Chapter 101: Asking for a Help
Happy days are always short. That's life. We always do not know which comes first, whether it's a great life or an accident that may occur in the future. Master Chen fell ill suddenly. The cause was Cerebral thrombosis. If the neighbors did not report it early, it is estimated that he would've died right then. It is said that he was getting treated, but the situation is still not optimistic. The hospital has issued several notices of critical illnesses.
When Zhang Jue got the news, it was already the afternoon of the third day. He and Yang Xue came together to Jiangzhou First People's Hospital. Guan Peng was sitting outside the ward, feeling unwell, probably because of the lack of sleep in the past two days.
"Uncle Guan. How is Master Chen doing?" Yang Xue asked.
Guan Peng, who already had some white hair, sighed. It looks like the situation was not good. Zhang Jue patted his shoulder, "It's good that people are still around." Guan Peng could only nod his head.
Several people came to the ward. The old man was already awake, but his spirit was a bit depressed.
Seeing Zhang Jue and Yang Xue come, he pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled. When he was about to speak, he saw Guan Peng. He darkened his face again and said, "What are you crying for? I'm not dead yet!" Guan Peng grew up with two dead parents, raised by Master Chen. All the training was taught by Master Chen.
To him, Master Chen was also a teacher and a father. If not because of Master Chen, he would have died long ago, let alone become the MTF captain. Master Chen is a Master of The Martial Arts has a very good physique. He did not care about anything and did not think that he could fall into a severe illness. Guan Peng blamed himself a little.
Seeing that Guan Peng was scolded, Zhang Jue and Yang Xue rushed forward to help. Squeezing the waist and pounding the legs, the old man Chen then subsided. The two of them talked to the old man for a while, and he seemed to be in a better mood. But the doctor had already instructed them so that they couldn't chat for too long.
Zhang Jue thought that the old man would gradually get better, but he never expected this to be the last time they would see him. In the early hours of the following day, he passed away in his sleep.
According to the doctor, it ended peacefully, and he died without any pain at all. The old man had no children. The funeral was simple. Only Zhang Jue, Yang Xue, Guan Peng, three people, and a few neighbors attended. He was buried directly behind the village on the hillside.
Guan Peng poured a glass of wine in front of his grave and did not speak. Neither he nor the old man was a talker. Zhang Jue lit another cigarette and placed it in front of the old man's grave. The old man had lived a spontaneous life, and even being defeated at his peak hadn't left his mind be empty.
His only regret probably was not being able to see Guan Peng get married and have children. Guan Peng is not unaware, his work is too dangerous, and he has lost half of his face. It is too much of a problem to put his partner into a dangerous situation.
The old man had nothing to lose. There are a few books left. They look pretty old and don't look like any Martial Arts Books of Secrets. Guan Peng gave Zhang Jue and Yang Xue a book as a souvenir.
Human life is fragile. The death of Master Chen made Zhang Jue silent for a while. But life had to go on, and Zhang Jue was not the one to dwell on his grief all the time. Soon, he was swamped with the work from the Foundation again.
On this day, an unexpected visitor arrived at Site-14, blond and blue-eyed, probably from another site in trouble. Zhang Jue was about to go after her but found that he was not looking for him.
"Excuse me, is Dr. Yang Xue here?" A fluent mouthful of Chinese.
Zhang Jue blinked. Seeing that Zhang Jue didn't recognize him, the man pulled his ID out of his pocket and handed it to him.
"An expatriate of the Special Branch of the Foundation's headquarters, my name is Tang Mao. I had the pleasure of discussing a few issues with Dr. Yang Xue at an academic exchange conference before, and this time I'm here to ask her for help on behalf of the headquarters." So that was it. Zhang Jue looked him up and down once.
He double-checked his documents, then shouted, "Dr. Yang Xue, your old buddy is here!" The Foundation had many sites with different talents, and it was not uncommon for them to ask each other for help in private when they encountered problems.
However, if the headquarters send someone directly to the site for something, it means that the matter has come to the point where it must be solved. The special agent from the headquarters talked with Huang Xingwen for an hour, and they called Yang Xue into their office. They talked for another hour until late afternoon.
After dinner, Zhang Jue went to the roof to blow off some steam, only to find that Yang Xue was already there. This was a little tacit agreement between the two before.
"Wow, what a coincidence." Zhang Jue walked next to Yang Xue and leaned against the railing side by side with her, "The sun is quite round this evening."
Yang Xue asked, "Could you be more cheesy with your lines?"
"Yes." Zhang Jue smiled, "I'm the boiling water, and you're the instant noodles. I'm six, and you're nine."
Yang Xue froze, then sighed, "Boring."
Zhang Jue shrugged, "Let's get down to business. What's up with that old buddy of yours doing here today?"
Ignoring Zhang Jue's strange name-calling, Yang Xue said, "They're in trouble and want me to come over and help."
Zhang Jue raised his eyebrows, "What a coincidence, you have a sister out there too? She wants to meet you too?"
Yang Xue gave him a blank look. Zhang Jue gave a heated smile. Yang Xue had a double doctorate in biology and organic chemistry and was considered one of the top talents in the entire Foundation hierarchy. Otherwise, the headquarters wouldn't have promoted her.
This time, the headquarters had sent someone to pick her up, so there was probably a problem that could not be solved. As for what exactly it was, Yang Xue didn't say, so Zhang Jue didn't ask. Yang Xue was already the Deputy Director of Experiments at Site-14, and she had her own pride. Since this chick had confidence, so he let her go. The two of them said goodbye to each other, and Yang Xue left the next day.
Looking at her back, Zhang Jue suddenly felt a bit chagrined that he should have installed a GPS locator on her as well. Time passed day by day, and a week later, the blond guy came to Site-14 again.
The first person he saw was still Zhang Jue. "Your old buddy is not here." Zhang Jue said, "Didn't she already get picked up by you? She hasn't come back yet."
Tang Mao said, "Advisor Zhang Jue, I'm here to see you this time."
In the Site Director's office, Zhang Jue sat on a chair. Huang Xingwen and Tang Mao looked at him blearily. It was business as usual.
"Something happened to her, right? You came because you wanted me to save her, right? I knew she was unreliable." Zhang Jue crossed his legs and sat on the sofa with an I-knew-it look on his face, expressing great disdain for such a cheesy plot.
However, Tang Mao shook his head, "On the contrary, Dr. Yang helped us a lot after she arrived on the scene, and under her leadership, we made great progress in our research."
"Was it, though?" Zhang Jue raised his eyebrows, "So what did you come to see me for? A briefing and praise?"
Tang Mao sighed, "Because we encountered a new problem that couldn't be solved, we asked headquarters for help, but the response from headquarters was only two words. It was your name, Advisor Zhang."
This statement sounded pretty cool as if he was The Lord Saviour, but Zhang Jue was no longer someone who could be fooled by such tricks. He said, "You guys can ask for my help. Can you explain to me about the situation?"
Tang Mao's expression was torn, and it looked like there was something hidden. Zhang Jue shrugged, "Forget about it. I won't hide it from you. I'm very busy discussing life, ideals, and children's education with those young female researchers every day."
Seeing him lift his butt to leave, Tang Mao hurriedly glanced at Huang Xingwen, the Site Director. But Zhang Jue was directly under the O5 Council position, and Huang Xingwen could not command him, so he could only pretend to follow his choice.
Forced into a corner, Tang Mao said, "Advisor Zhang, please wait! Okay, I'll talk." Zhang Jue turned back to look at him. Tang Mao said, "Advisor Zhang, do you know about Chlamydia?"
Chlamydia? The name seemed a bit familiar.
Zhang Jue thought about it for a while before remembering that he had seen an international news item while eating in the Foundation's cafeteria, saying that the residents of the small town had contracted a plague and that the entire town had been sealed off and no one was allowed to enter or leave.
Needless to say, it was clear from this look that something was wrong. Zhang Jue nodded and gestured for him to continue.
"The residents of Chlamydia town are not infected with a plague." Tang Mao's expression turned strange as if what he was about to say next made him feel a little uncomfortable.
"All of them… were turned into 'devils.'"