Darkness swallowed Ji Jue’s vision. Countless fragmented scenes flashed before his eyes. He saw a collapsed hospital, hollow eyes drained of light and vitality, lives fading away, cold corpses, walls riddled with cracks, and dust falling from above. Anguished screams echoed from somewhere in the distance. 

“Please try again, doctor. Please… try once more.”

A patient covered in tumors clutched helplessly at the doctor’s sleeve. The doctor, equally disheveled, stood frozen in place. His lips moved slightly, but in the end, he lowered his head in exhaustion, unable to say what he wanted.

“It doesn’t matter if I die. Please save her at least…”

On the hospital bed, another dying patient used up his last bit of strength, trying to grasp the hand of his wife on the adjacent bed, but he could not reach it. The woman on the other bed had already fallen completely silent.

He burst into heartbreaking wails. His wails echoed through the room, until death came for him amid his lament.

Shrill, heartrending wails cut through the air, yet no one paid them any attention. In the collapsed, chaotic hospital, no one even turned back to look anymore, because that same kind of lament had already engulfed everyone.

Inside a makeshift operating room, the lead surgeon’s hands paused. He set down the scalpel.

“She’s lost too much blood. We can’t save her. That’s enough.”

“But there are still patients waiting...”

“We’re out of medicine and equipment! Where’s the rescue team?! Where are the supplies we were promised?!” the doctor roared in fury, his bloodshot eyes blazing. “How am I supposed to save her? How am I supposed to save all the patients outside? With lies? Everyone keeps begging me, telling me to hold on a little longer... I’ve done everything I can. I’ve already given it everything I have! Someone tell me, how much longer am I supposed to keep telling this lie?”

No one answered. The only sound left...