Chapter 76: A Hospital’s Shadow and a Distorted Path

“A scoop of ice cream, please!”

“You actually have the leisure to eat ice cream?”

Strolling along the street, Bai Chen watched Su Wanghai pause, unable to resist a jab.

They were currently out on a mission, yet Su Wanghai still found time to buy snacks and indulge himself on the way to their destination.

Su Wanghai, holding his creamy ice cream, jogged up, a cheerful smile gracing his lips.

“It’s fine as long as Manager Cheng Xuan doesn’t find out.”

Bai Chen, too weary to argue, simply continued on their journey alongside him.

“Why the long face?” Su Wanghai inquired.

“Does anyone ever feel joyful about working overtime?”

Today was undeniably a weekend, and more importantly, the day he had promised to spend with Mo Qiu.

Bai Chen should have been enjoying his day off at home, preparing for his date at Mo Qiu’s place, but instead, Manager Cheng Xuan had dragged him out for overtime.

With time pressing, his mind was consumed by the urgent need to complete the mission.

Unlike Su Wanghai, who still possessed the cheerful disposition to buy ice cream.

“Indeed, I’m not pleased. Why were we the chosen ones?” Su Wanghai sighed.

“Perhaps it’s because this mission is inextricably linked to us,” Bai Chen mused.

Bai Chen understood Manager Cheng Xuan’s decision; he and Su Wanghai were indeed the most suitable candidates for this particular task.

After all, they were the two in the shop who had interacted most frequently with the target.

The destination for Bai Chen and Su Wanghai’s mission was the city’s central hospital.

The moment he stepped into the hospital building, Bai Chen was assailed by the pungent scent of disinfectant.

Just last month, he and Mo Qiu had spent several nights here.

Instead of returning to the front desk to inquire about room numbers, Bai Chen stood in the lobby, surveying his surroundings, and soon made eye contact with two inconspicuous men in a corner.

Upon meeting, they exchanged greetings before delving into the matter at hand.

“You’re finally here; hurry along.”

“Is the person alright?”

“Rest assured, we’ve been keeping a constant vigil, ensuring nothing goes awry.”

Evidently, Bai Chen noted the severe dark circles under both men’s eyes.

Having learned the target’s room number, Bai Chen and Su Wanghai ascended in the hospital elevator.

The confined space held only the two of them.

“It truly is strange, isn’t it?” Su Wanghai remarked, leaning against the wall with a wry chuckle.

“Last month, we were hospitalized together, and now we’re back together again.

And that fellow is still lying there.”

“Given his condition, I doubt he’ll ever truly leave, do you?”

Bai Chen merely shrugged.

Stepping out of the elevator, Bai Chen observed the expressions of those around him as they walked down the corridor.

He detested the atmosphere of hospitals; it was a place where he invariably encountered countless individuals etched with sorrow.

Though a hospital was meant to be a place of healing and hope, bringing solace to the sick, whenever he stepped foot inside, he was invariably met with a pervasive sense of oppression.

Occasionally, he would witness parents rushing in with their children, faces contorted with anxiety, seeking medical aid, which only cast a further veil of shadow over the already somber atmosphere.

Rather than linger in such a place, Bai Chen much preferred to discuss academic matters with Mo Qiu.

He wondered what surprise she had prepared this time; recalling their last encounter, Bai Chen resolved not to open her door so casually upon his arrival.

Upon reaching the target’s ward, Bai Chen and Su Wanghai confirmed the room number before pushing the door open to enter.

Bang!

“Are you also demons come to conspire against my soul?!”

A pillow flew directly at Su Wanghai’s face, while Bai Chen, walking behind, reacted swiftly, dodging the projectile.

Inside the room, a girl in a hospital gown stood on the sole bed, her hair disheveled, eyes bulging, clutching a pillow in her hand, trembling like a snarling puppy.

She glared intensely at the two men, her words slurred and indistinct.

“How many times must I say it? I will not sell my soul to hell! I am a holy child of God; begone from my sight before my Heavenly Father unleashes His wrath!”

She raised the pillow, appearing genuinely poised to hurl it at them.

“Why does she have three pillows?”

“You ask me?”

Su Wanghai picked up the fallen pillow, approaching her with a benevolent smile.

“You’ve misunderstood; we are not demons, we are—”

Bang!

Another pillow struck his face, and Zhou Yue spat.

“Pah! A despicable lie! Go relieve yourselves and gaze upon your own hideous forms, demons! Do not think to tempt me; my heart belongs to my Heavenly Father!”

Su Wanghai’s fists clenched tightly.

“Does the hospital just allow her to cause such a ruckus?”

Hearing this, Bai Chen observed the bed, noticing the restraints had been undone.

Before Su Wanghai could even press the call button for a nurse, Zhou Yue’s figure darted past them.

Despite being nothing but skin and bones, her speed was astonishing, like that of a tiny hamster.

“I must escape this place and return to my Heavenly Kingdom!”

Zhou Yue scrambled on all fours towards the ward door, but Bai Chen, quick as lightning, seized her by the collar, and together with Su Wanghai, they apprehended her.

The two grown men combined their strength to pin the flailing girl onto the bed, securing her body and limbs with the leather restraints.

“Let me go! You are committing blasphemy! Where are my crusaders?!”

“Demons are bullying me! I’m so scared, boohoohoo… I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

Zhou Yue’s expressions shifted erratically, faster than the turning of a page.

“Damn, how long has this girl gone without clipping her nails? I’m bleeding,” Su Wanghai grumbled, clutching his face.

Bai Chen also bore a stinging scratch on his neck.

The two men watched Zhou Yue’s performance; one moment she was furious, the next she was sorrowful, sometimes acting like an imprisoned great figure, other times like a helpless child.

Ever since Su Wanghai had rescued her from the battlefield, it was a wonder she had even survived, but with her brain severely damaged, she was scheduled to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital in two days.

Her father, Zhou Wanchen, lay in a room downstairs, a permanent vegetative state confining him to his bed for the rest of his life.

“Boohoohoo, my Heavenly Father, where are you? Why do you not manifest yourself? Why do you not come to save me?” Zhou Yue, exhausted from her rage, began to weep. “Am I not your divine child?”

Su Wanghai attempted to ask her several questions, but she ignored him completely, even trying to bite his outstretched finger.

“Ah, the poor child,” Su Wanghai conceded. “Since she and her father both fell victim to demonic malice, she must have been driven to seek revenge for her father, leading to this state, wouldn’t you agree?”

…

Bai Chen watched her, his gaze devoid of the same pity that filled Su Wanghai’s eyes.

As if preoccupied, Bai Chen’s hand, tucked into his pocket, clenched tightly around something.

“If we can’t get any answers, our mission is effectively over, isn’t it?”

“Mm, perhaps,” Bai Chen replied after a moment of silence. “Could you go downstairs and check on Zhou Wanchen?”

“Why would I look at him?”

“The captain requested it.

What if he senses his daughter’s presence and wakes up?”

“That’s a truly morbid joke.”

After Su Wanghai departed the ward, Bai Chen’s smile vanished, and with a grave expression, he walked to the bedside, looking directly into Zhou Yue’s face.

“Do you remember me?”

Zhou Yue, now quiet, stared blankly at the ceiling.

“Then, do you know what this is?”

Bai Chen pulled out the object, revealing it to her.

Having retrieved it from Xinleit’s pocket, Bai Chen suspected Zhou Yue might know something about it.

She surely hadn’t sought out the demonic creatures merely because Zhou Wanchen was harmed.

Bai Chen had examined the peculiar iron shard for a while; it resembled a pupil.

He surmised that another part must exist, yet the division responsible for clearing the battlefield had found nothing.

Sensing this was a crucial item, Bai Chen had deliberately sent Su Wanghai away, intending to investigate alone.

Zhou Yue’s gaze fell upon the iron shard, her vacant expression swiftly morphing into terror.

She began to scream and shout.

“Don’t come near me! Stay away from me!”

She struggled with a frantic intensity.

“Calm down.

I’m not a demon; look closely, I am human.”

“Boohoohoo, I’m so scared, Father! Father, where are you?! I’m so scared!”

Zhou Yue completely ignored Bai Chen’s words, struggling with such force that the old bed’s leather straps began to groan, threatening to snap.

Bai Chen had no choice but to press the call button for a nurse.

“What’s all this commotion again? Quickly, inject her!”

“Coming, coming!”

“Truly a troublesome child.”

Bai Chen was nudged out of the room, left standing at the doorway.

The nurses skillfully administered a sedative to Zhou Yue, who swiftly ceased her clamor, closing her eyes in slumber.

Observing her sleeping face, apart from her messy hair, it was impossible to imagine she was a raving patient.

It seemed this approach would not work.

With the mission concluded, Bai Chen and Su Wanghai parted ways at the hospital entrance, and Bai Chen set off for Mo Qiu’s home.

What should have been a moment of excitement quickly turned into a chilling dread for Bai Chen, who had barely walked any distance before feeling as if he had plunged into an icy abyss.

What was happening?

A potent urge invaded his mind, compelling Bai Chen to step in a different direction.

‘Why am I heading that way? What lies there?’

Unlike the familiar voice of power within him, this temptation emanated like a cold wind from a deep, dark cave, sending shivers down his spine, yet irresistibly drawing him deeper into its mystery.

Bai Chen desperately wanted to resist the voice, but by the time he regained his senses, he discovered he had already strayed far from his original path.

Bai Chen quickly shook his head, seeking a way to break free from the allure.

The people around him seemed to cast malevolent glances, and he felt as though he was trapped in an exceedingly perilous space.

Bai Chen lifted his head, his steps hesitant yet relentlessly forward.

Amidst the crowd, he spotted a familiar figure.

“Mo Qiu?”

Before Bai Chen could even ponder why she was there, the world before his eyes began to distort.

His consciousness, too, was swept into a profound vortex, its destination unknown.