Chapter 256 - Flying Over the Asylum (Part 3)

Chapter 256: Chapter 234: Flying Over the Asylum (Part 3)Not again?

Li Cheng’s eyes twitched as he quickly scanned the room for anything that could be used as a weapon.

Clang, clang.

The crawling sound in the ventilation duct was getting closer. Lacking any self-defense tools, Li Cheng immediately bent down and hid behind a filing cabinet near the door, quietly observing the situation.

"Hey!"

A somewhat slippery young male voice came from the vent, "Why can’t I open this panel?"

Communicable human?

Li Cheng squinted his eyes and peeked through the gap between the filing cabinets.

He saw a blurry figure in the duct, struggling to extend a finger through the vent cover to reach the corner screw.

"Damn, I forgot that only the ventilation duct covers in the medical records room have screws."

The figure cursed, retracting the insufficiently long finger, then suddenly looked sharp, noticed Li Cheng behind the cabinet, and raised his voice, "William, is that you? Stop hiding, I saw you."

"How do you know it’s me?"

Li Cheng stood up and asked.

"Nonsense, I watched them blindfold you and take you away to the isolation room this morning."

The figure smirked, "Come on, lend a hand, unscrew the vent cover so I can get out."

From the tone, this guy seemed quite familiar with the role Li Cheng was playing.

Li Cheng bounced out from behind the filing cabinet, still feeling out the situation, "Look, I’m all tied up, can’t free my hands, how can I help you?"

"Think of something, haven’t you boasted about roaming the streets since you were little, shining shoes, selling newspapers, apprenticing as a car mechanic, driving tanks and planes, skilled in all sorts of skills, understanding everything if not mastered?"

Damn, this William is really thick-skinned, almost catching up with me.

Seeing that the other party did not show hostility, Li Cheng decided to help.

Looking around the room, there were neither screwdrivers nor crowbars. The ventilation duct was quite high, and even standing on the desk he could barely reach it, there was no way to force it open.

Then there’s only one way...

Li Cheng had an idea, took the thick tape that had been stuck on his mouth out from under the hood, and stuck it to the screws in the corner of the vent.

Next, he bit the screws with his teeth, relying on the stickiness of the tape, and slowly rotated the screws.

After seven or eight minutes and removing three screws, the figure behind the vent couldn’t wait any longer, pushed the cover open, and jumped down.

Landing elegantly on the desk with a forward somersault.

"Wow!"

Li Cheng raised his eyebrows; this guy was literally not human, but a bipedal giant rat.

About 1.6 meters tall, sharp-toothed, short gray-white fur, black eyes rolling cunningly, and a meter-long tail sweeping back and forth.

Even weirder, this giant rat was wearing blue and white patient clothing, with his name embroidered on the chest.

"Scaven?"

Li Cheng read the name uncomfortably, as the giant rat stretched lazily, "What do you want?"

"Nothing much."

Li Cheng’s mind raced, holding back from saying "the house has a rat, hide the rat poison so it doesn’t eat it," or "brother, how come you’re a rat," death-seeking questions, and instead asked, "What are you doing here so late?"

"I’m here to check my own files. A fan is coming to visit me at the hospital in a few days, I need to keep an eye on my records, prevent those doctors from secretly slandering me."

The rat-man smirked, "Even if I have kleptomania, it’s the world’s number one kleptomania. Don’t forget I was caught stealing confidential FBI files from the Edgar Hoover Building. Not quite the same as those petty thieves."

The rat-man paused, looked Li Cheng up and down, then pulled a removable scalpel blade from his upper pocket, "Stand still, I’ll help you get free."

The sharp blade cut through the restraint suit, and with the cracking sound of threads popping, Li Cheng’s hands and feet were finally freed, and he had room to move.

’So, helping the rat-man come out from the ventilation duct, the reward is freedom from the restraint suit.’

Li Cheng had a sudden realization and quickly shed his heavy restraint suit, only to find himself wearing a blue and white patient’s uniform with "William" embroidered on the chest.

After helping Li Cheng out of the restraint suit, Rat Man put the blade back into the plastic bag, humming a tune as he hopped off the desk, crouched in front of the filing cabinet, pulled out a thin wire, and started picking the lock.

His movements were especially skilled and professional, entirely like a seasoned criminal.

Li Cheng took off his hood, watching from the side, and asked in confusion, "Where are the hospital’s doctors, nurses, and patients?"

"They are all in their rooms, isn’t it like this every night?"

Rat Man spoke cheerfully, casually prying open a filing cabinet, taking out a brown paper envelope, and tossing it to Li Cheng, "Here, your file."

Identity information was easier to obtain than expected. Li Cheng caught the brown paper envelope somewhat astonished, and upon opening it, found several pages inside.

Large parts of the content on the papers were blacked out, with only a few lines barely visible.

Name: William

Gender: Male

Age: Seventeen

Condition: Schizophrenia (illusions, delusions, disorganized thinking, no aggressive behavior)

"Huh?"

Rat Man, who was rummaging for information, seemed to notice something, turned his head and stared at Li Cheng, "Didn’t you have green eyes before? How did they turn blue?"

The attached photo in the paper documents showed William as a blond, green-eyed, handsome young man,

but when Li Cheng removed his hood, the reflection in the window showed him with blue eyes.

A clue? Or an indication of his condition?

"Maybe I’ve been drinking too much blueberry juice lately."

Li Cheng chuckled, skipping over the topic, "By the way, bro, I’m going to explore the hospital now, do you want to come with me? Or could you lend me your surgical blade for self-defense?"

"Explore the hospital? What’s there to roam around at night, and it’s easy to encounter danger."

Rat Man was unmoved, still immersed in searching through the filing cabinets, "As for the blade, I can lend it to you, but you’ll need to trade it for some chewing gum.

I need it for picking locks."

People who frequently pick locks know that when facing locks of lower security levels, they can stuff chewed soft gum into the lock cylinder and press it down with a wire to support the cylinder, and then turn the wire to unlock.

’Is this a side mission? Chewing gum for a surgical blade.’

Li Cheng understood and contemplated, "Where can I get chewing gum?"

"Go check on the second floor, the children’s clinic has a kid who always cries a lot. He likes chewing gum, should have some in stock."

With that, Rat Man continued to diligently work on unlocking the various filing cabinets.

Unfortunately, apart from Li Cheng’s own file, all other documents and paper materials in the cabinets were obscured, yielding no useful clues.

"This is actually the system helping to eliminate useless information. Otherwise, with so many files, it would take until dawn to finish looking through them all."

Li Cheng pondered for a moment, sizing up Rat Man’s stature.

Although Rat Man was only one meter sixty tall, half a head shorter than Li Cheng now, the muscles under his fur were genuinely well-developed; if it came down to a fight, it was uncertain who would win.

Li Cheng decisively abandoned the idea of "ambushing Rat Man to steal the surgical blade" and instead tried verbal pestering, "Rat bro, I’m also a rat, from the same family five hundred years ago. How about you lend me the blade, and I’ll give you chewing gum later? Additionally, do you know where the pharmacy keys are?"

Rat Man was unmoved, "Don’t disturb me from looking through the files."

"Rat bro, I have some rat medicine here, it’s good for your health."

"Don’t disturb me from looking through the files."

"Your next line is, don’t disturb me from looking through the files!"

"Don’t disturb me from looking through the files."

No matter how Li Cheng teased, Rat Man was like an NPC in a video game at a certain stage of the storyline with nothing else to say, only repeating one sentence.

After playing around for a while, finally convinced that he wouldn’t obtain more useful information, Li Cheng left the medical record room and headed to the second floor.