The office building of the hospital was silent in the deep night.
The only sound was the rustling of Liu Yuan flipping through files in the archives room.
Suddenly, Liu Yuan tilted her head slightly, put the file back in its place, and sneaked out quietly.
In the office corridor outside the archives room, the sound of light footsteps arose.
The footsteps grew closer and more muffled.
In the dark corridor, the lit archives room stood out prominently.
Creak—
The door of the archives room was pushed open.
A hired security guard stood at the doorway with his hand resting on the holster at his waist.
He glanced down at the door lock of the archives room and took out his gun.
Click!
He cocked the gun.
The mercenary tiptoed into the room.
Xifu City's Tianyu Hospital had existed for quite a while, so the archives room was quite large.
Row after row of filing cabinets extended from the entrance to the end, with potential hiding spots or other things between each row.
The hired gun checked row by row.
In the corridor outside the archives room, a man wearing combat fatigues with two gold stars embroidered on his shoulders stood pressed against the wall, gripping a sharp wolf's fang dagger.
He held his breath, listening intently to the movements inside the archives room.
Suddenly, the man sensed something strange behind his head, poof—
Click!
A mixture of red and white blood slowly dripped down the wall behind him.
......
"Ugh..."
Inside the hospital, a security guard nodded off while on patrol.
The night breeze blew, and he tightened his security uniform, feeling a bit cold.
"Tsk tsk, that girl looked pretty fine today..."
The guard glanced at the women's restroom and mumbled to himself.
Soon after, he reached the office building, tap, tap, tap—
He heard the crisp sound of high heels.
"Who's here so late?"
The guard turned to look, "Whew—"
"Quite a beauty!"
Liu Yuan strolled out of the office building, saw the guard at the entrance, and greeted him with a smile: "Sir, you haven't clocked out yet?"
The guard stared blankly for a moment, then hurriedly said, "Oh, oh! I'm on the night shift!"
Liu Yuan sighed, "Ah! I've been overworking badly these days, it's so stressful!"
The guard grinned, "But you all earn good money!"
Liu Yuan suddenly seemed to remember something and asked, "Sir, was there some commotion at the hospital earlier today? It sounded pretty noisy!"
"Heh, just another medical dispute! It happens every few days."
"Ah? How was it resolved in the end?"
"I don't know, I'm just a temp worker. We just guard the doors, while the hired guns from the security department handle disputes."
"Oh, I see. Well, I'll be going then, sir!"
"Take care!"
"Mmhmm!"
Watching Liu Yuan's swaying figure, the guard felt reluctant, "How did I not notice there were such beauties working at the hospital before?"
"She must be new, damn, those old dogs will harass her for sure!"
Then the guard looked up and saw the light on in the archives room on the third floor. He said suspiciously, "Someone's still working this late at night?"
A moment later, in the corridor on the third floor of the office building, the guard noticed the man leaning against the wall.
As soon as he saw this person, the guard smiled ingratiatingly and greeted him, "Hey! It's Brother Hu on duty today!"
However, the "Brother Hu" the guard addressed paid no heed and remained motionless, leaning against the wall.
The guard awkwardly shrugged it off. He sniffed and caught a faint whiff of a metallic, bloody smell in the air.
The guard didn't think much of it—it was common to smell blood in this hospital.
Sometimes, a rancid odor would even emanate from some corner, and upon investigation, a decomposing corpse would be found.
The guard peeked into the archives room and saw a hired gun standing still, leaning against a row of filing cabinets.
His posture was similar to the man outside.
The guard joked, "Hey, in the middle of the night, you two from the same department are really creative, leaning against opposite walls and competing in brooding!"
"The poses are practically identical, heh!"
As the guard turned to leave, he suddenly looked down and noticed a long streak of blood seeping out from the floor of the archives room.
"Oh shit?!"
The guard was so startled that he jumped back, and rushed to push the "Brother Hu" leaning against the wall in the corridor. But then...
The guard seemed to hear the sound of something springing, snap!
A splatter of blood hit his face, and immediately after, Brother Hu collapsed to the ground.
It was only then that the guard noticed the long streak of red and white blood dripping down the wall where Brother Hu had been leaning.
At the spot where Brother Hu's head had rested against the wall, a bloodstained plastic bubble tea straw protruded straight through from the other side.
The guard finally realized that the springing sound he had heard earlier came from that half-exposed plastic straw on the wall.
The next second, the guard felt his legs go weak.
He practically squatted down and made his way into the archives room, peering towards the spot on the wall where Brother Hu had been leaning.
A dark hole in the wall.
The guard was dumbfounded, "The wall is so thick, and the straw is so short, and it's plastic... how did it get inserted like that..."
He then turned to look at the hired gun in the archives room, and the manner of death made sense.
A bubble tea straw of the same type had pierced straight through the man's brow and into the metal filing cabinet behind him.
The guard swallowed hard, trembling as he took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Hello?"
"Director Liu, there are more casualties in your department, come take them away quickly..."
......
At the Donglai Hotel in Xifu City.
In the room, Liu Yuan organized her thoughts and then called Lu Yuan.
"Boss, this deal is a big one, I need some backup."
Lu Yuan's calm voice came through the receiver, "How much?"
"A decent amount, around two hundred thousand."
"Didn't you say you'd give me a discount?"
"Yeah, even with the discount, it's two hundred thousand."
"You're really letting yourself go, huh? Did you forget you're a medical professional?"
Liu Yuan hurriedly explained, "Boss, listen to me!"
"You don't know how despicable this hospital is!"
"The doctors at this hospital have been selling normal people's organs to Ability users at exorbitant prices!"
"The entire hospital, from doctors to nurses, from procurement to storage to distribution, each step is clearly divided, and no one's hands are clean!"
"This whole operation has become systematized!"
"And none of the people involved in medical disputes have ever made it out of this hospital alive!"
Liu Yuan said, and the line went silent for a moment.
After a while...
"Liu Yuan..."
"Yes, boss?"
"You've got some nerve, who are you implying something about here?"
"Looks like you've been unhappy with me for a while now."
Liu Yuan: "..."
"Boss, let me explain—"
Beep!
The line had been hung up.
Looking out the window, Liu Yuan felt the night breeze of Xifu City...
was rather chilly.
......