Chapter 1192: Is It Just In Time?
Unexpectedly, Bohemia's poetry was quite effective. Despite Lin Sanjiu's ears ringing from her loud shout, Sesame Cake only mumbled lightly and went back to sleep. But that shout had drained the last bit of her adventurous spirit for the day. She feared that shouting again might attract unwanted attention, so she stayed quiet, hoping someone would open the patient room door.
After waiting for three to four minutes, Bohemia bent down and threw Sesame Cake's feet to the ground with a 'bang.'
"You can just wait here foolishly," she said, clapping her non-existent hands. "Obviously, that guy isn't here."
Sesame Cake, who had lost all her organs, was surprisingly light. Lin Sanjiu gave Bohemia a sidelong glance.
"Are you so sure that he would keep the patient room?" Bohemia asked.
"If I were him, I would definitely use all my points to buy another round of the patient room before the lockdown ends," Lin Sanjiu replied.
"How do you know?" Bohemia looked at her with suspicion, as if she often deceived people.
It was a long story.
"We trapped a person in his patient room," Lin Sanjiu said, sighing, knowing she needed to clarify. "Before we left, we only took her corneas. That means there are still many organs on her body that can be reaped for points... During the lockdown, she won't be able to leave the patient room, so if you were her, you'd quickly buy another round of the patient room to ensure she stays locked inside, right?"
In this hospital, players at a disadvantage were treated as prey and seen only as resources. Ya Jiang didn't seem like a particularly merciful person.
Bohemia clicked her tongue and said, "He might have reaped everything and left, saving you the trouble of going after him."
"You're quite good at saying that," Lin Sanjiu retorted. "You wait here. I'll go up and take a look."
Although Bohemia had no objections to this arrangement, she grumbled to herself for a while.
In theory, the hospital pass had a one-hour time limit, but Lin Sanjiu's pass was not given by NPCs, so she couldn't be sure when the one-hour duration started. Did it not work at all, or did the timer start from the moment she used it?
Hanging the pass around her neck, she took a step toward the wall—her body flipped as her vision shifted, and she moved up the wall smoothly and skillfully, shifting her weight to her feet. It was not the time to feel amazed, but she couldn't help taking a few more steps, experiencing a childlike sense of surprise and excitement.
"Go and come back quickly," Bohemia said, pulling a long face.
Ya Jiang's patient room was not far from the ground, and Lin Sanjiu reached the door in a few strides. She knocked on the door for a while but received no response. She then pressed her ear against the door for half a minute, biting her lip.
Each patient room door looked identical. Could she have remembered the wrong location?
Following her memory, Lin Sanjiu knocked on several nearby patient room doors. It seemed like she had startled someone in one of the rooms; they bumped into the infusion stand, causing a clatter. However, besides that, she heard no other sound.
Could Bohemia be right? Had something happened to Ya Jiang?
No matter how many times she knocked on the door of the room where someone was supposed to be, there was no response. Lin Sanjiu expanded her search to a few more rows of rooms, and in the end, she had to admit that she might have been mistaken.
It seemed she would have to find a way to get the truth out of Sesame Cake. As for Ya Jiang, she could look for him later when things were settled. He was quite elusive and might have already left the hospital.
With her mind made up, Lin Sanjiu turned to go back down. But as she did, her gaze fell on the ground beneath her.
From her current perspective, she could only see the top of Bohemia's head. Bohemia was facing the direction of the lower labyrinth, wary of anyone approaching. Sesame Cake lay behind her, face up on the ground, and Lin Sanjiu saw her freckled round face slightly turn outward, her eyes opening slightly as her gaze fell on Bohemia's calves.
What was she planning to do?
Before Lin Sanjiu could react, her body moved like a fierce tiger descending a mountain, pouncing toward the ground even faster than the warning in her throat. But instead of avoiding the patient room door as she had when climbing up, she charged down, and her footsteps echoed thunderously on the steel door. Bohemia was alerted by the sound, and their eyes met in mid-air.
In that moment, Bohemia looked slightly surprised and parted her lips, as if wanting to ask, "What's wrong?"
But neither Lin Sanjiu nor Bohemia could speak the words on the tip of their tongues. In the next moment, Lin Sanjiu felt the patient room door suddenly lift up under her foot, perfectly wedging her other foot before it touched the wall. She lost her balance and stumbled as the door swung open, throwing her out.
'Someone is in the patient room!' she thought before she was thrown into the air, with nothing to grasp onto. Bohemia's attention was captured by the sudden change, and her gaze followed Lin Sanjiu's path in the air. So, when Sesame Cake's shadow suddenly pounced toward her, it took her half a second to react – in posthuman battles, half a second was enough to establish an absolute advantage.
'No, it can't be [No coincidence. No story].'
Lin Sanjiu stared helplessly as Bohemia was thrown to the ground, feeling anxious and yet completely powerless. There was nowhere for Lin Sanjiu to grab onto. Before her body hit the ground, her mind raced. That was right, to avoid accidents, she had deactivated [No coincidence. No story] before turning into a statue. Besides, this wasn't the first time she had been hit by a suddenly opened door.
There can only be one answer.
Lin Sanjiu twisted her body in mid-air as she rapidly descended. With a quick glance, she caught sight of the figure behind the door of the room. To her surprise, it seemed that person also hadn't expected to knock her out by opening the door. Fearing that she might cause trouble, he hastily rushed out of the room, slammed the door shut, and then ran upwards along the wall.
In that split second, Lin Sanjiu managed to observe the person clearly—it wasn't Ya Jiang. The injuries on his body were quite peculiar, with a large gap in his right shoulder blade, but his chest was still intact. His limbs were unharmed, let alone his waist and abdomen.
1
Could it be the effect of [Common Comedy Tropes]?
This question flashed through her mind as Lin Sanjiu quickly twisted her body in mid-air, and with a roll upon landing, she regained her footing beside the two struggling women. The situation wasn't looking good for Bohemia at the moment. Without waiting to stabilize herself, Lin Sanjiu quickly covered her right hand with the metal gauntlet and moved towards Bohemia, producing a sharp wind sound. Startled, Bohemia shuddered as if she had eyes on the back of her head, quickly evading the punch that could have dealt a heavy blow.
Lin Sanjiu held back her momentum and extended her hand to pull Bohemia up from the ground without uttering a word. Following closely behind, she rushed out after the still drowsy-looking Sesame Cake. The latter seemed to seize the opportunity to escape, burying herself between high walls. As Lin Sanjiu's gaze swept between the walls, she was astonished, and exclaimed without thinking, "Ya Jiang!"