novelraw Chapter 8 Experimental Drugs
Chapter 8 Experimental Drugs
From Maple Leaf District to Hanjiang District,
The buildings on the street are noticeably dilapidated, but overall the environment looks quite nice. The streets are bustling with people, and the neon lights are dazzling.
Bai Yuze walked along the street, stopping and starting intermittently.
In the end, I bought three pounds of pork, a bag of rice, and some fresh vegetables.
In the parrot area,
Bai Yuzhe can actually buy meat there, and it's cheaper than here.
As for the specific type of meat...
That's hard to say.
After buying these,
Bai Yuze didn't rush home. Instead, he glanced at the medicine in his hand before turning on his phone to start navigation.
Qingzhang Sustained-Release Tablets
This is an experimental drug developed by Professor Mu's student, senior student Aiwas.
This senior is good at everything.
He disliked interpersonal interactions and spent all his time in the laboratory, so the small task of collecting drug data in Hanjiang District was naturally assigned to him.
creak-
Bai Yuzhe's figure weaved through the narrow alleys of Hanjiang District.
The air was filled with the smells of cheap spices, incompletely treated sewage, and industrial waste gas drifting from afar.
Some flavor,
But it's still acceptable.
A few minutes later,
Bai Yuze stopped on the third floor of an old five-story apartment building. Most of the green paint on the iron gate had peeled off, and a faint light shone through the cracks in the door.
Before he knocked, he could hear suppressed coughing coming from inside, one cough after another, dry and hoarse like an old bellows.
Ding-dong-
The person who opened the door was a young mother who looked haggard but was very beautiful, with dark circles under her eyes.
She was holding a girl who looked about seven or eight years old in her arms. The child was very thin, with sunken cheeks and big but uninteresting eyes. She was just quietly curled up, her fingers unconsciously clutching the hem of her mother's faded clothes.
"Mrs. Miki".
Bai Yuze greeted them softly, taking out a small box carefully wrapped in brown paper from the side pocket of his backpack. "This week's dosage. Also, the federal points for the project subsidy have been deposited into your child's medical account."
The woman's eyes reddened almost instantly.
She took the box, her fingers trembling slightly, but she didn't open it immediately. Instead, she turned to the side so the child could see it clearly.
"Little Sprout, look, Brother Bai has brought medicine again." Her voice was very soft, with a cautious, almost ingratiating gentleness.
The little girl slowly turned her eyes, her gaze falling on the medicine box before moving to Bai Yuze's face.
"Brother Bai... good afternoon."
After saying that,
The little girl seemed to have used up all her strength, and then curled up again.
"..."
Bai Yuze remained silent for a while.
For this,
Mrs. Miki thanked him repeatedly, her voice choked with emotion:
"I really...I really don't know how to thank you and the professor. Without this medicine, Xiaoya..."
She didn't finish speaking.
He simply hugged his daughter even tighter.
Two years ago, during the Gray Tide incident, the child approached a leak site that was not completely sealed off in order to find his missing father.
By the time they were discovered, they had already inhaled excessive amounts of miasma. Official compensation was insufficient, and conventional anti-miasma medications were expensive and had limited effectiveness.
And this experimental drug,
It is one of the few straws they can grasp at right now.
Bai Yuzhe touched the little girl's hair, glanced at the simple house, and then slowly said:
"Mrs. Miki, please take this box of medicine as directed. If you experience any discomfort, please contact me at my phone number immediately."
"Thank you, thank you very much."
......
The second address was on a noisier street.
First floor,
It has a small courtyard.
Before I even got close, I could hear a man humming a slightly clumsy tune and the clattering of spatulas coming from inside.
The person who opened the door was a tall man with a buzz cut. His neck, extending down to his collar, revealed mostly faded, grotesque tattoos. He wore an incongruous floral apron, and his hands were still covered in flour.
Upon seeing Bai Yuze, he immediately forced a friendly smile onto his fierce face, but the smile made him look somewhat comically nervous.
"Brother Bai?! Come in quickly! He's cooking!"
He had a loud voice and stepped aside to make way.
The house had a more lived-in feel than Miki's house, and it was also a bit messier.
A woman with a noticeably protruding belly was sitting on an old sofa knitting a small sweater. Upon seeing Bai Yuze, she smiled gently, with an apologetic expression.
"Ah Long, keep your voice down... Bai, sorry, the house is a mess."
The man called Ah Long scratched his head, chuckled twice, quickly went to the kitchen to turn off the stove, vigorously wiped his hands on his apron, and then came over to take the medicine box from Bai Yuze. Holding the box, he didn't immediately put it away, but turned to his wife, his voice unconsciously softening:
"Ahui, this week's medicine. Look, the packaging is intact."
Ahui nodded and said to Bai Yuze:
"Bai, you are a good person. If it weren't for the medicine you gave me, I don't know if my baby and I would have survived."
Ah Long used to hang out with the Ash Gang in the Parrot District, specializing in collecting loans and handling dirty work like corpses.
Until Ahui became pregnant,
When he went to collect the body again, he saw the other person's bloodied face and suddenly became afraid. He was afraid that he would die a violent death on the street one day, afraid that his child would be born without a father, and even more afraid that the terrible environment of Parrot District would harm his child.
Therefore, he tried every means to smuggle himself from Parrot District to Hanjiang District. He succeeded, but this also caused Ah Hui to inhale too much miasma during the smuggling process.
It can be said,
A narrow escape from death.
At this moment, Bai Yuze appeared.
They not only gave them medicine to treat the miasma, but also provided them with funds to live on the outskirts of Hanjiang District.
……
Bai Yuze glanced at them and said calmly, "No need for words of thanks, just keep your body data recorded on time."
"Don't worry! I keep track every day!"
Ah Long patted his chest and made a promise, then lowered his voice, his tone earnest with a touch of江湖气 (a kind of江湖江湖气 is a Chinese term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry).
"Brother Bai, could you talk to the professor about whether this project can continue after the baby is born? We'll definitely cooperate fully!"
Bai Yuze neither confirmed nor denied, only saying, "The project has a timeline, and I will provide feedback."
When leaving,
Ah Long escorted Bai Yuze to the alley entrance until Bai Yuze's figure disappeared. Only then did he rub his hands together, turn around, and hurry home.
As night deepened,
Neon lights cast long, dim shadows on the wet streets.
Bai Yuze organized the two reports he had collected and put them into his backpack.
We arrived at the last customer's house.
This is on the outskirts of Hanjiang District, and the environment is almost no different from that of Parrot District.
Bai Yuze knocked twice.
After a while
The door opened a crack, revealing a pair of overly quiet eyes.
The boy who opened the door was about eight or nine years old, named Xiaoshu. Behind him was an even younger girl, clinging tightly to his clothes; she was his six-year-old sister, Xiaohua. Both children were shockingly thin, but their clothes were faded from washing, and their hair was neatly combed.
Their father,
They used to be night patrolmen in this area and were also considered unofficial staff members of the Security Bureau's Special Operations Department. Later, due to the infiltration incident involving fake agents in Hanjiang District, their father deliberately lured away two fake agents to cover the evacuation of the neighbors, and never returned.
Meanwhile, on the security bureau's side,
The briefing only stated "missing, presumed dead," and even the compensation was not paid because the person was not a permanent employee.
At last,
The neighbors took pity on the two children and barely managed to help them out, giving them a bite to eat from one neighbor and a piece of clothing from another.
The little tree was so precocious it was heartbreaking. He didn't continue his schooling and instead did odd jobs at the garbage sorting station every day to earn a few federal points to buy the cheapest food for his sister.
The younger sister, Xiaohua, was so frightened that she never spoke a word again after that night, only staring at the world with her big, empty eyes.
What's most worrying is that
Long-term malnutrition and the small amount of miasma inhaled at that time were slowly eroding the two children's bodies.
Xiao Shu's finger joints had developed slightly unnatural growths, while Xiao Hua often had a low-grade fever and cough at night. They couldn't afford even the most basic anti-malaria medication, let alone treatment.
Bai Yuzhe crouched down, his gaze level with the two children. He didn't say many comforting words, but simply placed two boxes of Qingzhang slow-release tablets gently in Xiaoshu's cold hands, and then put the rice, meat, and fruit he had just bought at the door.
"This box of medicine is for one pill a day. You and your sister each take half a pill and dissolve it in warm water."
Bai Yuze's voice was soft, but clear.
"Okay, Brother Bai."
Xiao Shu clutched the medicine box tightly, his lips pressed together until they turned white. He didn't cry, but nodded heavily. In his eyes, which had suffered so much at such a young age, there was a kind of fortitude and gratitude that didn't belong to someone his age.
He took his sister's hand, and together they bowed deeply to Bai Yuze.
The little flower behind him remained silent, but she quietly loosened her grip on her brother's clothes, took a small step forward, and reached out her slender hand to gently touch Bai Yuze's fingertips.
This is Bai Yuze's record over the past three years.
The first time I met Xiaohua, she took the initiative to approach a stranger.
......
Bai Yuzhe did not stay in Hanjiang District for long before boarding a bus to Yingwu District.
He carried his schoolbag on his back.
His eyes were fixed on the view outside the window, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
From a distance,
He was like an ordinary, self-sufficient college student.
For a long time.
He suddenly sighed softly.
Nowadays,
He hadn't planned to do anything to that female student, but she kept coming up to him again and again.
He had no other choice but to reluctantly accept some items, and then, as a gesture of goodwill, he summoned an abyssal beast from the underground passage to help clean up the mess.
As for what happened to Min Zhirou in Maple Leaf District, Bai Yuze naturally had no idea. Even if he did know, he would only utter an "oh" at most.
He was a model student.
He had no idea about fake humans, abyssal monsters, magical girls... He only knew that he had to hurry home and cook something delicious for his family.
otherwise,
He'll most likely have to move again; we absolutely mustn't let that happen!
He finally managed to get into Dongqing University, one of the top key universities in the Dongying Autonomous Region. Every year, many well-known companies from the Xia Federation come here to recruit students, not to mention internet giants like Yiwang, Xunteng, and Weihua.
some of,
What really appealed to Bai Yuze was companies like Yuanshi Biotechnology, which were among the top 500 companies in the country and matched his expertise.
Five social insurances and one housing fund are essential, along with flexible working hours and extended paid annual leave...
The reason that moved Bai Yuze the most was
After joining this company, he will never have to worry about food and drink for the rest of his life.
If he were alone,
It doesn't really matter where he lives, but he still has an old man, so naturally he hopes the other person can live more comfortably.
"Ding-dong—"
"Qingjiangqiao Station has arrived. Passengers, please take your belongings and disembark in an orderly manner."
As the bus came to a complete stop at Qingjiang Bridge Station,
Bai Yuze slowly got off the bus. He was currently in Hanjiang District, while the other side of the bridge was Yingwu District. The visible dilapidation and the faint, sweet, and foul odor in the air created a stark contrast between the two environments in an instant.
If the difference between Maple Leaf District and Hanjiang District is only in their architectural environment, then the difference between Hanjiang District and Parrot District is probably in their public security environment.
Holly City has about ten districts.
Bai Yuze's Dongqing University is located in the Maple Forest District of Dongqing City. This is a well-known university town in the entire New Federation, with numerous universities, a dense population, a beautiful environment, and an extremely high safety factor. Magical girls are always on standby.
In name only,
During his school years, he had the right to reside in the Maple Leaf area.
But the problem is,
The housing prices, rents, and daily living costs in Maple Leaf District are extremely high, which is simply unaffordable for an ordinary college student like him.
nowadays,
His funds were only enough to survive in the parrot area.
Parrot District was originally an old port industrial area, where marginalized people gathered and there were many abandoned facilities. Most of the citizens who could not make a living in areas such as Maple Leaf District, Central District, Qinghe District, and Hanjiang District were relocated to Parrot District.
Although this place is plagued by severe miasma pollution, gang warfare, rampant chemical pollution, the presence of fake humans, and abyssal beasts that occasionally raid from the neighboring Luoshan District...
But apart from that,
Everything is fine.
After all, it is a city that belongs to humans, and the main inhabitants are still humans.
Therefore,
There are still the necessary guards.
But if something truly disastrous were to happen, it's uncertain whether they would flee first.
At the entrance of the bridge,
The crowd moved slowly in the twilight.
A young special agents in brand-new uniform impatiently waved a scanner, scrutinizing everyone who tried to pass through.
When Bai Yuze approached with his backpack...
The man's eyes lit up; Bai Yuze's neat and clean clothes stood in stark contrast to the tattered clothes around him.
Big fat sheep are here!
"stop."
The young player stepped in front, his chin slightly raised.
"Where did it come from? What's in the bag?"
Before Bai Yuzhe could even speak, the other person had already reached out and grabbed his backpack strap in a rude and unreasonable manner.
"Heading towards the parrot area? Let me check if you're smuggling any contraband!"
"Shota!" A low shout came from the side.
Almost at the same time,
A rough, large hand slapped the young player on the back of the neck with such force that he staggered forward half a step.
A middle-aged man stood between the two with a stern face. He first glared at the younger team member, and then his expression softened when he turned to Bai Yuze.
"Bai, it's alright." The middle-aged man's voice was as calm as ever. "Just show your identification as required."
"Uncle Jian'er, I'm in trouble."
As he spoke, Bai Yuze handed over his student ID.
The young team member rubbed the back of his neck, still looking defiant, but his expression suddenly froze when he caught sight of the light green student ID that Bai Yuze handed over.
Kenji Morikawa skillfully swiped his card on the terminal.
The screen lights up:
Name: Bai Yuze
Age: 21
School: Holly University
Major: Abyssal Creature Deconstruction (Fourth Year)
The young team member's pupils dilated slightly. He stared at the four characters "Dongqing University" for a full two seconds, then looked up at Bai Yuze's calm face. His previous arrogance deflated quickly like a punctured balloon.
He subconsciously took a small step back, his lips moved, but in the end he didn't say anything.
Kenji Morikawa routinely scanned the backpack with the scanner, and the green light smoothly lit up.
He handed the documents back to Bai Yuze, his tone gentle:
"Bai, go on ahead. It's getting dark, and the parrot area... please be careful."
"Okay, I understand, Uncle Jian." When Bai Yuze took the card, he could sense a hint of envy and resentment from the young team members.
Bai Yuze slung his bag over his shoulder.
Continue walking towards the dimly lit street ahead.
rustle--
The wind blowing across the bridge carried the fading rusty scent of Hanjiang District and the familiar, sweet, and pungent miasma of Parrot District. Behind him came Kenji Morikawa's low-pitched reprimand:
"Shota, those are students from Fuyuki University! What are you doing, blocking my way? Watch your eyes next time..."
"What's so great about being a student at Fuyuki University, Morikawa-senpai? Your son is a student at Fuyuki University too!"
Kenji Morikawa remained silent for a long time, opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately could not say anything.