Xiao Tangqiu paused for a moment, subconsciously watching the couple in front of him. They were a very young couple. They were obviously novice parents having a baby for the first time. The man looked nervous and the woman looked pained.

He took a step back quickly, “Sorry, hurry in.”

The man quickly helped his wife to walk into the building. Xiao Tangqiu looked towards Xue Junli, “Should we follow them?”

Another NPC who took the initiative to talk to them was clearly the signs of the plot unfolding!

Xue Junli looked at the Miko. Kisaragi had returned to that indifferent stance since entering the hospital. She stood between the patients coming and going without care.

He paused before speaking solemnly, “Follow them.”

Xiao Tangqiu quickly followed. As soon as he stepped into the hospital building, a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling suddenly overcame him.

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but freeze. In that moment, endless memories came to mind. Ever since that car accident seven years ago, unless it was a serious injury or serious illness, he had been careful to avoid hospitals. He would rather go to an apothecary or pharmacy to deal with it himself than to step through the doors of a hospital… Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but glance at Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan caught his gaze, and returned a questioning look asking what’s wrong.

Xiao Tangqiu shook his head, smiled and said, “It’s nothing, be careful, I have a bad feeling.”

Tang Mianmian was immediately scared and yelled, “Qiuqiu, stop jinxing us!”

Xiao Tangqiu, “…If I don’t speak, then things won’t happen?”

Tang Mianmian, “.”

Xiao Tangqiu, “Shut up and stay alert.”

There were people coming and going in the hospital building no matter what time it was. The young man walked through the crowd and grabbed a nurse, “Miss Nurse, my wife is about to give birth!”

The nurse glanced at the man and the pregnant woman nearby, nodded hastily, and turned to make arrangements.

The man was circling in worry but still tried to comfort the woman. Xiao Tangqiu kept guarding the couple while quietly observing the surrounding environment… Everything seemed normal, at least for now.

Just like before, no one noticed them. None of the doctors and patients who came and went seemed to have noticed the inexplicable presence of this group of outsiders. They were all doing their own things and going through their lives in their own world. For them, this day was probably just another ordinary day, and everything was no different from usual.

Only outsiders like Xiao Tangqiu and co knew — today was the most “special” day in their lives, and it would change all their lives.

At this moment, several nurses came pushing the bed, “Where is the pregnant woman?”

The young man immediately helped his wife onto the bed with the help of the nurses. He clutched the pregnant woman’s hand tightly, “Don’t be scared, I will always be by your side.”

The nurses rushed the mother into a delivery room and the young man anxiously followed.

Xiao Tangqiu and co obviously couldn’t follow into the delivery room, they could only wait outside.

Several husbands who were accompanying their wives were dizzy with worry outside the delivery rooms. Tang Mianmian followed them in pacing for a while and suddenly said to Xiao Tangqiu, “How come I feel like we are just like those husbands waiting for their wives to give birth outside the delivery room.”

Xiao Tangqiu said, “Then you should practice in advance, lest you get caught off guard when you really need to wait for your wife to give birth.”

Tang Mianmian silently raised his head to look at the ceiling, “Let’s talk about it after returning to the real world…”

Xiao Tangqiu said casually, “Maybe you can find one in the City of the Abyss.”

Tang Mianmian said quietly, “Me, look for a wife in the City of the Abyss? Does the City of the Abyss have chicks who are weaker than me? If so, please be sure to introduce me. If you find a tough chick — let’s not even talk about if they’ll put me in their eyes — even if they take a liking to me, if the time comes, I won’t even know if the one giving birth will me or her.”

Xiao Tangqiu thought to himself, can a girl even have fierce enough fighting powers to make Tang Mianmian pregnant?

Tang Mianmian suddenly said, “But of course, I’m still better than you, Qiuqiu. If you want to find someone in the City of the Abyss, you will definitely be the one below, whether it’s a man or a woman.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he keenly perceived a death glare aimed at him, and he immediately shrank back, “Ahem… But Qiuqiu, you already have god Shen Yuan, so don’t worry about it! Whether it’s a great god or a great goddess, the one who can protect you is a good god!”

Shen Yuan coldly humphed.

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but laugh. He quickly pulled Shen Yuan to sit down on the chairs outside the ward and handed over a piece of candy, “Alright, now it’s rare to be able to take a breather, eat something. Are you tired?”

“Not tired.”

Shen Yuan shook his head but still took the candy Xiao Tangqiu handed over, peeled off the wrapper, and ate it.

Xiao Tangqiu thought about it. This guy, Shen Yuan… actually didn’t seem to have done any heavy work. He just followed him from start to finish, at most he helped him out when he made a mistake. Shen Yuan didn’t exert much effort at all, it would be strange if he could be tired!

Where was the promised carry from the great god? How did he end up completely slacking off?

Tang Mianmian looked at the candy Xiao Tangqiu gave to Shen Yuan and touched his stomach, “After fighting zombies for so long, I want something sweet…”

Xiao Tangqiu took out another candy and was about to pass it to Tang Mianmian but Shen Yuan humphed, “Not allowed to give.”

Xiao Tangqiu hadn’t even reacted when Tang Mianmian immediately took a few big steps back, “Ahaha, I suddenly don’t want to eat candy. I don’t want sweet at all, I especially want savory!”

Shen Yuan expressionlessly took away the candy from Xiao Tangqiu’s palm.

“How can you…” Xiao Tangqiu was about to say something, but Shen Yuan quickly peeled off the candy wrapper and threw the candy into his mouth.

Shen Yuan spoke seriously, “You are tired, you eat.”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled with the candy in his mouth, “Thanks.”

Tang Mianmian said bitterly from the side, “Have I eaten a lemon? Why do I feel so sour…”

He silently sorted through his own space bag and finally found a bag of candies. When he took it out, it was actually a bag of lemon flavored candy.

While he was eating lemon candy in silence, there was a scream from upstairs!

“Ahhhhh!”

This scream broke the originally lively but peaceful hospital scene and it also marked the coming of the end.

Duan Hongzhen, who had finally sat down to take a breather and only just unwrapped the lollipop in his hand, couldn’t help but twitch his lips, “Here we go again.”

Xue Junli’s eyes darkened, “Everyone get ready!”

Destiny had finally arrived.

“Ahhhhh!”

Soon after the screams sounded from upstairs, there were also screams in the delivery room.

A parturient in the delivery rooms went into labor!

Duan Hongzhen sniffed, suddenly his expression tightened, “The smoke is so thick… There’s a fire!”

Xiao Tangqiu had also smelled the suffocating scent, and a harsh fire alarm sounded in the corridor.

“Fire! There’s a fire!”

The people in the hallway panicked. Many people turned around and ran away. The husbands waiting outside the delivery rooms hesitated and then rushed into the delivery rooms, “There’s a fire! Run!”

However, it was a tense time in the delivery rooms so it immediately became chaotic.

The fire spread very quickly. Within a few seconds, the choking smell of smoke was in the corridor. The women were transferred onto hospital beds and pushed out by their husbands and the doctors and nurses. Only the room the young couple were in stayed quiet.

Xiao Tangqiu looked through the corridor window. There were people fleeing for their lives everywhere. The fire spread rapidly and some people had already been killed in the flames.

Smoke billowed in the corridor and he turned his head to look at the only room that was silent.

“Go, go and take a look.” As soon as Xue Junli’s voice fell, Duan Hongzhen pushed through the door.

In the room, the parturient was screaming again and again, her husband was pale, and the doctors and nurses were busy.

Xiao Tangqiu frowned. Although he didn’t know what happened, he guessed that it was probably due to dystocia or hemorrhage. Other women in labor could barely be transferred during the fire, but a dystocia happening during a fire…

At this moment, a nurse spoke in shock, “Doctor! Fire! There’s a fire!”

Thick smoke had spread into the ward and big drops of cold sweat appeared on the doctor’s forehead, “The mother is having a difficult delivery and cannot be forced to transfer…”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden power failure in the delivery room. Although the hospital had other power generators that could keep the equipment running even if the power went out, a fire like this must have burned it out.

BOOM!

There was a violent explosion as something was set off by the fire.

The doctors and nurses turned pale with fright. The situation was critical and they must move!

The young man desperately grabbed the woman’s hand and called her name, but she was too weak to even speak.

“Quick! Transfer the mother to the hospital bed!”

The young man immediately carried her to the mobile hospital bed with the doctor and the group quickly left the blacked out ward.

T/N: GOOD NEWS! Or bad news, I guess? Depends on how you wanna see it. This is the last chapter that will be 9-11k words long in a row! Of course, there will be a handful of future chapters that will be super long, too, but at least the giant batch is over. What does this mean? It means that once this chapter is over, I’ll be able to post “whole” chapters every week instead of needing to divide it into 2 or 3 parts. It also means we’re deceptively closer to the end than expected.