Chapter 38: Perhaps… Ultimately, Just Perhaps
Night deepened.
The little girl fell asleep under Lin Fan's warm gaze.
With no target to fix his eyes on, Lin Fan smiled at Zhang Hongmin. He couldn't see the same holy light in Zhang Hongmin's eyes as he did in the little girl's. Zhang Hongmin, meanwhile, knew the mentally ill person staring at him was a... good... mentally ill person.
He wasn't afraid, but that gaze made him uncomfortable, his hairs standing on end. He turned his back to Lin Fan, pretending to clean up the trash under the bed.
Just don't make eye contact.
If you want to look, look at my butt. Not to brag, but in my youth, I was quite the dancer. Ever since I broke my leg, I retired from the dancing world, got married, and had a daughter. Even without practice for so long, my glutes are still top-tier among men.
Round, perky, and elastic.
He took the wire out of his pocket and placed it on the bedside table.
One-Eyed Man saw the coiled, thin wire from the corner of his eye. His brow furrowed slightly, curious about what it was for.
"Why are you looking at me?" Lin Fan asked.
One-Eyed Man didn't answer, shifting his gaze to the side and pulling out his phone to check messages in a group chat.
[Mount Mao Group 1: Bountiful harvest today! Slayed six evil creatures. In front of the experts from Mount Mao Academy, these evil creatures can only obediently meet their demise.]
[Group 1 Buddhist Academy: Amitabha!]
[Group 1 Taoist Academy: Immeasurable Heavenly Lord!]
[Group 1 Medical Academy: Healing the sick and rescuing the dying!]
[Mount Mao Academy sent a Red Packet with the message: Mount Mao is truly strong! Truly awesome! Truly amazing!]
[Buddhist Academy: Mount Mao is truly strong! Truly awesome! Truly amazing!]
Retracted!
[Taoist Academy: Mount Mao is truly strong! Truly awesome! Truly amazing!]
Retracted!
[Medical Academy: Mount Mao is truly strong! Truly awesome! Truly amazing!]
Retracted!
[Mount Mao Academy: Thanks for the praise, everyone. Already took screenshots. Going to post them on the Academy's official website. Three academies all say Mount Mao is strong. Tell me, are we strong or not? When choosing your academy, Mount Mao is the strongest!]
One-Eyed Man looked at the messages. He was about to close his phone when he suddenly remembered something.
[One-Eyed Man: @Medical Academy, how do you communicate with a mentally ill person?]
[Medical Academy: To communicate with special individuals, you must become a special individual yourself.]
[One-Eyed Man: You mean I have to become mentally ill?]
[Medical Academy: Healing the sick and rescuing the dying. Call: 120.]
One-Eyed Man closed his phone. The people in this group were completely unreliable. Usually, they were respectful and subservient at headquarters, but behind the screen, who knew who they really were.
Old Man Zhang stared intently at the watch on his wrist. His eyes were filled with the Rolex, a symbol of nobility. He wouldn't tire of looking at it even until tomorrow morning.
The night deepened further.
The hospital was quiet. Nurses sat at the station, looking at their phones or resting their heads. They would glance up when someone passed by.
The wards were silent; the patients were all asleep.
Occasionally, a terminally ill patient, unable to bear the pain, would moan in their semi-slumber.
Inside the mental ward, Lin Fan and Old Man Zhang opened their eyes. Lying in their beds, they looked at each other. The dim light allowed them to see each other's faces. A glint flashed in their eyes, and they hooked their lips into smiles only they understood.
One-Eyed Man heard the stirrings in the ward and abruptly opened his eyes. Years of living in danger allowed him to wake up instantly even in deep sleep.
What are they doing?
One-Eyed Man didn't alert the two mentally ill men. He wanted to see what they were up to.
Soon, he noticed the mentally ill men standing by his bed. His ears twitched, picking up their conversation.
"He's a good person. I believe you can help him grow his eye back. Let's do it again."
"Although he wasted Xiang Xiang's snake meat, he's a good person. I'm willing to forgive him."
"I also want to tell him what he asked me about during the day."
"Then let's act."
Lin Fan and Old Man Zhang's sneaky behavior put One-Eyed Man on high alert. They want to stick me again? Do they really think I'm easy to bully?
He wanted to subdue them immediately.
Just as he was about to make a move, he hesitated. A new thought emerged, a thought that he might uncover some kind of secret.
Perhaps they really are mentally ill.
But to be able to kill two Level 2 evil creatures, they must have real skills. Were they just pretending to be crazy during the day, waiting for him to fall asleep at night to display their true abilities?
After spending a day with the mentally ill, One-Eyed Man's thinking had shifted, a shift he hadn't even noticed himself. Or perhaps he still held a sliver of hope for them.
As the saying goes, third time's the charm.
It had only been twice.
One more prick would surely succeed.
An internal struggle raged within One-Eyed Man.
Should I trust them or not?
Forget it.
It's come this far, why not give it a try?
What if it's really as I suspect? Wouldn't that be a huge discovery?
Old Man Zhang stood at the bedside, took out his needle case, and pinched a silver needle between his fingers. The dim light made it difficult to see One-Eyed Man's head, but after so many years of studying acupuncture, blind needling was a piece of cake.
He found the spot and swiftly inserted the needle.
First needle!
One-Eyed Man lightly gripped the sheets with his fingers. For a strong person like him to feel nervous was truly incredible.
He had a lingering question.
This seasoned mentally ill man always inserted the needles in different places. He couldn't understand how he found the spots.
Lin Fan wrapped the wire around One-Eyed Man's toes, then squatted by the wall socket, pulling the wire taut.
One-Eyed Man couldn't see what Lin Fan was doing, but he could feel something wrapped around his toes.
He wanted to get up and see what was going on.
But he held back.
At this moment, Old Man Zhang pinched a silver needle, stroked his chin, and pondered. He looked left and right, but couldn't find a spot that didn't look right. After thinking for a long time, he patted his head. Forget it, I'll just close my eyes and stab randomly.
He had studied a book.
The book told him to leave it to fate, close his eyes, and insert the needle.
The twelfth needle went in.
Old Man Zhang picked up another silver needle. The thirteenth needle was the last one. He looked at Lin Fan, and the two exchanged glances in the darkness, nodding in agreement.
Insert!
The thirteenth needle landed on One-Eyed Man's head.
One-Eyed Man reflexively gripped the sheets tightly, feeling it this time, more intensely than the previous two times.
Just as he was about to say something, Lin Fan plugged the wire into the socket.
Electricity surged through the wire and into One-Eyed Man.
In the moment before he lost consciousness, One-Eyed Man felt the electric shock.
Thump!
Thump!
Like a reanimated corpse, his body bounced on the bed. The lights in the room flickered, a terrifying scene.
Zhang Hongmin woke up in a daze.
He vaguely saw two figures standing by One-Eyed Man's bed, while One-Eyed Man himself was bouncing on the bed.
Terror gradually filled Zhang Hongmin's face.
"Ah!"
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the hospital corridor.
A nurse, hearing the scream, rushed in. Seeing the scene in the ward, she trembled, her face pale. She burst into tears and roared,
"Doctor..."
In the doctor's on-call room, the head doctor, who had been trying to resuscitate Lin Fan, suddenly woke up, wiping sweat from his face. "Thank goodness, it was just a dream. That scared me to death. Six bikini-clad girls were all over me in my dream. My kidneys couldn't handle it."
"That was truly terrifying."
Static crackle!
The walkie-talkie came to life.
"Doctor, hurry to the emergency room! The one-eyed man sharing a room with the mentally ill patients is in critical condition. He needs immediate surgery."
The head doctor calmly replied, "Understood."
He was still worried about his dream. Luckily, it was fake, otherwise, there would have been casualties.
Oh well.
Better save a life first.
Don't ask him why he was so calm.
Could he say, "I knew this would happen"?