Chapter 259: Chapter 220: Teacher Yang
Before him stood a companion who had risen from the dead, and behind him, Old Lady Wu brandished a kitchen knife. Yang Xiao now faced a perilous situation that seemed to be a certain death trap.
He didn’t even have a chance to run: the window was blocked by the bed, and the path behind him was cut off by Old Lady Wu. Even if he could manage to rush out of the bedroom, he would be hacked to death by Old Lady Wu’s frantic knife swings in front of the locked door.
The more panicked one is, the faster death comes. In this critical moment, Yang Xiao displayed an exceptionally strong psyche. As if he had noticed nothing amiss, he retracted his left hand from the pulse diagnosis with a silk thread and nodded with a smile, "So that’s how it is."
Old Lady Wu behind him was taken aback and, somewhat skeptically, lowered the kitchen knife. "Doctor, have you figured out what’s wrong with my son?"
"Hmm, bring me some paper and a pen, I’ll write a prescription."
After Old Lady Wu brought over some dirty paper and a severely worn pen, Yang Xiao took them without looking back, shook the pen, and wrote the prescription with flair.
Just as he finished the last stroke, Old Lady Wu grabbed the prescription eagerly, peering closely at it. Her bloodshot eyes widened, "One tael of wall dust, half a tael of pot ash, two qian of heavy tea, one qian of rust, plus half a bag of laundry detergent, take three qian of rat poison as the ’leading medicine,’ mix with twelve other drugs left over in the home, dry them in the shade and divide into twenty-four portions, brew one portion twice a day, morning and evening, continue for 12 days."
"Doctor...this prescription looks a bit odd, doesn’t it?" Old Lady Wu grew more suspicious as she kept reading.
"Ha, the profundity of traditional medicine is not something everyday folks can understand," Yang Xiao said with a slight smile, his voice exuding confidence. "Remember, starting tomorrow, give your son the medicine once in the morning and once at night, for a continuous 12 days without interruption. After 12 days, the medicine is guaranteed to cure the disease, otherwise, you can come looking for me."
Heh heh, Yang Xiao didn’t know how to prescribe medicine, but he could poison. With all that random stuff mixed together, even a ghost eating it every day probably wouldn’t last long, let alone twice a day for 12 consecutive days.
Even if it doesn’t kill them, it doesn’t matter because, after 12 days, Old Lady Wu won’t be able to find him—he’s taking off in seven days.
To his surprise, Old Lady Wu, clutching the prescription, chuckled ominously, "Doctor, how do I know your prescription is real and not fake? You couldn’t possibly be fooling us, a mother and son down on our luck, because you couldn’t diagnose anything, could you?"
Yang Xiao’s expression became stern, "Nonsense! The Chu Family has practiced medicine for generations. The pulse diagnosis with a silk thread has been a unique skill passed down in my family for thirteen generations. Let me ask you, does your son have the image of a crippled dragon tattooed on his chest?"
Upon hearing this, Old Lady Wu’s upper body dove behind the curtain, fumbling around for a while, with the sound of clothes being torn. After a moment, her voice, filled with excitement, rang out, "Yes, my son really has it!!"
"Ha, and let me ask you, is there a heaven-reaching python tattooed on your son’s arm, with the python coiling around his arm, its tongue shooting out like an arrow?"
"Yes, that too, that too!!"
"Finally, where the dragon and snake meet, they become one."
"Miraculous, absolutely miraculous! Doctor Chu, no, Divine Doctor Chu, you truly are miraculous, you...you are a living Bodhisattva!!"
In the midst of Old Lady Wu’s profuse thanks, Yang Xiao was escorted out of room 6037. As he was leaving, Old Lady Wu suddenly grabbed Yang Xiao’s hand, urging him to be careful on the way back and to avoid taking the elevator at all costs.
"Why?" Yang Xiao countered.
A look of fear crept across Old Lady Wu’s face, as if she had recalled a spine-chilling scene. Her mouth agape, she froze, and from her bloodshot eyes, a line of bloody tears began to flow.
Seeing this, Yang Xiao dared not ask any more questions and promptly bade his farewell.
As the room door closed behind him, Yang Xiao walked alone through the corridor outside. It was past midnight, and the apartment was eerily silent.
Shortly after, Yang Xiao sensed that something was amiss. It was too quiet around here, not a single sound to be heard, as if... as if all the people in the entire building had vanished.
Yang Xiao quickened his steps, but as he passed the elevator, he inadvertently paused. The elevator that had been on the 9th floor was now indicating that it stopped on the 3rd floor.
The elevator had moved.
Had someone taken the elevator?
But Yang Xiao remembered that Old Lady Wu had explicitly mentioned that the apartment’s residents would not ride the elevator in the middle of the night.
And tonight, only the four of them were out on a mission, all seasoned players. Yang Xiao believed that even without a warning, none of them would choose an elevator as a hazardous setting.
If it wasn’t the residents, and it wasn’t any of their fellow players, then who could it be?
Almost immediately, Yang Xiao thought of the dangerous outsider mentioned in the warning letter.
"Thud."
"Thud."
"Thud."
Yang Xiao was startled and swiftly turned his gaze towards the end of the corridor to his left, from which a very strange sound emanated.
It was as if... someone was bouncing a ball.
And this ball seemed to be deflated, the sound very dull.
Bouncing a ball in the corridor in the dead of night without sleeping was clearly abnormal.
What was even stranger was that despite the loud noise, no neighbors came out to stop it; the tranquility of the surroundings was terrifying, as if the entire world was left with only Yang Xiao and that thing bouncing the ball.
But the next second, the sound of the ball hitting the floor suddenly stopped. After waiting for a dozen seconds, just as Yang Xiao was about to continue on to his Room 4004, the eerie bouncing sound started up again. This time, it emerged even closer, at the far end of the corridor on his right.
Now Yang Xiao was starting to panic, constantly switching his gaze from left to right, fearful that the ball-bouncing entity would suddenly appear and charge at him.
The ball-bouncer had blocked Yang Xiao’s way home, leaving him only one way out—taking the elevator.
Without a doubt, this was a trap. Yang Xiao would rather face the bouncing ball head-on than enter the elevator.
Moreover, Old Lady Wu had specifically warned him that the midnight elevator was taboo.
After a brief moment of thought, Yang Xiao decided to take a gamble. He quickly retraced his steps and knocked on Old Lady Wu’s door, calling out urgently, "Ms. Wu, it’s me, the Divine Doctor."
But after waiting for a long while, there was no response from inside; instead, the strange bouncing grew increasingly closer.
Left with no choice, Yang Xiao quickly located Room 6012, the dwelling of that odd person Li Qingxuan. Instead of knocking rashly, he cautiously put his head close and pressed his ear against the door, listening for any movements inside.
Unexpectedly, before he could even get close, the door suddenly opened, and a hand reached out violently, pulling Yang Xiao into the room and shutting the door behind them.
Yang Xiao, now trained by Zhu Yina, was very quick to react. The moment he stabilized himself, he pressed the other person’s hand down, using their force against them while twisting his body backwards, pinning his attacker against the wall.
"Teacher Yang! Teacher Yang!" Li Qingxuan cried out, while Yang Xiao pinned his arm to the wall.
Startled, Yang Xiao hardened his grip, "What Teacher Yang? What are you talking about?"
"Ouch, it’s me, Teacher Yang, don’t you remember me?" Li Qingxuan’s face twisted in pain, sweat beading on his forehead, "I’m your fan, we’ve... we’ve met before."
"Where? When?"
"It was the end of last year, at a bookstore in Rongcheng, right, it was Zhao from the New World Script Society who introduced us, he was there too." Li Qingxuan grimaced in pain.
Yang Xiao recalled for a moment, and it seemed there really was such an event. However, his memory of the person Zhao brought didn’t match this figure.
"But how come I remember that person looking different from you?" Yang Xiao was highly wary.
"Ouch, Teacher Yang, let go first. If you let me go, I can prove it to you."
Fairly speaking, this Li Qingxuan seemed very honest. He was clearly stronger than Yang Xiao, yet he didn’t resist at all throughout the ordeal.
Yang Xiao slowly released his hold and stepped back two steps, maintaining a safe distance.
With a bitter face, Li Qingxuan looked at Yang Xiao and then reached up, grabbing his long hair on both sides, "Teacher Yang, you had a crew cut the last time I saw you."
At just one glance, Yang Xiao immediately recognized the person in front of him; indeed, he remembered that face. No wonder they say a hairstyle is a man’s best cosmetic surgery; with a different hairstyle, even a mother wouldn’t recognize her son.
"Damn, it really is you!" Yang Xiao exclaimed in surprise, "You okay? I went a bit too hard just now."
"No problem, no worries." Li Qingxuan laughed heartily while he moved his sore arm, "Teacher Yang, I didn’t expect to see you here."
Yang Xiao had not expected to meet a fellow script enthusiast here either. It was Zhao who had told him that one of his readers was very interested in the supernatural events he wrote about and wanted to meet and chat. That’s how they had met.
Yang Xiao instinctively wanted to ask Li Qingxuan why he was here too, but on second thought, it was an utterly redundant question. Surely, he wasn’t here because he was eager for the next installment of the Nightmare World series.
"Teacher Yang, I’m so glad to see you here. I’ve read each one of your scripts and even joined your group of script enthusiasts. Everyone in the group praises you, saying that when it comes to scheming and deceit, no one beats you. You have no limits, and there’s not much humanity left in you."
Li Qingxuan grew more excited as he spoke, his cheeks flushed and fists waving, "With you here, I feel reassured. They can’t outwit you even if they combine forces. We will definitely survive to the end."
"Right." Li Qingxuan suddenly seemed to remember something, "Actually, I’ve cleared a Nightmare script before; I’m not a newbie. Last time I survived largely thanks to your script tips."
The more Yang Xiao listened, the more uneasy he felt, "What exactly did you learn from my script?"
At this, Li Qingxuan suddenly became sheepish, stammering, "I... I met an older sister in the last script who was pretty awesome. She took care of me the whole time, and I used the lines from your scripts."
Yang Xiao fell silent for a moment before speaking, "Are you sure it was just the lines?"
Li Qingxuan chuckled carefree, "That’s not important. What matters is I survived, right?"
"Okay, you’ve got the essence." Yang Xiao complimented, "By the way, in the last little while, have you heard any strange sounds?"
Li Qingxuan turned vigilant, "What kind of sounds?"
"Well... something like a ball bouncing, a rubber ball." Yang Xiao tried to explain as best as he could.
Li Qingxuan shook his head decisively, "No, absolutely nothing. The corridor has been very quiet. I saw through the gap under the door that you had turned back and was worried you were in trouble, so I pulled you in."
