CH 50.2

He nudges closer to the side of the bed with his toothbrush. The minute sounds of movement suggest it would be a diminutive sample even if it were an actual mouse.

With that thought in mind, he is in no hurry to actually step off the bed. Instead, warily, or perhaps even due to excessive worry, he simply lowers his head and pulls it back up lightning fast, barely able to glance at the scenery under the bed at all.

There is a sound shooting through the air, passing very close to his ears, and fades to nothing in no time.

Laughter and murmurs continue to ramp up and invade the cell, reverberating their odd characteristics through the cell walls.

Jian Si carefully concludes that there have been no changes to the room that he can see, when unbeknownst to him, he barely missed the reaper’s scythe. Then, he carefully extends his head to observe the space under his bed once more.

There is a layer of dust. It is quiet. Even the sliding noise is gone.

Somewhat confused, he carefully leaves the bed, to observe more closely.

No mice. Not even insects. The layer of dust is all that can be seen, and otherwise, it is unblemished.

Now completely confounded, he looks around once more, and, hesitantly, he decides to return to bed and sleep in the chorus of the harsh noises.

He thought it would be difficult, or even impossible to fall asleep like before, and might have to stay up all night, when it turns out, he had a good sleep.

Good enough that he wakes up basically naturally, into a face very close to his own.

By reflex, he throws the toothbrush he has still been holding onto for dear life, while quickly retreating from the person to the end of the bed.

Lin Yi easily takes hold of that launched toothbrush, while scrutinising the seemingly defenceless and easily defeated person with amazement. Then he glances back at Lunatic, currently staring at the door——The sleepless night plus intensive, uninterrupted attention through the night has rendered him rather jaded in appearance. It is highly contrasting with this guy here.

He’s not just alive, but seems to have had a good night’s sleep.

Jian Si has finally snapped out of his drowsiness, relaxing when he confirms who it is.

“Why are you here?” He gestures for Lin Yi, who has one hand firmly planted on the blanket, to move, then finally leaves the confines of the blanket and stretches himself off the bed.

“Doctor had me check on you.”

Jian Si stops abruptly, almost spraining himself in the process, “check on me?”

“He wanted me to tell you.” Lin Yi examines Jian Si, suddenly immediately attentive and obedient, and finds nothing of note that may keep Doctor’s attention on him——Outside of his face, anyway. Yet Doctor is not one to be bedazzled by appearance.

“Do not forget your promise.”

Lin Yi’s words carry a clear, lethal threat, dragging Jian Si back to last night.

After shaking by reflex, he looks at the space beneath the bed. It looks just the same as what he saw under the dim light from last night. There is a fine layer of dust all over, and nothing else to be seen – nothing that would make a rolling sound, either.

Sighing in relief, he looks back up, to see Lin Yi having a complicated look on his face towards him.

“Last night…” Jian Si tries to think about how to describe the ‘rich’ experience through the night he had, but just decides to be brief in the end, “was quite lively.”

“You seem to have slept well.” Lin Yi is in a hurry to see someone else, too, so is in no mood to stay. Having confirmed Jian Si’s alive status – seemingly even leading a positively comfortable live, considering – Lin Yi is ready to go.

“I’m surprised myself…” Jian Si does not notice Lin Yi in a hurry to leave. Instead, he still finds himself feeling iffy about the noise last night. After poking his head around a few more times, he decides to slide under the bed entirely.

Lin Yi can’t help but pause even during his departure, wondering what actually happened during the night——Could there be a side effect of remaining in this place that subverts people into lunatics?

And the ceaseless mix of noises are terribly straining.

Lin Yi stops thinking about it. In fact, just sweeping his gaze across the multitude of prisoners in nearby cells only exacerbates his irritation.

“I’m going now, so…” Lin Yi really can’t offer much in the way of blessing when it’s like this, “Godspeed.” Then he leaves with hurried footsteps.

As he leaves, the cells on either side immediately erupt into louder commotion. Uproarious laughs, unintelligible mumblings, knockings, thumpings, everything——An extremely unpleasant place to be.

Lin Yi has shut the door tightly. Lunatic, having stared at it all night long, finally trudges back to bed, and starts blanking out staring into space.

Jian Si has found something under the bed.

Almost half buried under the bed, he finally notices a tiny trail of something having been on the floor. It is barely noticeable, even in the dusty space under the bed.

The trail looks to be of something having rolled in a line over the floor until it stopped in one place, which…

Jian Si manoeuvres with difficulty in order to now look up at the underside of the bed boards, finding an almost imperceptible mark there.

He repeatedly looks at the trace on the bed board and back at the dust, then suddenly thinks of something, and climbs out of the space. He then moves approximately the same distance on the bed to identify the location, putting the toothbrush down with the brushing surface where it is.

Then he slowly lies down, until his body can feel the soft touches of the tufts——Right under his heart.

Jian Si shoots back up standing, staring at the toothbrush like he just witnessed a monster. His expression is livid.

After a few seconds, he shoots up, and heads to the window.

From the window, he sees nothing out of the ordinary outside. So next, he lowers himself to the floor, staring at the surface of the floor, inch by inch, just outside. Finally, he has seen what he wanted.

He can just barely make out the patterns of parts of two soles of shoes that mirror each other, which is a sign someone has stood here for quite a while.

Jian Si gulps, finally confirming the truth of the mysterious occurrences last night.

He narrowly missed death, twice——If he didn’t have luck on his side – Lunatic having noticed the person outside, and the mysterious object targeting him being stopped by the bed board, then it would have been closer than ‘narrowly.’

He really ought to thank his lucky stars.

Jian Si takes a deep breath, to put those fears behind him, and prepare for the next night.