Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Soul Recall activated.
At the same time, the maggots that had already died opened their eyes once more.
They began to writhe again, driven by nothing but the instinct to feed.
Such tempting rotten flesh. Such a delicacy, right within reach.
They gnawed frantically at the Carrion Ghost’s flesh. It did not matter that its meat contained toxins. They were already dead; they could not die a second time.
Feast. Feed. Do not stop. Keep going and going until this massive heap of rotting flesh has been devoured completely.
The maggots under Xie Qingling’s control were now the perfect weapon against the Carrion Ghost.
The Carrion Ghost howled in agony. It tried to shake the maggots off and crush them to death.
But creatures as tiny as maggots were almost impossible to dislodge.
Even worse, they had no fear of death whatsoever.
Roughly two minutes passed, perhaps a little longer.
Those tiny white maggots actually gnawed so deeply into the Carrion Ghost that stark white bone showed beneath its flesh. Deep, sunken pits riddled its body wherever they had eaten.
To the tiny white worms, that filthy, stinking rotten meat was nothing short of a magnificent feast.
Ye Anran’s scalp prickled at the sight, and goose bumps rose all over her body.
This rookie was terrifying!
She could not help turning toward Xie Qingling, only to find her watching quietly, her face completely expressionless.
“That’s about enough.” Leaving those words behind, Xie Qingling jumped from the rooftop.
She landed on the fourth-floor walkway behind the Carrion Ghost.
The Carrion Ghost was in such unbearable agony that it had no attention to spare for her. It merely continued beating itself in a frenzy – striking at the tiny maggots clinging to its body.
But it was useless.
Just as an elephant could not drive tiny ants from its body, the Carrion Ghost’s enormous size had now become a disadvantage.
It could not locate the maggots at all, even though it could clearly feel the pain of being devoured.
At that moment, Xie Qingling raised her bone saw and slashed twice at the back of the Carrion Ghost’s heel.
There was a deafening crash. The Carrion Ghost lost its ankle and slammed heavily to the ground.
Even a ghost could not remain standing without a foot.
Before its mutation, one slash had been enough to eliminate a Carrion Ghost. Now even two failed to finish this one. Xie Qingling raised her eyebrows slightly in surprise.
Right. It had become stronger.
In that case, she would try this.
Xie Qingling discarded the bone saw, took up the handgun, and disengaged its safety.
There was one bullet left in the handgun.
It was specially made. One shot should be enough to take the creature out.
Xie Qingling walked over to the Carrion Ghost’s head, planted one foot on its thrashing skull, and pressed the muzzle against it.
“This way, I won’t miss,” Xie Qingling said.
A gunshot rang out. With a bang, the Carrion Ghost’s head burst apart, and its body vanished along with it.
Only after the last severed fragment of its ankle disappeared did Ye Anran finally come back to her senses.
She moved her dry lips but had no idea what to say.
After some thought, only one word could sum up that battle: beautiful.
The rookie, who had joined the Department less than two days ago, had not only shown no fear in the face of these man-eating ghosts, but had also made the most advantageous and accurate decisions at critical moments. She had kept them in check while striking back whenever the opportunity arose, winning a beautiful battle in which the weak defeated the strong and the few defeated the many.
Ye Anran no longer knew whether this was talent or something else.
In any case, it had been beautifully done.
So beautifully, in fact, that even as Xie Qingling’s Senior, Ye Anran could not find the words to express how she felt.
Just the two of them had truly eliminated every Carrion Ghost before the Director and the others arrived. They had also protected the other humans from harm, along with the remaining body donors in the specimen room.
This was unquestionably the best possible outcome.
It could even be said that of all the operations Ye Anran had participated in since joining the Special Incident Response Department, this one had resulted in the fewest casualties.
But how could she put it…
It had been thrilling – far too thrilling, and far too insane.
So insane that the heart in Ye Anran’s chest was still pounding uneasily.
Ye Anran also jumped down from the rooftop and landed beside Xie Qingling. Just as she was about to speak, she heard footsteps coming from the stairwell.
“The Director!” Ye Anran immediately realized that Ling Fang and Yu Wei had arrived.
The joy of their recent victory instantly vanished. Ye Anran hurriedly grabbed Xie Qingling and warned her in a low voice, “The Director has a terrible temper. You’re definitely in for a scolding.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t snitch on you. You can explain it yourself. But don’t count on me, either. I won’t help you explain.”
Ye Anran did not want to throw her teammate under the bus, but she also did not want to bear the brunt of Ling Fang’s anger.
This was all she could do.
Hearing this, Xie Qingling nodded to show she understood.
Whether it was the decision to act without authorization or the decision to kill the ghosts, both had been hers. Ye Anran truly had been dragged into it halfway through.
The moment Xie Qingling chose to act on her own without telling anyone, she had prepared herself to face the consequences.
She simply did not know…
Just how bad was the Director’s temper?
He looked perfectly mild-mannered.
Still, Xie Qingling braced herself.
As they spoke, two figures appeared at the fourth-floor stairwell.
One was naturally Ling Fang. The other was a weathered-looking middle-aged man with an exceptionally tall, powerful build.
Ling Fang carried a silver case in one hand and had a wooden hand crossbow strapped across his back. After sweeping a sharp gaze around the scene, his eyes finally landed on Xie Qingling and Ye Anran.
The rookie who had just joined them was covered in blood. She looked as though she had just fought through a chaotic battle and nearly died in the process.
For her to encounter something on this scale during her very first operation and still remain so composed was already quite impressive.
Then there was the state of the scene. Wreckage covered the ground, and half the building was on the verge of collapse…
Ling Fang’s brows drew into a deep frown.
He glanced down at the time. Only twelve minutes had passed since he set out.
What in the world had happened during those brief twelve minutes?
His gaze swept back and forth between Xie Qingling and Ye Anran. Finally, he barked, “Ye Anran!”
Ye Anran: “…”
Oh, come on. Why her?!
It was not as though she had caused all this!
“Explain.” Ling Fang took a deep breath. “Where are the ghosts? Why does the building look like this?”
As the veteran team member, Ye Anran naturally became the first person held accountable.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, a rookie who had never handled this kind of emergency before could not possibly have created such a massive disturbance, however capable she was and even if she had received Houtu’s blessing.
That left only one possibility – it had something to do with Ye Anran.
“Director…” Ye Anran stammered, on the verge of tears.
She had just begun to defend herself when Xie Qingling’s voice came from behind her.
“It had nothing to do with Anran. It was me.” Xie Qingling approached with her head lowered, looking exactly like a student standing before a teacher after failing to hand in her homework.
She said softly, “I forced her. I was the one who acted.”
“Oh? What did you force her to do?”
“Heal me.”
Ling Fang: “…”
After a moment of silence, Ling Fang sighed deeply. “Let’s get out of here first. The building is about to collapse.”
The four of them moved to the open ground in front of the teaching building.
Xie Qingling had already prepared what she wanted to say along the way.
She said slowly, “I was the one who decided to act early. I was the one who ignored the Director’s orders. I killed the ghosts. I may not have demolished the building, but I was involved in that too. So if you want to hit or scold someone, direct it at me. Anran is innocent.”
Even so, if she had the chance to do it again, she would make the same choice.
Xie Qingling kept that thought to herself, however. Saying it aloud would only add fuel to the fire.
Ye Anran had not expected her to be so loyal and immediately felt embarrassed.
After some thought, she also spoke in Xie Qingling’s defense. “Director, I don’t think what happened today can be judged like an ordinary situation.”
“That Carrion Ghost wanted to eat the body donors in the specimen room. You know what body donors mean to medical students. It was understandable that the rookie couldn’t control her emotions.”
What a masterful argument. Beside her, Xie Qingling nodded furiously. “Entirely understandable.”
Ling Fang laughed in exasperation.
He stared at Xie Qingling for several seconds. Instead of responding, he asked, “You killed the ghost?”
Xie Qingling nodded.
“How?”
“With a gun.”
Ling Fang had long known that Xie Qingling had selected a gun from the armory.
Her answer surprised him. “You seem to have quite a talent for shooting.”
Xie Qingling lowered her head even farther in shame and whispered, “Not really. Out of five bullets, only one hit. I missed with the other four.”
Off to the side, Ye Anran began gesticulating wildly. Recalling the perilous battle, she immediately launched into a vivid reenactment of the intense scene.
“Director, the rookie was incredible! Not only could she kite a ghost, she could summon things too. In the end, she used those… urgh… juvenile flies from the laboratory to finish the Carrion Ghost off.”
“Didn’t she use a gun?”
“She did, but it went like this…” Ye Anran demonstrated how Xie Qingling had pinned the Carrion Ghost’s head under her foot, then pressed the gun barrel against its skull.
So that was what had happened.
Out of five bullets, only the last had hit.
Ling Fang: “…”
Xie Qingling continued standing quietly and obediently off to one side.
If one ignored the mottled bloodstains covering her and looked only at the way she meekly accepted her lecture, she truly seemed the part: an ignorant but humble and sincere rookie.
Once the others fell silent, Xie Qingling interjected at exactly the right moment. “In short, we killed the ghosts, but we did break the rules. Whether you make me write a self-criticism, dock my pay, or give me any other punishment, I’ll accept it. I won’t hold it against you.”
For all the innocence on Xie Qingling’s face, she was busily calculating how to turn things in her favor.
She had come clean and admitted her mistake. Surely that meant she deserved leniency?
“You were planning to hold it against me?”
“…No.”
Ling Fang studied her for several moments, his thoughts unreadable.
“Go back and write a ten-thousand-word self-criticism. Copy the workplace rules ten times as well.” At least he did not dock her pay.
Xie Qingling nodded, thinking she could accept that punishment.
It was only a self-criticism. There was nothing so terrible about that.
A leader who did not dock her pay was a good leader.
A moment later, Ling Fang bent down and opened the silver case he had brought with him. He took out a bag and tossed it to Xie Qingling.
Xie Qingling hurriedly caught it and hefted it in one hand. It weighed roughly a kilogram, but she had no idea what was inside.
Xie Qingling looked bewildered, unsure what this meant.
Ling Fang, however, had no intention of explaining. He simply walked away.
Yu Wei, the weathered, powerfully built middle-aged man who had come with Ling Fang, saw this and explained to Xie Qingling, “Take it. It’s a weapon the Director prepared for you.”