Xue Se had never been able to understand why the Forest's collective will had ultimately chosen to attack the First Rehabilitation Hospital. Was this the core patients' revenge against Xinhu, or was there more to it?
"Xue! Hurry up!"
Sirens blared. Xue Se had barely slept all night. Hearing that something had happened at the hospital, he threw on his coat and rushed out of his office without another word.
With his gear on, Xue Se sat in the driver's seat but did not start the car. A vein bulged on his forehead. "Can you two get the hell out and stay put at the Police Station?"
In the back seat, Xu Huan deftly buckled both his own seat belt and Old Ma's. "I have to stay within your sight, because I could die at any moment. You need to be a witness and catch the killer after I die."
"I'm just a horse."
"Fuck!" Xue Se slammed the steering wheel, started the car, and set off on his own without waiting for the other officers.
Autopsy Avenue had largely been cleared. There were no corpses or "tree remains" in sight. The thick smoke had dispersed, and there were far fewer people standing numbly in the streets.
After driving out of Autopsy Avenue, Xue Se spotted the police tape outside the First Rehabilitation Hospital from a considerable distance. The area had been sealed off, and ambulances were taking patients and the injured to other hospitals.
The fire had been extinguished, leaving the hospital's white walls blackened. Explosions and screams could still be heard occasionally. Every so often, someone fell like a leaf from the highest point of the rehabilitation building, blooming into a cruel flower on the ground.
"We've lost contact with the Critical Care Ward! Communications have been cut