Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
Clang.
Sun Zheng’s hand was still in the gesture of reaching out to touch something, and the light of the flashlight was illuminating the empty ground directly in front of him.
His fingers twitched subconsciously, as if he still couldn’t believe that the clear sense of touch he’d just experienced had completely disappeared again.
The scene before him was so familiar.
The silent hallway, the claustrophobic space, the cold numbness that penetrated his limbs.
There was a voice in his head that told him that this was the corridor on the third floor. It was instinctual, and he didn’t doubt it.
It was as if something had silently penetrated into his brain and heart, and that black mist enveloping the hospital building would gradually also cover his whole body.
Behind him must be Operating Room (4).
Creak.
The sound came from behind him. His thoughts stuttered to a halt.
The light from the flashlight shook.
Was that the sound of the door to the operating room opening?
He clenched his fists. There was a burst of cold air behind him. The door wasn’t locked? The door opened? Who opened it? What opened it?
His body is stiff, back facing the door which might be open right now. All the thoughts in his head went around in countless circles, but ended up frazzling out from fear.
There was no wind and no voice, yet the door opened? No, maybe that sound wasn’t the door, but something else?
How can that be? No, ever since he came in here, was there anything that even remotely followed logic?
Before he knew it, he started holding his breath.
He turned his feet, shuffling them in another direction. His eyes were nearly screwed tight, his body as stiff as a man facing execution. He spun around, facing the door.
Two doors, one closed, one opened.
Yet the darkness behind them was the same.
The half-open door was like an invitation. Thinking of this, Sun Zheng took an involuntary step back. Images leaped into his mind. He covered his head, took three or five more steps back, tripped, and even dropped the flashlight on the ground.
He let out a groan mixed with fear and pain. He fumbled for the flashlight, stumbled, and hurriedly fled towards the direction of the stairs in his memory.
.
“Sun Zheng!!!”
“Zheng!!!”
Lu Xia yelled hoarsely.
He even wished that his voice could penetrate every corner of the hospital, then Sun Zheng would come running over.
Lu Xia was bracing himself against the wall, dripping with sweat. He didn’t even know how he managed to grope his way out of the laboratory.
At that time, Sun Zheng had gaped at him with completely wide eyes. His expression was imprinted so deeply in his memory, Lu Xia could almost see it before his eyes again.
How did he disappear?
He was holding Sun Zheng so tightly… he didn’t let go, and there was no force dragging Sun Zheng away…
After that, he searched all over his body, the ceiling, the floor, but there was no sign of Sun Zheng as well as any traces of that ‘thing’ either.
Was it a hallucination?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Their struggle here was akin to the struggle of a fly trapped in a spiderweb; their ending would be the same.
He lowered his hand, caressing his leg.
Burn? Since it’ll all be the same…
He continued staggering down the corridor. Sun Zheng–he suddenly had a premonition that Sun Zheng was on the third floor.
.
Two swaying shadows appeared on the wall, illuminated by a dim yellow light. They suddenly bumped into each other, paused, looking as if the shadows on the wall were a part of a black and white silent film.
“Zheng?!”
“Lu Xia?!”
The light from the flashlight shook violently, and the shadows on the wall went blurry, out of focus.
Then, the light suddenly disappeared, and the surroundings returned to complete darkness and utter silence.
Sun Zheng felt a pair of arms wrap around him, hugging him tightly. It was like he was a fish being taken out of water: the more he struggled, the more suffocated he felt.
“Too tight… Lu Xia!” he let out a stifled voice.
“I…” Lu Xia immediately let go of Sun Zheng, then said with a hoarse voice.”I was so worried about you…”
Sun Zheng stretched out his hand to push Lu Xia away, but suddenly stopped himself and put his hand back down. “Nothing… nothing happened.”
His voice was laced with tiredness. Lu Xia faintly felt his unease, but Sun Zheng had already averted his face and lowered his head to stare at the ground.
“How could you say nothing happened?!” Lu Xia pulled Sun Zheng back.
Sun Zheng continued keeping his face averted, but he began moving his legs. After a while, he said, “Lu Xia, whenever I see you, I–I remember…”
Lu Xia’s expression froze, and shifted in understanding.
“I see. You don’t need to look at me when we talk…” He lowered his tone as much as possible. Only God knew the hairs on his back were standing on end.
He had no way of knowing what Sun Zheng saw when he disappeared, but everything was telling him that Sun Zheng was trying not to think about it. He didn’t dare to think about it. He suppressed all his conjectures, pretended not to know, pretended that nothing happened to him.
Was it him?
He couldn’t help searching every doubtful point on his body. Why? Did he find out that there was something wrong about him?
Subconsciously, he touched his leg again.
“I can stay away from you too.” Realising that Sun Zheng was silent, Lu Xia pretended to speak relaxedly, and jumped a step to the side.
“No, no need,” Sun Zheng immediately raised his head and waved his hand.
Lu Xia still kept a certain distance, merely leaning over to ask, “You didn’t encounter any danger, did you?”
“No… No, I…” Sun Zheng’s voice held a sliver of hesitation. He held his head. “I’m still a little overwhelmed. Give me some peace. ”
Lu Xia really kept quiet.
The two walked very slowly, as if they were taking a walk. Though they knew that anything could appear in the corridor and the only place where they could find answers wasn’t too far away, they subconsciously didn’t want to approach that place.
Lu Xia could almost hear his own heartbeat. He was anxious and nervous about something.
Sun Zheng’s safe return actually didn’t make him relax at all.
Sooner or later, he would find out…the problem with him…
Would there be more problems coming up? That situation he’d encountered was definitely not accidental. What will happen to him from now on?
Just as he was thinking about this, Sun Zheng came to a sudden stop.
Lu Xia felt as if his heart was about to jump out.
Sun Zheng turned his head slowly, and he could see a strange look on his face.
“Lu Xia…” There was a tremor in his voice.
“What–What’s the matter?” Lu Xia stammered unnaturally.
Sun Zheng grabbed his hand. “Your feet, your feet, what’s the matter?”
For the first time ever, Lu Xia felt the urge to break free from Sun Zheng’s hold. He took a step back.
Yes. After walking such a long distance, the distraught Sun Zheng finally realised something was wrong. Lu Xia was walking, his legs were walking normally and naturally. He also remembered Lu Xia jumping away from him earlier too.
He stared at Lu Xia, suppressing the trace of fear in his heart.
“Are…Are you still Lu Xia?” He didn’t expect that he would really ask that.
Lu Xia laughed. “Are your brains scrambled by fright, who else can I be?”
Sun Zheng noticed that Lu Xia’s hand was holding onto his trouser leg.
“Let me see your foot,” he said stubbornly, frowning.
Lu Xia laughed again. “Burn wounds are ugly.”
Sun Zheng raised his brows. “Is it really a burn?”
Lu Xia looked at him, then suddenly sighed. He slowly pulled up the hem of his trousers.
Sun Zheng’s expression froze. He looked at the leg and felt suffocated.
“When I came out of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it was awfully painful. I thought it was a burn then.” Lu Xia’s expression did not change, “But after we came out of the archives, I began to notice that this leg was recovering. There was sensation in it again, but something about it felt weird. It didn’t feel like it was part of me, but more like I was manipulating it. The way it walks on the ground, the way the air feels around it, nothing was the same as before. I never have had this feeling…”
“You can walk?”
“Yes.” Lu Xia’s expression was one of an internal struggle. “But, I refuse to walk using it. I would’ve rather actually burned my leg and not been able to walk, until you disappeared just now, then I had no choice but to…”
“Could it be because you came into contact with those…those things?”
“I think so too. When I was in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I had too much contact with them. It’s like a viral infection. Sun Zheng, I might… I might be slowly turning into them.”
“Impossible!” Sun Zheng immediately denied it loudly.
“I can accept it,” Lu Xia resumed his usual smile. “Even I can accept this fate, so why can’t you?”
He paused, then continued to laugh. “Besides, you don’t need to carry a weight on you from now on. Don’t you feel more at ease? Then when I completely turn into one of their kind, I’ll be a spy and secretly bring you out of here.”
Sun Zheng furrowed his brows. “What nonsense are you saying!”
He’s here making dumb jokes that only he finds funny, Sun Zheng grouched angrily in his heart.
“Come over,” he called Lu Xia angrily.
“What?” Lu Xia looked at Sun Zheng’s outstretched hand, not understanding.
“I’ll support you,” Sun Zheng volunteered, although it was very arduous and difficult to carry the weight of half the way back on himself.
Lu Xia chuckled and conceded. “Alright. But don’t push yourself too hard, Talented Scholar Mr. Sun.”
Sun Zheng’s initial fright was relieved a lot, and most of the reason could be attributed to this leg. That’s what Lu Xia thought as he lowered the hem of his trousers again.
Within a few steps, the door of the laboratory appeared in front of them again.
Sun Zheng’s footsteps paused. Lu Xia breathed lightly on his shoulder and said, “For the second army march, only success is allowed, and failure is not tolerated.”
Sun Zheng glanced at him and strode in.
Lu Xia hobbled along, but the smile gradually faded from his face.
If he discovered that the appearance of that thing had something to do with him, then should he stay away from Sun Zheng?
AS he was considering this, Sun Zheng was also subconsciously stroking the black handprint on his wrist.
With extreme vigilance, the two scanned the entire hall with their flashlights, and after making sure nothing strange appeared, they glanced at each other.
“Let’s split up. The waiting area of this laboratory is quite big.” Sun Zheng suggested.
Lu Xia turned to him. “You…”
“I’ll go around this side of the hall to look for that pot of Chlorophytum, you go around that side, and we meet at the opposite side,” Sun Zheng suggested nonchalantly.
Fear and psychological shadows are not so easily overcome. Though Lu Xia knew that Sun Zheng was pretending to be strong, he had no reason to stop him.
He had no choice but to nod silently in agreement.
Sun Zheng suddenly thought of something again and asked, “Even if we did find the pot of Chlorophytum, what should we do with it? Don’t tell me your brother put the tapes in it?”
Lu Xia shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Sun Zheng glared at him. This damn guy confidently told him they had to come here but he didn’t even know where the clues were.
“We have no choice but to take one step at a time!” Lu Xia spread his arms.
Well, this guy had always been flippant like that.
Sun Zheng poured out his dissatisfaction with Lu Xia in his heart, then began to search from the left corner.
When he glanced around just now, he noticed that under the two pillars of the waiting area, there were plants in three of the four corners. He didn’t look too closely, but there seemed to be Chlorophytum amongst them.
He pursed his lips, not daring to make a sound. Though he suggested investigating separately and the two of them were in the same hall with a distance of only three or four metres between them, this was still a place where they had encountered… that kind of thing just now…
However, for him now, facing Lu Xia, holding Lu Xia close like just now, was something that made his heart tremble more.
This world, it wanted to isolate him from everything.
He felt his scalp go numb and his limbs turn cold. He tried his best to keep his eyes from wandering around. The psychological shadow he had made him want to glance up at the ceiling, but he forced his raised lids down.
Concentrate, Sun Zheng… Don’t think about nonsense…
Finally, when he reached the first corner, he almost let out a deep exhale.
The flashlight shone on the potted plant in the corner. It was not Chlorophytum.
He then continued to walk along the wall.
Crack..
He heard a soft sound, which seemed to come from under his feet.
Sun Zheng looked down. A floor tile he stepped on had broken.
He stroked his chest lightly. He almost cried out involuntarily because he was too frantic. He couldn’t help but sweep the flashlight across his surroundings again. Behind him were the glass panels of the laboratory counters. It was gloomy, and he couldn’t see through the glass panel.
A rustling sound came from there, and he could see a flashlight moving in there.
He suddenly felt relieved.
Thanks for the chapter!!
i probably shouldn’t read this at night….
Thank you for the chapter~~