Volume 1 Chapter 84: Tracking and Counter-Tracking
At that moment, Bai Muxue suddenly felt something and turned around.
But everywhere she looked, there were only doctors and nurses in white coats walking past from time to time.
“Strange... Was it just my imagination?”
She frowned without thinking. Just now, she clearly felt like someone was secretly watching her...
Was it someone sent by Zhang Min?
No, probably not.
Although that woman tried hard to act calm in front of her, Bai Muxue had clearly scared her. Before reporting the situation to the person behind her, Zhang Min would definitely not dare to alert anyone.
“Oh~ Don’t tell me some young nurse was secretly looking at me? After all, I’m pretty cute.”
There was one bad thing about being too eye-catching, people could spot you immediately even in a crowd!
If she were still the plain middle-aged office worker she used to be, she could probably walk around here dozens of times and no one would notice her...
The girl wearing sunglasses shook her head, her thoughts wandering a little.
By now, she had already visited almost every facility inside this so-called care center that she was allowed to enter.
What surprised her was that, other than the patient activity areas and certain treatment rooms, most of the other places seemed open to the public. Nothing was hidden.
...As if this place really were just an ordinary mental hospital, and the magic energy she felt earlier had only been her imagination.
But after thinking about it, that also made sense.
This place was different from the abandoned amusement park that nobody cared about. Every year, schools brought students here to visit, and sometimes the media even used this place for publicity.
If these people really kept their dark secrets in the open, they would have been discovered long ago.
Liu Li had been connected to this place, and to the “Professor” behind it, for ten years without being exposed.
They must have had methods Bai Muxue did not know about.
Without showing anything on her face, Bai Muxue looked around. She acted like someone simply wandering out of curiosity, walking forward and back, left and right, circling around the building.
Even though she had not seen anyone following her, she still could not help becoming cautious.
She quietly followed behind a nurse and entered a building marked ‘No Unauthorized Entry’ after the nurse went inside.
Maybe these restricted areas were hiding some dirty little secrets...
A playful smile appeared on Bai Muxue’s lips as she began looking around the room.
But to her disappointment, through the windows inside, all she could see were patients sitting on different kinds of medical machines, with doctors sitting in front of them.
Everything looked perfectly normal.
“Doctor, I’m not lying to you! Those monsters are standing right in front of me right now! Can’t you see them?! Can’t you see them?!”
“I’m actually an alien from Leo! I discovered the monsters’ secret! They want to eat me! They want to kill me to keep me quiet!”
A woman wearing a straitjacket lay half-reclined in a chair, shouting wildly at the doctor in front of her.
“Yes, yes, an alien...”
The doctor calmly nodded while tapping notes into a tablet.
Uh...
It really did look normal.
Bai Muxue carefully watched from the window. After searching for a while and finding nothing, she did not dare make any big movements.
When she saw a nurse walk out through the main door, she quickly slipped out after her, and even remembered to close the door quietly behind her.
Back in the hallway, Bai Muxue pressed her lips together. She took another lollipop from her bag, opened it, and lightly touched it with her tongue.
But the sweet taste did nothing to calm her mood. Instead, her neat eyebrows slowly frowned.
Doctors, patients, and children visiting...
Everything looked so normal.
Even though nothing seemed strange on the surface, she still felt that everything was somehow strange.
It was strange that sneaking around and spying had gone so smoothly.
It was strange that this place had almost no security.
It was strange that Zhang Min’s attitude had been so unusual.
But if she thought carefully, all of it could still be explained.
After all, what normal person would connect a place like this with disaster beasts and monsters?
And who would ever expect that Bai Muxue had already set her eyes on this place?
Besides, those other nurses and doctors might not know anything about the problems here. They could simply be normal employees working at this place...
With all these reasons combined, the internal security would naturally not be very strict. So Bai Muxue being able to sneak around smoothly did not seem that strange.
But that still could not explain why there was nothing here.
No, something was wrong. There had to be something she had overlooked...
But what was it?
Unable to figure it out, Bai Muxue felt irritation rise in her heart. Even the lollipop in her mouth seemed to lose all sweetness.
She did not know the exact situation of the person behind Zhang Min, so to be safe, she had decided to search this place carefully. If she could directly find where that so-called Professor was hiding, even better...
But now it seemed she had hoped too much.
“Sigh, can’t be helped...”
Still, the good thing was that Zhang Min could not figure out who she really was. She would definitely hand over that USB drive.
And when that happened...
If things moved quickly, there might be an interesting show tonight.
A sly smile appeared on Bai Muxue’s pretty face as she turned back toward the main hall.
The hall was full of noisy elementary school children. Mixed into the crowd, Bai Muxue did not stand out, and as she quickly walked away, she completely failed to notice Shen Jingyi.
But Shen Jingyi saw her.
“......”
Watching the small figure walk farther and farther away, Shen Jingyi hesitated for a moment. Then she bit her lip and quietly followed behind Bai Muxue.
Not long after, two young women dressed like office clerks came from another direction and happened to pass by Bai Muxue.
They used their reports to cover their faces, then secretly turned back to look at Bai Muxue’s back.
One of them, a tall girl, excitedly whispered,
“Hey, hey, that girl who just walked by is so cute! She looks like a child star. Is she the daughter of one of the patients?”
The shorter girl shook her head.
“Not only pretty, but rich too! Sadly, she’s not family. She’s a patient.”
She lowered her voice mysteriously and added,
“Early this morning, Director Zhang told all the staff that an important guest would come this afternoon and told everyone not to neglect her. She even arranged someone specially to receive her... I’ve worked here for years, and this is the first time I’ve seen such treatment!”
“And after that girl arrived, she went straight to Director Zhang’s office. She didn’t even register or do any tests!”
The tall girl looked surprised.
That girl was pretty enough to become a celebrity immediately. Her walking style was calm and graceful, and her clothes clearly showed wealth...
She did not look like someone with mental problems at all.
The tall girl wanted to gossip more, but her friend lightly knocked her on the head and laughed.
“Alright, stop asking about patient privacy. Hurry and organize the files!”
The two of them chatted and laughed as they walked farther away.
Shen Jingyi stepped out from the shadows.
The wrinkled prescription slip still rested quietly in her pocket. The sharp folded corner of the paper pressed through the thin fabric against her skin, making her feel uncomfortable.
Bai Muxue... really was a patient?
Miss Bai had always lived in luxury. It seemed like nothing in the world interested her. She was like a proud, lazy cat, impossible for normal people to understand.
No matter how she thought about it, Shen Jingyi could not connect Bai Muxue with bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses.
‘That young lady may look fierce on the outside, but inside she is a gentle and kind person…’
For some reason, Shen Jingyi suddenly remembered what that junior girl had said this morning.
It was clearly just something from a comic story.
Then why...
Why did she care so much?
At that moment, the phone in Shen Jingyi’s bag made a notification sound, breaking her messy thoughts.
She quickly took it out.
It was a message from the teacher leading the group with her.
“Xiao Shen, where did you go? We’re about to start the group activity.”
When she looked up again, Bai Muxue had already disappeared.
Shen Jingyi bit her lip, turned back for one long look, then gently smoothed the prescription slip through her pocket before typing a reply.
“Sorry, I’ll be back right away.”