Evil God 42
Aftermath/Dream/Quack Doctor
And so, Chen Yu ended up staying at the White/Turbidity Asylum.
The quack doctor insisted that the condition of his arm required further observation and that he could not be discharged yet; his tone and attitude brooked no argument, and a flicker of annoyance would occasionally appear in his gaze as he spoke.
Chen Yu could feel the doctor’s dissatisfaction with him.
Yet, the doctor never said much; he simply performed the role of a doctor.
His stern demeanor lent credibility to his youthful appearance; Chen Yu felt he looked far more like a doctor now than when they had first met.
“Don’t overthink it. Patient 62 and Patient 117 were close. Since 117 is dead, he’s bound to be a bit ticked off at you.”
A nurse said this to Chen Yu one day while coming in to clean.
Amidst the likes of Bai Zhen, the quack doctor, and the things locked in rooms making all sorts of bizarre noises, there was actually a nurse who looked completely normal.
“Patient 62?”
“Mhm. Everyone in the hospital is referred to by their room number. You are Patient 007.”
“And you? What’s your number?”
The young nurse covered her mouth and giggled. “I stay in the director’s office. I’m his administrative secretary and handle various odd jobs around the hospital.”
“Like cleaning.”
As she said this, she raised the broom she was holding.
The broom had a peculiar shape, it looked like the snake-heads of Medusa, but Chen Yu didn’t ask about it. He worried that if he pried too much, he might discover that the nurse only looked normal, which would be a bad thing indeed.
That night, Chen Yu had a dream.
Naturally, he once again saw the man from the hurricane. In reality, the two of them had been far apart that day and hadn’t exchanged a single word, yet in the dream, those golden eyes turned to look directly at him. That cutting gaze sent a chill through Chen Yu’s heart. In the blink of an eye, those eyes were suddenly right in front of his face while a three-meter-long, bladeless longsword pierced through his chest.
He glanced down at his chest, thinking, No wonder it felt so cold there.
So, he had been stabbed.
“W-what… what is your name?”
In the dream, Chen Yu struggled to lift his head and ask this.
Unfortunately, before the man could answer, Chen Yu woke up. Outside the window, the night was dark, and the buzzing of insects had faded to a low drone; meanwhile, Xiao Huntun was sitting on his chest, staring at him with round eyes in the darkness.
“What are you doing?”
“Hungry?”
Chen Yu stared at Xiao Huntun with a blank expression, but Xiao Huntun simply giggled. The sound was sinister.
The six-month-old infant was heavy, Chen Yu could barely breathe. He pushed him aside and growled, “Even if you are hungry, I don’t have any Fragments of Authority to feed you right now. You’ll just have to stay hungry.”
The little evil god laughed even louder, the sound so intense it silenced the buzzing insects outside.
Chen Yu often couldn’t fathom what was going on in his mind.
Ever since that brief exchange with Xiao Huntun at the Shibaliwu Gorge, he hadn’t heard a single response from him. Even when he stared into his eyes later, the little evil god would only cry or fuss. Sometimes, Chen Yu even wondered if the “Okay” he had heard had been a figment of his imagination.
His mind was in turmoil, and his body was exhausted.
He had originally intended to go back to sleep after dealing with Xiao Huntun, but after such a commotion, sleep was out of the question. And so, Chen Yu lay there with his eyes open until dawn.
The next day, sporting dark circles, Chen Yu asked the quack, “Can I get up and move around a bit? I’ve been in bed for days; I feel like worms are growing inside my bones.”
Just then, Number 62 suddenly tossed a red-and-white striped woven bag onto Chen Yu’s head.
“What is this?”
Although he asked, Chen Yu actually recognized the bag, ordinary, yet capable of holding an endless amount of clutter, save for the occasional tendency to swallow things whole.
All in all, a decent woven bag.
Back at the Quan Shigu Museum, Captain Duan had used it to carry antiques; Chen Yu was confused as to why the quack had tossed it his way now.
“Duan Zhuosheng used to be in charge of this thing. Now that he’s dead, the task of sealing it falls to you,” the quack explained impatiently, which left Chen Yu even more confused.
“It’s the Hoarder’s Shopping Bag. You have to throw something into it three times a day, anything will do. If you don’t meet the quota, it’ll randomly swallow nearby objects, so it needs an owner.”
“Oh, can it be anyone?”
“The director said to hand it to you for safekeeping; you’re stuck in bed anyway, with nothing else to do.”
The look of annoyance on the quack’s face was glaringly obvious. He seemed pained by every word he spoke to Chen Yu. Feeling uncomfortable himself, Chen Yu simply clutched the bag and rummaged around inside.
As he dug through the contents, his fingers suddenly brushed against a doll.
“What is this?”
The quack took the doll and examined it for a moment; the painted-on eyebrows and eyes were crooked. Three seconds later, he couldn’t help but sneeze.
Chen Yu watched the snot arc through the air right in front of his face and recoiled.
“That’s an item from the Quan Shigu Museum. The bag must have accidentally swallowed it back when Captain Duan was making a delivery; it’s only just turned up now.”
The quack kept staring at it, and three seconds later, he let out another sneeze. Chen Yu reflexively reached out, then immediately pulled his hand back: “…Stop staring at it; it’ll just keep making you sneeze.”
“I refuse to believe it. I’m a doctor. How can I not cure this ‘sneeze-doll’?”
The quack weighed the object in his hand, about to take it away for study. Just as he was about to leave, Chen Yu called out to him: “Doctor, can I get up and move around a bit today? I’d like to go check on Captain Duan’s room next door…”
The quack’s retreating figure paused; though Chen Yu couldn’t see his face, he felt certain that Number 62 was frowning at that moment.
“…Ten minutes.”
“Okay, thank you!”
The quack hesitated again before finally leaving.
Captain Duan’s room was right next to Chen Yu’s. Room 117. The room numbering was arbitrary; even though the rooms were side-by-side, Chen Yu’s was labeled 007.
Chen Yu went to look for Bai Zhen, but the man was busy, apparently still in a meeting, so he turned to the young nurse instead. She acted strangely when she learned he wanted to visit Duan Zhuosheng’s room, yet she still handed him the key. She explained that everyone who entered the White/Turbidity Asylum was assigned a dedicated room; whether they were alive or dead, that room was reserved for them forever.
“When you step inside, you’ll see Room 117 exactly as it was when he was alive. Nothing you find in there should surprise you. After all, this is a psychiatric hospital.”
Chen Yu’s thoughts, however, drifted in a different direction.
“Didn’t they say you could pick any room you wanted after joining White/Turbidity?”
“That’s right. And didn’t the occupant of 117 choose Room 117?”
Her answer gave Chen Yu an even stranger feeling, as if it hadn’t been Captain Duan who chose Room 117, but rather Room 117 that had chosen him.
No matter which room he moved into, the door number would always be 117.
Was it the same for him?
Despite his confusion, Chen Yu didn’t ask any further questions. Although the young nurse had spoken in a rather cryptic and strange manner, Captain Duan’s room turned out to be far more ordinary than expected. Upon entering, Chen Yu saw three beds arranged dormitory-style; it was only then that he realized Xiao Zhuo, Xiao Sheng, and Captain Duan all slept in the same room. Wasn’t Xiao Zhuo a woman? Wouldn’t that be inconvenient?
As this thought crossed his mind, he spotted a small blueberry cupcake sitting on a rack near the freezer, the very same one Captain Duan had seen him with at the cold-drink shop but hadn’t eaten. So, it had been brought back here after all.
Was it meant for Xiao Zhuo?
Chen Yu didn’t dwell on that thought for long, however, as his gaze was immediately drawn to a deep indentation in the wall.
The depression had been caused by a violent impact; it was stained with dark, congealed blood. The color grew darker the further one looked into the recess.
Staring at that hole in the wall brought back memories of the thud-thud-thud sounds he had heard in the past, and with that, the image of Captain Duan’s mental instability became vivid in his mind.
It might have been day or night; when the mental chaos crisis began, Captain Duan must have been surrounded by pandemonium.
Perhaps he heard the students screaming, saw the dead in the laboratory, or felt his limbs seized by grotesque, misshapen creatures. Overwhelmed by irresistible hallucinations and auditory torment, he would have clutched his head in agony, using physical pain to stave off the mental anguish.
In his imagination, the man clutching his head and repeatedly slamming it against the wall flickered between Captain Duan’s face and those of Xiao Sheng or Xiao Zhuo.
Chen Yu stood before the indentation for a moment, then gently scraped away some of the blood-stained plaster and took the small blueberry cupcake.
Xiao Zhuo had remarked that the Deep Sea Domain was fine place for a grave and Xiao Sheng had agreed.
It was a pity that their remains had been swept back to the Twilight Ruins by that hurricane; Chen Yu figured he would have to find some substitutes to bury in the Deep Sea Domain instead.
Just as he was preparing to manifest the Deep Sea Domain, the quack doctor suddenly appeared before him. He glared at Chen Yu.
“I heard you took some things from Duan Zhuosheng’s room?”
“Yeah.”
“Planning to bury him in the Deep Sea Zone?”
“Yeah.”
“A completely unnecessary thing!”
Chen Yu had initially felt a bit awkward, but when he saw the quack doctor’s furious face, he suddenly felt he ought to say something.
“How is your research on that sneeze doll coming along?”
The quack doctor’s expression soured instantly, the research wasn’t cleary going well, so Chen Yu switched topics: “Captain Duan is dead; are you very sad?”
The shift between these two questions was so abrupt that Number 62 was momentarily stunned, only for anger to follow.
“Not really.”
“Fair enough. After all, more people die in this world every day than there are lunatics.”
Chen Yu thought of the doll the doctor had taken and the red-and-white woven bag; he then held up the small cake in his hand and the plaster he had scraped off the wall. “So, Doctor, are you coming with me?”
The quack doctor glared at Chen Yu, but ultimately nodded.
Comments 0
You must be logged in to comment.
No comments yet. Be the first!