48 Hours a Day

The three quickly cleaned up the ward as soon as they could. After that, Han Lu and Fan Meinan took the bone bow and the crown, wrapped them in sheets, and left the hospital with the elevator. Zhang Heng, on the other hand, climbed through the window and returned to the emergency room to take back his clothes and personal belongings. He then left the hospital quietly.

The three regrouped in the car once outside the hospital. Han Lu still seemed a little shocked.

“I still can’t believe that you killed a Horsemen of the Apocalypse…” said Fan Meinan as Zhang Heng opened the door.

Zhang Heng sat down, closed the door, but only shook his head. “It is meaningless discussing stuff like these at the moment. We came here to find your sister, but it appears we have lost her again.”

“That’s the problem! To be honest, I don’t want to be fooled again. This doesn’t feel good.” Fan Meinan smiled bitterly.

“We may still have another chance,” said Zhang Heng

“What do you mean?”

“Why did your sister come to find Pestilence?”

“The three major guilds wish to bring her in, and she obviously became furious about it. Is she trying to eliminate the three major guilds with the help of Pestilence?” Fan Meinan fell into deep thought while touching her chin. “It’s not easy to kill so many players in one go. Even when it comes to deities, only a few of them could carry out such a feat. And Pestilence is one of them. She may have gotten what she wanted from the deity… Hold on. It’s not easy to ask for the Pestilence’s help, and I’m afraid it must have cost her dearly in exchange for whatever favor she needed. Their first contact is only a speculation. There should be follow-up contacts.”

“This is our most reasonable inference for now,” Zhang Heng said, pulling out a Samsung Galaxy while at it. “I got Pestilence’s mobile phone.”

“They may contact each other again, but why must they do it through mobile phones?”

“Because it is our only clue now.” Zhang Heng turned on the laptop beside him. “I can hack through the phone’s lock screen password and check out his contact list.”

Since it was all about Han Lu’s fate, she was naturally nervous and on edge. “When did you see them coming out of the room,” Zhang Heng asked Han Lu.

“Uh… about 11:03 or 04?” replied Han Lu replied. She closed her eyes, rummaging through her memories. “It was 11:03… I looked at the wall clock at the nurse’s station.

“The last incoming call on the phone was at 10:20 in the morning. It couldn’t have been her.” Zhang Heng turned to the contact list and continued to scroll through it. “Most of the contacts here are colleagues from the hospital. I don’t see anything suspicious. If this is the case, we can only wait for the person to contact us.”

“I didn’t expect Pestilence to be so dedicated in his hospital work.”

Zhang Heng turned to Fan Meinan. “You have the ability to change your voice when you pretend to be someone else. Can you imitate Pestilence’s voice?”

“Yes, but I have to hear him speak first.”

“It’s easy to acquire his voice. Since he was the director of this hospital, he should have some videos on the Internet.” Zhang Heng quickly found a panel of experts on infectious disease and epidemiology organized by the Municipal Health Ministry. Pestilence had been invited as an expert to speak at the summit. The whole situation seemed like an ironic piece of black humor.

Fan Meinan paid attention to the video. After a while, she cleared her throat, and she started to speak in the voice of “Director Kuang.”

“Under the leadership of Deputy Mayor Guo, we shall build a harmonious and caring doctor-patient relationship together…”

Han Lu nodded. “Overall, you sound just like him. However, I think you should carry a more indifferent tone.’

“Roger that.”

“For now, we’ll just wait for your sister to contact Pestilence again. Can you still take it?” Zhang Heng asked Han Lu.

“Erm… I’m still fine,” Han Lu said, “I did some research earlier, and I found out that the longest time somebody didn’t sleep is ten days. However, it also said that I’ll start hallucinating after five days, and brain damage will kick in after seven. I can become completely delirious as well.”

“We will find a way to lift the curse within five days,” said Zhang Heng.

“If it doesn’t work, It seems I’ll be swallowing more water in your luxurious bathtub,” Fan Meinan sighed.

“Then… where should we go now?” Han Lu drank another can of coffee again. Before the curse could be lifted, she had to drink coffee as if it was drinking water.

“Let’s head back,” Zhang Heng insisted, taking a can of coffee for himself. “You need to rest, but that doesn’t mean you can fall asleep… If Pestilence plans to deal with the three major guilds that we are going after, the battlefield would be in the city where we live.”

“Okay, then I will ask my assistant to book the return tickets.”

“Give me some time to deal with my own stuff. I’ll meet you at the airport later.”

Zhang Heng contacted the bartender lady and asked for the address of the city’s checkpoint.

Having just acquired two pieces of equipment from Pestilence, he could bring the crown onto the airplane but not the bone bow. He also knew that using a commercial courier service to deliver the bone bow was unreliable as well. Hence, he decided to employ the special logistics service offered by the checkpoint. The advantages of using this service were clear-it was guaranteed to be safe and fast. There were zero chances that the package would be lost in transit. Of course, such perks always had the same setback. Similar to the services offered by all checkpoints, it was extremely costly.

The delivery of one game item required 15 game points, and two things needed 20 game points, which was almost equivalent to a whopping 800,000 yuan. It was very much like daylight robbery, and fortunately, Zhang Heng had earned many game points from the Whistleblower quest.

Fan Meinan and Zhang Heng then went to the checkpoint together. After Zhang Heng paid the fee, Fan Meinan pulled him to a corner.

“You know that even if you did find my sister, she might not know how to deal with the Dreamland of Death, or maybe there’s really just no way to lift the curse.”

Zhang Heng nodded, “I’ve taken that possibility into account.”

“So…Should we tell her about it?”

“I will wait until the time is right,” Zhang Heng said.

“When is the right time, then?”

“When we are sure that we have no way to lift the curse.”

“She may die of pain.”

“It’s still better than giving up at the last minute right before she gets saved,” Zhang Heng said. “Now, the only thing that keeps her alive is the faith that we can save her. If we tell her the truth now, she may not even last five days.”

“You’re the boss. You have the final say.” Fan Meinan shrugged and stopped arguing. “Thanks.” Zhang Heng paused and looked into Fan Meinan’s eyes, “For what you did for me before, I haven’t had the chance to say thank you…”

“Oh, are you talking about the time when I stuck my head into a bathtub full of water and almost drowned? It’s a pity that I couldn’t find my sister in the end, not to mention how we almost got killed by Pestilence.”

“If you need any help at all, please remember to come to me.”

“Wow, this sounds sweet.” Fan Meinan blinked. “Then, I’ll take it seriously… Is it true that you are powerful enough to kill the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? How could I have not found out about this? Are you really that good?”