Today is discharge day.
Lao Hei, a strong man, sat on the hospital bed, beside his wife who helped him pack and change things.
Lao Hei's wife was very puzzled by her husband's experience of being sent to the hospital after just one day of work.
She asked: "Did you come to collect debts again and were beaten?"
Lao Hei scratched his head: "They say I haven't done this work for a long time... Didn't I tell you that I was doing a live broadcast with others, but I didn't expect that the house where I was live broadcasting was of poor quality and collapsed."
The man still felt a little guilty as he spoke. He was indeed still doing debt collection, and he still threatened people when he disagreed, but his life was better than before.
For example, he threatened before...wait, who did he threaten?
There was a lack of memory, and Lao Hei only had an impression of him sitting on a paint bucket in front of people, waiting.
As for where they went and who they saw later... the appearance of black hair and black eyes was too common.
Rubbing his forehead helplessly, the man felt a headache, so he gave up the idea of further investigation.
His wife complained at the side: "You are so unlucky. The house you picked is a dangerous project... But compared to your brothers, you are lucky."
Lao Hei's wife squinted her eyes and scanned her husband from head to toe.
Coming out of a house that collapsed into ruins, except for a knock on the head, all other parts were intact.
"Ha..." Lao Hei didn't know what to say, so he smiled awkwardly and agreed, "Yeah."
In fact, what neither of them knew was that even the wound on Lao Hei's head was caused afterward.
The moment I fainted on the bench didn't even leave a scar, at most it was red and swollen.
When they talked about the dead person, the mood of the couple became a little lower.
Lao Hei's wife knew that the people who died in the "landslide" were her husband's friends. Although they were not good people, they had some feelings for them.
When she was alive, she was not very happy for her husband to associate with others, but if he died... it would be better to be dead.
After a while of silence, the woman who was sorting things remembered something and said, "I ran into that woman when I was going upstairs."
"...Oh, you're talking about her." Lao Hei responded, "She was lucky enough to be rescued with me."
"That's not what you're talking about." The woman paused as she put away the things. "It feels like her complexion is still a little pale. Is her body really okay?"
Lao Hei's wife described what she saw on the stairs. A pale-faced woman was walking slowly holding a water rack. When she saw her, she pursed her lips and nodded. She seemed to have no energy.
Lao Hei answered uncertainly: "It should be fine..." In his impression, the female companion should be luckier than him.
He somehow hit his head, and the female companion was just frightened.
As everyone knows, sometimes mental damage is more difficult to repair.
Lao Hei thought for a while and said, "Why don't you go take a look before you leave?" We had worked together and were somewhat in the same boat.
His wife nodded and said yes, and ten minutes later, they packed their things and knocked on the woman's door.
No one answered the first knock, so the couple looked at each other and knocked twice more.
There was a rustling sound inside the door, and a figure could be seen moving inside through the small glass window.
After a while, a female voice was heard coming from inside, asking them to come in.
One thing is that the victims of their "tofu shoddy project" are treated very well. They have separate wards and the hospitalization fees are not high.
Thinking about it carefully, it feels like a big problem, but why not take advantage of the advantages?
The woman sitting in the ward had put the water rack back beside the bed. When she saw them coming in, her face improved and she smiled.
Lao Hei: "...Are you really okay?"
Female companion: "It's okay... I haven't slept well in the past two days. I've been having nightmares."
Lao Hei: Is it so scary?
The strong man recalled that when the murderous house collapsed, he and his female companion were both outside the house. They ran fast and were not buried under the rubble.
Lao Hei also pushed his female companion, only to fall half a step behind, causing him to be hit on the head.
Speaking of which...where's Baisu?
Lao Hei's mind went blank for a moment.
He remembered... Bai Su was the one operating the live broadcast equipment, so he should be in the room.
Then why didn't he go to the hospital and why was he even more alive than them?
After thinking for a while, Lao Hei remembered from the police's conversation with him that Bai Su was in a triangular area at that time and was rescued quickly.
No injuries, no shock.
How brave... The strong man sighed in his heart, and chatted with his female companion for a while before preparing to leave with his wife.
"By the way." When the visitor was about to leave the ward, the woman sitting on the hospital bed spoke weakly, "I plan to rest for a while after being discharged."
"Huh?" Lao Hei responded, "The platform seems to have said hello to the union. I'll come back after you have a good rest..."
"No." The woman interrupted the strong man, "I don't want to be an anchor anymore."
Seeing that Lao Hei was stunned and still had the intention to stay, the woman added: "I have already decided to resign, and I will also pay liquidated damages."
The woman said, showing an expression that Old Hei couldn't understand.
"I've thought about it," she repeated to herself.
…
"Hey, did you hear that?"
In the corridor, two men took advantage of the break to smoke, each with a cigarette, making the area so smoky that no one wanted to get close.
"What's up?"
One of them lowered his voice and said, "That's it, the smuggling case that the branch has been keeping an eye on for a long time."
The other person nodded, and moved closer with a cigarette in his hand in confusion, "What then?" He had heard a little bit about the discovery of supernatural items that were difficult to deal with in a cultural relic smuggling case pursued by an ordinary police officer.
It seems that it is still the kind of item that can confuse people. Generally speaking, they always have to send a few people to the hospital for recuperation before they can suppress or dispose of the supernatural items.
"Then..." One of them took a puff of cigarette, "After that thing was sent to the branch, it was easily solved."
"?"
"I heard what Lao Zhang said about this. Hasn't he always been in charge of this matter? It took a long time just to get close in the early stage. It was only when we actually got the thing that it became difficult.
If there is an outsider, they can rush up to that thing, and they have to wear special gloves to touch it. After finally transporting it back to the branch, they specially emptied the people and prepared to take them underground for processing, and then——"
"After?" The other person looked at his colleague speechlessly and gave him a fist in response to his appetizing operation, "Speak quickly."
After taking half a step back in pain, the man continued: "Then I met that magical newcomer. I heard that he was not affected at all, and just like 'bang-dong-bang', he was KO! "
The other person was confused by the "bang bang bang bang" description of their friend's crush, but the other person also knew that their friend's expressive abilities were limited to this.
After asking a few questions using his own understanding, he roughly understood what happened at that time.
"It's not much different from what you expressed... Isn't it too simple and crude?"
"That's right, and he was also asked about the incident two days ago." The man raised his chin and gestured in a direction in the building, "It's about the person's blossoming incident that is a big headache for the group upstairs."
The source of transmission is unknown, and the infection is extremely strong. Flowers bloom inexplicably on the bodies of living people, and then their vitality is drained bit by bit.
The buds and branches are so beautiful that just looking at them can fascinate people. As long as you are bewitched the moment you see the blooming corpse, you will be the next to die.
The incident has lasted for ten days and a half, and many colleagues with good willpower have failed to hold on.
It's not like ordinary people would be killed directly, but injuries are inevitable.
"I remember that the new guy hasn't officially started work yet, right?"
"Hey, who doesn't know how to make connections?" The man pursed his lips, "Anyway, the team in charge borrowed the person, and the new guy didn't even blink, and burned all the corpses that were the source of infection."
I heard people say that the fire was so strong that it lit up half the sky, which shows how many corpses were used as fuel.
"No one dares to get close to the burning place. After the fire is completely extinguished, the newcomer will say that there is nothing left, and then the people who deal with the aftermath will go in."
Another person listened for a long time and felt that this newcomer had very good abilities, but he had never heard anyone talk about it.
"Of course it's because - he has problems in other aspects." The man's voice was lowered, so low that his companion had to lean over to hear him clearly, "It seems to be mental."
Those who have been engaged in their profession for a long time will more or less have some mental problems. The description of being sober in the world does not suit them...
"No, no, no, it's not as simple as you think." The man shook his hand and moved his cigarette mouth twice, "The situation is quite serious. He has something in his mind -"
The man's voice sounded like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. The tail tone suddenly rose. Then he choked on the smell of cigarette smoke and coughed several times.
"——There's a party, let's go together after get off work." The two men patted the other man's shoulders politely.
Before the other person could respond as to why the topic had changed, the man pressed his fingers on his companion's shoulder tightly twice, as if to give a hint.
The other person nodded understandingly and pretended to talk about what he wanted to drink tonight.
After a few words, a young man with black hair passed by them, walked down the corridor, and turned down the stairs.
After everyone left completely, the smoking man breathed a sigh of relief.
"The one who just passed by is the newcomer mentioned earlier."
"Ah? I think he is quite normal." Another person recalled the side face of the black-haired young man he saw, "There is no hysteria, no gloominess."
"...So I told you that there is something supernatural in his mind, which makes him cold and a bit anti-social." The man pointed to the position of his head, "Don't tell anyone, this is still me. My friend from the medical department told me that he came for a check-up today."
Another person looked along the way the black-haired young man came and saw that that road could indeed lead to the medical department.
The two chatted about other gossip for a while, and then went back to work after the break.
A few hours later, the man who took the initiative to chat left the office. He went to a certain elevator that was not open to most people, swiped his card and headed down to the second underground floor.
The above-ground and underground structures of this building are completely different.
The building on the ground is an ordinary office building. Some floors have been renovated due to special needs, but overall it is still in a boxy shape.
But underground is different.
When the elevator goes down, the first thing you come to is a lobby-like platform surrounded by transparent glass. You can see the doors on both sides leading to a long and narrow walkway.
The place where civilians work is near the lobby, but it takes courage to work underground.
After all, underground, civilian employees are considered consumables. Once they come down, they basically have food and accommodation here, unless the shift is over, but the shift is quite long, and they may not survive until then.
The talkative man said hello to the familiar clerical employee. He put on the functional equipment familiarly and walked to the door of the corridor on the left somewhat clumsily.
This time I swiped a new card, and the door operated for a while, and then opened after confirming something.
The chatty man walked in and the door slowly closed behind him.
In front of him was a long corridor, with grid-sized rooms on one side and transparent glass on the other side. The outside of the glass was dark and it was difficult to see what was outside.
The chatty man worked in a certain cubicle in this corridor in the afternoon. All he had to do was walk in, pick up his notebook, and record everything he observed.
This is already the fourth time he has observed the same object.
The talkative man walked into a cubicle, and soon all the lights in the corridor that were on as he walked by went out.
There were only a few emergency lights that faintly emitted fluorescent green light in the darkness.
The surveillance camera in the corridor suddenly flickered several times at a certain moment. The civilian staff who continued to observe the screen leaned over and carefully compared the shadows passing by on the screen.
After quickly determining what was running into the corridor, the civilian staff breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay, it's D-4's [Wandering Shadow]. It will go back on its own after a while."
The others also looked away and retracted their hand that almost pressed the alarm.
What they didn't notice was that something else was moving underneath the shadow.
The white lines were attached to the shadow, passing through one compartment after another, as if sensing and recording something.
Suddenly when walking to a certain place, the shadow stopped.
Under the nervous eyes of the civilian staff behind the surveillance, the shadow approached the nearest door, paused for a few seconds, and then wandered away again.
It seemed like nothing happened, and something seemed to have changed.
"Which door is that?"
"It's E-class...it should be fine, right?"
To be on the safe side, the civilian staff opened the camera of E-1 and looked at it for a while, and found that the old man sitting inside was no different. When the marked time came, another "self" appeared on the chair opposite the old man as usual.
"No problem, everything is fine."
The old man in the room raised his head and looked at his other "self" who was slightly different today.
The other old man's face twitched a few times, and then his cloudy eyeballs rolled back slightly, turning his cyan pupils to the back, revealing the dark half.
The setting of the underground refers to the Lobe Company, and a bit of resentment towards the civilian employees when playing the game. I wish I could kill the civilian employees on each floor with execution bombs (?)
(End of chapter)
