All the reasoning the doctor had spent an afternoon explaining collapsed. Gao Ming saw the monster inside him with his own eyes. It was not a hallucination brought on by stress, but a real section of Flesh-and-Blood Branches!
Gao Ming desperately wanted to believe it was all fake, too, but he felt the excruciating pain of his wound tearing open.
That section of branch seemed to possess awareness and thought. It apparently realized it had hurt Gao Ming, and its movements grew gentle. Red threads along its leaf veins lit up like blood flooding human tissue. It seemed to be trying to communicate with Gao Ming this way.
Their flesh and blood resonated with each other. Gao Ming's body gave an answer before his confused mind could: they were one.
His beating heart sounded like a drum calling troops to battle. Granted permission, the Flesh-and-Blood Branches began growing wildly. They burrowed out of Gao Ming's internal organs, covered the hospital bed, then climbed the walls and every piece of medical equipment before finally drilling into the ceiling and floor.
The rich meat fragrance stimulated every nerve in Gao Ming's body. He faintly heard someone calling his name.
"Gao Ming! Wake up! Wake up! What am I supposed to do if you die here?!"
The hospital ward's door was forced open, and the voice in his ears was replaced by the screams of doctors and nurses.
He looked toward the doorway. Light from outside shone into the ward, which was as dark as a monster's lair, laying all its ugliness bare before everyone.
As far as Gao Ming remembered, the nurses and doctors here were all wonderful people. They were patient with the patients, always wore smiles, and treated everyone with compassion. Things like patient abuse simply did not happen here.