After a while of staring at the bright laptop screen, Ariana's eyes started to water up. Seeing that her eyes were showing signs of irritation, Susu forced her to rest. She was reluctant at first, but her sleepiness kicked in.
"Wait! Just let me press the enter key first. Let the code load by itself. I'll rest for the time being." Ariana said as she hugged her laptop, refusing to let anyone touch it.
Susu sighed, "Fine! But only a few more minutes."
As promised, Ariana ran the program she had coded and put her laptop aside. While they rested, the guys came into the room to announce their research results.
Chen Nan gave Ariana a peck on the forehead before telling them the results. The expressions they showed already summed up what they were about to say to them.
Chen Mu frowned and shook his head, "We've repeated the same procedures for research on all machines, and it came out to an error code. Something is weird about this pill, but we can't risk it because we only have one. If we make the wrong guess, then this pill will be destroyed."
Beep
Ariana picked up her laptop and started scrolling through the information that popped up on her screen. "Tsk, some bastard cleared Shi Kow Wan's data. The data only shows that he was the founder of Shi Corps and his retirement date. Nothing else. Interesting. If we go back there, we better get ready for a war because there's literally little to no information for us to use as an advantage."
"I'll dig up information about the rest of the Shi family like Shi Huang Jie, Shi Shan Shan and whoever else could benefit from the company. While I'm at it, I might as well search their most visited places to see if there is anything suspicious." Clicking her tongue, she started typing again.
At the same time, Susu's hands slowly reached to her lower abdomen. After a few minutes of enduring the throbbing pain in her stomach, she bit her lip and pressed hard onto her tummy. Noticing the faint and fatigue feeling from her body, she lost her balance and fell onto Chen Mu.
"Susu? What's wrong?" Chen Mu picked her up and rest her on the empty bed next to Ariana's bed. Her clothes were drenched in her cold sweat with visible perspiration droplets forming on her forehead and neck.
"My tummy hurts.." Susu whispered as her heavy eyelids barely had the strength to lift up. Her hand clenched onto her lower abdomen area with the minimal energy she had left.
Grabbing the medical kit, he had previously prepared for Ariana; Chen Mu took out the glucose test device. Taking a strip and new needle, he took a drip of blood from her finger. Checking the results from the device, his eyes widened in shock and demanded someone to bring something sweet for her.
"This is impossible! She just ate less than an hour ago, but her body has an abnormally low glucose level! It's so low that it is close to having barely any! Quick! Lollipop! There are lollipops at the main counter. Anything is fine as long as it is sweet!"
Lin Que rushed out and came back with a bowl of lollipops. Unwrapping one lollipop, he stuffed it into Susu's mouth. Meanwhile, Chen Nan poured a cup of water and mixed sugar packets into it.
"Take out the lollipop and have her drink this first. She's dehydrated. Have her drink some fluids before sucking on the lollipop." Chen Mu took the cup of sugar water and fed it slowly to Susu's mouth. She mumbled, "Bathroom.."
"You need to use the bathroom? Hold on, I'll bring you to it." He put down the empty cup and carried her to the private bathroom. Zi Yan and Lily followed along since they were female. It is more convenient for them to help Susu than Chen Mu in this situation.
Every few minutes, Chen Mu would ask them about Susu's condition. After half an hour had passed, Zi Yan and Lily helped carry Susu out. While helping her settle under covers, Chen Mu felt her forehead. "Her forehead is cold."
She shivered and chanted, "Cold..Cold.." Her body trembled in bed as they added two more blankets to warm her body up. When Chen Mu felt her neck, hands and feet, he also found them cold. "Lin Que, get the heat packs from my office. It's in the second drawer of my desk. Hurry. Her body temperature is very low."
Chen Nan took the thermometer from the medical kit and inserted the tip to her ear. Less than a minute later, the thermometer beeped. "85 degrees Fahrenheit?!! The average normal body temperature is around 97.8 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not even winter right now, and she was in the hospital the entire time! There's no way her body could drop to this low!"
Lin Que brought the heat packs to the room and started ripping the paper off of it. With Lin Que, Chen Nan and Chen Mu's rapidness, heat packs were successfully attached to her body within the next minutes. After waiting for another fifteen minutes, they checked her temperature again, but nothing changed. Her temperature remained at 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
"What's wrong with Susu?" Grandpa Xia finally opened his mouth and asked when he saw them observing her condition with such solemn expressions. Fear crept into his heart as he watched Susu's complexion remain pale. She was unconscious.
Chen Mu rubbed her hands in his palms as he explained the current situation to everyone in the room.
"Her body suddenly went through high metabolism and absorbed most of the sugar in her system. After feeding her something sugary, she should be fine. But right now, she is still unconscious and her body temperature is abnormally low. If her temperature drops or remains at 85 degrees Fahrenheit, it may bring damage to her organs."
"When body temperature drops like this, the blood vessels would narrow. This means the body would try to keep the blood circulating inside the body warm to keep organs warm. If her temperature drops too low or maintains this way, she may face serious consequences. Her organs may be damaged and..."
"And there is a risk of death." He gritted his teeth when he said this part. Hearing her sudden deteriorated condition, Grandpa Xia fell back to his seat. Zi Yan took Susu's other hand and started rubbing it between her hands.
"I don't believe this! She will get better. My daughter won't die suddenly from this. I won't let this happen. Susu, you could hear mom, right? Wake up! Don't fall asleep. Fight the tiredness no matter what. You need to wake up. Do you hear me?!" She almost screamed when she said it. Her eyes were reddened by fury and panic as she looked at Susu's closed eyes.
Chen Nan and Lin Que went to set up the ventilator on Susu in case she encounters breathing problems.
Ariana looked back and forth from her laptop screen to Susu multiple times. Skimming through the newest information on her laptop, her pupils dilated. She got off her bed and said, "Chen Nan, we're going back. No need to wait for the pill. There's no time. We need to get Qian Ling as soon as possible."
"But we don't have anything about our enemies. How are we supposed to bring Qian Ling out of there?"
"I know we can't act recklessly, but Susu needs help as soon as possible! Even if I have to bomb the entire place down, I will do it just to help her escape. We can look at the map again and determine which routes to take. Time is running out."
Grandpa Xia wished there was a faster method to save Susu, but he couldn't risk their lives like pouring water down the streets. "You can't go empty handed! You'll lose to the enemy if you walk into a war with them in the hidden, but you in the spotlight."
"Grandpa. I know one person who could and will definitely help us. Alexander. He owes me it." She clenched her fist as she mentioned his name.
"How do you know he could help us?" Chen Nan questioned as she hadn't mention about him being able to help before.
"Because he saved us once from that horrible place. And...from my most updated research about the Shi family, Alexander...is a Shi member as well." Everyone's eyes landed on her and silence dropped in the room as the crowd was shocked by the news.
She was the first to break the silence in the room as she announced her final decision, "We're going. We need to pack immediately and plan our routes."
Chen Nan nodded, "Okay. But first, take these supplements. Chen Mu, you've prepared the supplements for her to carry, so that should be fine for our child. Continue taking care of Susu while we decide the routes to take. We'll leave by evening."
Chen Mu looked up at the couple and squeezed Susu's hand, "Thank you."