NOVEL NEXT 085. Gravity and Death, To You They Are Synonymous
- Gravity and Death, To You They Are Synonymous
As she left, lying on the ICU operating table, Nordly suddenly spoke:
"…Don't mind me anymore."
Her tone was unprecedentedly weak, completely losing the strength and stability she usually had, as light as a piece of paper in the wind.
"Head Nurse Nordly? We've already given you anesthesia—has the qi become so chaotic that the anesthetic can no longer hold?"
"Anna… she has a hard time."
Nordly's tone was full of sorrow:
"Someone like me, it's good if I die. I've committed so many sins, now it's time for me to atone…"
"What are you saying—if it weren't for you, we would have died long ago."
The chief surgeon's nose turned sour. No matter what, Nordly was a colleague and friend they had been with for many years, defending their peace with her strength.
"…No matter how much water you add to a bottle of ink, it can never be clear. What's done cannot be undone."
Nordly struggled, trying to lift her hand to pull out the breathing tube:
"Let me die. I should have died long ago—"
Bang!
The ICU door was kicked open heavily, and a nurse immediately shouted, "We're in the middle of surgery, outsiders can't enter—"
Before she finished, her face turned red, and a yellow-black windbreaker flashed before her eyes, pushing her aside.
Although it was just a brief encounter, the flawless, handsome face made her heart race and she became infatuated.
"How rare, I just left for three days, and now I'm an outsider?"
The handsome man spread his arms, innocently said:
"Don't you recognize me? Doctors. You even drew my bone marrow and blood. Such heartless bitches, tsk tsk tsk."
He seemed to have a magnetic presence, drawing everyone's gaze to him. Under the gaze of his gray eyes, their hearts fluttered.
"Are you… the patient Li Aozi?"
The chief surgeon recognized him, surprised, but then shook her head:
"Glad to see you alive, but we're in the middle of surgery, your presence will affect us—"
Bang!
Li Aozi casually tossed a box of medication, which landed in her arms. The chief surgeon looked down and almost screamed at the sight of the large characters 'Zunisidin'.
"Zunisidin—it's the miracle drug! Head Nurse Nordly, you're saved."
She quickly opened the package, prepared the medication at the optimal ratio, and administered it through an arterial injection.
Li Aozi leaned against the door, watching their movements with interest.
After a series of frantic actions, Nordly's vital signs gradually returned to normal, her breathing steadied, and the anesthetic's effects resumed as her body stabilized.
The chief surgeon breathed a sigh of relief. With the wound stitched, Nordly would recover in under two hours.
She felt a deep sense of gratitude, asked a nurse to wipe her sweat, stitched the wound, and then turned, bowing deeply to Li Aozi.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Li Aozi. Without your help, Head Nurse Nordly would have needed blood dialysis, which would have caused irreversible damage to her body."
"Oh, it's nothing, it's my duty, no need to thank me."
Li Aozi chuckled, locking the ICU door behind him as he approached.
"Please, accept our gratitude. Head Nurse Nordly has saved many lives. She has always protected our safety… in Abyss, she is our guardian angel."
The chief surgeon refused to rise, tears of gratitude streaming down her face.
"Stand up," Li Aozi said, "Head Nurse Nordly is a good person, I won't deny that. You don't need to thank me."
The chief surgeon, still emotional, lowered her head even more, deeply grateful:
"No! Please accept our gratitude. Whatever request you have, please just say it."
"Look up."
Li Aozi impatiently said.
"I said look up, are you deaf?"
"If you don't let me thank you, I won't look up—"
Before she could finish, an icy, gunpowder-scented gun barrel was shoved into her mouth. She vaguely recognized it as similar to the large-caliber pistol the White Fang gang leader had when they invaded the Abyss.
Bang.
Li Aozi pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The chief surgeon's skull exploded, blood and brain matter splattering onto the ceiling, pieces of her shattered skull hitting the nurses' smiling, grateful faces.
The chief surgeon's body knelt, Li Aozi lifted the saliva and blood-stained gun, disdainfully tossing it to the ground.
He didn't like such weapons. Partly because he didn't know how to use them, partly because killing with guns was too quick, lacking sensation.
Cold weapons, the heavy feeling of personally crushing life and the brilliant visual impact, were incomparable to hot weapons.
"I told you to look up, why argue?"
He turned to the other nurses and doctors in Abyss, shrugging innocently:
"Folks, wasn't she a bit too stubborn?"
Saying this, he lifted the sterile cloth off the operating table, revealing the pale-faced Nordly. She was emaciated like a mummy, her pupils reflecting Li Aozi's mad smile.
Her mouth moved, her eyes panicked:
'Stop…'
Ding—
In her desperate gaze, Li Aozi's chain dangled from his arm, dragging on the floor as he slowly walked toward the four Abyss doctors in the operating room.
'Spare… them…'
"So touching, Head Nurse."
Li Aozi turned, showing a sunny smile:
"Would you plead for Snow when her brain was extracted?"
Nordly's pupils shrank, past shadows surged into her mind.
In the next moment, Li Aozi's chain lashed out at the Abyss female medical staff.
"Ah!"
The chain whipped, breaking bones and cutting tendons.
"My leg—stop, stop! Wah wah wah—"
Gravity down, suffocating pressure.
"Help, help me, my neck is so heavy… ugh, Mom, Mom, I can't breathe…"
Life extraction, ending lives.
"Spare me, I didn't do anything, Abyss tricked me—no, ah! What did you do to me, my skin, my face is aging, I… stop…"
Nordly watched the brutality unfold, Li Aozi repeatedly mentioning 'ZX-102', 'Snow', 'baby'. Gravely injured, she felt the world spinning, as if it were crushing her.
'Stop… stop…'
She mouthed the words, but never dared to say, 'Come at me, they are innocent.'
If she said those hypocritical words, even the devil would laugh.
Bang!
Li Aozi's gravity twisted a female doctor's spine into a knot, pulling her head from her chest, then crushing it underfoot, exploding it like a watermelon.
With a wave, he pulled a woman with broken legs crawling toward the door, her body suddenly light, crashing into his hand.
"Mom!"
She cried, tearing open her medical gown, tears ruining her face, forced a smile, pleading: "Hey, have fun with me, let me go, do whatever to them, just let me—"
Crack!
Li Aozi grabbed her colleague's spine, wrapped it around her neck, piercing her artery with vertebral spikes, then kicked her away.
Her blood sprayed like a broken faucet, painting the walls and operating table with crimson drops. Her face frozen in horror, her final expression one of panic and fear.
The remaining two were unlucky. Li Aozi's gravity threw a nurse like a ball, slamming her up and down until her organs and brain were mush, oozing from her body.
He pulled the chain into a spear, stabbing the last person from clavicle to hip, pinning them to the ground. Their body stiffened, motionless like a popsicle.
Li Aozi approached, slowly pulling out the chain, hooks dragging dismembered parts, dropping a piece of intestine at Nordly's feet.
"You're a good person, Head Nurse Nordly. After all, admitting mistakes and atoning for sins is rare."
Li Aozi stood at her bedside, calmly said:
"But I am not. I can't say if I'll ever be alone— but I can't become a good person."
'Why… are you doing this…'
"I'm greedy, cold-blooded, arrogant. I've killed more people than Abyss by millions, so I don't believe in karma—otherwise, I'd be dead."
Doctor Chen Siqi said entering the underground required Nordly and Anna's retinal scan.
Li Aozi looked around.
'Why not kill me… why?'
"You're still useful to me, and since you want to atone, don't die so easily, that would be too lenient for your crimes—I'll cut your veins, pierce your 'qi sea', and let you slowly feel the drain of life."
Li Aozi picked up a scalpel from the operating table:
"Even with all my vices, I have one redeeming quality—babies like me. Their innocent smiles and thoughts, with limitless futures, can bring me inner healing."
"Every time I see those little babies, I realize that people should have a bottom line, and life has a noble dignity. My life shouldn't be just for profit; I should have my own bottom line and beliefs…"
He turned his head, using his hand to open Nordly's left eye, placing the bright scalpel against her eyelid:
"And my only bottom line is, don't touch babies!"
He said, stabbing the scalpel into Nordly's eyeball.
