Artifact Report

Chapter 168: Fu Tai Lan: Footstool at Home
"...You're lucky your bones aren't broken."

There was a voice floating up and down beside me, like mist, coming from nowhere.

Fu Tailan thought it sounded familiar, and after thinking about it, he remembered that it was Dr. Cole who worked with the Morgan family.

Hunters returning from their dens sometimes suffer unexplainable injuries; when it is inconvenient to go to the hospital, a cooperative and knowledgeable private clinic is crucial.

Dr. Cole seemed to appear from the clouds and walked up to him, holding a white paper bag in his hand.

"The treatment is over. Next is recuperation and follow-up examinations. For the next month or two, I suggest you stay away from the lair..."

Fu Tailan covered his chin with one hand. Even under the thick medical bandage, he could feel his blood vessels jumping and expanding and contracting almost angrily, as if the tips of fingernails were pinching his nerve endings, releasing and then tightening again.

"…Trauma is easy enough, but I really can't do anything about nest dissociation. No medical school teaches this."

Dr. Cole said this, following Fu Tailan's gaze to his desk. "...What's wrong? What did you see?"

A thick fog was floating above the desk, as if a deep black cave had cracked in space.

Another Dr. Cole was sticking his head out of a hole in the air, his neck hanging limply on the table. He stared at Fu Tailan without blinking from behind his lenses, his mouth open.

The mouth on the face gradually opened wider, turning into another deep black cave.

From the deep black cave on his face, another smaller Dr. Cole poked his head out, drooped it down limply, stared at Fu Tailan with his mouth wide open.

Like Russian nesting dolls, the black hole and Cole's face cycled back and forth, one inside the other; Fu Tailan felt that if he kept looking, by the time he could see the smallest one, Dr. Cole, he might be sucked into something deep and never come back to the world.

Even though I know it, I still can't look away.

"Hey!"

A snap of fingers made a crisp sound right next to his face, and Fu Tailan shuddered. The scene on the table disappeared.

"What did you see?"

Fu Tailan turned his head in a daze and saw a tired face with a permanent stubble. Dr. Cole was standing before him - a real, normal-sized human Cole.

"Hmm? No, nothing... When did you get back?"

"I've been standing in front of you for several minutes," Dr. Cole said, raising an eyebrow.

"Is that bag for me? Give me a few more bottles of painkillers," Fu Tailan said, vaguely remembering that he had asked for it once before. "I have the worst pain tolerance."

Dr. Cole placed the paper bag in his hand and shook his head.

"I've prescribed you enough, so much that it almost makes me think about medical ethics. Don't refill your prescriptions for the next month. Just consider this to satisfy my curiosity. What did you see just now? Was it an illusion?"

"Right," Fu Tailan said, rising from the examination chair. "It's a mixture of reality and a lair-like illusion."

"Will you not be affected by these hallucinations while you're in the lair? It's dangerous to have hallucinations there, right?"

He seemed to have some interest in nest dissociation—but Cole probably just thought it was a mental illness with a unique etiology. No matter how much he talked to someone with that view, he couldn't be expected to offer any help.

“No.”

Fu Tailan had already opened the door and turned back to smile. "It's like a person returning home. How can you still miss home?"

Dr. Cole was stunned for a few seconds. After he left, he poked his head out and called out, "Is there anyone giving you a ride? You can't drive like this."

"Got it," Fu Tailan waved without even turning back, "I called an Uber."

After saying goodbye to the nurse who also worked as a receptionist - she looked so distressed that she was about to cry, and repeatedly told him to remember to come for a follow-up check - Fu Tailan was somewhat surprised to find that it was almost dark outside.

Didn’t I return to Blackmore City from the nest at four or five in the morning?
He took out his cell phone and took a look, only to find that it was already 21:5 p.m. on the 40st.

A day and a half passed by in a daze, as if melting into the clouds.

He thought for a long time before he remembered that he seemed to have fallen asleep in the clinic; Dr. Cole went to treat Jonah first, and he couldn't hold on while waiting and fell asleep. So it seemed like he was in a coma.

Later, when I was awakened and how I was treated seemed like a vague dream.

In this situation, it would be safer to have someone take you home.

However, he hadn't contacted Fu Han since he entered the clinic; he must have gone golfing again. And Fu Tailan didn't want anyone to know where he was. After taking over as Hunter Supervisor, he secretly rented a small apartment, where he stayed when he wasn't working or didn't want to go home.

Uber is also good and safe.

He got out of the car and the driver drove away. No one knew each other and there was almost no trouble.

Fu Tailan yawned loudly, watched the Uber go away, turned around and crossed the road - he got off the road with just a casual glance, which immediately attracted several sharp brakes and many angry horns - his feet felt like he was walking on clouds, and he walked onto another nearby sidewalk without hearing anything.

Although Jonah was rescued this time, it meant nothing to him.

He must obtain the next target artifact as soon as possible, but all he knows about artifacts—no, about the "Nest Domination Game"—is just two notifications from the Nest.

In the first call-up notice, each pseudo-image had only a short name or graphic, and he had no idea where to find it or what it was used for.

The second notification, congratulating him on winning the key, didn't bring much joy. The final sentence read, "The target artifact you hold will become intelligence for the next contestant. Please be sure to protect it."

He saw what Team Vesile was holding, so the next contestant could also see his... So, the last person to enter the competition would be the most advantageous?
Fu Tailan felt that it was not appropriate to think at this moment.

He took the key and inserted it into the keyhole three times before finally aligning it with the hole; he tried to turn it, but it wouldn't turn.

Fu Tailan stood at the door in a daze, with thoughts like "I took the wrong key", "Someone sneaked in and locked the door", "I am still in the nest" running through her mind like a revolving lantern. When she squinted her eyes, she realized that this was not the door of her apartment.

I'll think about it tomorrow morning, when I'll be back to normal...

He finally opened the correct apartment door, threw his keys and backpack onto the floor of the entrance hall, and flipped the light switch.

Sitting on the single sofa in the living room, Chai Si raised his head.

At that moment, the fog in my mind almost completely dissipated.

The dusk outside the floor-to-ceiling window cast a faint, nostalgic dark orange-red on his body; with his long fingers folded in front of him, Chai Si looked almost peaceful and calm.

He leaned against the back of the sofa, his long legs stretched out and his feet crossed in front of him.

Fu Tai Lan did not provide a footstool with this sofa.

Sitting on the ground, being used as a footstool for Chai Si to prop up his feet, was a man with a grim face and tied up.

Chai Si looked at Fu Tailan and smiled slowly; his teeth were very neat, close together and dark white, as if he had torn too much flesh and blood, and was stained with a layer of dead soul that could not be washed off.

The gun... was returned to the Morgan family's supplies department. Fu Tailan looked at his father lying on the ground, then at Chai Si. He closed his eyes and let out a long, deep sigh.

"Are you unhappy to see your father?" Chai Si tilted his head, and a gleam of light appeared on his neatly combed black hair.

"look……"

As he spoke, he gently lifted one foot and placed the heel on Fu Han's shoulder, tapping it up and down, causing Fu Han to sink several inches. "This is the fundamental difference between us."

Fu Tailan wanted to say something, but Fu Han spoke first, calling out tremblingly: "Xiao Tai... W-What's going on? Why is he..."

He doesn't often call himself Xiaotai. He says it reminds him of Fu Tailan's mother.

Fu Tailan pinched the corners of his eyes.

...I have a headache.

If only I had taken a few painkillers before leaving the clinic.

The products that hunters sell are special, and the channels through which they obtain them are also special, but that’s all.

To put it bluntly, the essence of this industry is business, and it’s all about money.

Just like steel sellers won't assassinate each other, hunters are not willing to shed blood easily; they are all in the same industry, and unless they absolutely have to snatch food from each other's mouths, it is best to leave a way out for them.

There are not many times when one has to fight for his life - after all, life is more important than money - and the situation like this, where one's fangs are exposed and the family is in danger, is the first time even between Fu Tailan and Chai Si.

"Don't talk anymore," Fu Tailan said to Fu Han, but she didn't even look at him. She just stared at Chai Si and said, "Let me think about it."

He and Chai Si had always disliked each other, but that wasn't enough to allow the latter to suddenly kidnap Fu Han. As for what had changed between this time and the last time they met, Fu Tailan could only think of one thing.

key.

However, even if Chai Si knew that the key was in his hands, if he thought it was just a precious fake, he would not declare war so openly; the fact that he was sitting here could only mean one thing.

...Chai Si was recruited by the Nest?
It's ridiculous. He's not even a hunter and doesn't have any access.

Is the nest too hungry to eat anything?
If he really had the opportunity and became a contestant... then even if what happened today didn't happen, Chai Si must die.

I guess Chai Si feels the same way about him.

"Your face..." Chai Si's eyes suddenly turned to Fu Tailan's bandaged wound. "What happened?"

Ok?
"Are you concerned about me? I'm so touched."

As Fu Tailan was speaking, she suddenly walked a few steps to another sofa and sat down - which scared Fu Han.

Who cares? He is almost unable to hold on. If Chai Si kills Fu Han because he sits down, it can only be considered that Fu Han is unlucky.

"I envy you for not having to endure this kind of suffering," Fu Tailan said, touching the bandage on his face. "I was hit by a resident in the nest. It hurt so much."

Chai Si was unmoved. "When did you get hurt?"

Why is this greasy cockroach head asking this?

Fu Tailan was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Last night."

Chase thought for a few seconds and said, "...take off the bandage."

How to say it, if he had a gun in his hand, Fu Tailan felt that he would shoot Chai Si to death first, and then shoot Fu Han to death.

He was silent for a moment, then reached out and removed the bandage. The nurse would definitely be unhappy.

Across half of the living room, Chai Si looked at his injury for a while - Fu Tailan looked really ugly at the moment; the wound was swollen and had several stitches.

"...It seems that you were really injured. Where were you between midnight and one o'clock on the 20th?" Chai Si asked with a frown, not knowing what he was thinking about.

Last night? What happened?
"I told you you can't go anyway," Fu Tailan said sympathetically. "If you really like it, I'll take some photos of the nest for you next time and let you put them on the refrigerator."

Fu Han was so anxious that his eyes bulged out, but he pretended not to see it.

Chai Si seemed not to hear it. He neither got angry nor replied. He just crossed his arms, as if he had encountered a difficult problem that he couldn't figure out.

"Impossible..." He muttered to himself, glancing at Fu Tailan. "Strange."

No way? He really accepted his answer?
Although Fu Tailan was telling the truth, he felt that Chai Si believed him too easily - Chai Si should have known to be wary of his lies.

It seemed like... there was something else in this that he hadn't discovered yet, but Chai Si already knew.

"I really didn't find what I was looking for," Chai Si whispered, his large hand waving subconsciously, his fingers like long white branches that began to close at night. "Neither in your house, nor here..."

Is it the key?

Fu Tailan held back and didn't ask.

If Chai Si wasn't looking for the key, he couldn't tell him the news about the Nest Domination Game.

"Now I have two questions. Your answers will determine whether you will become an orphan."

Fu Tailan finally swallowed back the words "Like you?"

"First, have there been any fake images that can imitate appearance circulating recently?" Chai Si asked.

Fu Tailan was stunned and suddenly understood.

Someone imitated me? That's why Chai Si asked where he was last night?
That's right... No wonder I wanted to see his injuries just now. The scars on his face were new, and the person imitating him didn't know that yet.

"I haven't heard of it," Fu Tailan said honestly. "At least the Morgan family didn't get involved."

Chai Si said nothing.

He looked at the back of Fu Han's head, his expression almost calm, but the wet reflection on Fu Han's forehead could not disappear.

"The second one isn't a question, it's... an order." Chai Si glanced at him and smiled. "It doesn't matter. You'll find out sooner or later anyway."

Fu Tailan raised his eyes.

"The key in your hand," Shibashi said calmly, spreading out one hand. "It's the 'key' that belongs to one of the seven target artifacts. Give it to me."

　The latest chapters are quite long, eh? It's not good to be long, it just reduces subscriptions. By the way, I really want to thank the fraudster shou—fraudster gong—no, Silver Alliance, for organizing the schedule, otherwise today's chapter might have been wrong again...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)