Chapter 217 Madman

Peng Guanhai clutched his side in terror, shrinking into the corner of the hospital bed, his eyes bulging as if they were about to pop out.

“Who are you! Who are you!”

The nurse, startled by this sudden outburst, took two steps back.

“It’s me, Xiaosun, Uncle Peng. Don’t you remember me?”

“Xiaosun?”

Peng Guanhai’s pupils lost focus for a moment, then snapped sharp again.

He stared intently at the nurse’s face, as if trying to find a flaw in her familiar features. After a long moment, his voice softened.

“Is it really you, Xiaosun?”

The nurse let out a sigh of relief and forced a smile.

“Yes, it’s me, Xiaosun. Please, don’t get agitated.”

She tentatively took a step forward.

“Here, let me help you lie down.”

Peng Guanhai’s expression changed.

A ferocious glint suddenly shot from his cloudy old eyes, like a beast that had been lying in ambush.

“You’re not Xiaosun at all!”

The moment he swung his hand, Peng Guanhai moved with a speed unlike that of a frail old man on the verge of death.

“SLAP!”

The crisp sound echoed through the hospital room.

A bright red handprint appeared on the nurse’s face. She clutched her cheek, tears welling in her eyes, her lips trembling too much to speak.

“HAHAHAHA!”

Peng Guanhai laughed maniacally, grabbing the pillow and blanket and throwing them at the nurse.

“You’re not Xiaosun at all! You think you can trick me?! I’m the White Cat! The White Cat who will never be caught!”

“Grandpa! What are you doing?!”

Peng ZhenNi’s startled cry came from the doorway.

She was still holding a newly bought fruit basket, frozen in place, her face a mask of disbelief.

Peng Guanhai whipped his head around, squinting at his own granddaughter as if she were a stranger.

“And who are you?”

Peng ZhenNi bit her lip, her eyes turning red.

“Grandpa, you don’t even remember me now?”

“Grandpa?”

Peng Guanhai paused, a flicker of clarity crossing his cloudy eyes.

“You’re… Jenny?”

Peng ZhenNi hurried over to the nurse, her face full of apology.

“Sister Sun, I’m so sorry. To have you go through this again…”

The nurse wiped the corner of her eye, her professionalism preventing her from crying in front of the patient’s family.

She held her cheek, her voice muffled.

“It’s alright.”

She glanced back at Peng Guanhai and lowered her voice.

“Uncle Peng can’t get too agitated right now, Jenny. You should try to spend more time with him lately. Yesterday… Uncle Peng injured the head nurse. In the end, the doctor had to give him a sedative just to give him his shot.”

“Here, let me.”

Peng ZhenNi quickly bent down to help pick up the blanket and pillow.

She carried the pile toward the bed, her back to Peng Guanhai, completely unaware of the danger behind her.

The moment the nurse looked up, her pupils contracted.

Peng Guanhai’s hand shot out from under the covers, clutching a small Peach Wood Sword.

The sword was only as long as his palm, crudely made, looking like a cheap trinket from a street stall.

But in Peng Guanhai’s hand, it radiated a chilling killing intent.

“Look out!”

The nurse grabbed Peng ZhenNi’s arm and yanked her backward.

In almost the same instant, the Peach Wood Sword grazed the corner of Peng ZhenNi’s clothes, its thrust meeting only empty air.

“Namo Amitabha Buddha! Jesus, help me!”

Peng Guanhai shouted hoarsely, his eyes bloodshot, like a crazed old dog.

Pulled off balance, Peng ZhenNi stumbled back two steps. Once she steadied herself and looked back, she saw the Peach Wood Sword in her grandfather’s hand.

Tears streamed down her face.

“You stubborn old man, you really don’t remember me anymore!”

Peng Guanhai sneered, holding the Peach Wood Sword horizontally in front of him as he watched her warily.

“Think you can trick me by pretending to be my granddaughter?”

Peng ZhenNi wiped her tears and turned to Jiang Chaosheng with a helpless, bitter smile.

“Looks like you came all this way for nothing.”

Jiang Chaosheng had been standing at the door, motionless since he arrived.

“Peng Guanhai,” he said, his voice quiet.

“I borrowed your mirror.”

Peng ZhenNi sighed.

“It’s no use talking to him. Grandpa doesn’t know anything anymore. Just take the mirror. You don’t need to ask him.”

Peng Guanhai’s body suddenly shuddered.

His withered frame trembled violently as if struck by lightning.

His old eyes went wide, staring intently at Jiang Chaosheng.

His gaze slid past Jiang Chaosheng’s face and landed on his neck.

Hanging there was an ancient, verdigris-covered key, looking like something dug out of an old tomb.

It was the key to Antique Shop Zero.

Peng Guanhai’s pupils quaked as if from an earthquake.

With a THUMP, he leaped off the bed, his knees hitting the floor with a dull thud.

“Greetings, sir!”

The nurse was stunned.

Peng ZhenNi was stunned, too.

When she came to her senses, she rushed to help Peng Guanhai up.

“Grandpa, what are you doing?!”

Peng Guanhai remained kneeling, his knees seemingly rooted to the floor. No matter how hard Peng ZhenNi pulled, he wouldn’t budge.

Jiang Chaosheng frowned. “Get up.”

Peng Guanhai immediately stood up, so quickly that Peng ZhenNi’s hands were still hovering in mid-air, not having had time to pull them back.

The nurse and Peng ZhenNi both stared at Jiang Chaosheng, their faces filled with disbelief.

‘Why… is he obeying this young man so completely?’

‘A psychiatrist?’

‘Hypnosis?’

Jiang Chaosheng strolled over to a nearby chair and sat down.

He crossed his legs, rested one hand casually on the armrest, and tapped his fingers intermittently.

Even in such a casual posture, he gave off the illusion of someone sitting on a throne, exuding an effortless authority.

“Sit back down.”

Peng Guanhai obediently sat on the bed, his back ramrod straight and his hands on his knees, like an elementary school student.

The nurse shook her head in amazement.

“This… this is a miracle. He might not need a sedative today. I’ll go let the doctor know.”

After saying that, she quickly left the room.

Peng ZhenNi’s gaze darted back and forth between her grandfather and Jiang Chaosheng, her exotic features etched with shock.

‘She had never seen her grandfather act like this.’

‘This was the famous detective, the White Cat! A man even the chief of the Public Security Bureau had to treat with respect!’

‘Who is Jiang Chaosheng… or rather, who are his elders?’

‘Just what kind of powerful figure is he?’

Peng Guanhai suppressed his excitement, his voice trembling as he spoke incoherently.

“I… I’ve been waiting for you. At long last. Although you’ve changed a lot, I still recognized you. I… I…”

A hint of sadness appeared in Peng ZhenNi’s eyes.

‘What does he mean, he’s “changed a lot”?’

‘He’s clearly mistaken him for someone else.’

‘He thinks Jiang Chaosheng is one of his old friends.’

“Why wait for ‘me’?”

he asked.

“You could have gone to the South Sea to find ‘me’. Did ‘I’ ever tell you that you were forbidden from visiting ‘me’ in the South Sea?”

Peng Guanhai shook his head.

“No, you never said that.”

A note of confusion entered Jiang Chaosheng’s tone.

“Then why didn’t you come find me when you were wronged?”

‘If Peng Guanhai encountered a paranormal event, his first instinct should have been to find the Manager and seek protection.’

‘Not run off to Jiangchuan, open a detective agency, and drive himself into this state, half-human, half-ghost.’

Deep fear showed in Peng Guanhai’s eyes.

“They… they wouldn’t let me find you!”

His voice trembled.

“Five years ago, when they warned me for the first time, I wanted to find you. They… they killed my daughter and son-in-law! That was their ultimatum! If… if I went to find you, they would kill Jenny!”

He covered his old face in anguish, his shoulders shaking violently.

“They’ve been tormenting me all these years, taking away everything important to me. Lucy, Laura, and my children… they took them all, one by one. The first time they warned me, they killed Lucy and Laura. I wanted to find you, but then they killed my daughter and son-in-law.”

Peng ZhenNi stared at Peng Guanhai in disbelief. “Lucy? Laura?”

Jiang Chaosheng shot her a questioning glance.

Peng ZhenNi explained,

“Lucy and Laura were Grandpa’s dogs. They were run over by a car five years ago.”

She suddenly remembered something, and her pupils trembled.

“Three days before my parents’ car crash, Lucy and Laura died. Could it be… that it really wasn’t an accident, but a warning and retaliation against Grandpa?!”

She rushed to her grandfather, knelt down, and gripped his pants tightly.

“Grandpa, who was the killer?!”

Peng Guanhai’s body trembled even more violently.

He shook his head, his lips quivering, but he couldn’t utter a single word.

The hand that had held the Peach Wood Sword now trembled like a dry branch in the wind, fragile and weak.

Jiang Chaosheng slowly uttered three words: “I am here.”

Three soft words, like a feather landing on water.

But to Peng ZhenNi, it felt as if the entire room shook when those three words were spoken.

She glanced back at Jiang Chaosheng.

The young man was still sitting in the chair, his legs crossed, his fingers still tapping leisurely on the armrest.

When he said, “I am here,” his tone was as nonchalant as if he were commenting, “Nice weather today.”

But Peng ZhenNi heard something else in his voice.

It was an absolute, unquestionable confidence.

It was as if his presence alone turned this small hospital room into a fortress of iron, impenetrable to anything outside.

‘What exactly does he do?’

Peng Guanhai’s trembling gradually subsided.

He hung his head, silent for a long time. The room was so quiet you could hear the rustling of leaves in the wind outside the window.

Finally, he began to speak.

“It all started with a missing person case seven years ago.”

The old man’s voice was hoarse and weary, like a rusty blade being slowly unsheathed. “That was the last case I ever handled…”