"What clues did you find?" Ye Chu asked, breaking the awkward silence in the lobby.
Pei Yanchuan set a sheet of paper on the table and pointed to a row of information. "Granny Wang doesn't have any serious illnesses. She's been staying in the hospital since last year. Her children treat the hospital like a nursing home. They pay the hospital plenty of money every year, but they've never come to visit her."
"No serious illnesses?" Ye Chu picked up the medical report and examined it carefully.
Then why had Granny Wang said she didn't have much time left?
If it wasn't because she was sick, could it be...
Clutching the medical report, Ye Chu turned and ran up to the second floor. The door to Room 25, which had been open earlier, was now closed. Without a word, he pushed it open and rushed inside.
He saw Granny Wang lying on the hospital bed, with a bottle on the floor nearby. Ye Chu picked it up. The label read "Paraquat."
She wasn't sick. She no longer wanted to live.
Su Fengzi and Pei Yanchuan followed him upstairs, carrying a box. It was dark red, with raised patterns on its surface. Neither of them recognized the design; they only thought the box looked bizarre yet ornate.
"What's that?"
Pei Yanchuan answered, "Nurse Li gave it to us. She said Granny Wang left it with her for safekeeping the day she was admitted. No one's ever opened it, and no one knows what's inside."
As he spoke, he unfastened the clasp. A dense swarm of black bugs crawled out of the box, slipping through the gap and spreading throughout the room.
Pei Yanchuan recoiled in fright and lost his grip. The box hit the floor with a crack, spilling its contents everywhere.
The swarming bugs were too horrifying. Su Fengzi immediately leaped up, covered his eyes, and hopped frantically in place. "Bugs! Aaaah! I'm going to die!"
Ye Chu felt a wave of nausea too. The black bugs were about the size of a finger joint, with tentacles covering both sides of their bodies and slick, glossy backs.
"Bleurgh-" Ye Chu couldn't hold it in either. He bent over beside the bed and vomited into the trash can.
[System! System! Censor it! Censor it now!]
[I can handle human-sized monsters, but I can't handle bugs! Especially a whole swarm of them!]
[I'm going to puke too, help! I'm eating right now!]
Pei Yanchuan watched the bugs. His reaction wasn't as extreme as the other two's, but he was thoroughly disgusted all the same.
"Ye Chu, Brother Fengzi, you two should go outside. I'll pick these things up."
Su Fengzi had long since reached his limit. At those words, he immediately ran out with his hands over his eyes.
Ye Chu braced himself against the bed and struggled to stand. "I'm fine."
Looking at his deathly pale face, Pei Yanchuan shook his head in disapproval.
"I'm fine." As if to prove it, Ye Chu even crouched down to pick up the scattered items. His gaze accidentally swept over the bugs again. "Bleurgh-"
Bugs were the most disgusting, terrifying things in the world, bar none!!
Pei Yanchuan helped Ye Chu up. The vomiting had left the rims of Ye Chu's eyes red, his gaze hazy with unshed tears.
"Ye Chu, you should go outside and rest."
Ye Chu knew he really couldn't face the bugs head-on. He patted Pei Yanchuan on the shoulder and walked out, leaving him alone in Room 25.
Pei Yanchuan took a deep breath, did his best to ignore those disgusting creatures, and picked up the things that had fallen out of the box.
A family photo, a cloth doll with its head torn off, and a floral dress.
Pei Yanchuan frowned, unable to see what these objects had in common.
He looked at the box on the floor. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but as he studied those black patterns again, he vaguely felt... they were shackles.
Ye Chu's voice came from the doorway. "Xiao Pei, are you done yet?"
"Done!" Pei Yanchuan called back. After making sure nothing else had been left on the floor, he gathered the three objects and left Room 25.
All three were noticeably more composed once they were out of the room. Su Fengzi had even returned to his usual joking self.
"Thank goodness we had Xiao Pei. Otherwise, Ye Chu and I would've both died in there." He picked up the floral dress and examined it from every angle. "It's just an ordinary dress. Why would Granny Wang lock it away?"
"Other than its missing head, the doll is perfectly normal too. And so is the photo. They're all everyday objects," Pei Yanchuan added.
Why would Granny Wang treasure such ordinary things so much?
Ye Chu recalled what she had said: "Take me home. To my own home."
Why had she emphasized "my own"?
Was this home her son's home, her husband's family home, or... her childhood home?
As he pondered this, he suddenly heard Pei Yanchuan shout, "Stop!"
His thoughts interrupted, Ye Chu looked toward the voice and saw Pei Yanchuan running downstairs.
Ye Chu and Su Fengzi exchanged a glance and followed.
When they caught up with Pei Yanchuan, they found him gripping a man by the hair.
The man struggled violently. "Let go! What right do you have to grab me? What right?!"
Pei Yanchuan didn't let go, allowing the man to struggle all he liked. "Why did you run when you saw us? Talk!"
Perhaps the six-foot-tall young man behind him was too intimidating. The man lowered his head and stammered, "I wasn't trying to run. You suddenly started chasing me. Of course I ran!"
Pei Yanchuan frowned and tightened his grip. "Why would I chase you if you weren't running?"
Ye Chu stared into the man's eyes and asked, "Who are you?"
The man glared back, only for Pei Yanchuan to yank his hair. "Try glaring again!"
He had behaved himself around the older boys and girls for so long that they had almost forgotten he was a rebellious teenager-a high school senior with a wolf cut, dyed highlights, and a love of rock music.
[Pei Xiaohu is so hot!]
[Seriously, I almost forgot this kid isn't someone you mess with.]
[This poor NPC, hahaha.]
[You up there, once you've watched the whole story, you won't feel sorry for him anymore.]
"I..." The man was frightened. "My name's Tian Fuguo. I'm here to see my son! Do I have to report to you just to see my own son?"
Pei Yanchuan shot Su Fengzi a questioning look. Su Fengzi nodded. The man was telling the truth.
Su Fengzi's ability was Seer. To a certain extent, he could sense whether the person in front of him was lying. Unless that person was a professional con artist, the skill's accuracy was quite high.
"What room is your son in?"
"Room 24."
Ye Chu blinked. What a coincidence. Right next door to Granny Wang's room?
"Are you done or not?! I'm going to see my son!" Tian Fuguo began shouting again. After Ye Chu nodded, Pei Yanchuan released his hair.
Tian Fuguo lost his balance and nearly fell. He turned to glare viciously at the three of them, then ran toward Room 24.
Ye Chu walked to the reception desk and opened the room records to look up the patient in Room 24. He soon found a name-Tian Guangzong.
Ye Chu looked at the family contact field. Father: Tian Fuguo. Phone number: xxxxxxxx.
Ye Chu frowned. That phone number looked familiar. He turned back a page in the records and found the same digits in Wang Chunhua's family contact field.
Tian Fuguo was Wang Chunhua's son.
He had been caring for his own son in the room right next to his mother's all along, yet couldn't spare even a little time to visit his lonely mother.
Before you continue