Knock... knock...
Someone tapped the intercom used to communicate with the intensive care unit, and then a thoroughly undignified voice rang out.
"Ahem... yo, yo, check it out, ICU VIP.
Stuck in bed, can't move a thing, looking like dried chicken on a string."
"Fuck you..."
Li Jie tilted his head to look. Wearing a mask and isolation cap on the other side of the ICU glass, Wilson held the intercom and tapped out a beat on the pane.
"You actually know what dried chicken is?"
"Of course. I had some in Chinatown. They even gave me free cold dishes," Wilson said smugly. "Seriously, bro, how did this happen?"
"How did what happen?" Li Jie asked, playing dumb.
"They said you'd been shot. At first I thought someone had ambushed you, so I've rounded up over forty gunmen with criminal records these past few days."
Wilson lowered his voice. "But I just asked the doctor, and you shot yourself in the leg? What the fuck... what the hell were you doing?"
"Um..."
Li Jie was momentarily at a loss for words. When Raven had visited earlier, the girl had looked calm and spoken gently, simply keeping him company from outside while telling him what had happened at school and the police station over the past few days.
She had also asked how he had been injured, but Li Jie had brushed her off with an excuse about a stray bullet. Someone like Wilson, who had spent years on the streets, wasn't so easy to fool.
"Actually... I don't really know how to explain it. I was..."
"I get it." Wilson suddenly looked as though he had seen through everything. "You wanted to hurt yourself to get close to that alien, then go undercover and seize a chance to assassinate him?"