CHAPTER 910: CHAPTER 462: OUTBREAK

The VIP ward area on the top floor of the hospital is known for its privacy and tranquility.

Thick carpets are laid in the corridors, enough to absorb any noise.

But at this moment, it appeared exceptionally noisy here.

Nurses hurriedly pushed carts with instruments, with syringes, medicine bottles, and monitors placed in the trolleys, busy changing IV drips for various wards.

Doors to the wards were being opened frequently as doctors, with solemn expressions, entered and exited, whispering to each other.

Suppressed groans, cries of pain, and anxious inquiries from family members mixed together, enveloping the entire floor with an atmosphere of panic.

Fang Cheng, Bai Ling, and Pan Wendi had just stepped out of the elevator when Lin Chuqiao immediately approached them.

"You finally came back."

The relief in her voice brought a slight relaxation to her previously tense face.

"What happened?"

Fang Cheng scanned the chaos before him, asking solemnly:

"Who in the Chen Family got into trouble?"

"It’s not just one, it’s many."

Lin Chuqiao turned her head, looking at the wards with lights on both sides of the corridor.

Hearing this, Fang Cheng was slightly taken aback and followed her gaze.

Through the glass windows on the doors, he could vaguely see the scenes inside.

Some patients lay in bed, appearing to be in a deep sleep, but their brows were tightly knitted, faces full of agony.

Their exposed arms and calves were dotted with dense red spots, as if they were pricked by needles.

Other patients sat at the head of the bed, with IV drips hanging on them, occasionally letting out muffled groans.

Despite the intense pain, they dared not change to a more comfortable position to lie down.

Suddenly, a heart-wrenching cry came from a room on the left.

A seven or eight-year-old boy abruptly sat up from the bed, as if having a nightmare, crying out:

"It hurts! It hurts! Mom, I don’t want to sleep in the bed, something is pricking me!"

A stately woman was sitting by the bed, her eyes red as she softly comforted the child over and over again,

A nurse quickly ran in upon hearing and skillfully administered a sedative to the boy.

Chen Xu’an was also in the ward.

He stood by the bed, one hand resting on the boy’s shoulder, comforting him with a soft voice, his eyes full of anxiousness.

His other hand hanging by his side was tightly clenched into a fist, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

From the way the woman addressed Chen Xu’an, it could be deduced that this boy was Chen Qirong’s son, his biological nephew.

Fang Cheng furrowed his brows slightly, retracting his gaze from the ward to look at Lin Chuqiao:

"These people, were they also affected by the Needle Curse?"

Lin Chuqiao nodded:

"Not long after you left, members of the Chen Family who were guarding outside the matriarch’s ward started showing symptoms one after another, first yelling about body pain, then collapsing on the ground."

"The onset situation resembles the matriarch, though not as severe, but the doctors have been researching for half a day and are still helpless."

"They even suspect this to be a rare genetic neuralgia with familial clustering characteristics and are debating whether to report it to the disease control center."

She paused and added:

"Those collateral relatives were scared of being implicated, making excuses to leave, even that Chen Qiming, seeing the situation wasn’t right, was the first to run away in fright."

Upon hearing this, Bai Ling’s face turned visibly paler, and with a trembling voice, she asked:

"Then... we ate the food made by the Chen Family last night and drank their water. Could we have been cursed too..."

"Quite possible!"

Pan Wendi leaned in, deliberately lowered his voice, and spoke in a mysteriously eerie tone:

"The documentary I watched last night mentioned that some Black Magic Masters might mix corpse oil with insect eggs, secretly adding them into food."

"The insects burrow into your stomach. Normally, you won’t feel anything, but when it activates, it’ll gnaw away your insides from the inside out..."

"Wendi!"

Lin Chuqiao glared at him fiercely.

Pan Wendi immediately shrugged, made a gesture of "I’ll shut up," and tactfully stepped aside.

"The Needle Curse is different from ordinary Poisonous and Gu Curses."

Seeing Bai Ling’s face pale, lips trembling, Lin Chuqiao softened her tone and explained:

"Don’t listen to his nonsense. The Needle Curse differs from ordinary Poisonous and Gu Curses. To avoid detection, the caster must administer the materials for the ’Black Magic Needle’ in small doses over a long time through food, and it only activates through accumulation."

"Even if there was a problem with what we ate last night, with our bodies as power users, that small amount would’ve already been metabolized and would pose no harm."

She paused and glanced toward the ward:

"Those in the Chen Family clearly lived in such an environment for a long time, unconsciously accumulating the doses, leading to a collective outbreak of symptoms."

Hearing this, Bai Ling finally breathed a sigh of relief, patting her chest.

Lin Chuqiao turned to look at the contemplative Fang Cheng and continued:

"So far, nine people have fallen ill, and I’ve checked their identities. They are all direct members who just came out of the Chen Family Secret Realm."

"Obviously, the perpetrator seized this opportunity to strike hard at the Chen Family."

Upon hearing this, Fang Cheng’s eyes flashed:

"Previously, the perpetrator targeted individual targets. Now, striking in large scale, what’s his intention?"

"I guess he may have learned about our official operation plan for tomorrow, sensed the threat, and acted early to weaken the Chen Family’s strengths, making us lose support."

Lin Chuqiao stared firmly at Chen Xu’an in the ward, then voiced her speculation.

"Isn’t this guy too ruthless?"

Pan Wendi couldn’t help but interject again: