First-Class Lawyer

Chapter 83 - Contagion (iv)

After the messages last night, perhaps because he was in a pleasant enough mood, nothing weighed on his mind. Yan Suizhi quickly fell back asleep, only realizing the next morning, when he next opened his eyes, that he had slept nestled on the sofa chair the entire night.

When he stood up, his bones clicked frighteningly loudly, giving Professor Yan the disconcerting illusion that half his neck was already buried in the ground.

No one would be comfortable after sleeping like that overnight. Although the room was temperature-controlled, continually doing this would only drive him to an early grave. When Yan Suizhi drank water in the morning, he felt like his throat was aching slightly.

He drank two cups of water in one go to force that somewhat uncomfortable feeling down, until he felt that he probably wouldn't catch a cold, then changed his clothes and left the house.

He left the house very early today, which wasn't when he usually did, so he was very relieved to not bump into Hobbes again.

Before stepping out of the door, he sent a message to Fitz: [I'm going off first, you don't have to wait for me.]

"You're not hitching a ride today?" Fitz dialed straight over, asking. "Why is that? Are you intending to take the rail to the law firm? It's very crowded; this stretch of road can squeeze you until you start to doubt your existence. When I first started working, I wasn't able to buy a car and got squeezed for more than four years, my soul departing from my body every day. Normally when people get on the rail, they get packed near the doors, or if people get off, they get packed inside. I'm familiar with the security hottie on the rail. He heroically saved this damsel in distress many times now, fishing me out from the carriages."

Yan Suizhi, "..."

This was his first time hearing someone using 'damsel in distress' to describe themselves.

"I'm not squeezing myself onto the rail," Yan Suizhi said. "I've got something to do in the morning. I'll go to the law firm later."

"Oh," Fitz acknowledged. "Gu had already notified me that you might need to head out from time to time in the coming days and had gotten the leave paperwork done already. But what's up with you? You sound a little nasally."

Yan Suizhi, "It's nothing, I might have caught a cold when sleeping last night."

A hint of concern tinted Fitz's tone. "Are you sure that it's just a cold? There appears to be a new viral fever around lately; some people are even getting rashes. You haven't been in contact with anyone in the past couple of days, have you? Do you have a fever?"

Yan Suizhi said, "I've heard about that. It came out from the genetic modification surgery from a clinic. I saw it at the hospital yesterday. I'll drop by the health center later and check it out. It shouldn't be anything, don't worry."

In actuality, the issue of the genetic modification surgery conducted in the clinic wasn't completely irrelevant to Yan Suizhi. After all, he still wasn't sure where exactly his surgery was done, who gave it to him, and whether it was that so-called 'clinic'. The reason that he got up so early today was precisely that he intended to check out the place in the black market mentioned by Chen Zhang.

He was afraid that bringing up such a matter while Gu Yan was around would cause the other to worry. Now that Gu Yan wasn't around, it was convenient for him to look into this.

There happened to be several health centers on the way from the city garden to the black market. As Yan Suizhi passed by, he picked one with relatively fewer moving heads in the waiting area to register a place in the queue.

Even though he picked the least crowded center, the waiting area was still packed with people. Basic stretchers kept coming and going, accompanied by medical staff yelling, "Excuse me, make way, don't come too close."