Chapter 659 — Critical Condition Notice

But whoever had summoned these people, it no longer mattered. Gu Pengzhan had to find a way to deal with them, or else, if they went back and wrote whatever came into their heads, it would do the school incalculable harm.

"I am Gu Pengzhan, chairman of the Gu Group. Might I ask where you learned this news?" Gu Pengzhan had no choice but to step forward and face the reporters.

"Oh? Chairman Chu is here too? Excellent, then we can interview Chairman Chu directly!" Crippled Wolf rolled his eyes and turned his spearhead on Gu Pengzhan; if Gu Pengzhan said a single wrong word, he could seize on it and make a scene. "We hear that a school under your group has suffered such a vile mass incident. As the group's chairman, how do you regard it? Was it a lapse in management, or someone derelict in duty, or would you say some of the teachers are already suspected of criminal conduct?"

Crippled Wolf was notorious for his venomous tongue; every question he asked was razor-sharp and merciless.

"My friend, I don't know how you came to learn of this so-called vile mass incident." Gu Pengzhan smiled faintly and said mildly, "But the doctors have yet to give any results. Even I and all the students' parents do not know the cause of the comas. How is it that you do?"

"Never mind how we know; naturally someone provided a lead!" Crippled Wolf said. "And even if you knew the cause, I doubt you would tell us, would you? It's these parents who are being kept in the dark. You school leaders — when have you ever cared whether other people's children live or die?"

"That's not right," said the middle-aged woman from before, who had little guile and simply spoke the plain truth. A difficult sort she might be, but she was not a bad person. "Chairman Chu's daughter is one of the students in a coma this time. How can you say he doesn't care?"

Crippled Wolf was taken aback. He had not expected that Gu Pengzhan's daughter was among the victims too! That made his earlier words somewhat contradictory. How could Gu Pengzhan not care? He cared a great deal indeed.

But Crippled Wolf was quick on his feet. A thought struck him, and he asked, "Look here — even Chairman Chu's own daughter has come to harm in his own school. Imagine how chaotic the school's management must be! Would you still dare send your own children here to study?"

"Ah!" The middle-aged woman was slightly stunned. But on reflection, there was indeed some sense in it. If even the school chairman's daughter had ended up like this, then how much more danger was her own child, the child of an ordinary commoner, in?

The other parents, hearing Crippled Wolf's words, grew doubtful as well. Yes — if the school could not even guarantee the safety of its chairman's daughter, how could it guarantee the safety of the other students?

"Everyone, please be calm!" Gu Pengzhan waved a hand. "Did I not say this before? The true cause of the students' comas — I do not know it, the school doctor does not know it. Everything must wait for the results of the examinations by the Second Hospital's doctors. If it truly is the school's fault, the school will not shirk responsibility! To speak of such things now is a little premature!"

Gu Pengzhan's words did calm the parents for the time being. Yes — their children were still inside the emergency room, the cause still unclear. To fly into a rage now would be premature.

Crippled Wolf had not expected Gu Pengzhan to defuse things so easily, and he frowned at once. But he had taken twenty thousand yuan from Li Cihua to ruin Gu Pengzhan's school, and he could not simply give up. Nor could he go back and write at random, for then Gu Pengzhan would surely sue their newspaper for libel. But if he could stir up the parents' fury, then it would not be libel, because what he wrote would wholly represent the parents' own sentiments, and if Gu Pengzhan wanted to be angry, he could only go after those parents!

But as things stood, Crippled Wolf could say no more. Still, he was no fool; after a moment's thought he hit on a plan. Since he could not incite the parents now, then he would wait a while — wait until the hospital's examination results came out, and then make an issue of those results!

Of course, he did not know that the mastermind behind this coma incident was Li Cihua, nor that it was Li Cihua who had sent men to poison the school. He merely assumed that Li Cihua and Gu Pengzhan were at odds, and that Li Cihua meant to use this opportunity to ruin the Gu Group and First High School.

Another half hour or so passed before the emergency room door opened and a doctor in a white coat hurried out. Seeing the crowd at the door, he said, "Are you the patients' families?"

"Yes, yes! How is my child?" The middle-aged woman and a crowd of parents immediately pressed forward, waiting for the doctor's word.

Gu Pengzhan wanted to ask as well, but after all, he now represented the Gu Group. Anxious as he was about his daughter, he could only wait for the doctor to answer the parents first.

"The situation is very bad!" the doctor said. "When the patients were brought in, we initially judged it to be food poisoning. But after our tests, the food in the patients' stomachs contained no substance capable of causing a coma!"

"This..." The students' parents were dumbstruck at the doctor's words. If it was not food poisoning, then what was it?

"And the patients' symptoms do not match those of other acute infectious diseases — though it is of course possible that some new virus is the cause," the doctor said. "All the patients are in a very unstable condition. Their physiological functions are declining rapidly. We have put the patients on IV drips, but rather than passing the critical stage, their condition is only worsening! We have already placed the patients in isolation to prevent any possible spread of infection!"

"What? Not past the critical stage, but worsening?" The parents were all the more bewildered. What on earth was going on? Even the hospital could not solve it?

"Yes. We have reported it to the higher authorities and notified experts in the medical field. A panel consultation will be held shortly, but whether there is any solution is hard to say," the doctor said. "These are critical condition notices. Please each find the one for your own child and sign it!"

"Critical condition notices?" This time the parents were utterly at a loss. They had never imagined that a mere coma could turn into a critical condition notice.

"And what happens if we don't sign? We want to see our children!" another parent demanded.

"If you don't sign, we have no choice but to cease treatment," the doctor explained. "Once you sign, we will do everything in our power to find a way, though we cannot guarantee a cure. And for now you cannot go near the patients. We have yet to determine whether this is a new round of viral contagion, and under the regulations governing infectious diseases, the patients must be placed in isolation."