Kamui knew he was being watched.
He had seen the same face three times near the hospital’s Inpatient Department.
A middle-aged man wearing a gray jacket.
The first time was at the bus stop at the hospital’s main entrance.
The second time was in the convenience store on the first floor of the Inpatient Department.
The third time was next to the fire escape at the end of the third-floor corridor.
The same person, three different locations, within three days.
Kamui had been boxing his whole life; his observational skills were trained.
An opponent’s gaze, footwork, and shift in center of gravity—these details determined life and death in the ring, and they worked just as well outside of it.
The way that man in the gray jacket looked at him was wrong.
It was that kind of look that deliberately feigned indifference but kept its gaze fixed on a specific target.
Police.
Kamui sat in his daughter’s hospital room for the whole afternoon.
He held an apple in his hand, but he hadn’t peeled it from start to finish.
“Daddy, why aren’t you eating your apple?”
Pomona leaned halfway out of the hospital bed, tilting her head to look at him.
“It hasn’t been washed yet.”
“Then go wash it.”
Kamui smiled, took the apple, and went to the bathroom.
He stood in front of the sink for a moment, the water rushing, as he looked at his own face in the mirror.
He had lost quite a bit of weight, but his energy was better than before.
His right shoulder and right knee had completely healed, and his strength had returned, even exceeding what it was before the injury by more than a level.
All of this was because of that thing inside his body.
He washed the apple, cut it into small pieces with a fruit knife, and brought it back to feed his daughter.
Pomona ate the apple while telling him the story the nurse had told her today.
Kamui listened until his daughter finished the apple and started to doze off.
He tucked her in and stood up to walk over to the window.
From the third-floor window, he could see the Inpatient Department’s parking lot and the road at the main entrance.
At the bus stop across the road, that gray jacket appeared again.
Kamui watched him for ten seconds.
If he were arrested, what would happen to his daughter?
The surgery fees still hadn’t been raised.
Kamui reached into his pants pocket, and a familiar warmth spread through his palm.
He made a decision.
Leave.
Take his daughter and leave together.
Leave this city, go to a place where no one knew him, find a hospital that could perform the surgery, and figure out a way to raise the money.
No matter what it took.
Kamui walked to the nurses’ station and told the nurse on duty that he wanted to transfer his daughter to another hospital.
The nurse flipped through the records.
“Mr. Pom, Yueran’s condition is not suitable for a transfer at the moment; Dr. Wang previously said to wait until this course of treatment is finished.”
“I know, but some circumstances have changed.”
“Why don’t you talk to Dr. Wang? He has outpatient hours tomorrow morning.”
“There’s no time.”
The nurse glanced at him.
“Then you need to go through the formal discharge process and settle the fees.”
“How much?”
“Let me check.”
The nurse tapped on the keyboard a few times.
“As of today, the outstanding fees are twelve thousand eight hundred.”
Kamui took his phone out of his pocket and opened his banking app.
The balance was four thousand seven hundred.
He was short over eight thousand.
He put his phone back in his pocket.
“Can I come settle it first thing tomorrow morning?”
“Yes, but the paperwork must be completed by the day after tomorrow at the latest.”
“Okay.”
Kamui returned to the room, sat on the folding bed, and watched his daughter’s sleeping face, his fingers interlaced, clenching them tighter joint by joint.
Eight thousand.
For him now, it wasn’t a large sum.
Searching those people in the nightclub would be more than enough.
But that meant committing another offense.
Every time he committed an offense, the risk of being discovered increased.
Kamui lowered his head, his forehead resting on his interlaced fingers.
But Kamui knew it was waiting.
Waiting for him to speak.
At two in the morning, Kamui left the hospital.
He was wearing that gray cotton-padded jacket, walking on the empty road, the streetlights stretching his shadow long.
He walked into a small alley.
Deep in the alley was a row of tin sheds, which were the warehouse for a nearby scrap recycling station.
Kamui walked up to one of the sheds, looked left and right, and confirmed no one was following him.
When he withdrew his gaze, a thin layer of gray had already appeared on the back of his left hand.
Five minutes later, he came out of the shed.
In his hand was a wad of crumpled banknotes, probably a little over ten thousand.
The safe left in the shed by the scrap station owner had been ripped open halfway.
Kamui stuffed the money into the inside pocket of his cotton-padded jacket and walked back to the hospital step by step.
Early the next morning.
The door to the ward was pushed open.
Vansin walked in with two plainclothes officers.
Kamui was sitting by his daughter’s hospital bed, holding a bowl of porridge, his spoon frozen in mid-air.
Vansin stood at the doorway of the ward, with the two plainclothes officers standing on his left and right.
Pomona was startled and leaned into Kamui’s arms.
“Daddy, who are they?”
Kamui placed the bowl of porridge on the nightstand and gently patted his daughter’s back with his right hand.
“It’s okay, they’re Daddy’s friends.”
Vansin looked at Kamui.
The two of them locked eyes for three seconds.
“Comrade Kamui.”
Vansin spoke, his voice not loud.
“I am Vansin from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment, and there are some matters we need you to cooperate with us to clarify.”
“What matters?”
“On the night of March 7th, a violent attack occurred at the Debiao Club in the southern part of the city, and someone has identified you as being involved in this case.”
Kamui did not speak.
His left hand hung naturally at his side, his fingers slightly curled.
The temperature in his palm began to rise.
Vansin noticed his hand.
The atmosphere tightened in an instant.