Detective Agency of the Bizarre-Chapter 1544 - 2: Phantasmagoria Syndrome

"...Mm."

Lu Li gave up questioning the living tree and asking about what happened last night.

Was it the lullaby that made it lose control, or something else? If it were the former, the living tree might remember yesterday’s events and attack again—

"What time is it now?"

"The sun rose a few dozen minutes ago," said the living tree that had been basking in sunlight for a while.

But through Lu Li’s eyes, the thick fog outside the window was just like yesterday.

Lu Li pulled off the quilt, sat up, put on the coat, and prepared to leave the dangerous ward.

The living tree on the hospital bed lazily soaked in the "mist" seeping from the window, ignoring Lu Li’s departure, as if nothing had happened.

But just as Lu Li avoided the living tree and walked past the hospital bed covered by the curtain, a severely burned arm shot out from behind the curtain, grabbing his arm. In that instant, Lu Li caught a glimpse of what lay behind the curtain—an aberrant presence like a wax figure melting, with deformed, melting features that seemed a grotesque parody of humans. Then, like something wrapped in a tongue, a terrifying force pulled him towards the curtain.

As the events of last night nearly replayed, a grating scream suddenly rang out behind him. Lu Li only felt it was ear-piercing, but the melting wax figure’s twisted features contorted in pain and involuntarily released Lu Li.

Lu Li seized the opportunity to break free and quickly retreated to the door.

Although the living tree saved him, the scene was more like two prey fighting fiercely for food.

The living tree returned to silence, and the curtain gradually calmed, with only the dirty fingerprints on the shirt silently attesting to everything that just happened.

"Evildoers don’t like screaming," the living tree said.

Lu Li opened the ward door. The corridor was empty and silent, and the commotion just now hadn’t attracted any nurses.

"What about you?" Lu Li, standing by the door, turned back, testing the waters from the corridor: "Does Little Linna dislike anything?"

"I don’t like..."

The living tree fell into thought, and gradually, its face, covered in ravines, grew tranquil under the sunlight, like an ancient tree.

Without an answer, Lu Li gently closed the room door.

He saw the wheelchair’s outline again; it was still in the same spot as yesterday, as if it hadn’t moved.

Lu Li soon reached the door of ward 205, where he had stopped yesterday. The door was tightly shut, blocking Lu Li’s probing gaze.

The good news was that no nurse suddenly appeared.

The door to ward 206 was open, and Lu Li deliberately slowed his pace to linger longer as he passed the entrance.

Nearing the ward, dull breathing through a mask sounded from inside. In the brief two seconds of passing by, Lu Li saw: someone wearing a European medieval crow mask, like a plague doctor. Yet in reality, it lay on the hospital bed as a patient; a golden retriever without human or monstrous traits, just a plain golden retriever, as if this were an animal hospital; and there was a tall "humanoid" figure lying on a bed it couldn’t fully fit, as if leaned on a sofa.

Before he could process the information, Lu Li noticed the door to ward 207 was also open.

Compared to the previous ward, ward 207 was relatively easier to accept—because there was only one "patient": a rotting figure sitting with its legs hugged on a filthy bed.

The other two beds had one wet, unoccupied bed, and the other with a stuffed doll leaning against the pillow. It was unclear whether the patient wasn’t in the room or if it was an empty bed.

Then Lu Li saw the doll on the bed by the window turn its head, its eyeless face facing him.

Maintaining silence, Lu Li quietly walked past.

The door to ward 208 was closed, allowing Lu Li’s thoughts a temporary respite.

This asylum exuded strangeness everywhere... including himself.

He inexplicably appeared here, diagnosed with delusion disorder and thrown amongst patients performed by monsters. The past seemed shrouded in mist, killed inexplicably, yet waking up unharmed the next day.

What should he do?

Should he accept treatment to recover, or escape from here?

Lu Li looked at the wheelchair silhouette a few rooms away and wondered if it would pounce on him and tear his throat once he got close.

Then quickly, passing wards 207 and 208, Lu Li’s attention fell on the open door of ward 209.

He slowed his steps, observing only with peripheral vision.

But what awaited him was merely an empty room in ward 209—white tiles scattered with dirt and sand.

The patient wasn’t in the room, or was the dirt itself the patient?

Lu Li couldn’t determine... If he truly had delusions, they would certainly be aggravated now.

Next was ward 210. Lu Li repeated his previous tactic, glancing sideways into the room.

The figure on the bed by the window, draped in black as if it feared sunlight, seemed to sense Lu Li’s glance, waved amicably.

The middle bed had a pale girl dressed in a blood-stained white dress, surrounded by loathsome, obscure blood threads.

The bed against the wall held an old man... a normal old man. A human’s presence in this monster-filled asylum seemed out of place.

His observation paused there, as the wheelchair silhouette was ahead.

It was a relatively normal, just overly frail, girl. She gazed out the window, humming a light, lullaby-like melody. The wheelchair girl sat by the closed door of ward 211; she likely didn’t come from there.

As if a prank, just as Lu Li prepared to approach her, the door of ward 212 swung open, and a nurse emerged.

"What are you doing here?"

Compared to yesterday’s inquiry, today’s tone held more reproach.

"Just getting some air."

"Please go back."

"It’s not lights-out yet."

"Please go back," the nurse repeated.

"As a patient, your attitude might cause me to stress," Lu Li didn’t want to give up that easily, though he didn’t ask why the wheelchair girl could be outside: "Does the asylum forbid patients from wandering?"

If not, he would have to observe the nurses’ actions to avoid them—

Luckily, things weren’t that bad.

The nurse changed her tone slightly, yet remained cold: "Your condition isn’t very stable..."

"I’ll be careful."

"... Please ensure you don’t leave this floor, and don’t visit other patients."

The nurse relented somewhat but indicated she would keep an eye on Lu Li—which meant he couldn’t tell the nurse about being attacked.

After all, he was still alive, after all, he had delusions.

The best outcome would be confinement due to "worsened symptoms," the worst would be returning to the third floor "consistent with the symptoms."

Watching the nurse, seemingly human, leave, his gaze returned to the wheelchair girl—she gazed out the window as if witnessing a beautiful scene, softly humming her tune, ignoring the happenings around her.

With two rooms remaining at the corridor’s end, Lu Li temporarily bypassed the wheelchair girl, reaching the door of the closed ward 212.

Ahead was only ward 213, a number symbolizing bad luck... More crucially, it was the corridor’s end, leaving him no excuse to be there except by accident.

Looking back down the corridor, the nurse who had entered a room hadn’t come out yet.

Lu Li drew a deep breath, nearing the final ward—seeing the door of ward 213 was closed.

Lu Li felt slightly relieved, as if freed from some pressure, stepping back to the wheelchair girl’s side.