The Secret in the Director's Office

Because the night shift started at 8 PM, the hospital's medical staff became more numerous. On the fifth floor, two medical staff members were leaning against the wall, lazily chatting. It was hard to tell when they would leave, and sneaking into the director's office required avoiding their gaze. Fortunately, a man named Dai Xiao from the mutant group conjured an alarm clock, set the time, and threw it into the corridor. This temporarily drew the attention of the nurses walking back and forth.

Everyone took the opportunity to press the doorknob. Just as Yu Xi had said before, the director's office door was unlocked; it opened with a single press. Everyone first showed a defensive expression, fearing a monster would jump out. But after entering, they found the office empty, with no living creature in sight at first glance.

The most eye-catching thing was the wall cabinet opposite the door. The dark brown, old-fashioned cabinet held some certificates, awards, and several group photos. From the names on the certificates, the director of Jinyang Huimin Private Hospital was indeed named Cui Jianlong.

Among the group photos, the first one was of Cui Jianlong holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the hospital's opening day. The hospital in the background was barely better than those small licensed clinics, with old-fashioned black-tiled roofs, concrete floors, and red brick walls, very much in line with the characteristics of that era.

The subsequent photos showed Cui Jianlong shaking hands with some men and women dressed in elegant suits and leather shoes in front of the hospital. From a hospital director in his thirties to his forties and fifties, shaking hands and talking with wealthy and prominent figures, Cui Jianlong was smiling in every photo, looking extremely proud.

Behind him, the hospital building also changed over time, becoming larger, taller, and more refined, until it became the Jinyang Huimin Private Hospital that An Chengxi and the others saw now. Although in their eyes this hospital building was dilapidated and outdated, fifty years ago, based on its equipment and appearance, it was definitely a very grand hospital in the local area.

Seeing Hei Jing casually picking up the certificates to flip through them, seemingly having no intention of leading, An Chengxi whispered to the others, "Let's split into groups of two to find the safe. If there's a problem, call for help immediately. Remember, don't touch that clock on the desk for now."

Everyone nodded and began to disperse in pairs. Suddenly, Wu Dazhuang, who was walking with Wang Quan, gasped, immediately drawing the attention of the others.

On the side of the wall cabinet was a wooden door. The door was wide open, and inside was a very small space with a single bed, which should be the rest area the director prepared for himself.

However, in such a small space, the single bed was surrounded on three sides by built-in wall cabinets. Inside the dark brown cabinets, various glass containers of different sizes were placed, each containing human body parts preserved in formalin. Some were whole, some were sliced, some were healthy, and some were diseased.

When Wu Dazhuang turned his head, he happened to see a halved head. The terrifying cross-section faced him, showing the brain, nasal cavity, oral cavity, and blood-red human structures clearly before his eyes!

Wu Dazhuang looked at it, couldn't help but touch his own head, and then, seeing the others looking over, he cursed sheepishly.

"Is this hospital director sick? Modifying his rest room like this, can he even sleep?"

Whether Director Cui could sleep or not, everyone didn't know; they only knew this scene was extremely unfriendly to their eyes. Fortunately, they were all experienced people with broad horizons. They quickly composed themselves. Wang Quan, Wu Dazhuang, Dai Xiao, and others who stood closest actively went in to inspect.

"Looks scary, but they're just normal specimens." Dai Xiao opened a lid to sniff, frowning. "It's the smell of formalin. I don't see any problem."

Wu Dazhuang tapped around the walls. "Sounds solid. There shouldn't be a hidden compartment."

Wang Quan knelt down to open the small bedside cabinet. "Inside, aside from a lighter and cigarettes, there's nothing... Huh? That's not right."

Wang Quan lay down, poking her head into the small cabinet, and then reached her arm deep inside. She slowly pulled out another drawer from the bottom of the drawer. There was actually a double bottom!

Unfortunately, the height of the double bottom was only about one centimeter. Inside was not the safe everyone was longing for, but several letters with a very ancient feel. Modern people, accustomed to the convenience of internet communication, rarely saw this type of envelope.

Wang Quan respectfully handed the letters to Hei Jing. "Sister Jing."

Hei Jing was very satisfied with her attitude. Just as she was about to reach out to take them, the door of the director's office was suddenly pushed open. Everyone immediately looked over on high alert, prepared to fight any anomalies. However, they quickly discovered that those who entered were not medical staff, but patients like them—Cha Xubei and his group of six.

"Oh, everyone is here."

Cha Xubei was stunned, not expecting the director's office to be so lively. He smiled and led his people in, his attention landing on the letters in Wang Quan's hand.

"He seems to think you guys already have some harvest."

As he spoke, a short, thin man behind Cha Xubei suddenly raised his hand, and the letters in Wang Quan's hand immediately flew toward him uncontrollably.

An Chengxi and the others showed anger in their eyes, about to snatch them back. In the next second, a dark shadow flashed, and the short, thin man was kicked flying, crashing into the tea table not far away. Hei Jing stood where the short, thin man had just been, holding the letters that had just flown out.

Hong Zhun immediately drew his dagger, and Cha Xubei's hand turned into a great white shark, preparing to bite Hei Jing. However, their movements had just begun when they suddenly stopped, because a sharp mirror scythe was already pressed against Cha Xubei's neck. With just a gentle swipe, it could cut Cha Xubei's carotid artery.

This was the powerful symbiotic characteristic of Ye Yu, meaning several core abilities could coexist in her body, allowing her to use multiple abilities alone.

As a level-five, Hei Jing might not be a match for the attack-focused level-six Cha Xubei in a one-on-one fight. But with the addition of level-three high-speed movement, as long as Hei Jing could gain the upper hand, no matter how strong Cha Xubei was, he would have to suffer!

Just like now, clearly holding the upper hand, Hei Jing held the letters and sneered. "What are you, to dare steal from me?"

As she spoke, she pressed her hand down, and the scythe blade immediately drew a line of blood on Cha Xubei's neck, thick blood instantly flowing out.

Shock and anger mingled in Cha Xubei's eyes. Yet he dared not show it, only transforming his shark hand back and raising both hands in surrender.

"Just now it was my man's fault. He was too hasty. I apologize to you. Let's talk things over. Let's talk things over."

Wang Quan frowned at the closed door and whispered to Hei Jing, "Sister Jing, fighting here might attract those people."

Wang Quan had no feelings for this captain Cha Xubei. If Cha Xubei dared to snatch things and got killed by Hei Jing, so be it. She only cared about one thing, which was that Cha Xubei was, after all, a level-six superhuman.

And based on her observations and what Tang Nianke said, Hei Jing and Bai Jing had a bad relationship, preventing them from fully exerting their high-level anomaly strength. Under such circumstances, if Cha Xubei struggled desperately, Hei Jing would have to spend some effort to kill him. If that attracted the powerful medical staff, they would definitely return empty-handed this time.

Hei Jing also understood this logic, but this didn't mean she would let Cha Xubei off so easily.

"I don't accept insincere apologies."

Seeing Hei Jing's words left room for negotiation, Cha Xubei immediately said, "Then what counts as sincere?"

Hei Jing's gaze swept over Hong Zhun's dagger, then looked toward the short, thin man who had climbed up, sneering.

"Those who dare to snatch my things usually have their hands and feet chopped off by me. But this time, let's forget it. Go take the knife and stab a hole in the hand he used to snatch my things. Or... do you want to bear it for him, stabbing a hole in your own hand?"

Niu Tao glared at Hei Jing in anger. "No way! Who do you think you are? Release our captain quickly, otherwise our Gold Hunting Group won't let you off!"

As soon as he said this, An Chengxi and the others frowned, then took two steps forward, surrounding Cha Xubei and his people. The force on Hei Jing's hand increased again, and Cha Xubei felt an even sharper pain in his neck.

Hei Jing: "It seems your man doesn't agree. If so, why don't you, as the captain, apologize with your death?"

Cha Xubei cursed Niu Tao's stupidity in his heart. Then he forced a smile and said, "Don't listen to Niu Tao's nonsense. Since he did something wrong, it's only right he receives punishment. I am willing to comply to apologize to you."

The short, thin man looked at Cha Xubei in disbelief. "Captain!"

With his life in another's hands, Cha Xubei glared back in irritation.

"Shut up! It's all because of your stupid actions!"

Hei Jing noticed the hurt in the short, thin man's eyes, and her sneer deepened. "I've changed my mind. Now... I want both of your hands to have multiple holes."

Cha Xubei's face darkened. "You!"

"What? Unwilling?" Hei Jing threatened, raising the scythe in her hand. Terrified, Cha Xubei quickly tilted his chin up along with her force, fearing a slip of her hand would cut off his head.

Under such circumstances, Cha Xubei could only grit his teeth and agree. Thus, a moment later, both he and the short, thin man had multiple bloody holes in their right hands. They could only tear sheets from the small rest bed to bandage their wounds.

After this incident, seeing that Hei Jing's force was not inferior to theirs, and that she had more people behind her, Cha Xubei's group of six finally behaved themselves, pretending to shake hands and make peace, suggesting everyone look for clues together to escape.

Hei Jing and the others naturally didn't believe them, but they didn't want to fight here either. So while looking for clues, they kept an eye on each other to prevent anyone from finding important clues and hiding them.

Having displayed her force, Hei Jing held a somewhat lofty position. While the others were buried in searching for clues, she alone sat on the sofa holding her cat, quickly flipping through the letters to analyze the information.

First, these letters had no postage stamps, appearing not to have been sent through the post office. Even after flipping through all of them, the sender could not be identified.

However, from the different handwritings, it could be initially judged that a total of three people sent letters to Director Cui. The content of the letters varied in length, but in short, it was about one thing.

The matter has been exposed. Director Cui, bear it yourself. If you suffer, bear it yourself. If you dare to expose us, you will definitely die!

Hei Jing recalled the records of wealthy people buying corneas, hearts, livers, and kidneys for tens or hundreds of thousands that she had seen in the archives. Looking at these letters, she already had some conjectures.

The organ business of this hospital was not something just anyone could set up, and looking at the records of that era, it had been going on for nearly twenty years. So either Director Cui was no ordinary person and had his own methods, or someone was protecting him. Now, it seemed to be the latter.

Since ancient times, those greedy elites pursued basically two things: pleasure and longevity.

A local elite family or three elite families joined forces to form a protective umbrella for Director Cui. Relying on Director Cui to create this hospital, which was ostensibly named 'Huimin' (benefiting the people), but in reality turned the patients of this hospital into an organ reservoir for them and even other wealthy people.

Director Cui, like Dr. Sun, was merely a tool. And looking at the content of the letters, the government had already noticed the criminal behavior of this hospital and was secretly investigating evidence.

Therefore, the protective umbrella panicked, fearing they would be investigated, and prepared to cut ties to save themselves, ordering Director Cui, Dr. Sun, and the others to step forward and confess, bearing everything. They would operate from the outside to help Director Cui strive for a suspended death sentence or a reduced sentence.

"There's a piece of paper here."

Gu Mingri lay on the ground, struggling to pull out a dust-covered envelope from under the director's desk. The side appeared to be burned, half of it charred black, turning to ash at a touch, and the other half yellowed and curled. Fearing he would damage it, Gu Mingri only dared to use his fingers to carefully pick it up and glance at it.

"Looks like... also a letter?"

The director's office was only so big. With nine people investigating, they turned it upside down in a few minutes, but unfortunately, they couldn't find the safe Gu Mingri had mentioned. Everyone gathered around in disappointment, hoping to get other clues from these letters; otherwise, they would return empty-handed.

"I'm too lazy to repeat it, read it yourselves."

Since Hei Jing had just finished reading the letters, she gestured to An Chengxi and the others with her chin. "Tell me, what's on that letter?"

Although her attitude was arrogant and capricious, no one said anything. Even if they had opinions, they only dared to mutter in their hearts about what kind of deity this strange-looking woman was.

They placed the burned letter on the tea table, flipping through it together. Soon, An Chengxi deduced by comparing Cui Jianlong's signature on the certificates. The remaining handwriting on the burned letter was written by Director Cui. Moreover, it should be the reply he wanted to write after receiving those letters.

Because on the letter, words like 'no,' 'I don't agree!' could barely be read. Inferring from the context, Director Cui was angrily cursing the three senders for burning bridges and killing the donkey once the grind was done, being shameless! Obviously, Director Cui did not want to comply with the senders' words, intending to refuse them through the letter. He even explicitly named the three people in the letter. It was just that these names happened to be in the burned section, completely unreadable. A careless touch with a finger instantly turned them into ash on the tea table.

The group could only give up on checking the names, instead thinking about the letter itself. Looking at its position, it seemed it had not been sent out.

Wu Dazhuang: "It was burned? Did Director Cui regret it?"

"Looking at the wording of this letter, he doesn't seem like someone who would change his mind or kneel," Gu Mingri muttered. "And if he regretted it, he should have burned it completely. Something as vital as this couldn't be left half-burned."

Wang Quan sighed, "Ah, if only we could know what happened to this hospital in reality back then."

Many events in the anomaly realm were reflections of what had happened there, so sometimes real-world information was very useful.

The others shook their heads helplessly. Even if this hospital really existed, that was so many years ago; none of them were even born yet, so how could they know the situation.

At this moment, An Chengxi suddenly said, "Ten years ago, when Jinyang Xiehe Hospital mutated into an anomaly, a fire occurred."

The massive fire at Jinyang Xiehe Hospital and the countless victims was big news at the time, making countless people sigh. Even the young An Chengxi had heard of it.

Although to avoid causing social panic, much of the news content at the time was not true, Jinyang Xiehe Hospital had indeed suffered a massive fire. The investigation team deduced based on interviews and surrounding investigations that the 'door' to the other world appeared at Jinyang Xiehe Hospital, and at the same time, the hospital caught fire.

A few people nearby vaguely saw a distorted black hole, which was quickly obscured by thick black smoke, while most people saw soaring flames and billowing smoke. Black ash fell like snow.

In just a few short minutes, the hospital was burned to ruins by this bizarre fire, and the terrifying level-seven anomaly, Jinyang Xiehe Hospital, was born!

"If Jinyang Xiehe Hospital and this private hospital are two sides of the same coin, could the fire back then actually be a reflection of the disaster that befell this Huimin Private Hospital?"

An Chengxi pondered. "After all, this letter clearly states that if Director Cui dares to confess, they will act against him. And the best, fastest, and most convenient way to destroy evidence is usually a massive fire."

Wu Dazhuang and the others had an epiphany, feeling it was highly likely. Cha Xubei and his people also secretly noted this clue without saying a word.

But Hei Jing suddenly stood up at this moment.

Just now, Yu Xi warned Ye Yu: [She's probably right, I smell burning! And the smell is getting stronger.]

Hu Kailiang said alertly, "Sister Jing, what's wrong?"

"The temperature in the room is rising." Hei Jing raised her hand to touch the wall, and then she immediately moved, appearing at the door in the blink of an eye.

Just now, to avoid being discovered by the medical staff walking outside, they had closed the door. But now, no matter how she pressed the doorknob, the door wouldn't budge!

In just a few short seconds, flames and black smoke began to rise in the room, the temperature rapidly increasing, as if to burn everything to ashes.

"Ouch! This wall is hot!"

Wu Dazhuang touched the wall and immediately withdrew his hand from the burn. Then he discovered the plastic soles of his hospital slippers were melting. Walking on the floor made his feet stick. Wu Dazhuang was shocked. The floor was this hot? If he stood barefoot on the floor, wouldn't his feet turn into charcoal-grilled pig trotters?!

"Let me!"

Wu Dazhuang covered his nose and mouth in fear, running to Hei Jing's side, and kicked the door.

Gu Mingri threw down a paper cutout, which indeed turned into a giant wolf upon landing, opening its bloody mouth to gnaw at the door. However, the wooden door that had opened with a push just now seemed like iron walls, completely unyielding no matter what they did!

"Tch! Don't get in the way!" Hei Jing barked impatiently, waving them back. Blood-stained shattered glass emerged from her body, transforming into a mirror scythe held in her hand. She struck hard at the sturdy wooden door.

Boom!

Along with the loud noise, everyone felt the entire room shake! However, against a force that could split even alloy doors, the wooden door remained completely unharmed, without even a scratch!

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Although the fire hadn't reached them yet, the thick black smoke had already made everyone's eyes red and watery, their airways extremely uncomfortable. If they didn't get out quickly, they would be choked to death by the smoke before being burned!

They quickly ran to pull the windows, but as expected, the windows were also locked tight. No matter how they smashed them, they wouldn't open. The black smoke grew thicker, which highlighted Hei Jing's anomaly. She showed absolutely no intention of coughing. Her deep breaths when her emotions fluctuated were merely subconscious actions. As an anomaly, she didn't need to breathe at all!

Wang Quan, An Chengxi, Hong Zhun, and other sharp-minded people noticed this, but no matter how broad their thoughts were, they didn't think this woman wasn't human, let alone a high-level anomaly. They only treated her as a superhuman with severe mutations and special abilities.

Cha Xubei didn't dare to watch anymore, quickly conjuring the phantom of a great white shark to ram the window glass, intending to break it to escape.

Crash, crash, crash!

The shark's rams made the glass emit loud noises, but it remained completely unyielding, with no sign of shattering.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Everyone's coughing grew more violent.

"Ah! So hot! So hot! Cough, cough, cough!"

Someone was licked by a surging flame, and his arm immediately blistered.

The door was too narrow, and the window was also too narrow. With both occupied, Niu Tao had no place to display his skills. In his anxiety, he simply used his superhuman ability to ram the office wall. However, his full-force charge against the white wall only made his head ring. Looking at the white wall rammed by his bull horns, it was similarly completely undamaged!

Was the death rule of this director's office an indestructible secret room, where the people inside were one hundred percent destined to be burned to death?

Ignoring his dizzy head, Niu Tao looked in horror at the billowing smoke and hazy fire in the room. There was no time! He was going to turn into a grilled beef steak!

An Chengxi shouted, "This is probably a rule barrier, there's no way. Let's... cough, use that clock!"

Cha Xubei's movements paused, not understanding what clock she meant, while Hei Jing frowned before nodding. "Go get it."

Gu Mingri: "Use it quickly, I'm about to choke... cough, cough, cough."

Wu Dazhuang: "Cough, cough, cough!"

An Chengxi ignored Cha Xubei and his people. With Hei Jing's permission, she took a few steps to the desk. Her memory was very good; even in the billowing smoke, she accurately grabbed the clock on the desk.

As she picked up the clock pointing to 8 AM, everyone felt the thick smoke, heat, and flames suddenly vanish. When they coughed and opened their eyes, their surroundings had restored to calm. However, their environment had also changed. From the old-fashioned office with a strong sense of the era, it had transformed into a modern, simpler office.

From the certificates, trophies, and other items on the wall cabinet, it could be seen that this was the director's office of Jinyang Xiehe Hospital.