Chapter 3 Identity Reversal "A brand new, perfect child. . . .
"Doctor! Dr. Smith! Are you sure you want to go home now? Today is the due date for the pregnant woman in bed 15."
The urgent questioning pulled Cecia's consciousness out of the chaos, and a puppet dressed as a nurse was standing in front of her.
A voice that was no different from that of a human female came from the other party's wooden throat, and her body shape changed from the original height of an adult's calf to the same height as her.
Life-size puppets? Is this on stage?
She did not answer the nurse's question, but looked at the audience below the stage - the puppets were staring at her, including Chen Ye who was sitting in the corner of the last row.
"Dr. Smith! Are you listening to me?"
Perhaps because the plot could not continue, the nurse's voice was no longer as smooth as before, with a slight sense of awkwardness like the friction of wood blocks, and even her behavior was intermittent, like an old movie with dropped frames.
So, she became an actress on stage.
"…Sorry, I was just thinking about something."
Cecia paused, trying to accept Dr. Smith's identity, "Is today the due date for bed 15? Then I'd better stay in the hospital--"
As soon as the last syllable of "院" fell, her eyes blurred and a familiar voice came to her ears again.
"Doctor! Dr. Smith! Are you sure you want to go home now? Today is the due date for the pregnant woman in bed 15."
At the same time, the voice with an awkward tone sounded again.
[It is detected that this is the first time for the player to enter the dungeon scene, and the player is provided with three opportunities to "undo". 】
[Whenever the player makes a wrong move, the time will automatically be rewound to before the move until the player makes the right move or the number of undo attempts is used up.]
[The current number of undo attempts remaining: 2. ]
[Please note that if the player still makes a mistake after all the undo attempts have been used up, they will be left here forever and become part of the dungeon.]
"Dr. Smith! Are you listening to me?"
Seeing the nurse's voice becoming awkward again, Cecia immediately gave the opposite answer: "Sorry, I have something urgent to do, so I will go back today."
"Well, there's nothing anyone can do to you."
Although the nurse was a little angry, she still made way and staggered away.
What did that prompt sound mean? She needed to do the right thing...but what did "right" mean?
It was clearly the due date for bed 15, so as a doctor she should have stayed, but it seemed that the right thing to do was to "go home."
Is there any connection between the two?
After thinking for a while in the office, the nurse came to urge her to leave, so she had to pretend to tidy up the things on the desk.
My peripheral vision swept over the record of bed 15:
[Mrs. Wood, 22 years old, had just gotten married. Her husband often visited her and they were very affectionate...]
She was about to leave with her bag, but before she walked out of the room, the smell of disinfectant in the hospital began to fade, and the fragrant floral scent that came from nowhere soon filled her nostrils.
Fresh air, flower beds, children’s laughter… In just a blink of an eye, the scene changed from the hospital to the garden.
"Mrs. Smith, how do you educate your children?"
The lady in the red dress asked Cecia, her brows furrowed and her face full of worry, forming a sharp contrast with the surrounding environment.
“Oh, maybe I forgot to introduce myself to you. My last name is Wood, and my child is in the same class as yours.”
Mrs. Wood paid no attention to her distraction and continued talking to herself.
"That child was unlucky from birth. The only doctor on duty on the day of his due date suddenly disappeared, causing him to almost suffocate to death in his stomach."
Mrs. Wood sighed and continued, "Even if they barely survived, they were always weaker than their peers, and now they have a hard time keeping up with their studies... Your child is so outstanding, there must be some secret, right?"
Although it's still Smith, the character she plays has obviously changed a lot along with the scene.
When faced with Mrs. Wood's questions, she needs to give the correct answer, otherwise the time will automatically go back to before the action until the number of undo times is used up.
If she gave a wrong answer and it was irreversible, she would probably end up like Chen Ye - assimilated by them and turned into a puppet.
The most important thing is that she has no idea what the "correct" standard is.
"…Don't worry, Mrs. Wood."
Facing the other party's expectant eyes, Cecia said softly, "Please tell me the specific situation of the child first, and I will help you think of a solution."
Hearing this, Mrs. Wood became excited and talked incessantly about her own children's shortcomings, even such small things as unclear pronunciation when they first spoke.
While the other party was still speaking enthusiastically, she finally had a brief moment to think.
During the time she was performing, there were occasional conversations and laughter from the audience. Unlike the silence during the previous puppet show, the audience seemed to have really become living human beings.
Moreover, the previous puppet performances were pantomimes. They seemed unable to speak, and even if their lips opened and closed, only the sound of wood blocks colliding could be heard.
Not only can they now make human voices, but their shapes have also changed. Is it because her and the puppets have reversed their identities?
At this moment, she is the actor in the puppet show.
As an actor, the correct behavior should be to interpret the story according to the script...
"Mrs. Smith, do you have any suggestions about this?" Mrs. Wood's shrill voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Maybe I need some time to go back and think about it." Cecilia tried to delay time, "I will give you a detailed answer next time we meet--"
As soon as she finished speaking, the scene in front of her quickly rewound, and Mrs. Wood returned to her initial dejected look.
"Mrs. Smith, how do you educate your children?"
[The current number of undo attempts remaining: 1. ]
There was only one chance to cancel the plan, but Cecilia smiled and calmly checked her belongings.
While she was answering Mrs. Wood using the same rhetoric as last time, she was recalling the story told by the puppet show.
Planting apple trees, pregnant women approaching their due date, saplings encountering insect pests, problems in children's education... perhaps she understands what the right behavior is.
"Mrs. Wood, I understand the child's situation."
Cecia took out a business card from her pocket and glanced at the introduction on it. "This is an expert who specializes in correcting bad behavior among teenagers. My child has also been taught by him. I think he will help you."
"Oh my god, thank you so much!"
Mrs. Wood snatched the business card and held it above her head, as devoutly as if she had seen the savior.
Click.
Raindrops hit the fragile petals, causing them to fall into the wet soil. Due to the lack of shelter from the trees, the bright flowers withered in an instant.
The scene in front of me was smudged like ink, gradually becoming blurred. The sound of quarreling came from afar, the harsh sound waves became louder and louder, until they completely covered the sound of rain.
"Have you ever cared about the child? Didn't you know he fainted in school? You've only been home a few times this month?"
The sharp soprano voice almost tore the eardrums of those around.
"He's fine now, isn't he? Why do you think I was out there? I wonder where all the money I gave you went. You can't even take care of a child!"
There was twisted anger in the hoarse male voice.
Feeling the people around her trembling, Cecia turned her head and saw a boy about sixteen or seventeen years old.
He was thin, with a slightly sunken face and eyes full of fear and helplessness. As the cause of his parents' quarrel, he didn't know how to deal with it.
"Professor Smith! What do you think we should do with this child?"
The two stopped arguing and turned their attention to Cecia, with only hideous bloodshot eyes left in their eyes that were once filled with love.
In this false drama, Cecilia responded with an equally false smile -
"This is a nutritional supplement that is hard to buy. After taking it, the child will never have any problems again."
The scene jumps several times, and Cecia witnesses the growth of the Wood family from the perspectives of multiple "Smiths".
Until, until the skinny child grew into a corpse.
"Impossible! My child couldn't have committed suicide!"
Mrs. Wood, who looked much older, was screaming at the top of her lungs. She was crying and shaking Cecilia's body.
"Doctor, please take a closer look. There must be something wrong! Someone killed my child!"
Seeing the boy lying on the bed, Cecia's mind flashed back to the dry tree trunk that no one cared about.
"Doctor Smith, even though the surveillance footage shows it was suicide, the family still requested an autopsy." The nurse handed over a report with the results of the investigation into the teenager's death.
"It depends on the family's request."
Cecia put on a mask and walked into the autopsy room.
But when the sharp scalpel touched the boy's skin, her eyes went dark and the familiar roar sounded again.
"Impossible! My child couldn't have committed suicide! Doctor..."
[The number of undo attempts has been used up. Please proceed with caution. 】
She missed this detail...
Taking the report handed over by the nurse, Cecilia smiled self-deprecatingly, refused the request for an anatomy, and then turned and left.
After all, they are the only ones who can cut the apple.
-
At night, there was a rustling sound in the morgue, as if two restless mice were searching for their prey. After a while, the sound of cutting something was heard in the room, followed by the sound of violent vomiting.
The noise was so loud that it almost alarmed all the staff on duty in the hospital, including Cecilia who had been waiting nearby for a long time.
She followed the crowd into the morgue, and soon the sound of retching began to echo around her.
The young man who looked peaceful in the daytime was no longer complete at this moment. His body was sawed in half horizontally from the top of his head with an electric saw, like an apple.
The dark red internal organs were exposed, and the scene was filled with the stench of decay, but there was no smell of blood.
The murderers who committed such a heinous crime were his parents.
They didn't seem to expect that their children's insides would be like this. They just huddled aside, but there was no clean place in the blood-stained morgue.
When the relevant personnel arrived, they did not show any remorse and were even unwilling to get close to the child's body, as if they were afraid of being contaminated by something dirty.
Before she lost consciousness, the sound of their discussion reached Cecilia's ears——
"Honey, let's have a baby after we get out of prison."
"A brand new, perfect child."
[Congratulations to the player for successfully clearing the dungeon scene - Puppet Show. The clue has been obtained: puppets have no blood. ]
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