Chapter 176

Chapter 176

"Understood," Bian Yuchen nodded.

Despite the sharp retort from the young man, Bian Yuchen showed no signs of anger. He looked at Xie Yinxue, his eyes brimming with trust and hope, his demeanor as loyal as Liu Buhua's, "I trust you."

Xie Yinxue, a man who had a penchant for adopting 'sons', felt a warmth seeing Bian Yuchen's filial attitude, wishing Bu Jiu Zhao could be more like him.

Why can't Bu Jiu Zhao be more like Bian Yuchen?

With a silent sigh, Xie Yinxue watched as in the very next moment, Bian Yuchen did something that further pleased him. He gestured to Thirteen, silently mouthing, "Knock out Su Xunlan before she causes trouble."

Upon receiving the command, Thirteen, expressionless as ever, immediately rose and approached Su Xunlan.

Su Xunlan, guarding the door, sensed something amiss. She cautiously took two steps back. But Thirteen was not one for pleasantries. Seeing her retreat, without hesitation, he shot her twice in the knees.

The moment the gunshots rang, veins bulged on Su Xunlan's neck and droplets of sweat formed on her forehead, clearly depicting the intense pain she was enduring. Even with such grievous injuries, she gritted her teeth, refusing to scream. Her eyes filled with rage, she glared at Thirteen, "Thirteen... do you always do Bian Yuchen's bidding? Are you his dog? He doesn't even see you as a person!"

Perhaps it was Su Xunlan's shrill voice or her piercing words that grated on the ears of others. How much more so for the one directly addressed by her?

Yet, without batting an eye, Shi San struck Su Xunlan on the head with the butt of his gun, promptly carrying out Bi Yan Chen's orders.

"Sigh..."

As Su Xunlan's body thudded to the ground, a faint sigh echoed from the dark depths of the corridor. Following it, the distinct clack of high heels resonated, intertwined with an annoyed and petulant reprimand: "Oh dear, why can't you lot behave? Instead of resting in your rooms at night, you're assaulting a distinguished VIP patient!"

Xie Yin Xue looked towards the sound's origin. Upon recognizing the figure, realization dawned: the creature that emerged tonight was Auntie Mary.

He pointed at Auntie Mary and asked Bi Yan Chen, "Is this what you meant by 'never seen before'?"

"A white lie," Bi Yan Chen responded calmly, with a hint of reluctant necessity in his voice. "In this instance, there are nine Auntie Marys. For each patient that dies before nightfall, one Auntie Mary will disappear. Even if I had told you earlier, would it have changed your mind?"

He moved behind Xie Yin Xue, leaning down to whisper near the young man's ear, his voice barely audible: "Speaking earlier might have spurred them to different thoughts. Loners, with neither kin nor friend, forever isolated. Do you really trust them?"

The young man's gaze remained icy, but he smirked, "All I know is tonight won't be the night I depart this world alone."

Realizing that Xie Yin Xue was determined to protect Lv Shuo, Chen Yun, and Xiao Si Yu tonight and refused to harm them, Bi Yan Chen gave up on inciting conflict. Glancing at Su Xunlan's body on the cold floor, he raised his voice to discuss urgent matters: "Hu Li is dead and Su Xunlan has sought out the ferryman. We're down two members, so there should be seven Auntie Marys tonight. After dark, Auntie Mary will attack. Let's leave our rooms for now; it might give us a head start."

After speaking, Bi Yan Chen swiftly moved outside the room, stopping at the railing of the second-floor open hall. "Time is of the essence. Tonight, if we can get sleeping pills from the nurses and take them, we can survive. Daytime blessings allow you to sense nurses nearby, but they can sense you too and will run away. It's tough to catch one. Even if you do, and get the sleeping pill, it's merely for survival, not victory."

Lv Shuo, frustrated with the hospital, exclaimed, "Are you saying there's really a quantum entanglement effect here?"

Xiao Si Yu then asked, "What if I find a nurse but instead of taking the stolen sleeping pill, I ask them to bear my hallucinations?"

Bi Yan Chen replied with a pitying smile, "It's futile. Don't you understand? As Dr. Wu has made clear, we're cured. There are no more hallucinations."

Be it nurses or patients, almost every participant thought that by narrating their "hallucinations" to the nurses, the latter would bear the dangers and die in their stead. Little did they know that once fully healed, what they see are not illusions anymore.

Auntie Mary, in her bias, can clearly see nurses and wouldn't harm them. She only targets patients.

Unfortunately, once a patient dies, nurses are also deemed as failures for not protecting their charges and face Auntie Mary's wrath.

Chen Yun, puzzled, remarked, "Your logic doesn't add up. One moment, Auntie Mary targets only patients, the next, she's after nurses too. It doesn't make sense."

"Exactly," Lv Shuo chimed in, supporting Chen Yun. "If we're not hallucinating, how do you explain seeing seven Auntie Marys? Do our eyes have astigmatism causing double vision?"

Bi Yan Chen answered, "I can't explain. I'm relaying what I've seen in this instance. Regarding the seven Auntie Marys... if you don't converse with your roommate, you'll only ever see one. Maybe that's the key. Ask Mr. Xie. My divinations indicate he can guide us to victory." Spreading his arms in deference, Bi Yan Chen added, "Mr. Xie, we're counting on you tonight. If you need anything, you can rely on Shi San. I guarantee he'll obey you. Though Shi San may not be as skilled as you, at most, he can restrain two Auntie Marys simultaneously."

Xie Yinxue had grown weary of such flattery. Raising an eyebrow, she inquired, "What about you?"

Pressing his hand over his heart, Bian Yuchen wore a pained expression, as if consumed by shame, "In the Bian family, we're adept at divination but not skilled in magic. We're usually as weak as chicks. Having been pampered for years, I'm especially frail and can't fend for myself. I can't restrain even one."

Xie Yinxue, currently in a wheelchair with a disabled right hand: "..."

"How shameless," said Liu Buhua, voicing the very words Xie Yinxue wanted to say.

Bian Yuchen said that as long as he didn't converse with a roommate, he would only see one Auntie Mary. So where did Thirteen see two Auntie Marys? It must be that someone is helping Bian Yuchen to hide the other one from him. To ensure Bian Yuchen's safety, Thirteen would not converse with anyone else, preventing a third Auntie Mary from appearing in their shared "illusion."

Seeing the sky outside the hospital room growing darker, Lv Shuo struggled to move his plump body, "Bian Yuchen has already made his escape. We should hurry and go, take the stairs. I feel like rolling down might be faster for me."

"It's getting late—"

The figure of Auntie Mary, who had been standing motionless in the corridor for some time, spoke again, "Aren't you going to sleep? Where are you off to?"

"It's definitely not the real Auntie Mary," sighed Xiao Siyu. "If it were, with her temperament, she'd have started scolding us by now."

As Xiao Siyu said, that "Auntie Mary" hadn't berated them even now. Instead, she swayed her hips and approached them under the veil of night, her voice dripping with honeyed sweetness, "Auntie doesn't like disobedient patients. You should all go to bed now~"

"Thirteen."

Bian Yuchen gripped the railing tightly, giving Thirteen a deep, lingering look.

That glance seemed to say that his feelings for Thirteen weren't as cold and indifferent as Su Xunlan had described. Yet in the end, all he could say was, "Goodbye."

"Farewell, young master," Thirteen replied, nodding. His face remained expressionless, his eyes revealing no trace of emotion.

Immediately afterward, Bian Yuchen nimbly leaped from the second floor to the first. Before Lv Shuo or Chen Yun could react, he disappeared without a trace, his movements swift and snake-like, a far cry from someone frail.

Xie Yinxue promptly called out to Liu Buhua, "Buhua!"

Liu Buhua raised his hand, "Hey—"

Before the echo of Liu Buhua's response had faded, a scream erupted from the entrance of room three. Lv Shuo lay on the ground, a chunk of flesh cut from his belly, blood gushing out. Even though Xiao Siyu and Chen Yun, standing nearby, hadn't seen what attacked Lv Shuo, they already knew the answer.

Simultaneously, Xie Yinxue deftly untied her hairband with her left hand, transforming it into a sword. She cut the belt at her waist and soared into the air, finally alighting upside down on the ceiling, though her gravity-bound hair ruined the aesthetic slightly.

Meanwhile, with limbs twisted backward, crawling on the ceiling like a spider, the image of Auntie Mary in Liu Buhua's vision had swapped places with him. She plummeted down, smashing the wheelchair to pieces, resembling a dissected corpse in an anatomy lab.

From his fallen position, Lv Shuo looked up in awe at Xie Yinxue, "Damn, that's badass."

Among all the patients, he was the most massive in size and the slowest in movement. Before Chen Yun and Xiao Siyu could help him to his feet, Lu Shuo received another cut to his stomach. This time, the skin was completely sliced off, causing his intestines to spill out. Seeing this, Chen Yun's pupils constricted as he frantically tried to gather the intestines. In the process, he lost two fingers, and Xiao Siyu lost one of his eight legs. Observing his friends' injuries, Lu Shuo waved them away, "Leave me! Xiao Siyu, with your eight legs, you can run faster. Take Chen Yun and go!"

"Instead of shouting, you should save your energy for losing weight, you're really fat!" Xiao Siyu, struggling to move Lu Shuo, lamented about having eight legs instead of eight arms. He uttered a jibe but had no intention of leaving Lu Shuo behind.

Chen Yun firmly stated, "We won't leave you here alone."

Through shared illusions, the trio realized they had the courage to face the three imaginary Aunt Marys but lacked the strength to fight them.

The more Aunt Marys they confronted, the quicker their demise.

"I'll hold off Aunt Mary. You three, with Bu Hua, find the nurse," Xie Yin Xue instructed as she sliced off the long white leg of the spider-formed Aunt Mary. "Make sure they stay awake. Don’t let them take any medication."