Chapter 657 — The Cause of the Coma?

Yet what Shen Yushu had to say was no different from the accounts of the other students: they had eaten in the cafeteria, returned to their classroom, and before long begun to show symptoms of dizziness and fainting...

At first, Dr. Li had also suspected the students had fallen into unconsciousness from food poisoning -- after all, the symptoms had appeared only after the midday meal. But that judgment would not withstand scrutiny, for the students who had collapsed made up only a tiny fraction of those who had eaten in the cafeteria; by now the number was a mere twenty-eight.

The likelihood of food poisoning thus shrank considerably. Why else would no other student be affected in the least? And to say that some particular dish was to blame seemed equally implausible -- surely there could not be a single dish that only twenty-eight students had eaten?

So the true cause of the coma could only be determined after they reached the hospital.

The whole way, the ambulances wailed through several red lights in succession. Such a convoy of ambulances was a rare sight, yet the vehicles along the road all pulled aside of their own accord. That so many ambulances had been dispatched at once made it plain something very serious had happened.

Ding Binggong gathered his words and put through a call to Gu Pengzhan. With an incident of such magnitude at the school, he had to inform the chairman -- and since Gu Mengyao was among the students who had collapsed, it was all the more necessary that he do so.

Gu Pengzhan was in a meeting at that moment. His phone rang, and at first he had no intention of answering; but when he saw the three characters "Ding Binggong" on the caller display, he picked up after all. As a rule, apart from coming to the group to deliver his report each week, Ding Binggong seldom called him.

If it was not a matter of business, then something must have happened to Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu, or Wei Zhao -- otherwise he would never have called in person. At that thought, Gu Pengzhan signaled for everyone to wait a moment and answered the phone: "Principal Ding, what is it? I'm in a meeting..."

He had made himself perfectly clear: if Ding Binggong had nothing of importance, he could call back later.

"Chairman Chu, something has happened at the school!" Ding Binggong said gravely. "During the lunch break, twenty-eight students suddenly collapsed unconscious in their classrooms for reasons unknown -- among them Gu Mengyao..."

"What!" Gu Pengzhan sprang to his feet before he knew it. Ding Binggong's news had already been shocking enough -- more than twenty students collapsing at once, an incident without precedent since the school was founded. If it was not handled properly, it would do grave damage to the school's reputation and even to the group's.

But what worried Gu Pengzhan most was his daughter's safety! Gu Mengyao was a part of his very life; that she too had fainted left him no frame of mind to continue the meeting. He waved a hand, indicating that they could adjourn: "The meeting is suspended. Li Fu, come out with me!"

"Yes, Mr. Gu!" Qingbo nodded and followed Gu Pengzhan out of the meeting room. As his trusted aide, he had of course noticed the unsettled cast of Gu Pengzhan's mood -- plainly something had caught him off guard.

In the Pengzhan Group of today, Gu Pengzhan's word was law; no one dared raise a voice of dissent. The miserable departures of Xie Guangbo and Jin Gubang were still fresh in memory -- how could these newly arrived shareholders fail to tread as though on thin ice?

Seeing that Gu Pengzhan had business to attend to and had gone out, no one dared ask anything further. Only some time after his departure did they file out of the meeting room one by one and return to their offices.

Gu Pengzhan, brows tightly knit, held the phone and asked in a low voice: "Is Yao Yao all right? Is there any danger?"

"Mr. Gu, that is not yet clear. We are almost at the hospital -- only a few minutes' drive now," Ding Binggong said.

"All right, which hospital is it? I'll be there at once!" Anxious as Gu Pengzhan was, there was nothing he could do.

"The Municipal Second People's Hospital," Ding Binggong said.

The best hospitals in the city were the First People's Hospital and the Second People's Hospital; but because the First had been established longer and enjoyed greater seniority, many people held it in higher regard than the Second.

The Second People's Hospital, however, had also been spun off from the First. After the First received capital injection from the Mingyang Medical Group founded by Guan Xuewen's son, the Second People's Hospital was established, staffed by doctors who had come over from the First, and furnished with newly purchased medical equipment. Thus many young people too had begun to recognize the Second People's Hospital.

"Fine, I understand." Gu Pengzhan hung up and said to Qingbo: "To the Second People's Hospital! Yao Yao has fainted, and twenty-eight students at the school have collapsed for unknown reasons as well. We're going at once!"

"Yes, Mr. Gu!" Hearing that Gu Mengyao had fainted too, Qingbo hastily started the car and sped all the way toward the Second People's Hospital.

Five minutes later, the ambulances drew up one after another at the entrance of the Second People's Hospital, where medical staff had long been waiting to wheel the unconscious students into the emergency room one by one.

Shen Yushu brought Gu Mengyao to the door of the emergency room, and only when the doctor told her that the patient's family could only wait outside did she reluctantly let go of Gu Mengyao's hand: "Yao Yao, you have to hold on!"

Ding Binggong, Wang Zhifeng, and Shen Yushu kept anxious vigil at the door of the emergency room, waiting fretfully for the results to come out.

"Principal Ding, Director Wang, Little Shu!" Gu Pengzhan arrived at the hospital shortly after, spotted the three outside the emergency room, and strode over, while Qingbo accompanied Gu Pengzhan anxiously at his side...

"Mr. Gu!"

"Uncle Chu!"

Ding Binggong, Wang Zhifeng, and Shen Yushu called out at the same time.

Ding Binggong said to Gu Pengzhan with a bitter smile, "They're all inside the emergency room. We still don't know the results!"

Gu Pengzhan nodded, his face equally anxious. "How are things at the school? You must keep it steady -- whatever you do, don't let unnecessary panic spread among the students!"

"That won't happen. It's already been contained within a small scope!" Ding Binggong nodded. "It's just the students' parents -- do we need to notify them?"