Chapter 59: Heading to the Sixth Floor Pediatric Ward
Chapter 59: Heading to the Sixth Floor Pediatric Ward
Hu Zhen, holding He Wen, has a smile on her face, but there is an underlying heartache. She knows the child in her arms isn’t her own, yet over these days, she has been trying hard to treat He Wen as if he were her biological son. This requires time, and it is clear that such a reality can’t be completely forgotten in just a day or two.
Anran doesn’t say anything further. She lowers her gaze, unsure of what to say. She wants to tell Hu Zhen to forget about the child who has no connection to her and to treat He Wen as her own. Hu Zhen seems to understand this too; she is also making an effort to forget about that child.
“By the way, is there anything I can help you with?” Hu Zhen asks politely, breaking the silence. She takes a deep breath and looks around while holding He Wen. Noticing Anran doesn’t respond, she turns her attention to the lush green plants and flowers behind Anran and curiously asks, “These flowers and plants are growing so well; how are they growing so well?”
Anran turns her head, glances at the plants, and then faces Hu Zhen again, shrugging slightly. She doesn’t explain directly; instead, she casually remarks, “Yeah, they’re growing beautifully.”
It isn’t that Anran wants to hide anything from Hu Zhen; it is just that the events happening to her are still unclear to herself. If she speaks about them, she fears Hu Zhen will look at her like a monster, just as Chen Jiao does. In a hospital with so few living people, being gazed at like that by her two remaining peers is quite disheartening for Anran.
Then she says to Hu Zhen, “I’m planning to clean up the fifth floor and then head to the sixth floor.”
The sixth floor houses the pediatric ward, where the children are generally older. When admitted, they usually have only one or two accompanying family members. Since the apocalypse begins before dawn, going to the sixth floor is preferable to the maternity ward on the third floor. The sixth floor likely has far more people than the neonatal department on the fifth floor.
Anran estimates this because every time she comes to the hospital for prenatal check-ups, no matter how early she arrives, she often receives numbers in the one or two hundred range. Some families even rush to the hospital before dawn just to get in line for a number for the pregnant woman.
Especially in recent years, with the government allowing two or more children per family, the number of pregnant women has surged.
By four or five in the morning, the obstetrics department is often crowded. Typically, when a pregnant woman arrives at the hospital, she brings her husband, mother-in-law, or mother, and sometimes even a postpartum caregiver. One pregnant woman visiting the obstetrics department can mobilize the entire family.
Moreover, this is a large and well-regarded maternal and child health specialty hospital; if the obstetrics department isn’t crowded, where else would be?
The mutations likely occur in the late hours, close to dawn. Anran doesn’t know the exact time, but she recalls that the night before the apocalypse, the doctors and nurses are still normal. Their footsteps are busy; they are arranging immediate admissions for patients and responding to calls about women who are about to give birth. The obstetrics ward had been hectic all night.
One can imagine how many zombies might come to register in the obstetrics department, which is another major reason Anran wants to go to the pediatric ward on the sixth floor.