CH 33.1

Fourth Floor (11)

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

“Whether Money, Power, or Even Freedom, I Can Give You All”

An unexpected guest visits the clinic.

Jian Si is lying on his bed. He’s not wrapped up as thoroughly as a mummy, but he isn’t that far from one. His body is bandaged everywhere, and where there is not, it is colourful. His face is the most terribly affected, his good looks nowhere to be seen under the vibrant dye work——He’s completely ruined.

Ruined enough that the little pitiful Bunny cannot be seen at all.

“Mr Coyote?”

He was expecting anyone but Old Coyote. Jian Si finds no reason for his visit.

He reflexively furrows his brow, which stretches his wound and causes him to immediately relax his facial muscles, giving him a poker face, “what do you need?”

Old Coyote stops before the bed, quietly examining the incapacitated Jian Si.

“My boss wants to see you.” Old Coyote has determined he poses zero threat, and thus speaks.

“Black Glove?” Jian Si attempts his brow manoeuvre once more, failing, “he wants to see me?” Then he immediately connects a dot, “he is interested in Doctor?”

“He has not yet received the answer to his question.”

Jian Si recalls. It’s not that long ago, but it almost feels night and day to him.

Even things that happened recently have become muddled and blurry. It is surprisingly unfamiliar to him.

Especially his own demeanour. He feels doubtful that he was truly him.

Weak, foolish, cowardly, useless. All but the most egregiously derogatory adjectives suited his performance.

This makes Jian Si’s recollection slightly long, as he has to repeatedly stop himself asking——He cannot even understand his fear, and all the terrible responses he took thereafter.

As there is nothing more to be feared than Jiang Yiyi.

When he crumbled to the mere threat of death, he looked immensely laughable.

Anyway, he remembers Black Glove’s question now.

【“What are you trying to do on the fourth floor?”】

He does not think it was a question that warranted an answer.

Jian Si’s memory is still going, when he suddenly remembers another possibility——The sentence he said, which stopped Black Glove at the last second, and saving his own life.

It should be quite important indeed——For Black Glove spared him for that single sentence.

However, realistically, Jian Si cannot even imagine what this sentence would look like——Based on his own understanding of himself.

Jian Si is silent for long enough that Old Coyote speaks.

“Come with me.”

Jian Si then glances at the many wounds spread across his body.

“I’ve told Ye Wang.” Old Coyote is speaking to the prison officer who’s been standing at the clinic’s door for a while, “he agreed.”

The prison officer is leaning lazily against the frame, “so I didn’t stop you.”

“Do come give me a hand, then.” Old Coyote orders him around with quite the confidence, “help bring him over.”

The prison officer merely looks at him.

“I’m too old to be doing laborious work. So if you cannot help, I’ll have to call others.” Old Coyote explains calmly, “if the prisoners get together, though… They might start something. It’d be terribly troublesome to Ye Wang if they did.”

The prison officer smirks. He straightens up and heads in.

He pushes a button, and a stretcher emerges up in the air, stopping next to the bed.

“Get on.”

Jian Si merely watched in silence. Clearly, these people would not consider his opinion, or accept ‘no’ for an answer.

The past Jian Si might have voiced something——It’s difficult for one to picture the dumb things humans would do when they lose their minds.

Right now, Jian Si, after mere seconds of silence, starts slowly nudging his body towards the stretcher next to him.

He’s full of closed wounds, and his snapped ribcage makes his movement both difficult and painful.

Old Coyote and the prison officer merely stand there watching. Neither looks interested in helping.

The wounds quickly tear back open under the movement.

Streaks of red line the white bedsheets, spreading to the edge of the bed.

Jian Si then checks the stretcher’s position next to the bed, before making a flip of faith. The stretcher shakes a little, but supports him firmly.

“Let’s go.” The prison officer’s tone is less flippant than before, “let’s not make Black Glove wait.”

Old Coyote is leading the way, while the prison officer guides the stretcher with a single hand from behind. He continues making small talk, “still, I didn’t think Black Glove would be bored enough to look for trouble at times like this?” He glances at Jian Si.

Jian Si has closed his eyes, trying to mitigate the pain throughout his body a little.

“This is not a Bunny anymore; he’d better not get bitten in turn.” The prison officer tells Old Coyote, “if Black Glove just kicks the bucket like this, Ye Wang will not be pleased.”

“With how little care Ye Wang seems to have with what’s going on around him, I don’t see him caring much about Vice-Captain’s life either.”

“What, you were seriously thinking Ye Wang would help your boss with his screwup?” The prison officer sneers, “and don’t say Ye Wang didn’t do anything. Why do you think that Doctor has been so quiet this whole time?”

The mention of Doctor makes Jian Si open his eyes to look at the officer.

The gaze does not go unnoticed. There is a glance, “Ye Wang made a deal with him, you know?”

“The Doctor…”

Old Coyote doesn’t buy it, “is but one person. Sure, he can be dangerous, but what could he even do alone? The others, though…”

He looks back at the prison officer, “Fatty, Vulture, Lion, even Lin Yi. Ye Wang is just going to watch them dance around?”

“Hey, Coyote. Lin Yi is your men… What, you’re even drawing lines for your own?” The prison officer slows down as Black Glove’s cell comes into sight, “and sure, Black Glove’s death would be trouble, but do you think the others dying wouldn’t be trouble?”

“Ye Wang must at least be fair, you know.” The prison officer stops, and pointedly remarks, “in the end, Black Glove brought this onto himself, didn’t he?”

“Ye Wang is the poor bystander that got dragged in.”

Old Coyote makes a disingenuous smile, “say what you want.” That officer has completely shrugged off Ye Wang’s role in this, and even painting him as the victim.

The prison officer lets the stretcher go, makes a gesture of pushing down his non-existent cap, and, having finished his role, leaves without a further word.

Old Coyote watches him leave, then looks back at Jian Si while knitting his brows. He gives up saying anything in the end, and merely pushes him into Black Glove’s cell.

“Vice-Cap, he’s here.”

“Good, you can go now.” Black Glove stands up and walks over, looking down at Jian Si, “do keep an eye on the plan. I need it to succeed at any cost.”

Old Coyote nods, then glances at Jian Si, vaguely asking, “but, the choice of who…”

“I cannot trust him.” Black Glove stops looking at Jian Si and turns to Old Coyote, “Coyote, here, you are the only one I can trust.”

Old Coyote looks quite touched, “I will surely…” though he does not finish his sentence as planned considering the outsider here; he’s sure his willingness to die for his benefactor has reached Black Glove.

“… Finish the mission you have given me, even if I have to put my life on the line!” He declares, “no traitor will ever be able to ruin your plan.”

Black Glove nods and sends him away once more, “go, then.”

Old Coyote is ready to leave, though, seeing Jian Si, he hesitantly adds, “Vice-Cap, this guy…” He then whispers the details of Jian Si’s transformation to Black Glove.

“I see.” Black Glove dismisses Old Coyote without any look of surprise whatsoever.

Old Coyote is gone.