Artifact Report

Chapter 385 Chai Si: Villain, Retired Soldier, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner

"Brother Chai!"

In the dimly lit ward, through the rectangular doorway bathed in the orange glow of the corridor lights, a figure suddenly rushed in—Han Liuyue seemed startled by the messy, dark ward and exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

Having been suppressed by Fu Tailan's shots, and with the duck that was about to be eaten flying away again, Chai Si could hardly be considered unharmed; if he were currently in the process of having a cerebral hemorrhage, he wouldn't be surprised at all.

But facing Han Liuyue, he could only suppress his anger and say, "...It's nothing, it's just that Fu Tailan got away. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future. What did you just say? What happened in Blackmore City?"

Han Liuyue looked around and first picked up the fake notice board at the door—it was easy to set up the fake sign, but you needed to know how to remove it.

Turn left three times, turn right once, and then press down twice for the sign to pop up; the method is not complicated, but if you don't know it beforehand, it's hard to figure out how to take it away in a short time.

After all, it's something displayed for people to see; if anyone can just reach out and take it away, it loses its meaning.

“When I went to find David just now, I noticed the storeroom door was open. I don’t know if he regained consciousness first and came out on his own. I’m going to ask if anyone saw him…”

Han Liuyue took a breath and forced herself to calm down.

"At first, I thought the chaos outside was because people in the hospital heard gunshots."

As she spoke, she walked into the ward and hurriedly rummaged through the dim light to find her toiletries, backpack, and cell phone. "But I soon discovered that this was only part of the reason. There was a man who kept yelling at the security guards to close the hospital gates, and he was even one of the people who had just rushed in. He had no idea that someone had fired a shot."

The influx of people into the hospital and the demands for security to close the gates—Chai Si immediately realized: "Are people seeking refuge in the hospital? Has something terrible happened outside?"

“Yes, but the problem is, nobody can explain it clearly.” Han Liuyue sighed hard. “I just woke up today, and I’m still confused about many things. I only heard them say that there has been heavy rain recently, and the city has been flooded… But even if there is flooding, it shouldn’t be enough to require us to go to the hospital for shelter, right?”

It had been raining all day, as Chai Si knew; but when he woke up in the morning and arrived at the hospital, the rain had just stopped, and he never imagined that it would lead to flooding.

If everything is flooded, closing the hospital is definitely useless. So why did the man still ask the security guards to close the hospital? That's the first suspicious point. The second is Han Liuyue's expression.

Before tonight, he had almost never seen Han Liuyue show any signs of anxiety or unease. Even on the day of the filming at the hideout, she remained calm and resolute.

“Let’s leave first,” Chai Sichong said, raising his chin at the doorway. “Tell me everything you see on the way.”

Han Liuyue paused for a moment, then replied with a "okay," before suddenly whispering as she reached the door, "I...I don't know if we can still get out."

Chai Si glanced at her.

As if she had been whipped, Han Liuyue immediately spilled the beans: "The corridor was chaotic at the time. I grabbed several people and questioned them, but their answers were all incoherent and contradictory..."

She said that she had only turned around when she saw a group of people rushing in from the end of the corridor.

The group of people seemed not to know each other, as if they had just happened to be fleeing to the same place; they were in a hurry, their steps hurried, and each of them was soaked, wrapped in the heat rising from their anxiety and panic, leaving countless frantic and messy wet footprints on the floor—a little child was being pulled by her mother, crying loudly, and almost slipped and fell to the ground.

"Let's go to the rooftop!"

Someone shouted, stumbling past Han Liuyue, ignoring her completely. His shouts seemed more to reassure himself: "On the rooftop—there's definitely nothing on the rooftop—don't go down... Even if they close the door now, it's too late. If it's too late, they might already be inside!"

"What happened? What did he say about coming in?"

Han Liuyue grabbed a middle-aged man who was passing by; his glasses were still fogged up with water droplets, which had slid down to the bridge of his nose, but he didn't bother to wipe them away, his face pale and bewildered. "You all just came in, right? What happened?"

"There's a huge flood! Many streets are submerged..."

The middle-aged man stammered, his eyes fixed on her, but seemingly unable to see her at all. It was as if a certain scene was still replaying in his mind, one he couldn't shake off. "Get away... get away from that water..."

"Avoid what water?" Han Liuyue asked anxiously and confusedly. "How can I avoid water?"

"I don't know!" The middle-aged man suddenly became fierce, shaking off her hand. "Don't stop me from leaving!"

He probably just wanted to leave, but didn't know where to go, so like a stray dog, he rushed with most people towards the stairwell at the other end of the corridor.

Out of the corner of her eye, Han Liuyue knew that the group of people hadn't finished leaving yet; she immediately turned her head to stop one of them—then, she abruptly stopped, slowly retreated to the wall, and pressed her back against it.

She watched the man walk past her—face to face, eye to eye, as he walked past her.

Han Liuyue leaned against the wall, while the man strode sideways like a crab, one eye fixed on her, seemingly oblivious to his own crab-like gait. As he walked, he asked, "Have you heard the news outside?"

It's human, absolutely human. But why would a human act this way?

She swallowed hard. "...No."

"So many strange things have appeared! We absolutely must not go out."

The strangest thing in the corridor at that moment was someone who was tightly covering half of their face with one hand, while the other half of their face looked relaxed and tired, as if they were bored.

His tone, however, remained filled with anxiety: "Has some high-tech company somehow managed to incorporate special effects into real life? They have to take responsibility for causing such a huge disturbance! Those things are really strange..."

By the time he finished speaking, he had already walked quite a distance sideways.

Han Liuyue wanted to chase after him and ask him a few questions, but she was also worried about Chai Si in the ward behind her. She called out, "What did you see that was so strange?"

Mirror?
The man suddenly turned around and pointed behind her: "That one."

Han Liuyue was startled and quickly spun around, only to find an empty corridor abandoned by fear, where even the air seemed to be wrinkled.

There was nothing there. What was that person showing her?
When Han Liuyue turned around again, the crab man had already disappeared down the corridor.

Even though she was usually calm and decisive, she was momentarily at a loss for what to do. If everything were as chaotic and bizarre as the nest, she could act freely. But the current chaos seemed to still be somewhat human.

After thinking about it, she decided to meet up with Chai Si first.

On the way back, from a distance, an announcement came over the loudspeaker from a lobby somewhere, urging everyone to remain calm, wait for rescue in a dry place, not to run around, and especially not to leave the hospital building...

The broadcast paused, then a clear and loud closing statement came: "Anyway, it's late."

"It's late anyway?" Chai Si frowned.

“Yes, I don’t know if I misheard or what…” Han Liuyue shook her head and said, “Everyone seems unwilling to go out, and it’s been raining outside.”

In the few minutes it took to explain what had happened, the two had already left the ward and gone down to the first floor; the elevator came to a smooth stop, and a female voice announced, "First floor has arrived."

They waited and waited, but the door didn't open.

Chai Si and Han Liuyue exchanged a glance; she pressed the door open button several times.

The elevator doors remained tightly shut, like a sealed wall.

"Please do not force the door open," the female voice announced flatly. "Moisture is seeping in, please be careful."

After he finished speaking, there was a brief, deathly silence in the elevator.

No one spoke, no one asked "what happened", and no one banged on the door—the two of them, without prior arrangement, chose to listen quietly and hold their breath.

Even though Chess had never been inside the lair, he still knew every strategy and action he should take when encountering strange situations within it.

He had rehearsed the day he would accidentally fall into the lair countless times in his mind.

Even in his dreams, he made countless assumptions, rehearsed countless times, and discovered surprises time and time again; but when this preparation finally came in handy, it was in Blackmore City.

He... he's still in Blackmore City, right?

Sure enough, the female voice broadcast came on again—it paused for several seconds, almost as if to see if the two would wait for it to continue.

When the broadcast finally came to a complete end, the silence between Chai Si and Han Liuyue was no longer a matter of strategy, but rather a result of shock.

"What..." Han Liuyue lowered her head, looking at her hands as if to confirm they were still there. "I didn't activate the passage; this should still be Blackmore City..."

Chai Si stared at the iron-gray, tightly closed elevator door in front of him. After a few seconds, he called out to her, "Han Liuyue."

“Yes,” Han Liuyue immediately stood up straight; the memories of her time in the military seemed to have never left her.

"Whose idea was it to get into the elevator?" Chai Si asked in a low voice.

(End of this chapter)