novelraw Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Fire in the Stone, Body in the Dream
Qingshan Hospital, half past eleven at night.
Doctor Old Liu, on duty tonight, had just poured himself another cup of strong tea when the door was kicked open with a boom.
“Who are you people?” Old Liu shouted angrily.
“Er Dao, hold him down.”
“Hold him where?”
“On the desk.”
Er Dao strode forward, slamming Old Liu’s head onto the desk with a thud, his cheek burning with pain.
Pao Ge pushed Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling into the room, strolling in leisurely: “Chen Shuo says you took fifty thousand from him to conspire to lock his nephew in a mental hospital?”
Old Liu roared: “Help! Help! Someone’s causing trouble!”
Rapid footsteps echoed from the corridor, but Pao Ge remained unfazed. He simply took off his Tang suit, slowly rolled up his shirt sleeves, revealing arms covered in tattoos and muscles.
Like a primal beast shedding its disguise when facing prey, anyone targeted by him had to cherish their life.
As two male nurses appeared at the door, Pao Ge leaned slightly to the right, dodging a punch. In the next second, his thunderous hook landed on one nurse’s jaw, knocking him rigid.
Before the other nurse could react, Pao Ge flashed forward like a jaguar, landing another hook to the jaw!
“Too weak.”
Only after he spoke did the sound of two thuds follow, as the nurses collapsed unconscious like fallen logs.
Pao Ge turned to Old Liu, still pinned to the desk: “Anyone else?”
“N-No… no one.”
“Can you talk properly now?”
“Yes! Yes!”
“Good. All three of you, squat in a row,” Pao Ge said, pulling up a chair and sitting with his legs crossed. “Does Chen Ji actually have a mental illness?”
“No, no,” Old Liu said. “His thought process is just a bit unusual, with mild violent and depressive tendencies. He’s not really sick.”
Pao Ge lit a cigarette: “Strange. If he anticipated your moves, why did he still let himself get locked up here?”
“He’s using you to get back at us!”
Pao Ge shook his head: “No. If he specifically sought me out for a loan, he must know what I do. He could’ve just paid me to break your legs—why go through the trouble of getting himself admitted to a mental hospital?”
Chen Shuo: “…”
Pao Ge suddenly asked: “Did you kill his parents?”
Chen Shuo was on the verge of tears: “His parents died in a car accident. The driver was found—it had nothing to do with us.”
Pao Ge gestured for Chen Shuo to hold out his hand, then flicked cigarette ash into his palm: “A seventeen-year-old kid loses his parents six months ago, and you, his uncle and aunt, scheme to take his house. You’re scum. And you, doctor—you’ve done this kind of thing before, haven’t you?”
Old Liu hurriedly said: “I’ve never hurt anyone before. The patients I dealt with came to me willingly, wanting diagnosis certificates to avoid prison.”
“Oh?” Pao Ge mused. “What did those people do?”
“The most recent was a guy named Wang Long, in the earth-moving business. Six months ago, he hit and killed a couple while driving…” Old Liu trailed off, suddenly looking up at Pao Ge in terror.
With a sizzle, Pao Ge, stunned, pressed his cigarette butt into Chen Shuo’s palm, whose scream echoed through the corridor.
Pao Ge threw on his black Tang suit, grabbed Old Liu by his thinning hair, and headed out: “I know why he had to get into this hospital. Hurting a kid like this—you’re truly despicable. Er Dao, teach them a lesson to remember. I’m taking this doctor to the sixth floor. Wang Long’s someone I know—not easy to deal with.”
Chen Shuo trembled like a sieve: “This is a hospital! There are cameras—you can’t commit crimes here!”
Er Dao scratched the scar on his bald head: “Pao Ge, execute now?”
“Keep executing.”
…
…
In the ward, snoring rose and fell. Chen Ji lay on his bed, eyes wide open, staring quietly at the ceiling.
He noticed that the sleep-talk in the mental hospital was unusually frequent and hard to decipher.
In a daze, it was as if he were a child again, hearing the clanging sound of a green-skinned train starting up.
As a sickly child, Chen Ji often heard shouts of battle in his dreams. His father would take him to Beijing for treatment.
When money was tight, they’d buy standing tickets for the green-skinned train.
They’d sit on the floor between train cars. When Chen Ji was tired, he’d sleep in his father’s arms. When hungry, his father would pull instant noodles from his bag, queue for hot water, and hold the cup for Chen Ji to eat first.
Waking up, Chen Ji would press against the train door’s glass, asking endless strange questions like a walking encyclopedia, and his father would answer patiently.
By the time he was twelve, his illness was cured, and his father’s business had taken off, allowing them to buy the villa.
On summer nights, his mother taught him to hunt for freshly emerged cicadas in the yard with a flashlight, soaking them in saltwater before frying them.
During the New Year, his mother would help him cut window decorations, paste couplets, and steam beautifully shaped flower buns.
On the hospital bed, lost in thought, Chen Ji gently wiped a tear from his eye.
Li Qingniao appeared by his bedside, unnoticed: “Sell me something, and I’ll answer another question.”
Chen Ji’s gaze was vast yet deep: “What do you want to buy?”
“A cicada.”
“How old a cicada?”
“A twelve-year-old cicada.”
“Not for sale.”
At that moment, Chen Shuo’s pained cry echoed from downstairs, resounding through the hospital.
No time left.
Chen Ji sprang from the bed, pulling a dagger from a strap on his inner thigh. Tossing the sheath aside, he dashed toward a corner of the ward.
He was afraid—afraid of what he was about to do and the consequences that would follow.
But he had no other choice.
Wang Long, after drunkenly hitting and killing a man and woman and fleeing, caused their deaths by delaying treatment. The next day, he turned himself in at the police station, but not before securing a diagnosis from Qingshan Mental Hospital. The court was set to review the diagnosis, but Wang Long’s family rallied over sixty earth-moving drivers to protest at the courthouse, and the matter was dropped. Wang Long escaped judgment and stayed in Qingshan Hospital.
But how could you escape judgment?
Chen Ji silently reached Wang Long’s bedside and thrust the dagger down with force.
Wang Long’s eyes snapped open, his strong hands seizing Chen Ji’s wrist. He sneered coldly: “You really think I don’t know who you are?”
During the lawsuit, Chen Ji had always sent his lawyer, so he and Wang Long had never met. But Wang Long, seeking to settle with the victims’ family, had investigated him.
So when Wang Long saw Chen Ji here, he knew what Chen Ji was planning.
He said urgently: “I can pay you more money! A lot of money! Your parents are gone—you need to move forward!”
He didn’t want to kill again. If he did, he’d be stuck here for life.
In silence, Chen Ji pressed the dagger’s tip downward, inching closer to Wang Long’s chest.
“Courting death!” Wang Long, far stronger than the teenager, roared and snatched the dagger, stabbing it into Chen Ji’s left waist, piercing through his ribs.
Wang Long thought this strike would disable Chen Ji completely, but he didn’t expect that Chen Ji didn’t resist at all. Instead, seizing the moment when Wang Long’s arms were open, Chen Ji lunged like a beast, biting into his carotid artery!
Blood seeped from Chen Ji’s lips and teeth, staining the pillow dark purple.
Chen Ji tasted the metallic sweetness, felt the blood spray into his mouth and flow out.
His first time killing for revenge, his heart trembled with fear, but he bit down relentlessly, refusing to let go.
Wang Long felt the pain in his neck, a shuddering electric jolt signaling the brink of death.
He pulled the dagger from Chen Ji’s chest and stabbed again viciously: “Let go!”
“Let go!”
“Let go…”
With each shout, he stabbed again, but Chen Ji gave no response, only clamping his teeth tighter, tearing a chunk of flesh from Wang Long’s neck.
Wang Long’s pupils began to dilate. He stirred the dagger in Chen Ji’s body, murmuring: “Was it worth it? Was it worth it…”
But Wang Long didn’t understand that, for Chen Ji, his life had been left behind in that car accident, endlessly trapped, unable to break free.
Dark purple blood spilled over the white pillow, like it spilled over Chen Ji’s life.
With a click, the ward’s iron door was opened from outside. Pao Ge, in his black Tang suit, appeared at the entrance, dragging Old Liu by the hair.
Wang Long’s right hand finally released the dagger’s handle, falling limp.
Chen Ji, face covered in blood, looked up at Pao Ge, trembling—whether from fear or the adrenaline’s aftereffects.
Pao Ge sighed: “I came too late.”
Chen Ji slumped at the foot of the bed, clutching his wound, and said softly to Pao Ge: “Sorry.”
Pao Ge knew the boy was apologizing for using him. He grinned: “It’s fine. You’re about to die, but it’s not too late to meet now. My real name’s Chen Chong, but friends call me Pao Ge.”
“Okay, Pao Ge.”
“First time killing? No hesitation beforehand, full force in the act, not a word wasted. I like it,” Pao Ge said, kicking Old Liu aside and lighting another cigarette.
Chen Ji gave a bitter smile: “I’m still going to die.”
As he spoke, blood continued to gush from his wound.
“Want a smoke?”
“No thanks.”
“Need any help?”
“My phone’s with Doctor Liu. It should have recorded evidence of his illegal deal with my second uncle. Help me send it out.”
Pao Ge hadn’t expected that, even on the brink of death, this boy was still thinking of justly punishing every enemy…
He sat beside Chen Ji and asked: “Any last wishes?”
“None,” Chen Ji’s voice grew weaker. A wave of drowsiness hit, but he couldn’t bear to close his eyes, only staring out the window at the crescent moon.
In the ward, the patients slowly rose, silently watching.
Li Qingniao approached Chen Ji, gently closed his eyes, and whispered: “A fleeting steed in the gap, fire in the stone, body in the dream. The forty-nine heavens can’t hold you. Go, go to where you belong.”
With that, he returned to his dazed state, sitting by the bed. Pao Ge draped his black Tang suit over Chen Ji and walked toward the darkness outside the ward: “Shame, we met too late.”