Who moved her body?

"Yes. The Situ family should attend the reception."

Xu Haiyang stood up straight excitedly, but was met with a painful cry of pain and had to lean back to the side.

"Cousin, no, brother, I promise I'll do my best and not let you down."

Situ Feng nodded, and Xu Haiyang, supporting his back, left, looking back every few steps. He felt like he was dreaming. No, he never dreamed that Situ Feng would let him attend Di Ruo's Mid-Autumn Festival party.

Di Ruo's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet is not open to just anyone. Only members of the Situ family, key figures of Di Ruo, or those who have made significant contributions to Di Ruo's development are eligible to attend. In short, those who attend are either members of the Situ family or people trusted by the Situ family; no one else has the right to participate.

Xu Haiyang is a relative of the maternal relatives and has no right to participate in Di Ruo's affairs, so he has even less chance to attend such an important banquet.

Situ Feng's invitation to Xu Haiyang to the party was an implication that Xu Haiyang had entered Situ Feng's circle of trust, and that his status as a relative of the emperor was no longer a sword hanging over Xu Haiyang's head.

"After more than twenty years, I've finally earned your trust." Xu Haiyang's eyes were a little blurry as he said with a bitter smile, "My youth, more than twenty years, couldn't even compare to this fall!"

……

Situ Feng's private doctor treated Xu Haiyang, inserting ten silver needles into his waist, and Xu Haiyang groaned in pain.

"This lingering soreness is worse than the pleasant pain. Isn't there a quicker treatment besides acupuncture?"

"The quickest way to relieve pain is to get a morphine injection," the doctor said, his expression almost blank.

"If one injection could solve the problem, why make me endure ten? Ouch, this feels awful."

"Fast is not as good as slow. The body is not a machine; it is a complex system made up of nerves. Everything depends on sensation. If the nerves are paralyzed, the body's foundation will be damaged." The doctor lit something like incense and placed it next to Xu Haiyang. "If the foundation is damaged, everything will be affected."

Listening to the doctor's mystical words, Xu Haiyang felt that it was a waste for this doctor not to become a master of palm reading.

"My cousin studies Western pharmacology, so why would he believe in traditional Chinese medicine theories?"

The doctor suddenly nudged Xu Haiyang's lower back with his knuckles, causing Xu Haiyang to cry out in pain.

"Can you please not do surprise attacks?" Xu Haiyang said resentfully.

"Western medicine is like morphine, and traditional Chinese medicine is like acupuncture. We use Western medicine to save others, and traditional Chinese medicine to save ourselves."

Xu Haiyang had no interest in exploring the differences between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine anymore, because the doctor started removing the needles.

……

Aside from security personnel, only a few lab staff remained on the first floor of the research center. A middle-aged woman, her face etched with a lost zest for life, got up from the toilet, pulled down the hem of her white lab coat, and flushed. Before she could even leave, a stench erupted from the toilet.

"What bad luck, I'm the one who got the first toilet clog on Desert Rock Island."

The woman called a cleaning service, and the cleaning staff called the cleaning department.

"Someone will be there soon," the operator said.

The cleaner put up a "Under Repair" sign at the entrance of the toilet and then went home.

The efficiency of the deserted island did not disappoint. Soon, a security guard from a research center led them to the blocked toilet.

"This is the room." The security guard pushed open the door, and a stench hit him. The handsome security guard gagged, immediately closed the door, and took two steps back. "This guy must be constipated. He's been holding it in for at least a week. It's like a biological weapon."

The two plumbers immediately put on masks and then pushed open the door, startling the security guard into taking a few steps back.

The taller repairman placed the "Under Repair, Do Not Use" sign from behind the toilet door onto the toilet entrance.

"Is the door open or closed?" the repairman asked.

The security guard covered his nose and waved his hand, "Close it quickly, close it, or the stench will spread everywhere."

"good".

The repairman reached out to close the door, and the security guard suddenly moved closer.

"The order from above is for me to come with you guys, but... hehe... look how smelly this is..." the security guard said obsequiously to the repairman. "I'll just stay outside, and when I go out to sign the papers later... hehe..."

"I understand that you stayed with us the whole time."

The security guard, relieved, casually covered his nose with his sleeve and said, "What kind of rule is this? It's just fixing a toilet, and you expect me to follow you the whole time? What kind of schemes do you think you'd be up to in the toilet? Sneaking in a poop?"

"I might take a dump," the repairman said seriously.

"What? Taking a dump?"

The repairman suddenly laughed, "Just kidding, buddy."

The security guard seemed to have just grasped the meaning of a lame joke. "Go ahead and poop, once you get out, you'll have something to brag about: 'I took a dump in the women's restroom at the research center!' Hahaha."

"You saw right through me, you're really smart, buddy."

"Likewise. To be honest, it's really nice talking to you. Shall we grab a drink sometime?"

"Of course! But I don't have time tonight. There are still a few pipes to fix over at the dormitory building. I'll treat you after the holiday." The repairman seemed to suddenly remember what he was there for. He turned around and saw another repairman already taking tools out of his toolbox. "We need to disassemble the pipes and unclog them. It will smell terrible. Stand a little further away, otherwise the stench will be so strong that people will be able to smell it in their dreams."

"My goodness!" The security guard quickly moved three meters away, signaling the maintenance worker to close the door immediately.

The repairman closed the door and gently bolted it shut.

"That's right, it's 6:40 now."

The shorter repairman glanced at his watch. "Six forty!"

"Meet before 6:50."

"Um."

The taller repairman stood on the clogged toilet tank, pushed open the vent, took off his mask and put it in his arm pocket, then jumped up and was gently pushed into the vent.

This repairman is Guan Jie.

Guan Jie had long since memorized the layout of the ventilation ducts on the first floor of the research center; otherwise, this maze-like system would surely have left people lost.

After turning two corners, some light shone in through the ventilation opening. Guan Jie turned off the dim flashlight and crawled quietly.

Through the ventilation vent, you can see that this is an office. Two people in white coats are recording something in front of a computer. The woman is directly below the ventilation vent, while the one further away from the vent keeps turning around to look to her right.

Guan Jie lowered even further in fear, his face almost touching the pipe wall.

Just as Guan Jie saw that it was a glass wall, his flashlight accidentally hit a pipe, and a loud thud was unusually clear in the otherwise eerily quiet environment. Guan Jie gripped the flashlight tightly, his heart leaping into his throat.

The two stopped what they were doing almost simultaneously, looked at each other, and then looked up.

Guan Jie dared not move, his face pressed against the ventilation vent. He knew he had been discovered; if anyone below shouted or pressed the alarm button, he would be a lamb to the slaughter, with no chance of escape.

The pipe was unbearably hot, but Guan Jie felt cold all over. Just then, a bead of cold sweat trickled down his temple and onto his chin. Guan Jie watched as the bead of sweat, as conspicuous as a diamond in a grain of sand, fell down.

It aimed precisely at the woman's forehead.

"It's over, this time it's really over," Guan Jie thought.

"I should jump and find a knife to end my life before I get caught." Guan Jie glanced at the utility knife in front of the computer. "There's only one way out: death. Otherwise, I'll definitely implicate Xu Haiyang and Zeng Meiqian. I can't let them be in danger."

Guan Jie gripped the edge of the vent. In just a second, he could open the vent, jump down, grab the utility knife before the people below could react, and slash their necks.

As the louvers of the vent were lifted, an even louder sound drowned out Guan Jie's voice. The two people below, as if suddenly finding the source of the sound, exchanged a smile and then looked at the glass wall.

Something that was hard to tell was either human or ghost, lying on the glass wall, staring at the vent with its dark, round eyes, and shouting something with its mouth open.

The obviously inflexible neck turned stiffly, while the claw-like hand pounded on the glass. This person, if he could be considered human, was completely naked, his seemingly humanoid body covered by rotting flesh, with a bluish-black intestine dangling out, constantly dripping black liquid.