Seeing that Flandre had no objections, the other party turned on the television and began watching it with her. Just as the TV drama was nearing its end, Flandre looked toward the hospital bed not far away. The reason was simple: the heartbeat of Dropper on the bed, which had been steady just moments ago, suddenly began to accelerate. Flandre knew this meant the other party had woken up.
Noticing Flandre's gaze shift from the television to the bed, the doctor also stood up and walked over. At that moment, Dropper had just opened his eyes. Smelling the familiar and pungent scent of disinfectant in the air, he suddenly felt a sense of relief. He scanned his surroundings. Based on the environment, he should be in a private clinic, and one with quite good facilities at that. After all, with just a turn of his head, he saw several different types of emergency equipment placed nearby. Rhodes Island had these things too, but Rhodes Island was massive; for a small private clinic to afford such equipment, it could only be said that the doctor was very wealthy.
Just then, he saw a middle-aged doctor in a white coat with graying hair at his temples walking toward him. Standing before Dropper, the doctor looked into his bright eyes, nodded with satisfaction, and then raised his left hand in a V-sign.
"How many fingers is this?"
The doctor used the Yan language. Dropper didn't understand it, but he knew what was being done. At this moment, Dropper's mind was also working rapidly. The only thing he knew for certain was that the language the other person spoke was not the Ursus language, nor was it Leithanien, the Sarkaz language, or Rim Billiton. The reason was simple: he was a Leithanien, and due to his connection with Rhodes Island, he knew some Sarkaz and Rim Billiton languages. Additionally, working here in Ursus, he had learned the Ursus language, but what the doctor before him spoke was none of those.
"Two," he responded in the common tongue after thinking for a few seconds.
Hearing the man's answer, the doctor was stunned for a second. "This person you brought back isn't from Yan?" he said, turning to Flandre.
"Don't worry, I know this person. He's a doctor, just like you." Flandre's words made the doctor raise an eyebrow, and he then stepped aside. Only after the doctor left did Flandre walk over.
"How are you? Do you feel any discomfort?"
"Miss Flandre?" Dropper was very surprised to see Flandre. Hadn't she left Ursus with the Yan delegation? How could he be seeing her here? Suddenly, a somewhat absurd thought appeared in his mind.
"Don't overthink it. You have indeed ended up here in Yan. When I found you in the snow, you were already near death, so I quickly brought you back here."
After Flandre finished speaking, the other party showed an expression of relief. "Thank you, Miss Flandre. If not for your help, I'm afraid I would have become a frozen corpse in the snow!" Although he had lost the memory of the final stretch of his journey, he still knew how dire his situation had been at the time.
"It can only be said that it wasn't your time to die. By the way, how are you feeling now?" Flandre expressed that the fact he was alive was truly a stroke of incredible luck. If she hadn't chosen to go to the snowy mountains at that time, or if she had reached the mountains and decided there was nothing to see and turned back, or if he had lost consciousness before her arrival or hadn't taken that path, there was a high probability they would have missed each other. It could only be said that the Heavens didn't intend for him to die yet.
Hearing Flandre's words, Dropper managed a smile. The fact that she could encounter him by chance was indeed a matter of luck. After all, in such a vast area between Ursus and Yan, for him to be found by her of all people—one had to say he was extremely fortunate.
After chatting for a few moments, Flandre noticed he was becoming tired again, so she told him to get some rest and then walked out the door with the doctor.
"An Ursus person?" the doctor asked in a low voice after they stepped out.
Flandre shook her head. "No, look, where would you find a Caprini in Ursus? He's a Leithanien."
Hearing this, the doctor's expression relaxed. Flandre knew the reason for this. Because the doctor before her used to be in the military, and he had been stationed at the Ursus border for decades. During that time, many of his comrades had died or been disabled due to conflicts with Ursus. He himself had been forced into early retirement after taking an arrow to the knee during a conflict with Ursus, and was eventually hired by Wei Yenwu into the Guard Department. Therefore, he held a deep-seated hatred for the people of Ursus. If this person were an Ursus citizen, he absolutely would not have participated in the subsequent medical aid. But if it was a Leithanien, then it didn't matter. After all, although Leithanien and Yan were technically neighbors, they were very far apart, and there were basically no border conflicts between the two countries.
After the doctor went to prepare medicine for Dropper, Flandre stepped back into the room and found that the other party had already fallen back asleep. She waited for the doctor to return before saying her goodbyes, stating she would come back tomorrow morning to check on the patient. After leaving the clinic, she contacted Alina.
Alina was overjoyed to hear the news. Not long ago, the Reunion Movement's team for picking up people had returned to their territory, but because some Infected who didn't trust the Reunion Movement ran off, a portion of the people went "missing." The one who made the Reunion Movement feel the most guilty was the doctor, Dropper. At the time he went out to chase after people, Red was fighting a Reconnaissance Squad. When the battle ended and he returned to the team to check, he realized Dropper was gone.
While arranging for the main group to return, he personally took a few people to pursue in the direction the Infected said Dropper had gone. But as it happened, the wind and snow were particularly heavy that day, and his squad nearly got lost on the snowy plains. After a whole day of searching to no avail, and facing more and more Reconnaissance Squads closing in, he had no choice but to lead the remaining people to break through the encirclement.
Upon his return, he immediately told the news to Talulah. Talulah also found Logos and his group, who were still staying there, and told them the news. Regarding this, the Rhodes Island side, after understanding what happened, did not blame Red or the Reunion Movement. Because chasing those escaping Infected was Dropper's own spontaneous action. Furthermore, a blizzard was something beyond their control. Red had already made the maximum effort possible to find Dropper. Although the outcome was saddening, Rhodes Island would not choose to abandon cooperation with the Reunion Movement over such a thing.
However, the Rhodes Island medical team was still quite sorrowful. After all, Dropper was among the first batch of doctors to follow them to Ursus, and he was very popular within the Reunion Movement as well. Alina first ran to the office to tell Talulah about this.
"Is this true?" Talulah stood up in shock upon hearing that Dropper was still alive and had been saved by Flandre thousands of miles away.
"It's one hundred percent true. This is the message Flandre just contacted me to convey," Alina said excitedly.
"That's wonderful... Come, let's find our friends from Rhodes Island and tell them this good news." Talulah stood up and led Alina hurriedly toward the area where Rhodes Island was located.
At this time, the people from Rhodes Island had already set up a cenotaph for Dropper, and Logos was even rarely blowing a bone flute, playing an elegy for his colleague. After all, everyone understood that in such a freezing environment, there was only one outcome for a person lost on the snowy plains. Just then, Talulah arrived with Alina.
"Ms. Talulah, is something the matter?" Seeing the joyful expressions on Talulah and Alina's faces, Logos's heart skipped a beat.
"We just received news that Mr. Dropper is still alive."
At Talulah's words, all the Rhodes Island Operators looked up one after another. "Where is he? Has he been captured by the Ursus army? If it's a rescue, we at Rhodes Island hope to participate." According to the descriptions from Red's squad and the returned Infected, several Reconnaissance Squads were following them when they returned. So, upon hearing news of Dropper, Rhodes Island's first thought was that Dropper had been captured by a Reconnaissance Squad. Although he wasn't an Infected, in Ursus, a Reconnaissance Squad had countless ways to turn a non-Infected person into an Infected.
"No, no, no... Mr. Dropper wasn't captured by the Ursus army; he's very safe now. Alina, you tell them!" After Talulah finished, she felt she couldn't explain it clearly, so she pushed Alina forward.
Alina said with a smile, "I just received a message from Flandre through a special channel. She found Mr. Dropper at the Yan border and has already brought him back to Lungmen for treatment. He has currently regained consciousness and is out of critical danger."
Hearing Alina's words, the Rhodes Island people were all a bit dazed. The Yan border? That place wasn't close to the Reunion Movement. How could Dropper have ended up there?
"It must have been the heavy snow those few days that made Mr. Dropper lose his sense of direction. He probably thought he was walking toward the Reunion Movement, but in reality, he was walking in the completely opposite direction." Talulah speculated. Recalling the heavy snow from a few days ago, in that environment where it was even hard to distinguish up from down or left from right, it was normal for Dropper to go the wrong way. However, the fact that he walked all the way to the Yan territory was quite impressive in itself.
Though they didn't know how Alina had contacted Flandre, receiving the news that Dropper was alive allowed the Rhodes Island group to breathe a sigh of relief. Just as everyone was commenting on how much of a walker Dropper was, someone suddenly said, "Didn't Mr. Red say earlier that he was prepared to go look for Dropper once the snow stopped?"
Hearing that person's words, Talulah realized she had forgotten to tell Red the news. She hurriedly ran toward the training ground not far away, only to learn that Red wasn't there. Then someone told her they saw Red packing his things, so she quickly ran toward the main gate. She finally intercepted Red at the exit passage.
"Red, there's no need to go looking for Dropper. We already know his whereabouts."
Hearing Talulah's words, Red's pupils constricted. "Where is he? Is he in danger? I'll go bring him back."
Facing the urgent Red, Talulah reached out and held him back. "Rest assured, he is currently in Yan and has been saved by Flandre. He is very safe there, and the living conditions are much better than ours."