The hospital's emergency number had been called, but it was unclear when the ambulance would arrive.
Mu Yiran then called Qin Ci, briefly explaining the situation.
The room was a horrific sight; the sheets, walls, and even the ceiling were covered in Lion's splattered, shocking blood.
Ke Xun tightly pinched the two severed blood vessels in Lion's throat together, seemingly stopping the bleeding, but Lion remained in critical condition.
Ke Xun felt his entire body trembling, only his hand gripping the blood vessels managed to stay steady—a slight tremor could kill the living person before him.
"What is that?!" Xiao Qinxian screamed shrilly, "What's that on his neck?!"
Ke Xun tried to avoid looking, afraid it would affect him, but the strange sensation was still there. At first, he thought it was Lion's breathing or the throbbing of his blood vessels, but the movement grew stronger, making Lion seem like a frog, his chin bulging and then receding.
Everyone was stunned by the scene before them. Lion's neck was indeed bulging violently. Mu Yiran walked over, checked his breath, and lingered on his forehead for a moment before his expression turned grim.
"He's dead."
Ke Xun's hand didn't leave. He remembered seeing a news report many years ago about someone who had his throat maliciously slit in an elevator, and how his friend had held his artery until the ambulance arrived and saved him.
"Ke Xun, he's dead." Mu Yiran's eyes were fixed on Lion's bulging neck, the skin stretched almost transparent, the bulge about the size of a rugby ball.
Wei Dong grabbed Ke Xun's shoulder: "Ke'er, Lion is dead! Don't try to save him anymore, it's too late!" Wei Dong's voice was trembling with anxiety. "Ke'er! Don't worry about him! His neck is too abnormal, something bad might happen! Ke'er! We've done everything we can!"
Luo Wei remained silent, clearly shocked by the scene, and the strange phone call earlier only added to the horror and mystery of the whole affair. Luo Wei took a few deep breaths: "It's a beast! The beast is coming out of his trachea!"
Mu Yiran silently came up behind Ke Xun and forcefully pulled his shoulder, causing Ke Xun to release his grip: "Everyone, retreat! Stay away."
At this moment, Lion's neck had swollen to almost the size of his head, as if it could explode like a bomb at any moment.
Xiao Qinxian stared at the bizarre scene. From her angle, the inexplicable bulge below Lion's head made it seem as if Lion had a head that kept changing size. She was so frightened that she almost fainted, retreating step by step until her body hit the cold wall of the corridor.
Mu Yiran and Wei Dong pulled Ke Xun back to the doorway. Luo Wei stood closest to Lion, his face covered in cold sweat, barely able to stand, his eyes fixed on the blood-red neck that seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Ke Xun gripped Mu Yiran's hand: "When I was saving him, I felt something like a hand desperately clutching me, pleading for help."
Mu Yiran: "Lion has completely stopped breathing. That thing clutching you has nothing to do with him. Don't think about it anymore, Ke Xun."
Perhaps due to excessive concentration, Ke Xun was now somewhat exhausted.
Mu Yiran's hand tightened around Ke Xun's, her voice softer than ever before: "We did our best."
"Bang—"
With a loud bang, the entire ceiling was almost entirely stained red.
Lion's appearance was already gruesome, a bloody mess between his head and shoulders…
Everyone present forgot to close their eyes, forgot to back away, and even forgot to think—what had caused that explosive bang?
"Whoosh—whoosh—" A strange sound continued in the room. The sound had always been there, but it became even clearer after that loud bang.
"Ah—there—" Xiao Qinxian's cry echoed throughout the building, "It's right at his feet! What is that thing?!"
Luo Wei subconsciously looked at his feet and saw a blood-red, pufferfish-like creature on the ground, "whoosh—whoosh—" expanding and contracting, magically swelling its body to the size of a soccer ball one moment and shrinking to the size of a fist the next.
Luo Wei swallowed hard, backing away from the "pufferfish" step by step: "This is... his beast, isn't it?"
Wei Dong's legs went weak, but he still grabbed Luo Wei's arm and pulled him out the door: "Lion...Lion clearly doesn't have a beast mark, why is this happening?"
"He already does." It was Mu Yiran who spoke.
"What..."
"When I checked his breath just now, a red beast mark had already appeared on his forehead." Mu Yiran said.
Although Mu Yiran said this, no one dared to look in Lion's direction anymore.
Luo Wei frowned, carefully recalling the scene before Lion's accident: "When I answered the phone, I felt something was wrong with him. I thought he was dreaming... Now that I think about it, his forehead was already a little red..."
By this time, everyone had retreated outside the door. Mu Yiran asked, "What phone call?"
"Just before the accident, I answered a phone call. The other end was a very unclear male voice. He said..." Luo Wei struggled to finish the man's words——
which came out of his trachea.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Qinxian collapsed to the ground: "Devil! This is a place for devils! I want to leave! I'm done playing! I want to go back!"
When the paramedics arrived, two people were taken to the ambulance: Lion and Xiao Qinxian.
Several medical staff carefully picked up the blood-soaked "pufferfish" from the ground. One of the nurses said to the group, "Let's all go to the hospital. Dr. Qin is waiting for you there."
"Why didn't Dr. Qin come?" Wei Dong felt this wasn't like Qin Ci's usual style.
The nurse couldn't hide her sadness: "Our colleague Yu Ji just had an accident. Dr. Qin only found out after you called."
So Yu Ji had also had an accident.
Two more, two more tonight. Does death in this city always come in pairs?
Ke Xun suddenly remembered something: "We need to call Haowen and the others right away!"
"I'll call." Mu Yiran went into his room next door. "Get ready, we'll go to the hospital immediately."
...
At the hospital, Qin Ci was already in the operating room. The patient was Yu Ji, undergoing the same animal dissection surgery.
"How did Yu Ji die?" Zhu Haowen, having heard about Lion's situation, couldn't help but ask about Yu Ji.
Su Benxin, pale and still shaken, said, "The diagnosis said that his internal organs were ruptured by something sharp. When Dr. Qin examined him, his abdominal cavity was full of blood."
"Something sharp?"
"It's…it's said to be something that extended from inside the body…" Su Benxin's voice trailed off, as if just telling the story was enough to terrify anyone.
"Both things happened today so suddenly, especially Lion, it was completely beyond our expectations," said Zhao Yanbao, who was currently one of the calmer members. "He clearly didn't have any red marks, so he should have been one of the safest members."
"At least at dinner, his forehead was clean, which was when I last checked the animal markings for everyone last night," Luo Wei had already recounted the entire night's events. "After he returned to the dormitory, he quickly turned off the lights and went to sleep, and I didn't pay much attention."
Suddenly, another operating room door opened, and a nurse came out, holding a glass bottle containing the pufferfish-like beast. The thing was still throbbing, as if it might explode at any moment.
The nurse said, "This beast is perfectly intact. We've already performed a full-body examination on the deceased, and there are no traces of the beast left inside."
"This beast…why is it like this? Is it still alive?" Wei Dong stammered.
The nurse said in a reassuring tone, "Please rest assured, once the beast's body is separated from its host, it will no longer be harmful. We've skinned similar beasts like pufferfish or balloons before; it's said that these beasts are created by the host's anger."
After speaking, the nurse carefully took the pufferfish beast to a special room for refrigerating animal bodies.
"Anger? Why would Lion suddenly be angry? I thought his emotions were relatively stable last night." Zhao Yanbao couldn't understand the reason. "Besides, this beast appeared suddenly, which must be directly related to his anger." Mu Yiran
looked at Su Benxin: "You're his friend, right? I remember you two came in together before entering the painting."
Su Benxin's eyes were already red from crying: "Yes, we're friends. Lion was the photographer I specifically hired for that art exhibition. I'm the one who ruined him. If I hadn't hired him, this wouldn't have happened…"
"Do you know him?"
"Not really. I only know that his photography is highly praised in the industry. He's a very optimistic and sunny guy. I've never seen him lose his temper. How could he…" Su Benxin sobbed, shaking her shoulders. "Anger? What's bothering him so much… As a friend, I've really failed him…"
Su Benxin was overwhelmed with pain and curled up in a corner of the corridor, trembling and crying.
No one spoke in the corridor except for Su Benxin's sobs, and the hissing of the pufferfish beast seemed to echo.
"Whoosh—whoosh—"