Embers Ad Infinitum
chapter-102

Chapter 102: Medical Record

Faced with Bai Chen’s question, Jiang Baimian lowered her head and chuckled. “There’s no rush. We have to wait for the next board meeting for the decision to be made. But according to Minister Xenny, the directors are relatively open-minded regarding this matter. The only dispute is over the treatment to be given to them.”

“Okay! Okay!” Bai Chen clearly heaved a sigh of relief.

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and picked up a piece of paper from the table. “The laboratory has already produced a report on the pieces of paper Shang Jianyao brought back from the steelworks factory ruins.

“Among those pieces of paper, there are two pages with imprints left from the previous pages. After doing some restoration work and comparison, it can be determined that it’s a medical record.

“This medical record isn’t complete, but it’s mainly this: Name: Fan Wensi; Gender: Female; Age: 52; Marital Status: Married. Address: Family Zone, Zone 2, Building 4, Room 302.

“The patient self-reported that they have normal mobility and normal mental conditions. Main complaint: In the past seven days, she’d see her son’s figure at least once a day. The patient’s son had an accident a few years ago and became a vegetable. He is currently receiving experimental treatments somewhere in the north as a volunteer…”

After reading it, Jiang Baimian looked around and inquired, “How is it? Any thoughts?”

“A mental patient’s medical record that’s not too problematic.” Bai Chen had finally understood what a medical record was after joining the company.

Long Yuehong questioned, “That steelworks factory’s hospital can treat mental illnesses?”

From his point of view, it was a place slightly larger than the sickbay on each floor of Pangu Biology. Furthermore, only one of the three major hospitals in Pangu Biology could treat mental illnesses.

“The patient might not have believed that she had a mental illness and suspected that something was wrong with her eyes. Hence, she got some outpatient consultation. In any case, the doctor will consider which hospital she will be transferred to, so she doesn’t need to consider such matters.” Jiang Baimian tried to explain based on Pangu Biology’s internal situation.

Shang Jianyao, who was quietly listening to their discussion, suddenly asked, “What if the patient has no mental problems or has no problems with her eyes. Yet, she can see her son at least once a day?”

Long Yuehong hissed. “Stop telling ghost stories. That’s a vegetable! Taking 10,000 steps back, even if her son received successful treatment and woke up, there’s no reason for him to hide from his mother and only appear around her a few times a day.”

Shang Jianyao’s guess made Long Yuehong inexplicably feel a chill run down his spine as if a cold wind from hell had blown past him.

A cold wind…

Wind… Long Yuehong’s eyes widened. “When did you switch on the electric fan?”

Only then did he realize that Shang Jianyao had soundlessly turned the silent electric fan on his team leader’s table to face him and pressed the switch.

It was sometimes relatively hot in Pangu Biology’s daytime.

“When you guys were discussing,” Shang Jianyao replied with a smile. “This adds to the atmosphere!”

“Don’t waste energy!” Jiang Baimian switched off the fan with a smack. She then said, “We can’t tell anything from a single medical record, but since it’s information left behind by the Old World, it’s best to file it up for our team. It might come in handy at some point in time. It might be linked to other clues and reveal something.”

“Alright.” She clapped her hands. “Today’s information is the oral history gathered by the previous Old Task Force.”

“Oral history?” Bai Chen could probably understand what it meant, but she still found the term unfamiliar.

Jiang Baimian glanced at Shang Jianyao. “Oral history is a verbal account of the parties involved. They recount things that they have heard or experienced themselves. The former Old Task Force’s main job in the early stages was to gather this information. What they did later and what they harvested were buried in the sea of history with their disappearance. Yes, according to the radio transmissions, they still had a batch of important oral histories that they didn’t manage to report in time.

“The batch of oral histories we obtained mainly came from the older employees who were still alive in the company back then and had experienced the Old World’s destruction. This is all very precious information. Most of these people have already passed away.

“After reading through this batch over and over again and extracting useful clues and information, we’ll switch to the second batch of oral histories. These are accounts from Old World survivors in the nearby area, people like Mayor Tian.

“There won’t be a third batch after that. We can only rely on ourselves. In short, we have to search for our next target by using this information. Or we can follow the route taken by the former Old Task Force based on the saved electronic text.”

Upon hearing this, Shang Jianyao raised his hand.

“There’s no need to say anything. I know.” Jiang Baimian nodded slightly. “You want to choose the second option.”

Shang Jianyao shook his head. “There might be no difference between the two choices.”

Jiang Baimian came to a realization. “Are you saying that the route the Old Task Force previously chose should also be based on the clues extracted from these oral histories?”

“No.” Shang Jianyao shook his head again and spoke in a low voice with a hint of magnetism. “There’s only one path that fate has determined for us.”

Jiang Baimian glared at him and turned to Long Yuehong. “Is this a line from a radio program?”

Long Yuehong nodded heavily. “Yes!”

Jiang Baimian did not look at Shang Jianyao. Instead, she smiled at Bai Chen and said, “I forgot to mention that you can move to the 622nd floor. As for which room you will be assigned to, someone will contact you when the time comes. Haha, you can listen to the radio tonight.”

Bai Chen tersely acknowledged her words, and her expression flickered before quickly returning to normal.

Jiang Baimian didn’t say anything else and waved her hand in the opposite direction like she was swatting a mosquito. “Start reading the information. Shang Jianyao, don’t play music!”

“I can’t control it!” Shang Jianyao replied loudly.

“Then, reason with it,” Jiang Baimian replied angrily.

Shang Jianyao’s eyes immediately lit up as if he found this method very consistent with his train of thought. He sat down and rambled on to the small black speaker with a blue bottom. “I went through so much to repair you. You have to be obedient…”

Long Yuehong blankly stared for a few seconds before muttering to himself, “I now believe that he actually has a doctor to prove it…”

“Ah, what did you say? Louder!” Jiang Baimian tilted her head.

Bai Chen ignored this and flipped through the information by herself.

“Nothing.” Long Yuehong quickly shook his head. He then sighed silently. What kind of team is this…?

It was unknown when he would receive his transfer orders.

…

After dinner, Shang Jianyao did not immediately return to the 495th floor. Instead, he took the elevator to the 490th floor.

He skillfully circled around the Rec Center and the Supplies Allocation Market and arrived in front of the row of rooms at the back.

In the middle of these rooms hung a vertical sign with white and black words: “Eleventh Orphanage.”

This was where Shang Jianyao had once lived for three years.

Within Pangu Biology, there was an orphanage every ten or twenty floors. It was responsible for raising children who no longer had immediate family members until they were 18 years old.

At this moment, many of the doors to the orphanage were open, but only two or three figures were present. The others had gone to the canteen ahead.

Shang Jianyao walked in and came in front of the lame gatekeeper, Li Jiawen.

“Is the matron around?” Shang Jianyao asked calmly.

Li Jiawen’s hair was already white. He sat behind a table and looked like he was about to doze off. Upon hearing this, he quickly looked up and examined the visitor for a while. “Oh, Jianyao… The matron has gone for dinner. Have a seat; she’ll be back soon.”

“No need for that.” Shang Jianyao shook his head and walked to Li Jiawen’s side.

On the wall was a black machine that could be used for contribution point transactions.

Shang Jianyao looked at the relatively spacious activity area inside, the relatively old equipment, and the relatively simple furnishings. He took out an electronic card and swiped it on the machine.

He then pressed the numbers for 50,000 and chose ‘Eleventh Orphanage’ as the recipient. As it was a large transaction, he pressed his fingerprint to the machine as confirmation.

Li Jiawen looked at Shang Jianyao’s back and chuckled. “Are you here to donate? How thoughtful. Didn’t you just start working?”

The company was in charge of the orphanage’s basic budget, but it only covered rooms, venues, employees’ salaries, the living insurance, and the corresponding energy allocation for every orphan.

If one wanted the orphanage to have a better environment and for every orphan to eat better, they would have to rely on employee donations.

Shang Jianyao turned around, put away the electronic card, and smiled. “Save it for me.”

“Huh?” Li Jiawen was confused.

“Not even a word of thanks.” Shang Jianyao didn’t say anything else. He nodded gently and walked out of the orphanage.

Li Jiawen watched him leave. He slowly stood up, limped to the black machine, and checked the transaction records.

“50,000?” he exclaimed. After working for so many years, his current savings were about this amount.

…

On the 495th floor, Supplies Allocation Market.

Shang Jianyao bought a pile of items that were expensive and convenient to sell. He carried them and walked back to Zone B.

He didn’t go home and instead made a turn to the other side.

After walking for a while, Shang Jianyao stopped in front of an open room. This was Shen Du’s home.

His home was slightly larger than the current room Shang Jianyao occupied. There was a cramped bedroom on the right, and the rest served as the living room, kitchen, and dining room.

Shen Du’s wife, Tian Jing, was busy in the kitchen area outside. Their child kept running around her.

Shang Jianyao walked over and suddenly asked, “Why aren’t you going to the canteen?”

Tian Jing was in her thirties. Although she had a beautiful face, she looked very haggard.

She smiled bitterly. “We still have to take precautions. Although the company has always said that the Heartless disease is not contagious, everyone is still relatively afraid of it. Look, they’ve even given me a break.”

Shang Jianyao tersely acknowledged it. “Uncle Shen has always taken good care of me.”

As he spoke, he placed the pile of things in his hands inside Shen Du’s house.

“…No, no, this is too precious!” Tian Jing only took a glance and knew that the items that Shang Jianyao had brought were worth tens of thousands of contribution points.

Shang Jianyao stopped and thought for a moment. “If you don’t want to accept them, you can choose to be my mother.”

“?” Tian Jing was stunned.

Shang Jianyao took the opportunity to put everything down and waved his hand. “It seems like you don’t want to.”

Upon seeing Shang Jianyao’s ‘firm’ attitude, Tian Jing stammered, “If you need any help in the future, just tell me.”

Shang Jianyao nodded and turned to walk back home.

He vaguely heard Shen Du’s child ask his mother behind him, “Mommy, isn’t that uncle afraid that we will get sick?

“Mommy, when will Daddy recover?

“Mommy, when can Daddy come back?”

Shang Jianyao’s footsteps paused before he quickened his pace.