Chapter 659 — Critical Condition Notice

But none of that mattered now — whoever had tipped these people off, Gu Pengzhan had to find some way to deal with them, or else, once they went back and wrote whatever they pleased, the damage to the school would be severe indeed.

"I am Gu Pengzhan, chairman of the Gu Group. May I ask where you received this news?" Gu Pengzhan had no choice but to step out and face the reporters.

"Oh? Chairman Gu is here as well? Excellent — then let's interview you directly, Chairman Gu!" Scar Wolf's eyes darted, and he swung his spear at Gu Pengzhan; so long as Gu let the wrong words slip, he would have something to work with: "We hear that a collective incident of this appalling nature has occurred at a school under your group. As chairman, what is your view of it? Was it a lapse in management, someone shirking their duty, or certain teachers who may already have broken the law?"

This Scar Wolf had a notorious gift for vicious tongues; every one of the questions he fired off was razor-sharp and cutting.

"My dear reporter, I have no idea how you came by word of this so-called appalling collective incident," Gu Pengzhan said with a faint smile, his tone light. "But the doctors have not yet given their findings — even I, and all the students' parents, do not know why the children collapsed. How is it that you do?"

"Never you mind how we know — naturally, someone tipped us off!" Scar Wolf said. "Even if you knew the reason, you wouldn't say it, would you? The ones kept in the dark are these parents. You school leaders — since when have you cared whether other people's children live or die?"

"That's not right!" The middle-aged woman from before had no guile in her; she simply spoke the truth as she saw it. A troublemaker she might be, but she was not a bad person. "Chairman Gu's own daughter is one of the students who collapsed this time. How can you say he doesn't care?"

Scar Wolf was taken aback. He had not expected that Gu Pengzhan's daughter was among the victims — which made his earlier words contradict themselves. Gu Pengzhan was not uncaring; he cared more than anyone.

Still, Scar Wolf recovered quickly. On a sudden inspiration he pressed on: "Look — even Chairman Gu's own daughter has come to harm in his own school. Just imagine how chaotic its management must be! Would you still dare send your own children here to study?"

"Ah!" The middle-aged woman blinked, slightly stunned; but on reflection, the logic held. If even the chairman's daughter had ended up like this, how much more dangerous must it be for the child of an ordinary nobody like her?

The other parents grew doubtful too. Yes — if the school could not even guarantee the safety of its own chairman's daughter, how could it guarantee anyone else's?

"Everyone, please stay calm!" Gu Pengzhan waved a hand. "Haven't I said it already? I do not yet know the real reason the students collapsed, and neither does the school doctor. Everything must await the findings of the doctors at the Second Hospital. If the fault truly lies with the school, the school will not shirk responsibility! It is far too early to be saying any of this!"

Gu Pengzhan's words did settle the parents, for the moment. True — their children were still inside the emergency room, and the cause was still unknown; to fly into a rage now would be premature.

Scar Wolf had not expected Gu Pengzhan to defuse things so neatly, and his brow knotted at once. But he had taken Li Cihua's twenty thousand yuan, with instructions to ruin Gu Pengzhan's school, and he could not simply walk away from that. Nor could he go back and write any old thing, or Gu Pengzhan would certainly sue his paper for libel. Yet if he stirred up the parents' fury, then it would be no libel at all — everything he wrote would represent precisely what these parents themselves meant, and if Gu Pengzhan wanted to rage, he could only rage at them.

But in the present state of affairs, Scar Wolf could find little to say. Still, he was no fool; a moment's thought and he had his answer. Since he could not fan these parents' anger just now, why not wait? Wait until the hospital's findings came out, and then make his play over the results themselves.

Of course, he did not know that the mastermind behind the whole affair was Li Cihua, nor that Li had sent men to the school to lay the poison. He supposed only that Li Cihua and Gu Pengzhan were at odds, and that Li meant to use this chance to disgrace the Gu Group and No. 1 High School.

Another half hour or so passed before the emergency room door finally opened. A doctor in a white coat hurried out, saw the crowd gathered at the door, and said: "You are the patients' families?"

"Yes, yes! How is my child?" The middle-aged woman and a cluster of parents swarmed forward at once, waiting for word from the doctor.

Gu Pengzhan longed to ask as well; but he was, after all, representing the Gu Group now, and though he worried for his daughter, all he could do was wait for the doctor to answer the other parents first.

"The situation is not good," the doctor said. "When the patients were brought in, we first judged it to be food poisoning. But our tests show that the food in their stomachs contains no substance capable of inducing a coma."

"This..." The parents were dumbfounded at the doctor's words. If it wasn't food poisoning, then what was it?

"Nor do the patients' symptoms match those of any other acute infectious disease — though of course it could be caused by some brand-new viral infection," the doctor said. "Every one of the patients is unstable; their bodily functions are declining rapidly. We have them on IV fluids, but they have not passed out of danger — their conditions are worsening by the hour. We have placed each of them in isolation to prevent any possibility of the contagion spreading."

"What? Not out of danger — but getting worse?" The parents were more stunned than ever. Just what was going on? Even the hospital couldn't handle it?

"Yes. We have reported the matter to the supervising authorities above us, and notified specialists in the medical field. A panel consultation will be held shortly, but whether there is any solution — that I cannot say." The doctor held out a sheaf of paper. "These are notices of critical illness. Please each find your own child's copy and sign it."

"A notice of critical illness?" This time the parents were utterly at a loss. They had never imagined that a mere fainting spell could turn into a notice of critical illness.

"And what happens if we don't sign? We want to see our child," another parent asked.

"If you don't sign, we can do nothing but halt treatment," the doctor explained. "Once you sign, we will do everything in our power to find a way — but we cannot promise a cure. In any case, you may not touch the patients now. We have not yet determined whether this is a new round of viral contagion, and under the regulations governing infectious diseases, the patients must be kept in isolation."

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