NOVPUBChapter 94: Chapter 93: The Means of the Demon
Chapter 94 -93: The Means of the Demon
Chaoyang had only just remembered that there was such a person inside the sanctuary.
The man had been imprisoned alone in the conductor’s cabin and had clearly been tortured; that’s why Chaoyang had taken extra effort to bring him back to Magnificent Castle. He did not expect that the man’s internal and external injuries were quite serious. After returning, he had developed a high fever and could only be left in the care of the sanctuary. Whether he could survive this ordeal depended entirely on him.
In the busy time preparing for the Gate of Destiny pharmaceutical company, Chaoyang had pushed the matter to the back of his mind.
To his surprise, the man had pulled through.
“Alright, I’ll head over now,” he said immediately.
The patient lay in an isolation ward in the great hall. When Chaoyang arrived, Jenny and a nun were changing his bandages. The man looked extremely weak. His eyes were barely open, but compared to his dreadful state a few days earlier, at least his face had regained some color.
“Just woke up?” Chaoyang looked at Jenny.
“Mhm,” she nodded, “You can talk to him, but don’t take too long. He hasn’t eaten for several days and needs to rest.”
Right, this world did not yet have infusion technology; to be unconscious also meant to be fasting.
Chaoyang gestured that he understood and sat down by the bed.
“Hey… can you hear me? What’s your name?”
The man glanced at him before slowly turning his head away, showing a clear reluctance to engage.
Well, I never!
Ignoring his own savior?
Chaoyang’s tone shifted, “If you don’t answer, you can’t expect to escape this medical bill. Let me read it to you: nursing fee of ten silver per day, dressing change fee of five silver each time, bed fee of two silver per day. Then there’s the emergency resuscitation fee and intensive care fee, ten silver per hour. The current total is two hundred and forty silver—”
He was pinched from behind by Jenny before he could finish. 𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝒐𝙢
Even though the nun’s attitude towards him was very respectful, her tone was clearly anxious, “That’s way too expensive! Many people don’t earn a hundred Serir in a year!”
“Sooner or later, that will be the going rate. Only by itemizing services can we maximize the conservation of medical resources. I haven’t even mentioned ambulance call-out charges yet.”
The man seemed to have heard something equally shocking as well.
He turned back, looking at Chaoyang with astonishment, “You…aren’t… from Gaotian Mining Company?”
Done for, this guy must be out of his mind.
“Would Gaotian Mining send a nun to treat you?” Chaoyang countered, “The fact that they didn’t beat you to death is already your good fortune.”
“Then… how did I get here?”
Now it was Chaoyang’s turn to be at a loss for words.
If it was just him, he wouldn’t mind revealing that he had hijacked a train, but with Jenny present, he did not want to involve the sanctuary in this matter.
“Someone hijacked the train, not only freeing the slaves on board but also dumping you on us,” Chaoyang decided to slightly embellish the story, “So it was us who saved your life. Do you understand now?”
“Someone attacked… Gaotian Company’s train?” The man’s eyes filled with confusion, “How is that possible… That’s not just any train. The company also has armed constructs to suppress riots… they absolutely cannot do that…”
This guy actually knew about the constructs being transported on the train.
Chaoyang immediately latched onto the keywords in his speech.
And who are “they” referring to?
Could it be that aside from Paradise, there was someone else capable of tampering with the train?
He quickly thought of the miner who had been hanged in the street.
Could this man be one of the rebellious miners?
“I have no reason to lie to you. In fact, the hijacking of the Gaotian Company train was even reported in the papers. If you don’t believe me, I can find you a copy. Of course, the company also retaliated with a punitive sweep of the Misty Zone, and I heard quite a few people were caught,” Chaoyang spoke plainly, “Let me put it to you this way, we have no small feud with Gaotian Company, so we won’t turn you over to them, but you at least have to tell us… who are you, and why would the company imprison you in the conductor’s cabin? Is there something they are trying to get from you?”
“…Jin Kefu,” the man replied after a pause.
“Any other problems?”
He shook his head, “I have nothing… much else to tell you…”
“You can’t tell anyone?”
“Knowing… wouldn’t do you any good…”
“But we saved your life!” Chaoyang said discontentedly.
“If you really did save me… then go,” the man said intermittently, “leave this city… and never come back…”
“Leave Magnificent Castle? Why!” Chaoyang pressed, “What is going to happen in the city?”
However, no matter how he asked, Jin Kefu no longer replied.
In that moment, a nun walked in with a wooden bucket, “Miss Jenny, the oatmeal is ready.”
Jenny said apologetically, “That’s all for today, the patient’s condition isn’t good, and he won’t remember much for a while.”
No… it wasn’t that the man had forgotten anything.
Chaoyang stared at the man on the sickbed, understanding that it was precisely because he remembered something that he was unwilling to speak.
Was it because he couldn’t fully trust himself?
Or was he worried that this was a ruse staged by Gaotian Company?
But whatever the case, asking directly was unlikely to yield any useful information.
“Alright, then I’ll take my leave,” Chaoyang stood up, “By the way, the first batch of the antibiotic prototypes from the factory will be delivered to the chapel by this evening. If it works, you can completely break free from the company’s control.”
Upon hearing this, Jenny got excited as well, deeply bowing to Chaoyang, “Yes, we are very willing to give it a try!”
…
After leaving the sickroom, Chaoyang did not go far.
Jin Kefu’s warning to “leave Magnificent Castle and never come back” troubled him, and with Judy recently being followed, the warning thrown into the carriage by someone unknown, and the sudden changes in the Misty Zone, all made Paradise’s situation increasingly complex and unpredictable.
He could sense an undertow converging into a whirlpool, but the center of this whirlpool was murky, impossible to see the future clearly.
To avoid being passive, he needed to get more information—and the man held separately on the train seemed like one lead.
It didn’t matter if the man was unwilling to speak.
Demons seldom relied on verbal exchanges for information.
When Jenny and the other nuns had left the room, and after waiting half an hour more, Chaoyang quietly pushed the door and entered—as he had anticipated, Jin Kefu had fallen asleep again after eating. This was a common occurrence in patient recovery; the weaker the body, the more prone to sleepiness.
To be safe, he called over Ailuodi with his consciousness to watch the door and prevent any nuns from entering suddenly.
Then Chaoyang employed the Dream Entering Technique and barged straight into Jin Kefu’s subconscious sea!
After a flash of white light, the surroundings darkened abruptly.
Chaoyang floated in the air, as if seeing a gigantic maze—the interior of the maze was dark and cold, as if rejecting others from a thousand miles away.
This is right, he mused to himself.
Dreamscapes like Ailuodi’s were the rare exceptions; most people would subconsciously lock away their memories because of the ugliness and secrets of privacy hidden within.
And each block comprising this maze was essentially a memory of Jin Kefu.
Chaoyang descended towards the area where the clouds were thickest.
Gradually, he discerned an underground cavern formed by massive rock layers, as well as a campsite with numerous tents and oil lamps.
Was this… a scene inside a mine?
