Chapter 963

At night.

Zhang Ye only got home after 8 PM.

His mother asked, “Why’d you just get back?”

“I’ve took a friend out to sightsee.” Zhang Ye felt exhausted. “We visited the Forbidden City, Qianmen Street, and the Summer Palace. Quickly get me something to drink.”

His mother handed him a drink. “Who’s your friend?”

“A friend from out of town.” Zhang Ye did not elaborate.

He essentially did nothing the entire day except accompany his newly gained junior martial sister on a sightseeing tour of the capital. Besides, he could not really turn her down. Her parents were no longer around and she had traveled very far to look for him, even acknowledging him as “family” after that and addressing him as “Senior Bro.” No matter how thick-skinned Zhang Ye was, he couldn’t just leave her alone. After all, it was true that there were only the two of them left in their generation of the Taiji branch of martial arts.

His father lowered the television volume and looked at him, saying, “You ran around the country for a while a month ago, so why are you still not acting proper now that you’re back?”

Zhang Ye acknowledged, “Alright, I’ll work properly tomorrow.”

His mother badgered, “Your popularity isn’t moving much.”

“Is that so?” Zhang Ye had not been paying attention to it recently.

His mother said, “You’re still at the bottom of the A-list celebrity rankings. That’s what you get for not having any new works for the past month. If not for that car crash between you and Jiang Hanwei creating some buzz, that previous A-list celebrity, who is now first place in the B-list rankings, would have overtaken you. Aren’t you worried?”

Zhang Ye grunted. “OK, I know what to do.”

Back in his room, he gave the Celebrity Rankings Index a quick browse.

Sure enough, his popularity score was almost falling off the A-list rankings again. This was mainly because Zhang Ye had not released any new works nor had any exposure for the past month when he went to attend the National Martial Arts Conference. Actually, it was only Zhang Ye who would dare to do something like this. If it were any other A-list celebrities who did not appear on the news for a month? Nor take part in any events, shows, or interviews that would give them onscreen exposure? That would be as good as digging their own grave! For a celebrity, having constant exposure to the public was something that was even more important than their lives!

Moreover, the competition at this tier was very fierce. If your popularity did not keep growing, it would just drop lower. Would any celebrities at this tier be easy to deal with? All of them had fairly large fan bases, so it wouldn’t be surprising if any one of them became famous overnight and jumped onto the A-list. That was why Zhang Ye’s position was still quite precarious and why he would definitely like to get out of this unstable position as soon as possible and keep increasing his popularity score. It wasn’t easy for him to get onto the A-list rankings, so he couldn’t just give it back so easily. As there were numerous B-list celebrities behind him eyeing him, he knew that he could not remain stagnant.

He decided to go to bed first.

When he rose in the morning, he would carefully plan and look for something to do next.

He fell asleep immediately when he laid down.

One hour.

Three hours.

Some time in the night, his cell phone suddenly rang!

Zhang Ye subconsciously rejected the first call and went back to sleep. However, it rang again and Zhang Ye wondered to himself who could be calling in the middle of the night!

He looked at his watch and saw that it was 3 AM!

Then he looked at the caller ID and saw who was calling. Ha Qiqi?

Zhang Ye became slightly more awake. If it were reporters or nuisances calling at this time, he would not bother with them at all. But as Ha Qiqi was his deputy who had always been a composed person, and now that Zhang Zuo and she were directing a new documentary on air pollution, Zhang Ye knew that Old Ha would definitely not call him at 3 AM if it weren’t something serious. And she’d even called twice?

He immediately answered: “Sister Ha, what’s the matter?”

Ha Qiqi said in a slightly listless voice: “Director Zhang, sorry for disturbing your sleep.”

“It’s fine. Please speak.” Zhang Ye sat up in bed.

“I…”

“Just what is it?”

Ha Qiqi said: “They didn’t want to tell you this, but I feel that I have to tell you about it no matter what.” She paused and fell silent for a few seconds. “Can you make a trip to the hospital? Something has happened to Huang Dandan!”

Huang Dandan?

Tong Fu’s girlfriend?

Zhang Ye hastily asked: “What happened to Little Huang?”

“She was just diagnosed with lung cancer.”

Zhang Ye’s mind reeled as he sat on his bed in shock. “Impossible!” He threw aside his blanket and got out of bed before asking in a raised voice: “Which hospital? Which ward? I’ll be right there!”

He put on his clothes!

He went downstairs and drove off!

On his way there, Huang Dandan’s face kept appearing in his mind. He had a very deep impression of this subordinate of his. Little Huang didn’t start on The Voice’s program team, but rather was an employee of the documentary channel. When Zhang Ye went over, he chose her and her boyfriend, Tong Fu, along with some other employees of Department 14 and established the program team for A Bite of China. When they were filming A Bite of China, as female member of the team, Little Huang had followed their group of men and overcome the treacherous mountain hikes without a single complaint. She was even tougher than most of her male colleagues, and from time to time, she could even liven up the atmosphere as the happiest person on the team. Everyone liked her presence very much!

Lung cancer?

Zhang Ye could not accept it!

…

3:30 AM.

At the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Beijing Cancer Hospital.

When Zhang Ye finally arrived at the hospital, Yan Tianfei’s secretary had just arrived as well. The two of them went upstairs together and saw quite a few people around the ward. All of them were Department 14 staff!

Ha Qiqi was talking to a doctor.

Zhang Zuo and Wu Yi were clenching their fists in anxiety.

Tong Fu was squatting by himself in a corner, in a daze and not speaking. The moment Tong Fu saw Zhang Ye, his nose wrinkled and his eyes suddenly welled with tears. “Director Zhang!”

Everyone looked over!

“Director Zhang!”

“Teacher Zhang!”

“Little Huang is…she’s…”

Little Wang teared up as she had always the closest to Huang Dandan.

Zhang Ye said loudly, “What the hell is going on?”

Zhang Zuo said, “After you left yesterday afternoon, Little Huang started coughing violently when we were eating out for lunch. At first, we didn’t think much of it because Little Huang hadn’t been feeling well due to her month-long cold. But later on, she suddenly choking and her face turned blue. We then realized it was serious and rapidly sent her to a small hospital nearby. After they examined her, the doctor advised us to transfer her to a different hospital. Only then did we learn that something was wrong! In the end, they had her sent here to the Beijing Cancer Hospital. She did her checkups and lab tests during the day. A portion of the test results just came out!”

Zhang Ye said angrily, “Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner?”

Ha Qiqi said, “Tong Fu and Little Huang said that you were busy and didn’t want us to tell you!”

“Something this big has happened and you guys still want to keep it from me? You guys are something!” Zhang Ye was angered for real. He said to the physician, “Doctor, you’re positive that it’s…lung cancer?”

The physician recognized Zhang Ye, but did not act surprised at seeing him at a time like this. He said, “We’ve diagnosed her on the whole. It’ll take until tomorrow morning for the rest of the test results to come out.”

Zhang Ye took a deep breath and asked, “What stage is it at?”

The physician said, “The preliminary diagnosis shows that it’s at the early stage.”

Zhang Ye quickly asked, “Early stage? Then she can get completely cured?”

The physician hesitated for a second. “She first has to get surgery. After that, it’ll depend on the patient’s will to live. Just because the cancer is at an early stage doesn’t mean she be cured. It’s just that the five-year survival rate for early stage lung cancer is higher than at the later stages.”

Survival rate!

These words were heart-wrenching to those present!

Zhang Ye clenched his teeth. “She’s only in her twenties!”

The physician sighed. “I know.”

“Little Huang doesn’t even smoke!” Zhang Ye said in a questioning tone.

The physician nodded. “She doesn’t.”

Zhang Ye asked, “Does her family have any history of such a disease?”

The physician said, “No.”

Agitated, Zhang Ye said, “Then how could she have lung cancer? That doesn’t make any sense at all!”

That’s right!

Why?

No one in Department 14 could understand!

The physician looked around at them. “According to the clinical and pathological diagnoses, it is lung cancer. We can at most inform her family members that this is lung cancer with no known cause. We won’t tell them anything more than that. However, based on my clinical knowledge and some of the pulmonary tests, I can tell all of you this with certainty.” He suddenly took out a few of the x-ray films and laboratory reports and said, “I’m 90% certain that the cause of Ms. Huang Dandan’s lung cancer is due to the air pollution around us, or what we colloquially refer to as…smog! She doesn’t smoke nor have any family history of lung cancer, and is also very young. But she still has to breathe every day, every moment, and the pollutants in the air will follow her respiratory tract into her body and damage and infect her—this is the cause of the so-called lung cancer with no known cause!”

Zhang Ye asked, “Can you confirm that?”

The physician nodded. “The number of similar cases have been multiplying in recent years.” He pointed to a nearby ward. “Over there are two cancer patients who got admitted here today before your case. They had the same circumstances—they did not smoke, had no family history of cancer, and did not work in hazardous environments, but they still got diagnosed with cancer all the same. Tell me, why do you think that is? Besides, I checked and know that Little Huang’s hometown is in Shanxi. That province is known to be heavily polluted.”

The physician changed the topic. “It’s quite late. The other patients still have to rest, so don’t have too many people stay behind. Go home for now.” He then walked away.

He left behind a group of Department 14 staff who felt very angry!

Air pollution?

It was actually caused by the air pollution that they had been investigating for the past month!?

The ward’s door opened.

A female employee of Department 14 came out and wiped away some tears from the corners of her eyes. “Little Huang wants everyone to go inside.”

Zhang Ye immediately stepped into the ward. “Little Huang!”

The lights were on inside the room. Huang Dandan was lying on the bed, her face haggard and pallid. She had an oxygen mask on to help her breathe. “Director Zhang, why are you here too? I’ve told them not to tell you about this.”

Zhang Ye said, “How can I not be here! Rest assured, Little Huang. Don’t worry too much. The doctor said that you’re at the early stage of the cancer, so you’ll definitely recover! We’ll always be by your side!”

Little Wang said, “Right!”

Ha Qiqi said, “We’re all here for you!”

Wu Yi said, “Everyone will always be by your side!”

Zhang Zuo said, “Just rest up and don’t think about anything else. We will come and visit you every day!”

Looking at Huang Dandan’s condition, everyone’s heart ached.

However, Huang Dandan shook her head. “I can bear this. You don’t need to be by my side or come here.”

“Dandan!” Tong Fu was nearly in tears.

Huang Dandan looked at everyone and suddenly said, “Can you guys promise me one thing?”

Zhang Ye said, “Whatever you say!”

Ha Qiqi quickly said, “However many requests you have, we’ll definitely give you our word!”

Huang Dandan’s tone became very determined all of a sudden. “I overheard what the doctor said just now. Don’t worry about me. You guys must take my place and produce the air pollution documentary. We can’t let the citizens stay in the dark. Don’t let the same thing happen to other people, alright?”

“Dandan!” Little Wang teared up again.

Zhang Ye straightened his face as he said through set teeth, “Alright, I promise! I will make sure that everyone gets to see this documentary!”

“Thank you, Director Zhang.” Huang Dandan fell asleep content.

After the group left the ward, they went downstairs.

Zhang Ye stood in the lobby and suddenly announced loudly to everyone of Department 14, “From today onward, from now onward, our Department 14 will fight to the bitter end against…air pollution!”

“Fight it!”

“Motherfucker!”

“To the bitter end!”

“To the bitter end!”

The people of Department 14 were furious!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Cityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhengyangmenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace