The words had barely left his mouth when the lasso around Lu Chuan’s neck suddenly cinched tight!
Behind him, Qin Guan had somehow already slipped out from under the bed. He dropped silently from midair like a withered leaf and clung desperately to Lu Chuan’s back, his waist arched as he used all his strength to pull the rope tight.
It was the restraint strap he had taken from the ward, normally used to restrain patients with unstable mental states. It was exceptionally sturdy.
“Cough… hhh…”
The sudden attack caught Lu Chuan off guard. He reached behind him, trying to tear the other man off.
But his overly developed muscles limited his movement to a certain degree. No matter how hard Lu Chuan struggled, Qin Guan remained pressed tightly against his back, like a nimble big cat, skillfully adjusting his center of gravity and leverage points.
While keeping himself fixed in an absolute blind spot, he gradually tightened the noose around the other man’s neck.
There should be a limit to coming back to life over and over.
Qin Guan’s face was cold as ice. He glanced emotionlessly at the chainsaw nearby.
If he strangled this bastard unconscious and then sawed him into minced meat… could he still come back to life?
He was genuinely curious.
Under him, Lu Chuan seemed to have guessed what he was thinking and let out a low laugh, his voice carrying a strangely delighted exhilaration.
Through several layers of clothing, Qin Guan could even feel the dull vibrations coming from his chest and the sound of hot blood surging through his veins.
“You think… that can kill me…” he rasped.
The man, following his previous posture, picked up a small broken blade fragment from the floor and then, without the slightest hesitation, slit open his own throat!
This was a very crude tracheotomy, usually used in surgery or first aid.
When a patient fell into a critical situation where the trachea was completely blocked and they could no longer breathe on their own, doctors would often choose to bypass the blockage and cut directly into the trachea, creating a temporary open airway to let air pass through.
Lu Chuan’s slash was crude, but the effect was immediate.
The muscles in his body, rigid from suffocation, relaxed at once, and he even seemed somewhat at ease.
At that moment, there happened to be a small mirror in front of them. Through its surface, Qin Guan accidentally met Lu Chuan’s eyes.
The corners of the man’s mouth lifted, and he bared several sharp canine teeth in a taunting smile.
Qin Guan’s pupils shrank suddenly.
The next second, Lu Chuan threw himself backward. His body bent in an almost impossible arc and slammed straight into the railing on one side!
Qin Guan had no time to dodge. His whole body crashed heavily into the railing, and he immediately coughed up a mouthful of bloody sweetness. His body rolled to the ground uncontrollably.
“Cough, cough…”
Amid the wreckage strewn across the floor, he forced himself up and quickly tested each part of his body with small movements.
His ribs were definitely broken. The shattered bone might have stabbed into his organs, but his limbs were still fine…
In front of him, Lu Chuan adjusted his collar, casually tore off the lasso, and stood there with complete composure.
After slightly moving his neck, the knife wound began healing at an astonishing speed. By the end, not even a trace was left. Only a large patch of dark blood remained on his collar, adding a darker, more sinister edge to that outrageously handsome face.
Looking down at Qin Guan on the ground, the man assessed him, “You’re very naughty.”
“Maybe we need more time to help you slowly break those bad habits.”
Qin Guan wiped the blood from the corner of his lips and reached for the scalpel that had fallen nearby, but Lu Chuan stepped on his palm without hesitation and crushed it hard several times.
“Mm…!!”
The pain was searing. Qin Guan clenched his teeth, refusing to make a sound. With his other hand, he finally got hold of the scalpel and, using all his strength, slashed viciously at the man’s ankle!
Blood burst out. The blow severed the man’s Achilles tendon outright. As Lu Chuan let out a muffled groan, the pressure on Qin Guan’s hand immediately weakened, and Qin Guan seized the chance to pull his hand free and put distance between them.
On the ring finger of his right hand, the two plain band rings were still tightly worn together. One was badly scratched and worn, with faint burn marks on its surface, while the other remained intact, clean, and as new.
After brushing the dust from the ring, Qin Guan’s gaze at the man turned even colder.
He absolutely could not die here.
Right behind the man happened to be the pile of discarded medical equipment. Among it, a broken IV pole stood leaning at an angle, exposing a long, sharp tip.
Taking advantage of the fact that the wound on the man’s foot had not yet healed, Qin Guan lunged forward, betting even himself, and used his body weight to shove the man backward!
Clink, clink, clink…
By his ear, the three jet-black cartilage studs lightly knocked together with his movement, making a clear sound.
“Splurt…”
The sound of flesh being pierced was unmistakable. That long, sharp IV pole ran straight through Lu Chuan’s body, then narrowly grazed Qin Guan’s cheek as it burst out the other side. Blood splashed across Qin Guan’s pale face like plum blossoms on snow.
Qin Guan staggered to his feet, his breathing still uneven.
On the other side, the man was clearly in disbelief. Thick gushes of blood coughed out of his mouth. He lowered his head to look at the IV pole in front of him and struggled to reach out and pull it free, but unfortunately the pole was deeply wedged in the pile of clutter and could not be moved at all.
Finally, after struggling for a long time, the light in Lu Chuan’s eyes at last faded away.
Clang…
Qin Guan let out a long breath as if all his strength had left him. Looking down, he only then realized that the scalpel he had been gripping so tightly had already fallen to the ground, and his hand was trembling uncontrollably.
Only then did he feel the darkness gathering at the edges of his vision, and his steps began to sway and falter.
“Hold on a little longer…”
Looking at Lu Chuan’s gruesomely mangled corpse, he closed his eyes and murmured, his tone filled with exhaustion he could no longer suppress.
“I have to get out alive…”
He had to get out alive.
He gritted his teeth and grabbed the chainsaw beside him.
Only if he stayed alive could he find clues about that person.
Ring ring ring ring…
But right at that moment, an extremely shrill alarm suddenly sounded from the corridor outside, and a sharp mechanical female voice kept repeating over the loudspeaker.
“A malicious incident has occurred in the ward area! Nurses on duty, report immediately!”
“Repeat! A malicious incident has occurred in the ward area! Nurses on duty, report immediately!”
As the mechanical voice rang out, the nurse corpses piled up throughout the corridor suddenly swayed and stood, as if they had come to life.
In the earlier instance, they had been torn apart by the frenzied Lu Chuan. Some had arms severed, some had heads missing, and some had both legs cut off and lost all ability to move.
But now, whether it was the relatively intact bodies or the severed limbs and scattered flesh, as long as they had once belonged to “nurses” and had been part of their bodies, they all swayed to their feet now. Walking, staggering, twisting, or crawling, they moved in unison toward the ward where Qin Guan was located.
They had no independent consciousness and were only driven forward by the instance’s instinct.
Hundreds of corpses gathered together, whispering, echoing through the corridor like a bizarre, monotonous chorus.
“Bad child, bad child, bad child…”