Chapter 32

In the distance, Liu Yixun and Doctor Ou looked disheveled. They had both been more or less scratched when they were trying to separate the patients. They were talking, and it was clear that it was regarding a job handover.

As Liu Yixun and Doctor Ou spoke, they pointed at the duty office. Song Qingxiao could not deduce what they discussed. However, what drew Song Qingxiao’s attention was that Liu Yixun fished out the key tied to a red string from his pocket and handed it to Doctor Ou. Doctor Ou placed it in the pocket of her doctor’s uniform.

As Song Qingxiao watched the scene unfold, she subconsciously turned to look at the red whip lady—number four—who stood in the distance. She had lowered her head as she spoke with an injured nurse. Song Qingxiao could not tell if she had noticed it or not.

Number four turned her head over as though she sensed Song Qingxiao’s gaze. She leaned against the wall with a faint smile on her face. Her expression was haughty, and it carried a hint of contempt. She crossed her arms in front of her chest then reached out her right hand in the direction of Song Qingxiao. She extended her middle finger and gently curled it.

Song Qingxiao’s expression darkened slightly. Naturally, she would not provoke number four in response. She lowered her head and avoided number four’s gaze. While she prepared to speak to Zhang Xiaoyu, she seemed to hear number four snort tauntingly.

Zhang Xiaoyu was not in a good mental state after she got injured. It was evident that she could not continue working. She explained the situation to Doctor Ou, who was on duty, then prepared to head back to the dorm to get some rest.

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Before she left the patient ward, she informed Song Qingxiao of the work diary.

“The first floor is the activity zone. This includes the cafeteria and the sports center. The second floor is where the male patients are.”

As she spoke, she took out a massive set of keys and handed them to Song Qingxiao.

“The third floor is our female patient area. The fourth floor is the restricted area that acts as a detention space for patients with severe mental illnesses.”

There were ten keys in the set. Each key had been carefully labeled to indicate its different use.

Nurse Zhang seemed to have recovered from the dark shadow she had been under after getting hurt earlier. Her expression was calm and even carried a smile. Her disheveled hair had been dealt with. It was a shame that they did not manage to find the nurse’s cap that she had dropped. In the end, she left the ward looking a little lost.

After Zhang Xiaoyu returned to rest, Song Qingxiao remained in a tight spot. Number four’s presence made her feel like she had a frog in her throat. Everyone was working hard like robots around her. The prompt in her consciousness had not changed. The credits still remained at 950. She planned to find an opportunity to head up to the fourth floor but had been unsuccessful until then.

Song Qingxiao returned to the dormitory after she had gotten off her shift in the afternoon. Zhang Xiaoyu was still lying in bed motionless. Song Qingxiao could not tell if she was asleep.

Time had passed by slowly. When nightime finally arrived, Song Qingxiao felt a faint dark undercurrent surging in the air even though nothing strange had happened in the hospital. The numbers in her vision had dropped to 87: 55: 36. The remaining time for the mission was only around three days. All of the trial participants were in a state of eerie calmness.

There were not many nurses on the night shift. Zhang Xiaoyu had rested for a day, and her spirits were much better. Hence it was expected that she would be on the night shift as well. Since they were understaffed, it was natural that all of the nurses would need to work separately.

Song Qingxiao was assigned to the second floor to dispense the medication for the patients in room six to room ten. A drug with a calming component was included among the medicines, and once the patients took it, they would rapidly fall into a deep sleep.

She watched each patient intently as they took their medication. She did that until she entered patient room nine and immediately saw number five lying on the bed. He had only been in the psychiatric hospital for less than two days, but number five already looked dispirited and depressed. The moment he saw Song Qingxiao come in with the medication, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. He looked like he wanted to escape but did not dare to do so.

His fellow patient in the same room obediently accepted a small container of medication and swallowed it. When it was number five’s turn, he looked ghastly pale, and his entire body trembled.

“Don’t kill me…”

He pleaded in a low voice as Song Qingxiao handed him the medication. He was highly resistant and did not dare to reach out his hand.

“I’m not a threat to any one of you…” He cried mournfully. “Don’t kill me. I just want to live.” Number five seemed to be scared witless. He kept repeating himself countless times. Song Qingxiao was mulling over his words to see if it revealed any information when a change occurred. The prompt in her mind that had not changed for a long time had finally transformed.

‘Protect the people, obliterate failure. Upon completion of task: 900 credits.’

The credits were reduced by 50. It meant that someone had died in the hospital a moment ago!

Song Qingxiao frowned. Even though she tried to hide it, the shock that flashed through her eyes was keenly caught by number five.

“Please don’t kill me. After we leave this d*mn place, I’ll give you money, a lot of money.”

Who would bother speaking to him about money? If she could not protect the people here, once all the credits had been deducted, she feared that she would lose her life! Hence, she did not engage number five in chit-chat. All she wanted to do was to find out who had acted and who had died!

The other nurses on duty were still in the other patient rooms. Doctor Hu, who had taken over the shift, had not left yet. It was not the right time to kill number five. Even though number five was weak and cowardly, he was still a man. A fight would cause a commotion.

Since she was on the night shift tonight, she still had a lot of time. As soon as Song Qingxiao thought up to then, she took a medicine container and handed it to number five. “Of course, take your medication first.”

Her expression revealed no hint of anger or happiness. However, since she did not attack, number five visibly left out a breath of relief. He took the medication and swallowed it in front of Song Qingxiao. After he ate the medication, Song Qingxiao immediately pushed the cart out of the patient room and locked the door.

She let go of the cart and pressed the button to take the elevator to the third floor. Zhang Xiaoyu and the others were all dispensing medication and feeding the patients on the third floor. The light in Doctor Ou’s duty office was still lit. She could see Doctor Ou sitting in front of her desk through the drawn curtains, reading something with her head lowered.

There was no screaming or shouts of shock coming from the medical staff offices or the dormitory. It would not be so peaceful if someone had died. Song Qingxiao immediately pressed the elevator button and prepared to head up to the fourth floor.

That was odd. She had taken the elevator up so logically, the elevator should have stopped on the third floor. However, it appeared that the elevator had already gone upstairs. She only left to check the location of everyone on the third floor, and it took barely any time at all.

On a night like that, there should not be anyone wandering around according to reason. After all, the nurses were busy, and the patients had all taken their medication and were preparing to sleep. Who would suddenly head up to the fourth floor at that time?

While Song Qingxiao was still pondering the matter, the prompt in her consciousness changed once again.

‘Protect the people, obliterate failure. Upon completion of task: 850 credits.’

In a couple of minutes, another person had died!

The situation did not make any sense. Song Qingxiao did not bother waiting for the elevator any longer as she hurried towards the emergency exit to one side. There were stairs that she could take to head up.

However, since very few typically people used the stairs, the lights were yellow and dim. The walls were already patchy. Her shadow was stretched by the light until it was so long that it nearly covered the entire stairwell. When she looked down from the iron railing, she could see to the bottom of the stairwell. It looked like a bottomless valley.

The fourth floor was the first-level care unit. The patients brought in there were kept under solitary confinement. The two patients who had injured the patient in bed one from room nineteen in the morning were among those confined there.

Apart from them, number six who tried to strangle Song Qingxiao and the large chap with the gun who fatally shot Doctor Zhou yesterday were also held there. All of the patients there were extraordinarily aggressive and needed to be watched at all times. Song Qingxiao heard Zhang Xiaoyu talk about the area, saying that all corners of the fourth floor were full of surveillance.

The moment she stepped out of the emergency exit and pushed open the security door, she instinctively raised her head. The corridor was tranquil. The pale lights on the fourth floor gave the place an eerie feeling. There was a surveillance camera overhead every few meters that appeared to have been destroyed by someone unnoticed.

The door to the surveillance room was open. A person who was dressed as a nurse lay on the table. She could not tell if the person was dead or alive. All the images on the surveillance screens were blank. It seemed like someone had entered the place earlier.

Song Qingxiao’s heart sank. She had to check on the nurse. It seemed like a participant had already come up to strike. She used her leg to hook the open door, and it locked with a slam. It was to prevent someone from sneaking in to kill the nurse when she left if the nurse was still alive.