NOVEL NEXT 222- Cruel and Unusual
Inside the Xubin Hospital, the patients and their families were petrified as they shielded their ears from the two screaming monks. Even with a piece of cloth stuffed in their mouths, the screeching wails vibrated through the air and pierced into the eardrums like nails on the unused chalkboard. It wasn't long before the patients complained, forcing the nurse to isolate the monks into a private ward.
"I've never seen anything like this before," said the anesthesiologist as he monitored the two monks from the other side of the door with a narrow lite window. "We will need to contact a specialist from other hospitals to assist us with this case. What could be causing this?"
"I haven't seen this during my lifetime," the neurologist was also stumped. "None of the pain relievers are working?"
"So far, none of the analgesics are working," the anesthesiologist shook his head. "Even the TCM department is having a difficult time."
The problem with the two patients wasn't just the strange symptoms, but the ineffectiveness of medicine. It was like something actively sending signals to the brain telling them that something was wrong when there wasn't. It was like something opposite of an NSAID medicine.
"Their monk friend is bringing in someone from Qinbei," said the nurse. "They are checking in right now."
"Qinbei? Why Qinbei?" Asked the anesthesiologist.
"It's Dr. Li Yun from Qinbei, he has a Biadu's page."
"Really, he has a Biadu page?"
In the medical field, Li Yun was a bit well-known, but he wasn't immediately recognizable until people searched for his name on the internet. Someone had recently created a Biadu page for him, and it appeared to be a benchmark for measuring a person's level of importance.
"Is his acupuncture technique really powerful?" The anesthesiologist remained skeptical.
Inside the ward, Abbot Haoyang scrolled through his phone displaying Li Yun's profile. Luba had messaged him earlier about bringing in a doctor with unusual acupuncture ability. Most people would view the profile with skepticism, but as a practitioner of various Buddhist mantras and scriptures, Abbot Haoyang believed in the explained powers.
The abbot put away his phone and inspected the two monks' bodies again. They squirmed and dug themselves deeper into the mattress as it was the only direction they could move into while restrained onto the bed by the gait straps. From their pulse, Abbot Haoyang felt something strange forcing the meridians to misalign and making it difficult for him to use acupuncture methods.
"Did we encounter a practitioner of Gu?" Abbot Haoyang thought.
Thinking back, the two monks were the two who had been watching the hostages. When a thought appeared in his mind, Li Yun entered the ward with the doctors and Luba. Luba introduced Li Yun to Abbot Haoyang. As Li Yun reached out for a handshake, Abbot Haoyang bowed back with his hand straightened to his chest. It wasn't unusual for monks to avoid handshakes, but Abbot Haoyang instinctively knew that it was best to avoid the young doctor.
"Dr. Li, do you know what condition they are in?" Luba asked impatiently before Li Yun walked over to Laco.
Li Yun took out his acupuncture kit and inserted several needles into Laco's body and then Enzu's. Within moments, their body movement slowed and their faces appeared calm. All the doctors were amazed by the sight and quickly performed a physical to see if they could understand what had happened. Abbot Haoyang remained motionless, but he was as equally amazed; he never thought it was possible to see another master of acupuncture.
"Are they healed?" Luba asked.
"I'm not sure, this is a temporary fix," said Li Yun. He was probably the only person in the world who knew what was going on as he was the person who poisoned them in the first place. The drug was created with the effect to cause pain, and in some way mirrored the toxin he had experienced in the woods. It was an experimental drug, but he wasn't going to be kind to people who pointed a gun at Rouxi and his face. "Can I speak to Abbot Haoyang for a moment?"
Luba turned to Abbot Haoyang for confirmation.
"I'm afraid your two friends are cursed," said Li Yun.
"Cursed?" Abbot Haoyang asked. "Dr. Li, what makes you say that?"
Li Yun studied Abbot Haoyang's eyes, which glimmered with an aura of conviction. "Strange, this isn't the look of someone who feels guilty," Li Yun thought. "Should I press him more?"
"Why did you steal the artifacts?" Li Yun asked directly; there was no time for mind games. "You can't be simple mercenaries if you're stealing all sorts of artifacts, not just the valuable ones."
"I do not understand where mister is coming from," Abbot Haoyang pretended. There was no evidence to tie him to the case and Li Yun was fishing for information.
"I'm giving you an opportunity to explain yourself before I hand you over to the police," said Li Yun.
"What do you mean?" Abbot Haoyang continued to feign innocence. "Are you the mercenaries who stole the artifacts?"
Li Yun smiled. "If I took the artifacts, why would I need to stay here? And besides, I already gave a statement to the police that I threw needles with an experimental drug at the robbers as self-defense."
Abbot Haoyang sighed as he shook his head. He was already aware that Li Yun had poisoned the two monks during the heist. Simply by being in the hospital proved that they were robbers. It was an oversight on his part to believe that all the hostages were regular people.
"So why is an abbot going out of your way to steal artifacts?" Li Yun didn't understand the purpose of Abbot Haoyang.
"We mainly work to return the Buddhist artifacts back to the temple and to gather funds to buy back the ones sold in the black market," Abbot Haoyang explained. "Many of our texts were stolen or taken away by both the museum and private collectors. We used our own means to retrieve it."
"Do you have proof of your claim?"
"Just look at the artifacts displayed in the museum," said Abbot Haoyang. "Some are replicas, duplicated by the museum while the real artifacts are sold underground to private collectors."
"So rather than seeing that happen, you would rather take it into your own hands and steal the artifacts first?"
"These are sacred scriptures that do not belong to the museum, but belong in the sacred house."
Li Yun didn't want to make a judgment call on what they were doing. Legally, what they were doing was wrong, but to Abbot Haoyang, he was simply putting things back in their rightful place.
"Have you been a monk all your life?" Li Yun was curious about Abbot Haoyang's background. Rouxi had told him that the short man during the robbery had an unusual aura. If he guessed correctly, the short man was Abbot Haoyang.
"I grew up in the temple ever since my parents left me there at the age of four. I was an unusual child, and they didn't want to keep me. Instead, they gave me up to the temple and had another child. Mister is quite an unusual person as well, I heard from Luba that you grew up with Taoist scriptures."
"How did you meet Luba and the others?"
"I was a military surgeon back then," Abbot Haoyang explained. "It was a job assigned to me by the former abbot. During my time as a surgeon, I uncovered that many murders and assassinations were labeled as accidental or natural causes. Many of the fallen comrades were silenced simply because they knew too much. Their only crime was their knowledge. I didn't want to see their lives wasted in vain, so I faked their deaths and gave them new identities."
Abbot Haoyang likely had access to prisoners' information who had passed away during incarceration and didn't have families to retrieve the bodies. The death records were removed and all the former military agents were given new identities as petty criminals.
"So you saved their life," Li Yun wondered why they were afraid of the monk. "Why are they afraid of you?"
"Luba and others?" Abbot Haoyang thought patiently and nodded. "They aren't practicing monks, but I hold them to the same standard. They receive regular punishment for drinking and breaking any of the Buddhist codes."
"What sort of punishment?"
"I recite to them the Pancasila."
"Is that the code of ethics for followers? For how long?"
"48 hours."
"48... hours?" Li Yun repeated. He thought it was a rather cruel and unusual punishment.