The doctor stayed.
But when You Li opened his eyes, he was met with the clown’s suddenly cold gaze.
He instinctively held his breath, afraid that the scene from last time would repeat itself.
For a moment, he almost thought that what had splashed across his face wasn’t hot milk, but the blood from before.
The white milk dripped from beneath his trembling eyelashes, soaking his face and nose, making him look as though he were about to cry from fright.
You Li could hear the clown’s breathing deepen.
He didn’t dare move, but his fingers, still tightly clenched around the doctor’s clothes, showed no sign of loosening.
The clown’s hand, gripping the glass, was taut, veins bulging beneath the skin, yet he maintained that position without moving.
The words You Li had spoken to the clown seemed to have had some effect.
The thought had barely crossed his mind when, in the next second, his eyes widened in fright and he instinctively turned his face away, trying to hide.
The glass shattered.
You Li immediately dodged, but even then, he remembered not to release his grip on the doctor’s clothes.
When he opened his eyes, he discovered that the clown had covered all the broken glass with a pillow.
The movement had been so fast that he couldn’t see it clearly.
Even so, it didn’t stop the milk from splashing all over the clown.
The clown straightened up and threw the broken glass onto the floor. He also removed his soaked white coat and tossed it aside.
You Li hugged the pillow blankly, staring fearfully and helplessly at the blood running down the clown’s palm.
The clown’s body had always been cold.
Only now did You Li vaguely realize that the other person’s blood should be warm, just like a human’s.
He watched as the clown removed his clean suit jacket.
In the clown’s hands, the jacket looked almost like a child’s garment, large enough to cover You Li completely.
The clown lowered his eyes coldly and wrapped the black suit tightly around his injured hand.
If not for his tall, slender figure and the blood dripping onto the floor, he could easily have been described as a thug in a suit.
“Look up.”
You Li subconsciously obeyed, lifting his milk-stained face from behind the pillow.
Before he could react, the doctor, the person whose clothes he was still clutching, stepped forward and wiped the mess from his face.
The clown kicked open the door and left without a word.
Just as You Li was about to speak, the doctor wiped his lips with a handkerchief.
A second later, all You Li could see was the ward door closing again.
He had wanted to keep both dungeon bosses with him.
That would greatly reduce the pressure on the other side, allowing him to deal only with the other red-eyed NPCs.
But it seemed he had angered the clown.
Only then did You Li belatedly realize that he might have gone too far.
Perhaps what he was doing really was a little wrong.
He didn’t know why he was receiving such special treatment in this instance, nor what connection he had with the boss.
But taking advantage of someone else’s feelings like this… did seem a little wrong.
Yet You Li only wanted to clear the instance and leave this place.
He had no attachment to it whatsoever.
Therefore, everything could be used to his advantage.
You Li quietly closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and waited for the doctor to wipe his face, deliberately trying to prolong the process.
But when it was finally over, he opened his eyes and met the doctor’s gaze.
The doctor was looking down at him.
A single glance, completely devoid of emotion.
Yet somehow, it seemed to affect his entire being.
As though the doctor had seen through everything.
All his little thoughts.
All his little schemes.
You Li subconsciously lowered his eyes uneasily as he watched the doctor’s gloved hand reach for the buttons of his hospital gown.
His gown was completely soaked.
The doctor asked, “Just a quick wipe? Or do you need me to help you bathe?”
You Li looked down at his legs.
“Can I wash myself? I won’t be unable to stand.”
After saying that, he remembered his task of stalling for time.
After a long pause, he finally managed to add, “The doctor can just watch from the side, like before.”
The boy sat on the edge of the hospital bed, his face still bearing traces of dried milk. A small amount of milk had collected from his neck to his collarbone before slowly dripping down.
He tilted his head back, his bewildered eyes seemingly oblivious.
He was completely unaware of how inappropriate and ambiguous his request sounded, and had actually taken the initiative to invite someone to watch him bathe.
He didn’t realize that this time, the meaning was different from the nominal assistance and ward rounds of before.
This time, he had invited the doctor himself.
It wasn’t until You Li turned his back to the doctor, removed his clothes, and stood beneath the hot shower that he carefully rinsed his body with water, even using a hot towel to wipe his face.
Then he turned around.
The clown seemed to have calmed down.
He was leaning against the ward door with his arms crossed, watching him.
Only then did You Li suddenly feel disoriented.
The doctor was also looking at him.
You Li stared at the wide-open ward door behind the clown, his fingers almost crumpling the hot towel into a ball.
Although he knew no one would dare pass by, he still whispered,
“Could you close the door?”
This made it seem as though he were doing something extremely impolite.
For some inexplicable reason, it gave the impression that the door was wide open and anyone could simply barge in, as though he were openly inviting them inside.
The system sneered in his mind, as if mocking him for only realizing now how foolish and inappropriate this method was.
You Li belatedly realized that there seemed to be three people watching him.
He stood somewhat dazed beneath the hot water, the water flowing down in curved streams before dripping from his thin, pale, scalded ankles onto the floor.
“Can you please stop looking at me?”
You Li thought helplessly.
The system gave another cold laugh.
“Where are the others?”
You Li said, “Although the doctor is the dungeon boss, he has never done anything to me that violates professional ethics.”
Aside from treating the dead, the doctor was almost more dedicated than a caregiver in some respects.
Meanwhile, another dungeon boss had already kicked the door open and was cleaning up the broken glass scattered across the floor.
The system ignored him.
You Li slowly came back to his senses and realized that the doctor had entered at some point, closing the safe distance that had originally existed between them.
He subconsciously took half a step back.
The doctor removed his gloves.
“Have you been inside the examination room?”
You Li widened his eyes and swallowed hard.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The doctor continued, “Weren’t you looking for clues in my examination room?”
He calmly placed his gloves on the sink before entering the bathroom.
“Did you find anything?”
“Or is there simply not enough time?”
You Li quickly shrank into a corner.
“No.”
He offered a futile resistance, but there was nowhere left for him to retreat.
The doctor stopped in front of him.
“No need to do anything else.”
“Anything else to buy that player some time?”
He asked, “Do you need me to give it to you?”
You Li couldn’t help looking toward the clown outside.
But the clown had his back turned to him, as though he hadn’t heard anything. He was treating the wound on his hand with the medicine he had just brought back.
Bandages were wrapped around his injured hand again and again. Even with only his back and movements visible, he still carried an air of careless nonchalance.
“Stand up straight. Why are you squatting down?”
You Li wanted to curl himself into the corner, but the doctor’s words stopped him.
The doctor asked, seemingly out of consideration, “Don’t you want to delay things any longer?”
You Li shook his head, then nodded.
He had practically created this predicament himself, trapping himself in this awkward limbo.
The doctor continued questioning him.
Then he sighed and asked in return, “Did I give you the impression that I’m easy to fool?”
You Li, who had always thought so, shook his head desperately.
He had taken advantage of the doctor the first time and tried to do it again the second time.
He hadn’t expected that he wouldn’t even be allowed to do it a third time, and had instead been forced into a corner to reflect on his actions.
The doctor repeated, “You have to pay the price for whatever you want to gain. Do you think I’m right?”
You Li hugged the useless hot towel and curled up like a mushroom in the corner, his lips tightly pursed as he refused to say anything.
The doctor bent down.
You Li squeezed his equally cold fingers between his tightly pressed thighs. He frantically tried to push the doctor’s hand away, all ten fingers gripping the man’s wrist tightly, the hard edge of the wristwatch pressing against his fingertips.
The doctor asked, “What tests do you need?”
Seeing that You Li didn’t answer, he paused before continuing.
“Is there something you can’t tell me directly? Something that makes you feel you have to lie to me?”
Disobedient.
You Li was forced to tears.
He couldn’t stop the doctor’s hand and almost thought this was the doctor’s punishment for him.
Since he couldn’t explain the truth, he could only shake his head.
Breathing heavily in the humid heat, just before the doctor’s touch could reach him, You Li instinctively used his fingers and palms to block it, constantly pushing the doctor’s hand away from his leg.
Whenever he found an opening, he tried to squeeze out of the corner where he had been trapped, crawling beneath the doctor’s arms.
Unsurprisingly, he was dragged back into the doctor’s arms again.
The doctor deliberately gave him chances to escape.
Again and again, he let him go.
Yet at the last moment, he would forcefully pull You Li back.
Time and time again.
Countless times.
You Li finally couldn’t take it anymore and sobbed,
“The files… the hospital files.”
The moment he spoke, the torture-like punishment stopped.
The doctor picked him up from the floor.
“Good boy.”
You Li was soaking wet.
The doctor slowly dressed him and wiped away his tears, as though the interrogation had never really been about obtaining an answer from him, but about expressing dissatisfaction with his deception.
The whole thing had simply been a lesson.
He was teaching You Li to be honest.
The clown softened his tone and asked playfully,
“Are you still hungry, baby?”
You Li didn’t want to speak to anyone.
But when he remained silent, a piece of bread was still stuffed into his hand.
He heard someone say,
“Eat some, or I’ll feel bad if you get hungry.”
The statement was delivered in an exceptionally reasonable tone, because the clown had been acting as though no one else existed from the very beginning.
Simply watching.
In the end, hunger won.
You Li tore off a piece of bread and began eating slowly.
He lowered his head uneasily as he was carried out of the ward, occasionally glancing at the outside world.
Eventually, he found himself being taken to the examination room by the doctor himself.
The examination room was quiet.
There was no one else around.
Enough time had already passed for Chen Shuang to finish his investigation.
You Li was placed on a chair and stared blankly at the computer screen in front of him.
The computer was somewhat old, but it contained all the hospital’s data and information.
The doctor said, “There are three minutes left. After that, you’ll need to undergo your next treatment.”
You Li froze.
He didn’t dare move.
The doctor ignored him and merely glanced at his watch.
“The countdown begins.”
Only after You Li confirmed that the doctor was serious did he immediately pounce on the computer.
Three minutes was far too short.
Even if he could see the information, the chances of finding any useful clues were extremely slim.
He hadn’t even had time to figure out how to operate the system. He could only vaguely remember the procedures recorded in the files the doctor had shown him before.
Simply recalling the process and repeating it took a full minute.
Not to mention, how was he supposed to find a player’s file among the enormous number of patient records and NPC files already stored in the game?
Moreover, the players who had entered the instance in previous batches were complete strangers to him.
You Li clicked randomly through the records from top to bottom.
It was far too slow.
After another minute passed, he gradually realized that something was wrong.
There were one or two patient records here involving unnatural deaths, and those files were grayed out.
But that didn’t make sense.
Without exception, every player who died in the dungeon was killed by an NPC. Yet these dead patients weren’t declared dead by the hospital. Instead, they were given a different explanation.
Discharged from the hospital.
Before You Li could even fully process the words “unnatural death,” he heard the doctor say,
“One minute left.”
To save time, he could only try searching for the wards where the current players were staying and check whether players from previous batches had stayed there as well.
The first thing he searched for was his own ward number—13.
But when the interface appeared, strangely, there were only two patient records.
How was that possible?
He had already gone through this instance ten times. There was no way only one batch of players had entered the instance before him.
You Li clicked on the first record.
The interface that appeared was obviously his own.
Even the admission photograph was a clear picture of him.
The boy stared at the camera with his eyes half-closed.
It was useless.
There was no reference value whatsoever.
You Li exited the record and clicked on the next one.
The moment the interface appeared, he held his breath.
The admission photograph at the top was none other than himself.
He stared directly into the camera, his expression cold.
It was him.
But somehow, it didn’t seem like him.
You Li wanted to continue reading, but as he scrolled downward, all he could see was a large blank space.
There were no records.
No name.
No age.
No medical history.
Nothing.
The next second, he was lifted from the chair.
You Li twisted around unwillingly, refusing to give up, but all he could see was the doctor closing the documents.
His mind went completely blank.
So his intuition had been correct?
There really had been someone else living in this ward before him.
And only that person had lived there.
That person was the original occupant of the ward, and the sounds he had heard that night had simply been the sounds of that person moving around.
From beginning to end, You Li was the one who had arrived later.
He was the outsider in this ward.
Who was he?
You Li subconsciously looked at the clown holding him.
Could it be the clown?
Countless questions surfaced in his mind.
He wanted to ask the other person why he had also been a patient in this hospital.
Was he sick too?
What illness did he have?
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
✦ END OF CHAPTER ✦ BEGIN COFFEE NEGOTIATIONS ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · I have amnesia (1)Chapter 2 · I have amnesia (2)Chapter 3 · I have amnesia (3)Chapter 4 · I have amnesia (4)Chapter 5 · I have amnesia (5)Chapter 6 · I have amnesia (6)Chapter 7 · I have amnesia (7)Chapter 8 · I have amnesia (8)Chapter 9 · I have amnesia (9)Chapter 10 · I have amnesia (10)Chapter 11 · I have amnesia (11)Chapter 12 · I have amnesia (12)Chapter 13 · I have amnesia (14)Chapter 14 · I have amnesia (14)Chapter 15 · I have amnesia (15)Chapter 16 · I have amnesia (16)Chapter 17 · I have amnesia (17)Chapter 18 · I have amnesia (18)Chapter 19 · I have amnesia (19)Chapter 20 · I have amnesia (20)Chapter 21 · I have amnesia (21)Chapter 22 · I have amnesia (22)Chapter 23 · I have amnesia (23)Chapter 24 · I have amnesia (24)Chapter 25 · I have amnesia (25)Chapter 26 · I have amnesia (26)Chapter 27 · I have amnesia (27)Chapter 28 · I have amnesia (28)Chapter 29 · Desert Highway (1)Chapter 30 · Desert Highway (2)Chapter 31 · Desert Highway (3)Chapter 32 · Desert Highway (4)Chapter 33 · Desert Highway (5)Chapter 34 · Desert Highway (6)Chapter 35 · Desert Highway (7)Chapter 36 · Desert Highway (8)Chapter 37 · Desert Highway (9)Chapter 38 · Desert Highway (10)Chapter 39 · Desert Highway (11)Chapter 40 · Desert Highway (12)Chapter 41 · Desert Highway (13)Chapter 42 · Desert Highway (14)Chapter 43 · Desert Highway (15)