The driver grunted in assent.
The attendant then very respectfully watched Ning Wei alight from the bus. "Please wait at the station, do not wander around. The guide will take you where you need to go."
Mentioning the guide, the attendant's smile widened so much it looked like it might split her face.
"You're smiling too obviously. Goodbye!" Ning Wei kicked the bus door, which closed automatically.
The attendant's performance was abruptly halted. She sat down indignantly.
There were no other passengers. The driver finally spoke, "I told you not to provoke her. That girl is very formidable."
"Wasn't I standing up for you? And now you're blaming me!"
"No, no," the driver stammered, unsure how to explain. "It's fine if I get scolded, but don't offend her again because of me. You can't win an argument with her, and you can't beat her. Don't let her actually file a complaint. Don't forget the rules..."
The attendant nodded impatiently. "Alright, I know. You don't need to remind me."
Meanwhile, Ning Wei and her group remained at the station, obediently not straying.
While waiting for the guide to arrive, they took a stroll around the station, hoping to find some clues beforehand.
The station was dilapidated. Looking up, they could only see the characters "Qingshenche Station," the rest of the inscription likely blown away by the wind.
"There's nothing here," Zhu Yulian said, somewhat disappointed.
"It's normal. We never found anything at stations before either. You only gain something by venturing deep into enemy territory," Yuan Yuan said, her voice bolder and more frequent after the experience with the ghost marriage.
As they spoke, a beam of light shone over.
From the darkness emerged a middle-aged woman in a nurse's uniform. She was tall and strong, looking quite different from the usual hospital nurses.
Everyone eyed the guide warily, waiting silently for her to speak.
They expected her to say something, but she said nothing. After glancing at everyone, she turned and walked ahead, holding her flashlight.
"Should we follow?" Wang Jing asked softly.
To her surprise, her body moved without her control, and she was the first to follow. Zhu Yulian and the other passengers followed suit.
This was clearly not right. Ning Wei tried to break free of the restraint. Something heavy landed on her shoulder. She looked back to see Li Ye.
"Follow," Li Ye's lips moved. Ning Wei understood his lip-reading even without sound.
Ning Wei was in a state of reluctant compliance, while Li Ye was completely willing to follow.
In the darkness, only the guide's flashlight provided a beam of light.
Except for Ning Wei and Li Ye, the other passengers had lost consciousness, moving like marionettes, following the guide.
Suddenly, the beam of light vanished!
Ning Wei instinctively reached out to her surroundings, only to grasp at empty air.
A sentence echoed in her mind: "You can leave once you're well."
Her vision returned to normal. She was wearing a blue and white striped hospital gown, standing in a room with four white walls.
The room contained only a bed and a barred window less than half a meter wide.
Ning Wei turned around and searched the bed, finding nothing but a torn-up medical record.
She then sat down and tried to piece the record back together. However, some pieces were too small to restore. In the end, she could only clearly make out five characters: "Antisocial Personality Disorder."
Observing her surroundings and recalling the tall, strong middle-aged nurse, Ning Wei immediately thought of a place: a mental hospital.
Unfortunately, the only window to the outside was blocked by iron bars. She could see nothing but sunlight, making it impossible to know what was happening outside.
Ning Wei strained to look out, wishing she could throw her eyeballs outside to see. Her actions caught the attention of a nurse.
"Click," the door opened.
A nurse, holding a glass of water and a box of pills, looked at Ning Wei gently.
"Ning Wei, it's time for your medicine. Shall we take it?"
Ning Wei looked back. This nurse was quite slender.
"Nurse sister, the medicine is too bitter. Can I not take it?" Ning Wei tried to use her cuteness to avoid taking the medicine.
However, the nurse, despite her seemingly frail appearance, was very insistent on this matter. She remained gentle. "No, you can't. But after you take your medicine, I can give you a candy. Don't you love lychee-flavored candies the most? I've prepared a lot for you. If you're obedient, I'll reward you."
Ning Wei guessed that she would most likely be refused.
She sat obediently on the edge of the bed. The nurse placed the medicine in her palm, watched her swallow it, then had her drink a full glass of water. Finally, she took a lychee-flavored candy from her pocket and placed it in Ning Wei's hand.
"Ning Wei, you were so good today. You must take your medicine well every day."
As she spoke, the nurse slowly backed out of the room. Her tense muscles revealed that she was very resistant to Ning Wei.
Or rather, she was afraid. Afraid of Ning Wei, who had antisocial personality disorder.
After closing the door, the nurse didn't leave. Instead, she tiptoed to a small peephole in the door and peered inside.
She was too worried to leave, fearing Ning Wei might play tricks with the medicine.
The nurse stood outside the door for a full two minutes. Only when she was certain Ning Wei had indeed swallowed the medicine did she leave, relieved.
Once the footsteps at the door faded into the distance, Ning Wei quickly went to the door.
The nurse could observe her through the peephole, and she could also look outside through the same peephole.
However, her view was limited. She could only see another ward opposite hers; she knew nothing else.
What she was sure of was that the nurse had left.
Ning Wei leaned against the door and spat out the medicine she had just swallowed. She crushed it and mixed it with saliva, sticking it directly onto the white wall.
Fortunately, the medicine was white, so it wasn't noticeable on the wall.
She had learned this skill of avoiding taking medicine at her maternal grandparents' home when she was little.
Because their granddaughter didn't shed a single tear at her daughter's funeral, they thought she was ill and took her to see many quack doctors.
The quack doctors prescribed many pills, all in different colors.
Her grandmother coaxed Ning Wei to take them. Initially, Ning Wei cooperated to please her grandparents.
After a while, she only saw two pairs of disgusted eyes, so she gave up and stopped taking the medicine.
Little Ning Wei was very clever. She knew direct refusal was not an option, so she perfected a skill: hiding the pills in her mouth. No matter how much she drank or spoke, she wouldn't swallow them.
To master this skill, she had taken a lot of medicine. She only truly mastered it just before being sent to the Taoist temple.
Later, when she fell ill at the temple, her master also took her to see a doctor. She dealt with it in the same way, but her master discovered it.