Eldritch Horror Theatre

The head of reception had even returned.

Though she didn’t try to claim any credit, she merely stood there, watching from afar.

Judging by her complicated expression, it looked as though she had already given Tina some sort of warning.

The fact that Tina had marched right over anyway made her heave a sigh of relief, though it also clearly left her questioning her own sanity.

As for why Tina had come—

”Is there something wrong with your head? Are you afraid people won’t find out about last night?”

Faced with Fu Qian’s request, Tina outright refused to comply, keeping her voice to a furious whisper.

The reason was obvious. Just like her reaction upon seeing Hake that morning, she placed heavy importance on her personal image, and the events of last night were truly too mortifying to speak of.

So even after hearing about his absurd display of firepower, it wasn’t enough to override Tina’s fear of having the incident dragged into the light. She had rushed over as if triggered by a stress response, instantly aggressively demanding accountability.

Though Fu Qian really wanted to remind her that she should probably say hello to her acquaintance first.”Rachel?”

It seemed he didn’t need to. Before Fu Qian could even respond to her barrage of questions, Tina finally noticed the other person standing a short distance away, staring at them in stunned silence.

It seemed Rachel hadn’t been bluffing. She really did have an acquaintance at the hospital.

Their mutual reactions said it all; both were clearly shocked to see each other here.

Tina was completely baffled, unable to draw any connection between Rachel and this awful rookie cop.

Rachel, on the other hand, looked far more shocked by what she had just overheard.

As the saying goes, the listener takes things to heart. Though Tina had done her best to keep her voice down, Rachel had been paying close attention from the start and had clearly caught a few details.

”Last night?”

For a brief moment, it was as if she had forgotten her own predicament completely, blurting the question out without thinking.

”Let’s go outside.”

Now Fu Qian didn’t need to say another word. Tina instantly recalled his earlier suggestion and hurried toward the exit.

...

”How did you two end up coming here together?”

Naturally, the topic of ”last night” was not meant for an outsider’s ears.

She had practically dragged the two of them into a secluded corner. Tina seemed to have formulated a counter-strategy along the way, immediately expressing utter disbelief that Rachel would actually be traveling with Fu Qian.

”Mr. Anke wanted me to drive him here. His car is a bit too conspicuous.”

Rachel appeared to have calmed down by now. She responded without panicking, making it clear that she had been forced into it.

However, this excuse...

The parking lot was right next to them, and a certain someone’s pink ride was indeed exceptionally eye-catching. Tina couldn’t help but shoot it a few glances.

”Don’t ask me. I don’t know either.”

Rachel hadn’t actually expected to convince anyone with that; she was mostly just stating her stance.

Faced with Tina’s bewilderment, she could only offer a helpless smile.

”So what exactly are you doing here? You actually thought that car was too conspicuous?”

Unable to spot any flaws in Rachel’s expression, Tina grew increasingly confused. She pivoted, refocusing her firepower onto Fu Qian.

”To ask for your help.”

Having watched their exchange from the sidelines, Fu Qian inwardly praised them before stating his purpose directly.

Help?

It was clear that even Rachel was taken aback this time, faintly realizing that things weren’t quite as simple as they seemed.

”Where does the hospital keep its corpses?”

Without waiting for the two women to ask anything else, Fu Qian gestured to their surroundings.

”What do you want with a place like that?”

So he really wasn’t here for her... Tina inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, but was simultaneously startled by the location Fu Qian was inquiring about.

”I know this isn’t within the scope of your duties, but about half an hour ago, I found a corpse that was supposed to be in your hospital.”

Fu Qian continued with total candor, his gaze locking onto a specific building.

Honestly, because of the overall vibe of the place, it felt like anywhere in the hospital could serve as a morgue. However, the building currently in his line of sight felt the most fitting.

”Something like that happened...? Are you sure you weren’t mistaken?”

Tina was clearly struggling to believe him.

”I’m here to confirm exactly that.”

Fu Qian simply nodded.

”Ah—so it was over by the prison?”

While Tina seemed to be struggling to process this, Rachel suddenly had an epiphany and let out a sharp gasp.

It wasn’t exactly a difficult deduction, especially since Fu Qian had explicitly mentioned a timeframe of half an hour.

A brief moment of recollection was all it took for her to remember that this rookie cop had still been at the Art Prison at that time.

”Don’t worry, it wasn’t anywhere visible.”

Fu Qian openly admitted it, even making a point to emphasize the silver lining.

...

After all, it was just a corpse. For an adult, it wasn’t something overtly terrifying.

Judging by the look on Rachel’s face, her reaction was more of a deep, unsettling discomfort—the vivid, skin-crawling sensation of realizing your house was built over a graveyard.

Seeing this, Fu Qian casually twisted the knife, successfully making her face turn even paler.

”I understand what you mean. But even if I wanted to help, the most I can do is get you in touch with the person in charge of this area. If something like this really happened, they definitely wouldn’t want anyone else to find out.”

Tina seemed to have finally gathered her thoughts, her focus shifting entirely to the matter at hand. Taking the reality of the situation into account, she offered a rather tactful suggestion.

”What else would you do? Sneak me inside so we can check the bodies one by one for signs of theft?”

To her surprise, Fu Qian accepted this without hesitation, even looking at her with a hint of astonishment.

”...Then follow me. It’s over there.”

Tina choked on her words for a moment. However, eager to busy herself with something so the conversation wouldn’t accidentally drift back to the previous night, she didn’t argue.

She quickly signaled for them to get moving, pointing in the exact same direction Fu Qian had been looking.

As expected, great minds think alike. He had just been thinking that the feng shui over there looked pretty good.

Extremely satisfied with his own judgment, Fu Qian immediately followed her.

”Um...”

However, someone was starting to get cold feet.

”That place is really a bit too scary for me... Can I just stay here?”

Having watched Fu Qian and Tina quickly reach an agreement, Rachel finally seemed to snap out of her ”ghost under the bed” paranoia.

She made no effort to hide her reluctance toward their destination.

Her request wasn’t exactly unreasonable. She wasn’t asking to leave—just to stay behind instead of going to look at corpses, remaining on standby as their designated driver.

Scary?

In response, Fu Qian gave her a deeply meaningful look, staring until Rachel looked completely unsure of what face she should even be making.

”Sure. Thanks for your hard work.”

But a moment later, Fu Qian actually nodded in agreement. He didn’t insist on dragging his personal world-transition detector along.

It made perfect sense. Out with the old, in with the new.

After offering his words of encouragement, Fu Qian signaled for the increasingly suspicious Tina to lead the way, while mentally adding a brief evaluation.

How did that saying go again? One who is too critical has no followers?

Being too professional wasn’t always a good thing.