Bai Yulao: The Night Watcher's Debt to the King of Hell

Chapter Twelve: Living Figurines and the Cage of Immortality

After an unknown amount of time, Su Wantang was awakened by an extremely disorienting sensation!

She was lying in bed, but her back felt stiff, as if it were covered with a thick layer of wax, and even her pores were blocked.

She instinctively tried to take a deep breath, but found her chest heavy, as if weighed down by something heavy, making it difficult to breathe.

That feeling of suffocation doesn't come from a lack of oxygen, but from a "shutdown" of bodily functions!

"Don't move! This is a side effect of the impact of the malevolent energy!"

Lin Shoumo's voice came from the side, tinged with weariness.

He was sitting in the dimly lit corner of the hospital room, peeling an apple.

Su Wantang's eyes widened. The terrifying feeling of suffocation slowly disappeared, replaced by the real sensation of cold sweat dripping down her skin.

She was breathing heavily, her fingers gripping the sheets tightly.

"What happened? What... what's wrong with me?"

"Last night you inhaled too much 'evil energy' in the basement, causing hallucinations and making you pass out!" Lin Shoumo casually put down the fruit knife and handed her the peeled apple: "Apples are the fruit with the strongest yang energy. Eating it can neutralize some of the evil energy in your body!"

Su Wantang took the apple from his hand, but her eyes were focused on the bedside table!

Beside the fruit knife lay a black leather notebook—"Experimental Records of Blissful Immortality."

It looked like a piece of dried cowhide, and the fine lines on the cover seemed to pulsate slightly in her eyes.

"This thing..." Su Wantang felt her throat go dry. She took a bite of the apple, but couldn't swallow it. It was stuck in her throat. She instinctively wanted to spit it out, but reason made her hold back.

"I suggest you don't open it!" Lin Shoumo's voice was low as he gently patted her back. "That's karma. The deeper you look, the tighter the karmic threads become!"

Su Wantang swallowed the apple with difficulty, and the feeling of being sealed by wax gradually disappeared. Then she glared at Lin Shoumo and turned to the first page with a look of disbelief.

There is no table of contents or preface; what comes into view are a series of high-resolution close-up photos.

Those were all incredibly beautiful faces.

Her skin was as smooth as porcelain, without any flaws; her eyes were empty and deep; and a perfect, standard smile hung on the corners of her mouth.

If you don't look closely, you might mistake this for a high-fashion photoshoot taken in a top-notch studio.

But when Su Wantang looked down, she noticed unnatural, rounded creases at their joints, their stiff postures that defied ergonomics, and their skin that had a strange, translucent, waxy feel under the bright light!

Project Code: JLWH (Physical and Chemical Agent)

Experimental phase: In vivo modeling

Su Wantang's fingers traced the cold words, each one seemingly describing a meticulously planned torture.

"12 hours after injection: Sweat gland secretion ceased, subcutaneous fat began to liquefy and reorganize, and the stratum corneum hardened completely!"

"24 hours after injection: articular cartilage dissolution, skeletal muscle fiber vitrification."

The subjects lost their motor skills, but their tactile nerve sensitivity increased by 300%!

The subject will now remain in that position indefinitely!

"48 hours after injection: vocal cord calcification. The subject lost the ability to speak, retaining only hearing and vision."

Note: This is the most perfect stage; they can hear the praise, but cannot refute it. This silence is the highest form of submission!

Upon seeing this, Su Wantang's hair stood on end!

The woman in the photo seemed to be staring intently at her through the paper, her eyes unable to close. Beneath that eternally smiling mask lay a soul imprisoned within a body, screaming madly.

This turns living people into conscious, immortal "silicone dolls".

"This is simply... utterly insane!" Su Wantang's voice trembled.

"That's not the worst part," Lin Shoumo turned to the middle page, "You need to be mentally prepared!"

The woman in the photo doesn't have a perfect smile like the others.

Her face was contorted in agony, her mouth agape as if screaming silently, and there were even bloody, tear-like marks at the corners of her eyes.

Experimental subject: C-42 (Zhou Xiaoyu)

Status: Design failed

Abnormal description: The subject showed unusually strong willpower and forcibly twisted his limbs during the bone softening stage in an attempt to commit suicide.

Thirty hours after the injection, she bit off the tip of her tongue in an attempt to suffocate, which caused damage to her oral cavity structure and affected the "oral filling" procedure.

Facial expressions become stiff and rigid due to extreme pain, making it impossible to "pleasantly" modify them.

Handling opinion: Its aesthetic value is zero! It is deemed waste! It will be used as a concrete additive in the No. 09 foundation filling layer!

"She doesn't want to become a doll..." Su Wantang suppressed the trembling in her heart. How cruel it is to turn a living person into a living rubber doll!

Reading those cold words, my eyes reddened. "She would rather die, rather become a ghost in the wall, than become like that."

"Because she knows that becoming like that would be worse than death!" Lin Shoumo said coldly.

"The most insidious aspect of chemical agents is not that they kill people, but that they deprive people of the right to die."

Your body has become incorruptible rubber, but your consciousness is locked inside. Even after hundreds of years, you will still be conscious, still feel pain, and still feel dust falling on your skin.

He paused, his eyes turning somewhat sinister:

"Do you know why that thing inside the wall keeps chewing? It's not eating, it's grinding its teeth!"

Su Wantang felt a chill run from the soles of her feet straight up to the top of her head!

She suddenly realized: the chewing sounds in the basement were not eating, but trying to break free from the shackles of the chemical agent, a desperate torment that had lasted for six hundred years!

She closed her notebook, took a deep breath, and tried to calm her wildly beating heart.

Just then, a thin piece of paper slipped out from the back cover of the notebook and floated lightly onto the bed sheet.

That wasn't ordinary paper, but a semi-transparent, translucent piece of film.

A half-finished order was printed on it in bright red ink.

【Return to the Void - High-End Customized Pre-order】

Target sample: Su Wantang

Rating: S-level (Extremely high intelligence and willpower, suitable for producing the "Enforcer" series)

Su Wantang stared intently at that name—Su Wantang.

That's her own name.

A chilling feeling of being watched instantly enveloped her.

It turned out that from the moment she stepped into that forbidden zone, or even earlier, a pair of eyes had been watching her in the darkness, as if they were eyeing a piece of fresh meat waiting to be slaughtered, scheming how to skin her, dismember her, and sew her into a beautiful doll.

"Gui Xu..." Su Wantang gritted her teeth, "They've been watching me all along?"

"What's this?" Lin Shoumo picked up the film and waved it in front of his eyes. When he saw Su Wantang's name, his eyes instantly turned cold: "They want to turn you into a rubber doll too?"

Su Wantang turned her head sharply and glared at him, a hint of unease flashing in her eyes: "These people dare to lay a hand on me, aren't they afraid of going to jail?"

"The law is the rule of the world, their rule is not within the world!" Lin Shoumo composed himself, crumpled the film into a ball, and with a slight force in his palm, the non-degradable film instantly turned into a wisp of smoke.

"If I were you, I would feel a chill down my spine right now."

Since this order exists, it means that 'Gui Xu' has already extended its reach into the police force, and even...

He suddenly leaned closer to Su Wantang, his dark eyes fixed on her, his voice low and almost a whisper:

"It might even be right here in this hospital!"

Su Wantang instinctively pushed herself back on the hospital bed, her eyes instantly sharpening: "You mean... this was all a setup against me?"

Lin Shoumo shrugged, slumped back into his chair, and resumed his nonchalant demeanor.

Don't be nervous! I'm just guessing!

But seriously, senior sister, if you really become a doll, remember to manage that "fear expression" well. If it's too stiff, it will be judged as a defective product and thrown into the wall.

"That's such a pity. After all, I'm a bit of a looks-obsessed person, and I haven't had enough of your stunning beauty..."

"Lin Shoumo!" Su Wantang growled, but this time, she wasn't really angry.

This kind of unserious banter actually proves that he is absolutely confident in dealing with those people.

Their bickering diluted the suffocating sense of terror, allowing her to slightly escape from the despair of being objectified.

"Alright, Senior Sister, stop glaring at me!" Lin Shoumo pointed to the door. "Now that the order has been placed, wouldn't it be impolite of us not to send a 'return gift'?"

He stood up, stretched his neck, and his joints cracked.

"Senior sister, my suggestion is that you go and have a good meal before you turn into rubber."

"Let me eat my fill, then I'll have the strength to shove that bastard who dared to place an order with my senior sister into a concrete wall!"

Su Wantang took a deep breath, slowly put on her coat, and stuffed the notebook into her bosom: "Fine! You absolutely have to help me find these people! Otherwise, I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"

Su Wantang broke out in a cold sweat. Although this charlatan in front of her seemed unreliable, only she knew his weight in the face of this inexplicable and bizarre situation!

The two walked out of the ward one after the other.

The corridor was empty, and under the white light, only Lin Shoumo's shadow was visible; Su Wantang's shadow had vanished once again…