Bai Ci paused in her tracks, subconsciously raising her guard. Her eyes quickly swept across the living room, and she soon spotted the battered trio of town-saving heroes.
So they were the source of the scent of blood.
Chen Mo was sitting on the floor, leaning against the sofa. Thick bandages were wrapped around his lower back, already soaked through with blood. There were also several cuts on his face; he had clearly sustained quite a few injuries.
Evan wasn't doing any better. A long gash on his forehead was seeping blood, and he lay flat on the floor. His clothes were tattered and covered in dust and blood, his eyes tightly shut.
Lin Wan, however, seemed to be in the best shape of the three.
Her clothes had quite a few tears, and one of her sleeves was ripped open, revealing a lightly scraped arm. A bit of dust clung to her face, but fortunately, she didn't seem to have suffered any serious injuries and could still move around normally.
She was crouching beside Chen Mo, holding a roll of gauze and a bottle of medicine as she bandaged his arm. Her movements looked practiced.
Bai Ci glanced at the shape and packaging of the medicine bottle and recognized it as a healing potion purchased from the mall. Its healing effect was average, but it was great at stopping bleeding. Its main selling point was its cheap price, making it a highly practical item.
At the end of her first instance, Bai Ci didn't have enough points to buy one. When she finally had points after her second instance, she was restricted by her class from carrying items that weren't "gifts," so she couldn't bring it along or use it even if she bought it.
“Hiss—gentler! Lin Wan, are you trying to kill me?” Chen Mo winced in pain, his brow furrowing tightly. The atmosphere around them seemed a bit lighter now, or at least, Chen Mo was no longer silent. “Be a little gentler. You're about to twist my arm off.”
Lin Wan stopped what she was doing and rolled her eyes. “I'm not even using that much force,” she said helplessly. “It's just a normal bandage. Do you have to be so dramatic?”
“A normal bandage?” Chen Mo pouted and grumbled, “Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about your own strength? You didn't invest any points into mechanics; you put them all into raw stats.”
“Kicking down an iron door, and then carrying two grown men like me and Evan to escape the epicenter right before the explosion... that's not just being 'a little strong.'”
Standing at the door and watching this scene, Bai Ci felt the heavy weight on her heart lift slightly. She couldn't help but feel a bit amused.
“None of you had a key. It's a miracle you got in,” Bai Ci said.
She was certain her door showed no signs of being picked, and she had never given them her keys. Yet, they had somehow managed to get inside.
Hearing her voice, Chen Mo and Lin Wan stopped bickering and turned their heads simultaneously. Even Evan, who was lying on the floor, opened his eyes to look at her.
“Miss Lora? You're back?” Lin Wan paused. Realizing her words sounded a bit odd, she quickly added, “I thought you'd stay at the hospital longer to keep Mr. Hugo company. I didn't expect you to return so early.”
Evan was the one who answered Bai Ci's playful jab seriously. “Ask Lin Wan. She pulled out some tool I've never seen before and unlocked the door in seconds. I still haven't figured out how that gadget works.”
Lin Wan tilted her chin up and confidently bluffed, “It's called... skill. You're a detective, so it's only normal that you don't get it.”
The "skill" of using a system item was indeed something Evan, an NPC detective in this instance, would never understand.
Then, Lin Wan remembered something, and her tone turned apologetic. “Oh, right. Miss Lora, I'm so sorry. There was some money left over from what you gave us, but we accidentally lost it during the fight with Isabella. We couldn't save any for you.”
Bai Ci waved her hand. She would be leaving the instance soon anyway, and she couldn't take the money with her, so it didn't matter.
That was the logic, but she couldn't say it out loud. “It's fine, don't worry about it. Congratulations, I assume the matter has been resolved?”
“As for the money, with an explosion that loud, it's already a miracle that you survived. It's only natural that the money was lost. Besides, it was meant to buy weapons and solve the crisis in the first place.”
Evan froze for a moment. “You heard the explosion? We were in the countryside house at the time. It was indeed loud, but I didn't think you'd hear it all the way from the hospital.”
He paused, studying Bai Ci more closely. He noticed she had returned empty-handed, her hair hanging loose instead of tied up as usual. There were dried tear tracks on her face, and her expression was weary and listless.
“Empty-handed? And you look... a bit off. Did something happen?”
Bai Ci's eyes dimmed. She walked over to a chair that was still intact and sat down, placing her hands on her knees. In a calm tone, she recounted what had happened from the perspective of an ordinary bystander.
As soon as she finished speaking, the living room fell into an immediate silence. The slightly lighthearted atmosphere vanished, replaced by a heavy gloom.
It took a long while before Lin Wan spoke up cautiously, her voice carrying a faint, hesitant hope. “Miss Lora, then... what about Mr. Hugo? Is he...”
She didn't finish her sentence, but everyone understood her meaning.
It was known that Hugo had contracted the plague and run out like the other patients. Since all those patients were dead, what were the chances that Hugo had survived?
Bai Ci raised her head and looked at Lin Wan calmly. Her voice carried little emotion; after all, this wasn't Lin Wan's fault. “All the plague patients are dead. Hugo was no exception.”
A look of regret crossed Evan's face. Although he hadn't interacted with Hugo much, his investigation had made him familiar with the man. He knew Hugo was a kind, attentive young man. He hadn't expected him to die like this.
Chen Mo opened his mouth and closed it again, ultimately saying nothing, though a complex expression flitted across his face.
His hatred for Zhao Yu, that troublemaker, flared up once again.
Lin Wan's face was filled with guilt. She felt that if they had been just a little faster, perhaps they could have prevented all of this, and Hugo wouldn't have died.
Bai Ci was silent for a moment, suppressing the wave of bitterness welling up in her heart once more. She lightly shifted the subject. “Alright, let's not talk about that anymore.”
“Tell me about the adventure of our town-saving heroes instead. What did you find in that countryside house? What exactly was going on with Isabella? And why was there an explosion?”
Lin Wan took a deep breath, pushing down her guilt and regret. She spoke hesitantly, beginning to recount everything they had encountered in that countryside house.
“After buying the supplies, we followed your directions and found the house with the persimmon tree in the yard. It looked very secluded, with no other houses nearby. Once we picked the lock and went inside, we saw Isabella.”
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