After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

In Tang Li's live stream, the chat, which had just been unblocked, was bursting with excitement, with both donations and insults erupting simultaneously.

"The streamer is ruthless, I love it!" "She adapted to the role immediately after finding out she was in a bizarre world; this streamer is inherently ruthless!" "She was righteously criticizing hospitals for conducting human experiments before, but now she's doing it herself to complete the mission. Isn't the streamer contradicting herself?" "The streamer is shameless! I love the streamer!"

Unlike some streamers who block comments for fear of disrupting their train of thought, Tang Li seemed oblivious to them. Comments praising her ruthlessness, condemning her wickedness, and mocking her hypocrisy and inconsistency all flashed before her eyes, silently disappearing into her calm, dark pupils.

Tang Li only looked at Dr. James, who was leaning against the dream-come-true machine with a slight smile on her lips.

Before the young couple could completely break down and make a desperate attempt, Dr. James had already stepped forward hastily.

"Um..." He nervously rubbed his hands together, looking almost as uncomfortable as the young couple. "Sir... actually, this machine... uh, it broke down today."

Tang Li slowly raised her eyebrows: "Did something go wrong?"

"Yes, yes, that's it, it's broken!" Dr. James seemed to have made up his mind, and his speech became more and more fluent. "When I checked the machine this morning, I found that it was malfunctioning and couldn't start at all. But the problem is quite complicated, and it hasn't been fixed yet."

"So... there's no way for adults to use it, and we don't know when it will be fixed..." James was sweating profusely with nervousness, and his movements and tone were somewhat exaggerated in an attempt to make the performance more realistic.

The young couple let out an uncontrollable dry heave, a sound born from extreme tension.

"Oh dear, I forgot to inform the patients!" Dr. James exclaimed, stepping forward abruptly. He turned his slightly bulging eyes to the young couple, as if he had just noticed their presence. "Sir, in that case, please, please have the two patients return home! The treatment cannot proceed!"

Tang Li frowned unhappily, crossed her arms, and nodded impatiently.

Dr. James, as if he had been saved, stepped aside, and the young couple scrambled out of the examination room.

Tang Li chuckled to herself: I knew it would be like this.

The machine that makes dreams come true is crucial to the most important truth about the Ghost Story Private Hospital and Gu Xiaoying. Their previous infiltration of Dr. James's office was captured on the corridor's security cameras, already alerting the enemy.

Therefore, Tang Li knew from the very beginning that when she expressed her desire to operate the machine herself, Dr. James would immediately find a way to refuse and let the young couple go.

The comments section was filled with regret and sighs, but Tang Li remained calm. She didn't think that uncovering the secret of a low-level game required more sacrifices.

Just as the young couple's figures completely disappeared at the end of the corridor, Tang Li smiled. She had been wandering around the consultation room and now happened to be behind Dr. James.

A hand gently rested on James's shoulder. The woman behind him suddenly asked, her breath soft as a snake's tongue: "Is the machine really broken, Dr. James?"

James froze like a startled rabbit; his hand, an adult's hand...

Director Cao wailed and cried out in pain in this very hand, feeling utterly miserable.

James began to tremble.

"Speak up, Dr. James," a female voice urged softly from behind, her tone tinged with a hint of affectionate reproach.

To James, it sounded like a death knell. He thought, he thought the adults would turn a blind eye because of the dean, but he forgot that the adults were unpredictable.

Sweat streamed down James's forehead and into his eyes. He recalled the dean's repeated orders and threats: "Yes, yes... the machine is broken..."

"Are you sure?" Tang Li asked gently. "It's easy to verify, you know that, right?"

Dr. James racked his brains, but the adults still needed to find test subjects. Luckily, the couple had already gone far away...

"You're not thinking I don't have any test subjects, are you?" A whisper, as if reading my mind, came from behind, followed by a cheerful laugh. "Oh, dear James, adorable James..."

"—You're the test subject."

James opened his eyes wide in fear, barely able to understand what the adults were saying: What...?

"Listen," the adult said, one hand still resting on his shoulder, the other warm and affectionately pinching his ear, "listen carefully, in a little while, I'm going to stuff you, along with a hungry rat, into the machine."

"If you're honest, the machine simply won't start, then dear James will be fine!"

"—But if James lies and the machine still works..." The voice trailed off.

James's legs were too weak to stand, but he still persevered, trembling in place. He dared not, dared not let his shoulders and ears slip out of the adults' hands, for fear that this would be seen as rebellion.

Whispering casually, he uttered the ending he least dared to imagine: "Maybe we'll find a cute, lively little mouse inside Dr. James's belly, or perhaps even little James himself will be cut out of a mouse's stomach?"

James finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed to his knees with a thud.

"No, no, no, please... no! No!" He covered his head with his hands, his upper body hunched and curled up, crying and pleading, "I was wrong! I was wrong! The machine, the machine is fine... I was wrong! Please..."

He's so stupid, so incredibly stupid! How dare he be so focused on the dean's arrangements, so audacious as to try and fool the adults? Has he gone mad? James, that's an adult!

Tang Li slowly circled halfway around James, then stood in front of him, as if accepting his kneeling with equanimity.

"Don't cry anymore. It looks so ugly when our Dr. James cries with his head in his hands, doesn't it?" Tang Li asked cheerfully.

James sobbed, frantically wiping his face with the sleeve of his white coat: "Yes, yes, yes!"

"Oh dear, so good, so good." Tang Li nodded in satisfaction. "So, cute little James knows whose dog he should be, right?"

"Yes! Yes!" James cried again, his voice trembling like leaves in the autumn wind. "I'll listen to you, sir, please, please..."

"Very good. Now, get up and sit in that chair."

Tang Li's deliberately gentle tone returned to normal; her short sentences were crisp and decisive, as if she were born to stand on high and give orders.

"I have a few questions for you."