Artifact Report

Chapter 4 Mai Minghe: Seizing a Second Life
According to common sense, three or five tall, strong, and hostile strangers rushing in from the door should be the threat that you should be most vigilant about, right?
After all, they are more dangerous than a patient lying in the hospital.

But somehow, Mai Minghe couldn't help but stare at the pair of white feet that appeared from behind the curtain. Her heartbeat was like thunder in her ears, and her palms were clammy and cold, but she couldn't even spare a glance to the strange men.

She was now sandwiched between bed 03 and bed 02, with a bedside table and a wall behind her. The path ahead was blocked by those people, and she couldn't get out.

She glanced again at the patient in the next bed.

Compared to when she first saw it, the feet looked a little different now. She couldn't put her finger on what was different - but looking at it now made people feel an instinctive, biological resistance, as if they wanted to open their mouths and vomit out everything they saw, the air they breathed in that had touched those feet, and all their internal organs.

When he looked up again, those strangers might have felt the same way: although they looked aggressive when they broke in, now their eyes were rolled up in the air, and no one was willing to lower their heads to look at the feet on the bed - at first glance, they looked like a group of blind people who had just taken off their sunglasses.

Mai Minghe wiped his nose.

Perhaps the fear and tension were too great, and her nervous system wanted to release this pressure; perhaps it was the restoration of youth, which had an intoxicating and surging magic that even fear could not make it disappear; or perhaps it was simply because the people opposite her looked so funny - she suddenly couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"How did you do it?"

She stopped laughing, not wanting to make those people think she belonged in a mental hospital. She said to the patient in the next bed, "I don't know why, but every time I look at you, my stomach starts churning. It would be great if you could take on a part-time job in the hospital, doing gastric lavage."

The red-haired man who seemed to be the leader didn't say a word, but the expression on his face clearly expressed his opinion of Mai Minghe - it was not normal.

"girl,"

The man's voice behind the curtain was like a bag of stone covered in phlegm. It was indescribably uncomfortable to hear. "This is your first time in the lair, right?"

From the beginning, Mai Minghe heard a series of confusing words: a person disguised as a nurse, a hunter, a false image... and now there is another nest.

"Isn't this a hospital?" Mai Minghe asked.

Although it was a question, she already had the answer clearly in her mind: this is certainly not a hospital.

Somehow she came to this place called "The Nest"; this "somehow" seemed to have a lot to do with the incident where she fell on the TV.

"It's a hospital, of course." The patient behind the curtain replied almost cordially, "A hospital in a nest is still a hospital."

Mai Minghe stalled for time, thinking as he said, "You said this is a nest, but I don't think you look like a chicken."

The red-haired man let out a sound from his nose that he tried to hold back but couldn't, and then he coughed as if to cover it up.

"You don't even know the nest," one of the men at the door muttered to his companions, "This is your first time here. No wonder you're still in your pajamas."

“But it’s her first time here, how could she possibly catch the artifact?” muttered another.

"Wait and see what happens," the red-haired man instructed, "Be prepared. If she can't hold on, we'll have to take her from the residents."

When they talked, they almost acted as if Mai Minghe didn't exist; or rather, as if she was about to cease to exist.

In just one or two minutes, too many incomprehensible changes happened, and Mai Minghe could only grasp two things.

First, she regained her youth after entering the nest; second, the thing that restored her youth seemed to be a goal that both parties wanted.

Even if she knew nothing, she knew that she was now a child with a fortune in a busy city - more like a ghost market - and this was not a good thing.

There was dead silence behind the curtain, and two blue and white bare feet, with their toes resting on the railing at the end of the bed.

"What do you want?" Mai Minghe stared at the feet behind the curtain and asked knowingly. "How about this, you tell me what's going on, and I'll give you what you want. It would be nice if everyone could get along."

The patient behind the curtain considered for two seconds.

"Feel yourself," his voice was calmer, not as painful as before, but he still refused to explain. He just said, "You should be able to feel something, right? Take it off and give it to me."

Mai Minghe reached into her pajamas and touched her back and lower abdomen; she was startled when she touched them.

Slightly raised, cold, belt-like things were wrapped around her torso one by one. When the tentacles touched her, it felt like a giant snake was coiled around her body.

By the way, the black shadow’s arm just now seemed to be circling around me like this.

"Found it," the patient in the next bed suddenly hissed, mucus churning in his throat. "Give it to me."

Mai Minghe touched the edge of the "snake belt" and felt that it seemed reluctant to separate from his skin. He had to use some force to dig his fingertips between the "snake belt" and his skin.

"Okay, okay, I got it. I'll give it to you right away." It could indeed be taken off. She raised her hand and pulled up the "snake belt" a little.

She thought of another question.

"I just had a heart attack, and it stopped when this came. Will it continue after I take it off?"

"Don't be fooled by your age; your mind works quickly. I don't think so. It reverses aging, not the disease. The disappearance of the disease is just a side effect, and it won't necessarily return with aging."

The patient in the next bed spoke in a sticky voice, "Of course, I could be wrong, but you have no choice but to be optimistic. Okay, take it off."

As he said, he had no choice.

"Fortunately, I'm always optimistic." Mai Minghe let out a breath, first pulled up the "snake belt" from his lower abdomen, then followed it all the way to his back, and took it off his body little by little.

The black tail of the "snake belt" fell softly from the pajamas and hung in the air, swaying as if it had life.

"Wait, don't give it to it," the red-haired man suddenly shouted, taking a step forward and stretching out his hands. "Give it to me, it'll let you go if it comes towards me!"

The pronoun he used was "it"?
The thought flashed through Mai Minghe's mind. She didn't have time to ponder it. She realized it was a life-saving straw—with this brief opportunity, perhaps she could escape from the ward. Mai Minghe seized the opportunity and immediately shouted to the red-haired man, "Catch it!"

Then he raised his hand, and a dark shadow emerged from behind him and threw it towards his raised hands.

Maybe it was an illusion, but Mai Minghe always felt that for a subtle moment, the patient behind the curtain of the bed next to him seemed to have also been attracted for a moment.

With a "pop", at the same time that the black shadow fell into the hands of the red-haired man, Mai Minghe had also seized the opportunity, rolled over from Bed No. 2, and landed on the other side of it - the body of a young man was so powerful, agile and balanced; the movements were smooth and light, so pleasing that she almost forgot that she was running for her life for a moment.

The black shadow was held limply in two hands, surrounded by a circle of faces staring at it intently.

"Pillow?" The red-haired man was stunned after seeing it clearly. He threw the pillow that Mai Minghe had taken from bed number 2 to the ground and shouted, "Do you want to die at the hands of these residents?"

Mai Minghe had no time to answer; because she had just stood up, and when she turned around, she found that the patient had caught up with her - the curtain of bed number 2 had been drawn.

But it wasn't tightened.

The curtain seemed to be pulled a little wider, and a pair of legs stretched out from the edge of the bed, with the knees tightly together, bent and hanging down.

The patient in the next bed was lying flat on his back with only his legs down, which in itself was not strange; what was strange was that the pair of bloodless, pale bare feet that were stepping on the ground had turned a circle at the ankles and turned back to face the Mai Ming River.

This was too much like an absurd dream; if she opened her eyes the next moment and woke up from the hospital bed, Mai Minghe would not be surprised.

"Back off,"

The red-haired man had a tense expression on his face, and he and several people behind him retreated away from bed number 2.

It seemed as if even the air was gradually becoming tighter and thinner; as if they were wild animals that lingered here all year round, and they sensed the danger earlier than Mai Minghe, an ignorant outsider.

She thought for a moment, then asked the patient in the next bed, "Are you in the hospital with a broken ankle?"

As Mai Minghe spoke, he vaguely felt as if his waist was being stretched.

"Or... you really aren't a human?" She shouted at the red-haired man, "Hey, boy, if it's not a human, what is it? Is it really a chicken?"

Everything was so unbelievable that she was no longer surprised at all. She wanted to figure out what was going on - after all, no one can be surprised too often.

The red-haired man didn't answer her.

He and the others behind him were all staring at the calf hanging down beside bed No. 2 and the ground, as if Mai Minghe had been erased from the situation, but she herself didn't know it yet.

The curtain rustled; someone was slowly pulling it open.

Mai Minghe didn't want to see what the person behind the curtain looked like - it wouldn't be pretty anyway.

She immediately lowered her head again, and when her eyes fell on the pair of feet in front of her, she found that the left foot of the patient next to her had taken a step forward at some point.

Even though she hadn't moved at all, her left foot took a step forward.

It was like two old acquaintances who had met again and were walking towards each other.

No wonder my waist feels like it's being stretched...

It was strange. Why did her feet move uncontrollably and follow the other person's movements just by seeing his feet? No, now was not the time to doubt or think deeply.

Even though she lowered her head, she could feel in her peripheral vision that the curtain had been drawn open.

On bed number 2 next to him, a long, dark human figure lay dimly.

Mai Minghe took a deep breath.

If it were the old Mai Minghe, she might have kept quiet, protected herself, and brought the "snake" to it; when people are alive for the first time, they are always afraid that one careless move will cause irreversible and unbearable consequences, making this life difficult.

Later, as she grew older, she realized that her decades of life had been filled with loneliness, regret, and expired wishes, and that life wasn't much better. Opportunities no longer came, and she no longer had the strength.

This "snake belt" could be the last adventure in her 86 years of life; but it could also be the first choice in her future life.

She wants to give it a try.

Mai Minghe knew that when he pressed the call bell, no sound would interrupt the silence in the house.

"Bed 01 in Ward calling for nurse!"

A female voice, so loud it was almost shrill, came from the radio, shattering the silence in the room unexpectedly.

Before everyone could react, Mai Minghe pressed the call bell several times in a row.

The radio seemed to be stimulated, and each time it reported in the corridor, it became more and more urgent: "The person disguised as a nurse will arrive at the ward in five seconds - the second person disguised as a nurse will arrive - the third person disguised as a nurse - the fourth person disguised as a nurse will arrive in five seconds!"

Amidst the increasingly urgent reports, Mai Minghe seemed to vaguely hear the red-haired man curse, "You're crazy!"; then, the footsteps retreated one after another, as if several people saw the situation was not good and rushed out of the ward first.

She never looked up.

Mai Minghe felt that the dark shadow beside him was rising up section by section: the thighs left the bed, the hips were half hanging in the air, but the upper body was still lying on the bed.

In the dim light, the head turned towards Mai Minghe and said in a voice that was completely inhuman, "For an old lady, you are very brave."

At this moment, a heavy object was suddenly thrown across the room and hit her and the patient in the next bed with a loud thud. The bedside table was immediately broken into several pieces. The shadow rolled to the ground and hurriedly stood up against the wall, but it turned out to be the red-haired man. He found himself stuck between the patient and Mai Minghe and cursed softly.

Mai Minghe didn't look at him.

She just stared at the door of the ward and whispered, "Look again, I'm not an old lady anymore."

Not now, and not tomorrow.

She wants to truly snatch this second life.

　By the time you see this chapter, I should be on a plane. I've set a timer for this chapter to be sent out—having a draft in reserve gives me confidence! And I can send it out on time! When I was writing about the apocalypse, I was so hungry and full!

　　Unfortunately, the manuscripts I have in reserve will only last me a little over a week... I hope I can write at least one chapter on the plane, so I can start writing more chapters to make up for the debt once I land.

　　When it comes to paying off debts, aren't you grandmas a little too decisive? The pseudo-image report has just been released, and it's a bit too early for you to give out red envelopes. What if your children grow up to be the Hunchback of Notre Dame?
　　It feels like every time I close my eyes and open them again, I have one more debt...

　　Oh my god, it's almost time to board the plane. There's a really long line at the boarding gate, and I'm still sitting here typing with my legs crossed. Wait until I land, and then I'll calculate how much debt I owe.

　　Isn't it just like being a donkey? I'm a century-old shop! I make money from my donkey's tail!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)