NOVPUB
Chapter 201: Chapter 169: The Impact of the West Mountain Explosion Incident
Hearing the person behind him strike up a conversation, Fang Cheng turned his head to look.
In the dimly lit corridor, a middle-aged uncle in a security guard uniform, flashlight in hand, came walking over.
"I remember you."
Seeing Fang Cheng’s slightly surprised expression, the security guard uncle explained with a chuckle:
"You’re the boxing expert who helped our security department deal with those hooligans that day."
Fang Cheng recalled the incident, smiled faintly at him, and politely returned the greeting.
It seemed he was bored with his night shift duties.
The security guard uncle also walked out to the balcony, chatting in an overly familiar way:
"Did a family member fall ill and end up in the intensive care unit?"
Fang Cheng nodded, his gaze landing on the building across the way blocked by barriers, and casually asked:
"It’s indeed strange to see soldiers stationed at your hospital."
"Yeah."
The security guard uncle smacked his lips thoughtfully upon hearing this:
"I’ve been working at Ren’an Hospital for seven or eight years, and it’s the first time I’ve seen such a sight; the patients in that building are no ordinary cases."
"Oh, what happened?"
Seeing that he was hinting at something, Fang Cheng couldn’t help but follow up with another question.
The security guard uncle hesitated, then lowered his voice and said:
"You know about the West Mountain explosion case, right? The patients inside are all transferred from West Mountain..."
He paused, glancing around.
It seemed he was worried that discussing the topic might leak any secrets and that he might get reprimanded by the leadership, so he was extraordinarily cautious.
However, in the end, he couldn’t resist the urge to share, and after a while, he continued to divulge some inside information unknown to outsiders.
It turned out that an explosion occurred at West Mountain in the early hours of that day, and the authorities gradually rescued many people trapped on the mountain.
Ren’an Hospital, being the largest public hospital near West Mountain, received most of the injured.
After timely rescue and treatment, some of these patients almost recovered and were discharged, while others remained unconscious, seemingly becoming vegetative.
The hospital then sent them collectively to the Rehabilitation Center for long-term medical care.
The security guard uncle had been on duty there before, guarding the door.
At first, everything was normal.
However, after some time, strange events began to occur.
"That night, I was patrolling the building as usual, walking down the corridor when suddenly I heard a scream from upstairs."
"I immediately ran up to see what had happened, to see if help was needed, but I saw a nurse covered in filth and blood rushing out of a ward."
"She kept shouting, her footsteps staggering as if she had gone mad. Then, other nurses came running over, their faces filled with panic, telling me not to go over and to call the police quickly."
"I heard painful cries of patients coming from inside the ward; it was a terrifying noise, as if someone was enduring some sort of torture, or like a beast howling..."
At this point, the security guard uncle’s face tensed, his hands clenched into fists as if he were trapped in some fearful memory.
"Did you see what the patient actually looked like?"
Fang Cheng’s gaze sharpened as he continued to ask.
"No, I was so frightened by that noise that I felt dizzy and just turned and ran."
The security guard uncle’s body shuddered, feeling haunted and somewhat ashamed:
"I had absolutely no idea what happened. After I called the police, they arrived quickly, followed by a group of people in black clothes, who knows from which government department, and all medical staff were driven out and had to undergo interrogation outside."
"The people in black pushed a metal cage inside, and when they came out, the cage was covered with a thick cloth. They carefully escorted it into an armored vehicle, and blood dripped from the covered cage."
"In just a couple of days, the military took over the Rehabilitation Center, sealed off the entire building, strictly forbidding outsiders from entering or allowing patients out, and afterwards, both I and those nurses were all reassigned from our posts."
By the end of his story, the security guard let out a long sigh of relief and said:
"Fortunately, I didn’t see the specifics, or else there would’ve been more trouble."
After venting the words he had held in his stomach, he seemed a lot more relaxed.
The two chatted idly for a while.
The security guard then bid farewell and continued his patrol duties.
Fang Cheng gazed out the window at the gray building towering in the night.
A faint, mournful howl drifted to his ears.
The sound originated from the Rehabilitation Center building, a few hundred meters away, under strict guard.
If not for his sensitive hearing, ordinary people would never have noticed it.
Fang Cheng felt that the strange sounds he sensed during meditation might be related to that military-sealed building.
And the strange events mentioned by the security guard were directly connected to the West Mountain explosion case.
Glancing at the soldiers patrolling with guns, Fang Cheng shook his head and returned to the rest area.
Night quietly gave way, and daylight arrived as expected.
The hospital was particularly noisy in the early morning, bustling with people coming and going.
The sunlight shined through the corridor windows onto the disinfected floor, emitting a distinctive smell as it evaporated.
It was as if he had returned to the boxing club. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝙗.𝒄𝒐𝒎
Fang Cheng took deep, steady breaths, and did a brief workout in the rest area with 200 push-ups and deep squats.
Then he went to the hospital canteen and simply had over a dozen meat buns and drank four bags of milk.
Afterward, he stood outside the ICU, observing the inside scene like the other family members.
According to the doctor, his grandfather would need to stay inside for about a week to ensure that the stomach, where the lesion was removed, healed properly without the risk of infection, preventing unexpected complications.
During the waiting period, Fang Cheng received a medical bill from the nurse and went downstairs to make the relevant payment.
In the afternoon, Li Biyun returned to the hospital from home, telling Fang Cheng to go back first.
After all, his grandfather was in the ICU, which did not require additional care from family members.
If there was any emergency, she, already working at the hospital, could be there at a moment’s notice.
Fang Cheng knew his mother was making sense. He thought that once his grandfather was out, they could hire a caregiver to take over the most strenuous caretaking tasks.
Thus, as evening approached, he left Ren’an Hospital and took a taxi straight home.
With a fuller wallet, Fang Cheng was no longer as parsimonious as before—he didn’t flaunt his money, but he no longer needed to pinch pennies.
The sunset over Old Factory Street.
The electric bicycles crowded the street as people left work, loud yet exuding a peaceful tranquility.
The tubular building bathed in the golden afterglow, as if enveloped in a warm hue.
With a "creak," Fang Cheng pushed the door open and entered.
He found that the house had obviously been cleaned thoroughly; the floor, furniture, and stove were wiped till they shined.
Even the clothes and pants he had not had time to wash were already laundered, hanging to dry on the balcony.
Seeing this, Fang Cheng couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh.
Mom really can’t sit still.
Suddenly remembering something, he immediately closed the door, changed into slippers, and quickly walked towards his bedroom.
The bed and desk also looked neat and clean.
Fang Cheng then crouched down, pulling out a gray metal box and a canvas travel bag from under the bed.
Seeing that the metal box was still locked without signs of being opened, he breathed a sigh of relief.
