Plague Doctor

Chapter 12: The Rooftop

Translator: Larbre Studio

Editor: Larbre Studio

That night, Gu Jun had an uneasy slumber. He tightly held onto Li Yuerui’s cell phone. It was as though losing it was akin to losing all clues and hopes of uncovering the truth.

Early morning the next day, just before the sky outside turned bright, Gu Jun got up to wash himself. Although he slept less, his head was clearer than it was the day before. The painful symptoms bothering him before had been significantly alleviated, which made him wonder about the efficacy of the “foreign medicine” again.

After washing and rinsing, Gu Jun took another capsule of the foreign medicine and downed it with water. He only had 32 capsules left.

“Zixuan, wake up. It’s time to go to the laboratory building.”

“Hmm…” Cai Zixuan groggily woke up after Gu Jun called his name. When he checked his phone, he saw that it was not even six o’clock yet. Cai Zixuan would usually wake up at six-thirty. Since even Tyc.o.o.n Jun woke up early, how could he continue to laze around in bed. He struggled to raise his body upright. “Okay, I’m up. I’m up. Haiz. If the young does not know how to be diligent in his studies, he’ll regret studying too late once his hair starts to turn white!”

After leaving the dormitory, the two rode their bikes to a breakfast shop in the nearby street to buy food before heading towards the medical laboratory building.

Although it was pretty early in the morning, there was no shortage of students and citizens bustling on the streets. Gu Jun was secretly trying to detect if anyone was following him, but he did find anything suspicious.

As they got outside the laboratory building and parked their bicycles near the door, Cai Zixuan asked, “Let’s go to the rooftop to get the mice first?”

“Okay.” Gu Jun nodded. Working out a bit in the morning was good as well.

It was not just secret agents or company shareholders who were going to the rooftop, Eastern University medical students were frequent visitors to the rooftop as well.

That was because there were two places to host mice and rats. One was the Experimental Animal Research Centre next to the laboratory building. Maximum of 6 cages, the care of each cage of mice costs 10 yuan per day. For their team’s experiment, a total of 150 mice were used. This totaled to 250 yuan a day. Their total budget was only 30,000 yuan though. If half of the budget was spent here, then there would be no money left for the experiment. Ordinary students simply could not afford it at all.

Hence, the school set up prefab breeding rooms on the roof of the laboratory building and even installed air-conditioning to allow their mouse buddies to be warm in winter and cool in the summer. However, that was merely an ideal dream. The reality of the matter was that there was no professional caretaker to manage the place, and everything had to be taken care of by the students. The sanitary conditions here were poor as well. Occasionally, huge and dark rats could be seen, sneaking in from G.o.d-knows-where to steal the food inside the cages. Sometimes even almost scaring the experimental mice to death.

As for the mice that Cai Zixuan and his group were researching on, they were settled on the rooftop, and their team members personally took care of them daily.

Unlike the research center which has a time limit, the rooftop was open 24/7.

Gu Jun followed Cai Zixuan, and he could practically smell the foul odour of mice from the stairs’s entrance. He saw a row of prefab rooms with a blue roof, making up a total of six rooms. Two were keeping rats, three had mice running in them, while the last room had a clutter of junk in it.

A noisy clamour of mouse squeaking a.s.saulted their ears. They had just approached one of the prefab rooms and unexpectedly saw a familiar figure busying in one of the mice rooms.

That person was w.a.n.g Ruoxiang. She was currently moving mice from their cages to a trolley.

“Ah?” Cai Zixuan glanced at Gu Jun. “The cla.s.s monitor actually comes so early every day.”

Usually, when they arrived at the laboratory, w.a.n.g Ruoxiang would have already shifted the mice cages. Cai Zixuan just didn’t think that she would do it so early, and even felt that he could be a step ahead today. Although the cla.s.s monitor was a cornerstone of this experiment, her exemplary behaviour left him sighing in admiration. “Women are always devoted and willing to sacrifice, who said that a general must be a man!”

Gu Jun was also very emotional this time. Both of them were up so early, but look at Zixuan’s dishevelled hairline and dark circles. He simply seemed too miserable. If one typed the characters “Advising people to learn medicine would result in divine lightning retribution” beside his current image, it would be the best recruitment advertis.e.m.e.nt for medical school.

On the other hand, look at w.a.n.g Ruoxiang’s black straight bob and her natural beauty. The effects of the same advertising would not be optimal. That was because one would rather believe that she was a model hired to dress up in a white coat and shoot an advert! She didn’t look like a stereotypical medical student at all!

At this time, w.a.n.g Ruoxiang also noticed them and was stunned. “What are you people acting so sneakily on the rooftop for?”

“We’re gonna help move the mice cage,” Gu Jun hurriedly replied. He knew of her venomous tongue, so he s.n.a.t.c.hed the opportunity to speak before her and asked, “Or do you think we want to steal the mice and go back to cook hot pot?”

“Oh…” w.a.n.g Ruoxiang looked around. For a moment, she had this exact notion in her heart. After all, it was a well-known fact that Tyc.o.o.n Jun had taken rabbit meat to cook hot pot before. He even said ‘taking care of the appet.i.te of medical students is also a contribution to medicine “, though his words did make some sense.

Suddenly, she came back to her senses and asked, “You’re going to move the mice cages?”

“Cla.s.s monitor, Tyc.o.o.n Jun came here to learn with us today,” Cai Zixuan explained quickly.

However, w.a.n.g Ruoxiang was thinking internally, Had Gu Jun still not given up on her? Was he trying to find an opportunity to get close to her?

Seeing that she was looking at him skeptically, Gu Jun shrugged. What has the matter of Tyc.o.o.n Jun chasing you have to do with me?

“So cla.s.s monitor, do you need help?” He asked.

“No need,” w.a.n.g Ruoxiang curtly answered and continued to move the mice cage. However, Gu Jun and Cai Zixuan went up to help anyway.

Soon after, the three pushed the trolley full of mice cages off the rooftop and returned to the laboratory on the eighth floor.

It was still early, and there was no one in the elevator or the corridor. Everything was quiet.

After entering the laboratory, w.a.n.g Ruoxiang and Cai Zixuan started moving the mice cages to the test bench. At the same time, Gu Jun walked around and looked for clues.

Was the laboratory in his illusion this laboratory? He couldn’t be sure.

This was a laboratory of ordinary specifications. Various instruments were placed against three of the walls, and Gu Jun paced back and forth a lot of times in the middle. He looked at the corners of the walls. He even opened the incubator to glance inside. His hand stretching towards the clean bench to experiment around. He wanted to see if it can trigger any vision. Not even a vague sense of disorientation occurred.

“What are you doing?” w.a.n.g Ruoxiang looked at him, taken aback. Did this Tyc.o.o.n Jun come here to make trouble? How come after he entered the laboratory, he seemed like he was playing an RPG game and started flipping through the cabinets and cupboards? She asked, “Do you see us as NPCs?”

“Eh.” Cai Zixuan neither understood what Gu Jun was doing nor could he understand what w.a.n.g Ruoxiang was talking about.

“No. But I was just taking a look. It’s not like I’ll steal these pieces of equipment,” Gu Jun couldn’t explain himself, so he merely stood aside first.

He watched the two check one mouse cage after the other. Even after observing for a long time, there was still no reaction in his mind. Perhaps the singularity did not lie in this laboratory in particular. There might be other requirements for the vision to appear. It’s just that he didn’t know about them.

After more than half an hour, the other team members started arriving one after another. Xu Hai, Zhang Haoran, and He Yuhan.

They did not expect Gu Jun to come again, but they did not find it surprising. Reasons like ‘observations’ and ‘studying’ were all an excuse. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d must have come here for w.a.n.g Ruoxiang.

Today seemed destined to be a lively day. The morning had just begun, yet even Professor Gu, who usually does not come often, had appeared.

Professor Gu was still so energetic, walking into the laboratory like there was a wind beneath his feet. However, as soon as he saw that Gu Jun was present, his face turned slightly ugly.

However, what left everyone feeling weirded out, even Gu Jun himself, was the fact that Professor Gu did not scold him.

“Students, I have some new updates to tell you.” Professor Gu seemed to have some important things to announce. He glanced at the faces of his five beloved students and one rascal. “It’s best for you to make some adjustments to your future work schedule this summer. I will devote all my time to guide you. ”

Everyone was suddenly curious. What happened exactly?

w.a.n.g Ruoxiang shook her head slightly when the other’s eyes were directed towards her. She had not been informed of any of these before, and she too only heard about it now.

“By now, you also know that the country sees great importance to this Frontier Cup for the purpose of selecting a group of new medical talents,” Professor Gu said extremely solemnly. “Now the latest notice has been issued. Not only were talents going to be recruited from the Frontier Cup, but a large-scale clinical skills compet.i.tion was to be held as well. The purpose was to give the city’s elite students an additional stage to showcase their talents.”

His words left them with even more doubts, but excitement and antic.i.p.ation started bubbling too.

Schools had medical skills compet.i.tions every year. Usually to compare clinical skills. Joint compet.i.tions between universities and colleges citywide and nationwide have also been held for many years.

Yet, there has never been a precedent like this. Furthermore, the government was the one rushing to lead the compet.i.tion! One could only imagine how lucrative the rewards of the winners were.

“I do not have much information on the situation for the time being. Some said that clinical, laboratory, anatomy, and other skills were all being put to the test.” Professor Gu also mentioned that there were in fact still some doubts, as compet.i.tions on a scale like this were a first. “If you truly possess the ability, you naturally have a chance to stand out.”

Yes! Others couldn’t hear it, but Gu Jun felt a sudden thumping in his heart and faintly sensed a connection.

He had previously heard Cai Zixuan saying that a lot of importance had been placed on the Frontier Cup this time. At that time, he didn’t overthink it. Thinking about it, could it be that something significant had happened that the public is to know? This then led to the country’s urgent need for medical personnel.

This may have some relationship with the abnormal changes at the bottom of the Longkan sea.

How can I get into that mysterious circle? Gu Jun now felt like he had found the correct path.

“Professor,” Gu Jun suddenly said, “can I partic.i.p.ate in this compet.i.tion?”

Suddenly the air went still, and everyone’s gaze turned towards him. Professor Gu looked at him as well.