บท 19: Chapter 8 Sudden Mutation
An Zhizhen and Cen Dongsheng parted ways and she walked back to her room.
She encountered a young couple near the staircase, hand in hand, looking very affectionate. The wife's belly was round and bulging, clearly several months into her pregnancy, close to giving birth.
An Zhizhen was a celebrity in the neighborhood; many residents knew her and had received her help, including this couple, to whom An Zhizhen had given several pregnancy care tips.
The couple saw her next to the elevator and greeted her warmly.
"Doctor An, you look quite happy, has something good happened recently?"
The wife said with a smile.
"Eh, has it?"
"Yes, I see the corners of your mouth have been upturned."
Reminded by this, An Zhizhen touched her lips somewhat surprised.
...Indeed, she had unintentionally revealed an uncontrollable smile. Had she been overly happy?
The husband turned to his wife and said with a smile:
"I saw her and that young man sitting by the flower bed downstairs, chatting the whole afternoon."
"How can that be... it's not that exaggerated."
While she said this, the curve of her lips remained unchanged.
"I am several years older than him, but I only recently realized that we have quite a lot in common."
"When my dear and I first met, we felt like we were from different worlds. It was only after we actually sat down and talked that I felt he was my soulmate."
"You two are showing off your love right in front of me, making this single person envious."
An Zhizhen casually pushed on the stairway door and found it wouldn't budge.
"You're joking. With Doctor An's qualifications, if you really wanted a man, the line of suitors would stretch from the top floor to the ground floor."
"Other women I might be jealous of, but Doctor An, you... I can't even begin to envy," the pregnant wife said as she examined An Zhizhen's face with indescribable awe, "If I were a man, I would definitely be head over heels for you."
"I think you're almost the same even as a woman, your eyes almost can't look away." The husband teased on the side.
"Ha ha!"
The three were joking when An Zhizhen pushed the door next to her again, but it still wouldn't open.
"What's the matter? Is it locked?" An Zhizhen blinked, "It doesn't seem like it, it feels like there's something blocking the door on the other side."
"There's nothing to be done, I remember it had issues before, and we even had someone come fix it. Old complexes always have these kinds of problems... let's go, dear, we'll use the other door."
The couple left.
Leaving An Zhizhen alone, somewhat worried.
"I wanted to dispose of the trash in room 310... never mind, I'll deal with it in a few days."
...
Night was falling.
An Zhizhen was wearing a snow-white muslin nightgown, lazily sitting on the sofa, chin propped on one hand, flipping through the pages of a book with the other.
The room was lit only by a small desk lamp providing a dim halo of light, illuminating her immaculately beautiful face and her graceful figure veiled in light shadows, serene and captivating, like a painting.
All was silent except for the "rustle" of the book pages, the only sound in the quiet night.
After a while, An Zhizhen's eyebrows slightly furrowed, as if encountering some intricate puzzle and...
The nuisance of being disturbed.
"I'm so hungry... so hungry... so hungry..."
A woman's hoarse and melancholic voice came faintly from the direction of the hallway, alternating closer and farther, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, as if she was hauntingly pacing in the hallway in front of her door.
An Zhizhen sighed, put down the academic book she was halfway through reading, slipped on her slippers, and walked towards the door.
The security door had a small window that could be opened. After opening it and seeing no one outside, she shouted loudly:
"Miss Zhou, I've already told you, although diet control is part of losing weight, excessive fasting can cause severe harm to your body, and ensuring normal sleep habits and duration is equally important. It's time for you to go to bed now, do you hear me?"
The staggering footsteps paused for a moment. Then, the owner of the footsteps turned around and quickly approached.
The woman's appearance soon came into her view.
"Are you... Miss Zhou?"
An Zhizhen's pupils widened slightly.
No wonder she almost didn't recognize her at first glance. The "Miss Zhou" standing outside her door was only wearing a dirty nightgown, skeletal and frail, with dry and curly hair and bulging veins on her arms.
She looked as if she hadn't washed in a long time, covered in a sense of dirtiness, and appeared in very poor condition.
She remembered seeing Miss Zhou a few weeks ago when she was a rather plump type; how had she changed so drastically in just one week?
"It's so late, aren't you going home? This will affect the normal daily routines of the neighbors around you."
Miss Zhou didn't answer, her movements stiff and slow as she turned her head, her neck creaking like a rusty machine, An Zhizhen even heard a "crackling" sound.
Underneath the dirty hair, a pair of pallid eyes filled with blood stared straight at the woman behind the door, the emotions within them undeniably malicious.
An Zhizhen unconsciously stepped back.
"...Look at you, starving has made your physique abnormal. The hunger from extreme dieting affects your mood, making it easy to become anxious and depressed..."
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