The hospital corridor was eerily silent, nearly suffocating, broken only by the occasional footsteps from afar and the low murmurs of nurses conversing under the dim light of the nurse's station.
Su Wanqing lay on the bed, the wound on her leg still throbbing with pain. The doctor had said the bullet had not damaged the main nerves, but the bone membrane was severely torn, and she would need at least two weeks of rest before she could walk again. However, she knew she didn't have that long.
The "Mirror" organization had not given up on them. The surveillance photo that had been secretly taken, along with the message in the letter—"What you've seen is just the beginning of the shadows"—coiled around her mind like a venomous snake. They were no longer hiding. They had begun to strike.
She sat up and instinctively checked that the ward door was locked. The night shift nurse had been by once already to replace her IV, her expression neutral, her tone calm, but… too calm.
Su Wanqing's instincts had always been sharp. She noticed that the name on the nurse's badge was somewhat blurry, and the skin under the collar had a faint redness—it wasn't an ordinary rash, but an allergic reaction, likely from using disinfectant or soap that didn't belong to her. A real hospital nurse wouldn't make such a basic mistake.
Just as she was about to press the bed's alarm button, the ward door "clicked" open.
The "nurse" entered again, holding a tray. Her mask was pulled down low, revealing only her cold, indifferent eyes. When her gaze swept over Su Wanqing, it was devoid of warmth, as if assessing a target that needed to be eliminated.
Su Wanqing pretended to still be half-conscious, but from the corner of her eye, she noticed the shape bulging in the nurse's pocket—it didn't look like medicine, but rather the metallic outline of a hidden blade.
Without moving a muscle, Su Wanqing subtly tucked the alarm button beneath the blanket and pressed it with her index finger. A silent signal was sent via the special police internal network to Lu Chenzhou's personal terminal.
At the same time, the killer disguised as a nurse set down the tray and slowly drew a surgical knife.
"You thought you'd be safe just because you're in a hospital?" she whispered, a sickly smile tugging at her lips. "Mirror never leaves survivors."
Just then, urgent footsteps sounded outside the ward, and a figure nearly slammed into the door.
"Don't move!" Lu Chenzhou kicked the door open, and his gun was immediately trained on the "nurse."
The attacker reacted quickly, throwing the surgical knife backward, aimed directly at Su Wanqing's chest. Su Wanqing swiftly rolled to the side, avoiding the blade and grabbing the stethoscope from the bedside table, hurling it at the assailant to disrupt her rhythm.
Lu Chenzhou rushed forward, engaging in close combat with the killer. In the confined space, the sounds of chairs and tables crashing, glass shattering, filled the air. The assailant was agile and deadly, but under Lu Chenzhou's pressure, she began to falter.
Finally, Lu Chenzhou landed a punch to her temple, slamming her down onto the floor. She struggled to bite down on a poison pouch hidden in her teeth, but Su Wanqing blocked it with an IV pole.
"Want to die?" Su Wanqing sneered. "You'll have to ask me if I agree first."
It wasn't until ten minutes later that the hospital security arrived.
However, when the technical team reviewed the surveillance footage, all the video recordings from the corridors and wards had been erased. The gap in time coincided exactly with when the "nurse" entered and left the ward.
"This wasn't just a break-in," Su Wanqing's expression turned serious. "Someone hacked the hospital system and assisted her from the inside."
Lu Chenzhou frowned and immediately called the head of the technical team: "Investigate the hospital's network nodes immediately. Focus on the internal network ports and permission logs. I want to know who did this within thirty minutes."
The hospital management staff looked terrified but didn't dare to speak. Su Wanqing sat up straighter, speaking softly: "Mirror wants to take me out while I'm injured. This means they've already figured out our progress from the list."
"And it means…" Lu Chenzhou's eyes were sharp as a blade, "There are people inside the hospital who are working with them."
Two hours later, the technical team provided their initial findings: The account of a network maintenance worker from the hospital's logistics department had been logged in unusually at 2 AM, performing comprehensive clearing and covering operations on the security system.
Even more bizarre, the maintenance worker had just been found dead in the restroom, injected with cyanide, the body already discovered.
"To silence them," Su Wanqing murmured.
The speed at which Mirror eliminated their informants left no time for the police to react.
At 6 AM, the hospital security team changed shifts, and Lu Chenzhou and Su Wanqing were temporarily transferred to the police headquarters' medical observation room, with all their medical care and assistance personally arranged by the special operations team.
"We can't wait any longer," Su Wanqing's eyes were resolute. "They've already started targeting us. They'll speed up their actions next."
"I know," Lu Chenzhou gently took her hand. "But you need to recover first. I'll investigate—they won't escape."
She looked at him and spoke softly, "What if next time, they target someone else—not me, but you?"
Lu Chenzhou smiled slightly, but his gaze was dead serious. "Then I won't hide. Because I'm your shield."