Death Timeline

Chapter 20

Good heavens! Who... is he? How does he know so much about her life in Maowu Village? Da Dun'er used the excuse of "business trip" to deceive her, but it turns out he was just following her and secretly trying to harm her... Could it be that he has been secretly monitoring her these past few days?

Was that "broken mud figure" who ran to the clinic that night Dadun'er? But the fishy, foul smell was clearly that of a leper who hadn't bathed for a long time.

Li Hui was sweating profusely, and her mind felt completely blank.

Grandpa Zhou brings Li Hui three meals a day. When he comes at noon, he hands her a yellow kraft paper envelope.

Li Hui's hand recoiled as if burned, realizing her lapse in composure. She quickly took the letter, placed it on the bedside table, and forced a smile, saying, "Thank you, Uncle Zhou."

"Alright! I won't bother you anymore. Here's the letter, okay?" The old man said as he went out the door. Before the door was even fully closed, Li Hui grabbed the envelope, tore it open, and a thin piece of paper fluttered out.

The signature was actually Dadun'er!

Li Hui:

I've been calling your home for the past few days, but you haven't been home every night. I'm very worried about you.

I'm currently in Shenzhen. I'll come back to see you as soon as I've finished my business. Call me after you receive this letter. My new number is: ...

Also, because you're not feeling well, my wife hasn't been bothering you lately, so don't worry about her, everything is fine.

She looked at it several times, and sure enough, the address on the postmark was Shenzhen. The letter was sent two days ago.

To ensure the smooth execution of this "death timetable" plan, it's not impossible to make a special trip to Shenzhen by plane and send a letter from there to mislead the opponent.

Li Hui was almost captivated by the subtle warmth in Da Dun'er's words. She held the letter in her hand with some skepticism, thinking, "I'll call him and see what he has to say."

An unexpected surprise

"Li Hui, things from Shenzhen are quite unique. What do you want? I'll bring it back for you!"

Da Dun spoke to Li Hui on the phone like a true lover, his tone inadvertently revealing a hint of affection.

Cai's expression didn't seem feigned, leaving her unsure how to respond.

She felt that the idea of Dadun taking revenge on her for her sister's sake was becoming less and less plausible.

The "death timetable" thing seems to be getting less and less relevant to Da Dun'er!

Li Hui's head started buzzing, and the noise drowned out what Da Dun'er was saying.

Now she realizes that, for some reason, during her confrontation with Da Dun'er, this "murderer," she has always harbored a glimmer of hope. Her intuition tells her that, at the crucial moment, Da Dun'er will automatically give up and surrender to her for the most common reason—the affection between men and women.

But things are different now. If the murderer is someone else, then... her luck is really bad, just like the email said!

She felt extremely tired. Although she was a hundred times unwilling to rack her brains over this problem anymore, she still had to figure it out! And she had to figure it out right now!

Those emails must have been sent by someone very close to her, someone who could see her daily life and knew everything about her.

And the only one who meets these conditions is... Zhang Lili.

But she just couldn't accept her analysis. She couldn't believe that this vicious, ruthless, and relentlessly vengeful person was her best friend, Zhang Lili! How could that be? In professional terms, she had absolutely no "criminal motive"!

In less than a minute, Li Hui overturned her conclusion several times.

Comparing Dadun'er and Zhang Lili, she still preferred to believe Zhang Lili, because the grudge between Dadun'er and her sister was an obvious fact.

When she was conflicted and confused, she could only turn to the computer for answers.

As dawn broke, the duty room was quiet. The doctors who had been busy all night were still fast asleep, but Li Hui couldn't fall back asleep. She got up and turned on her computer.

"You'll have a pleasant surprise today!"

The word "surprise" is clearly an antonym with ill intent. Having gone through this unusual period, Li Hui prefers to interpret certain wording in emails in reverse. However, after pondering for a long time, she still felt confused about the meaning of this "unexpected surprise."

Just then, a faint sound came from inside, as if someone was knocking cautiously on the door. Li Hui listened carefully; the person knocking seemed unsure whether to continue, and judging from the sound, it seemed they had knocked on the wrong door.

She wanted to ask, "Who is it?" but then she thought, who would be knocking on her door so early? It must be a patient's family member looking for another doctor on duty, but they went to the wrong door. So she ignored them.

The knocking continued for a while, then finally stopped. Li Hui tried to hear the footsteps of the person who knocked leaving, but there was no sound.

Sigh! Maybe I misheard; perhaps the knocking didn't even happen.

Li Hui still felt lingering fear when she recalled how the strange knocking man had made her feel so uneasy at home a few days ago.

The outside world brightened. Li Hui got up and drew back the curtains. Looking out the third-floor window, she could see family members of new mothers delivering breakfast to the hospital entrance, coming and going in a steady stream.

Li Hui imagined those steaming thermos flasks filled with fragrant eggs, millet porridge, or noodles, and suddenly felt an appetite. She thought she should ask Grandpa Zhou at the mailroom to buy her something delicious to eat later…

Li Hui opened the door, intending to go to the adjacent bathroom to wash up. She had just opened the door when she saw a pair of large feet standing in the doorway. Before she could react, she bumped into a dark figure. Immediately afterward, she felt her mouth and nose being blocked by something warm, making her dizzy and lightheaded, and she collapsed limply into the person's arms.

Grandpa Zhou doesn't usually work the night shift, but last night a guest from out of town came to his house, so he stayed overnight in the mailroom. At home, he always goes to bed early and gets up early, and this morning was no different. He got up before dawn to boil water and clean the room before slowly going upstairs to leave two kettles of hot water at Li Hui's door.

These days, Grandpa Zhou brings Li Hui medicine in the morning and boiled water for him to drink during the day. He thinks that it will be more comfortable to wash his face with hot water in the morning as the weather gets colder.

As soon as he entered the corridor on the third floor, Grandpa Zhou sensed something unusual. He stopped and listened carefully. The sound was coming from Li Hui's room. It sounded like two people were fighting, with the kind of loud and soft sounds that rose and fell.

The old man hurried up and knocked on Li Hui's door, but no one answered. He pushed it, and the door creaked open by itself. Before he could even see what was inside, a dark figure suddenly darted out, knocking him off balance and nearly causing him to fall.

The man disappeared in just a few steps.

The room was a mess, with blankets scattered on the floor. Li Hui was sitting on the edge of the bed crying. Just now, Ning Kun had attacked her like a beast in heat, and she almost couldn't hold on. Luckily, Grandpa Zhou arrived in time.

"Dr. Li, what happened? Which bastard is this? Should we call the police?"

Li Hui was speechless. Although Ning Kun had come with ill intentions, he hadn't succeeded. If she reported it to the police, what would she say? Attempted rape? She felt she couldn't bear the shame!

She truly regretted not paying attention to this guy lately, allowing him to deal with her so easily. It turned out that all of this, one thing after another, was done by Ning Kun! And she kept misunderstanding Da Dun'er and Zhang Lili…

Ning Kun has finally come out and made a move on her openly, and he's even dared to be so audacious! Li Hui wished she could grab any hard object and smash that disgusting pervert's skull open!

What puzzled Li Hui was that the time they were in the bathroom late at night, Ning Kun had only dared to expose his genitals briefly to satisfy his need for stimulation. Why had he suddenly become so bold now? As soon as he came in, he started tearing at Li Hui's clothes, intending to get straight to the point.

Abnormal.

Furthermore, isn't he afraid that Li Hui might have brought back germs from Maowu Township?

strangeness.

Is this related to that so-called "unexpected surprise"?

Li Hui suddenly stopped crying. She wiped her face and asked Grandpa Zhou to go back first.

"Please don't tell anyone about this. I'll handle it myself."

As soon as Zhang Lili entered the room, she rushed over to check Li Hui's complexion with great alarm.

"Oh dear, you don't look so pale... By the way, Wang Yang called. He couldn't reach me at home, so he called my office. He asked about you, and I lied to him so he wouldn't worry, saying you were in a meeting. Call him again in a few days when you feel better."

"What else did he say?" Li Hui really wanted to know if Wang Yang was truly unaware that something had happened to him.

"He also told me to tell you that he might be back a few days earlier."

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" Li Hui's tears burst forth instantly. She laughed and cried at the same time, finally unable to hold back her sobs. But Zhang Lili sat to the side without any reaction, as if she was lost in thought.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Lili suddenly broke the silence and said:

"Oh, right, the physiotherapy department isn't crowded today. Come up with me and get some infrared therapy!"

Li Hui suddenly felt uneasy; she reflexively recalled the time she burned her buttocks. Director Chen could tell at a glance it was caused by the lamp being too close, yet Zhang Lili, as the head of the physiotherapy department, made such a basic mistake. She had been holding a grudge about it ever since.

"I'm afraid..." Li Hui glanced at Zhang Lili's expression and saw her eyebrows rise, as if she were a little surprised. She then added, "I'm afraid of bringing germs outside."

"Nonsense, what germs? It's been strictly disinfected, and it was tested again yesterday, wasn't it? Let's go." Zhang Lili pulled Li Hui up almost without saying a word, causing her ribs to ache.

This time, the injured ribs were being roasted. Li Hui lay on her back on the bed, lifting her clothes to reveal her bra-covered chest. Zhang Lili glanced at her:

"Take off your bra, otherwise it will affect the effect."

Li Hui hesitated, but Zhang Lili had already taken off her bra herself: "There's no one else here, what's the big deal?"

Now, Li Hui, her two full, round, white breasts exposed, obediently watched Zhang Lili slowly move the infrared therapy device above her ribs. She felt the bright red light bulb was slightly off-center from her injured ribs, but directly facing one of her breasts, so she pointed to the exact location of the injury: "It's here."

Zhang Lili adjusted the lamp stand, but Li Hui felt it still wasn't accurate enough. Then she thought, "Oh well, the infrared lamp is quite large anyway; as long as the injury is within its range, it'll be fine."

Now, Zhang Lili carefully adjusted the height of the treatment device and then carefully tightened the screws at the two turning points on the lamp holder.

Having learned her lesson from last time, Li Hui was still shaken. She watched Zhang Lili's hands intently as she tightened the screws before finally closing her eyes with peace of mind.

But as soon as Li Hui heard Zhang Lili's footsteps step out of the room, she opened her eyes wide. She stared intently at the huge, blazing infrared light, not daring to blink.

Suddenly, she vaguely felt the large light bulb sliding down at an imperceptible, slow speed. At first, she thought she was just imagining things because she was too nervous, but when she blinked, she realized that the red light bulb was descending towards her more and more clearly.

Li Hui suddenly reached out and steadied the lamp stand, then used her other hand to test the screw that Zhang Lili had just tightened—it was loose!

Her heart started pounding... Was this the so-called "unexpected surprise"?

When Li Hui turned off the infrared therapy device and came out, there was only one doctor she didn't know in the physiotherapy department treating a patient; Zhang Lili was nowhere to be seen.

She suppressed her racing heart and strode out of the physiotherapy department, panting as if chased by a wolf, running back to the third and a half floor.

There were still a few minutes left before closing time. The pharmacy window was already empty.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, Li Hui ran to the pharmacy.

She stood at the medicine window, suppressing her racing heart, and softly called Ning Kun's name. In less than five seconds, Ning Kun appeared inside the window.

She didn't know what to say, only feeling flames shooting from her eyes. The "diplomatic rhetoric" she had prepared earlier had completely vanished. The mental preparation she had done before coming to the pharmacy was now useless; she just felt disgusted by Ning Kun's appearance.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." As soon as Ning Kun saw that it was Li Hui, he apologized first, and there was actually a hint of guilt on his dark face.

She steeled herself and went to find Ning Kun, wanting to see how he would explain what happened that morning. Rather than wanting to use this simplest and quickest method to determine the "good" or "bad" of Ning Kun and Zhang Lili, Li Hui wanted to clear Zhang Lili of suspicion. She knew this method was both clumsy and dangerous, but she truly had no better way…

"Who told you to do this?" Li Hui stared directly into his eyes.

"I……"

"Tell me, who gave you permission to do this? Otherwise, I'll call the police and have you thrown in jail."

"Zhang Lili said...you want to...."

"Say it again, who told you to do this?"

"Didn't you tell Zhang Lili that yourself?"

"What did I say?"

"Tell me you like...like me..."

"You're talking nonsense!"

"Really, I can confront her face to face... Last night, Zhang Lili told me that I was too lonely in the hospital, and she also said that I was the one who wanted her to come and keep her company. So I went..."

Li Hui suddenly felt dizzy and weak all over.

Li Hui was completely unprepared when the sky suddenly darkened.

Night was approaching again... Li Hui felt an emptiness in her heart, a feeling she couldn't quite describe.