DipNovel 15: A reborn one?
15: A reborn one?
"Doctor! How is it? Are they really hypnotized?" someone in the crowd asked anxiously.
"Just looking at the pupils, it is indeed a characteristic of deep hypnosis, but I have never seen such a powerful deep hypnosis before—the head was almost smashed to pieces, and the person still hasn't woken up!" The male doctor shook his head, his tone sighing and somewhat incredulous.
This kind of hypnosis is beyond his common sense.
"I've never seen hypnosis of this intensity before. This world... is too bizarre." The kind-looking female doctor folded the magnifying glass in her hand, her voice trembling slightly.
"I still don't believe hypnosis can achieve this level of skill! Who else has this ability?" someone shouted in disbelief.
Su Chen looked in the direction of the sound and saw a tall man with dark red bloodstains all over his hands, face, and clothes, clearly indicating that he had touched the severed limb in the backpack.
This person is afraid of being infected with the virus, so he wants to kill Wen Fei and the others. He's no pushover... Su Chen thought to himself.
"It's already outrageous enough that our neighborhood could travel here. Now that Wenfei and the other two are deeply hypnotized, what's so hard to believe? Haven't we seen enough strange things in the past three days?" A girl with a cool and aloof demeanor spoke up from the crowd.
"Instead of arguing about whether they were hypnotized, or by whom, let's think about what to do with the severed limbs in those three backpacks!"
"The things that hypnotized Wenfei were shrouded in gray fog, invisible and intangible; but those severed limbs were right in front of us, right here in the neighborhood!"
Upon hearing this, many people calmed down and began to ponder it.
Seeing that the girl's words had caught his attention, Captain Chen, who was wearing a red armband, immediately looked over at her.
"I think we should burn all these severed limbs!" someone shouted after thinking for a while. "In mythology, fire can ward off evil! Burn them all, and even the most sinister things will be doomed!"
"That's right! This method will work!"
"I have gasoline at home, I'll go get it!"
Thump, thump, thump... The sound of footsteps faded into the distance.
About two and a half minutes later, a thin man rushed out of Building 1, carrying a clanging black iron bucket back into the crowd.
"Captain Chen, why don't you light this fire? I dare not go near those bloody things again..." The thin man's voice trembled.
"Okay, I'll do it!" Captain Chen took the gasoline can and stepped forward to set fire to the three backpacks.
The crowd retreated, and Su Chen followed suit, moving to the very back of the crowd. He couldn't help but frown.
Nobody thought about what to do if the gas produced by burning was toxic.
At that point, everyone in the entire neighborhood will be obsessed.
He looked around and saw that everyone's faces were full of anticipation; it seemed like they were all waiting to see the firelight.
Sigh... Su Chen sighed inwardly. If it weren't for the fact that it would affect him, he wouldn't have wanted to say anything.
Seeing that no one reminded him, he raised his voice from the back of the crowd and warned, "Lin Zexu even used lime to destroy opium! If you burn it with gasoline, what if those things release poisonous fumes? Do you want us all to inhale them?"
After saying that, he pretended that his shoelaces were loose and squatted down to tie them.
The people in front of him turned around when they heard the sound, and only saw a man squatting down. They frowned in confusion and looked around, but did not see the person they were looking for.
The crowd fell silent for a moment, then erupted in a chorus of sudden realization.
"Hiss...right!"
"You can't burn this, Captain Chen, stop right now!"
"Throw these things out, Captain Chen!"
"Exactly! Throwing them out is the right thing to do! It's safer to let those human-faced eagles eat them than to burn them!"
"There's definitely strength in numbers! If it weren't for my brother reminding me, things might have really gotten out of hand..."
"Captain Chen, you're the captain of our neighborhood, you throw it!"
"Yes! Captain Chen, it's up to you!"
Listening to the voices of the crowd, Su Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then fastened his belt and casually stood up to look at Captain Chen, who was wearing a red armband.
In the open space created by the crowd, Captain Chen listened to the crowd's urging, his face turning pale and then red, looking extremely unpleasant, but he couldn't refute them.
"Okay! Get me some long sticks, I'll spear them out and throw them away."
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Captain Chen, who was wholeheartedly devoted to the public good, did not refuse and gritted his teeth and agreed.
Soon, a resident brought him some sticks.
Captain Chen looked around, then beckoned to several military police officers wearing red armbands. Together, they used sticks to lift their backpacks and headed towards the gate of the residential area.
Before long, they reached the gray fog.
"Three, two, one!" the group shouted in unison, and the three backpacks, along with the sticks, were thrown into the gray fog.
Huh? Why didn't you throw it over the wall?
If I throw it on the path outside the door, won't everyone who goes out step on it?
There are idiots among the masses.
Su Chen muttered to himself, but didn't say it aloud. He just silently reminded himself to be more careful in the future.
But he soon stopped worrying—as soon as the backpack entered the gray fog, the once calm fog suddenly churned up, like a gaping mouth swallowing something...
"The backpacks are dealt with. Now let's talk about how to deal with Wenfei, Huangmao, and that gay man!" Captain Chen returned to the crowd, his tone calm, his expression one of arrogance after accomplishing something major.
At this moment, Wenfei, Huangmao, and "Chengdu Ruby Lin" were still being held down on the ground by the temporary management team.
Upon hearing that he was to be punished, Huang Mao immediately cried out in protest: "No! I have done good for the community, I have risked my life for everyone... mmm..." Before he could finish speaking, a rag was stuffed into his mouth.
Following this, Wen Fei and "Chengdu Ruby Lin" were also dealt with in the same way, and were both physically banned from speaking.
Is this... a form of dictatorship?
Some people had doubts.
But most people seconded the idea, simply following the crowd.
"I think we should kill all three of them!" the skinny man carrying the gasoline can shouted again. "The doctor said those severed limbs might carry an unknown virus! They carried them all the way here, they're probably marinated in it! They're probably covered in the virus!"
"If we don't kill them, what if an epidemic breaks out in the neighborhood one day?"
"Everyone must be buried with them!"
After he finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.
Everyone was wondering about the possibility of what had just been said.
"How about... we kill him?" After a long pause, someone tentatively suggested.
"No! Absolutely not!" The aloof girl stepped forward again. "If we kill without interrogation, how are we any different from those demons outside?"
"Just because they're afraid of the plague, they're going to take people's lives?"
"Zhang's second son was scratched by a human-faced owl. I now suspect he's also infected with the virus. Should we kill him too?"
Upon hearing this, the eldest son of the Zhang family—a burly, dark-skinned man—was the first to object: "Kill your mother! Anyone who dares to touch my brother, I'll kill their entire family!"
The aloof girl countered, "So, if someone gets injured by the human-faced owl again, will you kill them?"
"If we don't kill them, we'll have to worry about them spreading the plague; if we do kill them, their families will seek revenge."
"Are we destined to live in constant fear, or are we always ready with weapons to avenge our loved ones?"
This question caused the eldest son of the Zhang family to snort, but he also fell silent.
He certainly wouldn't have been so agitated if it weren't for his family.
The residents also fell into deep thought, their expressions constantly changing.
Su Chen nodded inwardly: This girl has excellent eloquence and knows how to stir up the emotions of the crowd.
"Then what do you suggest we do? Killing them won't work, and letting them go won't work either!" someone shouted.
"What can we do? Lock him up and observe him!" The aloof girl glanced at Captain Chen, her tone and expression revealing a sense of helplessness.
Su Chen also looked at Captain Chen.
At this moment, Captain Chen stood in the center of the crowd with his arms crossed, looking calm and collected, as if he had long awaited the answer he wanted.
In an instant, Su Chen understood.
Even when the question was raised, Captain Chen had already set the ending for everyone—even without that skinny man, someone else would have jumped out and suggested killing Wen Fei and the other two.
No matter how much they argued afterward, someone would eventually suggest locking them up for long-term observation.
This is almost the best solution, as it neither disrupts order nor makes people feel at ease, without worrying that their own family members might be killed one day on the grounds of "potential mutation".
In this process, the temporary management group that has formed an organized force will become the biggest beneficiary—their power boundaries will expand without them realizing it... In the future, when similar situations arise, people will immediately think of imprisoning and detaining the "potentially mutated people" and handing them over to the temporary management group for care.
If you want to open a window, just say you want to tear down the ceiling... Tsk tsk, that's quite a clever trick.
It really is unbelievable.
Su Chen kept quiet, lost in thought.
Rather than standing out now and becoming disliked, or being ostracized and treated unfairly by the temporary team, it's better to quietly develop and strengthen oneself first.
"From today onwards, I must keep this a secret and absolutely no one can know about my special rescue kit!"
"Once exposed, I'll be falsely accused and I'll be severely injured, even if I don't die, and all my supplies will be taken away."
Just then, the temporary management team led Wen Fei and the other two toward the storage room.
No... someone else has been to that village.
The image of the woman with the high ponytail carrying a black military bag and walking close to the wall flashed through Su Chen's mind.
"Could this woman be hiding at home...eating flesh and blood?"
Su Chen felt a chill run down his spine, as if he could see the woman with the high ponytail sitting at the dining table, gnawing on the severed limb, which was dripping with dark red blood, as if it were a juicy steak—a female version of Hannibal Lecter!
"Should we tell them?"
As Su Chen frowned and hesitated, a bloated, fat man stepped out from the crowd and shouted:
"Wait a minute! Guys! The numbers are wrong! There's also a woman with a high ponytail! She came back with a big bag too; it's probably full of those severed limbs!"
Well, someone spoke for me... Su Chen secretly thanked the fat man.
"Let's go! Let's take a look!"
"If that woman really brings back a backpack full of severed limbs, she'll have to be locked up for observation!" the red-armbanded member of the temporary team said in a loud voice.
The crowd stirred and, led by the bloated fat man, quickly arrived at apartment 401, unit 1, building 1, and began banging on the door.
"Open the door! Open the door!"
With their superior numbers, no one was afraid of the woman with the high ponytail's Miao sword anymore, and the door was pounded on loudly.
Su Chen hid in a corner and observed quietly.
Could this woman have pushed me?
Will we be able to find any clues if we come along this time?
bang bang bang...
The loud knocking continued for at least two and a half minutes before a woman's voice came from behind the door: "I'm tired, I need to rest."
His tone remained cold and aloof, and he was sparing with his words.
"We are a temporary management team, and we suspect that the backpack you brought back also contained a bleeding severed limb..." The temporary team briefly explained the matter of the severed limb and deep hypnosis.
After saying that, he asked the woman with the high ponytail to open the door for inspection.
"They deserved it, it has nothing to do with me. I can distinguish between severed limbs and normal supplies, and there's nothing wrong with the things I brought back."
The woman with the high ponytail's voice came from behind the door, her tone flat, as if she already knew about deep hypnosis and limb amputation. But she didn't want to say more, and after emphasizing that her supplies were fine, she fell silent.
"Whether there's a problem or not isn't up to you to decide!"
"Open the door! Submit for inspection!"
The makeshift team continued to knock on the door, and the bloated fat man leading the way, after gathering his strength, suddenly slammed into the door.
Thump! The fat man bounced back like a ball.
Seeing this, Su Chen's eyes widened—he had seen the mysterious apartment 602 before, and had also seen many doors that were impossible to push open, like reinforced concrete.
An ordinary wooden door couldn't withstand the fat man's full-force slam! There's something strange about this door! And the woman inside is even more extraordinary!
crunch--
Before Su Chen could react, the woman with the high ponytail opened the door, carrying a black military backpack, and walked out with a cold expression.
She stood at the doorway, blocking everyone's view, and then slowly unzipped her backpack—there were no severed limbs inside, not even dark red bloodstains, only a few old ceramic bowls, two roughly hand-carved wooden puppets, and a bag of colorful seeds.
The temporary team members didn't believe it, so they snatched the backpack and searched it carefully inside and out.
"Is there?" After flipping through the pages for a while, the woman with the high ponytail asked softly.
"No...no."
"Then why aren't you giving it back to me?"
The woman with the high ponytail spoke in a cold voice, and everyone present trembled as if they all remembered her long and sharp Miao sword.
Under her imposing presence, the temporary team, already in the wrong, reluctantly returned the backpacks.
"Can you tell us about what happened in the village? We want to know how Wenfei and the others ended up like that..."
The woman with the high ponytail didn't reply at all, took the backpack, and turned to go back into the house.
boom!
The wooden door slammed shut.
The person in the red armband at the front instinctively shrank back, avoiding the wind stirred up by the opening and closing of the door.
"What a terrible temper!" the bloated fat man muttered under his breath.
"Let's go!" The red-armbanded leader of the temporary team glared at the fat man and led his men downstairs.
Su Chen leaned against the wall, waiting for the crowd to disperse while recalling the scene after the woman with the high ponytail opened the door.
All the lights in the room were off, and since she was blocking the doorway, Su Chen couldn't see the furnishings inside.
But he had a strong intuition—this house was very deep, as deep and unfathomable as room 602 in the mysterious ruins, with a living room connected to a long corridor and rooms within rooms.
"Could it be that she opened one too?"
Su Chen's heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously thought that the woman with the high ponytail might also have a cheat code.
Then, recalling her unusually well-equipped state when she set off the next day, as if she had made all the necessary preparations beforehand, a guess suddenly popped into my head:
"Wait... she's not a reincarnated person, is she?"
The "poisoning" influence of online novels once again took over Su Chen's mind, causing him to make excessive associations.