Cult

Ji Tan: "..." He was eavesdropping and couldn't answer, and this lousy phone couldn't even send text messages to explain.

The "sob, sob, sob" and "hiss, ah" were still coming from the emergency stairwell. Ji Tan scratched his cheek, then his ear, and chose to swallow his pride and keep eavesdropping.

"I just checked. His sanity is at 53 now. Sob, sob, sob."

"The Blank Prescription's effect is memory loss. Since he's recovered so much, he must have forgotten a lot too. Hiss, ah."

Boom- A violent explosion came through his earpiece. Ji Tan jumped, his soles scraping shrilly against the vinyl floor.

"What was that?" The two in the stairwell instantly went on alert and hurried out to investigate. They were standing on the landing between the first and second floors, and the sound had come from the second floor.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, Xiao Zheng charged upstairs.

Ji Tan looked left and right. Long corridors stretched away on both sides; whichever way he ran now, he would be seen. And the emergency exit door opened inward toward the stairs, so he couldn't block it from this side.

In the blink of a "hiss, ah," the tough man reached the emergency exit and spotted a moving figure through its narrow observation window. Just as the people on either side were about to remove the barrier and face off, the door suddenly burst open with tremendous force. Dr. Zheng had only just touched the handle when it slammed him into a backflip, sending him flying toward Wanwan, who stood frozen on the landing.

Ji Tan shook out the leg he had kicked the door with and hurried away.

"What happened over there?" Back at the edge of the pharmacy hall, he saw his brother standing blankly beside a pillar in the distance and quickly asked how Xie Zhi was doing.

"Nothing. Just dealing with a little trouble." Xie Zhi seemed to be running; wind whistled over the phone, but his voice remained steady. "You suspect those two adulterers had something to do with Old Ji's illness?"

"What makes them adulterers? They were just having a normal conversation," Ji Tan corrected him. "But yes, I do suspect them. I'll investigate that. What I wanted to ask was, do you know about that special drug from the Blank Prescription? My brother's already had one injection. Would there be any danger if he had another now?"

Xie Zhi fell silent for a moment. Gunshots, curses, and what sounded like a beast's roars came from his end before he continued, "What's his sanity at now?"

"53." Ji Tan felt a little embarrassed. Xie Zhi sounded very busy. But his brother's situation was rather urgent, so he could only shamelessly keep asking. He comforted himself with the thought that Boss Xie was an adult; if he really couldn't manage, he would hang up.

Xie Zhi swung a red sledgehammer one-handed, flattening the thing baring its fangs and claws before him. He raised a hand to stop a silver-clad team member who was trying to approach with a report, and stood amid the ruins as he answered in a casual drawl, "Hold off on the injection. Go buy him a portable sanity monitor. I'll tell you more later. Don't be so tense. It's not a big problem."

Hearing that unhurried answer, Ji Tan slowly let out a breath.

He really had been too wound up over his brother. From their reunion last night until now, he had already managed to establish who he was, assess his brother's condition, investigate the hospital, and obtain the prescription. He had even found a lead on whoever had reduced Ji Sinan to this state.

He hadn't been this efficient even when preparing for his college entrance exams.

In fact, Ji Sinan had lived alone in this world for a long time. He had even survived just fine for several months with his sanity this low.

"Okay," Ji Tan said, then hung up.

When the salesperson at the pharmacy heard that Ji Tan wanted a sanity monitor, they enthusiastically brought out a wide range of models.

"A continuous sanity monitor, with a margin of error under one percent. Essential for home and travel."

This kind of monitor was similar to a continuous glucose monitor. An electrode patch with a tiny needle had to be attached somewhere on the body, and a number would appear on the display. That number updated in real time, showing any changes immediately without any need for manual adjustment.

The display was a black band that could be worn on the wrist or fastened around the leg or neck.

"We also have a buckle model. If you wear it around your neck, you can attach bells and chains." The salesperson waggled their eyebrows as they showed Ji Tan the shop's latest model.

Ji Tan pressed a hand to his forehead. "Just the regular model, please."

He picked up a wristband, put it on his brother, and switched it on. A vivid yellow number appeared on the flexible screen-53. Although it wasn't as precise as the hospital's machine and could only give whole numbers, it was enough.

"Aren't you buying one for yourself? I'd recommend it. Orderlies are required to wear these, and ordinary people like us need to pay more attention to our own condition too," the clerk said quietly.

Ordinary people seemed afraid to discuss anything concerning Orderlies openly.

Ji Tan hesitated, then asked, "How much is one?"

"Ten thousand."

"No."

"The second one is half price."

"Yes!"

After leaving the pharmacy, Ji Tan looked at the green "97" displayed on his wrist and sighed. Why couldn't he escape the evil lure of "second one half price"?

When they returned home that afternoon, Ji Sinan insisted that Ji Tan take off his outer clothes and wash them. His reasoning was that hospitals were full of germs, and a visit called for disinfecting oneself from head to toe.

But their impoverished household had no washing machine. Exhausted, Ji Tan agreed aloud and tossed his clothes into the laundry basket, planning to wash them after a nap.

Ji Sinan couldn't wait even a moment. He picked up his younger brother's clothes, went straight to the sink, rolled up his sleeves, and began washing.

"Leave them, bro. I'll wash them myself." Lying on the sofa, Ji Tan lazily tipped his head back, looking upside down at his brother, who was squatting on the doorstep with a washbasin.

The house was cramped and tiny, with only the space outside the front door being relatively open, so Ji Sinan dragged out a hose attached to the faucet. The steps were just right for washing clothes. He deftly tied on an apron and began emptying the pockets, taking a few coins and a small card out of Ji Tan's clothes.

He had specifically changed money into coins that morning for the bus fare. The card was the one Sister Xu had pressed on him.

Ji Tan sprang up and covered the face of the card, stopping Ji Sinan from examining it. Something this bizarre might cause his sanity to drop.

But Ji Sinan had already seen it. He adjusted his newly prescribed glasses. "This eye is drawn wrong."

Ji Tan's breath caught. He slowly moved his hand away, revealing the eye without eyelashes, and glanced at the number on his brother's wrist. 53. Unchanged. He asked tentatively, "Did you draw that eye in the drawer?"

"Yes. That one is right. Argus's eye isn't a human eye. The two sides should be symmetrical." Ji Sinan wet his finger and drew a lashless eye on the concrete step, its pointed ends curving identically.

Ji Tan's lips trembled as he asked as calmly as he could, "How do you know what Argus's eye looks like?"

Ji Sinan paused, then slowly shook his head. "I don't know. But I just know."

Looking at the eye on the ground, Ji Tan felt that its lines held a soul-seizing power. The green "97" on his wrist began to flicker. He hurriedly scooped up a handful of water and smeared out the symmetrical eye.

Perhaps his brother's madness wasn't only connected to those two at the hospital. It might also have something to do with this neighborhood.

He clenched the card and decided to check out the old warehouse that evening.

Night arrived on schedule.

Alley 36 on Broken Line Street settled back into its noisy peace.

Ji Tan put on a dark outdoor jacket. He had discovered several fairly good-quality garments in his original body's wardrobe, probably bought after his brother began earning a high salary at the Chengming Life Center.

He tucked the proposal into the huge inner pocket of his jacket. Holding the promotional card, he nimbly avoided the mud and hopped between broken bricks and stones as he approached the old warehouse at the end of the alley.

It was a very spacious structure enclosed in sheet metal, with old lumber and damaged furniture piled inside. Supposedly, it had belonged to the owner of a furniture shop on the next street. But the owner had died a few years ago, and the warehouse had remained unused ever since, with his family paying it little attention.

There were no electric lights in the warehouse. A group of people had gathered in the middle and lit a circle of candles. The dim yellow candlelight shone on every face-men and women, young and old. As the flames flickered, their expressions became patchy and indistinct.

"We gather here to listen to the great being in the darkness." Their leader was an old man in a black robe. His face was hidden, and his voice was aged and hoarse.

Everyone raised their hands along with him. "Listen!"

Only then did Ji Tan make out a platform piled from broken boards in the center of the crowd, roughly half a person's height. A humanoid object lay on it, along with all sorts of miscellaneous things.

"He is the most loyal subject of the god Argus, the undying king in the darkness. We believe in Him and serve Him humbly, and He shall grant us the power of eternal life!"

The robed man took an object from the makeshift wooden platform, raised it above his head, and shouted, "Fur-Zas-Ous, keh keh keh!"

Everyone raised their hands along with him. "Fur-Zas-Ous, keh keh keh!"

As they chanted, they slowly circled the candlelight.

Ji Tan narrowed his eyes. His mild nearsightedness kept him from seeing clearly, so he could only take out his phone, open the camera, and zoom in, using it as a magnifying glass.

The instant he saw the object clearly, Ji Tan froze.

It was a section of rotten, discolored human leg bone.

Ji Tan couldn't help starting to gasp, but a warm, dry hand covered his mouth. His eyes widened in terror, and then Xie Zhi's infuriating voice sounded beside his ear. "What did I warn you about? Don't get involved with cults."

Scared into a cold sweat, Ji Tan elbowed the man behind him.

Suddenly, the chanting stopped. The circling crowd halted and turned in unison toward the old oil drum behind which the two of them were crouching. Men and women, young and old, all had terrifyingly vacant eyes-including Sister Xu, whom he had spoken with just that morning.

Ji Tan swallowed, stood up, and abruptly flung both hands into the air. "Fur-Zas-Ous, keh keh keh!"

Then he kicked Xie Zhi, who was still crouching.

Looking thoroughly unwilling, Xie Zhi stood up after him and raised his clenched fists. "Fur-Zas-Ous, keh keh keh!"

Only then was the crowd satisfied. Their leader said, "Welcome to our ranks. And what about you?"

At those words, everyone who had been staring at Ji Tan and Xie Zhi turned in unison toward the doorway-where Ji Sinan stood wearing a teddy-bear apron and holding up a spatula.

Ji Tan was dumbfounded. He had clearly coaxed his brother to sleep before leaving. Why had he gotten up to cook in the middle of the night? He hurriedly gestured to Ji Sinan. Say what they're saying. Hurry, say it.

Ji Sinan raised his spatula. "Keh keh keh, keh keh keh, keh keh keh!"