Chapter 25: Treatment Plan

Chapter 25: Treatment Plan

Contamination has an outbreak period, just like the flu, where flare-ups happen during certain seasons before subsiding into relative calm.

Q City had finally entered such a period of comparative tranquility.

Li Zhiyan remained in the eastern district. The Gravedigger contamination incident had been completely resolved, surrounding pollutants cleared, ordinary people with no issues returned home to continue their lives, and the Guard Team was pulling out completely. Li Zhiyan was waiting for all guards to evacuate before leaving himself.

Zhou Ye was squatting next to him keeping watch.

"Boss," Zhou Ye idly gossiped, "still haven't gotten that new member on board?"

Hearing this, Li Zhiyan glanced at Zhou Ye, then at his ignored photos. He'd been sending daily photos of flowers and plants, only to get yellow bean emojis back from Shen Ji—the clear vibe of 'I'm not ignoring you but I am brushing you off'.

Finally seeming annoyed, Shen Ji finally engaged in some actual conversation.

"No. 1 Face: Does Mr. Li's fondness for flora stem from butterfly genes?"

"Li Zhiyan: No, actually I have a dream of being a photographer."

"No. 1 Face: ..."

Then it returned to the pattern of one photo earning one bean emoji.

Getting someone to join the team was a long and difficult road.

Just then, Li Zhiyan's communicator vibrated with an incoming message. He opened it.

The sender was Jiang Ying.

Jiang Ying, deputy captain of the Special Operations Team, was an impressive woman appointed by Li Zhiyan specifically to hold ground at the Q City Pollution Prevention Center headquarters against dealing with those old guys upstairs. Despite her gentle appearance, no one could out-argue her in debate.

In a pollution-free past, she would've made a great debater.

"Jiang Ying: Captain, Mr. Chu is here again."

Zhou Ye leaned over to see the message and made a hissing sound, "Another treatment failure?"

Mr. Chu, born Chu Ye, was a senior commander at the Pollution Prevention Center and a B-level mutant who would join frontline battles against pollutants during emergencies. Among the few people Zhou Ye respected, Chu Ye was one of them.

Chu Ye and Li Zhiyan had previously collaborated frequently on missions.

Until one incident: leading a guard team into a mysterious contaminated zone where he didn't find anything unusual, only to discover upon exit that all team members had vanished. His search efforts proved futile—the empty contamination zone contained only him left alive.

Returning to the Pollution Prevention Center, he was tested and found to have a contamination level of 37, officially designating him a contaminated patient.

A contamination zone capable of contaminating a B-level mutant hinted at unimaginable dangers.

Given his special status, with contamination not affecting his rationality and no leakage occurring, Chu Ye avoided isolation in shelters like other contaminated patients but lost all chance to work on the front lines due to his contamination level.

Hence his continuous pursuit of treatment.

After ensuring all people who needed to leave had left the eastern district, Li Zhiyan finally boarded the vehicle returning to the Q City Pollution Prevention Center branch he hadn't been back to in a long time.

Upon entering, he saw the man sitting in his chair sighing.

When he saw Li Zhiyan return, he stood up. "You're back."

"If it's about another failed treatment, don't bother telling me," Li Zhiyan remarked casually as he took the opposite seat.

"You complain about this to me seven times a month."

Chu Ye: "..."

He's so good at annoying people; friends with this guy is nothing but trouble!

"But right now, I don’t know who else I can talk to. I’ve tried so many places, and none of them worked. My pollution level has reached 39, and I'm about to hit the next stage." Chu Ye forced himself to continue, "I can’t just die from this illness. There are still things I haven’t done, I still have to—"

"You still have to find that contaminated zone and bring back the people who were lost there," Li Zhiyan jumped in and finished for him.

"You’ve said that to me a dozen, twenty times already."

Chu Ye let out a heavy sigh. "No matter how many times, I’ll keep saying it. I can’t let them disappear for no reason."

Li Zhiyan yawned, unhurriedly poured himself a glass of water, and then handed Chu Ye an empty cup.

Chu Ye was long used to Li Zhiyan’s ways. When handed an empty cup, he went to pour water for himself without hesitation.

After taking a sip of water, Li Zhiyan sat still for a few seconds before speaking. "Why don’t you try going to the Shelter?"

"The Shelter?" Chu Ye was taken aback, utterly surprised. "No way. Even Healing-type mutants couldn’t cure me. How could the Shelter do it? The average cure rate at Shelters is only 8%."

"Li Zhiyan, don’t mess with me. I’m in a really bad mood right now."

Li Zhiyan took another sip of water. "Just give it a try. Go to the Q City Shelter."

"What? Why?" Chu Ye was puzzled. "As far as I remember, the recent major pollution leak in Q City started from your Q City Shelter."

"Yeah, that’s right." Li Zhiyan didn’t even blink, his cool blue eyes fixed steadily on Chu Ye. "But things are different now. That’s why I suggest you give it a try."

"I wouldn’t harm you."

Chu Ye stared back at Li Zhiyan in confusion. This venting session had ended in such a bizarre way that he could only down a full glass of water in frustration.

On the way back, Chu Ye sat in the back seat of the car, staring at the pollution detector on his wrist and lost in thought.

Li Zhiyan might be abstract and twisted, but he rarely lied. If he suggested going to the Shelter, it meant he genuinely believed it could help.

What? Did the Q City Shelter stumble upon some miracle cure?

He muttered to himself.

The driver was his subordinate, a member of the team he personally led. Hearing his words, the driver chimed in.

"Speaking of the Q City Shelter, word is they’re announcing something today. They already notified the Pollution Prevention Center yesterday about a city-wide report. Captain, do you want to see what it’s about?"

"Really?"

Chu Ye opened his communicator in the car and navigated to the Pollution Prevention Center’s announcement webpage. This site usually published information on releasable pollutant types, including research reports from the Academy of Sciences and treatment plans from Shelters. Sure enough, when he clicked in, the traffic on the page was huge—many people were waiting for news from the Shelter.

His timing was perfect. Soon, the Shelter’s official account released a video.

Chu Ye recognized the squinty-eyed old man on the video thumbnail as Wen Jingyu, the Director of the Q City Shelter.

The Shelter Director himself was making this announcement?

Curious, he continued watching.

Wen Jingyu wasn’t standing at a podium. He was fully suited up in white protective gear, surrounded by others similarly dressed—clearly medical staff from the Shelter. The background was clearly the Shelter's ward area.

"Today, our Q City Shelter has an announcement: we have successfully developed a specialized drug to counteract 'Decaying Organism' contamination."

With that single sentence, Chu Ye's eyes widened, and the driver, startled, jerked the steering wheel, nearly throwing Chu Ye off the back seat.

Chu Ye had no time to complain; he quickly steadied himself and continued watching the video.

Wen Jingyu reached over and picked up the vial from the dish. "Now, I will conduct a live demonstration/test for everyone."

This was the first time the shelter had publicly revealed the current condition of healthcare workers with occupational exposure. Inside the isolation room, a medical worker lay in a coffin-like apparatus, his body showing multiple signs of decay, with even glimpses of white bone were visible. The isolation detector beside him displayed the patient's contamination level: 67.

This was a Stage III contaminated patient.

Wen Jingyu opened the door of the isolation room and injected the medicine into the patient's body. Soon, the patient's body began healing at a visible rate. The decayed portions showed clear improvement, and although not fully healed, the improvement was clear. The contamination level on the detector dropped to 64.

It was evident that this specialized drug was successful—and remarkably so!

"Finally, I must add one more thing: this specialized drug specifically targets the pollution disease 'Decaying Organisms.' After administration, it significantly curbs the progression of this contamination, raising the cure rate by 30 percentage points."

"We're announcing this so quickly to tell everyone: our shelter has not given up. We have not given up on saving everyone, nor have we given up on our patients."

"We hope everyone will continue to trust us."

The video ended, and Chu Ye finally looked up, certain that this video would cause quite a stir.

At this stage, contamination diseases remained incurable, with extremely low cure rates. Even among the 8% who recovered, most were mutants, who naturally had resistance to contamination and were more likely to heal during treatment. But now, the Q City Shelter had actually overcome one of these contamination diseases.

Don't look down on this 30% cure rate—remember, the previous rate was only 8%!

"Turn around!" Chu Ye shouted. "We're going to the Q City Shelter!"

"Way ahead of you!" the driver chuckled. "I turned the moment I heard the shelter had successfully developed the specialized drug!"

The more Chu Ye thought about it, the more convinced he became. He quickly opened his comms device and sent a message to Li Zhiyan.

"Chu Ye: Buddy! I knew you really had my best interests at heart!"

Soon, Li Zhiyan replied.

He completely ignored Chu Ye's response and instead sent him a photo of some flowers and plants.

"Li Zhiyan: Nice, right?"

"Chu Ye: Bro, are these your flowers? Why do they look so wilted? Did they attract bugs?"

"Li Zhiyan: These aren’t flowers I planted."

"Chu Ye: Then whose are they?"

"Li Zhiyan: I sent my perfect photography to someone, and that person sent me this photo in return. They told me they’re a plant killer and can only grow flowers like this. What do they mean by that?"

"Chu Ye: ...Uh, asking you for gardening tips?"

In his office, Li Zhiyan looked at the message with disdain.

"I didn’t expect Chu Ye’s emotional intelligence to be so low. Looks like I shouldn’t chat with him anymore—what if it makes me dumb too?"

/

The phones at the Q City Shelter were ringing off the hook. Chu Ye couldn’t get through no matter how many times he tried, but it was easy to guess that calls were pouring in from every city after people watched the video, all asking if it was true.

Fortunately, Chu Ye’s status was indeed special. Even though he had been taken off frontline duty and had his movements restricted, he was still one of the high-ranking officials at the Pollution Prevention Center.

He entered the quarantine facility just like that, relying on his status.

Wen Jingyu, the Director of Q City Containment Facility, was the one to receive him. In fact, Wen had already guessed his purpose the moment he heard that Chu Ye had arrived.

After all, the news of Chu Ye’s contamination had been a huge scandal back then. Everyone knew Chu Ye had been searching for a doctor who could treat his contamination. He had been clinging to a desperate hope—to recover fully and return to that mysterious contaminated zone to search for the missing members of the guard team.

Still, it was a little surprising to Wen Jingyu that Chu Ye would seek treatment at an ordinary containment facility.

Or perhaps… he was also in the know? Had he obtained information through some channel and come specifically for a certain someone?

At this thought, Wen Jingyu sat up straight, carefully considering his wording.

“There’s no need for you to state your purpose; I’m well aware of it.”

When meeting with Chu Ye for discussions, Wen Jingyu narrowed his eyes as usual. The elderly man looked quite serious. “However, I hope you will not talk about this publicly. Our facility no longer wishes to give him more to handle.”

Chu Ye was puzzled, but it was no secret that he had been seeking medical help everywhere, so it was natural for Wen Jingyu to know.

As for not publicizing it—did it mean he shouldn’t disclose that he was receiving treatment at the containment facility? That made sense. If it got out that he had used his privileges to seek treatment at a containment facility, it would cause trouble for both him and the facility.

“Of course,” Chu Ye replied, having figured it out. He smiled politely. “Since I’ve chosen this place, I will naturally abide by its rules.”

Wen Jingyu seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “Then let me take you to meet the doctor in charge.”

Chu Ye was a good patient. Although his treatment had shown little progress, he always followed the doctor’s instructions without question, never offering his own opinions. He took his medication and injections on time and was very willing to try new experimental drugs.

So, when Wen Jingyu told him to go, he went. Even if he were asked to enter a containment isolation room, he would have complied.

Passing through office areas and various examination zones, they proceeded deeper into the contaminated disease ward. The elevator descended and soon dinged, signaling they had arrived.

Chu Ye saw the sign outside the elevator: Ward 1.

“Xiao Ji,” Wen Jingyu suddenly called out a name.

Chu Ye looked ahead and saw a young man in a white coat.

He appeared very young, especially standing next to Wen Jingyu. He seemed to be only in his twenties. His white coat was impeccably neat, and behind black-rimmed glasses, his dark eyes were cold. His expression showed little fluctuation. The badge on his chest read 'Shen Ji.'

When Shen Ji saw Wen Jingyu, he simply addressed him as Dr. Wen and then fell silent.

First impression: a young doctor who seemed reliable but quite silent.

“This is Chu Ye,” Wen Jingyu introduced him to the young doctor. “He is also a contaminated patient, though his contamination is not contagious, so he doesn’t need to be admitted to the containment facility. I have arranged for him to be housed separately. Starting today, you will be responsible for his contamination treatment.”

The young doctor gave him a strange look, then turned to Wen Jingyu. “Such a special patient? And you want *me* to take charge?”

“He just doesn't need to be isolated. Other than that, he’s no different from other patients. He isn’t particularly special.”

The young doctor glanced at him again, then nodded.

Chu Ye watched him, lost in thought. Wait—this was the doctor in charge of his contamination treatment? So young?

However, it wasn’t just Chu Ye who was lost in thought—Shen Ji was also deep in thought.

'Chu Ye… that name sounds so familiar,' Shen Ji was chatting with his system.

“Chu Ye, the tragic male supporting character of the entire story. A man who uses his own suffering to make the readers cry. A true man who perseveres to the very end.”

At this, Shen Ji finally remembered.

In the final chapter, the author gradually rushed the ending, so Shen Ji skimmed through it very briefly, leaving few memorable points. However, Chu Ye indeed had a significant and vivid presence in this chapter.

He was once a collaborator of the protagonist, Li Zhiyan—a highly strategic commander. But during a certain operation, he contracted the pollution disease and withdrew from the front lines. Then, in the final chapter, a mysterious pollution emerged, unprecedentedly trapping the protagonist.

So Chu Ye led a team to the scene. Struggling with his polluted body, he found the protagonist, tore an opening in the polluted zone, and was finally buried in that unknown contaminated area alongside the subordinates he had been searching for relentlessly.

Due to the rushed ending, this plot point was written rather hollow and straightforward. Nevertheless, the image of Chu Ye sending Li Zhiyan out of the polluted zone and standing there smiling at him still left a slight shock on Shen Ji. In the end, he had finally fulfilled his long-held obsession: to find the team members who had gone missing in the polluted land.

'Huh? I remember he held a high position and great power, so why is he coming to the shelter? Doesn’t the Pollution Prevention Center keep a few Healing-type mutants?'

"If it were truly effective, he would have been cured long ago. He must've tried it all already and had no other options left. Now he’s here at the Q-City Shelter to try his luck with their special medicine."

'Speaking of which, those veteran doctors are quite impressive too. They actually discovered the special medicine in such a short time.'

"Obviously, it’s because you’ve been secretly suppressing the pollution. Otherwise, just resolving the security concerns would have given the shelter a headache for half a year."

'I observed the special medicine research to make the mushrooms eat. They were so hungry they cried in my ears at night, keeping me up all night.'

"You starve the small mushrooms, make the small mushrooms cry. You’re bad!"

Shen Ji ignored the system amusing itself.

Perhaps life had been too peaceful lately, as the system was losing it. Shen Ji officially diagnosed it as a mental patient.

"……"

"Isn’t the mental patient the protagonist, not me?"

'Huh? Didn’t we agree that he’s got something wrong with his brain?'

This topic ticked Shen Ji off.

He had worked as a journalist for many years, braving wind and rain, handling everything meticulously. By all logic, he had a deep understanding of human nature, yet he completely failed to comprehend what kind of oddball Li Zhiyan was.

Since the 'petal explosion incident' was discovered, Shen Ji had never ignored Li Zhiyan's messages again. Instead, he replied half-heartedly with an emoji and left it at that.

But Li Zhiyan persistently sent him messages, texting him endless photos of flowers and plants for no reason. Every time he received a message, Shen Ji thought about blocking this person.

'Next time, I’ll give him a potted plant sprayed with a lethal dose of paraquat to poison him,' Shen Ji declared.

"Given his track record of eating poisonous mushrooms without any issues, I doubt paraquat would kill him. It might even expose us. Forget it."

'Next time, I’ll give him a potted plant sprayed with a lethal dose of 502 glue to seal his mouth shut,' Shen Ji persisted.

"……"

No sane person would put 502 glue in their mouth, right?

Every time Shen Ji said such things deadpan, the system needed a moment to digest it.

On the surface, he appeared so silent and steady, the very image of reliability that elders trusted and juniors relied on. Yet, inwardly, he was more abstract than anyone, talking nonsense nonstop.

"Then I’ll text you Mr. Chu’s address soon," Dr. Wen said with a smile.

Shen Ji replied with a hum, his tone serious and exceedingly responsible. Behind his black-framed glasses, his eyes held a silent warmth that made people instinctively want to trust him.

The entire shelter had already been won over, sure he was just that kind and good.

It wasn’t until Wen Jingyu and Chu Ye had both left that the system spoke up.

"Should we treat him?"

"You mean Chu Ye?" Shen Ji turned and walked toward the patient ward—his work for the day wasn’t finished yet. "I'd rather not get involved. He’s connected to the protagonist. If I treat him, the protagonist will just find another excuse to bother me."

"But because the original work was rushed, Chu Ye died abruptly. His storyline was never fully developed, and that mysterious contamination zone—we still don’t know what exactly happened there."

Shen Ji understood what the system meant.

Authors aren't gods—they had memory lapses too. Sometimes they’d forget foreshadowing they planted earlier, or create conflicting settings, or end up with a rushed finale like this. But once a novel becomes a real world, all these issues manifest in reality.

For example, those two contaminants mentioned in the author’s notes actually appeared.

This contamination incident, which was only hinted at but never fully explored, might really erupt one day.

"Treating him wouldn’t stop him from entering the contamination zone, right?" Shen Ji thought for a moment. "What if we change our approach? We get on good terms with Chu Ye, then use 'concern for his safety' as an excuse to accompany him into the contamination zone. Before Chu Ye finds Li Zhiyan, we throw him off track and trap the protagonist inside permanently."

"Then we’d truly be free."

"...Such an evil plan, Shen Ji. Are you sure you don’t have a side job? Like, being a murderer or a scammer or something?"

Shen Ji: ...

"If you weren’t a system without a physical form, I’d sue you for defamation and squeeze a hefty settlement out of you."

"We'll treat him for now," Shen Ji sighed. "It’s about time to release a group of patients. If this continues, we won’t just be working from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.—we’ll be working round the clock."

"Overtime doesn’t really affect S-class contaminants."

"Obviously, you AI wouldn't understand," Shen Ji said slowly, pushing up his black-framed glasses with an air of utmost professionalism. "Under normal circumstances, humans need eight hours of sleep. Some special groups and elderly people only need six. But right now, in everyone else’s eyes, I’m getting less than four."

"Everyone at the shelter is as busy as giant pandas, but I’m the only one who's still looking flawless with no dark circles. What does that imply?"

"It implies there's something wrong with me. Long-term sleep deprivation with no visible effects—that kind of weirdness is easily linked to contamination."

"...I actually didn’t think of that."

"I must admit, you really are thorough."

"That’s why I’m a journalist," Shen Ji mused as he walked. "Anyway, now that the special medicine is developed, let’s start by controlling the contamination exposure of the medical staff with job-related exposure. Ideally, those with mild symptoms can recover and return to work. That’ll reduce the overall workload and increase break time."

"I really don’t want to buy makeup to draw dark circles on myself."

Black fungal threads emerged from Shen Ji’s neck, swaying before him demonstratively.

Shen Ji coldly rejected them. "And I don’t want to bury black fungal threads under my eyelids to fake dark circles either."

The small black mushroom retreated, visibly disappointed.

"..."

The person holding the villain’s script was already considering how to control the shelter’s cure rates to adjust flexibly rest and work schedules.

People who used to be journalists… can be downright scary.