Chapter 7 Blood Orchid of the Breath of Life ⑤ - An old fox is a fox, he'll always show his true colors...
The atmosphere plummeted to almost freezing point.
Faced with Chen Zigui's almost suspicious questioning, before Lan Shuyin could speak, Wu Yang glared at her fiercely.
"Zigui! What nonsense are you talking about! Sister Yin is so gentle, how could she possibly hit someone?"
Chen Zigui's lips twitched, ignoring him and staring straight at Lan Shuyin, waiting for a response.
Lan Shuyin nodded and then shook her head, "Yes and no."
"Before you arrived, there was indeed a group of four people. I don't know if they were a professional expedition team, but they weren't in good condition. They seemed to have been poisoned by miasma or some kind of poison. They were fighting fiercely at the entrance of the ancestral hall, and by the time I got there, they had all collapsed."
"I originally planned to call an ambulance for them before leaving after filming the footage, as a good deed. But when I came out, they were gone, and then you guys showed up."
"Disappeared?" Wu Yang's eyes widened in surprise. "That's so strange?"
"I don't know. But it's the middle of the night, and I'm a girl, I can't possibly go looking for a few strange men to find out what's going on. So I just assumed they left on their own after they woke up."
Seeing that the two of them were deep in thought, Lan Shuyin paused for a moment and slowly continued, "I'm explaining all this not because I'm afraid you'll misunderstand, but because right now, I need to use your phones."
"……ha?"
Her topic shifted abruptly, and the two, still lost in their bizarre associations, didn't react for a moment.
"I lost my phone," Lan Shuyin said succinctly. "Can I borrow it to make a call?"
...
The phone was successfully retrieved at the service desk in the lobby on the first floor.
After the nurse on duty confirmed her identity, she handed the phone to her and simply said, "A gentleman found it and brought it here."
On the way back to the hotel, Lan Shuyin used a few drops of eye drops as prescribed by the doctor and closed her eyes to rest.
However, the moment the eyelids closed, that eerie scene pressed down on them without warning—a huge, twisted, hanging black shadow, a dark, gleaming sheen on fur, and the clear, chilling, sticky sound of blood dripping… It wouldn't go away.
She suddenly opened her eyes, took out her phone with a bit of annoyance, and wanted to look at the photos she had hurriedly taken at the scene earlier.
But the moment she opened the photo album, she froze.
At the very top of the thumbnail, there was an extra video clip of about ten seconds. The cover looked like the ceiling of a hospital corridor.
Where did this video come from? Could it be some kind of paranormal event?
For a moment, a ghostly thought flashed through Lan Shuyin's mind, her fingertips trembled slightly, and she clicked on the video.
The camera started to shake slightly, as if it had been picked up casually.
Fortunately, it wasn't the eerie image I had imagined; what suddenly appeared in the frame was an extremely handsome young man.
I found your phone in the hospital rest area.
His voice was clear and gentle, unhurried and calm, sounding more like a pre-planned conversation than a spur-of-the-moment message.
"I've left your phone with the service desk. If you have any questions..." He recited a string of numbers, a faint smile playing on his lips, "you can call this number to find me."
Lan Shuyin was stunned.
It wasn't because of the other person's exceptionally pleasant voice, or their stunningly beautiful face that could leave one mesmerized.
Rather, it's this person...
It was clearly the one she accidentally bumped into while crossing the street this morning.
Is the world really that small?
It's as small as a carefully written script, with every coincidence linked together, exuding a subtle unease about its deliberate nature.
Lan Shuyin frowned and played the video in slow motion again.
The background of the video this person filmed is indeed a hospital rest area.
The other party's true purpose was unknown, but one thing she was almost certain of was that this person knew he was quite attractive.
As for investigating... she had no intention of doing so. A fox will always show its tail eventually.
It was nearly 3 p.m. when Lan Shuyin returned to the hotel. She was starving, so she went straight to a noodle shop downstairs facing the street.
After finishing a bowl of steaming hot noodle soup, she felt much better. However, while eating, there were always subtle glances directed at her from those around her.
Lan Shuyin glanced down at her clothes—stained with dried mud, with obvious scratches on the cuffs, and with her loose hair, she looked rather conspicuous.
She finished her meal quickly, paid the bill, and left.
As I stepped into the hotel lobby, I suddenly caught a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye.
The man deliberately lowered the brim of his hat, glanced quickly to the left and right, and his actions were furtive.
Lan Shuyin might not have cared about anyone else, but that dark and fierce profile and wiry figure made her recognize him at a glance—it was the tough-looking forest ranger from last night, and also the man in the unidentified security uniform this morning!
At that moment, he was wearing a navy blue hotel manager's uniform, and hurriedly turned into the corridor leading to the back office area, his figure disappearing in a flash.
Lan Shuyin stopped abruptly.
Forest ranger? Security guard? Hotel manager?
Three completely unrelated identities are superimposed on one person. Could this person be some kind of spy or agent?
She suppressed her surprise and stepped into the elevator.
bite!
Soon, the elevator arrived at the floor.
The corridor was covered with thick carpets, which absorbed all footsteps, making it eerily quiet.
As Lan Shuyin walked forward, her pace slowed down. She eventually stopped in front of the room door. Instead of swiping her card, she slowly gripped the card tightly in her hand, her center of gravity slightly lowered, like a cat sensing danger, entering a state of readiness to pounce.
She reached her other hand to her waist and placed it on the tactical pen she carried with her.
Beep—click!
The door lock opened with a click.
The room was deathly silent. The power card on the wall had been removed, and only the faint light filtering through the curtains outlined the blurry shapes of the furniture.
Lan Shuyin gently closed the door behind her and inserted the room card into the slot.
The lights suddenly came on, dispelling all the shadows.
The room was cleaned very neatly.
However, her suitcase was wide open on the floor, and the clothes inside had been roughly searched and were scattered haphazardly.
Lan Shuyin's eyes darkened. She was about to go over and check when she passed the tightly closed bathroom door—
Bang!
The door was suddenly smashed open from the inside by a tremendous force.
Almost instantly, a burly black figure rushed out with a fierce gust of wind. A thick, tattooed arm with bulging muscles and five fingers spread like iron pincers aimed straight for her throat!
When real danger struck, Lan Shuyin felt more confident and dodged a fatal grab by sidestepping.
At the same time, the tactical pen she was holding twirled between her fingers, turning into a dark, cold light that precisely pierced the numb tendon in the opponent's elbow joint!
"Ugh!"
The attacker clearly hadn't expected her counterattack to be so cunning and ruthless. He let out a muffled groan of pain, his entire arm went limp and numb, and he staggered backward.
Lan Shuyin gave him no chance to catch his breath. She clenched her right fist and delivered a simple yet heavy swing punch that landed squarely on his ribs!
"Bang!"
A heavy thud exploded in the room. The burly man was jolted back and slammed heavily against the wall behind him, shaking the decorative paintings on the wall.
However, the crisis is not over.
In the blink of an eye, another, even thinner and more agile figure suddenly flashed out from behind the curtains like a ghost, delivering a sharp low sweep kick to her ankle.
Lan Shuyin reacted quickly, using the momentum of her punch to spin around and avoid the insidious sweeping kick. She then delivered another heavy punch to the second attacker's cheek!
The fist felt solid and dull against the skin.
But the second person, though small in stature, was much more well-trained. Despite the excruciating pain that felt like his cheekbone was shattering, he suddenly reached out and grabbed her ankle like an iron hook!
"Bang!"
Lan Shuyin lost her balance and fell heavily onto the soft carpet.
Seeing this, the man's eyes flashed with ferocity, and he endured the excruciating pain as he lunged forward!
This time he held nothing back. With lightning speed, an iron-like arm locked around her neck, the deadly constriction instantly cutting off the air! His other hand covered her mouth and nose, trying to suffocate her.
A black patch blurred Lan Shuyin's vision.
However, the panic caused by suffocation lasted only a moment before being replaced by a deeper, colder instinct.
She didn't know where the strength came from, but she slammed her head back, and the back of her head hit the other person's nose hard like a hammer blow!
With a suppressed, painful gasp, the grip on her neck loosened for a moment!
Now!
Lan Shuyin broke free from the loosened restraints, quickly got up, and then delivered a clean and crisp uppercut from below, striking the attacker's jaw, who was bowing his head in pain!
"Click!"
Another sickeningly soft crack. The other person's jaw was instantly dislocated, all movement came to an abrupt halt, and only painful whimpers remained.
Lan Shuyin was panting, her eyes chillingly cold.
She turned around, pinned the limp attacker to the ground, raised her hand holding the tactical pen high, the sharp tip reflecting a cold glint in the light, and aimed it at the attacker's carotid artery.
With just a gentle push, it serves as a warning to others.
The thin man she had pinned to the ground was filled with terror, making indistinct hoarse sounds in his throat. His body trembled violently from the excruciating pain and the fear of impending death, but he was unable to move.
The pen tip hovers just one centimeter from the skin.
"No, don't kill him! We mean no harm!" The tattooed, burly man with broken ribs cried out urgently.
He knelt on both knees, his face filled with earnestness and fear.
Lan Shuyin raised her eyes, her cold gaze sweeping across his face. She chuckled and, taking advantage of the situation, released the person in her arms.
She dragged over a chair and sat down, her fingertips deftly toying with the cold-gleaming pen. "Tell me, what do you want to do to a weak woman like me?"
The burly man, enduring the pain, moved to his companion's side, checked his condition, and mumbled a reply, "Our boss would like to ask you to come over... Your friend has disturbed our village's treasure."
The head of the household, a friend, a treasure of the town and village—the amount of information is overwhelming, but the demeanor of a master cannot be lost.
Lan Shuyin raised an eyebrow, signaling him to continue.
The burly man swallowed hard. "I don't know the specifics either. The boss only instructed that everyone who had contact with that gentleman in the hospital should be invited back for a chat."
Lan Shuyin immediately understood that they were referring to Chen Zigui.
She leaned forward slightly, her gaze carrying a scrutinizing pressure. "Then why don't you just go directly to him?"
This question made the burly man stammer and avoid eye contact.
Lan Shuyin understood again, "You think I'm easy to deal with, a pushover."
"No, no, no." The burly man shook his head vigorously, hurriedly explaining, "There are too many people and eyes in the hospital, and there are other people of unknown origin secretly watching us. There are only a few of us, and we can't afford to offend any of them. We really have no choice..."
"In the end, aren't I still a pushover?" Lan Shuyin was furious, raising the tactical pen in her hand as if to stab him.
"Heroine, spare me! Heroine, spare me!"
The other party was terrified, covering his head and shrinking into a ball, his voice trembling with sobs, "We're just roughnecks from the village who've practiced martial arts for a few years, I'm afraid I can't handle this!"
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