The Bizarre Detective Agency Chapter 50
"Oh, sorry, my hand slipped..." Anna cried out, but caught herself a moment later. "Wait, there's no one here. Why am I apologizing?"
On the way, to justify renting the carriage, Lu Li had bought a crate of canned fruit and another of canned fish.
Burning with curiosity, Anna had opened a can of the fruit preserves, but her control wasn't quite steady, and she spilled some of the cherry juice onto the ground.
"Uh..." Anna glanced around and, feeling like a thief, fetched a clump of dirt from the nearby grounds to cover the stain. Then she flung the empty can as far as she could, destroying the evidence.
Just as she finished, the sound of footsteps from inside the hospital caught the busy ghost's attention.
Peering into the gloom, she saw two figures hurrying out of the hospital and making for the main gate.
"Lu Li went in alone... so how are there two of them now?" Anna wondered, completely baffled.
...
A relentless, piercing pain at the back of his head made Lu Li wince in his sleep.
They drew his attention, an inexplicable pull, and as he followed them down into the depths of his consciousness, the outside world violently yanked him back to reality.
Splash! Icy water hit his face, the sudden, shocking cold creating a suffocating sensation that snapped Lu Li awake.
The throbbing pain at the back of his head sharpened into focus.
Lu Li opened his eyes, his blurred vision slowly coming into focus.
A man came into view, dressed in a grimy, blue-and-white hospital gown and a yellowed mask.
Lu Li averted his gaze and took in his surroundings. More information from the outside world began to filter into his pain-addled brain.
He was lying on a cold hospital cot, the same kind he'd seen in the hallway. His wrists, ankles, and waist were tightly cinched with straps that dug into his skin. But that discomfort was nothing compared to the relentless throbbing at the back of his head.
This was an operating room, though he couldn't imagine why a psychiatric hospital would need one.
The room was utterly devoid of sterility. Dark stains blotched the walls and floor. An operating table was pushed against one wall, its surface marred by large, suspicious brown smears. On a tray next to it lay an assortment of forceps and scalpels, every single one stained with blood.
A portable lantern sat on a cabinet behind the masked man. Lu Li's belongings were laid out beside it: his flintlock pistol, the oil lamp, and his umbrella.
They had clearly been taken from him while he was unconscious.
When he saw that his money wasn't among them, Lu Li relaxed slightly.
"How long was I out?" Lu Li asked, shaking his head slightly. The movement made it feel as if his brain sloshed inside his skull.
"Ten minutes," the man in the hospital gown replied. "I was worried that sleeping too long might be bad for your health."
"You hit me pretty hard," Lu Li noted. "Any harder and I might not have woken up at all."
"My apologies. I usually employ other methods. This was my first attempt at incapacitating someone physically. You showed up so unexpectedly. If it wasn't for the crash of that elevator, I never would have guessed someone had come down here."
"Do you live here?" Lu Li asked, letting his head rest back. It wasn't just that holding it up was exhausting; the cold metal of the bed frame seemed to slightly dull the ache in his skull.
"Hmm," the masked man replied evasively. "Allow me to introduce myself. You can call me Richard. I'm a former patient of the Sixth Psychiatric Hospital, diagnosed with a severe condition. But since the hospital is closed now, you could say I've been... discharged."
"The Sixth Psychiatric Hospital?" Lu Li echoed.
"You don't know? This place was once the Sixth Psychiatric Hospital, though most people just called it the asylum. Now, it's an abandoned asylum."
"Are you human?" Lu Li asked abruptly.
"What a foolish question. Of course I'm human. I have to breathe, eat, sleep... The shortcomings of humanity are truly countless, are they not?" The masked man was clearly annoyed, but as he finished, his expression turned expectant.
As if he were waiting for something.
"You seem like a polite gentleman," Lu Li said, his tone laden with meaning.
The edges of the mask shifted, as if the man beneath was breaking into a wide grin. "I think so, too. But you people—you think I'm the one with problems! That I'm some outcast in need of treatment!"
It was clearly a sore subject; the man's composure was beginning to fray.
Lu Li changed the subject. "So, what are you going to do with me?"
"Do something to you? Oh no, I wouldn't do that..." The masked man was easily diverted. He wagged a finger, his voice taking on a sly tone. "After all, you're a valuable vessel."
Lu Li's brow furrowed. The man's words had an obscene undertone. Then again, perhaps he simply meant that he intended to use Lu Li's body for some sort of inhumane experiment.
Richard's next words confirmed his suspicion.
"Enjoy the time you have left," the masked man said. He turned and walked over to the cabinet with the lantern, opened a drawer, and began rummaging around. "Please, just wait a moment. As I was saying, your arrival was so sudden, I wasn't prepared at all... Ah, here it is."
The man stopped rummaging through the drawer. He approached the bed, holding an object wrapped in a plastic bag.
"Is that... a brain?" Lu Li asked.
Inside the bag the man held, a white, viscous mass with a disturbingly familiar texture quivered like jelly.
Was he planning to replace his brain with that sludge?
The masked man didn't answer, simply emptying the contents of the bag into a murky glass beaker.
The beaker was filled to the brim. The man tossed the empty plastic bag in after it, then took out a box of matches...
Strike!
He touched the lit match to the bag. The plastic began to melt and burn, and a pale yellow flame flared up, filling the beaker.
The fire neither flared higher nor died down; it just burned with a steady flame, like a candle.
A nauseating stench filled the operating room.
"Is that a treat for me?" Lu Li asked with a frown.
"A treat?" Richard dropped the spent match and turned, looking curious. "What kind of treat?"
"Brains. I didn't realize you served such an exotic dish here."
"You... Ugh!" Richard's visible features contorted with revulsion. He looked thoroughly disgusted.
Why did the guy strapped to the bed seem more like the villain than he did?
The masked man stopped paying Lu Li any mind and turned to leave.
"You're leaving?" Lu Li had expected the man to start dissecting him with those bloodstained tools, but instead, he had just set a brain on fire.
Richard paused again and gave a serious nod. "Yes. By the way, may I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
They were conversing as amicably as a doctor and a patient before an operation.
"Why do you seem..." Richard began, looking somewhat baffled, "...so completely unafraid?"
Lu Li calmly met the masked man's gaze. "Would being afraid convince you to let me go?"
"Hmm... Probably not. In fact, it might even be... stimulating."
"Exactly."