Chapter 11: Get Out!
Content Warning
Child murder and other content you might find really uncomfortable to read.
Qin Ge’s rabbit no longer hopped. It ran down from Qin Ge’s shoulder until it settled comfortably in the withered palm of Cai Mingyue’s hand.
It was very small, just the right size to fit in an adult’s hand.
Qin Ge stroked its ears and back, then placed his hand on the rabbit and closed his eyes.
In the next moment, the rabbit disappeared. A thick white mist rolled out of the joined hands of Cai Mingyue and Qin Ge.
The aura belonging to Qin Ge’s spirit was unusually strong and quickly filled the entire hospital room.
Xie Zijing even felt like he was surrounded by a warm ocean. He could sense Qin Ge’s emotional fluctuations and quickly realized that Qin Ge was very nervous.
Just as Qin Ge had touched the rabbit, Xie Zijing lifted his hand and gently stroked Qin Ge’s hair. Qin Ge was patrolling the sea and wouldn’t know that he had touched him. Xie Zijing stood behind Qin Ge, supporting his back and being vigilant for any unforeseen circumstances.
Outside the hospital room, Cai Yi and his secretary exchanged a quick glance. Bai Xiaoyuan and Tang Cuo anxiously stood guard at the door, all sensing the faint aura escaping from the room.
“…What is his spirit animal?” Cai Yi asked.
Bai Xiaoyuan and Tang Cuo remained silent.
“He’s very likable,” Cai Yi smiled, “Not bad at all; he’s the only psychological adjuster in the Crisis Management Bureau, and his abilities are quite decent.”
Bai Xiaoyuan still didn’t say anything, but Tang Cuo couldn’t help himself: “Qin Ge… Chief Qin is really powerful. Among the five psychological adjusters in the country, he’s the youngest.”
Bai Xiaoyuan gave him a stern look, and Tang Cuo quickly shut up, turning his head away from Cai Yi.
Cai Yi nodded, pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Does he have a partner?”
Bai Xiaoyuan: “…”
Tang Cuo: “…”
Cai Yi: “Check it.”
His secretary immediately nodded and began using the phone.
Qin Ge was unaware of what was happening inside and outside the hospital room. The moment he entered Cai Mingyue’s sea area, he immediately felt fear.
A bloodstained operating room with walls oozing blood, babies crawling out of the walls, screaming mothers on the operating table, and silent doctors holding knives.
Everything that Peng Hu had described to him had vividly materialized before his eyes.
Qin Ge stood in the middle of operating room no. 6. This was thirty years ago, in Cai Mingyue’s memories. The operating room still didn’t have the window that was later chiseled open, and even the shadowless lamp seemed to be red, with the light flickering in the bloody atmosphere. The intense smell of blood rushed at him, and the cries of the patients were too agonizing, causing Qin Ge to step back a few steps.
His feet were immersed in the blood, making a sticky sound as he moved.
The blood was about an inch deep, almost submerging the soles of his shoes. The entire operating room felt soaked and invaded, but the doctors around the operating table remained silent, as if they hadn’t heard or seen anything.
Only one hour. Qin Ge couldn’t afford to delay. He had to exert tremendous effort to suppress his fear and take a shaky step toward the operating table.
The babies crawling out of the walls all stared at him with blank expressions. In their empty eye sockets, black eyeballs were rolling frantically.
Qin Ge couldn’t dare to look at them any longer. He struggled to approach the operating table as the screams grew louder.
But there was no one on the operating table. Only an empty hospital gown was wriggling and struggling on its own.
The abdomen of the gown had been cut open, and doctors with scissors and knives stood by, their multiple pairs of eyes fixed on the gaping hole in the middle of the gown.
A baby was trying to crawl out from inside.
Qin Ge felt a chilling dread in every inch of this place.
Cai Mingyue’s “sea area” was incredibly eerie. No matter how powerful one’s mind was, enduring such scenes for decades would drive someone to madness, and it would be considered normal.
He turned to look at the doctors but found that the several people around the operating table, all bowing their heads, had faces identical to Cai Mingyue’s.
They were the Cai Mingyue from over thirty years ago. She hadn’t been withered and worn down by disease and time back then, but her expression was stiff and motionless.
Qin Ge retreated to the doorway of the operating room, realizing that he had to convince himself to leave.
The door to the operating room opened easily, and Qin Ge stumbled out.
He fell into a pool of foul-smelling water.
Qin Ge could hardly control his trembling. He quickly got up and realized that he was still inside the operating room.
An ominous premonition washed over him, and he immediately rushed to the door, pulling it open with a crash.
Outside the door was still operating room number 6.
Qin Ge was stunned. In front of him and behind him were identical operating rooms, identical screams, and identical scenes.
He continued to run forward, opening one door after another.
Entering one operating room after another, all numbered 6.
Within the “sea area,” his physical form didn’t feel fatigued. But after running for a while, Qin Ge had to stop.
He understood why Cai Mingyue had been so afraid, crying and begging him to “save” her.
Only individuals with extremely severe mental abnormalities would experience this endless cycle within the “sea area.” Cai Mingyue could pretend to live a normal life during the day, but when she inevitably entered her dreams at night, things from the “sea area” would fragmentarily float over her consciousness, gnawing at her dreams, sleep, and emotions.
As she grew older and experienced neural and brain function degradation, both sentinels and guides would encounter varying degrees of abnormalities within their “sea areas.” Some people could make efforts to stabilize their own “sea areas,” but Cai Mingyue clearly couldn’t—her “sea area” was too terrifying.
Qin Ge recalled that Yan Hong had once mentioned that Cai Mingyue would speak “nonsense,” and Peng Hu was willing to listen to it. What Peng Hu heard must have been the “sea area” that Cai Mingyue described when her mind was unclear.
However, the endlessly repeating operating room wouldn’t reveal Cai Mingyue’s true secret to Qin Ge. He was about to continue his exploration when he noticed something different at the other end of the operating table.
The Cai Mingyue who appeared as a doctor was not holding a knife or scissors. She was cradling a baby and covering the baby’s nose and mouth with her hand.
Qin Ge couldn’t hear any sound, only the desperate cries due to immense pain. The baby in Cai Mingyue’s hands trembled for a moment but soon went still.
“Dead,” Cai Mingyue said.
Suddenly, everything fell silent. All the sounds disappeared instantly.
Cai Mingyue, holding the lifeless baby, stared fiercely at Qin Ge and suddenly shouted, “Get out!!!”
The walls melted, and Qin Ge found himself falling. Through the ceilings and walls of countless operating rooms, he fell into blood and then continued to plummet deeper.
—Riot.
He remembered what Qin Shuangshuang had said. When Qin Shuangshuang was about to uncover Cai Mingyue’s secret, her “sea area” had riot, forcefully driving Qin Shuangshuang out.
This was Cai Mingyue protecting herself.
But it also indicated that Qin Ge was about to touch the real core.
Once again, he had to mobilize the power of his spirit animal. A vibrant, gentle aura enveloped him like countless soft hairs. Without the physical pain and fatigue, Qin Ge allowed himself to be protected by the rabbit, continuously repeating in his mind: “I’m here to help you… I’m here because Cai Yi sent me to free you from this nightmare.”
The long descent came to an end.
Qin Ge landed on a lawn.
After getting up, he quickly recognized that this was the lawn in front of the historical museum of 267th Hospital. There was a bench and several big trees, all lush and verdant.
Under the trees, there were numerous figures, all reaching out to him. Various envelopes and red paper bags, various faces, smiling, pleading, anxious, and expressionless. There were men and women, and everyone’s first words were always “Dr. Cai.”
“Dr. Cai, my husband lied to me. I didn’t know he was actually a special human.”
“Dr. Cai, the hospital says there’s an 86% chance this child is a guide, but we only want a sentinel.”
“Dr. Cai, I’ve been infected by the underground people… My child… I don’t want it; I can’t have a underground person’s child… People will mock me to death.”
“Dr. Cai, a daughter won’t do; we don’t want a daughter.”
“Dr. Cai, this child… please help us. He has no hands; we can’t afford to raise him.”
“Dr. Cai, my husband doesn’t want me anymore, and I don’t want this child either. I can’t take care of him.”
“Dr. Cai, the child is a werewolf… No, I didn’t consent… I don’t want to have the child of a rapist, but it’s too late; I can’t get rid of it.”
“Dr. Cai, you’re very famous… I’ve heard others say you’re the most compassionate, willing to help us poor souls solve our problems.”
“Dr. Cai, please help us.”
“Just do us a favor and deal with this child.”
“It’s very easy; please help.”
…
Countless people, countless hands. They all surged toward Qin Ge, fingers scratching at his arms, damp as if soaked by cold rain.
“Can you really help me?”
A voice came from the entrance of the historical museum.
When Qin Ge turned around, all the people surrounding him had disappeared. The historical museum was right in front of him, and the hunched-over Cai Mingyue stood tremblingly downstairs. There was no wind, no voices, only the trembling sound of her own speech, fearful and shivering.
“Don’t lie to me,” she said softly.
This was Cai Mingyue’s consciousness, opening up her own secret to Qin Ge—those memories about the “children.”
Qin Ge was utterly at a loss for words. Filled with shock and anger, he faced an apparition within a “sea area,” and all the accusations and curses seemed futile.
As if sensing his emotions, Cai Mingyue pursed her wrinkled lips and laboriously said, “I was helping people.”
Qin Ge didn’t want to indulge her.
“These are not the core issues yet.” He decided to focus on the current matter. “When did you first notice that your ‘sea area’ was abnormal?”
Cai Mingyue’s wrinkled face twitched for a moment, displaying an extremely unnatural expression.
“This is very important,” Qin Ge emphasized.
“…Thirty-three years ago, a man brought his wife to the obstetrics and gynecology department, and he had an appointment with me.” After hesitating for a moment, Cai Mingyue slowly began to speak. “He was… the last person I helped.”
Qin Ge was waiting for her next words when suddenly he felt a dizzying sensation unlike anything before.
The vertigo was overwhelmingly strong, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself falling from Cai Mingyue’s hospital bed, landing in Xie Zijing’s arms.
“It’s been an hour,” Xie Zijing said. “You returned right on time.”
The white mist in the hospital room had disappeared, and Qin Ge was utterly exhausted. He could only maintain his patrol for an hour; any longer would be dangerous.
There was a knock on the door of the room, and Cai Yi’s polite voice came from outside, speaking rather bluntly, “I’m coming in.”
Just as he was turning the doorknob, Cai Mingyue on the hospital bed suddenly exerted all her strength and shouted, “Get out!”
Through the crack in the door, Cai Yi’s expression appeared complex and disheveled. “Mom.”
“Get out!” Cai Mingyue shouted again. She removed her oxygen mask and gasped for air, panting heavily.
The door finally closed. Qin Ge climbed up from the floor and reached Cai Mingyue’s bedside, but she grabbed his hand.
The old woman’s eyes were filled with terrifying excitement.
“That man… the last person I helped… he asked me to help him kill his child,” Cai Mingyue gasped, her voice resembling gusts of gusty wind, rasping out from her throat. “But… I was careless… I made a mistake… So it was that child who cursed me…”
Both Qin Ge and Xie Zijing tensed up. Qin Ge held Cai Mingyue’s hand, suppressing his disgust, and asked softly, “Take your time and tell me everything.”
“Just a little more… just a tiny bit…” Cai Mingyue’s hand was like a vice, clamping down on Qin Ge’s hand fiercely, as if he were the baby who had cursed her “But he didn’t die!”
