Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Ning Wang was lured in close by him, but Ning Shuo turned his head away. “Ningning, take Xiangfeng back first.”
“…” Ning Wang nodded helplessly. “Fine.”
Ning Wang led the little girl away by the hand. Ning Shuo leaned against the doorframe and watched their backs from afar. “Little Xiangfeng, see you next time.”
Zhu Xiangfeng had already taken off the wig. She looked back at Ning Shuo, then suddenly shook off Ning Wang’s hand and threw herself at Ning Shuo.
Ning Shuo caught her. “What’s wrong?”
Zhu Xiangfeng wrapped her arms around his neck. “Dressing up was fun. Let’s play together again next time.”
Ning Shuo was just about to agree when Ning Wang, not forgetting his Destructive Angels persona, pinched the back of Zhu Xiangfeng’s neck. “You can’t play together again.”
Zhu Xiangfeng’s face fell, and she seemed to become that silent little girl again.
Ning Shuo slapped Ning Wang’s hand away, then said gently to the little girl, “That gege is bad. Let’s ignore him. When should we play again?”
Ning Wang rubbed his nose and said nothing more.
The eight-year-old girl broke into a smile. Leaning by his ear, she whispered, “Then, gege, before this time tomorrow, please bring Xiangfeng’s favorite little cake and come play dress-up with Xiangfeng.”
She was still holding that pink doll in her arms. “And lastly, thank you, gege, for bringing Xiangfeng her favorite Cloth Doll.”
Ning Shuo ruffled her hair. “You’re welcome. What kind of little cake does Xiangfeng like?”
But Zhu Xiangfeng stopped talking. She only smiled at Ning Shuo, then returned to her previous silent state.
Ning Wang carried her in his arms on the way back. Holding on to Ning Wang’s neck, she stared at him with pitch-black eyes. “Do you like Xiangfeng?”
There wasn’t a single sound around them, as if only the two of them existed.
A draft swept through the corridor, inexplicably chilling.
Ning Wang smiled. “Does Xiangfeng want me to like you?”
Zhu Xiangfeng only stared at him without speaking, no emotion in her dark eyes.
Just when Ning Wang thought Zhu Xiangfeng wouldn’t answer, she lowered her gaze and said softly, “Xiangfeng thinks… perhaps you don’t.”
“If you liked Xiangfeng, how could you be unwilling to help Xiangfeng find the Cloth Doll?”
Ning Wang was silent for a moment, then said, “Little Xiangfeng is a big kid now. You can trust your own feelings. Since Xiangfeng already has an answer, why ask again?”
The faint sounds of life and activity rose around them once more. Zhu Xiangfeng tightened her arms around his neck. “Xiangfeng just… wanted to ask.”
…
The others had already learned that the first round involving the Cloth Doll had failed. Ning Wang brought Zhu Xiangfeng back to Shen Zhiwang, and Shen Zhiwang gave a bitter smile. “I was the one who got too clever for my own good. I thought I was the one keeping him occupied, but in the end, it turned out Nan-ge was keeping me occupied.”
“There’s nothing to regret. Just be more careful from here on out. Failing a request might get you targeted by an NPC.”
At that, Shen Zhiwang looked thoughtful. “Targeted by an NPC… Now that you mention it, a few minutes before you arrived, a child suddenly came to me for a consultation.”
“Good thing I’m a doctor in real life too. Different department, but I know enough to muddle through.”
Ning Wang looked pensive. “Since you’ve already been checked by an NPC once, tell me-now that I’m a corpse, how is he going to take inventory?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, a commotion came from outside.
“A body is missing from the morgue!”
Shen Zhiwang looked at him. “Aren’t you going back?”
“No rush.” Ning Wang slipped into the restroom in Shen Zhiwang’s office and took the tools for Disguise out of his Backpack. “There’s already one of me over there.”
…
In the morgue, several nurses were counting the bodies.
A nurse suddenly pointed at a name on the list. “This corpse… Number One Swordsman in the World?”
She seemed completely unaware that there was anything strange about the name. “I remember this face. I think he asked me for directions this afternoon.”
The nurse found the corpse.
No vital signs.
With a smack, her hand passed straight through the corpse’s heart.
No one else found this odd. The nurse looked at the wound in the corpse’s chest and said to the person beside her, “He is dead. But this corpse’s hairstyle is different from the one who asked me earlier. The one this afternoon had a braid.”
Someone replied, “If the hairstyle is different, then they probably just look alike. Isn’t the person in the photo short-haired? Hair doesn’t grow that long all at once.”
The nurse was about to say something else when another person said, “A corpse named Zhao Daming is missing.”
…
Ning Shuo returned to his ward to sleep, only to suddenly sense someone watching him in the middle of the night.
He woke up at once.
Seriously? They wouldn’t even let a person sleep in the middle of the night.
First, he pretended to turn over in his sleep. With a slap, his hand landed on the face of the NPC standing beside his bed.
NPC: “…”
As if sensing that something was wrong in his sleep, Ning Shuo groggily opened his eyes. Then he saw the nurse standing by his bed.
He acted as if he had been startled, pulling the blanket up to cover half his face so that only his eyes were visible. His long hair spilled loosely around him, making him look timid and pitiful. “N-Nurse, why are you here?”
The nurse asked, “Are you in a depressive episode right now?”
Ning Shuo lowered his eyes and said softly, “Maybe.”
The nurse stood with her back to the light, her expression indistinct. “What did you do this afternoon?”
Ning Shuo opened his mouth. “This afternoon, I…”
His gaze abruptly went blank, as though his memory had suddenly cut off. “This afternoon… what did I do…?”
The nurse watched as the patient on the bed suddenly began to tremble, even his voice shaking. “What did I do this afternoon… Why can’t I remember anything?!”
The emotionally out-of-control patient swept everything off the bedside cabinet. Lilies and drops of water scattered across the floor. Ning Shuo seemed frightened by his own actions. Barefoot, he ran out of bed, crouched in the corner, hugged his head, and shivered.
The nurse watched it all coldly.
Bipolar disorder could also affect memory to a certain extent.
Only after she had seen enough did she reach out and help Ning Shuo back into bed. “Calm down, patient. I’ll go get your medicine.”
After taking the medicine, Ning Shuo curled up into a frightened ball and wrapped himself tightly in the blanket.
The nurse left. Ning Shuo kept up the act for a while longer, all while wondering why they had suddenly launched a surprise check. Hadn’t the Guardian Angels completed Zhu Xiangfeng’s request?
Then he remembered that Ning Wang hadn’t completed it. The NPC might go count the corpses.
If Ning Wang wanted to clear the stage, there was a high chance he would use Disguise. The reason they had raided Ning Shuo was probably because he hadn’t used Disguise when he went to the hospital that afternoon.
It looked like he would have to put on more of a disguise before going out from now on.
He continued pretending to be a timid, terrified mental patient. After a while, the act grew tiring, and once he was certain there were no other hidden dangers, he went to sleep.
Every side was hit by the surprise checks, and Luo Li’s side was no exception.
She had not been sleeping soundly. Her dreams were filled with the suffocating sensation of being held tightly in someone’s arms.
At a certain moment, Luo Li startled awake. When she opened her eyes, she saw someone standing beside her bed.
A little girl stood there, holding a Cloth Doll in her arms.
She tilted her head. Though she stood in the dark, her pitch-black eyes were especially clear beneath the faint moonlight.