Truth Vindicated

"Get out! Get out! You'll only cause trouble and disturb the patients' rest by staying here."

In front of the emergency resuscitation room, the attending physician wearing a medical mask sternly drove away the family members trying to enter and check on their loved ones.

After saying that, he pressed the automatic door button amid the relatives' overlapping pleas.

A steel door slowly closed, separating the family members from the patients.

The emergency resuscitation room immediately fell silent.

Only the heavy breathing of more than a dozen elderly people echoed back and forth, like the footsteps of the Grim Reaper.

The attending physician turned around and swept his gaze across the patients in the resuscitation room. The praise and greed in his eyes could not be concealed by his gold-rimmed glasses!

—Praise the great god for sending the prey right to his door.

At that moment, the several doctors and nurses bustling around the emergency room stopped what they were doing in unison and looked over.

They seemed to be waiting for a signal.

The attending physician said nothing. He strolled over to a hospital bed and looked at the elderly man lying on it with a high fever. He gently patted the old man's orange-peel-like arm and softly comforted him:

"Don't be afraid. God will bless you."

The old man nodded, a trace of relief showing through his pained expression.

The attending physician smiled. His finger slid downward and pinched the disposable infusion tube on the back of the old man's hand. He unscrewed the medicine filter, then picked up a needleless syringe from the mobile medical cabinet, attached it, and slowly began injecting.

The plunger gradually advanced through the tube, forcing a full six milliliters of air into the old man's blood vessel.

As the air entered, the old man's relieved expression gradually stiffened.

"Huff... huff..."

He first furrowed his brows. Then his breathing grew increasingly rapid, and his body gradually began to spasm uncontrollably. His face became covered in a purplish-blue hue—the cyanosis caused by an air embolism.

"M-my chest hurts... Doctor... save me..."

The old man grabbed the back of the attending physician's hand, his eyes filled with yearning as he tried to beg for help.

"It's all right, it's all right. It's a normal reaction. Take a deep breath. Yes, just sleep for a while and you'll be fine. God will bless you!"

The attending physician smiled and softly comforted the patient.

The patient widened his eyes in disbelief as he stared at him. After a moment, the hand gripping the attending physician's hand suddenly went limp and dropped.

The elderly body that had been struggling violently also abruptly fell still.

"See? You're fine now, aren't you? Have a good sleep. Once you wake up, everything will be better!"

The attending physician gently patted the patient's blanket, the smile on his face growing ever brighter.

He had been worrying about where to find sacrifices.

He had never expected a large-scale infection to deliver them straight to his door.

It turned out that from around three or four in the afternoon, people in the town had begun to be brought in for treatment one after another because of diarrhea and high fevers.

Everyone's symptoms were strikingly similar.

As one of the attending physicians at the town hospital, he immediately realized that a large-scale infection had broken out in the town.

Although he did not know the source of the infection, that did not stop him from making a huge production of it.

With so many sacrifices, he could almost see the blissful scene in which the god, after enjoying them, bestowed youth and strength upon him.

No matter how superb medical skill was, it could not compare to a divine blessing like this.

At the thought, the attending physician trembled all over with excitement.

Ning Xiuyuan, who had witnessed this scene, also trembled uncontrollably.

However, his trembling came from extreme fury!!!

He had never imagined that someone would use his plague to carry out wanton slaughter, then pin the resulting blood debt on him.

"Awhoo—"

"Awhoo—awhoo—awhoo—"

One dog barked, and the entire pack responded. They seemed to sense their master's rage, and the wolf nature buried deep in their blood was awakened.

Listening to the howls outside, Ning Xiuyuan's gaze remained cold and calm.

"Killing you would be too easy. If you died, wouldn't this blood debt forever be counted against me?"

At that thought, Ning Xiuyuan suddenly turned his head toward the puppet lying on the soft couch, its appearance that of a middle-aged man. An idea stirred in his mind. He took two steps back and melted into the darkness.

The next second, the puppet man, calm as a wooden doll, shuddered all over as his soul logged in.

He silently put on his clothes and took the Caprivi hunting rifle from the wall—the rifle that had accompanied him throughout his life.

The moment his fingertip touched the walnut stock and grip polished by time, the muscle memory it bestowed upon him, as though it were connected to his flesh and blood, caused his mind to waver.

After a brief silence, he skillfully exerted force, broke open the action, checked the bullets in the chamber, and counted the rounds in the magazine. After confirming that everything was in order, he snapped it shut with a click!

He then grabbed the coat from the soft couch and wrapped it around the rifle before leaving the bedroom.

"Rumble!"

The old car's engine exploded to life outside. With a stomp on the accelerator, the old car roared away.

Its sharp headlights were like swords, cleaving through the pitch-black darkness!

The country road stretched on, but it ultimately had an end.

"Screech—"

Amid a piercing squeal of brakes, the old car stopped in front of the hospital.

The puppet man—or rather, Ning Xiuyuan—jumped out of the car.

He snatched up his stiff coat and walked toward the hospital lobby.

It was already past ten at night, yet the small-town hospital was brightly lit, with patients and family members hurrying everywhere.

The sudden outbreak of the infectious disease had infected countless people.

Especially in the scorching summer, many people drank water straight from whatever source they could find, so the number of infections was astonishing.

Most young and middle-aged people were not in serious condition. After some vomiting and diarrhea, they were more or less fine.

Only children and the elderly developed persistent high fevers, with the elderly suffering especially severe symptoms.

At that moment, the families of the patients crowded in front of the automatic door to the emergency resuscitation room.

Some paced back and forth anxiously;

some gathered in groups of three or five and discussed matters in low voices;

others kept making phone calls.

"Ning Xiuyuan" pushed through the crowd and reached the automatic door. Without pressing the bell, he began pounding on it directly!

"What are you doing?"

"Who are you?"

The surrounding patients' family members were startled and angrily shouted at him.

One family member suddenly grabbed Ning Xiuyuan's arm. But when Ning Xiuyuan turned his head, the man released him in fright, his face filled with uncertainty.

That middle-aged face had reminded him of someone.

The problem was, that person should have been in his seventies or eighties by now.

"Ding!"

The automatic door slowly slid open, and the attending physician appeared behind it. He stared at "Ning Xiuyuan" with an uncertain expression.

Was he shocked by the puppet man's arrival?

Or by the puppet man's youth?

"Ning Xiuyuan" ignored his gaze and charged straight inside.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?"

The patients' family members were displeased and instinctively surged in after him.

"Get out! Get out! What are you doing!"

The attending physician also lost his temper. He frantically waved his arms, trying to drive the crowd away.

But it was useless. Under the herd effect, more and more people squeezed inside.

"Ning Xiuyuan" pushed his way to a hospital bed. After taking a brief look, he suddenly turned around, fixed his eyes on the attending physician, and roared, "Why? Tell me why!"

The attending physician was dumbfounded. "Why what?"

"Ning Xiuyuan" pointed at the elderly man on the bed, his face filled with rage. "What happened to him? Someone told me you were killing people by injecting them with air, and I didn't believe it. Now tell me, why? Huh?"

The attending physician was completely stunned.

The patients' family members who had followed inside were even more bewildered. One by one, they frantically searched for their own relatives. Those whose relatives were fine let out long sighs of relief.

But those whose relatives were not...

"Ah—Dad—Dad—"

"No, no, how could this happen?"

"Doctor, what exactly is going on?"

Screams, furious shouts, shock, disbelief, and all kinds of extreme emotions erupted throughout the resuscitation room.

"Everyone, calm down..."

The attending physician panicked and hurriedly waved his hands, trying to explain.

"Bang!"

A sudden, deafening blast sent him flying backward, where he crashed into a large amount of medical equipment.

The attending physician collapsed limply to the floor and stared at his own chest in disbelief. He could not believe that his brother and sister had suddenly... suddenly exposed him, and even shot him!

"Wh-why?"

He looked at "Ning Xiuyuan" approaching and instinctively tried to question him.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Instead, "Ning Xiuyuan" did not hesitate in the slightest. He decisively pulled the trigger, wildly emptying the rounds in the magazine!

The Caprivi, which could easily hunt brown bears and leopards, blasted the attending physician's chest into a mangled mess.

The injury was so severe that even Ning Xiuyuan, whose strength had greatly increased, would have difficulty faking it.

"Ah—"

Only then did the patients and family members in the resuscitation room react. Screams, panic, and the sounds of people fleeing rose and fell without end.

Ning Xiuyuan swept his eyes over the panicked crowd, drew a deep breath, picked up the rifle, and turned to leave.

By then, the sudden gunshots had already thrown the entire hospital into chaos!

People everywhere fled in blind panic.

Scattered documents, abandoned shoes, and toppled equipment had turned the hospital floor into a dump and left it in complete disarray.

"Ning Xiuyuan" wore an apologetic look in his eyes but did not slow down. He hurried toward the old car.

Click!

The instant he opened the car door, something cold pressed against his temple, making his hair stand on end.

—It was a gun.