In the ward of the Kiev People's Hospital.
A young nurse with freckles on her face was pushing an intravenous injection into Zhang Heng's body. After that, she adjusted the curtains of the ward.
When the nurse turned around and left, Zhang Heng was finally able to hear the results of his diagnosis from the receptionist.
Because some of the medical terms were too technical, the receptionist had to use the dictionary while gesturing. It took her about a quarter of an hour to explain Zhang Heng's condition. Unfortunately, the doctor was not here, and Zhang Heng did not know if it was good or bad for him to have third-degree radiation sickness.
Moreover, the receptionist, who was his "wife", did not manage to get key information from the female doctor about how long he could live. Zhang Heng could only continue to observe his body while receiving treatment.
Fortunately, unlike other unlucky people who were exposed to radiation, he did not need to worry about radiation causing cancer. For Zhang Heng, as long as he could survive this, he would basically be out of danger. When the parallel quest ended, his body would return to the state it was before he entered the parallel quest, and he would know how his body would change at each stage of the quest.
For the current situation, this was barely good news.
However, unlike other patients, Zhang Heng could not sit around even after he was admitted to the hospital. He had to use this time to learn Russian and Ukrainian. If he could solve the language problem in the parallel quest, it would be easier for him to investigate when he returned to the official quest.
So, Zhang Heng said to the receptionist, "Let's get started."
"Okay, where do you want to start?" The receptionist straightened her back when she heard Zhang Heng's request. She knew that she had to show a service attitude that matched the generous reward.
"Well, let's start with some vocabulary and sentences that can be used in a hospital setting. That way, if I have to complete some tests alone in the future, at least I can know what the doctors are talking about."
…
Zhang Heng's temperature was measured on the first day he was admitted to the hospital. At that time, his temperature was 37.8 degrees, a slight fever. Two days later, his temperature rose to 38.9 degrees. So the doctor performed a puncture and took four bone marrow samples from his sternum and patella for analysis.
On the sixth day, Zhang Heng felt some pain in his stomach, throat, and mouth. The mucous layer there had begun to fall off, making it a little difficult for him to speak. It was also at this time that he began to suffer from insomnia and anorexia.
However, when the doctor asked if his mental condition had deteriorated and if he felt irritated and anxious, Zhang Heng gave a negative answer. This was probably one of the few benefits of losing his emotions.
His eyelids began to twitch involuntarily, and his body began to swell.
To make matters worse, his immune system began to fail due to the decrease in granulocytes. On the ninth day, the hospital injected him with bone marrow cells donated by volunteers and then transferred him to a ward that was sterilized by ultraviolet light.
Zhang Heng had no choice but to put his language studies on hold. After the receptionist disinfected the book, she sent the English-Russian dictionary to his ward for him to read. Other than allowing him to continue his studies, it also helped to distract him.
This was also the doctor's suggestion, but she thought that Zhang Heng was using a dictionary to study English.
So for the rest of his life, Zhang Heng lay on a high, curved hospital bed every day. Above him was a rib-shaped heating lamp, keeping his body warm. All his clothes were taken away by the nurses, and pain swept through his body, accompanying him almost all the time. Intravenous injections could make the situation better, but the nitrous oxide anesthesia was the most effective.
What surprised the doctor, however, was that the man in front of her seemed to have an extraordinary tolerance for pain. In such a situation, ordinary people would probably scream out loud, even begging the doctor to end his pain. But Zhang Heng, lying on the hospital bed, seemed very calm.
In the eyes of the female doctor, this was a very incredible thing. Before this, she had also encountered some strong-willed patients. Among them were public servants, professional soldiers, and even some people who had been walking on the edge of death. Compared to ordinary patients, these people were indeed better at controlling their emotions and could endure more intense pain.
When the female doctor looked at them, she could clearly feel that they were in pain from their expressions and eyes. However, when she looked into Zhang Heng's eyes, they were like the deepest ocean. Other than the huge shadow at the bottom of the sea, she could see nothing else.
Zhang Heng didn't even take the initiative to use the nitrous oxide anesthesia to relieve the pain.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Zhang Heng's condition was deteriorating day by day, the doctor would have suspected that the unfortunate disaster in front of her was happening to someone else, and Zhang Heng was just a cold bystander.
The latter didn't even give up on his study plan. He asked the young nurse who had been taking care of him to find him a stent and put the English-Russian dictionary on it. This way, he didn't have to lift it himself, and he could read it while lying on the bed.
'Does this man not feel pain at all?' The doctor thought.
However, this kind of thinking was, of course, inaccurate. For Zhang Heng, he had indeed lost most of his emotions, but he did not lose the basic perception of his body. So now, the pain on his body was transmitted to his brain. However, Zhang Heng's mental strength, which he had been training for a long time, came in handy at this moment.
Through the Koyama Myoshin-Ryū's mantra, he could sink his consciousness and gradually reach a state of forgetfulness, blocking out the feeling of pain to maintain inner peace.
So in a sense, the female doctor's feeling was not wrong. Right now, Zhang Heng was indeed like a bystander. However, when he purposefully controlled his consciousness to sink, Zhang Heng also accidentally saw … something else.
It was a cold and sticky feeling that he was somewhat familiar with. A huge and blurry shadow was lying in a huge underwater palace. The underwater palace was several times more magnificent than the one he saw on Yonaguni Island, making the latter look like a toy.
As for the thing in the palace, Zhang Heng could not see its face clearly. He could only see countless tentacles wrapped around the stone pillars of the palace.
Without approaching, Zhang Heng knew that the thing was sleeping. It was a strange and strong intuition, and what was even stranger was that Zhang Heng still realized that he knew that thing after he died.
It kept calling Zhang Heng's name in its sleep, like calling a child who had left home.
However, Zhang Heng's footsteps eventually stopped outside the palace's gate.
— Now is not the time.
A voice rang in his ear. It was also a little familiar, but Zhang Heng couldn't remember where this voice came from.
— Wait, wait, you will be back soon. You just need to … be patient. Just like always, the Star's Kin and the Deep Ones are also waiting for your return.
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