CH 19

Second Floor (12)

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

“Control, Dissect, Reassemble”

“Lone Wolf, how do you feel? Does it still hurt?” The Chief Physician is shining a flashlight into Lone Wolf’s eyes.

“Not anymore.” Lone Wolf is quite taciturn sitting by the bedside. He is no longer shaking.

The Chief Physician switches his flashlight off, and starts writing rapidly on his notebook.

Butcher is finally here after sending Jiang Yiyi away.

“How was it?”

“Doesn’t feel like anything was off…”

The Chief Physician then stops writing and focuses back on Lone Wolf, “let’s talk about Jiang Yiyi, then…” He pauses, “you do remember him?”

“The Doctor?” Lone Wolf lowers his head and looks at his hand. He says to himself quietly, “strong…”

The Chief Physician furrows his brows. His traumatic stress is nowhere near traumatic——All the more unusual considering he was shaking for days. Something is not right.

The improvement is far too abrupt.

“And?”

“Scary…”

“And?”

“Don’t… get in his way.”

The Chief Physician is knitting his brows now. Butcher takes over, “do you want to see Jiang Yiyi again?”

“Not at all.” Lone Wolf is shaking his head.

“When you were looking out the window just now…”

Lone Wolf has his hands on his kneecaps, and his eyes locked squarely on the back of his hands. He is silent.

“You saw Jiang Yiyi. How did you feel?”

There is movement on Lone Wolf’s Adam’s apple, but he does not answer the question, “when can I be discharged?”

“I don’t want to stay here.”

The Chief Physician and Butcher glance at each other.

“You’ll be discharged after a couple more days of observation; we need to ensure you are healed.”

Lone Wolf goes quiet, staying in such a pose.

Outside of the clinic.

“His posture shows that he feels insecure, and is defensively closed off from the world…”

Butcher interrupts to ask, “so what is actually going on with him?”

“I’m only a GP. Go ask that Doctor instead if you want an answer.” The Chief Physician sounds exasperated, “I already warned you, not to let Lone Wolf meet Jiang Yiyi anymore.”

“I wasn’t expecting Lone Wolf to have the curtains open and see Jiang Yiyi like that either.”

The Physician then asks him, “and you do not find this suspicious?”

Butcher is rubbing the space between his eyes, “it is a suspicious coincidence, but objectively, Jiang Yiyi could not have manipulated himself into such a coincidence.”

“That guy…” The Chief Physician mumbles, “sure leaves no trace of himself.”

Butcher continues knitting his brows, “are you sure Jiang Yiyi is involved in this?”

“I’d be more surprised if he wasn’t. You know Jiang Yiyi better than I do; you are foolish if you think he would do nothing.”

“But what did he actually do? What could he even do?” Butcher asks in turn.

There are a few more seconds of silence. Then, the Chief Physician changes the topic to something unrelated, “Lunatic has improved drastically…” He says, quite pointedly, “he is now capable of following basic conversations. His acts of violence have decreased, almost as if… he is on the verge of being cured.”

Butcher says, “sounds like we’d have less trouble on our hands for a while, then.”

“Less?” The Physician repeats the choice of word with a sarcastic tone, as he scans his eyes up and down Butcher, “does the Warden keep you around because he finds all your silly thoughts endearing?”

The mention of the Warden straightens up Butcher’s expression, “then what do you think, Mr Clever-cogs?”

“I suggest you keep a close eye on Lunatic and Lone Wolf…” The Chief Physician glances back at the clinic, at Lone Wolf inside, who is now burying his head in his knees, shrinking into a small shadow. He has continued staring at his hands since they left.

“The fact that Jiang Yiyi chose to see them both specifically before leaving means he must have done something.”

Butcher looks at Lone Wolf, and concludes his form looks more traditionally like one who has been scared to death——Still, much less strange than feeling pain all over and shaking uncontrollably even after having painkillers.

His experience is urging him to trust what the Physician is saying; his reason is telling him there was nothing Jiang Yiyi could objectively have done.

The discrepancy in his logic makes him look quite conflicted.

The Chief Physician shakes his head, being genuinely confused——What in the world did the Warden even see in Butcher to assign him the Coordinator of the second floor?

His foolishness? Stubbornness? Or, his excessive sympathy for others?

Still, thanks to the second floor hosting largely harmless prisoners, Butcher has not yet seen any major incident arise from oversight despite his lack in mental acuity.

However, when facing off against dangerous prisoners like Jiang Yiyi, these weaknesses become far too easily exploited by them.

“Butcher…” The Chief Physician pats him on the shoulder, “just, keep a close eye on them.”

“A close eye?” Butcher repeats.

“As ‘close’ as finding them with a nail – even a lock of hair less.” He looks into Butcher’s eyes, “it’s something that can be solved with manpower alone. Still hesitant?”

“No, I am not hesitating about that.” Butcher clarifies himself, while engaged in thought, “I’m only wondering, what kind of end goal is Jiang Yiyi expecting from all this?”

The Chief Physician is speechless for a few seconds, showing actual shock this time, “did you forget the Rules? Rule #1 on the Coordinator’s Handbook – Do not attempt to understand what the prisoners are thinking.”

The Coordinator’s Handbook contains ironclad rules handed down from the Warden himself. All prison officers must strictly obey them, as the rules form the basis of the day-to-day operations of the Han Federation Stargaol.

Butcher snaps out of his thoughts, and explains by reflex, “I am simply trying to deduce what is likely to happen next.”

“Your actions have become skewed lately. I’ll write an application for re-evaluation for you.” The Chief Physician does not accept the explanation, “focusing on your psychological well being.”

“Psychological well being?” Butcher wonders the phrase aloud, as he realises the implication, “you believe that Jiang Yiyi has…”

He stops, and looks even more befuddled, “that can’t be. All of my interactions with Jiang Yiyi happened under surveillance…”

“That officer, Meng Jian…” The Physician suddenly mentions someone else, “where did he go?”

“He…” Butcher pauses to recall.

While the Physician did not know what Butcher has negotiated with them, and certainly did not know about the meeting that only few even know happened, he has landed squarely on the right answer with what information he already knows, “he met Jiang Yiyi by himself?”

He asserts to Butcher, “that is why is he gone.”

“He resigned and went through discharge normally…” Butcher is still trying to retort. He is clearly not confident, “he didn’t die.”

“Nobody said anything about dying.” What a miracle it is for this big dumb pile of a man to have trundled along entirely intact on the second floor so far. Even though the Chief Physician is more aware than ever of his stupidity, he is still impressed.

“He made himself scarce as soon as he met Jiang Yiyi privately. You did not give it a single second of thought?”

“His mission was complete, and his identity is bust. Of course he…” Butcher pauses himself at this point.

The name Jiang Yiyi is on his mind. It carries with it strong, domineering connotations. Connotations enough to wipe away all benign, inconsequential guesses, leaving behind an abyss beyond all observation.

Finally seeing a speck of intelligence, the Physician lazily adds, “Jiang Yiyi is a Surgeon——who is more skilled in psychology than surgery.”

Butcher looks serious, “you are saying, something happened… to Meng Jian?”

“Would it surprise you if anything did? Would you not find it stranger for nothing to have happened after seeing Jiang Yiyi alone?”

He drags the conversation back on track, “I’m talking about him, not to try and work out exactly what happened in that private meeting, but to tell you…”

“Even from behind a door, he can still…” The Physician stares right into Butcher’s eyes, “control, dissect, reassemble.”

Butcher’s face is twitching. The answer has finally dawned on him, “he cannot stay on the third floor. He must be kept confined further down.”

“Congratulations on finally figuring this out.” The Chief Physician pats him on the shoulder, “of course he’ll go further down. His goal has always had to do with the deepest reaches of Stargaol.”

“Don’t tell me you actually thought what he did on the second floor was his primary objective in Stargaol?”

“I’m not that stupid.”

“That’s a relief.” The Chief Physician’s tone returns to business, “now, go clean up the rest of this mess. As for you… The superiors will see to it.”