As Wen Yan spoke, those documents that had been thrown out drifted down to the floor.
On every sheet, there was a bright red stamp, and each file had several signatures on it.
The resentful spirits and fierce ghosts around him, packed together with a chilling Yin Qi that made Wen Yan almost unable to breathe, vanished in an instant like smoke dissolving.
The force pressing down on him, too, drained away like a sluice gate opening, disappearing at lightning speed.
He fell to the ground, clutching his neck, panting for air, and looked toward Feng Dongmei in the distance.
She was backing away rapidly, as if trying to stay far from those documents.
But it was useless now—rules were what truly mattered.
The Yin Qi shrouding her began to collapse rapidly, the clipboard she held and the pen in her grasp both turning to ash, slipping from her hands and dissipating.
Her power began to fade at breakneck speed, and on her white coat, a streak of black, like spilled ink, slowly spread out, dyeing her white coat completely black.
Even her appearance started morphing into a corpse's countenance, her entire body filled with resentment, condensing into Black Water that dripped continuously.
Wen Yan sat against the glass doors of the lobby, rubbing his neck.
"I had someone check it out. After you died, you still had connections at the hospital; you were still a head nurse at deputy director level.
The corresponding benefits, you still enjoyed them all.
So, in turn, all the rules and regulations still apply to you, too.
You're qualified to stand here simply because you're a deputy director-level head nurse.
Now that all your foundations have been wiped out, I'm curious—do you still need to do your rounds?"
Feng Dongmei's face looked like melting wax, only her eyes still seething with unmasked hatred and malice. At this moment, she had retreated outside the instrument's coverage area, standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor.
Upon hearing Wen Yan's words, she cautiously avoided the instruments arranged in the center of the lobby, skirted around the talismans placed there, and slid along the side wall, drifting toward Wen Yan.
Wen Yan stood up and lunged quickly into the center of the lobby.
Stepping into the area covered by the instruments, his ears began ringing; the instruments pasted with talismans all around were emitting some kind of unknown power, making him feel distinctly uncomfortable.
He hid inside directly, and after Feng Dongmei approached, she stopped at the outer edge. The black mist emanating visibly from her kept billowing out. But as she neared the center of the lobby, it was as if she'd run into a wall of wind, blowing her Yin Qi aside and making it spread in both directions.
Wen Yan hid inside, refusing to come out. Feng Dongmei's power was plummeting; now it couldn't even reach inside the instrument's range, so she just hovered outside.
After a while of hovering and seeing that she couldn't do anything to Wen Yan, Feng Dongmei let out a cold laugh.
"With less restriction from the rules, I may be weaker, but there's still a lot more I can do. There are plenty of other patients here."
"If you still have to patrol the whole building, just admit it. Don't act tough like a dead duck."
Feng Dongmei sneered, sounding like an owl wailing in the night—now with no more restrictions or concerns holding her back, she turned and floated toward the second floor. Just then, Wen Yan stared at her retreating figure, raised his middle finger, and shouted loudly.
"I am Your Dad!"
Feng Dongmei's body suddenly twitched; she turned her head stiffly, the eyeball dangling on her cheek trembling violently, a streak of blood slowly running through it—rage burning hot in her heart.
Her teeth ground with a creaking crunch as she forced herself not to speak. After what seemed like a massive effort, she twisted her stiff body bit by bit, and tried to continue up the stairs.
With the rules no longer binding her, the power she once had under the rules had dropped off a cliff, but she had many more options now.
For example, seize the moment, start a killing spree, quickly complete the path of promotion—maybe she could patch the missing part after all.
Wen Yan stood up, a mocking smirk on his face.
"I am Your Dad! Did you hear that?"
"I am Your Dad!"
In Feng Dongmei's bloodshot eyes, crimson streaked like a powerful arrow, instantly piercing through, violence tainting her gaze. The flames of fury blazed in her heart, burning away what little reason she had left.
She gave a low, guttural roar, suddenly turned around, her pose like a wild beast, landing on all fours, her teeth cracking to pieces under the pressure, her eyes bleeding red, and the tangible resentment on her body whirling madly along with her hair.
In her vision, it seemed that only Wen Yan was left.
No other thoughts remained in her mind, because the one left was like a flood, drowning out everything else.
Tear that filthy mouth of Wen Yan's to shreds!
Yes, tear him to pieces!
Tear his whole body apart!
She darted forward like a pouncing leopard, all fours on the floor, growling as she charged down the stairs, heading straight for Wen Yan.
Wen Yan thought to himself, The head nurse has already been weakened to this extent—her power can't even reach into the instrument's range. Now it should be enough to suppress her.
If he had to choose again, he'd still rather risk it once than spend every day in fear, always worrying about what could go wrong, letting Feng Dongmei grow stronger unchecked.
He slowly backed away. As soon as Feng Dongmei charged into the range covered by the equipment, he did a rolling dive and exited that area.
In an instant, the talismans stuck on the equipment flared softly with light, and the entire center of the lobby began to shimmer with rippling patterns.
The black mist surging from Feng Dongmei's body seemed to clash with shockwaves from all directions, churning in the center and forming visible lines like magnetic field lines.
Her body itself was battered by invisible shockwaves, constantly suppressed and slowed down, until at last she was pinned dead center. The black mist kept swelling and shrinking, but no matter what, it couldn't spread beyond a three-meter radius.
Feng Dongmei's own form was repeatedly twisted, like melting wax being kneaded over and over.
Wen Yan leaned against the glass doors at the lobby entrance, silently watching.
No wonder Feng Yao wasn't worried about the instruments being destroyed. Once activated, these evil objects can hardly get close to the equipment—add talismans for extra protection, and the instrument casings are all built stupidly heavy and thick, obviously sturdy as hell. Really, it's hard for anything to go wrong.
The hardest part was just getting the target to step into this trap.
As for this hardest part—Wen Yan was pretty confident about it.
Activate taunt.
He'd tested it before—his ability was as long as he shouted "I Am Your Dad" at the target, the hatred would max out, and the other party would lose their mind and do their best to kill him.
This skill isn't something you can use willy-nilly—the risks are just too high.
He'd planned, if following procedure—if using the Outer Domain method to directly strip Feng Dongmei's medical identity didn't work, then he would activate taunt, lure her into the trap, and pin her down so she couldn't perform her daily required tasks.
The suppression effect of the equipment was way lower than expected—it couldn't hold back Feng Dongmei at her peak.
But thankfully, stripping her identity worked out way better than expected.
The rules here are so restrictive, they let Feng Dongmei kill anyone breaking the rules without leaving a trace—the Scorching Sun Department couldn't find any evidence at all.
But at the same time, the rules' restrictions on Feng Dongmei herself were maxed out.
Just canceling her identity caused her strength to drop by at least ninety percent, and most of her abilities were wiped out.
And even like this, this bitch could still tank two taunts.
Wen Yan thought to himself, If it came to a head-on fight, Feng Dongmei could crush him with one hand.
He also felt secretly relieved that he'd been decisive enough this time. If three days had gone by and the Domain at Virtue City First Hospital's inpatient department vanished, and then she'd had a whole year to develop—given malice like hers…
Wen Yan figured within a year, Feng Dongmei would definitely level up.
And to level up, according to Feng Yao, is a major qualitative change—there's a good chance something new would develop. And even if nothing new appeared, the rules would definitely be altered.
By that time, with Feng Dongmei's malice, on any given day he could walk into a runaway dump truck, a random knife-wielding psychopath, a chunk of falling insulation from the outer wall, or a rain-soaked live wire—any of those "accidents" seemingly out of nowhere.
Just thinking of this kind of life made him feel suffocated—living in constant fear every day, slowly going mad, even worse than just dying outright.
Luckily, at least he'd finally got the situation under control.
He dragged over a three-seater bench from the side and slumped down by the door.
A whole day of anxiety left him half-dead from exhaustion, but he held on anyway—he wouldn't dare leave until the dust had really settled.
He dug the last remaining bread roll from his pocket, leaned back on the bench, and while chewing it slowly, locked a ferocious stare on Feng Dongmei, just silently watching.
Time crept by. The rolling black mist in the center of the lobby—shaped almost like magnetic field lines—grew smaller and smaller, compressed down to just over a meter across.
Feng Dongmei's strength was still dropping, the weakening effect ongoing.
She was still struggling, and as time dragged on, her struggles only grew fiercer.
Wen Yan reclined in his chair, brought out his phone for a look. It was summer now, the sun rose early; today's local sunrise was at 6:09 a.m.—not long to go.