The nurse hugged the thermos and swayed her hips, leaving without looking back, leaving Jiang Yan and Li Yun staring at each other.
Li Yun glanced at the vegetables on Jiang Yan's plate—two meat dishes and one vegetable, richly nutritious. Though it looked light, it appeared very delicious and suitable for a patient.
Then he looked down at his own plate, which contained only boiled cabbage and a bowl of boiled cabbage soup. This bowl of soup, which had the scent of disinfectant, was obtained through the backdoor by Ding Wanyu, who was an "intern doctor."
At first, Li Yun was quite satisfied to have a bowl of boiled cabbage soup when he saw others drinking plain water that smelled of soil and disinfectant. But when he saw the food on Jiang Yan's plate...
[Shit… The difference is too big!]
[Is this the treatment of the director's son’s wife? I thought Ding Wanyu getting us an extra bowl of soup was already the limit.]
[This food… If you didn’t know better, you’d think Jiang Yan was in confinement!]
Everyone in the cafeteria was focused on their meals, shoveling the cabbage with a disinfectant taste into their mouths, filling the room with the sounds of swallowing and clinking bowls and chopsticks.
“Uh… Why don’t you have some too?” Jiang Yan awkwardly suggested to Li Yun.
It’s awkward for anyone to run into an ex. To be honest, Jiang Yan felt that he and Li Yun couldn’t even be considered exes; a more accurate description would be that he was the "third party."
When Li Yun proposed a relationship, he hadn’t broken up with the boy in the wheelchair.
By that logic, Jiang Yan had actually become a third party, and what puzzled him even more was that the boy knew about their relationship and even supported it?!
Jiang Yan still remembered the day he intended to break up with Li Yun, when the boy in the wheelchair looked at him with tear-filled blue eyes similar to his own: “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m dying soon; I hope you can take good care of him for me.”
Jiang Yan didn’t say anything and simply turned to leave.
He wasn’t a good person; he couldn’t do such a “good deed.”
To be frank, Jiang Yan didn’t think Li Yun was a bad person, but he was just a bit repulsive.
“I…” Li Yun held his tray with one hand and adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses with the other. “I didn’t expect you to be in the game too.”
“I didn’t expect it either,” Jiang Yan replied.
He then refused to engage with Li Yun any further, turning away to pick up his chopsticks and prepare to enjoy his dinner.
Even though they were exes, Jiang Yan was still quite pleased to see a familiar face in such a terrifying game, but that pleasure only lasted for a moment.
After all, he and Li Yun weren’t particularly close.
Seeing this, Li Yun sat down next to Jiang Yan.
As soon as he sat down, the hospital’s PA system started broadcasting. This time, it wasn’t the sweet female voice but rather a somewhat androgynous male voice:
“Please maintain your distance at all times, and any crossing of boundaries… will have consequences~”
The players all looked up, confused.
They could understand the need to keep their distance, considering there were many infected with the Black Death and tuberculosis in the hospital, but what did “crossing boundaries” mean?
How was crossing defined? What would the consequences be?
Not only was this rule ambiguous, but none of the rules stated so far had mentioned what the consequences were.
As Jiang Yan listened to the broadcast, the voice sounded vaguely familiar. He asked 663, “Does this sound familiar to you?”
663 replied nonchalantly, “Nope.”
Jiang Yan frowned, pondering for a moment. “Don’t you think this voice… sounds a lot like yours?”
663: “...It’s just your imagination.”
“Is it?” Jiang Yan felt it sounded more and more like 663, almost as if 663 were deliberately affecting a softer tone.
“It is,” 663 replied firmly.
Jiang Yan thought for a moment that he might be overly sensitive. After all, there were many people whose voices sounded alike, and the voice on the broadcast was probably that of a system NPC. It could just be that the main system used 663’s voice.
“What are you thinking about?” Li Yun asked, noticing Jiang Yan lost in thought while holding his chopsticks.
“Nothing,” Jiang Yan replied, picking up his chopsticks to start eating.
Seeing this, Li Yun explained his purpose: “The guild sent me to find you. Tao Shi wants to see you.”
Jiang Yan looked confused. “Guild?”
“Dawn Guild,” Li Yun replied.
663 seized the moment to introduce Jiang Yan to the “Dawn Guild”: “There are over three hundred guilds, big and small, in the game, but only four lead: Dawn Guild, Puppet Workshop, Yin-Yang Realm, and Valen Cathedral.”
“Among them, the Dawn Guild was established most recently, yet it’s currently the most powerful. They hold half of the top ten spots on the player and NPC points leaderboard. The Tao Shi you mentioned is currently ranked fifth on the player leaderboard.”
“Is there even such a leaderboard?” Jiang Yan was shocked as if he were a newbie.
663: “...Yes. Do you want to know your ranking?”
“Nope.”
“…”
“I don’t know him,” Jiang Yan flatly refused.
[Shit! Who does he think he is?!]
[Dawn Guild! That’s the boss Tao Shi!]
[He’s really pushing his luck, thinking his luck can continue!]
[Hahaha, what do you think Jiang Yan's points ranking is?]
[Could it be the last?]
[It really is the last! Newbies rank higher than him!]
[Then he’s doomed! This is an S-rank dungeon!]
Li Yun guessed that Jiang Yan would refuse directly. Although he hadn’t spent much time with Jiang Yan, he knew that Jiang Yan feared “trouble” the most.
Only something that directly touched Jiang Yan’s core interests could move him.
Li Yun said, “I remember when we knew each other, you asked if I could help you find someone.”
Jiang Yan paused his chopsticks midair.
Noticing this, Li Yun chuckled lightly, leisurely sipping from his boiled cabbage soup. “I’m a businessman, and my sources for personal information are limited, but the guild can help you.”
Jiang Yan silently put down his chopsticks.
**
After finishing dinner, the designated activity time for patients in the Infectious Disease and Psychiatry departments began.
The outside sky had turned nearly dark, leaving only a sliver of dim light struggling to persist at the horizon.
The windows in the hospital corridor were all barred, making the place seem less like a hospital and more like a prison.
Perhaps the medication was wearing off, but Jiang Yan felt a bit short of breath.
---
Tao Shi is also a psychiatric patient, and his ward is located at the corner of the psychiatric ward on the fourth floor. Jiang Yan followed Li Yun as they made their way through the dim staircase to the fourth floor.
Along the way, there were several patients returning to their rooms, moving their bodies like decaying corpses.
Jiang Yan noticed many patients looking at him; most were elderly with wrinkled skin and white hair.
Some smiled at him, while others gave him knowing looks that he couldn’t understand.
At that moment, he noticed an old man standing on the floor above him, gesturing at him. Jiang Yan understood that the gesture meant—69.
“Are they… greeting me?” Jiang Yan asked Li Yun, slightly out of breath.
Li Yun also noticed the unusual behavior of the group of patients. Frowning, he replied, “They’re probably from the psychiatric ward.”
Is that so?
Looking at the wrinkled faces making incomprehensible expressions toward him, Jiang Yan felt extremely strange.
Just then, an old man suddenly sprang out from a side corridor, grasping Jiang Yan's hand with his bony, withered fingers.
A gratified smile appeared on his wrinkled face, tears glistening in his cloudy eyes, and he murmured with his toothless mouth, “69… 69… 69…”
Jiang Yan was startled and grabbed Li Yun's arm.
The patients in the corridor stopped to watch, their eyes wide with a desire Jiang Yan couldn’t comprehend.
It was as if they were seeking this desire from him.
“69… 69… 69…” The old man’s grip on Jiang Yan was painful; he was surprisingly strong, and no matter how Jiang Yan tried to break free, it was useless.
Li Yun pulled Jiang Yan while pushing the old man away, urgently saying, “You’ve mistaken him for someone else! Please let go; he’s the director's son-in-law!”
The old man shook his head, his voice becoming hoarse and desperate: “69!! 69!! 69—!!”
“Zii… zii…”
The eerie announcement from the hospital echoed again. This time, it wasn’t the sweet and strange voice, but a woman’s cold and detached tones clearly stating:
“Hospital… hospital regulations prohibit counting any objects, including but not limited to stairs, rooms, and people…”
Jiang Yan and Li Yun were momentarily stunned, seeing panic and fear reflected in each other’s eyes.
In the next second, several blood-soaked nurses with disheveled hair appeared before them.
Their long black hair coiled around the old man’s neck as they dragged him downstairs.
Seeing this, the patients all turned their heads away.
“Where… are they taking him?” Jiang Yan asked in a daze.
But no one answered him.
In the corridor filled with patients, only the old man’s hoarse voice echoed back.
-
After such an encounter, Jiang Yan and Li Yun remained shaken and silent until they finally reached Tao Shi's ward on the fourth floor. On the rusted iron plate on the door was the number—87.
Li Yun pushed the door open, and Jiang Yan walked straight in. As soon as he entered, he saw four people sitting in the ward—
One was the “corpse courier” Ding Wanyu from the previous instance.
The other three included one wrapped in bandages, looking pale as if he had just died without being buried; another was a muscular man with a buzz cut, receiving an IV drip.
The last one looked relatively normal, a rather handsome young man casually holding a cigarette with an air of indifference.
“You’re late,” said the young man sitting in the middle.
Li Yun’s expression darkened: “Just now…”
“I know everything; it’s okay. As long as we don’t violate hospital rules, we can still survive,” the young man said dismissively.
“Hey!” The young man with the cigarette greeted Jiang Yan. “I’m Tao Shi; you must be Jiang Yan, right?”
“Hello.” Jiang Yan replied expressionlessly, his light blue eyes appearing particularly indifferent.
He wasn’t a very outgoing person, especially not with strangers.
“Li Yun said you’re looking for someone,” Tao Shi said directly. “The Guild can help you find him, whether he’s dead or alive, human or ghost; the Guild can bring him back.”
Jiang Yan lowered his gaze and fell silent for a moment. “Why help me?”
“Very simple! Our boss wants you to join the Dawn Guild. After all, you’re the first living ‘Judge’ and the first person to survive the main system,” Tao Shi said, exhaling a puff of white smoke and flashing a bright smile.
“I just got lucky,” Jiang Yan replied.
“This game isn’t a lottery,” Tao Shi clearly didn’t believe Jiang Yan’s words. “It’s never about luck; it’s about strength.”
“If you want to know my strength, you can check the leaderboard. If you still don’t change your mind after seeing it, I’m willing to join, as long as you help me find someone,” Jiang Yan shrugged nonchalantly.
“We’ve seen your ranking; being able to independently clear several instances yet still being at the bottom of the leaderboard… it actually requires strength.”
Jiang Yan: “…”
“Have you made your decision?”
“I have no objections,” Jiang Yan replied indifferently.
Tao Shi looked at the beautiful man in front of him, whose expression was devoid of warmth, and let out a sigh: “I’m actually curious why you came here.”
“I didn’t voluntarily enter the game; I just got unlucky and was pulled in,” Jiang Yan explained.
Tao Shi clearly didn’t believe him: “In this game, no one is without a reason, though people’s reasons often change.”
“Did you come here for the person you’re looking for?” Tao Shi assessed Jiang Yan. “His name… is Yu Xiu, right?”
“Yes, he has green eyes,” Jiang Yan answered.
Tao Shi sighed: “I know, and I also know he’s your ex-husband. Li Yun told me all of that.”
Jiang Yan frowned in dissatisfaction.
“However, since he’s your ex-husband, why do you care whether he’s dead or alive? I think you and Li Yun make a good pair!”
Just as Tao Shi finished speaking, there was a loud bang!
The ward door was flung open by black tentacles, and before anyone could react, the tentacles wrapped around their necks and lifted them up.
Jiang Yan felt a tightness at his waist, and in the next second, he was thrust back into the monster's embrace, which felt like cotton.
At that moment, a black creature poked its head inside, resembling both a snake and a spider, with a paper mask covering its face. Its head turned eerily as it spoke in a voice that echoed from the depths of hell:
“Who… is coveting my wife?”
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