Chapter 34
Chapter 34
Xu Haitang was wholly preoccupied with her teammates’ safety.
Lin Yinxi wished she could become a sack.
Then she wouldn’t have to move her two legs. She could simply be dragged along the floor.
They reached the infirmary.
“Wait, Haitang. The infirmary is obviously dangerous. We haven’t even worked out its rules…”
Lin Yinxi wanted to pull her hand free and think things through properly.
Xu Haitang’s grip was strong, and she kept walking. “There’s no time. Chu Yanran already figured out the rules. This is the safe period during the infirmary’s shift change.
Lin Yinxi, we’re a team. We have to work together. Trust me and stay close. I won’t harm you.”
“I can tell you’re a decent person, but…” Lin Yinxi trusted her own brain more.
If Xu Haitang misjudged the situation and danger arose, she could run and fight.
Lin Yinxi had poor stamina. She couldn’t run fast.
A woman of action, Xu Haitang pulled and dragged her to the infirmary entrance.
Its half-open door was flesh-pink, with a red cross painted in the center.
“Stay close.” Xu Haitang slipped inside without discussion or looking back.
Lin Yinxi adjusted her wristband. Hearing footsteps from the corner outside, she weighed the danger and decided to follow her in.
The infirmary did not smell of disinfectant as she had imagined. Instead, a rank formalin smell filled the air.
There were many small compartments inside.
“Room 116.” Xu Haitang handed Lin Yinxi a white mask to put on.
She donned it and followed Xu Haitang inward.
The compartments had small rectangular panes of glass. As they crossed the corridor, Lin Yinxi could see some patients’ pitch-black eyes pressed against those panes, silently watching outside.
They reached 116.
Xu Haitang knocked. Soon, the door opened from within.
Chu Yanran poked her head out, eyes swollen from crying, wearing a bloodstained white nurse’s uniform.
At the sight of Lin Yinxi, her lips visibly trembled. “Come in, quick…” she whispered.
Inside were gray concrete walls and a concrete floor, a white bulb hanging overhead, no windows, and another door besides the entrance.
The floor was damp. Chen Fei lay on it, bare-chested, with a ring of coarse, ugly sutures around his waist and abdomen.
The doctors here had cut off his legs and sewn on an enormous fish tail.
Slap, slap…
His deep blue tail was large and beautiful, its scales reflecting the light. It twitched gently against the damp concrete, making sticky, wet sounds.
His head was buried in a basin.
Lin Yinxi knew its contents all too well.
It was the feed she had stamped blue last night.
Chu Yanran stood beside him, staring blankly at Chen Fei with red, swollen eyes.
“Miss Lin…” Her voice was hoarse. “Thank you for saving me last night… Again…”
“You’re welcome. We’re a team.” Lin Yinxi felt a chill here.
Chu Yanran’s gaze was unfocused. “But… I came back too late… Feifei’s tail was already attached. Now he… he doesn’t recognize me anymore.”
After following him to the infirmary that day, Chu Yanran stole a nurse’s clothes and disguised herself as an employee to sneak inside and reunite with Chen Fei.
Though his body was in agony then, he still had self-awareness.
He told Chu Yanran he had heard the doctors say the aquarium secretly sold its exhibits outside through a special passage. Merfolk sold particularly well, leaving none for the shows.
They planned to transform Chen Fei into a new merman.
But though the blue water in which he soaked contaminated and eroded his body, his legs had not become sufficiently infected to turn directly into a fish tail.
The doctors therefore had to cut off his legs and attach a tail instead.
Chu Yanran found the rules and learned that if the tail had not been fully attached, destroying the performance contract could still save him.
Sadly… she had failed.
Now he could no longer be saved.
Weeping, Chu Yanran said, “The aquarium secretly sells its exhibits. They were short of merfolk, so they took Feifei to transform him.
His self-awareness was strong. The blue water here couldn’t make him mutate naturally, so the doctors forcibly cut off his legs and sewed on that tail…”
“Don’t cry. Crying won’t solve anything. Getting out through Zone C is our only way to survive.” Xu Haitang gave Lin Yinxi a look.
Understanding, Lin Yinxi took the tissues she had pilfered from the seahorse’s office out of her pocket and handed them to Chu Yanran. She shared her own clue too. “I saw a shipping document in the office mentioning a Waste Dispatch Area. I can’t find it in either Zone A or Zone B. I suspect that’s the entrance to Zone C.”
Xu Haitang said, “For the past two days, I’ve been watching the Water Quality Manager near Jellyfish Café. I overheard her chatting with the staff. Apparently, the aquarium has a special passage for secretly discharging wastewater, avoiding wastewater treatment fees.”
The clues to Zone C converged.
Room 116 fell silent. Only the sound of Chen Fei swallowing minced meat remained.
Lin Yinxi frowned in thought. “The wastewater passage, the Waste Dispatch Area, the secret sales of exhibits outside… These routes may be connected. If we find the transport route, perhaps we can go straight into Zone C.”
At last, they had found a little hope of leaving.
Chu Yanran was about to speak.
Suddenly, Chen Fei stopped eating.
Slap. His deep blue tail struck the floor hard.
Chu Yanran paused and looked back. “Feifei?”
Chen Fei slowly raised his head, pink scraps of meat clinging around his mouth. His formerly cloudy, blank eyes briefly regained a glimmer of clarity.
He stared fixedly at Chu Yanran, his voice hoarse and indistinct. “Huh, huh, huh… Run… They’re going to sell me. Follow me… Find the way… Live…”
Chu Yanran’s tears fell at once. “Feifei! You recognize me, don’t you?! Do you still have a little self-awareness?”
But he seemed not to hear her at all. Veins bulged on his neck, his body convulsed violently, and his fish tail thrashed against the floor.
Slap!
Slap, slap!
Chu Yanran wanted to rush over. “Feifei… Feifei, look at me again…”
Xu Haitang grabbed her.
Red lights began flashing in the room. Lin Yinxi suddenly noticed what seemed to be a severe rejection reaction where the tail was sewn to Chen Fei’s waist. The sutured flesh was rotting and beginning to stink.
At the same time, hurried footsteps sounded in the corridor outside.
“What’s happening? The merman in Ward 116 is having another rejection reaction!”
“Prepare the blue sedative immediately!”
Lin Yinxi looked toward the door. “Bad news. The alarm’s triggered. They’re coming!”
Xu Haitang said calmly, “Leave through the staff passage.”
Chu Yanran did not move. Instead, she dropped to her knees before Xu Haitang, who was holding her. Her voice broke with tears. “Haitang, I can’t do this… I can’t watch Feifei stay here suffering worse than death. This happened because he wanted to rent us a tent. Those entities transformed him. They’re torturing him. You have a gun. Please help me. Give him a quick end!”