"The efficiency of Suo Tian's team leader is indeed higher than the other groups, it was finished two days earlier than expected." The man in the white coat said with a smile as he turned around.
Hearing this, Suo Tian withdrew his gaze from studying us and looked at the man in the white coat.
He didn't answer his words, but instead raised a hand to point at us and asked, "What are they doing?"
"Dr. Y thinks that they are likely to become infected with the virus, and they have been in quarantine for three days."
The moment Bruno saw Suo Tian, the gloom and frustration on his face were swept away, replaced by hope.
He didn't even bother with Chinese this time, blurting out a string of English instead.
I nudged Shen Feng beside me and asked in a low voice, "What's he saying?"
Shen Feng leaned closer and whispered, "He's explaining the situation to Suo Tian."
"What happened?"
While I was talking with Shen Feng, Suo Tian turned to Bruno and asked in English.
"Just like Dr. Bruno said, I suspected that they might be infected with the virus. With no choice, I could only bring them in for isolation and observation." The man in the white coat spoke as the members of Team T, who had been moving boxes, put them down and all stood behind Sister T.
Seeing this, the white coat smiled with satisfaction and went on: "Boss Suo, I believe you also know that headquarters has always been extremely strict about such matters. Since they assigned us this place to assist with peripheral research, if something like this happens right at our doorstep, we must be even more cautious. Don't you agree?"
"Of course, our leader will absolutely understand. But how did things end up like this?"
The middle-aged man stepped forward to stand beside Suo Tian and asked.
"This young lady stabbed two of our members while resisting quarantine." Sister T's tone was nothing like her previous gentle one.
At this, Suo Tian glanced at her, then turned back to look at the man in the white coat, replying only with a faint "Mm."
"Why do you only talk about that? If you hadn't tormented Miss Chen, would she have been driven to this point?"
"Exactly! That foreigner just said it—what was it, SX or something? Anyway, he was definitely tormenting Chen Yang. Otherwise, after being locked up for days she was fine, but suddenly today she attacked someone? Don't just blame others, you know full well what you did." Han Xue spoke up.
"You gave her an SX scan?" Suo Tian looked at Bruno and asked in an unchanged tone.
"No, no, no! Of course not me. You know I've never supported that kind of examination." Bruno panicked and, following Suo Tian's language, spoke Chinese again.
"SX is in Section D. That's under your responsibility."
At that, Bruno glanced at the man in the white coat, then said hesitantly: "I stopped being responsible for that area three days ago."
Only then did I suddenly realize—no wonder I hadn't seen him in Section D afterward.
So he'd been reassigned by the white coat?
Hearing this, Suo Tian turned his dark eyes back to the white coat, pursed his lips, and stayed silent for a long while.
Seeing this, the bearded man suddenly pointed at me and burst out laughing, leaving everyone else baffled.
"What are you laughing at?" The middle-aged man looked at the bearded one.
"I just think, after keeping Miss Chen locked up for so long, maybe giving her an SX electric therapy session might actually cure her idiotic problem."
After he said that, ignoring the middle-aged man's instantly stiff face, he just kept laughing to himself.
…
The room was forced into silence by the bearded man's words for a full minute before Suo Tian finally spoke to the white coat: "Can they leave now?"
It was already obvious in the room that the white coat had no intention of letting us go, and Suo Tian's sudden question froze the white coat's expression for a long moment before he finally replied: "No. I can't be sure they're all safe. Not to mention that little boy."
"The residents here died within a few hours—it looked like viral infection. But so far we still don't know the cause. However, after that little boy was bitten, there are still no signs of infection." Bruno picked up the white coat's words and once again rattled off a string of English at Suo Tian.
Hearing this, Suo Tian turned his head toward us, fixing his gaze on Xiao Hu.
After looking him up and down twice, he asked, "The boy?"
"Yeah." Bruno nodded.
After staring at Xiao Hu for a while longer, Suo Tian turned his face slightly toward the middle-aged man and said, "The day after tomorrow, take him to the headquarters research institute."
"What?" The white coat's expression suddenly changed: "We can also conduct research here just fine."
Suo Tian ignored his words and instead asked, "When can the others leave?"
The white coat's face darkened. After hearing Suo Tian's question, his brows furrowed as he replied: "I will inform headquarters of their situation. A three-month quarantine is standard procedure. Boss Suo, you know this better than anyone."
At that, the middle-aged man reminded Suo Tian: "This truly is a strict requirement from headquarters."
"No." Suo Tian shook his head. "They're fine. They leave now."
"Boss Suo, but this is headquarters'—" The white coat's sentence was cut off midway by Suo Tian: "Headquarters has no authority over my matters."
"Boss…" The middle-aged man called out to Suo Tian, his expression worried.
"Enough nonsense." Suo Tian's brows furrowed, his expression tightening.
"Don't waste time. I don't want to argue with you anymore."
At these words, the white coat also frowned, staring sternly at Suo Tian for quite some time before replying: "I'm sorry, Boss Suo. These people absolutely cannot be released."
As soon as his words fell, I noticed Suo Tian's wrist suddenly flip, and a silver throwing knife appeared in his palm.
At the same time, the middle-aged man reacted quickly, grabbing hold of Suo Tian's arm with a serious expression and calling out, "Boss… Dr. Yang is from headquarters."
Seeing this, Sister T, who stood beside the white coat, suddenly raised her hand.
The T-team members beside her immediately lifted their guns, aiming them at Suo Tian.
With the sound of weapons being cocked, we were all left confused.
Wasn't the T-team also subordinate to the C-team, under Suo Tian's command?
Why would such a situation happen now?
Even the black-clad men were clearly thrown off by the situation.
Though they quickly raised their guns as well, they hesitated, unsure whether to confront the T-team across from them.
"What the hell are you all doing?" The bearded man, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly cursed angrily.
He pulled a gun from his chest and aimed it straight at the white coat. "You T-team bastards—are you trying to rebel?"
"Not at all." Sister T replied.
"We are under orders to protect the doctor's safety. No matter who it is, these are the orders we've been given."
"Sounds like you're looking to die!" The bearded man's temper flared, and he exploded in fury: "Quit spouting that bullshit! Since when did headquarters give you the right to aim your guns at the Boss?"
The middle-aged man, who had been trying to mediate, released Suo Tian's arm and turned his sharp gaze on the T-team.
After sweeping his eyes over them, he gestured for the black-clad men behind him to stand by.
The next second, having received a concrete order, they too cocked their guns and took aim.
His tone turned cold: "Our C-team also has orders to protect the Boss's safety. No matter who it is, these are the orders we've been given."
Originally standing with Sister T's side, Bruno shrank his neck and tried to scurry over to Suo Tian's side—only to be yanked back by the T-team.
I tugged Xiao Hu closer and gave Xu Shu and Shen Feng a discreet look, signaling them to shift aside.
Immediately, our group huddled by a nearby iron rack.
That way, if a firefight really broke out, Yangyang, Xiao Hu, Uncle Gazi, and the others would at least have a place to hide.
Shen Feng, Xu Shu, and I still had our guns pointed at the men in white coats, but compared to the submachine guns in their hands, the three of us with small handguns didn't have the slightest bit of deterrence.
Just as I was about to shift my gaze toward Suo Tian again, a flash of silver streaked before my eyes—a throwing knife shot straight at the white coat, embedding itself with a thud in his shoulder.
The very next second, before I could tell who fired first, a gunshot rang out.
After a brief moment of silence, the crowd instantly erupted into chaos.
Amid the bearded man's cursing, both sides opened fire.
Because the distance between us was so close, the sudden exchange left quite a few from both the black-clad men and T-team fallen.
The white coat was pulled back under Sister T's cover, retreating behind an iron shelf as bullets tore through the air.
Suo Tian also moved quickly, slipping aside with the middle-aged man and the bearded one to take cover behind the front row of shelves on our side.
The gunfire showed no sign of stopping, neither side willing to back down.
Xu Shu, Shen Feng, and I took the chance to join the fight, but none of us were any good with guns—after firing a few shots that hit nothing, we were of little help.
Soon, several black-clad men fell back to the shelves near us.
One of them shouted: "Hurry, follow us out!"
Snapping to attention, our group immediately struggled to move toward the exit with them.
But T-team had the numbers, and the space here was narrow.
It was clear we were at a disadvantage.
Just as panic set in, there came a loud crash, crash, crash!
The glass enclosures in Section A, which held animals, were all shattered.
Bruno's panicked shout followed: "Those animals just underwent virus experiments yesterday!"
His words were drowned out almost instantly by another, heavier round of gunfire.
A moment later came another series of crashes—the glass enclosures of Section B were also shattered into pieces.
And the cages in Section B… every single one of them was filled with mutated walkers.
By now, we had reached the shelves at the very front.
Hearing the noise, we turned back—and our scalps instantly went numb.
Each glass enclosure held at least a dozen walkers, and Section B had twenty or thirty such enclosures stacked together.
With all of them shattered by the crossfire, the walkers swarmed out at once.
Together with the animals from Section A, they almost immediately flooded the entire back half of the hall.
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