Chapter 89
Chapter 89
The hour hand slowly aligned with the number twelve.
Luo Ziwei lay in bed, both hands clutching the edge of the blanket as he wrapped it as tightly around himself as he could.
He was freezing, yet the temperature of his skin was absurdly high.
His cheeks were flushed red with fever, and his large eyes looked utterly listless.
At the same time, as time passed, his joints began to throb with sharp, spasming pain.
His condition seemed to be getting worse…
Luo Ziwei lay there for a while, his heart filled with unease.
This couldn’t go on. He had to go out and look for clues.
The more aimlessly he dragged things out, the more severe his illness would become. This time, he had no one to rely on. If he didn’t save himself as soon as possible, the only thing waiting for him would be death!
In the silent ward, the sound of him swallowing in fear seemed infinitely magnified.
Luo Ziwei clenched his fists and forced himself to sit up.
Click.
Luo Ziwei jumped at the sound of the door lock. After freezing for a long moment, he carefully poked his little head out.
There really was nothing in the hallway. He tentatively stretched one leg out, then quietly slipped out of the ward.
Chi Shang, who had the same idea as him, had already put it into action. He had gone into the room beside the nurses’ station marked “Dispensary.”
The dispensary was empty at the moment, and the faint, pungent smell of disinfectant lingered in the air.
The shelves were filled with a dazzling array of medicines. Chi Shang picked up a bottle, checked its category and name, but couldn’t make anything of it. With no other choice, he put the bottle back on the shelf.
Without thinking, he turned the label so it faced the middle.
He looked around. The thing most worth investigating was probably the twelve small packets of medicine placed on the table beside him.
He picked up one of the white packets and sniffed it, then realized it smelled exactly like the medicinal liquid the nurse had made them drink during the day.
The nurse would watch you swallow the medicine. There was no loophole to exploit during that process. In that case, if he solved the problem at its source, would he be able to avoid drinking the medicine?
Although that was what Chi Shang thought, he didn’t immediately destroy the packets.
He hesitated, afraid he might end up making things worse.
Just then, a faint draft slipped in through the crack of the open window.
The wind lifted several sheets of paper stacked on the table. Chi Shang instinctively picked them up and glanced at them.
Ward 601-Lu Shanshan-sharp hearing and vision, healthy body-obtained, awaiting discharge.
Ward 602-Fan Jianqiang-sharp hearing and vision, healthy heart-not obtained.
Ward 603…
Just then, the sound of a pushcart suddenly came from outside the door.
He had heard that sound many times before. It was the ward-round nurse. And judging from the noise… she was coming this way!
Chi Shang panicked. He quickly looked away, stacked the papers in his hand neatly and put them back on the table, then anxiously searched the room for somewhere to hide for the moment.
Creak.
The half-closed door was shoved open. The ward-round nurse walked in expressionlessly, her cold gaze slowly sweeping over the medicine bottle that had been moved on the shelf before finally landing on the neatly stacked papers at the corner of the table.
She stepped forward and turned the medicine bottle about fifteen degrees, twisting the label that had been facing her askew. Then she stretched out a pale arm and scattered the neatly arranged papers.
“Come out. Don’t make me catch you myself!”
Other than the howling wind, there was no response.
The ward-round nurse’s face gradually turned bluish, faint livor mortis surfacing in patches across her skin. Then she snapped open the cabinet beneath the shelves.
The cabinet door slammed into the shelf beside it and rebounded sharply.
Fortunately, Chi Shang was not inside.
The nurse closed the cabinet door, straightened, and circled around to the computer desk. With a swift motion, she bent down and looked under the desk.
Still, there was no one there.
She slowly straightened up and stood silently in place, motionless as a statue.
Just as the murderous aura rolling off the nurse was about to subside, a crack of bone grinding against bone sounded beside her ear. The ward-round nurse’s neck abruptly twisted ninety degrees, her eyes locking onto the half-open window not far away.
The corners of her mouth curled into a smile brimming with malice. She strode over and thrust her face, mottled with livor mortis, out the window.
But outside the window, too, there was nothing but empty air…
Meanwhile, in the deserted corridor on the fifth floor, two figures sat on the ground in a sorry state.
Still shaken, Chi Shang patted his chest and let out a long breath.
Then he turned to Luo Ziwei, who had saved him, and was just about to thank him when a muffled sob suddenly rang out.
Luo Ziwei clutched his chest, tears pouring down like floodgates had opened.
Chi Shang was completely baffled. “Um… why are you crying?”
Luo Ziwei desperately kept his voice down. Between sobs, he gave an unwilling little huff. “I… waaah… I don’t want to cry either… It’s, it’s the side effect… of my title, waaah.”
His title was The Whimpering Monster Who Can Knock Out a Kid with One Punch.
It meant exactly what it said: the more explosive the strength he used, the harder he cried.
A little earlier, he had come out to look for clues and happened to glimpse a figure running into the dispensary. He had followed and was just about to peek inside when he saw the ward-round nurse step out of the elevator, pushing her cart in this direction.
It was already too late to warn the person inside. At that very moment, from the corner of his eye, he also spotted Chi Shang climbing out the window, fingers clinging to the sill in a desperate, extreme maneuver.
With saving someone the only thing on his mind, Luo Ziwei threw even fear aside. He ran straight up the stairwell to the fifth floor, opened the corresponding window, and pulled him in.
Unfortunately, he was gravely ill at the moment and weak all over, so he could only borrow the power of his title.
Otherwise, back in the day, he could have hauled the man in with one hand.
But it was too late for regrets now. He could only keep crying until the title’s side effect wore off.
This was so humiliating…
As for Chi Shang, he awkwardly scratched the back of his head, utterly at a loss.
He was good at scaring people. Comforting people? He really had no idea how. What was he supposed to do?
**
Over on the other side, Qiao Yu finished bandaging Shang Yan’s wound. He looked at the very ugly bow he had tied and frowned.
His expression was conflicted. “Is this really okay? Are you sure you don’t need stitches?”
Shang Yan slowly shook his head. A few slightly unruly strands of long black hair clung to the side of his face, and there was a rare weariness and fragility in his features.
The faint light overhead spilled across his profile. Even half-obscured, that breathtaking face was still so bewitching he looked like some beautiful ghost.
Tsk. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was acting in a ghost story.
Good thing Qiao Yu had strong self-control. Worthy of praise~
Qiao Yu took a deep breath and barely nodded. “Fine.”
After all, Shang Yan was the one who had graduated from a proper medical school.
He bent down to tuck the blanket around Shang Yan, then crouched to pick up the bloodied cotton swabs scattered across the floor.
All of a sudden, he rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably and looked up toward the hospital bed.
At some point, Shang Yan had shifted onto his side. His long fingers propped up his cheek, elbow resting on the mattress, his lazy gaze filled with brazen appraisal.
Even after being caught, he remained completely unflustered, his eyes still roaming over Qiao Yu’s two pale, slender legs.
Interested, suggestive, and dangerous.
Qiao Yu immediately yanked down the hem of the skirt that had ridden all the way up to the tops of his thighs and threatened coldly, “Look one more time and I’ll gouge your eyes out!”
Shang Yan had clearly given up caring about the consequences. His amber eyes were still shockingly bright. “Then gouge them out. Getting one more look is still a win.”
Qiao Yu was speechless.
At some point, a flush had spread over the tips of his ears. After a long pause, he snapped in embarrassment, “Damn it, shut your mouth! Hurry up and find me a pair of pants to wear!”
Shang Yan quickly put away his teasing expression and nodded obediently.