Chapter 56 Mental Hospital 8

When Lu Cen woke up the next day, her hands and feet were weak and sore, her back ached and her head hurt, and she felt uncomfortable in every way.

Did I sleepwalk last night?

"Yeah, pretty much. He was rolling around in the house and swearing."

Lu Cen: "..."

He tried desperately to recall some memories, but unfortunately, he couldn't find a single image.

He rubbed his wrist and went to the bathroom. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed as he noticed two drops of blood in the corner.

"Ah!!! Someone's dead! Someone's dead!"

Lu Cen had no time to think. He grabbed a few sheets of paper, wiped the blood clean, threw them in the toilet, and flushed. He turned and went out. The corridor was packed with people, but it was extremely quiet.

The walls and floor were covered in sprayed bloodstains, even on the ceiling. The head nurse lay in a corner, her death mirroring Qin Hua's, but this was not particularly alarming.

Not far from the head nurse, Qin Wei lay on the ground, her hair wet with blood and hanging in strips. There were two cuts on her cheeks, and her eyes were wide open, as if she was unwilling to accept it, but also a little scared. Unlike the others, Qin Wei did not have any fatal wounds. She had many wounds on her body, and it seemed that she had died from excessive blood loss.

Lu Cen had never seen Qin Wei make a move, but her skills were definitely not weak. This murderer was even more ruthless than he had imagined. He looked at his doorknob and his brow twitched. There were exactly five fingerprints on it.

"What's wrong with you?" A hand patted Lu Cen's shoulder, and he was almost scared out of his wits.

"Wh...what?"

“It’s bluish here,” Zhou Yang pointed to the back of his ear.

Lu Cen was on edge, afraid that Zhou Yang would notice the doorknob. He calmly said, "He probably bumped into it."

"But here, it's all blue."

Zhou Yang was referring to the back of his neck and shoulder sockets. Lu Cen used his position to block the door and briefly explained the access card issue. Zhou Yang glanced at him and went to the nurses' station.

Lu Cen breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away the bloodstains discreetly.

Zhou Yang returned with his hands outstretched, indicating that he did not have an access card.

Lu Cen had a very bad feeling. What if the access card fell into the murderer's hands...

But the murderer had entered his room without a key card.

Moreover, the killer was previously killing one person a day; yesterday afternoon he killed the nurse, and last night he killed the head nurse and Qin Wei. The killer's killing speed has increased.

Why did the murderer kill Qin Wei?

Did she witness the murder and then kill her to silence her?

Lu Cen dismissed the idea as soon as it came to mind.

2299 had previously hinted that their identities in this instance were not those of marginal figures.

So, what was the murderer's motive for killing Qin Wei?

After a brief moment of calm, it instantly erupted into a cacophony of voices, everyone spitting as they spoke, like a bustling marketplace.

Among them, one person stood out. He seemed to be in a state of shock, staring blankly at the head nurse's corpse. Even when someone bumped into him, he didn't react.

Who is that person?

Zhou Yang followed the gaze and saw that the boy was thin and small due to his illness, with sparse hair, a sallow complexion, and a dull look in his eyes, making him look particularly listless.

"Yu Qingran suffers from severe stress disorder. He was hospitalized ten years ago and his condition has not improved; in fact, it has gotten worse. Is there anything special about him?"

"You mean he came ten years ago?" Lu Cen's eyes widened.

Zhou Yang nodded.

Lu Cen stared at the man, feeling that this was a breakthrough.

He found this person's information from Xu Xi. It was clean and ordinary, with nothing noteworthy about him. Ten years ago, he was timid, with evasive eyes, looking cowardly and easy to bully.

He pondered quietly, his brows furrowing unconsciously. His fine hair shimmered with golden light in the sunlight, making his figure appear ethereal. His cheeks, exposed to direct sunlight for a long time, gradually grew hot.

"Stop for a moment." The papers in his hand were snatched away.

Lu Cen looked up in confusion, and Xu Xi's face came into view. Perhaps because the patient had pulled too hard, his white coat had many wrinkles and several marks on it. His hair was disheveled, and he lacked the coldness that usually belonged to doctors.

Xu Xi: "It's time to guide and direct the flow of people."

Lu Cen wanted to study it further, so he silently took the documents back and placed them aside under Xu Xi's scrutinizing gaze.

Xu Xi sat opposite him, in a very close position from which there was no escape.

Did he show up today?

Lu Cen knew he was asking about the hooded man, so she obediently placed her hands on her knees and responded softly, "No."

Xu Xi, with her distinct knuckles, wrote a sentence in her notebook and then asked, "How did you sleep last night?"

Lu Cen paused for a moment before saying, "It's...it's alright."

"It's alright, but why are all these areas turning blue?"

The hospital gown had a slightly large opening, and as he moved, his smooth, fair skin was covered in bluish-purple marks. Lu Cen caught a glimpse of this and quickly tugged at his clothes. He had a guess in his mind that the hooded man from last night had probably come to his room sometime during the night…

"Maybe, maybe I fell out of bed," Lu Cen awkwardly offered a lame excuse.

Xu Xi's expression was a little strange, but Lu Cen didn't notice.

Zhou Yang found a moment of respite and pulled Lu Cen to tie up Yu Qingran. To call it tying up was more like cornering her in the toilet. The three of them were standing in the narrow space, making it difficult to even turn around. Yu Qingran was pressed against the cold wall, her face contorted in pain. She opened her mouth wide and gagged several times, and tears streamed down her face.

Lu Cen watched in horror and patted Zhou Yang on the shoulder: "Go easy on him."

Zhou Yang let go, somewhat speechless: "I didn't even use any force."

Yu Qingran recovered and faced the two of them, her eyes darting around. Lu Cen asked, "Do you know us?"

This remark must have touched a nerve with the other person, because his eyes widened and he looked incredulous.

Zhou Yang had little patience and tightened his grip: "Don't waste my time. Answer whatever I ask you."

A hint of fear flashed in Yu Qingran's eyes.

"You know the details of the hospital murder case, right?"

A hush fell over the room. After a long while, Yu Qingran asked in a trembling voice, "You...you've all forgotten?"

Lu Cen and Zhou Yang exchanged a glance and then looked at Yu Qingran.

“That’s right, you were all young back then…” Yu Qingchu was lost in memories: “More than ten years ago, we attended a private primary school together, and there was a disabled person in our class…”

She lost a hand in an accident, and because of this, she was bullied by the entire class at school, and the bullying gradually spread to other classes.

Perhaps she didn't tell her family or teachers about it. In any case, the bullies became even more aggressive, ranging from a few years old to children as young as ten. Maybe they didn't know what their behavior represented; they just saw others doing it and followed suit, completely unaware of the harm they were causing others.

One day, as usual, a group of people teased her, making her move further and further away from the school. Eventually, the group returned, but she did not.

Later, her body was found on the riverbank not far from the school; it had been bloated by the river water.

"You pushed her down?"

Yu Qingran grabbed her hair and shook her head violently: "It wasn't me, I don't know, I was far away at the time, I had no idea... I don't know if she was pushed down."

"What does this have to do with us?"

"On my way back that day, I saw a group of lower-grade students on a spring outing on the hillside. Later, I asked them and found out they were from your class."

"Why are you so sure the murder at the hospital is related to her? Does this girl have any relatives?"

Yu Qingran said with difficulty, "Yes, she has an older brother."

Lu Cen's mind exploded. This instance was a revenge instance. The murderer would not let go of the direct murderer, the indirect murderer, or the bystanders. Could this so-called brother be Xu Xi?

Or perhaps another doctor?

Or a security guard?

Yu Qingran added, "I didn't see him at the hospital..."

Zhou Yang sneered, "So these people were killed by ghosts?"

His face turned pale instantly.

Lu Cen was more familiar with the murderer. He tried hard to recall his appearance, figure, voice, and the mole on his hand. He was certain that the person was very young. He compared the information with the documents one by one. Except for Xu Xi, who looked a little like him, no one else matched. Was it really Xu Xi?

He rubbed his tired eyes, which were bloodshot.

Everyone is here, but the murderer seems to be invisible; we can't catch a trace of him.

Lu Cen was anxious, and suddenly, he thought of something.

In the early hours of the morning, Lu Cen took out the special item that removed all buffs. He stared at it for a few seconds, then swallowed it without changing his expression. The hospital was completely silent at night, and even the sound of swallowing was amplified several times. The night wind swept through the window and brushed against the back of Lu Cen's neck, making him shiver.

Just then, he clearly heard the elevator "ding" and then footsteps.

Lu Cen's heart pounded like a drum. She quickly took off her shoes and threw them under the bed, then stood behind the door.

Sure enough, the footsteps stopped at his door.

"Beep—" A very slight sound.

The doorknob turned, and the door slowly opened.

He stepped into the room with one foot, followed by his entire body. He was dressed the same way Lu Cen had first seen him: wearing a hood and holding a baseball bat. He stared at the empty bed, and his expression changed instantly.

Lu Cen, who was less than two fists away from him, had his heart in his throat. He breathed very slowly, almost inaudibly, and pressed his lower back and shoulders against the wall without moving, afraid that the other party would discover his presence.

The other person seemed unwilling to give up, so they pulled back the covers and peered under the bed. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lu Cen tiptoed closer to the door and slipped out.

He first went to Zhou Yang's door, but he forgot one thing: he didn't have an access card and couldn't get in. He didn't dare to knock on the door either. In just a short time, the hooded man came out, exuding a violent aura. The wind he stirred up messed up his hair. Lu Cen hid at the nurses' station and saw him enter Lu Tianhao's room.

Lu Cen's heart pounded, and she nervously gripped her fingers. What should she do?!