Chapter 1158: Bystander
Lin Sanjiu considered herself a relatively compa.s.sionate person; at least compared to other posthumans, she believed she was mostly benevolent.
However, there was always a "but" waiting for her here—this child was just too d.a.m.n annoying.
If it were to be said that Lin Sanjiu felt a little sympathy when she witnessed the child being betrayed by her companion a moment ago, all of that vanished amidst the shrill cries and the m.u.f.fled sounds of her constant kicks against the wall.
How did she manage to survive until the age of ten with such a temperament?
Ya Jiang, unable to climb up easily after falling due to his missing waist, was unfortunately within reach of the child"s flailing limbs. Before he could finish a sentence, she kicked him twice and then gave him a slap with her arm. Lin Sanjiu hurried over to pull him up by the upper body while avoiding the child"s sweeping kicks. She brought his legs close to her to avoid being hit again. Unable to bear it any longer, she shouted at the wailing child on the ground, "Shut up!"
The effect was immediate. The girl"s cries escalated, the piercing wails echoing against the walls, audible to anyone within tens of meters. She seemed to be using all her strength to cry herself into a stupor, her face turning blood red, and her body twitching. It was only when Lin Sanjiu quickly covered her face with her hand, that the icy, heavy metal gauntlet slightly m.u.f.fled the crying.
She could feel the child open her mouth wide under the metal gauntlet, then give up on the idea of biting her; instead, the fists pounded her shoulder desperately, and the legs kicked even harder, changing direction and kicking at her waist, as if determined to kick Lin Sanjiu.
"If you want to attract others, then I"ll leave you here!" Lin Sanjiu warned her in a low voice, pressing her right arm"s strength onto the girl"s face.
The girl"s crying quickly turned into sobs, and she said something, but Lin Sanjiu couldn"t hear it clearly.
"What?" She cautiously loosened her grip a bit.
"Do... Do you t-think I want to go with you?" the girl said, each sentence interrupted multiple times due to her gasping. "Let me go!"
After a pause, she sobbed again, but this time she did so quietly, shedding tears while saying, "I... I"m only ten years old, and now I don"t have any kidneys... and n.o.body cares about me..."
"No wonder that person took one of your kidneys," Ya Jiang said suddenly. "If I had worked with you, I would have wanted compensation from you too. What a huge psychological trauma it must have been."
Lin Sanjiu originally thought the girl would cry again after hearing this, but she was evidently different from the other children who didn"t have any power and could only cry and throw tantrums. The girl sat up, glancing at them with a dark expression.
"Give me back my reaper," she ordered, her pitiful and annoying appearance from before replaced with a determined one. However, her eyelids were swollen from the tears, and her hair stuck to her face. "Do you two grown-ups still want to fight me?"
It seemed that no matter how much one might dislike children, they still retained a certain sensitivity in their nature. They seemed to be like small animals, able to sense who harbored good intentions and was unlikely to harm them. For example, Lin Sanjiu couldn"t imagine herself throwing a tantrum like the girl.
"Take us to the payment counter," Lin Sanjiu said, forcing herself to put on a cold expression. "Don"t forget, there"s still plenty on your body that I can reap."
The girl was lucky. Half of her body was submerged in the wall just now, and her companion couldn"t reach her vital organs, so he only went for her kidney. Now that Lin Sanjiu held the reaper in her hand and waved it around her face, the girl"s face turned paler, but she became more resolute, saying, "Take it! Start with my heart! I have no parents and n.o.body will miss me when I"m gone. Do you think I"m afraid of death?"
Lin Sanjiu had a headache. She still had many questions to ask, including the basic rules of the hospital, how they entered the patient room and found the list of patients, whether there were any tricks to finding the payment counter, etc. All these questions relied on the girl to speak up. However, evidently, the methods used to deal with adults didn"t seem to work on this mentally confused ten-year-old. They were still too young to grasp the value of life in time.
Ya Jiang watched for a while before finally asking, "Don"t you want to get revenge on that person?"
The girl shuddered, and her eyes turned towards him—his words seemed to have hit the nail on the head.
After some back-and-forth bargaining, the child named Wus.h.i.+ Fan finally agreed to lead Lin Sanjiu and Ya Jiang. The condition was that they had to wait at the payment counter, where Wus.h.i.+ Fan"s original companion would eventually come to exchange her kidney for points. Once they saw him, both Lin Sanjiu and Ya Jiang had to help Wus.h.i.+ Fan take action, and all the organs on her companion"s body would belong to Wus.h.i.+ Fan. In return, she promised to tell them everything she knew.
Though the agreement was for both of them to take action, in reality, Ya Jiang, who was reduced to two segments and could only cling to her thighs as they walked forward, had little combat value. Wus.h.i.+ Fan"s words were primarily directed at Lin Sanjiu.
Lin Sanjiu only hoped that the effects of the coffee would last until then.
"How do you know the location of the payment counter?" Lin Sanjiu firmly held Wus.h.i.+ Fan"s shoulder with her right hand, keeping her at a distance from the wall, to prevent the child from slipping away through the wall.
"You both look like newcomers who are entering the hospital for the first time," Wus.h.i.+ Fan said, glancing at them before giggling. "Every time the payment counter appears at a new location, a large "open for business" sign floats on the high wall. It lasts for about 5 seconds before disappearing. If you miss it during those five seconds, you either have to rely on luck to search blindly, or wait for the next time the payment counter changes location... But the time of change is also random. So we always pay attention to what"s above our heads, so as not to miss the business notice."
So that"s how it was! The business notice only lasted for five seconds, and it was nearly impossible for newly admitted patients to catch it by chance.
She originally wanted to ask more questions, but before she could, Wus.h.i.+ Fan led them around a corner and stopped. "We"re here."
Here?
"Just at the end of this street. Do you see it?"
Lin Sanjiu looked up and saw a small shop at the corner, with a snow-white counter emitting soft light under the lamp, and she could hear the buzzing of an electric fan from far away. Ya Jiang huffed and puffed as he caught up and said softly, "It looks just like you described."
"How do I know if this payment counter is real?" Lin Sanjiu looked at Wus.h.i.+ Fan.
Wus.h.i.+ Fan seemed annoyed, waving her hand at her. "It"s fake then. You can go!"
Lin Sanjiu was taken aback, but before she could consider whether Wus.h.i.+ Fan was bluffing, a soft female voice with a gentle smile suddenly came from the high wall, saying, "The payment counter is real, but the child in your hands is fake."