"Boss, Boss," a young man skidded past the sick bay and then backtracked. "Boss? What are you doing in here? Did you get hurt? Whoa, that's a lot of blood. What happened?"
"I picked up an injured kitten outside the door earlier," Grices gestured under the bed.
"An injured kitten? How'd it get hurt? Should we take it to the vet?" the young man entered the room with round eyes and peered under the bed. "Wait. That's not a kitten. That's a girl. Wasn't someone just looking for a girl at the front door earlier?"
"Yes, but this girl has been chased. I don't think she's very well. She seems a bit confused, like those girls that the Ancients do something to. At least she's with it enough to know that there's something wrong, unlike some of those poor girls," Grices said. "What did you come looking for me for?"
"I finished watching the last livestream episode of Let Me Entertain You. Did you know, they said that this is the last run of the program altogether! They aren't running the program again anymore! I won't be able to try and join it next year. Boss, I'm so sad!"
"I told you. It's better to join Longgen's martial arts stunt team than to join a flashy program like this. How many of those trainees are even going to be noticed? Yes, they get exposure but taking this kind of fast track isn't as stable as taking things step by step. Got it?" Grices flicked the young man in the forehead. "You just turned eighteen. You've got plenty of time. You'll get there in the end."
"Boss, Boss, my dolly, Stacey and her friends wrote a new song. There's something wrong with her though. This episode, they put her on stage but her eyes were all glazed and confused. I think she's been injured again. Look. Can you tell me what's wrong with her?"
The young man thrust his phone in front of Grices and played a video clip. Grices snatched the phone from the young man and looked between Stacey under the bed and the girl on the screen. He held the phone under the bed.
"Little lady, is this you?"
Stacey watched herself playing with a cup on the piano and nodded.
"I did that earlier this evening," she said. "It feels like a long time ago. The stage was all crowded and stuffy, so I went to find somewhere with more air. And then two security guards kept trying to convince me to go somewhere with them. Something felt wrong, so I hit them and ran away."
"B-b-boss," the young man stammered. "Is your little injured kitten Stacey Wright? Is that my dolly hiding under the bed?"
"Yes, I think so," Grices said, rubbing his face. "Since she's your dolly, you should know who her family is, right? Or at least, who's taking care of her? Tell me about her."
"She's eighteen or nineteen years old, but no one is exactly sure. It's what the doctors reckon from her bone age. She's a lost kid who walked into the program by accident. She already had a brain injury and amnesia at the time. She turned out to be a musical genius. She can't really dance or do stunts but when she's a musical genius, who cares? She nearly got caught by beastmen who were roaming the town in Whistledown and got blamed for the battle there. She got turned into a berserker so that she would survive the battle because she couldn't fight at all. I mean, she couldn't even throw a straight punch. She was injured pretty badly in the head and chest during the battle but managed to recover and rejoin the program. But then her team got disqualified for messing with 'Pear Blossoms', the song, you know. Then she overworked herself and kept getting sick and fainting and…"
"Alright, alright," Grices waved a hand. "Her family, guardian, carer, manager. Tell me one of them. I need to know who to contact to come and take her home."
"Uh, she married the big boss of DND and Stanza Entertainment, Thieren Huo, after the battle in Whistledown."
"Good enough for me. Go and find out how we can contact him."
The young man folded his hands across his chest with a stubborn look.
"He's the guy who turned her into a berserker. You probably don't know, but she was feral by the time the battle came round. From what I've heard, he hasn't treated her very well. I don't want her to go back to him."
Grices rubbed his face and kicked the young man on the calf.
"Rumours aren't the truth. The Huo family are such famous people. Of course there'll be bad rumours of the kid they say was the product of mixed blood after they rescued their girl from the Ancients. Even the Huo family want to pretend he doesn't exist. Unfortunately, he's also one of the most promising young men of his generation. Go and see if you can find a way to contact him or his team. They must be looking for her by now."
"Oh. Alright," the young man rubbed his calf and tapped on his phone.
"Kid, you're safe here," Grices peered under the bed. "Those people are gone. You can come out now. Kid?"
Grices reached under the bed and pulled Stacey out by the arms when she didn't move. He checked to make sure she was breathing and then lifted her onto the bed with her feet hanging off the end.
"It's probably better you're unconscious," he muttered to himself. "It won't hurt so much while I'm cleaning your feet."
"Excuse me," said a voice at the front door. "Have you happened to see this girl pass by earlier? Her name's Stacey. She might have been chased by kidnappers dressed as security guards. She's not very well."
"Boss!" the lanky man called over his shoulder. "There's more people looking for that girl."
The voice of the man at the door grew sharper at that.
"Someone else was looking for her?"
"Like you said, they were wearing security guard uniform, but they looked a mess. One of them had a bloody cut on his forehead," the lanky man said. "They didn't look or sound like security guards either. They went looking for her that way," the lanky man pointed down the street.
The man with the sharp voice barked a few orders and feet ran off behind him, but he remained where he was.
"You know where she is," he said.
"Boss!" the lanky man called again.
"Let him in," Grices called.
A group of two men and one blonde woman entered the sick bay and relief flooded their faces when they saw Stacey lying on the bed.
"My lady," the blonde woman rushed to her side. Her soprano voice surprised Grices a little at how sweet but cold it sounded. It seemed a contrast to the tears dripping down her cheeks.
"Her feet were all cut up and she didn't look well. She had the look of someone being chased, so I brought her in here for safety and to see to her feet," Grices glanced at the team, recognising the uniform. "Huo guards, right? You're her guards? Prove it to me."
Ning pulled out his ID card and nodded for Miao and Elsa to do the same. He introduced them.
"Alright," Grices nodded. "Let me finish pulling the glass out of her feet and changing her bandages and then let's talk."
"I'll help you," Elsa said.
"I'll report the situation to my lord," Ning stepped out of the room to make a few calls.