Escape From the Library - CH 8

Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing returned to their ward. Before their butts warmed up their seats, Dr. Xiao suddenly pushed open the door. Bed no. 16 and bed no. 17, I’ve made an appointment for you to have a coronary angiography. Don’t eat anything when you get up tomorrow morning, the nurse will draw your blood before you go to the imaging department for the test. Please remember that you must have an empty stomach.”

The two men looked at each other and said in unison, “I understand, thank you doctor.”

The course examination required ‘to follow the doctor’s medical advice’, and naturally they could not disobey the doctor’s orders, otherwise the assessment score would be deducted.

It was almost noon after they had a long chat with their classmates and the lunch was uniformly delivered from the canteen. Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing stared at the box lunch with a partition that contained one non vegetarian and two vegetarian dishes in front of them, and they were a little bit hesitant to eat them.

Liu Zhaoqing opened the box lunch and picked it up with his chopsticks, “There shouldn’t be poison in the food, right?”

“Why don’t we watch the others eat first, and then we’ll eat afterwards if nothing happens?” Yue Xingwen suggested.

Liu Zhaoqing agreed with him. “That’s right, with carefulness, you could sail for thousands of years.”

Both of them wandered around the corridor and found that the elderly in the other wards had already started to eat, and everyone had the same box lunch. After some time, the patients who had eaten lunch did not have any adverse reactions, so they relaxed their minds and turned back to start eating their box lunch.

The meal was already cold, but it was never wrong to be careful.

After the meal, Yue Xingwen conveniently helped his senior brother to clean up the garbage and said, “Senior brother, I want to go to the ward in the upper right corner.”

Liu Zhaoqing looked at the map that Yue Xingwen drew. “The upper right corner… It’s bed no. 48 and no. 49. They were two examinees who didn’t come to the discussion this morning, do you know them?”

Yue Xingwen replied, “One of them is our schoolmate.”

Liu Zhaoqing had nothing to do anyway, so he followed Yue Xingwen and moved along.

Both of them arrived at the door of the ward in the upper right corner, and Yue Xingwen knocked the door gently. “Excuse me, is student Ke Shaobin here?

A fair skinned boy with silver-rimmed glasses looked up at the door suspiciously. After meeting Yue Xingwen’s smiling eyes, he immediately got up and walked over. He adjusted his glasses and said in a lighter voice, “Xingwen, is it really you? I just saw your name at the nurses’ station and wanted to confirm it, but you came first.”

Yue Xingwen said, “I was pulled in when I went to the library on the evening of the 14th.”

Ke Shaobin: “Me too.” He looked at the person beside Yue Xingwen, as if asking who this person was, and Yue Xingwen introduced him, “This senior brother is a grad student of the orthopedics major in the Faculty of Medicine, his name is Liu Zhaoqing, and he is also from our university.”

Ke Shaobin politely extended his hand, “Hello senior brother.”

Liu Zhaoqing also politely reached out and shook his hand, “Hello.”

Yue Xingwen turned back to explain it to his senior brother, “Ke Shaobin has the same grade as me, and he is the head of the Student Union’s Network division. I’m from the Student Council’s publicity division, and we’ve known each other since we joined the student union in our first year. When I finished the <Escape From the Laboratory> course, I saw his name on the scoreboard, and I saw his name again in the nurses’ station, so I came to see him to confirm it.”

Liu Zhaoqing nodded his head to show that he understood.

When Ke Shaobin heard this, he said, “When I looked at the scoreboard, I saw senior brother Zhuo Feng, senior sister Lin Manluo, and Jiang Pingce’s names. So, they should have come in earlier than the two of us, right?”

Senior Zhuo Feng from the Physics Department and senior sister Lin Manluo from the Environment  Department were both in their fourth years and they were currently the president of the Student Union and the head of the entertainment division that were preparing to step down from their positions. Jiang Pingce was in the secretariat in the Student Union, he was responsible for the data statistics, and the various statistics made by the top student were quite professional and well received by all the divisions. It was just that Jiang Pingce did not like to talk to people, and everyone wondered as to why he would come to an organization like the Student Union.

In fact, Jiang Pingce was pulled into the water by Yue Xingwen——

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Jiang Pingce: “……”

Yue Xingwen looked at him expectantly, “If you’re not interested in the Student Union, we can also go to other organizations to have fun, like the astronomy club, photography club, badminton club and so on, which one do you like?”

Jiang Pingce was silent for a moment before he smiled softly and said, “Let’s go to the Student Union to interview together.”

Hence, both of them teamed up for an interview and they were accepted into different divisions in the Student Union.

As the past events of his first year came to mind, Yue Xingwen wanted to find Jiang Pingce as soon as possible. He asked Ke Shaobin in a low voice, “Do you know what Jiang Pingce has been busy with lately?”

The student dormitories of Computer Science and Mathematics were in the same building. Hearing this, Ke Shaobin replied, “I heard from someone in the Mathematics Department that Jiang Pingce is following Professor Xu’s team and preparing for the mathematical modeling national competition, and I haven’t seen him for a long time… Doesn’t he have the best relationship with you?”

Yue Xingwen sighed. “I have been busy writing my thesis recently. The last time he asked me to study in the library was half a month ago, and I haven’t had much contact during this time.”

Liu Zhaoqing stood to listen to them chatting with his arms folded, and could not help but be curious when he heard this, “Who is Jiang Pingce?”

Ke Shaobin explained, “He is the god of study in our school’s Mathematics Department, he often won national awards and he has completed all the courses of the Mathematics Department in his third year. It’s determined that he will be admitted for postgraduate studies. He graduated from the same high school as Xingwen, and the two were the top scorers in liberal arts and science of that year, and they were admitted to Hua’an University together.”

Liu Zhaoqing exclaimed, “The top scorer in liberal arts and science? Awesome, awesome! He’s also in the library?”

Ke Shaobin replied, “I saw his name on the scoreboard, so he probably got pulled into this place too.”

Yue Xingwen looked at Ke Shaobin and asked, “Young Ke, did you hear any rumors about the ‘holographic game’ in your Faculty of Computer Science?”

Ke Shaobin shook his head. “I’ve never heard of it at all. Do you suspect this library is a holographic game?”

Yue Xingwen said, “I just feel it doesn’t make sense. So many students are missing at the same time, but there is no news from the school.”

Ke Shaobin held up his glasses and pondered, “However, with our current computer technology, we shouldn’t have reached the level of making such a multiplayer online simulation game, right?”

The three people were silent for a while.

Yue Xingwen wrapped up this fruitless conversation and changed the topic, “Let’s not worry about it this time. Young Ke, you didn’t come out this morning to meet with the other examinees, and I also didn’t see you in the ward, where did you go ah?”

Ke Shaobin looked around, called Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing to an empty corner, and lowered his voice mysteriously. “While all the doctors were doing their rounds, I seized the time to go to the doctor’s office and hacked into their computer, and then I copied all the information from the wards.”

The other two people: “……”

You have the ability to seize the opportunity like an expert spy ah!

Liu Zhaoqing asked curiously, “Did junior brother get a skill from the Computer Department, or did you crack the computer yourself?”

“None of these computers have a high level of security system defense, and I directly cracked it. I was given an intelligent robot as a reward for the entrance exam of the department of computer, would you like to see it?” After Ke Shaobin said that, he faced the corner of the wall and spread out his right palm.

There was a small white robot the size of a palm with wheels that appeared in the corner of the wall, with short arms and short legs, like a children’s toy. Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing looked at it curiously.

Liu Zhaoqing had a contemplative expression of ‘the old man in the subway looking at the mobile phone’ and said, “I have the impression that not all intelligent robots are big, but this palm-sized robot, is this… a mini version?”

“It’s a level one intelligent robot, it’ll grow up when it’s upgraded.” Ke Shaobin looked at the little short-leg in the corner and said in a low voice, “Xiao Tu, Xiao Tu, play the song.”

The robot’s forehead lit up and started singing in a child’s voice, “Two tigers, two tigers, running fast, running fast…”

Ke Shaobin: “Xiao Tu, stop playing.”

The robot: “Yes master.”

Yue Xingwen: “…”

Liu Zhaoqing: “……”

There was an awkward silence in the empty corner.

Ke Shaobin’s ears turned red slightly, and his reddened ears were very obvious in his already fair skin. He looked at the robot in the corner and tried to explain to the two schoolmates, “Don’t be fooled by the fact it looks foolish, it works pretty well. This robot currently has only unlocked a smart voice function that can play the song <Two Tigers> and attract attention from the surroundings.”

Yue Xingwen was between laughter and tears. “So, you let it sing to lure the monkeys away in the laboratory course?”

Ke Shaobin said with a bitter face. “En. I asked Xiao Tu to lead the monkeys to the cage.”

Yue Xingwen imagined the scene where the monkeys chasing the little robot, and inexplicably wanted to laugh a little—— The monkeys were about to be played by this group of university students, one moment they listened to lesson by the student majoring in teaching, and then listening to nursery rhymes sang by the intelligent robot?

Liu Zhaoqing asked curiously, “Can it be upgraded to learn other songs?”

Ke Shaobin: “Yes, according to the system description, this robot has many functions at a later stage. I plan to upgrade it to full level.”

Liu Zhaoqing continued his curiosity, “Did you give the name Xiao Tu yourself? Does it only listen to you?”

Ke Shaobin nodded. “At that time I thought that since I entered the ‘library’, it would be easy to remember if I named it ‘Xiao Tu’. It has recorded my voice and can only recognize my voice, Xiao Tu will ignore the others’ calls.”

“Xiao Tu, Xiao Tu, sing a song.” Liu Zhaoqing tried to call the robot.

Xiao Tu really ignored him.

Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing looked at each other, being at a loss.

If they compared the library’s skills on each field-of-study, there were indeed ‘no weirdest, only weirder than the others’. For example, Yue Xingwen used his dictionary as a brick, and Liu Zhaoqing used his scalpel as a dart, wasn’t it still a relatively simple and direct physical attack skill? This Xiao Tu’s singing that could attract monsters would be classified as a magic attack ah!

Knowing that his little robot could only sing nursery rhymes was a bit foolish, Ke Shaobin put away the little robot and changed the topic to ask, “Xingwen, what do you think of the additional question on this exam?”

Yue Xingwen thought about it and replied, “I think the description of the additional question is a bit strange, what is the meaning of ‘find the real cause of the death? Patients in the cardiovascular ward should die from nothing more than a sudden deterioration of their condition and their heart stops beating. But in the description there are words ‘real cause’, I can’t help but suspect that death of the patient can also be man-made.”

“Man-made?” Ke Shaobin was stunned for a moment, “What do you mean?”

“The cardiac arrest that is caused by humans. For example… murder?”

As soon as Yue Xingwen said that, a cold wind seemed to blow around him, and goosebumps suddenly appeared on the backs of the three people.

Liu Zhaoqing rubbed his arms and coughed lightly, “You mean, there is a murderer lurking in the ward, tampering the patients’ medicine without batting an eye, and letting the patients die of cardiac arrest in their sleep? On the surface, the patient does appear to die in accident, but the real cause of death was a murder, it fits the difficulty of the additional question. Is it also possible that we as the examinees will be caught and killed by the murderer silently?”

Yue Xingwen’s expression turned solemn. “Maybe I have read too many suspense novels, and I always feel this ward is strange. This time the course has 4 credits, and the additional question can give an additional 30 points, so we’ll get a 120 points bonus. The question that scored this high shouldn’t be easy to answer.”

“I think it’s better for the three of us to cooperate and try to find the answer to the additional question,” Ke Shaobin immediately suggested, “By the way, let me show you the information first.” As he said that, a super thin laptop magically appeared in his hand after he lifted his right hand gently, “This is a laptop produced by the library, an extra gift for all computer science students. It has infinite space, and it can also use the wifi network to transfer data. I just hacked into the doctor’s office computer and copied all the information from the entire ward.”

Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing were quite shocked—— the Computer Department was really impressive, all of the students were given a laptop. If they had not happened to meet Ke Shaobin, they would have had to go through a lot of trouble to check all this information on their own.

Ke Shaobin continued, “This laptop uses fingerprint to unlock, and without me, its screen will lock automatically after 10 minutes, so let’s look at it together.”

The Computer Department intelligence tools’s self-protection awareness was too strong, the laptops had ‘fingerprint recognition’, and the intelligent robots had ‘voice recognition’, even if the others snatched it away, they could not use it.

The three people returned to the ward together.

Since the old grandfather in bed no. 15 had not woken up yet, they sat down on Yue Xingwen’s bed and turned on the laptop to read the information together.

The information was very detailed and included the case records for all patients on the ward, as well as full information on the doctors and nurses. After carefully reading the case records, Liu Zhaoqing concluded, “The cases of out 10 examinees are fabricated by the library, and the complaints were all exactly the same, all hospitalized for a week with a pain around the precordial area. For the other patients’ cases, there seems to be no problem on the surface.”

“Senior brother, didn’t you find any suspicious drugs?” Ke Shaobin asked.

Liu Zhaoqing shook his head. “Antihypertensive drug, blood transfusions are commonly used medicines for hypertension and heart disease patients.”

Yue Xingwen analyzed the resumes of the doctors and nurses, saying, “The resumes of these doctors and nurses do not look abnormal. It’s better to wait for the deceased to show up before we continue to analyze. Moreover, the answer to the additional question is not necessarily murder, and my current guess is baseless.”

Liu Zhaoqing replied, “Let’s take one step at a time. Anyway this information that junior brother Ke had copied will definitely be useful.”

Yue Xingwen tore off a few sheets of paper from the dictionary and used them to write down some key information about the medical staff and patients in the resources, and then he handed the laptop back to Ke Shaobin. “You must be careful tonight, there’s no telling what might happen.”

Liu Zhaoqing also reminded him, “If a nurse comes in to change your IV tube in the middle of the night, pull the IV tube out immediately after the nurse leaves and empty the contents in the tube, lest there be a situation like Xingwen’s speculation of murderer changing the medicine.”

Ke Shaobin nodded seriously as he closed his right palm and the laptop disappeared out of thin air, then a computer icon did appear in his palm. Ke Shaobin looked at the time on the wall and got up. “Then, I’ll go back first, you guys be careful too.”

The clock gradually pointed to 10:00pm at night.

The nurses began to check the beds throughout the ward, checking the patients, bed by bed.

Yue Xingwen and Liu Zhaoqing were also lying down obediently on their own hospital beds.

The windows still seemed to be covered in a layer of paint, and it was pitch black outside without even a glimmer of light could be seen.

What will happen at night?