The Mysterious Card Maker: Starting with Zhang Jiao's Deification

"Brother Fan? Brother Fan, are you still there?" Zhou Chen called out twice on the other end of the phone when Lin Fan didn't respond.

"Okay, I understand." Lin Fan snapped out of his thoughts and said calmly, "I'll talk about it when I get back."

Zhou Chen said, "Brother Fan, why does your voice sound so weak? Are you really okay?"

"It's nothing, I just got bitten by something strange."

"Bitened?" Zhou Chen's voice rose again. "Bitened by what? Weird? Holy crap, Fan-ge, you..."

"Alright, alright, let's talk about it when we get back." Lin Fan quickly cut off the conversation. "I'm hanging up now, I haven't eaten yet."

"Oh, okay, then go eat quickly, take good care of yourself, and don't forget to come to my party this Saturday..."

Qin Muyao pulled up a chair, sat down on the edge of the bed, held the bowl of porridge in her hand, stirred it with a spoon, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and held it to Lin Fan's lips.

Open your mouth.

The voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet ward, Zhou Chen could hear it clearly over the phone.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

Zhou Chen's voice rang out again, and he asked gossipily:

"Brother Fan...who is that? Is it the girl who answered the phone? Her voice is nice, but why does it sound so familiar?"

"You don't recognize her? She's a nurse at the hospital?"

"The nurse asked you to open your mouth? It can't be to give you medicine, can it?" Zhou Chen's voice was full of disbelief.

Lin Fan opened his mouth, about to make up another reason, when Qin Muyao suddenly leaned closer and said into the phone, "He needs to rest, I'm hanging up now."

There was silence on the other end of the phone again. Qin Muyao picked up her phone and hung up.

"Drink some porridge!" Qin Muyao scooped up another spoonful of white porridge and brought it to Lin Fan's lips.

Lin Fan looked at the spoonful of porridge, then at Qin Muyao, and said to her, "I can do it myself."

"How are you going to hold this with one hand?" Qin Muyao glanced at Lin Fan's injured right hand, then pushed the spoonful of porridge forward further. "Open your mouth."

Lin Fan looked down at his right shoulder, which was wrapped in gauze, and then at his left hand. He wasn't left-handed, but he wasn't used to using his left hand.

He had no choice but to open his mouth and let Qin Muyao feed him porridge.

Before Lin Fan could swallow the porridge in his mouth, his phone on the bedside table vibrated again.

Lin Fan reached out and picked it up, looking at the message Zhou Chen had sent on the screen, and then opened the voice message.

"Brother Fan, I really don't know that nurse you mentioned, but her voice sounds so familiar. How old is she? Is she pretty?"

Zhou Chen's voice messages popped up one after another. Qin Muyao took the phone from Lin Fan and quickly typed on the screen.

He reached out to grab it, which aggravated the wound on his shoulder, causing him to hiss in pain.

"What did you send?" Lin Fan asked.

Qin Muyao turned her phone over to show him.

On the screen, the message she had just sent contained only one line: "Very beautiful."

Lin Fan stared at those three words and remained silent for a full three seconds.

The phone started vibrating incessantly again, with one message after another from Zhou Chen popping up like a machine gun.

"Brother Fan, didn't you say you were talking about nurses? Why are you commenting on them now?"

"Wait, could she not be a nurse at all?"

"No, no, that voice sounds more and more familiar. Who could it be?"

Seeing that her phone was on silent, Qin Muyao put it on the bedside table, then picked up the porridge and scooped out a spoonful.

"Come on, open your mouth."

Lin Fan looked at her, opened his mouth, put the porridge in his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and asked, "Were you doing that on purpose just now?"

"What do you mean, intentional?"

"It's just... talking into the phone."

Qin Muyao tilted her head and thought for a moment, "I just think he's too noisy and disturbs your rest."

Looking into her innocent eyes, Lin Fan couldn't tell whether she was doing it on purpose or if she really meant it.

"Here, have another bite." Qin Muyao handed the spoon over again.

At the ward door, a nurse peeked in, then withdrew and whispered to her colleague in the corridor, "The patient in bed 7 is being taken care of; we don't need to go."

A colleague peeked curiously through the crack in the door: "Is that his girlfriend? Why is she wearing a hospital gown too?"

The nurse thought for a moment and said, "I don't know, but I do know that I can rest now!"

Two days is not a long time. After another test by the doctor, the strange poison in Lin Fan's body has been completely cleared, and he can be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.

Lin Fan leaned against the headboard, scrolling through the news on his phone with his left hand.

Local news reports from Dongliu City, such as "Strange Events in Dongliu City's Mysterious Realm" and "Bizarre Attack on a Lonely Woman in Dongliu City," were prominently featured.

He was just about to click to take a look when there was a knock on the ward door.

"Knock knock knock".

Qin Muyao, who was sitting by the window peeling oranges, said towards the door, "Come in."

The door opened with a "click".

The man who entered was a young man wearing a gray trench coat. He had a smile on his face and was carrying an elegant fruit basket.

As soon as he entered the room, his gaze fell on Qin Muyao, scanning her from head to toe as if he were examining some rare object.

"Hey, where's the person who used to stay? You didn't come to the wrong place, it's bed number 7?" he said as he walked in.

Qin Muyao frowned as she looked at the man's unfriendly gaze, crushing the orange peel in her hand into tiny pieces.

Lin Fan also noticed something was wrong. Seeing the person approaching Qin Muyao, he asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Upon hearing Lin Fan's voice, the man turned around and realized that there was another person in the room.

He looked at Lin Fan, who was wrapped in bandages and had a pale face, and his lips curled slightly, his contempt barely concealed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said with a smile, holding up the fruit basket in his hand. "I heard that bed number 7 is occupied by an injured little girl, and I wanted to visit her. It seems I've come to the wrong place?"

Lin Fan's tone was indifferent as he patted the bed beneath him. "This is bed number 7, but it's not for a young girl. You can leave now."

"And who is this?" He pointed to Qin Muyao.

"Who she is is none of your business," Lin Fan said in an unfriendly tone. "I told you, you can leave now."

The man's smile froze for a moment, then returned to its insincere amiability. He shrugged, placed the fruit basket on the low cabinet by the door, and waved his hand.

"Alright, alright, I won't bother you any longer. Keep the fruit basket as an apology."

"Take your things away, we don't need them," Lin Fan said.

He ignored it, turned and walked out of the ward at a leisurely pace. The moment the door closed, the smile on his face vanished completely.

At the end of the corridor, he stopped, glanced back at the direction of ward number 7, his gaze cold, and a cryptic smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"You've got your eye on it? Why don't you just take it with you?" A hoarse voice came from his body, tinged with mockery.

The man licked his lips and lowered his voice: "There's someone else in the ward."

"What's there to be afraid of in a wounded, sickly guy? Just kill him." The voice carried a hint of bloodthirsty excitement.

"That Master Xiang said not to make too much of a commotion." A sinister smile curled at the corner of his lips. "But when it's late at night, and no one's paying attention..."

He glanced again toward room number 7 and let out a low laugh.

"You want the woman, the man is mine, his scent... it really appeals to me."

The lights in the corridor flickered for a moment, the man straightened his collar, and disappeared at the top of the stairs.

In the ward, Qin Muyao threw the orange peels into the trash can, stood up, walked to the door, picked up the fruit basket, glanced at it, and then threw it directly into the trash can in the corridor.

"Who is it?" She clapped her hands, as if she had touched something dirty.

"Don't you think that person is a bit strange?" Lin Fan said.

Qin Muyao sat back down by the window, picked up another orange, and said in a calm tone, "Strange, aren't there all kinds of people in the hospital?"

Lin Fan didn't say anything more, and pulled out the news on his phone again.

I was lost in thought as I stared at the news headline, "A Lone Woman Is Strangely Attacked in Dongliu City."