22. The Nurse Appears

The jangling of her keys was loud enough to startle the patients in the hallway. Chi You and her group walked the length of the corridor before stopping in front of a tightly shut door. A sign hung on it, inscribed with the words "Office."

Jiang Pan, standing next to her, reached out and pushed the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked."

"Then kick it open," Chi You suggested.

Jiang Pan, who was stronger, immediately raised his leg and delivered a heavy kick. Aside from a loud thud and a cloud of dust, the door remained completely unmoved. Skeptical, Jiang Pan tried again, kicking it several more times. No matter how sturdy a door might be, it should have budged, but this one stayed perfectly still. The falling dust settled on his light blue jeans; he looked down to see not only bloodstains but now a layer of grime as well.

"Senior Jiang, are you getting weak?" Chi You asked, eyeing him with a deliberative tone. She quickly added, "If you can't even kick open a tiny door, do you want to go eat some oysters to build up your strength once this instance is over?"

His masculine pride wounded, Jiang Pan ignored his usual obsession with cleanliness. He sneered, "Who says I'm weak? If I get this door open, you're calling me 'Daddy.'"

Chi You leaned against the wall, crossing her arms with a faint, enigmatic smile. "Deal. But if you can't, you're calling me 'Mommy.'"

"It's a bet."

The rest of the group watching: ...They actually made a bet?

Determined to make Chi You call him "Daddy," Jiang Pan kicked the door even harder, but it remained motionless. Even the typically composed Jiang Pan grew annoyed. Frustrated, he pulled out his handgun and fired two shots directly into the lock. He tried kicking it again, but it still didn't budge.

Jiang Pan: ...Staring at the two bullet holes, he felt like the door was mocking him.

Chi You’s mockery, however, was quite real. "Hahaha, hurry up and call me 'Mommy,' Senior Jiang. Admitting you're kidney-deficient isn't such a big deal."

Humiliation! Looking at the gloating expression on her face, Jiang Pan wanted to wipe that smirk right off. A bet is a bet, so Jiang Pan had to reluctantly mutter, "Mommy."

"Coming!"

It wasn't just Chi You who answered; Meng Shuyin chimed in as well. Jiang Pan’s face darkened further. Just as they were speaking, the sound of jangling keys returned.

Chi You’s smile vanished as the Broodmother, who had been hiding, silently appeared behind her. The other three drew their weapons. Meng Shuyin pulled a stack of paper talismans from her pocket and fanned them out like a deck of cards. Zheng Hong gripped his copper coin sword tightly, his face a mask of panic and fear. The remaining native survivors pulled out the items they had brought: a peach wood sword, sticky rice, a string of Emperor coins, and a bag of black dog blood. Their arsenal was eclectic, though it was unclear if any of it would be effective.

Their eyes remained fixed on the corner of the hallway. As the jangling grew louder and closer, the tension in the group reached a breaking point.

Soon, a nurse appeared, her head tilted at an odd angle, shaking a ring of keys. Because her limbs had been shattered by the Broodmother, she moved with a limp, boneless gait. She looked harmless at first glance, but a closer inspection revealed that the number of eyeballs on her body had increased. They were packed together so densely that it was enough to trigger trypophobia, and they were all darting around at high speed. When the nurse spotted her targets, every single one of those eyes turned in unison to stare at them.

The nurse let out a raspy, jarring sound: "Found you."

She forcefully twisted her head, snapping it straight to face them, and revealed a twisted, sinister smile. Her face was completely filled with eye sockets, all packed with swarming eyeballs. "Attacking a nurse requires payment."

She continued to drone on with her grating voice, but the way the eyes on her face glared at them made her feelings clear: she was angry. Extremely angry. This was supposed to be sleeping hours, yet these people were not only awake but had attacked the nursing staff. They deserved to be punished!

The Broodmother stood before Chi You, her long hair rising up to strike at the nurse. But the nurse was prepared; as the hair rushed toward her, the eyeballs on her body popped out of their sockets and flew through the air, exploding upon contact with the hair. The sticky liquid that coated the hair transformed into tiny, smaller eyeballs that seemed to have a life of their own, crawling along the strands. Not only that, the nurse began squeezing even more eyes out of her skin.

These new eyes didn't explode; instead, they flew toward the group behind the Broodmother. A timid man, seeing the eyes flying at him, tried to dodge, but he couldn't escape. An eye latched onto him and dove straight into his mouth. Once inside, it began to take hold. He clutched his stomach, wailing, "It hurts— help! Save me!"

He crawled toward Chi You, the only one he thought could save him. He didn't want to die; he still wanted to go home and start a family. But before he could reach her, countless eyes erupted all over his body—on his face, his hands, his thighs... The pair of eyes that had been filled with fear were replaced by new ones that began to twitch. The man stopped crawling, his outstretched hand slamming heavily onto the floor. He was dead.

"Punishment," the nurse muttered, continuing her advance.

"Heh..." Chi You laughed. Punishment? She really thought she was a teacher.

Chi You pulled out her chainsaw, revved it up, and stepped forward to clear away the eyes one by one. Even the timid Zheng Hong used his copper coin sword to poke at them; every time he made contact, the eyes burst. Meng Shuyin moved as if she were dancing or performing Tai Chi, her legs spread wide, skillfully slapping yellow talismans onto the eyes rushing toward her. The three remaining survivors gritted their teeth and joined in to help.

"This isn't working," Jiang Pan said, frowning at the multiplying eyes. "She can reproduce these eyes infinitely. We need to find a way to hide."

Hearing this, Chi You looked at the ring of keys in the nurse's hand. They all looked identical, but one was different from the rest. She glanced back at the office door. Could it be that the key was meant to open the office?