Chapter 55
Chapter 55
Inside the hospital room, a middle-aged man in an administrative jacket was slamming his hand on the table and shouting.
His face was slick with oil, and he wore a pair of rimless glasses. He looked like he held a decent rank.
He roared loud enough to shake the heavens, but Old Miao and Old Dao, who were sitting across from each other eating boxed lunches, didn’t even spare him a glance.
“You’re injured, eat some meat.” Old Miao picked up a slice of fatty pork from his own lunch and dropped it into Old Dao’s container.
He looked friendly enough, completely forgetting the fact that he had secretly eaten the other man’s grilled sausage earlier.
“It’s all fat,” Old Dao grumbled, though he ate it anyway.
Seeing that neither of them was taking him seriously, the Administrative Jacket Man grew frantic. “Do you two even realize the gravity of this situation?”
“People are going to die!”
He wanted to say more, but noticing they were in a public place, he swallowed his next words. Catching sight of someone at the door out of the corner of his eye, he reigned in his anger slightly.
As Qin Ying and the others entered, Old Miao gave a brief introduction. “This is Li Wenbo, the Deputy Director of the Emergency Management Department at the Cultural Preservation Bureau.”
Hearing Old Miao emphasize the word “Deputy,” Qin Ying knew immediately that they didn’t get along with this Li Wenbo.
No one liked hearing the word “Deputy.” Emphasizing it when the Director wasn’t present was a blatant attempt to annoy him.
It was a subtle bit of social maneuvering.
Sure enough, Li Wenbo’s jaw tightened for a moment.
However, he didn’t pick a fight with Old Miao on the surface. Instead, he scrutinized Qin Ying carefully.
“I heard it’s you-the one who can enter dreams?” He picked up a thick stack of medical reports from the side.
He flipped through them page by page.
His questioning tone and slow, deliberate movements made Qin Ying feel uncomfortable.
She was currently being parasitized, and every second counted. For someone from the higher-ups to come here and put on airs instead of solving the problem immediately was truly off-putting.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she closed her eyes and staggered backward.
After being caught by Qin Zhiguo and Yin Minmin, she pressed a hand to her forehead and asked muzzily, as if she were about to fall asleep, “What?”
In reality, she had swallowed a stalk of Jiarong Grass before coming, so she wasn’t sleepy at all.
But when you were out in the world, you needed a bit of acting skill.
As soon as she put on this act, Li Wenbo panicked. “Hey, don’t sleep! Don’t sleep!”
“Every time you enter a dream, the Dream-Embracing Grass and Ghost-Shadow Vine grow.”
Qin Ying, who was rubbing her temples, paused for a fraction of a second.
Li Wenbo was undoubtedly annoying at first glance, but he was the first person to state the characteristics of the Dream-Embracing Grass with such certainty.
The Cultural Preservation Bureau, an organization with such vague functions, really was hiding big secrets.
Qin Ying was helped onto the hospital bed by several pairs of hands.
Perhaps sensing that everyone-especially Qin Zhiguo-was hostile toward him, Li Wenbo stopped putting on airs.
He said, “I’ve brought a treatment plan.”
At those words, everyone’s eyes lit up in unison.
Qin Zhiguo was about to ask for details, but Li Wenbo raised a hand to stop him and turned to look at Qin Ying.
“Little Qin, you are from the Third Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute. Your performance during this incident has been excellent.”
After the compliment, his expression turned solemn and his tone shifted. “I believe you are clear on your own situation. I rushed here from the provincial capital overnight specifically to bring a treatment plan, but…”
At his signal, two strangers who had been standing silently by the window walked over.
The two of them had a rigid, formal bearing and were guarding a Transport Box.
This type of box was mostly used for transporting organs; it could provide oxygen to the organs kept at low temperatures inside while monitoring them in real-time.
Li Wenbo did not open the box. He simply gestured for Qin Ying to look.
“Inside is a Sub-adult Dream-Embracing Grass.”
“Theoretically, consuming it will remove the parasites in your body.”
Qin Zhiguo asked, incredulous, “Theoretically?”
Li Wenbo nodded solemnly. “It is indeed theoretical. We have never successfully cultivated a fully mature Dream-Embracing Grass.”
“You have never cultivated a mature Dream-Embracing Grass… ‘You’?”
Qin Zhiguo, living up to his reputation as an old criminal investigator, caught the key point. “What is the connection between you and the thing that’s running around killing people?”
“Did that bastard get the Dream-Embracing Grass from your side?”
Qin Zhiguo’s question naturally carried the weight of an interrogation.
Li Wenbo didn’t get angry, nor did he answer. This silence was an admission in itself.
Qin Zhiguo grabbed Li Wenbo by the collar. “Do you have any idea how many people have died?”
“Is the fact that the surveillance cameras couldn’t capture that bastard’s face also related to these ghost things?”
The two guards escorting the boxes immediately became alert, their hands reaching into their coats.
Old Dao took a step across, blocking their path.
“There were indeed problems with our work, and there were indeed traitors within our ranks.”
With his collar still in Qin Zhiguo’s grip, Li Wenbo took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “But has your police force been without its own issues?”
Qin Zhiguo cursed under his breath and let go.
Of course there were issues, and the corruption went quite high up. It was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Li Wenbo gestured for him to step back. “There are things you aren’t cleared to know yet, and I don’t have the authority to speak of them. Let’s save the people first.”
Qin Ying, who had been listening from the side, spoke up at the right moment: “Uncle.”
Li Wenbo wasn’t lying.
Qin Zhiguo stepped back, and the atmosphere eased slightly. Li Wenbo brought the conversation back to the matter at hand.
“Using the Crab-Eating Monkey as a Host, the Dream-Embracing Grass we’ve cultivated can only grow to a sub-adult stage at most.”
“Every specimen dies along with its companion Ghost-Shadow Vine after spreading its seeds.”
The fundamental reason they had never raised a specimen to maturity was that they maintained a moral line and had never used humans for experiments. Consequently, they lacked the experience and means to deal with human parasitic infections.
The unfortunate Zhang Tao and Qin Ying were the first cases.
Li Wenbo asked Qin Ying, “Are you willing to try?”
He phrased it as a question, but Qin Ying had no real choice.
Soon, a private operating room was prepared.
While changing into surgical scrubs, Qin Ying had a moment of privacy. She tucked the vitamin pill containing the Dream-Embracing Grass leaf under her tongue. She held the other pill in her palm, hoping for a chance to feed it to Zhang Tao if conditions allowed.
However, once she entered the operating room, she knew her plan to feed Zhang Tao was impossible.
Inside the room were two surgical beds side-by-side, surrounded by eight surgical cameras for full-angle recording. There were five people in total, including Dean Tan and Li Wenbo, all fully geared up in lead aprons and gas masks. Two one-meter-high boxes stood nearby.
Under such scrutiny, Qin Ying had no room to maneuver.
She sighed inwardly. Just before entering, she feigned a tired yawn and popped the pill from her hand into her mouth. With two vitamins containing Dream-Embracing Grass leaves tucked under her tongue, she silently followed instructions and lay down on the surgical bed.
The Transport Box was opened, revealing two green capsules. These contained what Li Wenbo had called the Sub-adult Dream-Embracing Grass.
Li Wenbo handed her one capsule and a cup of water with ice cubes floating in it. Qin Ying took it, put it in her mouth, and swallowed it along with the two vitamins hidden under her tongue.
Zhang Tao, lying next to her, was less fortunate; he was forcibly administered the medicine through a nasogastric tube.
Having not seen him for a day, his face had taken on a visible greenish-blue hue, and distinct vine-like patterns were etched into his skin.
Qin Ying turned away, staring up at the shadowless surgical lights. The room was silent. She could hear the sound of her own heartbeat.
Suddenly, a piercing sound rang out as the monitoring equipment on Zhang Tao’s side began to blare alarms. Zhang Tao went into a seizure, his back arching into a rigid bridge as his entire muscular system began to twitch violently. His purplish veins pulsed and bulged, and a mass of rampaging vines slithered beneath his skin. From his mouth, stretched open to an impossible degree, a thin vine slowly began to probe its way out.