novelraw Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Lu Li felt she might not live to see tomorrow's sun.
Or, more precisely—she might end up as a display specimen soaking in formaldehyde, greeting tomorrow's sun from behind a glass jar.
She hadn't slept well last night.
More accurately, she hadn't slept at all.
She'd had nightmares the whole night through. A crowd of people in white lab coats surrounded her, pointing and murmuring, each holding an enormous electric saw, debating whether to start cutting from her head or her feet.
So by the time Lu Qi called her to get up the next morning, what she found was a hollow-eyed, heavily dark-circled zombie girl.
"Um..." Lu Qi looked at Lu Li—who was holding a toothbrush and apparently trying to squeeze toothpaste onto her nose—and said with some worry, "If you're not feeling well, you can actually stay home and rest. You went out yesterday... did something happen?"
"Hmm...? It's nothing, I just found a... job outside."
Lu Li mumbled through her toothbrush, her eyes vacant and lifeless...
Physical examination.
Full-body physical examination.
She didn't know what kind of physical exam the Night Wanderer Society would run, but whatever they checked, her body could never pass as normal.
Heart rate? Body temperature? Internal organ structure? Blood composition?
Last night she'd quietly measured her own heart rate—roughly only 20-something beats per minute.
Normal people were 60 to 100.
She was quite certain that, while her body appeared human on the surface, on the inside it was an absolute mess.
But if she didn't go, that would look suspicious—it would be the same as exposing herself outright.
Whether she stuck her neck out or pulled it back, she'd get cut either way.
‘Maybe... run?’
She seriously considered this option for 3 seconds.
Then dismissed it.
Besides, Lin Lu knew where she lived.
More importantly—
Lu Qi was still here.
She couldn't possibly abandon her little sister and flee.
That left only 1 option.
Grit her teeth and go.
Pray for a miracle.
****
At 2 PM, Lin Lu's modified SUV pulled up punctually at the corner of the road.
Same modified SUV, same refined and elegant outfit.
"Get in."
Lin Lu waved her over, smiling gently.
Lu Li took a deep breath, pulled open the car door, and climbed in.
"How did you sleep last night?"
"Fine."
"Liar, your dark circles are showing."
"...Big Sister, is there any chance—I'm just scared of needles?"
"Relax." Lin Lu started the engine. "It's just a routine check-up, not some major surgery. Our Night Wanderer Society's Physical is far gentler than any outside hospital—no blood draws, no injections. It's mainly an energy detection."
The small amount of relief she'd just allowed herself immediately vanished. Energy detection?
The thing inside her body—its energy readings couldn't possibly be normal.
"Once we get there you'll see. Our medical team is very professional."
Yes, certainly very professional. Professional enough to see at a glance that she wasn't human.
****
The car headed steadily westward, and in the end didn't go to a hospital at all—it pulled into the driveway of a private sanatorium in the New District that looked rather grand.
"We're here. Get out."
Lin Lu led her through the lobby and straight into an elevator, swiping a card to press the button for Level -1.
As the elevator doors slowly slid open, a faint smell of disinfectant mingled with cool air rushed to meet them. Metal walls, blindingly white lighting, and staff in white coats moving briskly back and forth.
Lu Li felt her stomach begin to clench again.
"Director Lin."
"Sister Lin."
Passersby greeted her one after another; Lin Lu smiled and nodded in acknowledgment, then led Lu Li with practiced ease to the door of a room.
"Go on in—it's all been arranged." Lin Lu ruffled Lu Li's hair. "I'll wait right outside. It'll be quick."
****
The room was large, filled with precision instruments that looked expensive at a glance. In the center stood a metal examination bed that looked every bit like a chopping block.
And the person standing at the control console was no unfamiliar doctor.
She wore a baseball cap pulled low over her brow. At the sound of the door opening, she swiveled her chair around, revealing an expressionless face.
Ning Ye.
"...It's you?" Lu Li froze for a moment.
"What, disappointed?" Ning Ye glanced at her sidelong, fingers flying across the keyboard without looking up.
Lu Li had actually wanted to say—does this place have no one else available? Why did it feel like it was staffed entirely by child labor...
"Is there... no doctor here?"
"There is, but Ji Ran isn't in today."
"And this broken machine—I'm the only one who knows how to fix it. Stop talking so much."
With that, she pointed at the examination bed beside her: "Lie down, and take off your outer layer."
Lu Li stood where she was without moving.
Compared to a stranger doctor, facing Ning Ye felt slightly better... but only very slightly.
"..."
Lu Li clenched her teeth, shrugged off her coat, and lay stiffly down on the ice-cold bed.
"Arms flat at your sides, eyes closed, don't move."
At Ning Ye's cold command, the machine activated.
A low, droning hum rose up, and a blue beam of light swept slowly down from overhead.
Lu Li lay with her eyes shut, her heart lodged in her throat. She could feel that beam passing through her skin...
"Warning—anomalous energy fluctuation detected!"
"Warning—vital sign values abnormal!"
The mechanical, synthesized voice rang out without warning.
In that instant, Lu Li's fingertips had already tensed on instinct... every muscle in her body going rigid.
It's over.
She's been exposed.
Run? No good.
Lin Lu is right outside—and there are others out there too.
There's no way she could win in a fight...
Right in that split second of desperate calculation—
THUD!
A heavy, muffled impact cut off every alarm.
Ning Ye, standing at the control console, suddenly extended one hand and slammed it down hard on the alarming machine.
"So noisy."
The girl muttered irritably, then her fingers blazed across the keyboard in a blur.
"Beep. System recalibrating."
"Calibration complete. Warning cleared."
The piercing alarm cut off instantly.
Lu Li: "...?"
Ning Ye stared at the screen without a change in expression and said evenly, "This broken machine has been due for repairs for a long time—it throws false alarms at the drop of a hat. Last time Sister Lin Lu came in for a weight check, it read 200 jin, and she nearly put her fist through the screen."
‘...No, I think this time it might not have been a false alarm.’
Lu Li lay flat on the bed, not daring to move, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
She watched Ning Ye.
Ning Ye didn't look back at her, only kept her gaze fixed on the streams of data scrolling rapidly across the screen, tapping her fingers in a steady rhythm.
The light of the monitor fell across the girl's cold, impassive face, revealing nothing.
Several minutes passed. The beam went dark.
"Up you get." Ning Ye closed the interface; the printer began churning out a report with a steady whirr.
Lu Li climbed shakily off the bed—in this room that was cranked full of cool air, she had somehow broken out in a cold sweat down her back.
"So... the results?"
Ning Ye tore off the report...
"Bradycardia, low blood pressure, low body temperature." She read aloud as she wrote, her tone as flat as if she were reciting an instruction manual. "Typical baseline metabolic disruption from Calamity exposure. Nothing seriously wrong."
"That's the result. Any questions?"
Lu Li stared at her in a daze, her throat working, and in the end said only 2 words:
"No..."
"Then head out. Sister Lin Lu is still waiting. Don't keep her waiting too long."
Ning Ye turned her chair back around, facing away from her, and resumed typing.
Lu Li took the report and walked toward the door.
Her hand was already on the door handle.
"By the way..."
"That thing inside your body—it's been pretty vocal."
"Next time, tell it to keep it down. It's very loud."
"...You—?!"