Me! A high-ranking official!

Zhou Qingyan's expression changed. Just moments ago, her face was flushed with a mixture of anger and shame, but upon hearing the words "life and safety," the color drained from her face at a visible speed, turning her ashen.

She didn't say anything more and stepped into the elevator.

He felt relieved and quickly followed them inside.

Zhou Qingyan turned her head sharply, her eyes piercing like knives, and said coldly, "Get out of here."

Zhao Jianguo quickly explained, "Secretary Zhou, I really have something important to report to you. Please believe me. Let me finish speaking. You can do whatever you want with me, but you must know this matter."

Zhou Qingyan stared at him for two seconds, her chest heaving even more violently: "Climb the stairs yourself, don't follow me."

Zhao Jianguo was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening.

It wasn't that she refused to see him, but rather that she didn't want to be in an enclosed space with him. He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly nodded, "Okay, okay, I'll climb the stairs. Which room are you in?"

Zhou Qingyan ignored him and reached out to press the close button.

The elevator doors slowly closed, and Zhou Qingyan's ashen face disappeared through the crack in the door.

Zhao Jianguo stared at the floor display above the elevator, watching the numbers jump one by one.

Finally, it stopped on the eighteenth floor.

He gave a wry smile and turned to walk towards the stairwell.

He paused at the entrance to the stairwell and glanced back at the elevator in the lobby.

He could have taken the elevator up. Zhou Qingyan went up first, but no one knows what kind of elevator he took. He took the elevator to the eighteenth floor and then said he climbed the stairs. Who can prove that he didn't?

However, these two methods have different meanings. When Zhou Qingyan asked him to climb the stairs, he actually climbed the stairs. This is called being obedient and also represents the leader's authority in his heart. If he took the elevator up and lied to her that he climbed, it would be easy to be exposed. In Zhou Qingyan's eyes, he would be a liar who talks nonsense, and nothing he said afterward would matter.

He's just trying to survive, and to survive, he needs to have the right attitude.

Zhao Jianguo pushed open the door to the stairwell and began to climb up.

The stairwell has motion-activated lights; the heavier his footsteps, the more lights illuminated each floor. Each floor has sixteen steps, with a landing in the middle of each floor, making nearly three hundred steps in total for eighteen floors.

He climbed two steps at a time, rushing upwards. He didn't know if it was because the treasure basin had transformed his body, but he ran incredibly fast, his legs didn't ache, and he wasn't out of breath. He climbed up floor by floor, and when he reached the eighteenth floor, he glanced at his phone. It had only taken him a little over three minutes, and he was only slightly out of breath.

Zhao Jianguo stood at the entrance to the stairwell on the eighteenth floor when a question suddenly occurred to him.

He climbed so fast that he barely broke a sweat. If he went to see Zhou Qingyan looking like that, would anyone believe he climbed the stairs?

He gritted his teeth, turned around, and rushed down again.

He rushed from the 18th floor to the 1st floor, and then climbed back up from the 1st floor.

This time he used all his strength, each step making a loud thud on the stairs, his knees raised high, his arms swinging wildly. By the time he reached the tenth floor, his breathing became labored. By the fifteenth floor, his heart was pounding like a drum, and his back was covered in sweat. By the eighteenth floor, he was leaning against the wall, panting heavily, beads of sweat streaming down his face, and his back was soaked.

He took a few breaths, wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve, pushed open the door to the stairwell, and walked into the corridor on the eighteenth floor.

The corridor was long, covered with a dark gray carpet, and lined with doors on both sides. Zhao Jianguo walked along, looking at the room numbers: 1806, 1808, 1810... until he reached the end of the corridor, room 1818.

The door was ajar, with a two-finger-wide crack showing; it must have been left open for him by Zhou Qingyan.

Zhao Jianguo took a deep breath and gently knocked twice on the door.

"Enter."

Zhou Qingyan's voice came from inside, but his emotions were unreadable.

He pushed the door open and went in.

The room was a suite with a small living room outside. The sofa, coffee table, and TV cabinet were similar to those in a regular hotel, but the room was clearly much more upscale. Zhou Qingyan was standing in front of the tea station, holding a bottle of mineral water and pouring it into a cup.

She changed into a pair of disposable hotel slippers, took off her coat and draped it over the sofa armrest, revealing a white shirt underneath with the sleeves rolled up to her forearms, exposing a section of her pale wrist.

As Zhao Jianguo was about to walk inside, Zhou Qingyan looked up and his face instantly darkened.

"You stay right there and don't move!"

Zhao Jianguo paused, stood obediently at the door, and closed it behind him.

Zhou Qingyan put down the mineral water bottle, turned around, crossed her arms, leaned against the tea counter, and looked at him with a condescending and disgusted gaze.

"What is it? Speak up now, and then get out of here."

He gave a wry smile.

"Secretary, this is a very important matter. Please prepare yourself mentally."

Zhou Qingyan looked at him coldly, a mocking smile playing on her lips: "What else could shock me more than you publicly accusing your own mother-in-law of embezzlement?"

He was taken aback. She found out about this so quickly?

On second thought, it makes sense. Cao Wenting is the deputy secretary of the county discipline inspection commission. She was reported by her own son-in-law with solid evidence and caught red-handed. This kind of case is definitely explosive news in the county. Today is Zhou Qingyan's first day in office, and someone must have reported this to her as "county news".

However, she only mentioned reporting Cao Wenting and didn't say anything else, which means that Zhou Qingyan was unaware that he had AIDS and syphilis.

Zhao Jianguo took a deep breath.

"This matter concerns your health."

Zhou Qingyan's face flushed crimson, as if she had been slapped. She abruptly straightened up, pointed at Zhao Jianguo, and her voice trembled: "What do you mean?"

Seeing her reaction, Zhao Jianguo knew she had misunderstood, thinking he was concerned about him having become a woman the night before. He quickly waved his hands, "No, no, that's not what I meant!"

"So what do you mean?"

He opened his mouth, but swallowed the words back.

How do I bring this up?

Why not just say, "Secretary Zhou, I have AIDS and syphilis, and I infected you with both last night"?

He was afraid that Zhou Qingyan would throw him off the eighteenth floor on the spot.

Seeing his hesitant manner, Zhou Qingyan's anger intensified, and she coldly uttered, "If you're not going to talk, then get out."

He sighed inwardly, knowing there was no escaping it. He lowered his head and said in a heavy voice, "Secretary Zhou, the unit organized a physical examination a while ago, and the results just came out this morning."

Zhou Qingyan's body stiffened for a moment. She was a smart woman. As soon as Zhao Jianguo said that, the anger on her face began to subside, replaced by something indescribable, as if she had a premonition of something, or as if she was desperately resisting that premonition.

Her face went from flushed to ashen: "What illness?"

Zhao Jianguo raised his head, looked at Zhou Qingyan, and said, word by word, "I only found out this morning. My wife cheated on me, contracted a venereal disease, and passed it on to me."

He saw Zhou Qingyan's pupils suddenly contract, and he quickly sped up his speech, first explaining the cause and effect: "The reason I reported Cao Wenting this morning is because, as the deputy secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, she knew that her daughter had an affair and contracted a disease, but instead of handling the matter fairly, she helped her daughter suppress me, wanted to make me leave with nothing, and even wanted to use the power of the Discipline Inspection Commission to deal with me. The Discipline Inspection Commission has records of all what I said, and you can verify them."

He spoke these words quickly and clearly, as if to give Zhou Qingyan a heads-up.

First, explain the whole story so she knows she didn't contract the disease from messing around outside, but was tricked by her wife. This will also give Zhou Qingyan some psychological buffer. By involving Xu Qingqing and Cao Wenting, he won't turn all his fire on him after hearing the names of those two diseases.

Zhou Qingyan gripped the edge of the coffee table tightly, his knuckles white as a sheet. His voice, low and deep, was forced out through clenched teeth: "Speak!"

Zhao Jianguo took a deep breath and said in a heavy voice, "AIDS, and syphilis."

Zhou Qingyan's face turned deathly pale instantly.

It wasn't just a description; she was truly pale, like a sheet of paper drained of blood. Even the color on her lips faded completely in an instant. Her body swayed violently, as if someone had pushed her from behind. She staggered back half a step, frantically grabbing the edge of the coffee table to barely steady herself.

The water glass on the coffee table was knocked over, and the water spilled out, running down the table and onto the floor.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Jianguo quickly took two steps forward and reached out to help her.

"Stop right there!"

Zhou Qingyan suddenly raised her hand, palm facing him, her voice so sharp it was almost distorted.

His feet froze on the spot as he looked at the other person with shame.

Zhou Qingyan remained in that position, her arms outstretched, palms facing him, as if resisting something terrifying. She breathed heavily, her chest heaving violently, and the expression on her face was like an overturned palette, a mixture of shock, fear, anger, despair, grief, and humiliation, finally settling into an almost numb blankness.

He stood there, motionless, not daring to breathe.

The air in the room seemed to freeze. He could hear Zhou Qingyan's breathing, rapid and shallow. Her hand was still in the blocking position, but her whole arm was trembling.

He was filled with anxiety. He knew this would be the scene before he came, but when he actually saw the female secretary who had been so composed on the podium during the day, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

He couldn't guess how Zhou Qingyan would handle the situation next—would he give him a thorough dressing-down, call for his arrest, or…

The silence lasted for about a minute. Zhou Qingyan's breathing gradually became more even, but the paleness on his face did not fade. He slowly lowered his hand and held onto the edge of the coffee table, as if he had used all his strength to keep himself upright.

He seized the opportunity to speak, keeping his voice as steady as possible: "I've checked, and these two diseases can be treated with preventative measures. Taking preventative medication within 72 hours has a certain probability of successfully preventing the disease."

Zhou Qingyan remained silent.

Zhao Jianguo forced himself to continue, "Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV and syphilis is effective within 72 hours. The earlier the medication is taken, the better the effect. I have checked the data, and as long as the medication is taken correctly, the success rate of HIV prevention is over 99%, and for syphilis it is even higher, close to 100%."

He emphasized the words "nearly 100%" to stress that there was still a chance to salvage the situation!

Zhou Qingyan finally raised her head and looked at him. All the emotions in her eyes had been suppressed, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness. She raised her hand and pointed to the door: "Get out."

His heart tightened, and he quickly said, "Secretary Zhou, if it's inconvenient for you to go to the hospital, I can try to get the PEP medication. The city hospitals should have it, and the CDC should have it too. I..."

"roll!"

Zhou Qingyan finally couldn't hold back any longer. This roar seemed to explode from the deepest part of his chest, the sound echoing in the room, making the water glass on the coffee table tremble.

Her eyes reddened as she stared intently at Zhao Jianguo, her lips pressed into a thin line, her chin slightly raised, like a trapped beast.

Looking at her like this, Zhao Jianguo felt as if something had clenched his heart.

This woman, thirty-seven years old, a division-level official, a prodigy, rose from a clerk to the county party secretary in fourteen years, her resume so dazzling it could dazzle anyone. Today is her first day in office, with a cadre meeting in the morning, talks in the afternoon, and a welcoming banquet in the evening. The entire county is watching her; it won't be long before she becomes the most powerful person in the county.

But now, at the height of her fame, he has pulled her down from grace.

He nodded and said no more: "Secretary Zhou, you can contact me anytime about the PEP medication. I'll be going now."

He turned and walked to the door, opened it, went out, and then gently closed the door behind him. He leaned against the wall in the corridor, let out a long sigh, and his mind was a mess.

Zhou Qingyan didn't berate him, didn't smash things hysterically, and didn't call for people to arrest him. A woman who can sit in this position at this age is indeed no ordinary person.

If it were an ordinary woman, she would probably have collapsed long ago upon hearing that she had been infected with AIDS and syphilis. Zhou Qingyan also collapsed, but her way of collapsing was to kick everyone out and then deal with it all by herself.

Zhao Jianguo admitted that he couldn't have that kind of composure, but composure is composure, and the matter still needs to be resolved.

The window period for the blocking drug is only 72 hours, and nearly 20 hours have already passed, leaving less than 50 hours. Zhou Qingyan must take the drug within this time.