Chapter 150
Chapter 150
In Ward 08, Liu Ye took out a book when the woman refused to speak to him.
She looked over curiously and discovered it was a dictionary.
“What are you doing?”
“Learning to read. I never had the chance as a child, and my illiteracy caused all kinds of embarrassing misunderstandings after I grew up. Now I’m going to study hard and fight for a better job!” Liu Ye declared resolutely.
The woman had not expected him to be such an ambitious young man. She was about to offer help with any characters he did not recognize when…
“Snore… snore…”
How had he fallen asleep so quickly? What happened to studying hard?
Something bulged beneath Liu Ye’s back.
The woman nearly screamed. A bearded man more than eight feet tall emerged from his body.
He turned and glanced at her. For one instant, she thought she was about to die.
The man ignored her completely. He went to the television and turned it on.
“The rolling Yangtze is nothing but water…”
The woman stared.
Was the Second Master, Lord Guan, watching Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
When Liu Bei appeared, several tears slipped from Lord Guan’s eyes.
Meanwhile, footsteps in the corridor kept Zhang Yanyan awake in Ward 05.
The noises outside were not her only problem. Her patient made her profoundly uncomfortable.
He suffered from pathological hunger and ate continuously, as though pausing for even a moment would kill him.
His mouth had not stopped since noon. He did not merely eat-he crammed food inside with frantic desperation. When nothing edible remained, he even gnawed on the metal bed rails.
How could anyone sleep beside that?
Then the chewing stopped.
Zhang Yanyan tensed. She secretly raised a small mirror and saw the patient staring directly at her, saliva streaming from his mouth.
Her heart clenched. She knew what he intended.
Thud.
A faint noise sounded. Zhang Yanyan immediately closed her eyes and pretended to sleep, though her body trembled uncontrollably.
Footsteps approached and stopped beside her bed.
Breathing sounded next to her ear. Something wet dripped onto her face.
She remained motionless.
For reasons she did not understand-perhaps because she had not violated his Taboo-the patient eventually moved away.
Zhang Yanyan still dared not open her eyes. After that encounter, sleep became impossible.
She spent the entire night in terror. Only when a nurse delivered the patient’s breakfast at six in the morning did she finally rise.
At eight, the seven players gathered in the cafeteria again. Li Wei frowned at their exhausted faces.
“Didn’t any of you sleep?”
“How could I?” Tong Qian complained. “My patient has a visual disparity disorder. She refused to sleep and wouldn’t let me sleep either. She insisted on talking all night.”
Afraid of violating the first rule, Tong Qian had responded to every word. The more she answered, the more animated the patient became.
“I slept fairly well.” Sun Miao rubbed her shoulder. Apart from refusing his medicine, her patient was relatively easy to handle.
Perhaps she was not accustomed to the bed. Her shoulder had ached since waking, though the discomfort vanished when she entered the cafeteria. She thought nothing more of it.
Then she noticed Zhang Yanyan. Several empty plates already stood beside her, and she continued eating.
“Are you that hungry?” Sun Miao asked.
Zhang Yanyan nodded. Perhaps the fright from last night had left her ravenous this morning.
No one else paid much attention. After witnessing how much Liu Ye could eat, Zhang Yanyan’s portions seemed insignificant.
“You still need to be careful,” Li Wei warned. “The rules say we must sleep for eight full hours. What happened last night clearly violates that.”
Zhang Yanyan and the others knew, but the circumstances in their wards lay beyond their control.
Silence settled over the group.
They finished breakfast quickly and were about to wash their trays when Liu Ye spoke behind them.
“Huh? Why did you bring a patient downstairs for breakfast?”
Everyone looked at him in confusion.
“Honestly, you’re terrible caregivers. If a patient is hungry, why not bring food to his room? Why make him come down himself? What if something happens along the way?”
These people were hopelessly unprofessional. Liu Ye no longer considered them serious competition. His skills surpassed theirs by an immeasurable distance.
At this rate, his job was finally secure.
“Come on, brother. Don’t worry. I’ll bring food to your room. Let me help you back.”
Liu Ye grabbed Guo Xiaojun’s arm.
The instant he touched him, the man’s appearance changed before everyone’s eyes. Guo Xiaojun became a stranger dressed in a hospital gown.
Li Wei and the others recoiled, their hearts filled with fear.
Of course. How had they failed to notice? Guo Xiaojun’s leg had snapped yesterday. How could he appear among them completely unharmed?
Even more terrifying, without Liu Ye’s warning, they would have continued treating this patient as Guo Xiaojun.
Then Li Wei noticed the employee badge around the stranger’s neck, and every mystery vanished.
“I understand! This is why we must wear our badges.”
The rules had been explicit: an employee badge represented a person’s identity. Once the patient wore Guo Xiaojun’s badge, he became Guo Xiaojun.
Li Wei looked around, finding further confirmation.
Everyone in the hospital wore an identity badge-the nurses, the Chef, even the kitchen assistants who washed vegetables.
Only the patients had none.
That also explained why Guo Xiaojun had broken his leg. Once their identities switched, he became the patient.
Wait. If that was true…
A path to clearing the mission appeared in Li Wei’s mind.
If the badge represented identity, then his current identity was caregiver. A caregiver had to look after a patient. And Guo Xiaojun’s fate proved that the patients wanted to steal their identities.