Jing Shao watched the scene unfold, her expression turning very strange.
Song Nanxing hesitated before asking, “Did you know Song Yunqiao before?”
Jing Shao nodded. “He was one of my patients, suffering from severe delusions. He broke his leg jumping out the window to spy on a neighbor and was admitted to the hospital. I performed the surgery on him. After the operation, he became obsessed with me, insisting that I was his wife. But once his injury healed, his family took him home, and he never showed up again…”
She didn’t even know when Song Yunqiao had sneaked into her home or when he started spreading rumors around the community that made the residents believe them.
Song Nanxing fell silent, unsure how to comfort her.
The plush rabbit, however, was visibly angry. It leaned out from Song Nanxing’s arms and repeatedly patted Jing Shao’s arm with its short paws, doing its best to console her.
Jing Shao stroked its head. She didn’t seem too sad or upset but instead asked Song Nanxing, “Why did you just ask if I was from Qingcheng?”
Song Nanxing replied, “I thought this was Tongcheng.”
Jing Shao was momentarily stunned, then lowered her eyes in thought. “You mean… I’m not in Qingcheng anymore?”
Song Nanxing nodded.
Suddenly, Jing Shao laughed and looked toward the other version of herself trapped and desperately struggling in the isolation ward. She said with a sense of relief, “So, even if no one came to save her, she eventually escaped.”
Song Nanxing was stunned. His gaze suddenly shifted to Jing Shao lying on the hospital bed.
He had originally thought that Cuihu Garden and the Qingcheng Psychiatric Health Center were just figments of imagination, and that Jing Shao was simply lost within them. But now, hearing her words, it was as if those past events had really happened.
If no one in the real Cuihu Garden came to help, given Jing Shao’s condition, it was very likely she would have been sent to the Qingcheng Psychiatric Health Center.
Only, in this place, the people and events had mutated into something more bizarre and terrifying than reality—like a nightmare.
Song Nanxing looked at the medical staff moving around and said, “There are quite a few monsters. Saving people will take some effort.”
*****
To pave the way for rescue, the two spent some time clearing out the monsters in the health center.
Fortunately, Jing Shao seemed to have become proficient with her abilities. With Song Nanxing and the plush rabbit assisting, they managed to get through it fairly smoothly.
Unbeknownst to them, a third of the medical staff had vanished, especially those near Jing Shao’s ward. Song Nanxing had tricked most of them out so Jing Shao could clean up the area.
They disguised themselves as medical staff again and confidently pushed a medical cart into the ward.
Song Yunqiao hadn’t left. Like a devoted husband concerned for his wife, he stayed glued to Jing Shao’s side. In reality, he was taking the opportunity to watch her futile struggles filled with fear and despair.
That tubular tongue occasionally licked Jing Shao’s face, sometimes sliding deep into her nostrils to suck.
The Jing Shao on the bed looked pale and weak.
Jing Shao pushed the cart inside, and Song Nanxing casually shut the ward door behind them.
Song Yunqiao eyed the returning “medical staff” suspiciously, his tongue flicking in the air. “Is there any more examination? Didn’t we just finish all the checks?”
Jing Shao untied the bandages wrapped around her face.
When Song Yunqiao saw her face beneath the bandages, he was shocked, eyes wide as he turned to confirm the person lying on the bed.
Jing Shao’s right hand transformed into a surgical scalpel and swiftly severed his tongue.
Song Yunqiao clutched his mouth, howling in pain.
Song Nanxing took the opportunity to remove the restraints on the bed and pulled out the intravenous needle from Jing Shao’s arm.
Jing Shao’s dazed consciousness brightened a bit. She looked at the blood-covered Song Yunqiao and finally turned her gaze to the face identical to hers on the bed.
Her expression was somewhat hazy but not overly shocked.
Song Nanxing asked, “Can you walk? If not, I can carry you.”
Jing Shao shook her head and slowly supported herself up using her arms.
Her movements were initially slow and clumsy but gradually grew more agile. The vacant expression on her face faded, replaced by a glint of the eerie sharpness Song Nanxing had first seen in her.
Two identical people stood side by side—the only difference being one had a savage scar cutting through her face, while the other’s was smooth and untouched.
The newly rescued Jing Shao looked at her hands, then at the surgical scalpel in the other’s hand. Her right hand slowly began to change as well.
She smiled and glanced at Song Yunqiao, who was trembling in the corner, clutching his mouth. Then she said to Song Nanxing, “Can you wait outside for us?”
Song Nanxing stepped back promptly, closing the door gently behind him.
Song Yunqiao’s screams echoed from inside the ward.
Not long after, the two Jing Shaos emerged. Song Nanxing looked at the identical scar on their faces and asked, “Did you remember something?”
*****
The little octopus devoured the monsters in room 902.
There were quite a few monsters, and they tasted terrible. Eating them made it a bit nauseous.
Its massive body squeezed out through the doorframe in a hurry and hurried downstairs to find Song Nanxing. But monsters kept appearing on the way to block its path. It had no choice but to eat them all.
After finally reaching the ground floor, it found no trace of Song Nanxing anywhere.
It stared around dumbfounded, its eight tentacles slapping the ground in frustration, cracking deep lines into the solid cement floor.
The star was gone again.
Furious, the little octopus angrily ate all the monsters, tearing through the thick fog to search for Song Nanxing.
But Song Nanxing didn’t appear. Instead, it saw many versions of Jing Shao.
Some were crying and begging for help, some numb and despairing, some too frightened to resist… It glanced past them indifferently and tore through the fog to press onward.
Until a familiar figure emerged from the mist—it was Song Nanxing.
The eight tentacles waved excitedly as the little octopus shrank its body and swam toward him. But as it neared, it suddenly stiffened, its golden eyes flashing with anger.
“Fake.”
“Lies.”
“Eat, eat, eat!”
Its tentacles surged like seaweed, wrapping the fake and tearing it into pieces.
Unable to find Song Nanxing, the little octopus darted through the fog, eating as it searched until it finally found a solitary security door standing oddly alone in the mist.
Next to the door sat a very annoying puppet.
It swam forward unhappily, circled the door, and used its tentacles to grab the handle and pull it open. Seeing the familiar corridor outside, it chirped excitedly:
“Exit.”
“Tell Xingxing.”
The silent puppet looked up and said unhappily, “I found it first!”
The door had been moving constantly, so it had stayed here, unwilling to leave, trying to figure out how to carry the door to Xingxing.
The octopus didn’t care. It twisted its tentacles excitedly, repeating over and over: “Tell Xingxing, tell Xingxing.”
*****
Song Nanxing and Jing Shao stepped out of the health center.
The two Jing Shaos regrouped, seemingly creating a synergy greater than their sum. Though still not fully recovered, they recalled a very important piece of information.
“This is a nightmare domain. To escape, we have to find the Dream Core. The exit is definitely hidden inside the Dream Core.”
“But the Dream Core moves around. The easiest way is to find the Domain Master.”
As they spoke, another person emerged from the thick fog. Wearing loose patient clothes that couldn’t conceal her slender figure, her long hair draped behind her. Her strikingly beautiful face made her look like a ghost.
This ghostly figure was covered in wounds and staggered out of the fog. She stopped cautiously when she saw the three in front of her. When her eyes landed on the two Jing Shaos’ faces, she widened in shock.
Song Nanxing stared at the newly appeared third Jing Shao and felt a rare sense of numbness.
The two Jing Shaos said nothing. Jing Shao number three, battered and scarred, confronted them, creating a subtly tense and dangerous atmosphere.
Song Nanxing was forced to act as a bridge for communication. “How did you escape?”
Jing Shao three covered her still-bleeding arm. “I killed a nurse to get out.”
Song Nanxing glanced back at the other two Jing Shaos and noticed their expressions shift subtly. One of them gave him a discreet signal.
He understood and said, “They two just escaped too.”
Jing Shao three sized them up but didn’t ask further. Her expression showed she had accepted the overly bizarre situation. “Next, we look for the exit?”
Song Nanxing nodded. “They said we have to find the Dream Core to get out.”
Jing Shao three nodded. Despite her wounds, her movements were decisive. “Then let’s go.”
Song Nanxing followed her and casually pinched the plush rabbit’s ear.
The plush rabbit received the signal; its long ears suddenly stretched out, entangling Jing Shao three.
Jing Shao three was stunned. In that moment, the two Jing Shaos transformed their hands into massive surgical scalpels, one on each side, and swung down.
Jing Shao three was sliced into four pieces and fell.
But moments later, she stood again, piecing herself back together. “How did you find my weakness?”
Her reassembled face first looked like Jing Shao, then shifted to Song Yunqiao, then changed continuously among various monsters.
“You’ve fully recovered your memories? Faster than I expected.”
Jing Shao stared coldly at her. “‘I’ escaped on my own without any outside help—that’s the biggest flaw.”
“But you escaped on your own back then too.”
“But you wouldn’t use this nightmare material to give me a chance to escape.” Jing Shao shot him a cold glare.
The nightmare demon instantly understood and stopped pretending.
His skin became covered with thick, sticky, filthy feathers like tar. His head transformed into a pitch-black bird’s skull. Four pairs of wings sprouted from his back, spreading wide like a storm, hovering in the air as he coldly stared at Jing Shao.
“The Great Priest has issued a kill order for Sotok. If you don’t return, next time it won’t be just me.”
Then his dark red eyes turned to Song Nanxing, brimming with malice.
“You, the troublesome human who ruins my plans, don’t think you can leave. You’ll stay here forever, serving as material for my domain.”
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