Rules of the Strange: I Can See Through All the Weird

The soul remained silent, only trembling.

Qi Tong remained silent for a while before speaking.

"You want me to save you, but you won't tell me the truth. How can I save you?"

Qi Tong spoke as if lecturing a disobedient child.

"Would you like to go out?"

"......think."

"Then tell me everything. You came to me because you trust me, didn't you?"

Qi Tong's voice seemed to have a magical power, gradually calming the emotions in one's soul.

"That's the second reason."

"The dean is my... biological father."

Qi Tong nodded, signaling her to continue.

"Being a journalist has always been my dream, and Dad... no, Dean... he's very supportive of me."

"After I graduated, the first job the newspaper gave me was at another hospital. I spent a year working as a receptionist at the front desk to obtain evidence of those illegal transactions."

"They deliberately exaggerate the severity of illnesses of ordinary people who don't need surgery, and send them to the operating table. Because the patients don't have any significant background, they deliberately leave them on the operating table forever."

"Then they lure patients' families into signing body donation agreements, so they can profit from those organs. The people most likely to get into trouble are those who have already signed body donation agreements, because if something goes wrong, they can do whatever they want with that agreement."

"I successfully got all the people involved in the case at this hospital into jail, and I became a relatively well-known journalist."

"But I gradually realized that my dad was acting more and more strangely. He would see these things when he was helping me pick up my manuscripts, and he would get angry for no reason, scolding me for not knowing anything."

"Because this matter involves many hospitals, including the mental hospital in my family, he often loses his temper after work. He has never laid a hand on my mother before, but he has actually abused her. You know, I have repeatedly sighed that my family is very good."

"He belittled me every day, saying that everything I did was useless. At first, I just thought he was under pressure because the hospital was being investigated, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt something was wrong, so I also sneaked into this mental hospital."

"Later, I actually found the evidence, and I could hardly believe it when I held it in my hands. This beastly person was actually my closest and dearest person."

At this point, Qi Tong hugged the doll tighter, saying nothing, as if using this method to comfort her soul.

The soul wept silently, and the voice choked with sobs.

"I thought about it all night. I made my decision at dawn."

"I was determined to save more people, but unfortunately, I was discovered."

"He couldn't bear to kill me, but he locked me in the basement and made me watch as those patients had their organs harvested while they were still alive."

"He said he wanted me to witness with my own eyes what I was stopping, that it was his grand plan."

"I don't know how much time passed like this. I couldn't take it anymore, so I committed suicide."

The soul's words were still halting, but Qi Tong understood the complete storyline.

She gently pressed her finger against the corner of the doll's mouth.

There's no need to ask how she committed suicide; given her speech impediment, being locked up, and having no tools around, it's clear she was capable of it all.

Qi Tong could guess that she most likely committed suicide by biting her tongue.

Qi Tong did not speak immediately.

She turned the doll over and looked at the crooked stitches on the back of its head. The stitches were very dense, and the thread was frayed, as if it had been repeatedly taken apart and sewn back together many times.

People locked in basements have no tools, no light, and can only write on the walls with their blood and bite off their own tongues with their teeth.

"Shen Zhiyi." She called her by name, not "soul" or "doll".

The doll's button eyes reflected a dull luster under the fluorescent light.

"I'll help you take the USB drive out."

"But I won't help you destroy your father's 'great cause'."

My soul trembled.

"Go and destroy it yourself," Qi Tong said.

"What you owe yourself isn't exposure, it's destroying what your father considered a great undertaking. So you can't just stay in this doll. You have to get out."

"Is the dean's office on the third floor?"

"Yes... it's on the far right side of the third floor, there's no sign above it."

Where is the USB drive?

Shen Zhiyi's voice was weaker than before, as if she had been searching through her memories for a long time.

"In his office drawer... the second one from the left. It was locked. The key was around his neck, and he never took it off."

Qi Tong quickly memorized the locations: the office, the second drawer on the left, and the key around her neck.

When will he leave the office?

"During rounds, he would personally tour all the wards three times a day, morning, noon, and evening, but he wouldn't enter the wards, so no patients recognized him."

"for how long?"

"He walks very slowly and likes to stop and chat with the nurses. Each time it lasts about forty minutes."

Forty minutes.

enough.

Qi Tong mentally rearranged the timetable.

She glanced down at her hospital gown and then remembered the two nurse uniforms Xu Ning had brought out from the changing room.

"Xu Ning." She opened a bridge of understanding in her mind.

"The nurse's uniform is for tonight. The hospital director's key is hanging around his neck, and the USB drive is in the second drawer on the left in his office. We'll go to his office when he makes his rounds."

Xu Ning immediately continued the conversation.

"What time is it?"

"The time we went to the basement yesterday. He didn't notice we weren't in the ward yesterday, so his rounds today will probably be around that time too."

"it is good."

After discussing the important matters of the evening with Xu Ning, Qi Tong pondered carefully for a while.

How can I get Shen Zhiyi to come out?

Qi Tong summoned Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi yawned and asked slowly, "What's wrong?"

She glanced around, and her drowsiness vanished instantly, replaced by shock.

"Qi Tong! You let me out of the toilet again!"

Qi Tong chuckled twice, "There's no other way, is there?"

"I've come to see you this time because it's very important."

Upon hearing this, Xiaoyi also became serious. "What is it?"

"I want to borrow your body. Can your body accommodate one more soul?"

Qi Tong pointed to the rag doll next to her.

Xiao Yi looked over and saw a woman's soul, but the soul was somewhat translucent and looked extremely weak.

"Her soul is too weak. She's been sealed inside the doll for too long and can't get out without a vessel."

Qi Tong pressed further, "Then can you be a medium?"

Without saying a word, Xiaoyi grabbed the soul and stuffed it into her mouth, demonstrating with her actions that she was capable.

He left with the words, "I'm going to sleep. The rest is up to you," and then closed his eyes.

When Xiaoyi opened her eyes again, her gaze was no longer that of Xiaoyi; it was empty, and she unconsciously frowned.

Because of their eyes, one can see two completely different people in the same person.

"Try saying something?"