Monster - Chapter 38
Chapter 38: Visiting the Sick
Tower World Leviathan, Black Goat Walled City
Wang Lirou frowned at the toothpaste Lou had asked him to buy. It was a children's toothpaste with cute packaging that advertised an ice cream flavor.
"You're a grown-up, still using children's toothpaste?" Wang Lirou placed the day's purchases in the living room of Lou's apartment. It was 7:30 in the morning, and Lou, having just brushed her teeth, emerged from the bathroom looking refreshed.
"A beautiful day starts with delicious toothpaste~" Lou delivered the nonsensical sales pitch with a freshness that could rival an ad model's. "Ice cream-flavored toothpaste. You deserve to try it."
With that, she sat down at the dining table. Today, Wang Lirou was helping her restock on daily necessities and had also brought her breakfast: yuanyang milk tea and fried noodles, two portions—one for herself, and one for Miu the crow.
"You strange girl." Wang Lirou laid out his cosmetics. The reason he had come so early was that Lou had mentioned yesterday she needed to go out today, the kind of outing that required a disguise.
Wang Lirou's makeup skills were superb, and with the generous pay from Lou, he had been able to acquire many tools to enhance his craft. To call it makeup was an understatement; his technique was practically disguise artistry.
"Who do you want to be today?" Wang Lirou asked excitedly. He had already done his own makeup and was dressed impeccably. He looked beautiful without being jarring, aside from his unchangeable voice and somewhat broad frame.
"What do you think I should be? I'm going to the hospital to visit someone who's sick," Lou asked, her cheeks puffed as she drank her milk tea.
"A student?" Wang Lirou thought for a moment and decided that a student visiting a patient was a reasonable scenario. "It's Saturday, too."
"A student… but I don't have the right clothes…"
As Lou was speaking, Wang Lirou whipped out a male high school uniform from the large bag he'd brought: a white shirt, black slim-fit trousers, and a red-and-white striped tie.
"This is a replica of the uniform from Yuhai High School in Center City. I bought it in your size." Wang Lirou's interest in Lou's dress-up games was growing by the day. Whenever he had money left over from what Lou gave him, he would spare no effort, spending every last cent on her role-playing.
"I'll need a chest binder for this." Lou gave Wang Lirou a thumbs-up, though it was unclear if she was praising his taste or the delicious breakfast he'd bought.
An hour later, Lou had transformed into a handsome high school boy. The lines of her face had become much more defined under Wang Lirou's masterful makeup skills. Certain original features, like the small mole below the left corner of her mouth, were concealed. She had short black hair and wore the same style of gold-rimmed glasses as Lin Sandie, which she refused to take off. With a black crossbody sports bag slung over her shoulder, she looked every bit the part of a top student.
"What a handsome guy!" Wang Lirou winked at Lou, who grinned back. She bent down and attached a small red rabbit charm to the plastic ring connecting the bag to its strap, then pinned a brooch that read "100%" onto the bag's surface. It looked exactly like a high school boy's bag. Disguise aside, Lou was even better than Wang Lirou when it came to the finer details of her role.
After finishing her look, she put Lin Sandie's repaired glasses into her bag, changed into a pair of red high-top sneakers, and straightened her back to face Wang Lirou. Behind her long bangs, her eyes were clear and cunning.
Wang Lirou swallowed and smiled, waving goodbye to Lou and Miu, who was perched on her shoulder.
The moment they were out of Wang Lirou's sight, Miu transformed into a brooch and attached itself to Lou's bag.
Three days had passed since Lin Sandie's hospitalization. For these three days, Lou had obediently investigated the truth behind the world's monster mutations with Miu. They had successfully unlocked the name "Sui Xing" from the Star Eye. She was the deceased daughter of Sui Xi, a senior councilor in the Lower House.
From this, it was easy to deduce that this Councilor Sui Xi was likely the secret leader of the illegal organization, "Glory Road." She was fighting against a group led by the senior councilors of the Upper House. Although it was unclear who exactly was in control of the Upper House, Lou's investigation revealed that Sui Xi also had some connection to Xu Yao.
It was only because of this progress that Miu had compromised and allowed Lou to visit Lin Sandie at the hospital today.
Playing her part, Lou took the bus to the hospital. Staying in character, she pulled out a vocabulary book and began to memorize it silently.
"Which school are you from?" After some time, a cheerful voice came from behind her amidst the swaying of the bus.
Lou turned her head and saw a girl with dyed yellow hair. She was in casual clothes, but it was clear she was also a student. Sitting next to her by the window was another student who, in contrast to the lively yellow-haired girl, was expressionless, looking down at her phone. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders, and her long bangs hid her eyes.
"Yuhai High School," Lou said, lowering her voice slightly.
"Wow, impressive! We're from No. 8 Middle School," the girl said with a friendly smile. "My name is Mira, and this is Aphra."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lin Yidie." Lou turned her body slightly, a smile on her face. In truth, even if the girl hadn't introduced herself, Lou had already scanned them the moment she turned around.
"There's something wrong with that girl, Aphra," Miu, who had been quiet today, said after scanning her.
As they scanned her, Aphra's face would occasionally switch between having no features and having normal ones, as if she were about to turn into a monster, only for something to pull her back. This was something neither of them had encountered before.
"Where are you two headed?" Lou asked amicably.
"To the shopping district. It's rare to get a day off. What about you?"
"I'm going to the hospital to visit someone."
The two chatted. Throughout their conversation, Lou and Miu kept a close watch on the silent Aphra, keenly observing that the duration of her featureless state grew slightly longer whenever Lou spoke with Mira.
"I was going to ask if you wanted to join us. We're going to the haunted house at the Center City amusement park this afternoon," Mira said. She had a bright and outgoing personality and seemed to have taken a liking to Lou. "You don't seem so bad."
"Can I come? I should be done with my visit by the afternoon." Lou's eyes lit up. "I've only been in Center City for about three months, so I don't know many places."
At a critical moment, Lou proved reliable, which made Miu, in its brooch form, breathe a sigh of relief. It had been worried that Lou would seize any opportunity to cling to Lin Sandie and neglect the mission.
"Sure! Let's add each other as friends." Mira took out her phone. "Um… what time should we meet? And where?"
"Is 12:30 okay? Right at the entrance to the Center City amusement park. I'll treat you to lunch," Lou said, taking out her new phone. Mira was immediately captivated by the latest model, and their conversation shifted again. It wasn't until the bus reached her stop that Lou finally stood up to say goodbye to them.
"He seems to have other motives," Aphra, who had been quiet the whole time, said coolly after Lou got off the bus.
"Are you saying he's a bad student?" The somewhat naive and sweet Mira looked incredulous. "But he's from Yuhai High School."
Aphra shot her a glare, her cheeks puffed in annoyance as she turned to look out the bus window, ignoring Mira completely.
After getting off the bus, Lou put on a mask and walked into the hospital.
Lin Sandie had been moved from the intensive care unit to a special care ward. However, thanks to Yan Ting's financial power, the room she was in only had three patients. Miu felt fortunate for Lou's sake; if the hospital had single rooms, Lou would have lost this chance to visit.
Even so, the hospital had strict visitation rules. Following Miu's earlier reconnaissance, Lou wrote a fake name on the visitor registration form, indicating she was there to see one of the other patients in Lin Sandie's room.
She entered the special care ward without much trouble. By the window, she saw Lin Sandie lying on the bed, her eyes tightly shut. Her face was deathly pale, and she was connected to tubes of various sizes. The ECG monitor beside her showed a normal heartbeat. A milky-white bag of nutritional fluid, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, was being administered through an IV drip. Next to it hung three bottles of pale yellow liquid and three bags of clear liquid, all clearly destined for her body.
To Lou, Lin Sandie, dressed in a white hospital gown, looked like a bleak sketch drawn on white paper. She first placed the repaired glasses and the photos from the envelope into the drawer of the bedside table. Then, she pulled up a chair and sat by the bed, gazing at the face on the pillow—a face identical to her own.
Lou had traversed countless Tower Worlds and undertaken who knows how many terrifying missions. She herself had been injured to the brink of death, but high risks meant high rewards. She had countless ways to save herself and had always managed to get out of trouble. She had never experienced a moment of helpless confinement to a hospital bed like this.
With that kind of time to lie around, she would have already used a magical item to heal herself.
Because of this, seeing Lin Sandie—who looked exactly like her—lying in that bed, Lou found herself unable to look away. Perhaps Miu was right; Lin Sandie truly possessed a certain temperament and charm that she lacked.
That sense of broken strength… who could possibly look away from her?
Just as Lou was sinking into a deep fascination with Lin Sandie, Miu's warning voice sounded in her ear. "Someone's coming. It's that female police inspector."
Lou looked displeased but stood up anyway. She moved the chair she had been sitting on to the side of the adjacent bed, swapped it with an unused chair, and placed that one next to Lin Sandie's bed. Then, she sat down by the neighboring bed and observed the critically ill patient whose family member she was pretending to be. A scan told her the middle-aged woman on the bed was named Sun Fang, fifty-eight years old.
The woman wore an oxygen mask and was also hooked up to numerous tubes. Lou reached out and held her wrist, noting the white band that listed the patient's basic information and admission date.
Miu was thoroughly impressed by Lou's actions, almost looking at her in a new light. She had thought to swap the chairs in an instant, preventing the next person from noticing the unusual warmth on the seat she had just vacated.
Just as Lou placed Sun Fang's hand back on top of the blanket, the handle of the ward door turned. Lou feigned a casual glance up and saw Xing Meilu and Saya McConaughey walk in.
Name: Xing Meilu
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Current Identity: Senior Police Inspector, North District Inspectorate, Center City
Profile: None.
Name: Saya McConaughey
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Current Identity: External Pathology Consultant, North District Inspectorate, Center City
Profile: Legislator ζ. (Note 1)
Author's Notes
Note 1: ζ is a Greek letter, pronounced Zeta.
Regarding Names: As mentioned in the first chapter, Leviathan is a world of mixed populations, not distinguished by country, race, religion, etc. Therefore, the names of people and races are diverse and varied.
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