The Invasion Day – Chapter 18

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 18

Wen Zhaoming’s body was cold and he had no inflammation, so how could he develop such a high fever?

Fu Shiwu, who didn’t know a whole lot about medical matters, didn’t exactly understand how Wen Zhaoming’s fever came about.

He also thought about whether it was caused by the contamination, but Wen Zhaoming’s condition was very different from those who had the disease. Although he had a fever, he neither vomited nor had diarrhea, rather, he was burning like Tang Xuhai. By the time the evening came, his temperature had risen to 40°!

Now Fu Shiwu couldn’t calm down anymore. Wen Zhaoming began to sweat excessively like Tang Xuhai and couldn’t wake up, and he couldn’t take in water either.

Fu Shiwu had no choice but to give him the same treatment. He injected Wen Zhaoming with normal saline to ensure that he wouldn’t get dehydrated, then gave him antibiotics and Acetaminophen injections.

Two patients with high fever left Fu Shiwu completely devoid of any mood to even cook noodles. He directly gulped down water and turned to the emergency rations prepared by Tang Xuhai, eating them all dry.

This kind of thing should be the compressed food as told in the legends, which was high in calories and rich in nutrients, but not suitable to eat in large amounts.

After nibbling on a small piece and drinking some water, Fu Shiwu’s stomach felt 80% full in just a short while.

Today, he had injected Tang Xuhai with normal saline twice, once in the morning and once in evening, together with two doses of medicine. A total of 1,000ml of saline had been infused. Wen Zhaoming had a fever in the afternoon, so Fu Shiwu gave him 500ml of saline and added one dose of medicine.

Fu Shiwu looked at the fluid in his backpack and began to worry. At that time, he took more than twenty 250ml-packs of normal saline because he thought that they would be sufficient for Tang Xuhai alone. He never expected Wen Zhaoming to fall sick so suddenly. If tomorrow, the two of them kept burning like today, this amount of fluid definitely wouldn’t be enough.

Now he could only hope that the two would get better. If at least one person’s fever went down, the pressure on him wouldn’t be this bad.

Fu Shiwu lay on his bed with both eyes watching the normal saline from time to time. He could only rest with peace of mind when the fluid had completely been infused into both of them.

He lay there, utterly unable to sleep. Without any lights on, the bomb shelter was so dark that Fu Shiwu couldn’t see anything. The only thing that could prove that he wasn’t alone in this darkness was the sound of the other two breathing in his ears.

What if the two of them didn’t get better? What if they really burnt to death? If he was the only one left in the future, what should he do?

Back at noon, outside the residential area, Fu Shiwu had just built up his determination. But now, if he was the only person alive, could he still live on with such resolute conviction?

With all kinds of thoughts tangling in his mind, Fu Shiwu fell asleep very much reluctantly.

At 4 o’clock in the morning, Tang Xuhai, who had been in a coma for one day and one night, opened his eyes.

Entering his eyes was complete darkness. Tang Xuhai still felt slightly dizzy and couldn’t figure out where he was for a moment. Only when he heard the other two’s breathing did he realise that he was in the bomb shelter.

He raised his hand and pressed the lighting button on the watch. A bright, dazzling light suddenly emerged in the darkness.

Tang Xuhai closed his eyes and eventually adjusted to the light after a while.

He looked at his watch that showed 4:33 in the morning. Then he noticed that the date was wrong!

He blinked, feeling that either someone had adjusted his watch or he really had slept for a day.

He shined the light on the two people next to him. Fu Shiwu, who was lying in the middle, frowned with an anxious expression. He couldn’t see Wen Zhaoming on the other side, but his breathing sounded quite rough.

Being shined upon by the light from the watch, Fu Shiwu, who had been restlessly asleep, was immediately awakened.

Opening his eyes, he caught the light dangling from the opposite side. He instantly sat up and shouted in surprise: “Tang Xuhai! You woke up?!”

“Uhm.” Tang Xuhai snorted very coolly. He was still pondering what actually happened. Did someone play a prank on him and adjust the watch, or did he really lose consciousness for one day and one night? — He couldn’t quite believe that to be the truth.

Fu Shiwu didn’t know about the thoughts that were running through Tang Xuhai’s mind, so he ran over from his bed and placed one hand on Tang Xuhai’s forehead.

Due to the fever, Tang Xuhai’s reaction had been substantially slowed down by this point, and he was directly touched on his forehead.

“It’s still very hot.” Fu Shiwu muttered to himself, then he picked up the flashlight, put on his shoes and turned on the light.

Tang Xuhai covered his eyes as the bright light hit him, then Fu Shiwu handed him a thermometer: “Let’s take your temperature again.”

“How long has my fever lasted? Was I totally unconscious?” Tang Xuhai took the thermometer and stuffed it into his arm pit.

“Uhm, you were burning terribly last night, then you couldn’t wake up at all yesterday morning.” Fu Shiwu knelt down beside him, feeling extraordinarily happy to see him finally awake.

Because he had been accustomed to blurry vision all this while and had just gotten up, Fu Shiwu moved close to Tang Xuhai without his glasses on.

Fu Shiwu with glasses and without glasses were two completely different persons!

Fu Shiwu without glasses looked like a naive freshman who just entered college. His eyes cheerfully beamed with a light that could potentially blind people and his slightly pursed lips curled up, forming a clearly delighted expression.

Tang Xuhai had been treating him like an enemy all year round, and now the enemy suddenly became ten years younger. This hit him hard in the heart.

F**k! Is this guy so young?!

Have I been picking on such a young brat all this while?

He couldn’t believe that his last piece of dignity broke just like this. With much difficulty, Tang Xuhai finally opened his mouth: “Fu Shiwu, how old are you?”

“Huh?” The topic changed so abruptly, but Fu Shiwu replied obediently: “I’m 26 this year.”

“It’s still okay then…” Tang Xuhai breathed a sigh of relief. The guy was only one year younger than him, so his dignity was preserved.

“Do you want water?” Fu Shiwu said thoughtfully.

For half a day, he was all alone and helpless. Now that Tang Xuhai was awake, Fu Shiwu was so excited that he couldn’t help but vent out his misery by doing something for Tang Xuhai.

With someone as company, Fu Shiwu immediately became energised.

“I don’t want to drink.” Tang Xuhai’s face turned a bit black: “On the contrary, I have to release some water.”

Fu Shiwu was taken aback, then he was happy again: “You want to go to the toilet?” 

Tang Xuhai supported himself and sat up. He seemed to be struggling a bit and Fu Shiwu wanted to help, but he refused.

Fu Shiwu didn’t care, because it wasn’t the first time he experienced this guy acting all stubborn.

“It’s just the toilet!” Tang Xuhai handed the thermometer back to Fu Shiwu and stood up by himself.

“Go inside the tunnel. At the corner outside the bomb shelter, there’s a temporary toilet.” Fu Shiwu said without turning his head, raising the thermometer against the light.

“39.2°. It’s still high, but at least it’s lower than 40°.” Fu Shiwu said loudly.

After a while, Tang Xuhai came back swinging his arms. Seeing him swagger back, Fu Shiwu frowned: “Wipe your hand.” 

Tang Xuhai stopped, looked at Fu Shiwu’s stern face and turned around grumpily, then he wiped his hands with a paper tissue taken from the pack beside the water jug.

“Eat your medicine. I will give you one more normal saline injection in the morning, you will get well very soon.” Fu Shiwu said optimistically.

Tang Xuhai didn’t say a word. He poured water for himself and immediately swallowed the medicine Fu Shiwu gave him.

“Let’s sleep again, it’s still early.” Fu Shiwu told Tang Xuhai upon seeing that it wasn’t even 5 o’clock.

Tang Xuhai had slept for so long and wasn’t sleepy at all, but he knew that even if he didn’t need sleep, Fu Shiwu needed it, so he lay down at once.

Fu Shiwu turned off the light and couldn’t help but talk to Tang Xuhai. He talked about how Tang Xuhai suddenly had a severe fever, how Wen Zhaoming and he felt that their hands were both tied, how he went out to look for medicine, then how Wen Zhaoming fell sick and both of them had a fever and there was only him left. He felt utterly helpless and under a lot of pressure. He was very scared that if they died, he would be left all alone.

Both their faces were kept in the dark. This was the first time in his life that Fu Shiwu had talked so much.

If it were not for the darkness, Fu Shiwu might never be able to talk about all those desperate moments of his.

Fu Shiwu talked and talked, then he fell asleep. For a long time, Tang Xuhai looked in his direction.

He didn’t expect this kind of thing to happen, and Fu Shiwu truly had him astonished.

Fu Shiwu was really different from what he thought.

Tang Xuhai thought that a white-collar elite like him would only panic and stay useless under urgent situations. Previously, Fu Shiwu seemed to be very timid and was even afraid of corpses, which fit well into his assumption.

However, the guy turned out to be remarkably courageous and decisive. Fu Shiwu took care of both him and Wen Zhaoming, determined to not leave them behind. Tang Xuhai would never have expected this even in his wildest imagination.

Tang Xuhai thought hard about the contradictions that Fu Shiwu had shown and fell asleep unconsciously.

After all, he was still a sick person, so he once again fell into a deep sleep. It was already 8 o’clock when he opened his eyes again.

Fu Shiwu woke up earlier than him. He was in great spirits after things had turned out favourably, and Tang Xuhai even seemed to start recovering, so after Fu Shiwu fell asleep again, he was full of energy after only two hours.

Fu Shiwu, with his unruly bed hair, sat in front of the alcohol stove to cook noodles. He insisted that it would be better for sick people to drink thinner soup.

Tang Xuhai sat up and leaned directly against the wall as both his bed and Wen Zhaoming’s were resting by the side of the wall.

He glanced at Wen Zhaoming, who seemed to be burning up badly and was having several layers of clothes covering his body.

Tang Xuhai took the cigarette case and pulled out one piece. Holding it between his lips, he said to Fu Shiwu: “Cover Wen Zhaoming with this blanket.”

He was covered in a blanket yet the sick person was covered in clothes. How ridiculous does that look?

But Fu Shiwu glanced at him, basically refusing to listen: “You’re only a little bit better, don’t be so full of yourself. You’re just going to make it worse that way, why bother?” 

For one rare time, Tang Xuhai was choked by Fu Shiwu’s words. He sulked, biting his cigarette.

“Wait for your body temperature to drop to 37°, then you can be nice to Wen Zhaoming all you want.” Fu Shiwu said casually.

Fu Shiwu lectured him with such big, adorable eyes. No matter how he looked at it, it was nowhere convincing!

Tang Xuhai touched the lighter and asked him sullenly: “How many degrees are your glasses?”

“300 degrees, what’s wrong?” Fu Shiwu was puzzled.

“It’s nothing.” Can 300-degree glasses make a person look so different? The lenses shouldn’t have any distorting ability like those high-degree glasses anyway!

As the degree of his glasses was mentioned, Fu Shiwu remembered that he wasn’t wearing them, so he walked over to pick up the glasses and put them on. With his sharp expression now back in full effect, he turned to Tang Xuhai, who was just about to start the lighter: “I won’t allow smoking! Your fever is still here, how can you smoke?”

With those vicious eyes, Fu Shiwu looked almost like his disciplinary master back in his school years. Tang Xuhai, with a cigarette still between his lips, froze like a student who had been caught breaking school rules.