Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Lu Mingxuan wouldn't dare utter such disrespectful thoughts aloud; he only allowed them to simmer in his mind. Yet, being young and quite familiar to Lu Yanzhou, his unusual gaze didn't go unnoticed. "What are you thinking about?" Lu Yanzhou inquired.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," Lu Mingxuan replied, his tone betraying a clear attempt to conceal something.

He was on edge, fearing his uncle would press further. Fortunately, Lu Yanzhou’s attention wasn’t fully on him, and he dropped the subject when Lu Mingxuan remained evasive.

"Let's head back," Lu Yanzhou said, turning away only when the car was completely out of sight.

"Before Uncle Lin Juan arrived, only our family's cars came and went from Lu Yuan. Since his arrival, it's become much livelier," Lu Mingxuan remarked with a sigh.

And most of the visitors were superpower holders. Without Lin Juan, no matter how influential the Lu family was in the business world, they would never have been able to forge connections with such a secretive organization.

"Uncle, I've finished the proposal you assigned me last time. Should I send it to you for review?" Lu Mingxuan hadn't been idle at home. Children of the Lu family typically began to engage with the family business around the age of eighteen.

Excluding the two non-human children from Second Brother Lu’s branch, Lu Mingxuan was the only junior in the Lu family. Old Mr. Lu ensured he was exposed to everything he needed to learn.

Lu Mingxuan didn’t resent these responsibilities. He possessed far more business acumen than his father, and though his proposals were still a bit green, Lu Yanzhou saw him as promising.

Initially, Old Mr. Lu had planned for Lu Mingxuan to intern at the company over the summer to gain experience. However, after Zhuang Yufeng’s warning, Old Mr. Lu dared not take any risks and decided to keep him confined to Lu Yuan until the danger passed.

The future Zhuang Yufeng had learned about Lu Mingxuan’s situation through later investigations. However, since the incident had occurred long before, the information he gathered while looking into Lu Yanzhou was incomplete. Zhuang Yufeng didn’t know the exact time or location of the incident, only a general timeframe.

Summer, would meet with disaster while outside.

Old Mr. Lu valued his only remaining grandson greatly. Knowing he faced a calamity, he would never allow him to take risks.

After a two-hour drive, Lin Juan arrived at the meeting point.

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For some time, his main focus had been training, so he hadn’t interacted much with the superpower holders from the Paranormal Special Affairs Office. Most of his acquaintances were from training sessions, and this mission was his chance to get to know the other members better.

It was only after becoming familiar with them that he realized how popular Lin Juan was among the superpower holders.

He wasn’t surprised. Someone as powerful as Lin Juan naturally commanded respect.

However, he felt a bit disappointed that he hadn’t been prepared enough to secure the task of picking up Lin Juan for the mission.

Lin Juan had already learned about the action plan from Director Liu beforehand. Upon arrival, he didn’t waste time with pleasantries. After a brief rest, the team got straight to the point.

Cherish Clinic.

“Has this place never been demolished?” Lin Juan stood before the dilapidated clinic. This world's development level was similar to his original one. In a city like the capital, where land was incredibly valuable, abandoned buildings should have been cleared long ago.

“This plot was purchased by an overseas tycoon who planned to build a shopping mall. For some unknown reason, construction never started,” Sheng Tianzong explained to Lin Juan.

Whether as team leader or member, it was essential to have a complete understanding of the mission before any operation. Sometimes, the smallest detail could determine the success or failure of a mission.

Lin Juan asked, “Has the tycoon’s identity been verified?”

Sheng Tianzong replied, “Yes. The tycoon is named Honda Kaito, from R Country. He passed away in M Country a year ago.”

Lin Juan: “He’s dead?”

Sheng Tianzong: “Yes. The cause of death hasn’t been disclosed. Director Liu is still investigating.”

Since the person was already dead, Lin Juan didn’t press further. Instead, he turned his attention to the abandoned clinic.

Though called a clinic, Cherish Clinic was quite large, resembling a small hospital. Years of exposure to the elements had left cracks in the walls, which were now covered in ivy. From a distance, it looked like a castle enveloped in vines.

The well-trained superpower holders moved forward to clear the path. Shi Haochen’s abilities made him one of the main fighters.

“The contamination level is low,” one of the superpower holders reported, holding a contamination detector.

After several upgrades, the current contamination detector was only palm-sized, making it easy to carry. The research base was developing a wristwatch-style detector. If successful, it would allow simultaneous monitoring of environmental contamination levels and personal contamination levels.

Lin Juan walked over and glanced at the detector. The reading was indeed low, which explained why the Paranormal Special Affairs Office hadn’t paid much attention to this place. Such a low contamination level didn’t warrant concern.

The superpower holders cleared a path, and Lin Juan led the way inside.

The interior of the clinic wasn't too damaged. As he walked, Lin Juan remarked, “The original owner of this clinic must have been very wealthy.”

The layout inside was impressive enough to rival a private hospital.

The clinic was largely empty. After searching around, they found nothing.

Remembering, Lin Juan looked for the operating room.

Sheng Tianzong instructed Shi Haochen to stay close to Lin Juan. Shi Haochen’s main purpose for joining this mission was to gain experience, and staying near Lin Juan was the safest option.

It was a rare opportunity. Director Liu had previously asked Lin Juan to mentor Shi Haochen, ensuring he stayed out of life-threatening danger.

Aside from rescuing people, Lin Juan had another task on this mission: to train Shi Haochen.

Director Liu had allocated a considerable teaching fee to Lin Juan.

Since arriving in this world, Lin Juan’s misfortune with money had strangely vanished. His bank account balance was more than enough, but no one ever complained about having too much money. The Paranormal Special Affairs Office was one of Lin Juan’s main sources of income, and he was always accommodating to a client who was easy to work with.

Throughout the journey, Lin Juan focused on walking, observing, and searching for clues. Any unusual findings were left for Shi Haochen to handle.

Shi Haochen didn’t find this arrangement odd. This was his first mission, and being alongside Lin Juan filled him with excitement. He was eager to demonstrate his abilities in front of Lin Juan.

Unfortunately, after searching everywhere, they still found nothing.

Like a wilted eggplant, Shi Haochen’s enthusiastic spirit visibly deflated.

Were they destined to return empty-handed?

His heart grew heavier. Suddenly, he noticed a red light ahead.

They had entered the clinic during the day, but the windows and doors were covered in ivy. Even though the superpower holders had cleared some of it, the interior remained dim.

After years of abandonment, the clinic’s electrical system had deteriorated, and the lights couldn’t be turned on. The appearance of the red light was abrupt and out of place.

Shi Haochen instinctively looked toward it.

He saw a tightly shut door.

The red light was emanating from above the door.

His gaze shifted upward, and he identified the source of the light.

It was an indicator light above the door, with the words “Surgery in Progress” glaringly bright.

How could the words “Surgery in Progress” light up in a hospital where the electrical system had completely failed?

Shi Haochen immediately sensed something was wrong. “Brother Lin, look over here!”

Lin Juan spotted the sealed-shut operating room door and the red light above it.

"Let's go in and take a look."

Shi Haochen did as he was told and approached the door. He activated his superpower "Shadow," and a massive dark figure emerged from his own shadow, violently slamming against the closed door.

After two strikes, the door was forced open.

Shi Haochen sidestepped, narrowly avoiding an object flying out from the operating room.

A flash of silver light passed by, and a sharp scalpel embedded itself deep into the floor.

Lin Juan walked over and pulled out the scalpel.

The impact left a deep crack in the floor.

If Shi Haochen hadn't dodged quickly, the scalpel would have struck him instead of the floor.

Picking up the scalpel, Lin Juan felt a chill spreading from the blade into his body.

No matter how much training he had undergone, this was Shi Haochen's first live combat experience. Seeing the sharp scalpel in Lin Juan's hand, he felt a wave of post-fear apprehension.

"When dealing with supernatural incidents, you must remain vigilant at all times. Danger can appear anywhere—never let your guard down," Lin Juan said.

"I understand, Brother Lin." Thanks to the intensive training he had undergone recently, exhausting as it was, it had clearly paid off. Shi Haochen was sure he wouldn't have dodged the sharp object flying out of the door before the training.

The operating room door was wide open, but it was empty. However, a faint smell of blood drifted out.

This time, Shi Haochen didn't act recklessly. Instead, he manipulated his shadow to slip through the door crack.

Everything the shadow "saw" and "heard" would be relayed back to him.

After searching the room, the shadow retrieved a medical record book.

Shi Haochen handed the medical record book to Lin Juan.

The cover was stained with scattered dark blood spots, as if splattered on it. Lin Juan opened the book and found records of the patient's condition.

It started as a minor cold but gradually worsened, spreading throughout the body until surgery was necessary.

Lin Juan wasn't a medical expert, but his intuition told him something was off about this case.

As he flipped further, he noticed several pages had been torn out.

On the last page, a line of text was written:

"Wrong, it's all wrong. This is all a conspiracy. I am the executioner..."

The handwriting was hurried, with the last stroke trailing far off.

The vague statement could be interpreted in many ways.

Shi Haochen used his imagination and ventured a guess: "You think they performed illegal surgeries here?"

Lin Juan recalled the scene he had witnessed in the school infirmary.

A young boy, tied to the operating table like a lamb to the slaughter, was cut open, and his vital organs were removed one by one...

Connecting it to this clinic, Lin Juan had a grim suspicion.

The two searched the operating room carefully once more but found no other clues. They had no choice but to leave the room temporarily.

The moment they stepped out of the operating room, the surroundings had changed drastically from when they entered.

The windows were clean, the clinic was much brighter. The ivy outside had disappeared without a trace. The floor was spotless, and the overhead lights were glowing brightly. The sound of footsteps mixed with the rolling of wheels grew closer.

"Brother Lin, what's going on?" Uncertain of the situation, Shi Haochen pulled Lin Juan behind a large pillar.

From this position, they could observe everything outside without being seen—an ideal vantage point.

"We must have entered the creature's domain," Lin Juan observed. Several nurses were pushing a gurney quickly toward the operating room they had just exited.

"Brother Lin, I'll check who's on the bed."

Under the light, everyone had a shadow, making it easier for Shi Haochen to act.

He directed his shadow forward. The moment it "saw" the patient's face on the bed, his expression shifted slightly.

"It's the person we saw in the archives," Shi Haochen steadied himself and reported his discovery to Lin Juan.

Instead of retracting his shadow, he hid it under the bed, following it into the operating room.

Soon after, Shi Haochen covered his mouth and bent over, dry heaving.

It was too gruesome.

He never imagined he would witness such a scene.

This was no operating room—it was more like a murder scene.

Inside the operating room, cold light mercilessly illuminated the area. The doctors surrounding the bed moved like programmed machines, expressionless as they raised their scalpels and cut open the chest of the young boy on the table. Reaching inside, they pulled out a still-beating heart.

To make the procedure easier, the doctor tore open the patient's chest with his bare hands...

Shi Haochen could no longer hold back. A wave of nausea overwhelmed him. He felt as if he could smell the thick scent of blood, enveloped by the sinful odor. He seemed to have become the lamb on the chopping block, ready to be slaughtered at any moment.

The face of the patient on the operating table grew increasingly familiar. Forcing down his disgust, Shi Haochen continued to watch. The moment he clearly saw the face, he was horrified.

That face was extremely familiar—it was his own!

So, the lamb lying on the operating table, helpless and at the mercy of others, was him!

A sharp, tearing pain erupted in his chest. Shi Haochen's vision began to blur.

It hurts!

It hurts!!!

A cold hand reached into his chest, gripping his burning heart and pulling it out with force.

Beads of cold sweat formed on Shi Haochen's forehead. He wanted to escape, to hide, but his body felt heavy, as if bound by heavy chains. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't move.

Even though his eyes were open, his vision grew increasingly unfocused. Large drops of sweat fell from his forehead. On the ground, his shadow began to dissipate—a sign that his superpower was going out of control!

What exactly had he seen?!

Lin Juan grabbed Shi Haochen's shoulders and shook him firmly. "Shi Haochen, listen to me! No matter what you see or feel, it's not real!"

"Fake...?"

"It's fake!"

On the operating table, the teenager snapped his eyes open.

The crushing pressure weighing him down vanished. He leaped up from the table, commanding his shadows to bind the icy doctors and drag them out of the operating room.

The red light above the operating room door went dark, and the door swung open. Shadows twisted like claws, dragging a group of doctors outside.

The moment they crossed the threshold, the doctors' skin peeled away like dried bark, their flesh withering until they became complete monsters.

They were low-level pollutants corrupted by a high-level anomaly.

"Brother Lin, I've caught them!"

Shi Haochen's shadows eagerly showed off the bound pollutants before Lin Juan.

"The doctors and nurses here must all be these things," Lin Juan glanced down. "Just kill them. Let's go save people."

Shi Haochen pulled himself together. Time was tight; he didn't have the luxury to dwell on what had just happened. Following his will, his shadows constricted, and several pollutants were torn in half. The creatures jerked reflexively on the ground before falling still.

Confirming the pollutants were dead, the two pressed forward.

Along the way, they encountered several more pollutants disguised in white coats. Without Lin Juan needing to intervene, Shi Haochen took care of them himself.

This wasn't Shi Haochen's first time killing anomalies, but it felt different from last time. Back at school, it was for self-preservation; the drive to "survive" overshadowed everything else. He had no time or mental space to overthink.

This time, however, it was deliberate—he was intentionally killing anomalies. For a high school student who had never even killed a chicken, it was too much.

Shi Haochen felt complicated in ways he couldn't describe.

Yet he knew this was something he had to go through. In the future, countless anomalies would fall by his hand. He couldn't afford to be soft-hearted or hesitant.

On their very first day of training, Captain Sheng had drilled into them that even a moment's hesitation could lead to immeasurable tragedy.

As superpower holders, the moment they chose to become guardians, they were destined to have their hands stained with the blood of anomalies.

There was no need for any psychological burden, for every anomaly was tainted with the blood of their compatriots.

Their duty was to kill these creatures as swiftly as possible, to prevent more compatriots from falling victim.

Perhaps due to the immense psychological pressure, Shi Haochen inadvertently opened up a lot to Lin Juan.

By the time he realized it, the words had already spilled out. Shi Haochen's face changed slightly. "Brother Lin, am I being too indecisive?"

"It's a normal part of adjusting your mindset. You can ask your Captain Sheng, or your other comrades, about their first encounters with anomalies, their first battles—what it was like for them."

They searched room by room. The floor was littered with low-level pollutants strangled by Shi Haochen's shadows. Seeing that Shi Haochen only knew how to simply strangle the creatures, Lin Juan summoned the "Forest Cabin."

"You can try changing the form of your shadows." With a thought, the Forest Cabin transformed into a large scythe. Lin Juan swept it casually, and the tree-like pollutants' heads rolled to the ground.

Their bodies collapsed instantly.

Shi Haochen's eyes lit up. He instantly cast aside his untimely thoughts and imitated Lin Juan, cutting down a large swath of pollutants.

"This is much faster!" Shi Haochen said excitedly.

They had almost completely cleared the clinic of low-level pollutants. Occasionally, a few Class C Anomalies appeared, but they stood no chance against Lin Juan and Shi Haochen.

Finally, they reached the end. Lin Juan pushed open the door and paused at what he saw inside.

It was a ward with multiple patients, but unlike any they had seen before.

This room was large, very large, as if several rooms had been combined to create a special ward.

Inside, there were exactly thirty-six beds. On each bed, the blankets were slightly bulging, suggesting a "patient" lay beneath.

Lin Juan and Shi Haochen stepped inside.

The ward was quiet, with no nurses in sight—only the unconscious "patients" lying in the beds.

Shi Haochen studied the layout and frowned. "The arrangement of these beds doesn't look like a hospital; it's more like classroom desks."

Lin Juan suddenly understood.

No wonder the setup felt both wrong and familiar—it was identical to the classroom layout at Upward Middle School.

Why would a ward be arranged like this?

An idea became clearer in Lin Juan's mind.

Upon closer inspection, he found, unsurprisingly, that these "patients" had the same faces as the students he had seen at Upward Middle School.

No, to be precise, they were those very students!

The patients' names were written at the head of each bed.

Shi Haochen looked and exclaimed, "Brother Lin, these seem to be the missing students from our school!"

The students wore breathing masks, and IV bags hung from stands beside their beds, delivering unknown fluids into their bodies through long, transparent tubes.

Lin Juan and Shi Haochen went from bed to bed. The ward was vast, with exactly thirty-six beds. Aside from three empty ones, each of the remaining beds held a student.

The nameplates on the three empty beds had been deliberately blacked out. Without looking, they knew these were reserved for the three students who had left the school.

Shi Haochen called out softly a couple of times but received no response.

These people were in a deep sleep. If not for the slight rise and fall of their chests, and after checking their breathing, Shi Haochen would have doubted they were even alive.

"They're still alive," Shi Haochen pulled back his hand in relief.

But the question remained: how to wake them?

Just calling out didn't work. Shi Haochen dared not move their bodies, afraid of upsetting some delicate balance and harming them.

Normally speaking, these people had been missing for nearly a month. A month without food or water would severely compromise their bodily functions.

Uncertain how the missing students were sustaining themselves, they were reluctant to act rashly.

"It seems we still need to find the owner of this place," Lin Juan said.

To untie the bell, one must find the one who tied it. Only by locating the mastermind behind all this could they wake the students in the least harmful way possible.

"We've almost searched the entire clinic. Where is that anomaly hiding?" Shi Haochen turned, carefully examining this special "classroom."

This unique ward was the most out-of-place part of Cherish Clinic. Shi Haochen's intuition told him they were close to the anomaly.

His intuition was right. After a thorough search of the ward, they found a well-hidden door.

Pushing open the hidden door, they found yet another ward behind it.

Unlike the previous ward, this one had a lived-in feel.

As the two stepped inside, the hidden door behind them closed silently.

A single door separated two different worlds.

Lin Juan heard the voice of a nurse.

"How are you feeling today? Any discomfort? Let’s take your temperature."

It was a gentle and normal-sounding voice, but Lin Juan and Shi Haochen knew all too well that in a place like this, the more normal something seemed, the more abnormal it likely was.

The nurse was busy at the bedside when the ward door opened, and a doctor in a white coat entered with an assistant making rounds. Lin Juan took the opportunity to get a clear look at the patient half-lying on the bed.

Dressed in a blue-striped hospital gown, with a shaved head and a pale and worn complexion, the patient perfectly matched the image Lin Juan had seen in the school infirmary.

It was Gong Siyuan.

The people in the ward seemed completely oblivious to them. Even as Lin Juan and Shi Haochen approached the bedside, neither the doctor nor the nurse took notice.

Only the young man on the bed seemed to glance in their direction.

"Brother Lin, did he see us?" Seeing the owner of the most abnormal file from the archives in such a place, Shi Haochen wasn't about to write this off as coincidence.

Unsure whether Gong Siyuan had actually noticed them, Shi Haochen kept his voice low as he asked.

"Perhaps."

To find out if he had seen them, they decided to see for themselves.

"Gong Siyuan?" Lin Juan ventured cautiously.

As soon as the name left Lin Juan’s lips, it was as if an invisible membrane had been broken. They were no longer mere observers but had become participants.

The sudden appearance of two additional people in the ward startled the nurse. "Where did you come from? The patient needs rest. It’s not visiting hours."

With that, she tried to force them out.

In his seventeen years of life, Shi Haochen had never encountered a nurse who outright tried to kick people out. Her attitude was clearly off, and having finally found a clue, he wasn’t about to leave easily.

Shoving his way deeper into the room, he retorted, "Hey, what's your problem? I’m here to visit my classmate. Why do I need your permission? The patient is hospitalized, not imprisoned. Visiting hours? Even if God himself showed up, I’d visit whenever I want!"

The nurse’s face twisted in anger. She pushed with all her might but couldn’t budge the young man.

"If you don’t leave now, I’ll call security!"

"Go ahead, call them!" Shi Haochen persisted, acting unyielding and unruly, infuriating the nurse even further.

"Heh."

The commotion attracted the doctor who hadn’t gone far. The door swung open. "What’s all this noise? The patient needs rest. Anyone not involved, please leave."

The doctor’s tone was firm. Already suspicious of the nurse’s behavior, Shi Haochen had no intention of leaving. As they stood in a standoff, the doctor’s white coat suddenly burst open, and arthropod-like limbs stretched out from within, lunging toward Shi Haochen.

Shi Haochen dodged sharply to the side. At the same time, the nurse suddenly attacked, her neck elongating like a snake’s, her mouth splitting to her ears as she lunged to bite at the young man on the bed.

The young man, who had no time to react, froze in place, his pupils dilating in terror, unable to move.

"Brother Lin!" Shi Haochen was now torn between fending off the doctor monster and saving the young man, spread too thin.

Lin Juan reached out, grabbed the young man on the bed, and yanked him to safety. The nurse monster missed its target and turned its head toward Lin Juan.

Its gaze was piercingly cold.

Lin Juan looked up at it. "What’s wrong with this hospital? Is turning into a monster and eating reasonable people the standard procedure now?"