Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Koneko, Proofreader- Spring Flower
Bei Quan never procrastinated and was always efficient in his work.
Since he agreed to Liu Fan's request, he decided to expedite the process. He immediately asked Liu Fan to take him and Wei Fuyuan to visit those few workers who had gone insane.
Those four unfortunate workers had truly suffered for no reason.
They were just guarding the Liu family's ancestral hall for one night, but for sunknown reason, they were scared to the point of madness.
The Liu family sent them to the best neurology hospital in Fengxing City. They stayed there for two months, but they still hadn't recovered... No, it should be stated that their condition hadn't improved much.
"But..."
Liu Fan called the family driver and personally accompanied Master Bei Quan and his assistant to the neurology hospital.
On the way, Liu Fan couldn't help but be curious.
"Master Bei Quan..."
He began to speak:
"Those four workers are severely affected by their madness. They can't even recognize their parents, spouses, or children. They speak nonsense, often without any coherent meaning."
Liu Fan hesitated and looked at Bei Quan with trepidation, "Even if we try to talk to them, I'm afraid we won't get any meaningful answers, right?"
"We still have to give it a try."
Bei Quan smiled faintly at Liu Fan and then turned to Wei Fuyuan sitting beside him, playfully winking his eye, "Right?"
Wei Fuyuan looked back at him coldly.
After countless setbacks, Wei Fuyuan has somewhat figured out his lover's tricks.
He was willing to bet that Bei Quan would pat him on the back of his head later, 'throwing' him out to empathize with a madman and see for himself what scared them so much.
Bei Quan seemed to sense the dissatisfaction and accusation in Wei Fuyuan's gaze. His right hand quietly moved on the car seat, his fingertips crawled onto Wei Fuyuan's hand, while gently soothing him with a touch.
---Alright.
Wei Fuyuan thought helplessly.
---What else can I do?
---Of course, I should choose to forgive him.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHalf an hour later, the private car stopped in front of the psychiatric hospital.
Liu Fan had been coming here frequently lately, so he was very familiar with the place.
He led Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan skillfully in a 'bow' shape, walking from the north building to the south building at the side and back until they reached the inpatient department of the schizophrenia ward. He took out the visitation pass, showed it to the nurse at the front desk, and received a visitor card. With the help of a caregiver, they swiped open the iron gate separating the medical station from the inpatient department.
"The patients who live here have more severe conditions, so the security measures are stricter."
As Liu Fan explained, he turned to his left and stopped in front of room 1203.
The door to the ward opened.
The room was not big, and the furnishings were extremely simple. The walls were covered with padding, the windows had welded grilles, and there were no sharp corners on the tables, chairs, beds, or cabinets. It was clean, organized, and strict, which easily brought to mind the word 'prison'.
A man wearing a blue and white patient gown was sitting on the bed, facing the wall, with a hunched back, as if he was contemplating his past mistakes.
"Feng Mingguang, someone is here to see you."
The caregiver called out the patient's nfrom outside in a clear voice that wouldn't startle him.
However, the man named Feng Mingguang turned a deaf ear, showing no response whatsoever.
"Alright, you can go in now."
The caregiver regretfully shrugged, indicating their helplessness:
"We only have fifteen minutes for the visitation, remember not to agitate him."
Liu Fan nodded repeatedly, expressing his gratitude before entering the room first. "Old Feng? Old Feng?"
He switched to the local dialect and gently patted the patient's shoulder twice.
However, Feng Mingguang remained motionless, still silently facing the wall.
So Liu Fan placed his hand on the person's shoulder, attempting to forcefully turn them around.
Bei Quan timely stopped Liu Fan.
"Don't force him."
Bei Quan smiled and said, "There's no need to make him speak in the first place."
After speaking, he raised his right hand and swiftly slapped Wei Fuyuan on the back of his head.
---At least givea heads-up beforehand, so I can be mentally prepared!
As his soul separated from his body and flew towards Feng Mingguang, Wei Fuyuan had only one thought in his mind:
---This grudge must be avenged, or I'm no gentleman!
-Bei Quan, tonight I'm going to make you meow in pain!
In the next instant, Wei Fuyuan felt like he had fallen into a sticky jelly. His vision went pitch black for a moment, then quickly brightened up.
He realized that he was in a simple, makeshift blue-boarded room. There was a small stool, no more than thirty centimeters high, under his buttocks. In front of him was a large electromagnetic hot pot, with steam emitting from the pressure relief hole on the lid. It was clear that whatever was inside the pot was boiling.
There were two people beside him, both in their twenties or thirties. One was scooping up swet dishes and chopsticks from a bucket, while the other was busy pouring beer.
At that moment, the wooden door opened.
A man wearing a yellow T-shirt walked into the room, holding a handful of fresh, vibrant green onions in his hand.
"These were picked from the neighboring courtyard, they're fresh!"
With that, the man in the yellow T-shirt lifted the lid of the pot and tore the bunch of green onions into pieces, throwing them into the pot.
The boiling water bubbled, tossing the ingredients in the pot up and down, releasing a spicy and fragrant aroma.
Wei Fuyuan noticed Feng Mingguang swallowing hard.
The soup base was a ready-made hot pot seasoning packet, and the ingredients being cooked were quite ordinary - pork, beef, lamb, mushrooms, meatballs, cabbage, tofu, and so on. However, this group of people had all worked hard physically throughout the day, so havin, a hot pot was a great indulgence for them.
The four of them saw that the ingredients were cooked and immediately stopped being polite. They waved their ladles, competing to scoop the delicious food from the pot into their bowls, occasionally teasing each other about who took more or less.
Wei Fuyuan watched attentively.
Of course, he wasn't just craving the hot pot. He was paying attention to what exactly could drive four young men crazy overnight.
However, Feng Mingguang was too focused on the food in front of him, hardly ever shifting his gaze. Wei Fuyuan was using his perspective now, so he couldn't even observe the surroundings. He had to temporarily suppress his doubts and patiently wait for something unexpected to happen.
Wei Fuyuan didn't have to wait long.
Just then, they heard a loud scream-
"Ah!!"
The man in the yellow T-shirt, who was just cutting the green onions, suddenly let out a hysterical screech and threw his bowl away.
The porcelain bowl shattered into eight pieces on the floor, with red soup, green vegetable leaves, white meat slices, and yellow tofu scattered everywhere.
Including Feng Mingguang, the other three people stared at the man in the yellow T-shirt in astonishment.
"Brother, what happened to you?"
Someone asked in the local dialect, "Did you see a ghost? Why did you smash the bowl?"
"There's a bug!!" The man in the yellow T-shirt screamed, "There's a bug in the bowl!"
"Hey!" Another worker chuckled and said, "It's normal to have bugs in this place, right? Even if you eat a cockroach, you wouldn't smash the bowl, would you?"
As he spoke, the man intentionally picked up a few strands of noodles and slurped them into his mouth.
Wei Fuyuan: "!!!!"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAt that moment, both he and Feng Mingguang, who had their memories peeped at by him using empathy, felt their hair stand on end and their scalps go numb.
Because they saw that what the man slurped into his mouth was not noodles, but several brown, long, segmented creatures with numerous thin legs-a live, squirming, struggling centipede! Instinctively, Feng Mingguang lowered his head and looked at the bowl he was holding.
Wei Fuyuan saw that what was in his bowl was not meat, vegetables, tofu, and noodles at all- it was a bowl full of various sizes and types of live insects!
"Aaahhh!!" Feng Mingguang's reaction was just like the man with the yellow T-shirt's, he threw the bowl away.
Not only he, but the other two also noticed that the food in the bowls had turned into insects.
Everyone was terrified.
They jumped up, ignoring the mess on the floor, and rushed towards the door.
At a critical moment, the door seemed determined to go against the four of them, and no matter what, it couldn't be opened.
The door was just a thin wooden board, only one centimeter thick. With a little force, they could easily kick it open.
But at this moment, the four strong and healthy construction workers struggled to pull and push, kick and ram, but couldn't get the door open.
Just when everyone was getting desperate, an even more terrifying scene unfolded.
They heard a 'puchi, puchi' sound coming from behind.
Using Feng Mingguang's eyes, Wei Fuyuan saw that the lid of the electric stove suddenly popped open, falling to the ground. Streams of insects gushed out from the pot like a rushing fountain, continuously emerging and falling to the ground, rushing towards them.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!"
Everyone screamed like they were going insane"
No matter how terrified they were, they couldn't stop the swarm of insects attacking.
Hundreds of thousands of live bugs flooded the already cramped shack, surrounding the four people huddled by the door. They crawled up their pant legs, onto their thighs, abdomen, chest, and neck, until finally, they completely covered them.
Even though Wei Fuyuan had a lot of experience with 'shared sensations', he had to admit that this was the most disgusting, horrifying, and uncomfortable experience he had ever encountered, without a doubt!
Those live bugs- centipedes, millipedes, earthworms, cockroaches, beetles, caterpillars, dung beetles... and many other terrifying bugs that couldn't be clearly seen or named- crawl into your clothes, stick to your skin and crawl upwards. In no time, they're on your face, crawling into your ears, nostrils, mouth, and even your eye sockets...
Startled awake, Wei Fuyuan jumped up from the floor and frantically slapped his body while hopping. It seemed like he wanted to shake off the terrifying sensation of bugs crawling over his skin and infiltrating his senses.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"
Wei Fuyuan's face turned pale, completely disregarding his composure as he repeatedly cursed, "Oh my gosh", three times in a row.
"No wonder they went crazy! If it were me, I'd go insane too!!"
Bei Quan quickly comforted his shaken lover while stroking Wei Fuyuan's hair and asked, "What did you see?"
Recalling the last scene before waking up, Wei Fuyuan shivered and hugged himself tightly.
"It's creepy!"
He replied, "I saw bugs! Lots and lots of bugs!"