Me! A high-ranking official!

Zhao Jianguo stood downstairs at the Xinlin Hotel for a full ten minutes.

The lights were on in the window on the eighteenth floor, and the curtains were drawn tightly, so no movement could be seen inside. He looked up a few times, but finally got on his electric scooter and headed towards Ronghui Xiuyuan.

The night breeze brushed against his face, carrying the heat of May. There weren't many cars on the street, and the streetlights illuminated the road brightly. He kept replaying Zhou Qingyan's last reaction in his mind, and felt a pang of shame.

When he got home, the living room was dark, and he was too lazy to turn on the light. He groped his way into the second bedroom and collapsed onto the bed.

The bed was rock hard, and the pillow was rock hard too, but he was too exhausted to care. He just stared at the ceiling with his eyes open.

How will Zhou Qingyan handle this matter?

Given her status and background, she certainly wouldn't sit idly by and wait to die; she would definitely try to get her hands on the PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) medication. The question is, how would she do it? Who would she ask? And how would she take it once she got it? As a newly appointed county party secretary, she's surrounded by eyes and ears; any slight movement would be noticed.

However, these are not things he should worry about. He has already said what he needed to say and reminded everyone he needed to remind. As for the rest, Zhou Qingyan is smarter than him, has more connections than him, and knows better how to protect himself.

He turned over and closed his eyes.

I don't know how much time passed, but my consciousness gradually faded and I sank into darkness.

"Beep beep beep beep..."

The phone alarm went off shrilly.

Zhao Jianguo suddenly opened his eyes and subconsciously reached for the bedside table. After touching it twice, he remembered that he was in the second bedroom. His phone was under his pillow. He took it out and saw that it was 6:30.

This is the alarm clock he uses to make breakfast for Xu Qingqing.

For two years, the alarm has been ringing at 6:30 every morning. Xu Qingqing goes to work at 8:00, and he has to make breakfast before she gets up. The porridge has to be cooked until it's thick, the eggs have to be fried until they're 70% done, and the side dishes have to be arranged neatly. Only after Xu Qingqing has finished washing up and sat down at the table can he hurriedly eat a couple of bites and then rush to work before 8:00.

He turned off the alarm clock and threw his phone on the pillow.

No need to make breakfast.

I don't need to do it anymore.

He closed his eyes, trying to sleep a little longer, but he couldn't fall asleep no matter what he did. His mind was like a clockwork, ticking away nonstop. He sighed, picked up his phone, leaned against the headboard, and casually opened WeChat.

There were dozens of unread messages displayed on the WeChat icon, but he didn't look at them closely; his gaze fell on one of the groups.

The group is called "Hair Loss Front Alliance". It's a small group created by a few young people who have a good relationship with the government. There are six people in total, including those from the Organization Department, the Development and Reform Commission, and the Finance Bureau. They were all admitted in the same batch. They usually brag, joke around, and criticize their leaders in the group. It's one of the few places in the system where he can say a few honest words.

This group usually only sends a few dozen messages a day, but today it showed more than three hundred.

He had a sudden thought and clicked on it.

The news started spreading around 1 a.m.

He scrolled to the top, and the first message was from Liu Peng of the Cadre Section of the County Party Committee's Organization Department, dated 1:42 AM.

Liu Peng: Holy crap! Something terrible has happened! I just got word that the newly arrived Secretary Zhou has been rushed to the county hospital for emergency treatment!

The group chat exploded instantly after this message was posted.

Zhang Lei from the National Development and Reform Commission: ??? What's going on?

Li Ming from the Finance Bureau: Don't you fucking talk nonsense. You can't joke about something like this.

Liu Peng: You think I'm joking about this? The news came from the hotel. After Secretary Zhou was sent to the hospital, the hotel receptionist was stunned and couldn't make a decision. She called Director Wang of the County Party Committee Office that night, and Director Wang then notified our minister. That's how I found out.

Sun from the government office: What illness? Heart disease? Cerebral hemorrhage?

Liu Peng: I don't know. I only know that he was rushed to the hospital, but the hospital is keeping quiet about the specifics.

Zhang Lei: The new secretary looks quite young, in his thirties. What serious illness could he possibly have?

Li Ming: That's hard to say. Aren't there many young people dying suddenly these days? There was one at my cousin's workplace. He was 32 years old, worked overtime until the early hours of the morning, and was gone the next morning.

Xiao Sun: Don't you dare jinx it!

Messages kept coming in, from a little after 1 a.m. until a little after 2 a.m. He scrolled down one by one, and the more he read, the heavier his heart became.

At 2:30 a.m., Xiao Chen from the Health Commission, who had been silent until then, suddenly spoke up.

Xiao Chen: My wife works at the county hospital. She just called me. It's not a heart attack or a stroke.

Liu Peng: What is that?

Xiao Chen: I have a severe penicillin allergy.

There was a few seconds of silence in the group chat, and then the messages exploded again.

Zhang Lei: Penicillin allergy? ??? Why is the new Party Secretary taking penicillin? ???

Li Ming: Yeah, why is she getting penicillin? Did she catch a cold?

Xiao Sun: Even a cold doesn't warrant getting penicillin in the middle of the night. Besides, she's the county party secretary. If she really had a cold, wouldn't she have asked a doctor from the county hospital to come to her hotel to treat her? Why would she need to administer it herself?

Liu Peng: Wait, you mean to say that Secretary Zhou injected himself with penicillin?

Xiao Chen: My wife doesn't know the specifics either. She only knows that when he was brought in, he was almost dead. He had a rash all over his body, laryngeal edema, and his blood pressure dropped to over 70. He almost died. Fortunately, the head of the emergency department was on duty and he was rescued in time. He pulled through and is now in stable condition and under observation in the ICU.

Zhang Lei: Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! It's that serious!

Li Ming: The new Party Secretary is terrifying! He almost died on his first day in office. If something had really happened, our county would probably be trending on social media nationwide.

Xiao Sun: You still have the mood to joke? Secretary Zhou has no relatives or friends in our county. Who's with him in the hospital now?

Xiao Chen: Several county leaders went there, including County Chief Han, Director Wang, and Minister Sun from the Organization Department. They were all guarding outside the ICU. The hospital issued a gag order, and no one was allowed to talk about this.

Liu Peng: What's the use of a gag order? Don't we already know?

Xiao Chen: So you all need to keep your mouths shut and not spread this around. My wife said that if it gets out and she's the one who leaked it, I'll lose my job.

The conversation drifted off-topic after 3 a.m., starting with Zhou Qingyan's illness and moving on to the messy things at their respective workplaces, then to the May Day holiday arrangements. The last message was sent at 4:30 a.m., in which Liu Peng said he couldn't take it anymore and had to go to work the next day. Only then did the conversation quiet down.

Zhao Jianguo put down his phone, feeling a chill down his back.

He reached up and touched his back; it was soaked with cold sweat.

penicillin.

Zhou Qingyan is injecting herself with penicillin.

She wanted to stop the spread of syphilis.

The standard post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) protocol for syphilis is an injection of benzathine penicillin. He had looked this up online, and Zhou Qingyan must have looked it up too. Moreover, she was more capable than him; she somehow managed to get her hands on the penicillin and gave herself the injection that very night.

As a result, she had a severe allergic reaction to penicillin and almost lost her life.

Zhao Jianguo gripped his phone tightly, his palms sweating profusely.

Penicillin allergy can range from minor to serious. A mild case might cause a rash all over the body, while a severe case could lead to laryngeal edema and suffocation. Without timely treatment, a person can die within minutes. It's truly fortunate that Zhou Qingyan was able to make it to the hospital and survive.

But it also illustrates one thing.

She couldn't wait any longer.

She was more anxious than he was.

Zhao Jianguo was a suspended junior staff member. He had nothing to lose and could find a way to deal with his illness slowly, whether by saving money or borrowing money. He could always delay it for a while. But Zhou Qingyan was different. She was the newly appointed county party secretary, and the eyes of the whole county were on her. She couldn't afford to delay for even a day.

More importantly, she had tried penicillin and almost died.

So what's next?

Besides penicillin, there are other options for syphilis prevention, such as doxycycline, which is taken for fourteen consecutive days. However, this option is much more troublesome than penicillin, requiring continuous medication for two weeks, and it has significant side effects, with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea being the mildest.

More importantly, does Zhou Qingyan's use of doxycycline guarantee a successful blockage?

What if there's a problem with doxycycline? What if her body is intolerant to doxycycline? What if the blocking process fails?

He dared not think further, tossed his phone aside, sat up in bed, and pondered the matter. If Zhou Qingyan had tried everything and nothing worked, then there was only one way left.

Rejuvenating Pill.

The Rejuvenating Pill in the Treasure Basin.

Twenty million.

He can wait, but Zhou Qingyan can't.

He needs to find a way to make money.

And it has to be quick.