Just as Xiaoyun was about to fall asleep in bed, a doctor finally came in to check up on him.
The doctor quickly unwrapped all of the mostly dried-up bandages on his face, making him a little shocked as the cut wound had mostly disappeared.
"Well, your face is all good at this point... But this scar might stay here for a while." The doctor murmured as he threw the bandages away.
"Are my brothers in the other rooms okay?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"They are in a pretty good spot all things considered... Do you feel any pain or issues with your body?"
"Nope, I feel perfectly fine."
"Great. Then look like you can come out of the hospital faster than most of your peers... Is there anything else you wanted? Water? Food?"
"Do you mind me asking how you think the hospital is operating? I'm just a little curious since I don't really see much medical equipment lying around."
The doctor looked a little surprised by the sudden question, but he didn't bother hiding it as he confessed his feelings about it.
"Well, it could be a lot better. But it's still better equipped than the rural hospital I worked in a few years back.
It has several ICU units in storage and some medicine stockpiled. It's more than enough to handle the daily needs for now."
The doctor cleared his throat before giving his one last message, helping Xiaoyun lean down as he stared towards the ceiling out of boredom.
"Ahem, a nurse is going to come in and draw your blood for testing. After that, you can leave tomorrow morning if nothing goes wrong."
"Okay..."
Ten minutes later...
As a nurse came in to draw the blood, check the temperature, and ask for his name, Xiaoyun quickly made up a response with Chen Songming.
After all of that, the nurse left the room with his blood sample. All he could do now was wait and stare at the clock as time passed.
Eventually, Xiaoyun got too tired for the night and fell asleep, forgetting that he was supposed to call his family beforehand.
When he woke up again from something shaking his arms, the first thing he saw was a nurse standing beside him with a food tray.
"It's time for your dinner."
The nurse quickly pulled up the mini table from the side of the bed, putting the food tray down before making sure he was able to eat by himself.
"Thank you."
As the nurses left the room once again, Xiaoyun picked up the spoon again and started eating the food.
It was mediocre at best, with the only good thing being hot. Xiaoyun put the empty tray aside and pulled out his phone.
Turning it on, there were several missed calls. All of them were from three of his wives, especially Leyan's repeated calls.
"Who should I call first... Speak of the devil."
Just as Xiaoyun was about to call Leyan, she appeared right at the doorstep as she entered the room with a clipboard.
"Honey! What happened? W-Why are you in the hospital!"
Leyan questioned as she ran up to his bedside, her face full of worry and fear as she hovered her finger over the scars.
"Relax, I'm fine... I'll just repair it right now. Anyway, how did you find me here? I was just about to call you."
As all of the wounds on Xiaoyun's face instantly vanished, Leyan finally calmed back down as she slowly sat down on a chair.
"The paper record says you're Chen Songming, but the sample database happened to have data stating you as Chen Xiaoyun.
So I thought something was off and came here to check... How did you even end up here in the hospital?"
"Well... It's a long story. Let's just say I decided to join the rescue team today and got injured."
"The rescue team? What are you doing over there? The outside world is so risky! Why would you risk your life out there?"
As her face shifted from calm to worry once again, Xiaoyun only grabbed her hand before staring her right in the eyes.
"Leyan, I really had been rotting living in the town, I just can't control myself when I stay around you three.
Qiqi and Yueyue were right. It was a wake-up call for me to go out there and do something more productive rather than rot in a woman's embrace."
"B-But..."
"Look, Babe, I need to participate more in the military. There's no other way around it if we were to think about this rationally.
I need to establish my own reputation in this town. In a time of emergency like this, everyone wants a strongman as their leader."
The seriousness on Xiaoyun's face made Leyan fall into silence, losing focus before her rationality quickly took back control.
"Why would you need to establish your reputation out there, though? Couldn't you just let Yiming and Yezi handle it?
It's not like they will betray you or anything... Why would you need to risk your life out there to establish a leader's reputation?"
Xiaoyun slowly shook his head as he put Leyan's hand on top of the bed. His face remained firm as he gave her his explanation.
"I know those two won't betray me, but they're older than I am. What are we going to do when they retire or die one day?
Sooner or later, none of the soldiers will know about me. Leyan, I hope you can understand my positioning..."
Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.
"Soldiers want a strong and close leader, not someone who lives in luxury in the town while they die on the battlefield.
I don't have any military experience that will ever make them feel I'm a part of them. I need them to respect me as a leader and as the Commander-in-Chief.
This is the best chance I've had. I need to be a part of the army if we were to survive in this apocalypse."
"But—"
"There is no but, I have thought about this for a long time now, and I had come to this decision a long time ago."
Seeing Xiaoyun look determined, Leyan had no choice but to accept the decision her husband had made.
"Fine, but you are going to need to convince the other two. They are not going to be happy hearing this."
Leyan warned, her face suddenly grinning a little as if some sort of evil plan was brewing inside her mind.
"I know, but I'm sure they will understand... After all, political power came out of a gun barrel."
The debate finally ended as the quote Xiaoyun pulled out was impossible for Leyan to argue back in any shape or form.
"Xiaoyun... Is this all that you wanted to tell them about?"
Leyan asked calmly as she slowly pulled out a phone, revealing a phone call that had been going on since she had entered the hospital.
"You... They had been listening in the whole time?"
"Yes, you dummy!"
As both Yuqi's and Yueyue's voices came out of the phone, Xiaoyun's heart felt more betrayed than ever.
At the same time, he felt a little relieved. He didn't need to explain it again to the two of them.
"Leyan, why did you do this?" Xiaoyun questioned, his face still full of anger as he wasn't about to let this slide.
"So you don't have to convince them again... Anyway, Qiqi and Yueyue, what do you guys think of our husband's decision?"
"Xiaoyun, we understand... Please just come back safely, okay? We forgive you."
As both of them said through the phone out loud, filled with worries in their voices, the anger on Xiaoyun's face was subdued a little.
"Oh snap! My phone is out of battery."
Leyan suddenly hung up, despite Xiaoyun seeing that the battery percentage was way more than halfway left.
"Wait, Mom—"
"Congrats, now both of them have forgiven you. You'd better thank me for my quick thinking when I saw you sitting in here."
As Leyan moved closer and grabbed onto his arm, Xiaoyun's mind finally realized the whole setup was to help him in secret.
"I guess thank you? But you could have told me beforehand instead of recording me in secret..."
"Well, you're never going to give an authentic answer if I didn't do this as a surprise. So how are you going to thank me for this?"
"I already said thank you to my lying wife."
Seeing the grumpy look remaining on Xiaoyun's face, Leyan pulled his arm even closer, sandwiching it right between her chest.
"How about this? I'll let you do anything with me... I mean anything as a compensation for your forgiveness."
"Anything?"
"Anything."
As Leyan's face blushed a little, Xiaoyun's head was already going wild with imagination as his body began to have some reaction.
"Honey, you forgot how long we had been together now? I'm not going to be petty or get mad at you like them."
The whisper into his right ear instantly sent a chill down his spine as a tent began to form right underneath the hospital blanket.
"I..."
Flashback started appearing in Xiaoyun's head as endless memories of them together appeared right into his head.
"I'm not shy like them. When I said anything, I really meant it—"
Just as Leyan was about to make a move, their romantic moment was instantly interrupted as the sound of the doorknob turning could be heard.
Within seconds, she threw his arm aside, sitting beside the bed with a cold face as if she was just finishing conducting a test.
"Mr.Songming, your health is perfectly fine. If you have any issues, you can come to my office. I have a night shift today."
As Leyan turned around and left the room, a new nurse with a much smaller hat came into the room with several pieces of equipment.
"Huh? Why was Mrs.Leyan here?"
The nurse murmured to herself as the door slammed shut, jumping the nurse for a second before she turned back around towards Xiaoyun.
"Mr.Songming, I need to take another blood draw. For some reason, the blood test is reacting weirdly in the machine."
The nurse signaled Xiaoyun to pull his sleeve as she took out a small needle and several small tubes.
"Can I ask what is weird about Mrs.Leyan coming into my room?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, rolling his sleeve.
"I can't tell you that."
As the nurse started drawing one vial of blood after another, it soon came to a stop after two full vials were filled.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
The nurse quickly left, leaving Xiaoyun alone in the room. However, he could hear an outside conversation through the thin door window.
"Tiantian, give me that vial. The blood test is over. I'll handle it from here." Leyan's voice appeared on the outside.
"But doctor Li is requesting it for more testing. I-I can't give this to you." The voice from the nurse earlier argued.
"Am I the head nurse, or are you the head nurse? I'll explain to Doctor Li myself later. You don't have to worry about it."
"Sorry."
Tiantian seems to have accepted Leyan's demand, backing down in the head as the conversation got quieter and quieter until it fully disappeared.
---
After sitting for ten minutes, Xiaoyun couldn't fall back asleep for the night. Bored, he got up from the bed and decided to go for a little walk.
Opening the door and looking out the hallway, he could see two soldiers standing right by the exit, seemingly preventing any soldiers from leaving.
"Hey, you can't come out of your room. Mr.Yezi had ordered everyone to stay until tomorrow morning at the very least."
One of the soldiers quickly came over to stop him from leaving his room, but Xiaoyun magically pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.
"I have the mayor's signature for me to leave... Here it is. The head nurses came in here earlier and already examined me to be fine."
The first soldier took the paper back to his peer as the two of them stared at it in silence before turning to Xiaoyun.
"Hmm, it really does say the mayor's name. But neither of us had ever seen his signature, so I'm afraid I can't let you leave."
As the second soldier pointed out, the first soldier immediately fell in line and agreed with his statement.
"Wait, wait, wait, give me a second, let me go call Mr.Yiming."
The two soldiers didn't stop him as they watched Xiaoyun pull out his phone, dialing a phone number before putting it on speaker.
"Yiming here, who is this?"
"It's me, Private Chen. Didn't the mayor give me permission freely travel in the hospital as a part of the examination crew?"
"Oh yeah, I almost completely forgot about that role. You do have the ability to travel in the hospital for badge number 351 freely," Yiming replied.
"Thank you... Now do you believe me?" Xiaoyun asked, hanging up the call before showing them his badge number.
"Of course, sir. You can go."
The two soldiers immediately stepped out of the way, letting Xiaoyun walk right past them.
"Whew..."
As Xiaoyun began walking around the hospital in a random direction, he could see more and more soldiers lying in their own private rooms.
Every single one of them was injured on the face, with most of them, fortunately, having bruises on their face.
After walking for a bit, he soon happened to encounter a room that had the tag "Doctor Li, professor of virology" right near the doorway.
"Might as well check what he is doing with my blood..."
Knocking on the door, a man's voice soon appeared from inside the room.
"Come in.... Hm? Who are you?" The doctor questioned, noticing the blood-stained uniform Xiaoyun wore.
"You are Doctor Li?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Yes, I'm Doctor Li. How did you get here?" Doctor Li asked again, wanting an answer out of Xiaoyun.
"I'm the patient who had the nurse take my blood twice earlier... I was just curious what was wrong with my blood."
"Oh, so you are Chen Songming..." Doctor Li murmured as he looked over to one of the blood vials on his table.
"You mind telling me what's up with my blood now?" Xiaoyun questioned, starting to get a little impatient.
"Well, your blood has a very dense, yet fast regeneration... It's almost as if it is boosted immunity of some sort." Doctor Li explained.
"That's good, right?" Xiaoyun looked a little confused.
"Well, it's good most of the time... as long as your body has developed its own way of handling faster metabolism."
Doctor Li paused for a second, then continued.
"You know, many people have been showing signs of increased human capability since the outbreak started.
So it's not that surprising to see a different one... But yours are just way above others, like ten times more."
"Really?"
"Mhm... Unfortunately, I can't test it any further without the mayor's authorization since Mrs.Leyna had told me to put a pause on this."
Xiaoyun could see the disappointment in Doctor Li's face as it became clear to him that Leyan did this to protect his own identity.
"What if I can get the mayor's authorization to continue this test?" Xiaoyun suggested as his mind started developing a different perspective.
"Then that will be amazing... You know, I have a feeling this might crack the cure for the virus outbreak."
"Really? Why make you think that?" Xiaoyun curiously asked, his mind instantly intrigued by the prospect of it.
"Well, I'm not a physician, I'm actually a virologist... I had been testing many different antibodies in the blood.
And yours is something special. It's just completely different from all the other blood that had been affected by the airborne virus." Doctor Li replied.
"Huh, I see... Well, I have some good news for you. I actually came here to give you the authorization paper to continue the tests."
As Xiaoyun pulled out another sheet of paper with his name signed, the doctor couldn't believe his eyes.
"Y-You serious?"
Doctor Li questioned, still looking a little shocked as he saw the name of Chen Xiaoyun signed right in the very middle.
"Do I look like I'm joking? The mayor had already talked to Mrs.Leyan and specifically asked me to conduct myself for the greater cause of science."
"Thank you so much! Help me say thank you to the mayor!"
"No problem."
As the doctor looked ecstatic at the sudden news, his face suddenly looked a little hesitant as he looked towards Xiaoyun.
"What's wrong?"
"Um... There is one more thing I need. I had run out of your blood for testing, and Mrs.Leyan had taken all of your blood sample away—"
"Don't worry about it. Here, take as much as you need... Just remember to send the result to the mayor's office when you're done testing."
Xiaoyun quickly took a seat, pulling up his sleeve and signaling the doctor to take the blood straight out of his arm.
"Thank you so much! This will definitely be enough..." Doctor Li murmured as he pulled several vials in a row as if they were a limited supply.