Iris 13

The dim yellow lights flickered, casting their glow over Mu Qin's somewhat pale face. Facing the murky light, he read the instructions on the medicine bottles in his palm. The print was too small and the light too poor, so Mu Qin had to narrow his eyes and concentrate fully, hoping not to miss a single useful piece of information.

After eliminating the medicines one by one, Mu Qin finally found the fever reducer he wanted. Overjoyed, he gripped the hard-won bottle and stuffed it into his pocket. Then, just as he was about to return the other medicines in his hand to the cabinet, he suddenly heard footsteps outside the infirmary door.

Footsteps on the marble floor of the hallway outside.

Mu Qin was extremely tense now, tense enough that the slightest sound made his skin crawl. First, he was worried Xu Fu might return at any moment. If Xu Fu had injured his foot, there was a good chance he would come to the infirmary for medicine, so the gauze, bandages, alcohol, and other supplies missing from the medicine cabinet were most likely taken by Xu Fu. Mu Qin knew that, yet he had come anyway. He had come to the infirmary not only to find fever medicine for Han Li, but also to confirm Xu Fu's location and the extent of his injury.

Ideally, he could test whether he had a chance to subdue or trap Xu Fu while the man's legs were injured.

Mu Qin believed that with his speed, there was no way he could not outrun a cripple.

But even with that confidence, Mu Qin still could not relax. He was extremely sensitive to footsteps. Having undergone rigorous training, he instinctively remembered people's footsteps. As long as he had encountered someone before, he retained a general impression of the way they walked, their build, the length and weight of their stride. That was why he remembered the footsteps of Qiu Zijia, Han Li, Cheng Guoxu, and Xu Fu.

Yet the footsteps that had suddenly sounded outside made Mu Qin realize in horror... he did not recognize them!

Mu Qin's first thought was: Not Xu Fu... Then who is out there?!

His second was to hide. Avoiding trouble was the best way to deal with an unexpected situation.

His body moved before his mind. He quickly found one of the few places in the infirmary where he could conceal himself... There were curtains in the infirmary, white movable curtains used to separate the beds and protect patients' privacy. Most of them, however, were so old and worn that their original white was no longer visible. The fabric had yellowed and was stained with large black blotches. Some curtains hung halfway from their rails, the other half drooping onto the floor.

Hiding behind a curtain would be easy to see through, but it could at least buy Mu Qin time to react. He could also use the curtain to hinder the other person... for instance, by throwing the curtain over the enemy's head if the person proved hostile.

So Mu Qin acted. He shoved all the bottles in his hand back into the medicine cabinet, then padded silently behind one of the infirmary curtains.

He then discovered that the curtain did not reach all the way to the floor. There was a gap beneath it, possibly enough to expose his feet. With no better option, Mu Qin backed up as far as he could and crouched in the corner. The infirmary lights were extremely dim, and behind the curtain was an expanse of pitch-black shadow. Mu Qin intended to use that darkness to hide himself.

After taking a deep breath and settling into concealment, Mu Qin heard the footsteps outside draw nearer. The person might be pacing in the first-floor hallway of the apartment building, right outside the infirmary. That made Mu Qin realize that the unfamiliar footsteps were separated from him by only a wall.

For the first time since leaving the military years ago, Mu Qin felt tense and strangely panicked. He had not felt such panic even when Xu Fu had been hunting him down just moments earlier.

Though he had never allowed that panic to show on his face.

Mu Qin was utterly perplexed. Who exactly was the person outside?

According to Xu Fu, there should have been only six people on this enclosed orphanage map: one killer and five players. Two were already dead... Though Mu Qin had not seen Cheng Guoxu's corpse for himself, he was certain the man was dead.

And now, Qiu Zijia was following Mu Qin's orders, carrying Han Li along the edge of the courtyard beside the wall. As for Xu Fu, Mu Qin was not sure where he was, but the footsteps outside sounded nothing like Xu Fu's.

Xu Fu's footsteps were heavier. He was very tall, nearly six foot two, with solid muscles and a powerful physique. That made Xu Fu heavy as well; his weight had real heft to it. His footsteps were naturally loud when he walked, and he did not seem accustomed to controlling the force of them.

More importantly, his leg was injured, so he would certainly limp. The sound of that limp was very easy to distinguish; even an ordinary person could recognize it without difficulty.

But the footsteps Mu Qin heard now were normal, not limping at all. They belonged to a normal walker and sounded light, as though the person were deliberately moving slowly and quietly.

Who was it?!

Countless possibilities ran through Mu Qin's mind. He did not think the person outside was any of the three: Xu Fu, Qiu Zijia, or Han Li... Could there be a seventh person in this orphanage? Or perhaps...

Mu Qin thought of the corpse in the stairwell next door.

Could a dead person come back to life?

In the past, Mu Qin would not have believed it. Of course he had seen death, had watched people die, watched vibrant lives turn into heaps of rotting flesh. He had firmly believed death to be irreversible: once someone died, they would never come back to life.

But now, Mu Qin could no longer be so certain. He knew he had died as well. The memory of his death still lingered in his mind. He had been struck by a truck; a freight truck carrying tons of cargo had run straight over him, crushing him into a pancake of flesh. Yet now he was alive. Not merely alive and well, but standing in this strange orphanage, being pursued by a strange killer.

Something so bizarre and terrifying had already happened. So what was so strange about a dead person coming back to life?

The question was, why had he been able to come back?

Mu Qin unconsciously slipped a hand into his pocket. The Fool tarot card was still there. He remembered that tarot cards were divided into the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana had twenty-two cards in all, numbered zero through twenty-one, from number zero, The Fool, to number twenty-one, The World. The Minor Arcana had four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, with fourteen cards in each, for a total of fifty-six.

In this Death Game, tarot cards worked like item cards in certain games. Since it was a game, having a resurrection card was perfectly normal!

Unfortunately, Mu Qin had not considered that possibility before. He did not understand the specific rules of this Death Game or the practical effects of the tarot cards very well, and the only person who did understand had been identified by Mu Qin as the killer.

It was too late to realize all this now. Mu Qin heard the footsteps enter the infirmary, proving that the other person was inside. They might even be standing right in front of the curtain concealing him. Mu Qin could not help holding his breath. He did not dare stick his head out to peek; he could only listen silently and judge the person's position by sound.

The sounds vanished for a while. The unidentified person who had entered the infirmary did not seem to make any move at all, perhaps simply standing there in silence.

Mu Qin did not move either. Covering his nose and mouth, he waited patiently while staring fixedly at the curtain before him, his body taut and ready to strike. The moment the person tried to pull open the curtain, he would pounce and throw it over their head. Once they lost their vision, they would be thrown into confusion for a second or two. A second or two was enough for Mu Qin to escape.

But after waiting a long while, the other person did not pull open the curtain as Mu Qin had expected. Instead, they went to the infirmary's medicine cabinet and seemed to open it, rummaging through medicines or something of the sort. Mu Qin heard the rustling noises as they searched.

The person did not seem to have noticed that a living, breathing man was hiding behind the curtain right beside them.

That was what Mu Qin thought as he hid behind the curtain. Even so, he did not dare let down his guard. He continued waiting in silence, every muscle and nerve taut.

As he waited, Mu Qin kept warning himself: Don't act rashly. Keep waiting. Wait for the best moment.

While Mu Qin waited, the other person finished searching the medicine cabinet. Still, they did not come to pull aside Mu Qin's curtain. Instead, they left the infirmary with light steps, and Mu Qin heard their footsteps gradually recede.

Realizing the person might have gone out, Mu Qin could not help breathing a sigh of relief. He exhaled soundlessly, but still did not dare leave the cover of the curtain. He decided to remain hidden a while longer, guessing that the person might not have gone far.

Another long wait followed. Mu Qin waited nearly ten minutes and still heard no sound outside. Finally certain the person had left, he slowly relaxed his body, which had gone stiff with tension. He gently lifted a corner of the curtain and peeked outside.

The infirmary still looked empty. After the unidentified person searched the medicine cabinet, they had not shut it; some medicines were scattered across the floor.

The infirmary door stood wide open. At some point, the lights in the hallway outside had gone out, leaving it pitch-black.

Seeing no one else in the room, Mu Qin pulled open the curtain and stepped out. Once he confirmed there was nothing unusual, he relaxed and, clutching the fever reducer in his pocket, headed for the door. But the unexpected happened. The instant Mu Qin lifted his foot and stepped out of the infirmary, a fierce gust of wind came at him from the side. It was so sudden that he had no time to react; he could only instinctively raise his arms to shield his vital areas.

Then came a burst of intense pain. Someone drove a fist hard into Mu Qin's stomach. The blow was no light one. It felt as if a dumbbell had slammed into his abdomen, and in an instant he felt his stomach and intestines churning so violently that he was about to vomit acid.

The blow stunned Mu Qin. To his shock, the enemy had been standing beside the infirmary door, waiting to ambush him the moment he came out. The person had even waited silently for a full ten minutes, as patient as a hunter guarding a trap.

The punch did not rob Mu Qin of the ability to move. He forced himself to retreat and put distance between himself and the enemy, but the other person would not let up and rushed him again. This time, instead of throwing a punch, they kicked Mu Qin in the knee of his left leg. Damage to the joint left him unable to remain standing, and he dropped to one knee.

The person immediately closed in and kicked Mu Qin in the stomach again. The kick sent him falling backward, but Mu Qin struggled to roll over and get back up.

Mu Qin quickly realized that he was in an extremely disadvantageous position. The enemy clearly possessed formidable fighting skills. Every move made deft use of force, striking only at joints and the places where pain was most acute. Such a style could inflict excruciating pain and swiftly deprive someone of the ability to resist, leaving them like a fish on the chopping block, at the mercy of another.

What Mu Qin had to do now was get out of the enemy's striking range as quickly as possible and regain his coordination and fighting ability. Otherwise, he would absolutely be beaten to death.

Fortunately, the other person did not seem to have a weapon such as a blade. Otherwise, that first blow would have been a knife, not a fist.