During the brief conversation, forty seconds had already passed. When Zhou Qi’an tried to speak again, the man in the white coat completely ignored him, preparing to go to the operating table to check the patient’s condition.
Shen Zhiyi was near there.
Without hesitation, Zhou Qi’an strode forward and, with a smack, turned off the lights in the operating room again.
“What’s wrong with a gatekeeper?” he said sarcastically, as if provoked and deliberately acting out. “Did the gatekeeper eat your family’s rice? The gatekeeper only eats the public’s rice.”
Mr. Si was always trying to steal what he was supposed to guard, just like a mouse. This time, he was probably trying to steal something again.
The man in the white coat’s anger had just ignited when he heard this and didn’t react for a moment, subconsciously analyzing the content of the words.
Zhou Qi’an seized the opportunity and walked out with flying steps.
The man in the white coat held a high position in the hospital. Seeing Mr. Si dare to talk back to him and leave so swaggeringly, he immediately chased after him menacingly.
However, when he reached the corridor, almost at the elevator, he couldn’t see that detestable figure.
“You brat, just you wait!” the man in the white coat said angrily.
The noise attracted the attention of the nurse at the triage desk. The doctors here all had bad tempers, so the nurse didn’t think much of it and turned her stiff head back.
With this interruption, the man in the white coat did not return but went directly to another nearby ward, seemingly intending to chase him down along the way.
Another half a minute passed, and the airtight door opened again. Shen Zhiyi walked out.
“Here.” A very soft voice came, sounding like the faint hiss of a snake if one didn’t listen carefully.
Shen Zhiyi looked up and saw a person clinging to the ceiling.
“…” Have his limbs evolved to this extent?
Zhou Qi’an had used some items to help, and he slid down the wall smoothly.
Gently patting the dust off his hands, he shook his head. “Mr. Si is so disappointing.”
Shen Zhiyi: “The staff are not pushovers.”
Zhou Qi’an pondered for a moment and voiced a suspicion that had flashed through his mind earlier: “Could he be trying to steal something again?”
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Now that the first wave of players was almost dead, and the staff loved to torture people, Mr. Si could have come to guide the second wave of players, yet he stubbornly guarded the door.
Could there be some treasure behind the door?
Before the guess could be confirmed, Zhou Qi’an’s attention returned to saving people. “Ying Yu and the others should have been moved to the greenhouse. We need a floor plan.”
This floor had many departments: ICU, nutrition, wards… it was a hodgepodge experimental field.
Without understanding the floor plan, it would be difficult to find the greenhouse.
There might be one at the triage desk, but that area had too many NPCs, and the confusion card had a relatively long cooldown.
Shen Zhiyi said directly, “Let the shadow go.”
The shadow would hit a wall in areas like wards, but public areas were fine.
The triage desk was completely a public area.
After he spoke, there was no sign of the shadow at his feet. After two seconds, Shen Zhiyi seemed to realize something and looked up. The shadow was clinging to the spot where Zhou Qi’an had been.
Shen Zhiyi: “…”
Zhou Qi’an: “…”
With a stretch of its long arm, the shadow handed down a beautiful black rose from the ceiling.
After watching him take it, the shadow moved towards the triage desk.
Shen Zhiyi really wanted to explain from a scientific perspective that he wasn’t just a pervert who liked to stick close. The shadow contained a part of his power and consciousness, and the seal made it too straightforward.
Simply put, it was brainless.
The two retreated to the elevator area.
The shadow was very fast and returned before long.
Zhou Qi’an handed over the Dream Pen. Shen Zhiyi, through the shadow’s perception, roughly drew a layout map. The lines throughout were atrociously crooked.
The tenth floor could be said to be the main base of the NPCs in the Cyclamen Hospital.
With the nurse’s station as the dividing line, at the end was the operating room. The central area had a hot water room, and further on was the garbage disposal room, the doctor’s office, the clinical nutrition department, and the infectious disease department. Finally, there were the testing lab and the pharmacy.
At each end, there was a safe emergency exit.
The floor plan did not specify the location of the [Greenhouse]. It was likely a substitute name for one of the areas.
Shen Zhiyi had a mouth to summarize the situation. The shadow could only continue to hand over flowers from the side.
“Sha Xing.” Zhou Qi’an remembered the name on the doctor’s name tag earlier. “The nurse’s station should have his rounding records.”
The places a doctor made rounds would not include the [Greenhouse] that Mr. Si was guarding. Otherwise, when he said there was special movement in the shed, the doctor would have gone with him.
The shadow’s mind and intelligence were two different things. It had also taken note of this.
It brought back the rounding records, directly ruling out the clinical nutrition department and the infectious disease department.
Zhou Qi’an continued to eliminate possibilities: “The doctor’s office should also be out.”
The hot water room was very small. The information on the corpse tag was to take the patient for a new round of breeding. The garbage disposal room could be ruled out by its name.
That only left the testing lab and the pharmacy.
The trouble was, these two were also the farthest places, requiring them to bypass all the previously mentioned areas first.
Zhou Qi’an pondered and said, “We have to make this place chaotic.”
Only in chaos would they have a chance to move.
Shen Zhiyi: “It’s not a good time to set a fire yet.”
“…”
The other two people hadn’t been found yet. Of course, he couldn’t set a fire!
Shen Zhiyi was serious for once, his blood-red eyes fixed on the person in front of him. “I’ll go steal a nurse’s uniform for you…”
“That’s right, continue the role-playing,” Zhou Qi’an’s eyes lit up.
Hearing that he was willing to act, Shen Zhiyi’s eyes also lit up.
Zhou Qi’an: “Act, but we can’t just act as nurses.”
Randomly acting as a nurse carried risks.
Zhou Qi’an had been standing here for a while and had been observing the area around the triage desk from time to time. Occasionally, the nurses would nod to each other.
This meant that even with masks on, they could probably recognize each other.
There was also the difference in height and build. Both of them were much taller than normal nurses.
Zhou Qi’an grabbed Shen Zhiyi’s clothes, pulled him a little closer, and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Like this…”
As he slowly explained the plan, every word was spoken very clearly.
From Shen Zhiyi’s perspective, he only saw picturesque features and a beautiful face.
Listening carefully to every word the young man said, Shen Zhiyi habitually nodded in agreement.
Seeing him nod, Zhou Qi’an immediately put on his gloves, took out the backpack Ying Yu had given him, and with a swift motion, excitedly pulled out the flesh mound monster’s corpse.
The air was quiet for a moment.
Completely focused on the task, Zhou Qi’an said, “Last night, more than one flesh mound monster snuck into the wards below, which means the patients in this department often ‘run around’.”
He also had the inpatient bracelet. With the bracelet, he could enjoy patient treatment, but to be safe, he had to put on the flesh mound monster’s shell first.
Shen Zhiyi: “…”
Good news, Qi’an was finally much more stable than before.
Bad news, he was too stable.
Zhou Qi’an was still talking eloquently.
“But we still have to wear the nurse’s uniform, just in case. No need to steal it, I have some here.”
All sizes were available.
He pulled out a few sets of clothes from the inner layer of his bag. The preparations he made while sweeping the floors of the morgue finally came in handy. “See for yourself which size you want to wear.”
Shen Zhiyi was silent again.
Letting him pick his own size, Zhou Qi’an quickly returned to the operating room.
He tried to find something like a waterproof cloth. Luckily, he found a more useful body bag.
Zhou Qi’an was about to go out directly, but after thinking about it, there was no place to change clothes outside, so he decided to put on the nurse’s uniform inside first.
When he returned, a little black man, even darker than the shadow, was born. Zhou Qi’an’s muffled voice came from inside the body bag: “Later, I need to lure the nurse over first. You provide support.”
He couldn’t be sure if the flesh mound monsters would wander out during the day. If anything went wrong, they would retreat first.
Once the beginning went smoothly, as long as they cooperated well, they could completely break the situation.
Shen Zhiyi: “The nurse’s uniform…”
“Already changed.”
Hearing this, a hint of regret appeared in Shen Zhiyi’s eyes.
Zhou Qi’an gave him a deep look. “Last time I stayed at your place, you found the right size of clothes very well.”
He hadn’t forgotten the first time he went to Shen Zhiyi’s self-built house in the city. There were even underpants of the right size.
He didn’t want to change clothes under a pair of ruler-like eyes.
“Can you climb on the ceiling?” Without wasting more time on this topic, Zhou Qi’an changed the subject.
Shen Zhiyi: “…I have a skill that can infinitely reduce my presence.”
With all preparations made, Zhou Qi’an had Shen Zhiyi help him ‘get dressed’.
The flesh mound monster itself was a pile of elastic flesh mud. It was hard to tell if it was alive or dead. Shen Zhiyi was silent for a moment, but still chose to help him with his makeup and costume.
A minute later, the nurse, who was bored on duty at the triage desk, suddenly heard some strange noises.
She looked over at the sound. A small puddle of scarlet flesh was exposed in the corner. As if it knew it had been discovered, it cunningly shrank, and the flesh mound bounced in.
There was no surprise on the nurse’s numb face.
The patients in the nutrition department were mainly responsible for testing drugs. Correspondingly, their drug resistance was very high, and coupled with their liquid-like form, they could easily escape if one was not careful.
Skillfully grabbing a large fishing net, the nurse walked over.
The design of the entire fishing net was very much like a spoon. The nurse aimed and scooped, and the flesh mound monster was netted.
Zhou Qi’an’s hands were exposed from the body bag. Throughout the process, his gloves held tightly onto the flesh tendons to prevent exposure.
“Damn it.”
It was stinky and stuffy. With a layer of thick flesh and a layer of bag, he felt like he was about to be suffocated.
Swaying all the way, his stomach fluids were almost shaken out. Just as Zhou Qi’an was really about to throw up, the shaking finally stopped.
A feeling of weightlessness came. The nurse dumped the flesh mound monster into the petri dish. The rough action made the patient’s bracelet stuck in the flesh groove tremble.
After settling it, the nurse closed the door and left.
Zhou Qi’an forcibly endured for another minute before crawling out of the thick flesh shell.
“Phew~”
He gasped for breath, but unfortunately, the surrounding air wasn’t exactly pleasant either.
The mix of a large number of flowers and a rotten smell was practically a chemical weapon.
This was a collective treatment room, with at least ten petri dishes, each filled with a flesh mound monster, like flattened red velvet cakes.
Before he could do it himself, the shadow helped him open the lid first.
When an NPC actively opened a door, there were no rule restrictions for the shadow, so it slipped in.
Zhou Qi’an’s original plan was to help the other flesh mound monsters escape, creating the first wave of chaos.
But he had overlooked biodiversity. During the day, some flesh mound monsters were not very active, but a few were exceptionally active. The perception between the same species was the most sensitive. They seemed to sense that Zhou Qi’an was different from them.
One of the largest, a flesh mound monster that occupied the entire container, easily pushed off the lid, and its bright red flesh tissue spread towards Zhou Qi’an.
“Steal the bracelet.”
While dodging the attack, Zhou Qi’an adapted to the situation and almost immediately made a decision.
For the patients, the bracelet was the most important thing. Stealing the bracelet first would make it easy to lure the monsters out.
The idea was good.
But it was based on a successful theft. The most terrifying thing about the flesh mound monsters was their exploding juice. A slight carelessness would lead to infection.
Zhou Qi’an couldn’t attack well and dodged precariously.
The shadow did its best to delay for him. Zhou Qi’an quickly wrapped his face with the white silk, leaving only his eyes exposed. Using this time, he first went to the containers with less active flesh mound monsters to steal their bracelets.
…
When there were no special circumstances, the daily medical staff were like zombies, moving very slowly.
Thump.
A strange noise came from the ward.
The nurse, who had just walked not far, suddenly paused, a hint of vigilance flashing across her numb face. When she was about to turn back, a huge noise suddenly came from the operating room. Immediately, all the medical staff who heard the strange noise changed their previous slowness.
The amplitude and rhythm of their body movements were completely uncoordinated, yet the medical staff burst out with terrifying speed, almost pouncing over.
Inside the operating room.
The sound of sparking crackled incessantly.
Shen Zhiyi was using a short circuit to create a fire. A small fire, which, given the running speed outside, would be extinguished quickly.
The moment the airtight door was opened from the outside, Shen Zhiyi tore off the corpse tag from Poison Dragon, then, like a ghost, lurked in a corner of the operating room.
The reanimated monster made no distinction between friend and foe.
The moment the medical staff rushed in, the monster pounced. The nurses in front quickly tried to subdue Poison Dragon, while another group began to put out the fire.
Shen Zhiyi, dressed in a nurse’s uniform, looked out of place, but in the chaotic atmosphere, no one noticed at all.
“Hurry up,” Shen Zhiyi was still urging in a ghostly voice.
But his feet were retreating. Before long, he had very naturally exited the operating room.
Clinical Nutrition Department.
“Take that,” Zhou Qi’an picked up a flowerpot from the ground and smashed it on the flesh mound monster.
The monsters had a certain fear of these flowers. When the cyclamens were thrown over, their movements would become very slow.
Taking advantage of the monster’s momentary stiffness, Zhou Qi’an risked getting close and snatched the bracelet with stability, accuracy, and ruthlessness.
After snatching six or seven bracelets, the remaining monsters became smarter. They no longer insisted on killing Zhou Qi’an, but tried to form an encirclement for a joint strangulation.
Zhou Qi’an didn’t linger in the fight either. After hearing the noise outside, he changed his hair color and ran out of the ward wearing a nurse’s uniform.
They split into two groups. The shadow took the bracelets and led away some of the flesh mound monsters, while Zhou Qi’an was chased by the other part.
The chaos attracted several doctors on duty further ahead.
The flesh mound monsters were crawling in different directions, looking like they were scattering and escaping.
A doctor asked ferociously, “What’s going on?”
Having been smoked by the stinking meat for so long, Zhou Qi’an’s voice was even more distorted. He answered irrelevantly, “The operating room is on fire, there’s a problem with the patient inside… They’re putting out the fire, they asked me to find Dr. Sha who is on rounds.”
Using his last name made it sound like they were familiar.
The several doctors on duty didn’t have time to think about the logic and subconsciously went to capture the flesh mound monsters first.
Zhou Qi’an smoothly continued to rush forward, muttering, “Everyone’s getting busy…”
It’s good that they’re busy.
The corner of his mouth under the mask curled up. Zhou Qi’an quickly passed the doctor’s office, directly skipped the infectious disease ward, and headed towards the more distant testing lab and pharmacy.
——
“A fire broke out in the operating room due to a circuit failure. The patient’s corpse tag has been melted. Please do not panic.”
Having been with Zhou Qi’an for a long time, Shen Zhiyi did a thorough job. When he removed the corpse tag, he specifically left a burnt mark on Poison Dragon.
As expected, no one had discovered the discrepancy yet. The broadcast repeatedly played the reminder.
Somewhere on the tenth floor, a pair of naturally red and cruel rabbit eyes opened, a strange light appearing in their greedy depths.
“A fire…”
Mr. Si’s rabbit ears instantly perked up. He was now very sensitive to this word.
How could a fire break out for no reason?
After a short while, the broadcast repeated again:
“A large number of inpatient bracelets from the Clinical Nutrition Department have been lost. Anyone who finds them, please return them to the information desk immediately.”
“A large number of inpatient bracelets from the Clinical Nutrition Department have been lost. Anyone who finds them, please return them to the information desk immediately!”
“A large number… lost…” The light in Mr. Si’s eyes turned into flames. “Such a strong sense of theft.”
So strong it feels like déjà vu.
Just as he was immersed in the familiar scene, in the distance, a rush of footsteps came. Mr. Si suppressed all his emotions and quietly watched the direction the footsteps were coming from.
On the other side, Zhou Qi’an and Shen Zhiyi successfully met up.
The testing lab and the pharmacy were on the left and right respectively. Each side had an outer door, and no one knew what would be behind them.
The floral fragrance from the testing lab was extremely strong. The pharmacy, on the other hand, was like being soaked in endless darkness, the terrifyingly low temperature confirming the rampant sinister energy.
Two places, both clearly dangerous to enter.
[Greenhouse] literally felt like a warm place, but there was no time for trial and error now.
“Descend, my goddess of luck.”
Without wasting any time, Zhou Qi’an decisively used the lucky item Zhang Zhuzi had given him, which could boost his luck value by eighteen percent!
He really didn’t dare to use the other twenty-eight percent one.
Successfully activating the lucky item, Zhou Qi’an looked at Shen Zhiyi, his confidence from the morgue seemingly returned. “Let’s go. I’ll take you on a wide, open road.”
What the greenhouse was like inside was an unknown. With the lucky item, at least he could gain an advantage at the start.
Shen Zhiyi was a brainless fan. He nodded, “Okay.”
Zhou Qi’an strode forward, played a quick game of “eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” and finally pushed open the outer door of the pharmacy.
To prevent Mr. Si from not being drawn away by the commotion, he quickly straightened his nurse’s uniform, pulled his mask almost up to his tear troughs, and slightly hunched his back to ensure the other couldn’t see his face clearly at first glance.
Mr. Si was an unsolvable problem in this game.
As long as he was still here, it was impossible to avoid him.
Fortunately, the staff’s intervention in the instance was limited. This was why Zhou Qi’an had to create a commotion. Even if Mr. Si was roaring like a rabbit now, with the chaos outside, no one would notice immediately.
Speak of the devil. A huge shadow stood in front of them.
Zhou Qi’an took a deep breath, about to speak and use his nurse identity to stall for time as much as possible. But before his lips could even move, the source of the shadow itself jumped up. “It’s you!”
Even if he were turned to ash, Mr. Si would recognize this beast at a glance!
Under the dim light, Zhou Qi’an looked up and met a pair of fierce rabbit eyes.
“…”
Before Zhou Qi’an looked up, all that was visible was the top of a nurse’s cap.
Are you sick!
You can recognize me even like this?
Mr. Si’s profession was consistent: being a stone sculpture.
The moment he looked up, besides the Mr. Si sculpture on the left, Zhou Qi’an’s focus was on another stone sculpture. It was more like a miniature lion bought from Pinduoduo.
However, the stone sculpture was not a traditional stone lion, but a male elephant seal.
“It’s exactly the same as the one in the hospital.”
Warding-off-evil things always come in pairs. With one missing, it was reasonable for Mr. Si to take its place.
After all materials were brought into reality, their energy, material, and color would change. When he saw it at Heshengkang Hospital, Zhou Qi’an didn’t have any special feeling. But this one, he immediately noticed something was wrong.
Having seen his fair share of remains in the instance, the material of the elephant seal sculpture was clearly a single large skeleton.
“You dare to show your face again?” After the initial shock, Mr. Si’s smile turned sinister.
…Damn thief.
Hearing this, Zhou Qi’an’s eyes narrowed slightly. Mr. Si obediently guarding this small plot of land must mean something.
“Such a strong sense of theft.”
He felt from the other a familiar obsession to take something away.
As for a thief, Zhou Qi’an didn’t care about its purpose. He was only concerned about the door behind Mr. Si.
This was a door of mixed colors. Red, pink, white… the colors gradually blended and intertwined, echoing the various colored cyclamen carvings on the side wall.
The door was not locked. Mr. Si was the best lock.
Now, he had to find a way to push open this unlocked door.
__
Author’s Note:
Mr. Si: Thief, back off, back off, back off!
Zhou Qi’an: Robber, ptui ptui ptui
