Just as Suo Tian had run downstairs and I was about to follow him, Zheng Yiyi—who had been wandering the floors entertaining itself—suddenly began yelling loudly from upstairs.
The sound was frantic and anxious.
I instinctively stopped and looked up.
Before long, I saw Yiyi rushing down the stairs at an incredible speed, almost rolling down the last few steps.
After tumbling down, it bared its teeth at me, screaming loudly, spinning anxiously in place, and slapping the floor with its claws.
It continued shouting at me relentlessly.
I stared at it blankly for a moment.
A nearby black-clad man commented curiously, "Has that thing gone mad?"
I glanced at him and immediately felt some agreement with his assessment.
At that moment, Yiyi seemed to get even more agitated.
Not only did it keep yelling at me, but it ran two circles around me before finally lunging and biting my pant leg.
"Yiyi! What are you doing?!" I was startled and furious.
I tried to kick it away, but despite its small size, it was incredibly tenacious.
I swung my leg a few times, but couldn't shake it off.
Just as I bent down to grab it, the guard beside me asked, "Is something wrong with it? It seemed fine all this time—if it's acting up now, there must be a reason."
I hesitated for a moment at his words, but still bent down and forcibly pulled Yiyi off my pants leg.
I held its head with one hand to prevent it from biting me if it freaked out, then looked around.
I spotted an empty cardboard box in the corner, walked over a few steps, and without hesitation shoved Yiyi inside.
I closed the box and placed a small flowerpot—originally meant for decoration—on top.
After confirming it couldn't get out, I stood up, gestured for the guards to keep an eye on it, and hurried downstairs.
Because of Yiyi's earlier commotion, Suo Tian was already nowhere to be seen in the lobby.
I grabbed one of the guards stationed there and asked, "Have you seen Suo Tian?"
The guard pointed toward the far end of a hallway on the other side of the lobby: "The Boss went out the back door."
Hearing this, I immediately looked in that direction.
From my angle, I couldn't see it, and I thought it strange that there was even a back door here.
I hesitated briefly, then followed the indicated direction.
After crossing the lobby and entering the hallway, I spotted a slightly worn iron door at the far end.
At first glance, it didn't really match the rest of the hospital—probably why it was tucked away in such an obscure corner.
The door was slightly ajar.
I stepped lightly to it.
A faint ray of light came through.
It had rained heavily last night, and today was still overcast.
Pushing the iron door open gently, I found a small courtyard behind it.
On the other side of the courtyard stood a four-story building.
The courtyard looked somewhat run-down, with a row of willow trees along the sides and a large locust tree in the center.
Suo Tian was squatting in front of the locust tree, which was large enough for two people to embrace, his head lowered as he examined something closely.
I was a little surprised to see a locust tree in a hospital.
In some widely circulated folk beliefs, locust trees are associated with ghosts—they are considered "ghost trees."
Hospitals, being places heavy with yin energy, rarely plant such trees.
In our country, large buildings still pay considerable attention to feng shui, but of course, outsiders are never told about it.
They would never openly advertise superstitions—smart people wouldn't do something so self-contradictory.
As I walked up to Suo Tian, I kept examining the locust tree.
The courtyard seemed to have been cleared before; a few walker corpses were stacked off to the side.
Hearing my footsteps, Suo Tian glanced at me.
As he turned back, I noticed something unusual in front of him—a simple, old-fashioned well.
Next to it was an iron cover.
It looked like this well had been sealed before, and it was obvious that Suo Tian himself had opened it.
"What are you doing?" I squatted down next to him.
"Look," he said, pointing at the well with its cover removed.
"A well?" I asked, peering inside.
What I saw immediately struck me as strange.
The well was very deep, but the water level was unusually high.
It seemed to contain a lot of sediment, giving off a strong earthy smell, and the water was very murky.
"How could it be like this?" I murmured.
Suo Tian looked around briefly, then said, "We need to leave immediately. This place… there's going to be an earthquake."
"An earthquake?" I shouted, shocked.
"What earthquake?"
Suo Tian stood up, looked around, said nothing, and pulled me to my feet, turning toward the lobby.
I was still full of questions, unable to process his cryptic warning about an impending earthquake.
Even though I had lived through countless unimaginable events during the apocalypse, whenever natural disasters like this were involved, I always felt a strange distance—as if such things should never affect me or my life.
I thought of the small landslide we had encountered last time.
Probably because it was dark and I hadn't seen it directly, plus we had been lucky to avoid it, I still had a lingering sense of unreality about it.
Back in the lobby, I noticed the black-clad men opening doors and cutting down walkers that had gathered outside.
This was to prevent a small group from attracting more walkers with their noise.
After crossing the lobby and returning to the second floor, Suo Tian immediately ordered everyone to pack up and get ready to leave.
Uncle Gazi and the others, who had originally been napping, were woken and sleepily asked me what had happened.
As soon as I explained everything, Uncle Gazi slapped his thigh, leapt out of bed, and shouted, "No kidding! No kidding! When the kids were watching the ants earlier, why didn't I think of this? There aren't even crumbs in this hallway—how did they attract such a huge colony?"
He paused for a moment, then continued, "Rats are the cleverest creatures—they have strong instincts and can sense danger early. Yiyi is a good kid too, probably sensed it and wanted to warn you. Trouble's coming—what should we do?"
Uncle Gazi clearly believed the news and was terrified.
When I asked about the well water, he grew even more agitated: "That's exactly it. Back in the old days, we'd watch for this. Changes in the water level, strange smells, murky color—all are signs that something is about to happen."
Hearing him, I remembered some old sayings I had heard in the past:
The well water is a treasure—earthquakes have warnings.
Stagnant spring water before rain, water rises in dry weather.
Water level changes greatly, bubbles appear.
Some wells change color, some taste strange.
This confirmed Suo Tian's warning.
I was genuinely terrified.
While helping pack up and searching upstairs for useful items, I suddenly remembered Lili, who had just given birth to her baby upstairs…
If an earthquake here was inevitable, staying in the hospital would be extremely dangerous.
Just as I was about to run upstairs to warn them, Zhang Qicong and Lao Si came rushing down in a panic—someone had already gone up to notify them.
From a distance, Lao Si looked at me with a worried expression and asked, "What the hell's going on? The baby just came, upstairs! Why is there suddenly news like this? This isn't a joke, right?"
I replied, "Who would joke about something like this? It's real!"
Hearing this, Lao Si's face immediately grew anxious.
"Then what do we do? The baby is so young, and Lili's still in her confinement period… We can't just drag them along, can we?"
"There's no other choice. We don't know how strong this earthquake will be. If it's like the Wenchuan quake a few years ago, running might not even save us. It's safer to leave early and find an open area," I said, glancing at Lao Si before continuing, "Stop wasting time. This is not a matter to joke about. Go upstairs, pack quickly, and leave. Lili will have to suffer a little for now—make sure she dresses warmly. Once we're farther away, we can find a safer place to settle her."
Zhang Qicong, who hadn't spoken until now, asked, "Can we go with you?"
I suddenly remembered that Suo Tian hadn't mentioned anything about taking them along.
After thinking for a moment, I said, "Anyway, we'll probably be traveling in the same direction for the time being. It's not really taking you along, but at least we can travel together for now."
"Alright, hurry up and pack. If you dawdle any longer, we might have to leave immediately," Xu Shu, who was helping me gather things, spoke up.
After exchanging a glance, Lao Si and Zhang Qicong returned upstairs.
Xu Shu and I found some relatively useful items and returned to the second floor.
By then, most of the things had been packed and loaded into the vehicles.
We first helped Uncle Gazi and the others down and into the car, then went back to move the remaining items.
Recently, a portion of the walker near the hospital had started moving back toward the city.
While transporting things, we even got into a fierce fight with a small group of them.
Once everything was finally packed and ready to go, I anxiously looked toward the stairwell.
Why hadn't Lili and the others come down yet?
Were they refusing to leave, or were their things not ready?
Just then, in the lobby, Wang Jun came out, holding the baby tightly swaddled, and shouted for us to wait.
Behind him came Zhang Qicong, Lao Si, Liu Rumiao, Song Meijing, and finally Lili, looking pale and thin, being supported by Zhao Qiuting.
Suo Tian didn't seem to mind taking them along.
Once they were all in the vehicle, he slowly pressed the accelerator and drove toward the highway entrance.
— The end of the Chapter–