A cool rush spread through Leon's veins, causing his trembling body to turn calm.
The doctor moved a step back and turned toward Mr. Lee.
"He'll sleep soon," she paused, shifted her gaze to the monitor's screen, then back to Mr. Lee. "If it works."
Mr. Lee stood there with a confused expression, then swallowed hard when the doctor moved to the next patient without uttering another word.
Feng slumped back with a heaving chest and placed a hand on Mr. Lee's shoulder, after calling him for several seconds without a response. "Uncle."
Mr. Lee shook his head once, then focused on Feng.
Feng shifted his gaze to the doctor, then back to Mr. Lee. "Can Leon still continue to take part after this?"
Mr. Lee exhaled sharply, then blinked once. "I'm not sure he can." He sighed heavily while lowering himself in the chair. "What worked on others didn't work on him."
Feng also sat in the chair closer to Mr. Lee, then gave Leon's bed a quick glance before focusing fully on Mr. Lee. "Why?"
"Even if he can, the chance to join the special training is slim." Mr. Lee said, then rubbed his face, hiding the storm in his eyes as the doctor's footsteps echoed like a distant chime behind them.
Feng looked at Mr. Lee's hand, then stood up.
"I'll go and get Lily." He said, then walked toward the room's exit. Immediately he closed the door behind him, he turned and looked at Leon through the transparent door, before continuing forward.
Mr. Lee stood up from the chair he sat on and stood at the side of Leon's bed.
He lowered his head then pressed his forehead against Leon's. "Your family is depending on you. Don't waste this chance."
Mr. Lee sat back in his chair, then shifted his gaze to the other patients while cold wind drifted into the still room.
He shifted his gaze to the boy bound with bandages as a paper tearing sound echoed from the boy's side.
Outside the window, leaves spun through the air while tree branches bowed in the unsteady current.
Newspapers and discarded plastic bags whirled and suspended as if time itself had faltered.
Leaves followed the rolling tires of a black Jeep as its tires moved on the road toward the WingJI Central Hospital, breaking the stillness the hospital environment had.
The most renowned hospital for advanced medical care, and the only one near the academy. Its mortuary was always full, but they never stopped receiving patients.
Dust spiraled when the Jeep's tires screeched as it rolled to a stop at the hospital's entry point.
When the dust settled down, cats that were finding refuge in the hospital's corners scattered as if the Jeep was carrying a beast even they couldn't stand to see appear.
A man dressed in one of Thule's legendary uniforms opened the driver's side door and exited, wearing his Warlord tag on his left shoulder.
He shifted his head slightly, then pressed on a black microphone on his collar. "Lieutenant… we're here."
He frowned, scanning the surrounding, then went and stood by the left backdoor.
When he opened the door, a dark wind splashed on his face as if welcoming a hellish beast into the world of mortals.
Hayes folded his hands behind him like a general greeting a king as he stepped down from the car.
The ground groaned as boots plated with jagged steel hit its surface. Every step rang through the concrete like a hammer strike.
Clang.
Without hesitation, Hayes marched into the building, his head low, his bodyguard striding ahead, doors swinging open at his touch.
As soon as they reached the receptionist, Hayes stared at the nurse then smiled.
"A boy was admitted here. Which room is he in?!" He asked in a low tone, but slammed a hand on the receptionist's desk when the nurse asked him to say why she should give him the room number.
The nurse sitting behind the desk frowned. "There's only one boy admitted recently, but his condition is not good." She said, rolling her eyes as she scanned the man from head to his waist.
"I asked for his room number, not his condition!" Hayes said in a voice that sent a shockwave through the receptionist's desk and caused her eyes to open wide.
"Sorry, sir," she said in a trembling voice while trying to focus on the badge at the man and his bodyguard's chest.
The logbook rattled and fell as she harshly opened the pages. "R… room 777, sir! West wing!"
She grabbed the access key that enabled visitors to Leon's room, and raised it upward. "Please take this pass. Without it —"
Hayes snatched the pass without acknowledging it and walked down the hall. The heels of his metal boots sent sharp clicking sounds through the sterile corridors as the bodyguard walked past him.
At the reception desk, the nurse remained standing and was terribly shaking and sweating, as if Hayes was still standing in front of her.
The moment Hayes reached the room with that number, he handed the pass to his bodyguard and entered as the door opened while the green light flickered on the small screen.
Mr. Lee stood vigilant beside Leon's bed, an IV drip feeding a sedative into Leon's arm.
When Hayes stopped two feet away from the bed and looked at Leon's sleeping face, he shifted his gaze toward Mr. Lee and frowned.
"You told us he was okay! WHAT IS THIS?" Hayes brushed his palms across his face, then inhaled once while his black eyes glowed. "I'm giving you up to 24 hours. After that, he will be banned from joining."
Mr. Lee stiffened. "Sir…" he paused, glanced at Leon, "Sir, I assure you he'll be there before the time elapses. He's just asleep."
Hayes snapped, turned to the window, and strode out.
Hayes's bodyguard handed Mr. Lee an envelope before leaving the room.
Immediately the door slammed shut, Leon's body twitched violently. Mr. Lee stared at the envelope for a long second, then at Leon, then back at the envelope. He placed it in the chair beside him, then walked and placed his palms on Leon's forehead until Leon's body calmed.
Mr. Lee stepped outside the room when he thought of going for fresh air but ended up in a group of people circling a dead body draped in white cloth.
He paused and watched them use hydrokinesis to command water to suspend in the air.
He calmed his heart on how the water was being narrowed into a single orb which kept spinning around the draped body.
When the water landed on the body and soaked both it and the bed, the seven people clasped their hands together like roots entwining while they spiraled around the bed.
Mr. Lee stayed a little longer, but when he moved a step forward, a woman's voice rose from their muted humming and began singing a sorrowful hymn that filled the entire hospital in seconds:
Death doesn't have any mercy in this land, in this land.
He'll come to your house, but he won't stay long.
You'll look in the bed, find your mother's gone.
Death will go in every family in this land,
He'll leave you standing and crying in this land.
You'll look in the bed, and one of your family will be gone.
He won't give you time to get ready in this land.
He'll come to your house, he won't stay long,
Death doesn't have mercy in this land.
The remaining six voices also joined her, both men and women, forming a melodious choir of the dead.
Mr. Lee's eyes welled up with tears as he watched how they channeled their tears into a pool over the bed.
When he walked away from the door and reached the guest hall, other nurses had their arms resting on their chests, listening to the soul-filled cries bouncing on the wall like a battle hymn.
As soon as the chilled wind of the night slapped Mr. Lee on the face, he dabbed at his tears and neared a tree at the other end of the road.
…
Meanwhile, in Leon's mind, he drifted in an endless white space, floating and rolling like a ball.