Before the head nurse could speak up, a small nurse by the side said somewhat agitatedly, “Dr. Beryl and the others are bringing back a patient who’s infected with AIDS, and a particularly infectious strain at that.
Isn’t this frightening? If it were just a mental illness, that wouldn’t be so bad. However, she has AIDS too. My goodness, it’s fearsome just thinking about it!”
The head nurse hurriedly stopped her from speaking any more. “Stop speaking nonsense, and quickly go prepare.”
And then, somewhat exasperatedly, she went to Amber’s side and explained, “According to what we know, this patient’s hobby was to kiss strangers in a crowded public area. Allegedly, quite a few people tried to take advantage of that, but after they found out that they were infected, they’re about to go crazy.”
Amber was struck speechless at the disaster. “….”
“This is really a tragedy.” At that time, she didn’t think further of it, only getting a little uncomfortable at the mention of AIDS.
The rumored patient arrived quickly. At the beginning, Amber didn’t even recognize her as Sarah because when she was admitted, she was wearing a black dress with her hair in disarray, thick makeup caked on, a big and thick mask clamped over her mouth, and her hands tied down. Even worse, she was brought in while strapped to the gurney.
Amber stood by the side, observing with her students and directing them to make a preliminary diagnosis based on the patient’s behavior. But then, she suddenly heard Beryl call out, “Can Sarah’s family members please come over here to fill out the admission procedures.”
Only then did she look over in shock, only to find that, no matter how hard she looked, she was unable to equate the maniacal patient struggling on the gurney to the tender, gentle, and beautiful Sarah that she’d seen at Trysta’s wedding.
Amber couldn’t even imagine that this person in front of them was the same person who had waited in front of Trysta’s house, the same Sarah who had looked pitiful as a white lotus.
Actually, even Beryl didn’t recognize Sarah. When Amber later went to search for him in an attempt to better understand the situation, Beryl sourly replied, “We had to ambush her in the city plaza. My god, she was running and jumping around as she nonsensically scolded people and bit at them. It was enough to torment someone to death.”
He then glanced at her, before mockingly saying, “It’s lucky that you weren’t the one to go. Otherwise, with how you usually deal with these situations, you’d probably have to take leave, go home, and enter quarantine.”
“Patients suffering from AIDS don’t need to be quarantined, Dr. Beryl.” Amber ignored his ridicule and coolly reminded him of basic medical knowledge. “Has she … infected a lot of people?”
“Yes. Allegedly, more than ten.”
Amber frowned. “That’s impossible.” From what she could tell, Trysta had only done something in February, and in the two months between February and April, even if Sarah had had sex as often as she could, it would have been quite difficult for her to reach a two-digit number.
This was because, before Sarah knew that she had AIDS, she had wanted to pull Trysta down with her. Thus, she wouldn’t have gotten involved with any other man besides Frank during that period.
“What makes it impossible?” Beryl stared at her strangely. “Apparently, she started acting abnormally about half a month ago. She suddenly went crazy and started hunting all over for men to have sex with. Even after that, she would repeatedly haunt the streets, and once she found a single man, she’d pounce on him and try to kiss him, kiss and even bite.
By the time we arrived, we heard that last night, when she was roaming around the city plaza, ten hoodlums had gathered around her and played a kissing game with her. So even saying it’s merely a two-digit number is a conservative estimate.” As he said this, he suddenly realized something. “You know her?”
“….”
Amber nodded. “Yes. Half a month ago, she came to the hospital. You and a bunch of other colleagues were there with me, on the ground floor.” Since Beryl didn’t recognize her, Amber had to remind him of this incident, as this was an important clue to understand the patient’s current behavior.
Beryl was somewhat stupefied. “My god! That means that she’s been doing this for over half a month?”
Amber replied, “No. I think that, at that time, she was still clear-headed, and just felt somewhat anxious. I don’t think that she knew that she had AIDS yet.”
AIDS was a horrifying monster in people’s minds. However, the possibility that it could cause someone to go crazy just from having it wasn’t something that Amber had anticipated.
The whole department was on edge due to Sarah’s arrival. Just like the little nurse had said, patients solely suffering from mental illness weren’t scary, and patients solely suffering from AIDS weren’t scary. What was truly scary was when a patient with both mental illness and AIDS had a tendency to attack people.
What was even more scary was when they found that her oral cavity was damaged.
Usually, kissing wouldn’t put people at risk for contracting AIDS; however, if the infected person’s oral cavity was damaged, and then she bit people.
That night, Amber saw the aftermath of this incident on the local news. The headline was sensational “a businesswoman had contracted AIDS at a bar, and then frantically spread it to almost a hundred people.”