Chapter 85

Chapter 85

When Luo Ziwei woke up, his head was still foggy. A nurse led him out of the ward, then had them line up and go downstairs for an electrocardiogram.

As the elevator descended, he didn’t know if there was a bad connection somewhere, but the lights overhead flickered rapidly several times. The elevator swayed, stopping and lurching again and again. It was terrifying.

Luo Ziwei hunched his neck and hid in the corner, listening to the other streamers’ breathing grow ragged with fear. Just then, a heavily muscled streamer at the front cursed and launched into a tirade. “You son of a bitch, @#￥%-beep-”

He spoke so fast, spewing one obscenity after another, that everyone was too stunned to even look at him properly. They could only listen in a daze.

Strangely enough, after that full-throated string of abuse, the elevator made a clack and somehow fixed itself, coming to a smooth stop on the second floor.

The streamers all stared at the man in amazement. He, however, simply took a deep breath and kept going. “Damn thing. Just needed a good scolding!”

With that, he stormed off.

The rest of them were left standing there in silent disarray. “…”

Chi Shang glanced at the man’s retreating back with disgust, then shifted closer to Luo Ziwei.

Luo Ziwei looked at him from the corner of his eye.

Chi Shang frowned. “What are you looking at? You’re not much better, but by comparison, at least you’re not as annoying as him.”

“…As long as you’re happy.”

Luo Ziwei lowered his head listlessly, too tired to argue.

“Right, I need to ask you something.”

Luo Ziwei looked at the face that had suddenly leaned in front of him. Through the sunglasses, he caught sight of those distinctive fox-like eyes and instantly recognized him.

Wasn’t this that celebrity who was famous everywhere?

The darling of the fashion world, the disgrace of the entertainment industry-the top idol Chi Shang.

“After you drank the medicine, did you fall asleep too?”

Luo Ziwei leaned back against the elevator wall. “If you’re going to talk, talk. Can you not get so close to me?”

Why did he look so disgusted?

Chi Shang froze. “You… you’re not my fan?”

You? Worthy of making this young master chase after you?

Luo Ziwei really wanted to roll his eyes, but he held it in. “If you’ve got something to say, say it. Don’t bring up useless stuff.”

Seeing that he didn’t want to discuss it, Chi Shang took a step back, then rolled up his sleeve and showed Luo Ziwei his arm. “I found an extra needle mark on my arm. Check if you’ve got one too.”

Luo Ziwei was startled and quickly lifted his own arm to inspect it. In the end, his arm was perfectly clean. There was nothing there.

He immediately looked at Chi Shang suspiciously. “Are you sure that needle mark wasn’t already there before you entered the Instance?”

Chi Shang stood tall in front of the elevator doors like a utility pole. The instant he was questioned, he grew displeased. “I’m not stupid. This needle mark only appeared after I fell asleep.”

As if trying to verify something, Chi Shang grabbed Luo Ziwei’s wrist and carefully checked him up and down.

Luo Ziwei said, “…I already told you there isn’t one.”

“How is that possible?” Chi Shang couldn’t find a needle mark and couldn’t make sense of it. Then, almost subconsciously, he reached to lift Luo Ziwei’s shirt. “Could it be somewhere else?”

Luo Ziwei: ??

He immediately took a step back, both hands blocking his chest. “Who gives injections in someone’s stomach? That’s enough. Hurry up and go. The nurse is already coming to look for us.”

Chi Shang turned back and saw the nurse heading toward them, so he could only give up.

But his expression still looked unwilling, as if he had obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Fuck. He couldn’t actually have OCD, could he?!

Once Luo Ziwei thought of that, he didn’t dare linger any longer. Dragging his weak legs along, he quickly ran to the waiting room.

**

The morgue on Basement Level One was gloomy and eerie, giving off a suffocating, oppressive feeling.

Qiao Yu was currently wearing a pair of medical gloves, resignedly lifting the black plastic bag out of the trash can before lining the bin with a new bag.

At the same time, he grumbled inwardly that the head nurse and the others really couldn’t take a joke. Just to get back at him, they’d actually assigned him the dirtiest, most exhausting work.

Good thing he wasn’t a clean freak. If it had been someone else, that person might have torn the whole hospital down, believe it or not.
Once Qiao Yu finished up, he picked up the garbage bag and headed to the backyard on the first floor.

The backyard was pitch-black. Two large locust trees stood on either side, their branches dense and their canopies so lush they blocked out the sky.

Sunlight slipped through the gaps in the leaves, giving the unsettling impression that someone had punched holes in the air overhead.

Now and then, a cold, gloomy wind blew past, stirring the thin leaves. As they swayed, they looked like paper cutouts, eerily stripped of any sense of depth.

Qiao Yu dragged the garbage bag, which came up to his waist, toward the trash cart by the trees with some difficulty. Along the way, a small stone came out of nowhere and scraped a little tear in the bottom of the bag.

Something pale and white fell out.

Qiao Yu sighed and crouched down to pick it up, only for his outstretched hand to freeze in midair.

Because it was a severed finger.

Judging from its shape, it looked like a pinky.

Qiao Yu frowned, stood up, snapped two small twigs off a nearby tree, then used them like chopsticks to pick up the severed finger and toss it back into the garbage bag.

And that was not the end of it. He used the two twigs to poke around in the contents of the bag.

Sure enough, there were more unidentified bits of human tissue inside-skin, flesh, and bone. They looked as if they had been chopped to pieces.

Wuuu, wuuu, wuuu…

A faint sobbing, mingled with the sound of the wind, suddenly came from behind the tree. The crying grew louder and louder.

It sounded like a woman’s voice, but it was not shrill. If anything, it was a little hoarse.

Curious, Qiao Yu circled around to the back of the tree, only to find nothing there. At the same moment, the crying stopped abruptly.

He could not help feeling puzzled. Just as he was about to look somewhere else, a flash of white fabric drifted down. Behind the fabric was a pair of bluish-white calves, swinging back and forth.

Wuuu, wuuu, wuuu…

Only then did he realize the sobbing was coming from above his head.

Qiao Yu looked up and saw a white-clad female ghost hanging from the tree, with no arms.

“Hey, need a hand?”

Standing beneath the tree, Qiao Yu tilted his head back to look at the female ghost whose hair was tangled in the branches and called out to her.

The female ghost stopped crying. Strangely enough, the first thing she did was turn her ear toward the direction of Qiao Yu’s voice.

Looking more closely, he realized the female ghost did not have eyes either. Two huge bloody holes took up half her face, making her look utterly terrifying.

“How are you going to help me? Give me your eyes? Or give me your arms?”

The moment she finished speaking, the female ghost jumped down from the tree. Her long hair was a mess, and her sinister voice brimmed with malice.

The next second, two small twigs were stuffed into her mouth.

Blind Ghost: ??

After Qiao Yu handed her the twigs, he enthusiastically brought the garbage bag over, opened it up, and said, “Pick whatever you’re missing. Don’t be shy. If you piece things together, they should still be usable.”

Blind Ghost: …

“Wuuu, wuuu, wuuu…” The Blind Ghost spat out the twigs, tipped her neck back, and started crying again.

Qiao Yu had said before that the thing he feared most in this life was a woman crying. That included the female ghost, too.

His small face immediately scrunched up in distress.

“Um… don’t cry. How about this-tell me what you need, and I’ll get it for you?”

This female ghost did not even have arms. She probably could not take care of herself, right?

“My hair is messy… wuuu, wuuu, wuuu… I want to comb my hair, wuuu, wuuu, wuuu…”

Qiao Yu immediately raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, okay. Come here, I’ll comb it for you. I’m begging you, please stop crying.”

Hearing that, the Blind Ghost sniffled twice and stumbled toward Qiao Yu by following the sound of his voice.

Qiao Yu took a wooden comb out of his Spatial Grid and, with practiced movements, combed the Blind Ghost’s messy long hair until it was straight and smooth.

The Blind Ghost tossed her proud, long, straight black hair and finally smiled. “You’re so good at combing hair. Your girlfriend must be really lucky.”

Qiao Yu shrugged. “Male by gender. Men by preference.”

The Blind Ghost froze for a moment, then looked regretful. “Ah, what a shame.”

Qiao Yu slipped the comb into his pocket. His smile was unusually gentle and harmless, and the tail end of his words scattered into the air with the wind.

He was saying… it wasn’t a shame.