The "Strange-Smelling Uncle" at the Hospital

"Auntie Lin, you're recovering very well, and all your readings are normal. Just take your medicine on time and get plenty of rest."

In a senior officials' ward at the Military Region General Hospital, a young doctor in a white coat spoke to Lin Wanyi with a smile.

Today was the day of Lin Wanyi's follow-up appointment.

Nuannuan had been worried and insisted on coming along. Unable to dissuade her, Su Mingyuan had brought her too.

"Thank you, Dr. Wang," Lin Wanyi said politely.

"It's my job." Dr. Wang closed the medical chart, then looked at Nuannuan, who was sitting quietly beside her, and smiled. "This must be Director Mingyuan's niece? What a pretty girl."

Nuannuan gave him a polite smile.

Ever since she had played those "games" with her third uncle, Su Mingzhe, her nose had become especially sensitive.

As soon as she entered the hospital, all sorts of smells had rushed into her nose.

There was the smell of disinfectant, the smell of alcohol, the smell of various medicinal herbs...

They mingled into a complex scent unique to hospitals.

Nuannuan found it fascinating, like playing a huge game of "identifying people by scent."

After the checkup, Su Mingyuan had an urgent meeting to attend, so he asked Lin Wanyi and Nuannuan to wait for him in the lounge.

"Grandma, I need to go to the bathroom." Nuannuan tugged at the hem of Lin Wanyi's clothes.

"All right, I'll take you."

The hospital corridor was long, paved with white tiles and bustling with doctors and nurses in white coats, along with patients' family members hurrying about.

Holding her grandmother's hand, Nuannuan looked around curiously as they walked.

Suddenly, she stopped.

Her little nose sniffed hard at the air, like a puppy's.

A familiar smell drifted over.

She remembered this smell very clearly. Among her third uncle's "special teaching aids" was a small bottle containing this very smell.

Her third uncle had said it was called "formalin" and was used to preserve specimens. It was pungent and very distinctive.

Nuannuan looked toward the source of the smell.

Not far away, a man was walking out of the pharmacy.

He looked to be in his forties or fifties, thin and gaunt, wearing a faded Zhongshan suit beneath a white coat.

Most striking of all were the gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

The eyes behind the lenses were narrow and long, with an indescribable chill to them.

It's him!

Nuannuan's heart gave a jolt.

Gold-rimmed glasses! The smell of a hospital!

The "strange-smelling uncle" the rats in Li Family Village talked about, who went to wait for messages beneath the big locust tree at the village entrance every month!

Nuannuan's little hand instinctively tightened around her grandmother's sleeve.

Noticing her granddaughter's unusual reaction, Lin Wanyi looked down and asked with concern, "What's wrong, Nuannuan? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Grandma..." Pointing at the retreating figure, Nuannuan whispered, "That uncle... smells so strange."

"Strange?" Lin Wanyi looked where she was pointing, but saw only an ordinary figure from behind. "It's probably medicine, isn't it? People in hospitals all smell of medicine."

"No." Nuannuan shook her head, trying hard to recall what her third uncle had taught her. "It's... the smell of the water they soak bugs in."

"The water they soak bugs in?" The description made Lin Wanyi laugh.

But Nuannuan's expression was very serious.

She said nothing more and closed her eyes instead.

In her world, the clamor in the hospital corridor vanished in an instant.

In its place came another kind of "sound."

It was several stray cats that had made their home in the hospital, "chatting" in a corner.

An orange cat: "There were leftover fish bones in the canteen again today. What a treat."

A calico cat: "That skinny old man from the pharmacy is here again. He's so annoying. That stink on him is enough to kill a cat."

Another black cat: "That's him! I've seen him several times. Every day after work, he goes off alone to that little park out back where nobody goes, acting all sneaky. Who knows what he's doing."

The calico cat: "Yes, yes! He even draws under the benches in the park. So strange."

The little park... drawing under the benches...

These fragments of information rapidly pieced themselves together in Nuannuan's mind like a puzzle.

Her eyes flew open, and she tugged at Lin Wanyi's hand, saying urgently, "Grandma, let's hurry and find Fourth Uncle!"

Although Lin Wanyi did not understand what had happened, the unprecedented seriousness on her granddaughter's face made her heart jolt too. Not daring to delay, she immediately picked her up and hurried toward Su Mingyuan's office.

Su Mingyuan had just returned from his meeting when he saw his mother holding Nuannuan, waiting anxiously at the door.

"Mom? Nuannuan? What happened?"

"Mingyuan!" Lin Wanyi said urgently. "Nuannuan says she thinks... she saw that 'bad man'!"

Su Mingyuan's expression changed instantly.

He immediately shut the office door, crouched down, and held Nuannuan's shoulders, his voice a little tight with tension.

"Nuannuan, don't be afraid. Tell Fourth Uncle, what did you see? What did you smell?"

Looking at her fourth uncle's serious face, Nuannuan told him everything, leaving out none of the smells she had detected or the information she had "heard" from the cats.

"...An uncle with gold-rimmed glasses works in the pharmacy, and he smells like the water they soak bugs in. The hospital cats said he's very strange. Every day after work, he goes to that little park out back."

After hearing her out, Su Mingyuan felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

Gold-rimmed glasses!

The smell of formalin!

His job as a pharmacy worker!

And his strange daily visits to the little park!

Every characteristic perfectly matched the enemy spy courier, "Gold-Rimmed Glasses Man," whom they had analyzed before!

The man they had gone to such lengths to find, like searching for a needle in a haystack, had been hiding right under his nose!

Su Mingyuan could no longer remain calm.

He immediately snatched up the phone on his desk and dialed a number he knew by heart.

It rang only once before someone answered.

"Hello, Mingfeng? It's Mingyuan!" His voice trembled slightly with excitement.

"Come over here immediately! Right now!"

"We've found... that fish!"