Back at the hospital, the nurse, having changed her sanitary pad, returned to the ward to find the two mental patients gone. She paced anxiously, searching everywhere, but couldn't find them.
She asked Zhang Hongmin and learned that they had left while she was changing her pad. She thought, How could these mental patients be so sneaky? They really know how to pick their moments. She even regretted being a woman, cursed with monthly bleeding.
Unable to find the patients, she was near tears.
She asked her colleagues for help. They comforted her, telling her not to worry, that perhaps they had gone to watch the birds.
Birds?
The nurse was exasperated. Perhaps, in her colleagues' eyes, mental patients had simple minds.
But these two weren't ordinary mental patients!
Just then, two figures appeared in the distance down the corridor. Looking closely, weren't they the two mental patients she had been searching for?
They held hands, smiling, and if one looked carefully, they seemed somewhat out of sync with everyone else.
The nurse wanted to run over and ask them where they had been.
She lifted her foot, but remembering they were mental patients, she put it back down.
Am I crazy? Why would I ask mental patients where they've been?
As long as they were back, that was all that mattered.
"Excuse me, please," Lin Fan said with a smile.
The nurse standing at the door instinctively moved aside, watching them return to their ward. She decided not to think too much about it.
Back in the ward, Old Man Zhang lay on his bed, rolled up his sleeve, and looked at the Rolex on his wrist. Feeling the watch's aura of prestige and luxury, he felt content.
Lin Fan wanted to give the leftover food to the little girl, but she had already eaten.
He could only give it to the one-eyed man.
"Have some food." Lin Fan walked over to the one-eyed man's bed and handed him the plastic container. "It's very delicious. It'll give you energy."
The one-eyed man ignored the two mental patients.
He had no interest in them anymore.
He blamed himself for being naive.
Only after interacting with them did he realize that talking to mental patients was like playing the lute to a cow. In the end, he would be the one frustrated, while they would calmly ask…
What's wrong with you?
"I don't want it." The one-eyed man didn't want to have much contact with them. Could he eat food given to him by mental patients?
Who knew what they had added to it?
Lin Fan opened the container, saying it was delicious and he should try it. A delicious aroma wafted out.
The one-eyed man smelled the fragrance and perked up.
It smells so good! Where did these two mental patients get this?
"Wait, let me see."
The one-eyed man was indeed a little hungry. Earlier, when Zhang Hongmin went to get food for his daughter, he had asked the one-eyed man if he wanted any. As a leader of a special department, one of the strongest in Yanhai City, how could he lie in a hospital bed, eating hospital box lunches like an ordinary person?
That would be an insult to a strong individual.
Lin Fan handed the chopsticks to the one-eyed man and then climbed onto his own bed, sitting cross-legged. He beckoned to the little girl and smiled at her blankly.
He could see a friendly light in the little girl's eyes, sacred, pure, and untainted.
The little girl liked Lin Fan's smile. It was like the sun, warm.
The one-eyed man picked up a piece of meat. He noticed it was snake meat, but he didn't think much of it. He put it in his mouth and chewed. It was indeed delicious, the texture quite good.
But gradually, he realized something was off about the taste.
He didn't think too much about it.
Perhaps it was just the first bite.
"Where did you buy this?" The one-eyed man took a sip of the soup. It warmed his stomach. He was curious where they had gotten it. Even mental patients knew to eat snake meat. Their minds might be unwell, but they weren't stupid.
Lin Fan said expressionlessly, "We didn't buy it."
Old Man Zhang continued, "We found it in the woods. It was so long, and so cute, with red and black patterns. Really cute."
"It suddenly appeared near us, and we thought since it looked so good, it must be delicious. Then someone helped us cook it."
The one-eyed man didn't think too deeply about it. He chewed the snake meat, shaking his head and smiling. These two mental patients were quite lucky.
To encounter such a thing.
Wait…
Red and black patterns?
The one-eyed man, who had been chewing the snake meat enthusiastically, slowed down. His expression turned serious. He picked up a piece of the snake meat and placed it in a metal box. Light beams shot out from the four corners, forming a three-dimensional image with various data displayed.
Level Two Evil Creature: Black Serpent.
The one-eyed man's mouth opened slightly.
Somehow, the fragrant snake meat wasn't so fragrant anymore.
Ptoo!
He spat out the snake meat. He wanted to slap himself.
Is my mind really unwell?
Why did I eat food given to me by mental patients?
"Ah! How can you waste it like that? He saved this for you, he didn't want to eat it himself!" Old Man Zhang saw the one-eyed man spit out the snake meat and became furious. His face reddened as he grabbed the plastic container, then handed it to Lin Fan angrily. "He doesn't deserve to eat such delicious food."
He glared at the one-eyed man.
"I won't give you any more acupuncture treatments to help your eye grow back."
The one-eyed man calmly looked at Old Man Zhang, inwardly screaming, Thank you very much! I've experienced your acupuncture twice already. If I let you do it a third time, I'll jump out of this window.
Gulp!
Lin Fan drank the snake soup and ate the snake meat. It was so delicious. If he had known he would waste it like that, he should have eaten it all back at the house, at least while it was still warm.
He saw the little girl staring at him and smiled. "Do you want some?"
"I'm full," the little girl shook her head.
"Then I'll eat it all." Lin Fan looked at the little girl, saw her nod, then tilted his head back, opened his mouth wide, and poured all the food from the container into his mouth. It was so good.
The one-eyed man lay on his bed, looking away. He didn't want to pay attention to the two mental patients anymore.
He would leave when it was daylight.
He thought about the Black Serpent, and for some reason, he thought of the Mad Dog. The deaths of both Level Two evil creatures were related to these two mental patients.
The endings were strikingly similar.
Both were eaten by them.
If they were strong individuals, he wouldn't be surprised.
But they were defenseless mental patients.
And they looked so weak!
How did they kill the evil creatures without any injuries?
As he thought about it, the one-eyed man knew that if he couldn't figure it out, he definitely wouldn't sleep tonight. If he wanted to know the secret, he could only continue interacting with the mental patients.
But looking at the two of them…
He didn't know how to start a conversation.
One had finished the snake meat and soup, and was sitting cross-legged on the bed, rubbing his belly with a contented expression.
The other was glaring at him, as if he had stolen his expensive Rolex.