Chapter 146 Pressure
It was 4 p.m. in the provincial capital, inside a top-tier neurology hospital.
A strong wind was blowing outside, and dense raindrops were pelting the ground. The sound of the rain, like the beat of drums, was squeezing everyone's nerves.
A man, clutching a phone, hurriedly ran towards a conference room in the hospital. The conference room door was tightly closed, suggesting a joint consultation was underway. Lu Lingyun, on the other hand, sat outside the conference room, his expression grave—he seemed to have no intention of going in to listen in.
"Boss, Boss Lu, look at this!" Ah Le ran to Lu Lingyun's side and handed him his phone, but Lu Lingyun's hand went straight to the phone.
"Who gave you permission to use your phone?" Lu Lingyun frowned slightly, staring at the young man's face with displeasure.
"It's news from over there, not from the Ninth Detachment, it's from the Municipal Public Security Bureau..." Ah Le gasped for breath, his voice trembling as he looked at Lu Lingyun, "Shen Xing... is dead!"
Lu Lingyun's pupils contracted slightly, and his mouth opened halfway, leaving him speechless for a moment.
A feeling of irritability instantly washed over me.
"What do you mean 'dead'? What happened?" Lu Lingyun stood up, snatched Ah Le's phone, and looked at its contents. It contained two surveillance videos.
One scene shows a man standing by the side of a side road, with a man wearing a black hoodie approaching from behind and stabbing him in the lower back.
The man made a turning motion... Even though the image was blurry, Lu Lingyun could recognize him at a glance.
The person who was stabbed was Shen Xing.
The person wearing a black hoodie stabbed Shen Xing's body again and again with a knife. With each stab, blood splattered onto the ground, and Lu Lingyun felt a wave of exhaustion.
Even as the motionless body was dragged onto the bread truck, Lu Lingyun didn't realize she had completely forgotten how to breathe. It wasn't until she opened the second video—a bread truck speeding recklessly through the torrential rain, crashing through the bridge railing and tumbling into the river—that Lu Lingyun finally lost all strength and sat back down on the plastic chair in the corridor.
"Was the one who got stabbed Shen Xing? Has a DNA test been done? Where is Shen Xing? Have you contacted him?" Lu Lingyun stood up, grabbed Ah Le by the collar, and bombarded him with questions like a machine gun.
"That car belongs to Ah Xing. Ah Xing's sister said he went out at night and never came back. The surveillance footage shows that Shen Xing's van kept trying to leave the city, but it was intercepted on the road..." Ah Le quickly spoke up, revealing the information he knew.
Lu Lingyun released his grip, took out his phone, and turned it on. The image of two hands clasped together on the screen made Lu Lingyun feel an immense sense of slowness.
After the phone was fully turned on, Lu Lingyun saw more than a dozen missed text messages and dozens of missed calls. Most of the missed calls were from Shen Xing.
He glanced at the text message briefly before dialing Shen Xing's number back, but only a mechanical female voice answered. "Sorry, the user you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. Sorry, the subscriber....." Shen Xing, why did you call me so many times last night?
Why didn't he just send himself a text message?
Why did he start trying to "run away" after failing to get through to himself by phone?
"What about the others? Did Shen Xing call anyone else?" Lu Lingyun asked, looking at Ah Le.
"He made two calls to Chen Liming, the captain of the criminal investigation team. One call was to ask for Wen Yan's address, and the other call was hung up by Shen Xing himself after only one second... and then he called you."
Shen Xing sensed danger and immediately called an acquaintance at the Municipal Public Security Bureau. He then realized that the Municipal Public Security Bureau might not be safe either, so he called himself... but he remained silent and did not answer.
Why would Shen Xing ask Wen Yan for her address?
What exactly happened there?
Lu Lingyun has no children or partner, and he has basically regarded his old friend Shen Xing's son as his own son. Now he just feels confused, as if a lot of tangled threads have appeared, waiting for him to sort them out.
But just a few minutes later, Lu Lingyun calmed down again.
He turned his phone off again, looked at Ah Le, and said, "The Ninth Detachment can't be distracted right now. Let the Municipal Bureau handle Shen Xing's case. We have more important things to do."
"Boss Lu..."
"哢哒一"
Ah Le wanted to say something more, but the door to the conference room behind them had already been opened.
A middle-aged female doctor with silver-white curly hair, a kind face, and slightly plump figure pushed open the door and looked at Lu Lingyun outside. An acrylic name tag was pinned to her white coat, displaying her name and department.
Liu Chunqiu, Director of the Department of Neurology.
"Commander Lu, let me give it a try."
Wang Xinran's previous reaction had exceeded the experience of psychology experts. There is a significant difference between this kind of physical injury and mental illness. Psychological methods are sometimes unable to cope with some unexpected situations.
At this point, more professional people were needed to try. So, Lu Lingyun summoned experts from the hospital for a consultation. After briefly explaining the situation, she asked the experts to communicate with each other and try to find a solution.
If this issue cannot be resolved, the lockdown of the hospital will not be lifted anytime soon.
Being in the same room as Wang Xinran posed a significant risk of infection from the strange white worms, at least greater than the probability of infection if one simply stayed in the hospital. Liu Chunqiu volunteered despite knowing the risks.
"Thank you." Lu Lingyun composed himself, bowed slightly to her, and then said, "A-Le, take her to the ward." A-Le gave Lu Lingyun a deep look, then said to the female director, "Please follow me."
Then, he led Liu Chunqiu toward the intensive care unit.
Liu Chunqiu followed behind the young man, his mind in turmoil.
At first, she refused to believe such an outrageous thing as a "monster," even thinking that the man named Lu Lingyun was lying. It wasn't until she saw the helicopters circling outside and the army blocking the road to the hospital that she realized it was very likely true. And now, the lives of thousands of people were in the hands of that little girl in the ward.
If the conversation goes wrong, the other person will go crazy.
That means tens of millions of people going insane at the same time.
If the conversation goes well and you convince the other party.
That would save everyone's lives and resolve the crisis.
The lives of tens of thousands of people were thus tied to her experience and knowledge.
Liu Chunqiu withstood the unprecedented pressure; those who couldn't handle the pressure wouldn't be able to sit in the position of director.
After changing into protective clothing in the small room, Liu Chunqiu opened the door and looked at the beautiful woman inside, who had already woken up and was staring blankly at the ceiling.
The woman's missing skull has now been completely replaced. Dense white hair has grown from the replaced skull, covering the wound and hanging quietly to the side.
If you observe it with an electron microscope, you can see that it is not a clump of hair... but rather a group of small white insects, their heads and tails intertwined, emerging from tiny black honeycomb-like holes.
She stood beside the hospital bed, took out a metal flashlight from her pocket, pressed the switch at the end, and a bright light shone. The woman on the bed's pupils contracted slightly, as if she had reacted to the bright light.
"Can you see the light?" Liu Chunqiu asked softly.
It is difficult to get patients with prefrontal cortex damage to cooperate by reasoning with them. The first thing to do is to use a short instruction to elicit a biological instinctive response. Only when the other person responds can there be any further action.
The other person still has half of their prefrontal cortex intact, so its function isn't necessarily completely impaired... and the damage has now healed. Liu Chunqiu needs to try to help the other person rediscover emotional resonance.
Only by rediscovering emotional resonance can a person with a damaged prefrontal cortex, who acts like a wild animal following instinctive impulses, become a true human being again.