At 1:00 a.m., the Third Hospital of Shanqing District.
Gao Yang rushed into the lobby of the emergency building and saw his sister sitting on a blue public chair at once. She was still wearing her pajamas, a pair of slippers, her hair was disheveled, and her face was full of tearstains.
When Gao Xinxin saw Gao Yang appear, she rushed forward and hugged her brother, crying out again.
Gao Yang touched his sister's head, "Where is Dad now?"
"Second floor, I'll take you there." Gao Xinxin grabbed her brother's hand and left.
On the way here, Gao Yang had already understood the situation through the phone.
Gao Yang's father had socialized with a client until late and drank, so he called for a substitute driver, but the substitute driver turned out to be fatigued, and collided with another minivan at an intersection.
The chauffeur died on the spot, the rear seat of the father wearing a seatbelt, although dodged a bullet, but also seriously injured, was rescued and sent directly to the hospital rescue, the nurse to pack the clothes found his wallet and documents, and gave Gao Yang's mother called.
The mother almost fainted on the spot, the clothes did not care to change, took his sister out. The grandmother is not good health, has fallen asleep, mother and daughter did not dare to wake her, more likely to tell her.
Gao Yang and his sister rushed out of the elevator, and at a glance, they saw their mother in the corridor, she was also wearing pajamas and slippers, her hair was disheveled, her face was haggard, and her eyes were red and swollen, she was sitting on the seat outside the door of the operating room. As soon as she saw her son and daughter, she immediately stood up and went forward to hug the two children.
"Mom, I'm afraid ..." said her sister through sobs.
The mother didn't say anything, but her hands were clearly shaking.
Gao Yang hugged his mother and sister, "It's okay, it's okay, Dad will be fine."
...
The surgery was long and went on until the middle of the night.
The doctor came out of the operating room, covered in blood, wearing a medical mask, his voice a little tired, "Temporarily out of life-threatening danger, but the situation is not optimistic. We've done everything that needs to be done, the rest is up to him. Also, you guys have to be psychologically prepared, even if he manages to survive this time, he might have to be wheelchair bound for life afterward."
"Thank you doctor! Thank you, it's good to survive ..." The mother had nothing else to ask for and was grateful.
"It's part of the job." The doctor politely said a few words and left.
After that, Gao Yang's family stayed outside again, waiting until 5:00 a.m., when the doctor told them that their father was confirmed to be out of a life-threatening situation, and only then did the stone in the mother's heart fall to the ground.
See mother and sister face haggard, Gao Yang let them go home to rest, mother and daughter refused.
Gao Yang patiently persuade: "the three of us have not slept the whole night, Dad's side must be guarded in turn, you now go home to rest, only in the afternoon to pick up my shift ah, and you two are still wearing pajamas, like what words, hurry back."
Only after hearing these words did her mother finally agree, she looked up at her son and said with relief, "Yangyang has grown up."
Gao Yang froze, "Have you?"
"Well, especially this period of time, although it is often very late to go home, but it always feels ... like he understands a lot."
Gao Yang had mixed feelings for a while, after the awakening, instead of being more knowledgeable, not that he was more cautious.
Soon, his mother left with his sister, and Gao Yang continued to stand guard outside the ICU. During this time he was tired, but couldn't sleep, his mind wandered, unconsciously remembering the events of his childhood.
When he was a child, Gao Yang lived in the suburbs of the county, when his grandfather was still alive, a family of six living in a two-story concrete house built by themselves, the house has a front yard, outside the yard planted a ginkgo tree, every fall, full of golden yellow.
The family ran a small store called "Happy Supermarket", selling snacks and daily necessities, so they could not starve, nor could they get rich.
My father was very smart and always had a good business mind, and there were a lot of books on success at home. He always bragged that when he saved up enough money, he would open a factory with his friends, and when he made money, he would go to the city to live, buy a school house and a car, and let the family live a good life.
The year Gao Yang graduated from elementary school, his father really made a small fortune and moved the family out of the city.
Father and his friends opened a food processing plant, mainly processing a variety of soybean products, in order to promote their products, he ran every day customers, cell phone stored thousands of numbers, all the owners of large and small supermarkets. The better the business, the more socializing, half of the time every month in the company of customers drink, every time drunk.
"Da da da."
There were footsteps approaching, and Gao Yang was immediately alerted.
He looked up, it was the attending doctor who was responsible for resuscitating his father, this time he had already taken off his white coat and his mask and changed into civilian clothes.
"Drink?" The doctor held two cups of coffee and sat down beside Gao Yang, handing a cup of coffee to him, the aroma overflowing.
"Thanks." Gao Yang was not polite, took it and took a sip, his body warmed up quite a bit.
Gao Yang shot a sideways glance at the doctor beside him, the other party, although he had the aura of a middle-aged man, he was very youthful, only looking at his appearance he was at most in his thirties.
The doctor was tall, slim, with deep, angular features, slightly curly hair, wearing literally black-framed glasses, wearing a dark gray British-style wool sweater, khaki pants, brown oxford shoes, wearing a vintage quartz watch on his wrist, and a simple silver ring on his slender ring finger.
In short, taking off his white coat, he is more like a melancholy literary youth.
Holding his coffee cup in both hands, he gently took a sip and tilted his head to look at the window at the end of the corridor, where the first rays of the morning light poured in, a soft glow so clear and holy that it seemed to come from heaven.
"This is my favorite time of day." The doctor spoke faintly, his voice slightly low but gentle.
Gao Yang froze, realizing that he was talking to himself, he half stifled a sentence, "Because ... the morning sunshine makes people hopeful?"
"No, because I can finally get off work." The doctor laughed.
Gao Yang also laughed.
"How old are you this year?" The doctor asked again.
"Eighteen."
"Eighteen, isn't that about to be a college entrance exam."
"Yeah."
"Where do you plan to go to college?"
"Haven't thought about it yet." Gao Yang said.
"Your dad's in this situation ...," the doctor sighed slightly, "I think it's better for you to consider the city, the University of the City of Departure is very good, it's also a book."
Gao Yang felt something was wrong, this doctor, was a little too enthusiastic. He put down his coffee cup and moved his butt to the side.
The doctor was keenly aware of Gao Yang's change and smiled faintly, "Are you afraid of me?"
Gao Yang's heart tightened and he didn't say anything, he didn't move and used his afterglow to look for elevators, emergency passages, and windows in the corridor, but his mouth pretended to be confused, "Afraid of you, why are you afraid of you?"
"Fear that I am a beast." The doctor said.
Gao Yang almost jumped up, but was grabbed by Dr. Zhao's wrist, the movement was not rough, but solid and strong. Gao Yang tried to break free, but couldn't do it, the other party was controlling the strength in a precise manner, always keeping it one point larger than Gao Yang.
Dr. Zhao's smile returned to his face, "Don't be afraid, if you want to kill you, you're already dead."
When Gao Yang thought about it, he felt that it made sense, which slowly calmed down a bit, he pretended to be calm and asked directly, "Are you an Awakened, or a beast?"
"What do you say?" The doctor asked rhetorically with a smile.
"I don't know." Gao Yang honestly said that as he got to know the beasts better, it seemed that the more difficult it was to tell the line between them and humans.
"Gifted Red Eyes, Serial Number 131. i rely on temperature to recognize man from beast. Overall, the body temperature of beasts is a little bit higher than that of humans, and there is a subtle but regular difference in distribution." The doctor looked at Gao Yang, his brown eyes suddenly glowed with a faint red light, "So, I can tell at a glance that you are a human."
Gao Yang was instantly relieved, fortunately, a false alarm.
"My name is Baili Yi." The doctor extended his hand.
"Hello ... Mr. Baili, my name is Gao Yang." Gao Yang extended his hand, his complexion visibly relaxed.
"It hasn't been long since you awakened, right?" Baili Yi asked.
"How do you know?"
"You seem to be more afraid of beasts than Awakened ones."
Gao Yang was stunned, "Shouldn't I be?"
Baili Yi smiled meaningfully, "What's there to fear about beasts? You won't be in any danger as long as you follow the rules and continue to play the innocent lamb. Rather than playing the role of a human, they have the two personalities and shells of a human and a beast. As long as you don't go ahead and flip the switch in their bodies, and don't activate the 'beast' personality and shell, in a sense, they are the same kind of people we spend time with."
Gao Yang was puzzled: this explanation was somewhat similar to Officer Huang's understanding.
Baili Yi slightly adjusted his sitting posture, leaning forward, the morning sun melted away behind him, and a faint golden luster flowed over the rims of his glasses, "In comparison, people are much more terrifying than beasts."
Gao Yang pondered over this sentence, momentarily at a loss as to how to answer.
He decided to change the topic, "You're a surgeon, you do surgeries every day, the vast majority of people you come into contact with are beasts, right, won't they be exposed?"
Baili Yi shook his head, "Beasts are not much different from our bodies when they are not bestialized, it's just that their metabolism, self-healing ability and immunity are slightly stronger, as well as their reproductive system is a tiny bit less real, but I've also seen cases where they are fake to be real, and if it wasn't for the fact that I have Red Eyes, I would have almost been fooled."
Gao Yang immediately thought of Officer Huang's "pregnant" wife, perhaps his wife is the beast of truth.
Baili Yi continued to leisurely drink his coffee, as if chatting about a very common topic, "Beasts also have a life cycle, similar to humans, young and fragile, strong in adulthood, and decaying in old age. Since beasts have been conscientiously playing the role of a human twenty-four hours a day, the ability to be a beast is constantly decaying, the older the beast the more serious the degradation, many elderly beasts, even if they change back to their animalized state, their combat power may not be as good as that of an adult human."
Gao Yang recalled the "Auntie He" who attacked him in the love hotel, at that time, Officer Huang also said that Auntie He's degradation was a bit serious, otherwise her fighting strength would still be several times stronger.
"Then my family, are they actually people or ... beasts?" Gao Yang wanted to know the answer and was afraid to know the answer, asking this question, his throat tightened and his heartbeat sped up.
"I can't tell you, it's against the rules." Baili Yi smiled apologetically, "As a matter of fact, I've already broken the rules by talking to you today, please make sure you keep it a secret."
How ironic, Gao Yang was actually relieved, he thought of something else, "Are you also from the organization?"
"Organization?" Baili Yi toyed with the word, "If I must say, I do belong to an organization."
"Mr. Baili, I just awakened not long ago, I have many questions I want to ask you." Gao Yang couldn't let go of this opportunity and asked them all in his head.
"I've heard that beasts don't really have a reproductive system, so how did beasts come about? And where did we humans come from? Why did they put us humans amongst them and go to such lengths to play house with us? Why is it that we only realize our gifts when we discover the truth?
"Why is it that once we humans awaken, the beasts around us switch states and try to kill us? Also, how many kinds of beasts are there? Are they all bad? Can humans and beasts have children? Is this only the case around me, or is this the case all over the world ..."
Baili Yi smiled playfully, "Poor lad, really suffocated."
Gao Yang wanted to cry without tears, since his awakening, he was filled with these questions, thinking about them for a long time could drive a person crazy.
"I'm sorry, I don't know the answers to a lot of questions, and the ones I know the answers to, I can't tell you." Baili Yi pondered slightly, "In this case, let's send you one last message."