide a place for them to test your blood again, so you can see the results.”

Sun Bin bent down to pick up the report. He couldn’t understand most of the contents, but he couldn’t help but shake when he saw the words confirming the existence of this disease. Sun Bin glared at Qiao Chen. He was hoping, praying that Qiao Chen created a fake report in order to retaliate against him. He didn’t have contracted it. He couldn’t contract it!

“Commander Long, since they have contracted an infectious disease, should we isolate and cremate them to stop the spread?” Zhang Gang asked. He did his best to hide his gloating face. This was the one who declared that he was infectious and wanted to burn him to death. ‘Let’s see who would be burned to death now.‘

“No! You can’t just kill me like that! Don’t torch me up!” Sun Bin clutched Commander’s arm emotionally. His eyes were filled with fear, “Commander, please save me! Don’t set me on fire, please!”

Commander Feng pulled his arm out of Sun Bin’s grasp. He took a few steps to the side and looked warily at Sun Bin. Then he turned his head and said to Long Ao, “Our base cremated them all because there was no way to save those suffering from this disease. The few people who were infected were set on fire to save the majority. However, you have so many researchers here at East One base. Furthermore, you even have all the equipment a base could ever want. Can you please find a solution to this disease?”

Long Ao looked at Qiao Chen. He wanted to hear what Qiao Chen wanted to say about it.

Qiao Chen said, “Quarantine is definitely necessary, but there is no need to burn them to get rid of the disease. The infection isn’t that severe to warrant it. However, among all the readily available drugs we have, there are none that can cure it. New drugs must be developed and researched. Now that I have taken over Dr. Lu’s research I no longer have the time to take care of them. Either we can see if other researchers have the time to help them, or we can leave them to their own devices. Perhaps they can survive through sheer will.”

“Mu Chen!” Sun Bin called out and walked to Qiao Chen with a pale face. He knelt on his knees, “I beg you. I know you must have a way. Everything before- it was entirely my fault. I apologize for my actions. I really don’t want to die. Please save me!”

Sun Bin heard about Qiao Chen since he arrived at East One. Qiao Chen was able to save the soldiers who had excessive bone spur growth. He even studied antibodies that worked against the zombie virus. Qiao Chen would definitely be able to cure this infectious disease. Sun Bin was positive of it.

“The research I’m doing now concerns the lives of tens of thousands of people, even the lives outside this base. I can save all of them once I complete this study.” Qiao Chen paused and asked, “Do you think that your life alone is more important than the lives of these tens of thousands of people?”

“It’s not just my life.” Sun Bin replied anxiously. “Didn’t you just say that there were three people who were also infected in the first batch of people you tested? That must mean that there are also other people who have contracted this infectious disease. You aren’t just saving me. You’re actually saving all those other people as well as me.”

“I’ve already said that I don’t have the time.” Qiao Chen stood up and walked away.

Sun Bin didn’t dare to catch up with Qiao Chen and stop him, because Long Ao and the others were also there. All he could do was watch Qiao Chen leave.

Long Ao immediately had his people vacate a small building on the west side of the base. It was located in a more remote location and was far away from the other buildings nearby. It was the best place to arrange living quarters for the infected people to stay.

All the people who were diagnosed with the infectious disease were sent to the small building to be quarantined. Once all the infected people were sent into quarantine, the base realized that all the infected people were from 03 Base. No one from East One was infected at all.

Furthermore, the infected people from 03 Base were all people with abilities. This meant that they were already infected when they were at their base. It seemed that due to their abilities, the infection took longer to show up their bodies.

Although the people infected with this disease were all isolated and under quarantine, several high ranking members of the base were still very concerned. There was still the possibility that those from 03 infected other people in East One. Therefore, they sought Qiao Chen out and asked him about the situation.

Qiao Chen told them that the only way this disease was transmitted was via blood. The reason why most of those people were infected was that they were injured in some circumstance and were exposed to the disease with blood on blood contact.

It didn’t matter if they allowed them to stay in East One Base because everyone would be fine if they were carefully guarded. As long as they didn’t spill their blood on another person’s open wound, then there wouldn’t be any further infections.

After the senior officials heard Qiao Chen’s explanation, they felt relieved. They didn’t plan on driving 03 Base away. After all, they still needed to use the aerospace incubators. If they expelled everyone from the base, then would they even think about leaving the aerospace incubator behind? It was highly unlikely.

No one knew whether it was some sort of psychological effect like the placebo they believed in failed or if the infected were quarantined in time, but it didn’t take long for them to exhibit symptoms. The disease flared up. They began to cough up blood. The erythema began to spread to their entire body as well. The illness caused delirium in some of the people. In order to prevent them to escaping the quarantine space, the base locked the doors and placed several locks on each of them as reinforcement.

Eventually, there were more and more cases of wounded people who couldn’t be cured by healing ability users. There were even times were the situation was too serious, so they were forced to ask Qiao Chen to leave the lab to treat some people. Qiao Chen became so exceedingly busy that he had less and less time to sleep. Qiao Chen took off his mask as he exited the ward. He saw Fang Huailin standing outside and ignored him. Qiao Chen made a right and continued walking.

“Wait, Mu Chen! I want to talk to you.” Fang Huailin said and quickly followed behind.

“No time, not necessary, and no mood to.” Qiao Chen was so busy that he didn’t even have the time to kiss his dear Long Ao. How could he waste his precious time listening to Fang Huailin’s nonsense?

“Just give me ten- no five minutes is enough. I only have a few words to say.” Fang Huailin continued. He was injured a while ago, but was still recovering. He was weak and nearly couldn’t keep up with Qiao Chen’s footsteps.

A few soldiers passing by saw that Fang Huailin was following Qiao Chen who obviously didn’t want to bother with him. They immediately stopped Fang Huailin and warned him not to harass Qiao Chen while implying there’d be heavy consequences if he didn’t listen.

Fang Huailin wanted to ask Qiao Chen to save the soldiers infected with that disease from 03 Base. Many of them already couldn’t hold it out any more. Sun Bin alone was already on his last dregs. Sun Yu came to him in tears several times now.

Although the people at East One said they were asking their researchers to find a solution, there hadn’t been anything useful yet. The division commander asked him to go to Mu Chen. He told him that Mu Chen was able to cure the diseases and solve the problems that all the other researchers couldn’t. They knew that Mu Chen would definitively be able to cure the soldiers infected with this disease.

Fang Huailin knew that Mu Chen no longer had any more good feelings for him. He didn’t even care when he was at death’s door. There was no way he would agree to his request on the account of their relationship from before. Commander Feng wanted to have Fang Huailin use their previous affections to persuade Qiao Chen to rescue the infected soldiers for free. If he was actually willing to give up the aerospace incubator as payment to East One Base, then Qiao Chen would obviously help them. However, Commander Feng would rather sacrifice his soldiers’ lives then to give up the space incubator in exchange for Qiao Chen’s assistance.

Qiao Chen was already researching into what medicines they could make to treat the infected soldiers. If he wasn’t, then he wouldn’t be as busy as he was now. However, he decided to keep the project under wraps to see if Commander Feng would choose to give up his trump card and save his men. If he didn’t do anything, then he would bitterly disappoint his own soldiers and Qiao Chen would have achieved a certain goal of his.

It wasn’t until the drugs that could cure the infected soldiers was nearly complete did Qiao Chen inform the people from 03 Base that their infected could be treated. Qiao Chen recruited the help of the doctors from both the East One and 03 Bases. They needed medical personnel from both bases because there were too many infected soldiers.

Just before they were supposed to enter the building, Qiao Chen still hadn’t seen Sun Yu. He asked a doctor from 03 Base, “Where’s Sun Yu? Why didn’t he come? Didn’t I say all hands on deck? All the doctors were supposed to be here to help.”

“He’s the leader of the healing ability group, so…” The doctor who answered Qiao Chen knew him when he was at 03 Base. There weren’t that many people who hated Sun Yu at 03 Base, but nearly all the 03 Base doctors present did.

Qiao Chen turned to the soldiers from 03 Base next to him and said, “Have your division commander inform Sun Yu get him to come here and help. Didn’t he always show off his identity as both a doctor and a healer? Now that I’m calling for all the doctors to come and help, why didn’t he show up?”

The soldier didn’t dare reply, so he quickly ran to report Qiao Chen’s words to the division commander. It didn’t take long for Sun Yu to come over. All though he looked calm and collected on the surface, Qiao Chen knew that he was very reluctant to come.

It was obvious that the patients with the most severe problems should be treated first after they entered the building. There were about six to eight people in each room. Qiao Chen divided the doctors into teams of two and had them all enter the different rooms to begin treatment.

First, Qiao Chen gave a demonstration to the 03 Base doctors. The steps were: Fish clean the patient’s pus infected wounds with the medicine. Then inject the medicine via a syringe. Finally, they needed to give the patient an IV drip with the infusion bottles Qiao Chen prepped and configured. The entire process was very simple for ordinary doctors.*

After watching Qiao Chen’s demonstration, the doctors from 03 Base started busying themselves with saving the soldiers. Qiao Chen specifically assigned Sun Bin to Sun Yu, so he could handle his own brother’s health.

Qiao Chen watched as Sun Yu hesitated to step forward and said, “You used to be a doctor. Even though you only worked as an intern for a bit, you also graduated from a serious medical school. Now, even with your own brother requiring your help, you still don’t dare to go and save him?”

“It’s not like I’m scared. I just can’t bear to see my brother in this state is all.” Sun Yu defended.

“Only you alone know whether or not you can bear it or you’re just scared of getting infected. However, if you aren’t even going to take one step forward, then you’ve doomed your own brother to death.“

Qiao Chen couldn’t stay there for the entirety of the treatments. After he explained some more things, he returned to his lab in the research building. Before leaving, he also assigned Sun Yu with a number of people to treat. He told the others not to help. If Sun Yu couldn’t do it, then they needed to notify their commander. Sun Yu glared at Qiao Chen’s back as he left. His eyes were bursting with rage. Sun Yu even clenched his jaw to tightly that he almost broke his own teeth.

Author’s note:

Thanked 3 people for their support.

‘Everything all happened at once. These days have been both happy and somber. A very good friend of mine suffered a miscarriage. I went to go visit her at the hospital last night. Then today, my eczema flared up so I went to the hospital again today. I was prescribed a few hundred dollars of medicine for it. I feel like you don’t go to the hospital to see the doctor anymore. You just go for the prescription. The last time I had an issue, there were a few sores on my chin. He made it out like it was worse than it really was to get profits. I was prescribed six or seven hundred yuan worth of medicine. It’s a pretty big bag’s worth. I only took a little over half and threw the rest away. To be honest, I don’t dare to go to the hospital for any little thing. They just treat us like pigs.

Just looking at my dwindling savings is really affecting my heart.’

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T/N: * In America, those jobs Qiao Chen demo-ed are usually given to the nurse. There’s not a hospital doctor I know of who can set up an IV drip for a patient.

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