Chapter 1 Early Morning Stroll

The old Daoist didn't say anything. He got out of bed, helped the man down, and then went to the bathroom.

It was like a drill sergeant having to teach his new recruits how to handle their rifles again.

The masked young man just sat there,

with the same lack of reaction he displayed when the family of three had thanked him,

not saying thank you, not saying you're welcome, not even giving you a second glance.

After a while, the shooting practice was over.

The old Daoist helped the man back into bed, then went back to the bathroom to wash his hands.

The man in the hospital bed was even redder in the face, as red as a little girl's cheeks or a bright red apple, to use a simile a primary school student would love.

The old Daoist came out, flicking the water off his hands as he walked to the windowsill, instinctively reaching for his pocket.

He had cigarettes in his pocket,

but this was a hospital room.

When it was just him and the boss in the room, the old Daoist would secretly crack open a window at night and sneak a few puffs to satisfy his cravings. The boss wouldn't care anyway.

But now that there was an outsider, it wasn't appropriate. Although, from the looks of it, these outsiders weren't the talkative type.

But what was that saying? The quieter a person is, the more explosive they can be if they blow up…

Outside the hospital room window were just more buildings. This hospital didn't have the luxury of seaside views.

Inside the room,

apart from that little urination incident,

there was only silence.

It was time for dinner.

You could contact the hospital cafeteria directly via WeChat to have food delivered.

The old Daoist ordered a lot; he always had a good appetite.

Zhou Ze kept it simple. He had initially planned to order a set meal as usual, but then thought better of it and just ordered a cup of instant noodles.

Once the noodles were ready, he poured all the leftover vinegar from lunch into them before eating.

The noodles were incredibly sour, and the entire room filled with the smell of vinegar.

The doctor who came to check on the patients that evening thought the room had just been disinfected with vinegar.

Check-up, dressing change,

the doctors and nurses went through the routine and then left.

By this time, it had already grown dark.

Since he was hospitalized, he shouldn't think about nightlife anymore.

The old Daoist was excitedly watching an old Shaw Brothers martial arts movie on CCTV-6,

with its rhythmic "hey hey ha ha" sounds.

Zhou Ze was casually scrolling through his phone.

When it was late at night,

the old Daoist turned off the TV and went to sleep.

Zhou Ze put away his phone and closed his eyes. He couldn't sleep, but he still needed to relax his eyes.

Just then,

Zhou Ze heard a sound from the bed opposite him.

He opened his eyes

and saw the man in the hospital bed getting out of bed,

dragging a lame leg, leaning against the wall, walking with difficulty.

The masked young man walked ahead of him, leaving the room first. The man seemed to specifically look back at the snoring old Daoist, struggled over, placed some of the nutritional supplements that the family of three had brought under the old Daoist's bed, and then also left.

His leg was still seeping blood as he walked.

Zhou Ze didn't say a word from beginning to end.

When it was two o'clock in the morning,

Zhou Ze sat up in bed

and looked again at the empty bed.

Things were bound to be strange if they defied common sense. Perhaps it was out of habit, but Zhou Ze instinctively began to suspect the identities of the two men.

Of course, it wasn't possible to think of them as being too important.

Were they fugitives?

Or something else?

It was a pity that he had become an ordinary person now,

unable to clearly perceive whether the other party was truly "ordinary."

"Baa baa baa…"

The old Daoist smacked his lips, sleeping soundly.

Zhou Ze shook his head helplessly and closed his eyes again.

He finally made it to daybreak, yes, made it.

It was torture to be unable to sleep but still have to lie in bed.

"Eh, where are they?"

After getting up, the old Daoist immediately asked where his new recruit had gone. He had even woken up early, wanting to take his new recruit for morning exercises.

"They were discharged last night."

Zhou Ze was in poor spirits and looked a little listless.

He didn't want to stay up all night again tonight. If he really couldn't, he'd go to the morgue of this hospital to rest.

The doctors and nurses who came for the morning check-up were incredulous when they saw the empty bed.

"Where's the patient?"

The old Daoist shook his head.

Zhou Ze didn't respond.

"The patient is gone!"

The doctors and nurses separated and went to look for him.

In fact, just like people who dine and dash at restaurants, similar things often happened in hospitals.

For example, people would slip away to avoid paying hospital fees, or even worse, children would send their sick parents to the hospital and then collectively disappear.

But the man in the bed next to him didn't belong to that category. All his medical expenses had been waived.

After that, there was no follow-up anyway, and no one knew whether the hospital found him or not.

After lazing around all morning, Zhou Ze experienced another wave of vinegar tasting during mealtime.

After the meal,

Boss Zhou got out of bed.

He was a little better than when he had first woken up yesterday.

Having become familiar with his current physical condition, he was able to walk while leaning against the wall.

"Boss, where are you going?"

The old Daoist wasn't seriously injured, so he quickly got out of bed when he saw this.

"Help me go to the morgue."

"Uh… okay."

With the help of the old Daoist, Zhou Ze left the ward and got into the elevator.

Generally speaking, hospitals would specifically mark the locations of various departments at corners where people gathered, to make it easier for people to find them.

But they basically wouldn't mark the location of the morgue. People came to the hospital to see doctors, and no one thought about checking out the accommodation conditions for tonight as soon as they entered the hospital.

The elevator opened onto the first floor. He didn't have the authority to go down to the basement level, so he could only take the stairs.

Just then,

a group of doctors and nurses hurried over, all gathering in the lobby.

"Boss, what happened?"

"Probably a major emergency."

If there was an accident somewhere or a critically ill or severely injured patient appeared, the ambulance would send them over while the hospital would simultaneously prepare to receive them.

Such a large scene probably meant there were many injured people.

Ambulances arrived one after another,

and the doctors and nurses pushed the injured people one by one into the emergency room.

Zhou Ze glanced at the stretchers passing in front of him; they were probably burn victims.

Burns were a very tricky type of situation. The initial emergency treatment was a hurdle, and the subsequent intensive care was also a hurdle.

As for transplanting skin from one's thighs or buttocks onto one's face later, that wasn't really anything.

"Boss, should we still go down?"

"Forget it. Knowing it's down there is enough. I'll come down by myself tonight."

There were too many people in the hospital right now. The morgue might even be put into use later. Even if Boss Zhou wanted to go down and take a nap, he was worried that his rest would be disturbed.

He was just an ordinary person now. If he was accidentally discovered sleeping in the morgue, it would be very troublesome to deal with later.

"Okay, Boss, tonight I'll send you to the mor…"

The old Daoist's lips twitched. He felt like these words sounded strange.

Just then, Zhou Ze saw a familiar figure.

He appeared at the entrance of the building, limping, seemingly wanting to follow a stretcher, but he fell to the ground after only a few steps. He began crawling on the ground with his hands, determined to catch up with that stretcher, but he couldn't.

Many people saw this scene. Because he was also injured, a nurse immediately went up to help him.

Zhou Ze was stunned. Wasn't this the man who had been discharged last night?

A look of ferocity appeared on the man's face. He seemed to be restraining something, but in the end, he lowered his head.

"Boss, it's them,"

the old Daoist said.

"Yeah,"

Zhou Ze nodded.

"Has he come back again?"

"Maybe."

For some reason, a strange sense of warning suddenly emerged from the depths of Zhou Ze's heart.

Boss Zhou didn't know where this sense of warning came from, but his heart seemed to skip a beat at this moment, like the feeling of intense panic one felt upon waking up after having a nonsensical nightmare the night before.

"Let's go back."

Zhou Ze didn't want to stay here.

"Okay, Boss."

They took the elevator back to the ward.

The old Daoist helped Zhou Ze lie down on the bed.

Zhou Ze pursed his lips. Most of his hospital gown was already soaked.

"Boss, are you feeling unwell somewhere?"

Although he didn't know why his boss was injured, the old Daoist instinctively cared about his current condition.

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

Zhou Ze licked his lips.

It was hard to imagine the impact that a suddenly appearing sixth sense would have on you,

but it was like the sudden burst of inspiration from an artist,

impossible to investigate

and impossible to predict what it would create.

It was hard to imagine

that he could calmly watch them get discharged last night,

but today…

Recalling that dream and the words of the last Emperor in the dream,

Zhou Ze's mind suddenly became clear.

That man,

that masked youth,

even if there was only a one-in-a-thousand chance,

they absolutely couldn't be taken lightly.

Perhaps, this was just a game, and everyone had become mortal.

One was searching, and one was hiding,

it would depend on who played it better in the end.

After confirming that his boss was okay,

the old Daoist turned on the TV.

Local news was being broadcasted on the TV.

The footage showed a restaurant suddenly catching fire due to a gas explosion.

The news was quoting a video taken by someone nearby using their phone.

In the video,

after the restaurant caught fire,

a young man wearing a mask immediately rushed into the fire,

and then ran out with flames on his body, also rescuing an elderly man.

Immediately afterward,

the young man rushed back into the burning restaurant to continue rescuing people.

In the corner of the video, the figure of his lame new recruit flashed by.

"Boss, they're good people. Although they don't talk much, they're really… really…"

The old Daoist didn't know how to describe them.

But Zhou Ze,

after seeing the footage on the TV,

felt at peace in his heart.

Were they saving people?

Perhaps…

But more likely,

they were looking for the two of them.