Chapter 645: Needle

Chapter 645: Needle

The noon meal at Kangding Hospital’s cafeteria was passable—a dish of meat, a vegetable, and a soup. Though it was served in large pots, it wasn’t difficult to swallow.

But at this moment, Li Huowang found his mind wandering far from the food.

Just now, Qian Fu had approached him again, speaking nonsense without reason.

At first, he thought the man was merely acting on impulse. But now, it seemed clear that this fellow had set his sights on him and wouldn’t let go.

Since Qian Fu refused to back down, Li Huowang now pondered how to escape him.

There were cameras everywhere. Killing him outright was out of the question. Even striking him to scare him off was impossible.

As he continued to think, he picked up a piece of hollow vegetable with his chopsticks and shoved it into his mouth. Just as he bit down, a sharp jolt of pain shot through his tongue, followed by the stench of blood.

His muscles tensed instantly.

He opened his mouth, trembling fingers reaching inside. In the throes of agony, he quickly felt several needles stuck into his tongue!

“Are you okay?” The nurse who had been watching nearby noticed Li Huowang’s odd behavior and walked over to ask.

When she saw him pulling out the needles, her face went pale. She immediately realized the severity of the situation and shouted for all the patients to stop eating.

Needles had been placed in the psychiatric ward’s meals. This was a major incident. It could easily escalate into something catastrophic. Chaos erupted throughout the facility.

After a thorough investigation, however, only Li Huowang’s meal was found to contain needles. No one else’s had.

Such a serious safety breach couldn’t be ignored lightly. The director assembled a team and began reviewing surveillance footage. All patients were ordered back to their dormitories.

Meanwhile, in his own room, Li Huowang was contemplating the suspicious elements of the incident. More than the pain inflicted, he was trying to understand what this meant.

“Who put these needles there? I haven’t offended anyone here.”

“Could it be…” Li Huowang recalled Qian Fu’s strange words from before.

At that moment, Wu Cheng entered alone. “How are you doing? We’re truly sorry about this. To express our apology, we’ve decided to waive part of your fees.”

“And since you’re an adult now, we won’t notify your mother about this small matter, okay?”

“What? You mean you’ve figured out who did it?” Li Huowang asked, surprised.

“Yes, of course. The method wasn’t very clever. Here’s the surveillance footage from the cafeteria,” Wu Cheng said, holding up his phone and placing it in front of Li Huowang.

With a light tap on the play button, Li Huowang soon saw who had placed the needles in his food. “Qian Fu? It’s him?!”

“Yes,” Wu Cheng tucked the phone back into his white coat pocket. “I watched the footage. He’s been visiting you frequently lately. Did you have a conflict?”

“What conflict do I have with him! Where is he now? I want to ask him directly!” Li Huowang was genuinely angry. This guy had gone so far as to feed him metal needles just to make him believe his madness.

There was no such thing as a Leo alien threatening him. Of everyone in the psychiatric ward, the one most dangerous to him was clearly this man!

“Come on, Xiao Li, we need your help. Find out where those long needles came from. They shouldn’t have been brought into the ward,” Wu Cheng said.

Li Huowang soon found Qian Fu restrained in the intensive care unit, dressed in a straitjacket.

Walking across the soft floor, Li Huowang stared coldly at Qian Fu’s agitated face. “Why did you do this? What did I do to you?”

Hearing this, Qian Fu shouted excitedly, “No! It wasn’t me trying to hurt you! It was them! The alien from Leo!”

The nurse beside him spoke sternly, “The surveillance shows it clearly! Not you, who else?! Tell us where you got those needles!”

But Qian Fu ignored him, staring intensely at Li Huowang. “Don’t believe them! The footage has been tampered with! Their tech is advanced enough to do that! It wasn’t me! It really wasn’t me!”

“You know why they’re doing this? Because they’re trying to divide us! They want us to kill each other, then pick us off one by one!”

“They’ve already infiltrated! They act like lizard people, silently replacing our staff!”

Looking at him, Li Huowang felt like he’d lost his mind, talking logic to a lunatic.

“Fine, I won’t ask anymore. Lock him up again. Don’t let him hurt anyone,” Li Huowang told Wu Cheng before turning to leave.

Watching Li Huowang walk away, Qian Fu shouted, “Xiao Li! Do you understand me? Do you understand?! Others won’t get it! Only you can!”

“The Leo aliens have arrived! Danger is approaching. Running away won’t solve anything! We must strike first!”

Li Huowang paid no attention and walked toward his bedroom.

Now that the man was locked up, he could finally rest easy for a while.

Li Huowang didn’t want anything else to happen. He simply wanted to stay calm until he was discharged, leaving the place as a normal person.

Halfway through his meal, he hadn’t finished eating. To appease him, Wu Cheng even arranged a delivery of Beijing roast duck.

With a few scallion strips and cucumber slices, a dab of sweet bean sauce spread on a lotus leaf pancake, a few slices of duck on top, and then rolled up and bitten into—

It had to be said, after getting used to the hospital food, a delivery tasted surprisingly good.

But just as Li Huowang savored his meal alone, he suddenly sensed a gaze from outside the window.

He looked up sharply, but saw no one. “Someone’s spying on me?!”

His brow furrowed tightly.

Minutes later, two figures cautiously peeked out from outside. Just as they did, they met Li Huowang’s eyes at the window.

They jumped back in shock.

Li Huowang recognized them. The new guy named Wang Gang with glasses, and the old man named Yuan Heping!

Seeing Li Huowang’s unfriendly expression, the glasses man glared angrily and left with the old man. “This is ridiculous. Why does he get roast duck?”

“Come on, let’s go. Don’t get involved. Maybe he’s connected to the hospital,” the old man said.

“Really? For a bite to eat, they still have connections in a psychiatric ward. They’ve got privileges.”

———————

Next chapter update at 11:30 PM.

(End of Chapter)