Chapter 26: The Group Leader
“Cough, cough…”
Shen Miaoyun choked on her own saliva and coughed for a while, while Luo Ling turned her gaze to the landline phone at the reception desk.
Only one sentence had come from the phone, then silence.
“How could Old Ji let the enemy up here…?”
Shen Miaoyun wiped the corner of her mouth, looking at Luo Ling with apprehension and suspicion.
“I’m also an Awakened One.”
Luo Ling blinked her beautiful eyes, but Shen Miaoyun couldn’t see her expression because of the mask.
“I know…”
Shen Miaoyun twitched the corner of her mouth. That was stating the obvious. If she weren’t an Awakened One, how could she have killed Sister Wu Qin?
With Wu Qin’s ability, even ten machine guns firing simultaneously couldn’t kill her.
If it weren’t for this, the exchange group wouldn’t have been so shocked.
Anyone in the group could have died quietly, but Sister Wu Qin, the least likely to die, had mysteriously fallen… The group had been keeping a low profile for over a year because of this.
“About her… I’m sorry,” Luo Ling hesitated, then apologized. “I didn’t mean to, I had no choice at the time.”
From the nurse’s expression, she could tell that the Bone Doctor had been one of them, and an important one at that.
But to Shen Miaoyun, this apology sounded more like a provocation… like in a card game, when your opponent keeps saying “sorry” while having a huge advantage, you wouldn’t think they were genuinely apologizing.
“They’re all on the seventh floor. Go on up.”
Shen Miaoyun looked away from Luo Ling.
Hmph, this little girl looked cute, but she was so ruthless, truly… appearances could be deceiving!
Luo Ling had no idea what Shen Miaoyun was thinking, but she didn’t care much either. After nodding at Shen Miaoyun, she turned and walked towards the elevator.
She didn’t have much time. Squeezing in a visit to this psychiatric hospital amidst her busy senior year schedule, she had to settle things quickly.
After everything was dealt with, Luo Ling still had to rush back and catch up on her studies.
Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital wasn’t as terrifying and gloomy as the rumors said. At least, so far, besides being a bit deserted, it seemed no different from an ordinary hospital.
Of course, she hadn’t been to the area where the mental patients were actually held.
The elevator quickly reached the seventh floor. As the green light above the door lit up, Luo Ling sensed something amiss.
Someone was waiting for her outside the elevator!
Luo Ling’s eyes narrowed, and she instantly released Spores, catching a glimpse of the scene outside.
“One, two, three, four… four people.”
A burly man, a tall, thin man like a monkey, a heavily made-up woman, and a girl in a wheelchair.
They were all guarding the elevator entrance, seemingly trying to intimidate her.
“Heh…”
A faint smile appeared on Luo Ling’s lips. She wasn’t going to be intimidated so easily.
Puppet Ballad, first skill, Proliferation.
The Spores attached to the elevator entrance began to grow, assimilating with the floor.
Before the four people at the entrance could react, the ground beneath their feet began to rise, forming four small stone pillars, lifting them into the air.
While everyone was still stunned, the elevator doors opened.
A girl wearing a bulky beanie walked in casually. The four people blocking the entrance now looked like an honor guard, watching as the girl walked past them.
“Hello, brothers and sisters,” Luo Ling looked up, her expressive eyes smiling. “Thank you for coming to greet me.”
The four exchanged glances.
…This little girl was no pushover!
They didn’t know about Luo Ling’s conversation with Shen Miaoyun downstairs. The only thing they knew was what the group leader had said: this girl was connected to Wu Qin’s death.
Sister Wu Qin’s death had been a heavy blow to the Patient Exchange Group, not only because they had lost their strongest fighter, but also because almost everyone here was an Awakened One protected by Sister Wu Qin.
“Let her come in…”
Just then, the same elderly voice from the phone call echoed again, seemingly from the end of the seventh-floor corridor.
“Yes, Group Leader.”
The four exchanged glances, bowed respectfully towards the depths of the seventh floor, and then stepped aside, making way for Luo Ling.
Group Leader?
Why did the leader of this organization have such a strange title…?
Luo Ling felt a sense of unease but continued walking towards the end of the corridor.
After she passed, the Awakened Ones quickly stepped down from the stone pillars.
“My god… what path is that ability from? Wu Hai, can you tell?” The heavily made-up woman bent down slightly, examining the protruding stone pillars with astonishment.
“Elemental, maybe? But that doesn’t make sense. Earth or stone abilities from the Elemental path shouldn’t manifest like this…”
The skinny man touched a stone pillar. It felt incredibly smooth, more like… a part of the marble floor had suddenly grown upwards.
“And, and! How did she know where we were standing?! The elevator doors weren’t even open! And she made the stone pillars grow right beneath our feet! That’s so, so, so scary!!!”
A sharp, piercing voice suddenly erupted, not from the girl in the wheelchair, but from a small teddy bear she held in her arms.
The teddy bear’s exaggerated expression and shrill voice made everyone cover their ears.
Its owner, the girl in the wheelchair, remained silent, her eyes closed, as if detached from the world.
“Don’t worry about it, Yang Meili. The Group Leader asked her to come up. I said there was no need for such a show of force, but you insisted,” the burly man said gruffly, but he frowned slightly as he looked in the direction Luo Ling had left. “However, I feel like I’ve seen this girl somewhere before…”
“Hey, hey, hey, Liu Songyi, she’s a minor! And you’re a police officer! That’s a double offense!” Yang Meili said angrily, hands on her hips.
“That’s right, that’s right! Double offense! Double offense! Death penalty to start! Death penalty to start!”
The teddy bear chimed in excitedly.
“Xu Qian, can you control your bear… My ears are about to explode…”
Wu Hai rubbed his aching eardrums with a pained expression.
“Sorry…”
The girl in the wheelchair didn’t speak, but an ethereal voice echoed through the corridor.
Everyone’s eyes glazed over for a moment, then silence fell.
“Forget it, let’s just let the bear do the talking…”
Leave a Reply