Max Level Return—I'll Protect That Fragile One

Grandpa Xie tilted his head and scrutinized Huo Wen’an for a long moment before saying, ”Did you get beaten while in prison? Why have you lost so much weight?”

Huo Wen’an: ”...”

Uncle Xie quickly explained, ”He fell ill.”

Grandpa Xie’s gaze at Huo Wen’an turned even more sympathetic. He sighed and said, ”Poor thing, even got beaten into illness.”

Xu Xingguang held back a laugh and quickly lowered her head to eat sunflower seeds.

Huo Wen’an was silent for a while before saying, ”Grandpa Xie, I want to ask you about the mental hospital in our town.”

Grandpa Xie pursed his lips, staring intently at the sunflower seeds.

Seeing this, Xu Xingguang gave all the sunflower seeds she had just peeled to Grandpa Xie. Grandpa Xie’s hands were still mobile; only his right arm was injured when he fell.

He took the sunflower seeds with his left hand, thought for a while, and then asked, ”What do you want to know?”

”How old is Grandpa Xie this year?” Huo Wen’an asked a question unrelated to the mental hospital.

Grandpa Xie thought for a moment and asked Uncle Xie, ”How old am I this year?”

Uncle Xie was speechless and said, ”Dad, you’re 79 this year.”

Grandpa Xie grunted and told Huo Wen’an, ”79.”

”79 years old.” Huo Wen’an asked Grandpa Xie, ”Grandpa Xie, do you remember what the mental hospital was originally called?”

Uncle Xie instinctively said, ”Wasn’t it just called a mental hospital from the beginning?”

But Grandpa Xie said, ”It was an institute.”

Uncle Xie was a bit surprised, ”Dad, did you remember it wrong?”

Grandpa Xie shook his head and said, ”It’s true. Your grandfather was the cook there, but the institute didn’t operate for long. It mysteriously shut down. After some years, it reopened as a mental hospital.”

”After it became a mental hospital, your grandfather remained a cook inside. I was able to work in the mental hospital smoothly all thanks to your grandfather. By the way,” Grandpa Xie glanced at Aunt Cang and continued to tell Uncle Xie, ”Cang Yu’s grandfather was once the driver for the old dean. When Cang Yu was young, he had a fever that nearly damaged his brain. It was the old dean who helped treat his illness.”

Uncle Xie responded with an ”oh” and continued peeling potatoes.

Huo Wen’an asked Grandpa Xie again, ”Where is that old dean from?”

”He’s from Cangshan Town.” Grandpa Xie pointed towards the end of the town and said, ”His house is the last one at the end of the town because it’s closest to Cangshan. The old dean liked smoking dry tobacco, so he had a large area of tobacco planted in Cangshan.”

”When I was young, I helped the old dean dry the tobacco.”

Hearing this, Xu Xingguang, who was munching on sunflower seeds, suddenly bit her tongue. Huo Wen’an noticed Xu Xingguang’s reaction and guessed what was going through her mind, so he asked Grandpa Xie, ”Was the old dean’s surname Mo?”

Grandpa Xie shook his head, saying, ”I think it was Ying.”

The surname Ying matched what was in the records.

It seemed the old man who loved smoking dry tobacco wasn’t Xu Xingguang’s grandfather.

But then Grandpa Xie added, ”In his later years, he adopted a pair of kids. The boy took his surname Ying, and he became the well-known Doctor Ying in our town. Back then, anyone with any serious or minor illness would go to him; he was even better than the doctors in big city hospitals.”

Uncle Xie suddenly realized, saying, ”So Doctor Ying’s father was the old dean!” Uncle Xie recalled, ”I should have seen his father when I was a child. He was a grumpy old man, quite fierce.”

”But later on, I never saw him again. Maybe he passed away quietly due to old age.”

Grandpa Xie replied, ”He didn’t die; he went back to his hometown for retirement. But yes, he must not be around anymore.”

”Grandpa Xie.” Xu Xingguang handed Grandpa Xie more sunflower seeds and gently asked, ”You mentioned that the old dean adopted two children. What happened to the other child?”

Grandpa Xie thought for a moment and said, ”The other was a girl. I forgot her surname, but the old dean always called her Girl Mo. She wasn’t technically his foster daughter; I think she was the daughter of an old friend, and he was just helping to raise her.”

The old dean loved smoking dry tobacco and lived in the last house at the town’s end. His adopted son was Doctor Ying, and his foster daughter was a girl with the surname Mo.

All the evidence pointed to Xu Xingguang’s grandfather.

Xu Xingguang was in turmoil, and afterward, it was mostly Huo Wen’an asking questions while she merely listened.

When Huo Wen’an inquired about the murder case involving the mental hospital dean, Grandpa Xie suddenly lost control of his emotions. ”Dean Wang couldn’t possibly be a murderous lunatic!”

Grandpa Xie sat up straight abruptly. In his agitation, his eyes bulged slightly as he passionately stated, ”Dean Wang was a very kind and amiable person. Even if patients inside suddenly lost control and injured him, he would just smile and never get upset with them.”

”Sometimes when our Cang Yu fell ill, Dean Wang even took the initiative to let me take her to the hospital for treatment. I remember very clearly, on the afternoon of the incident, Dean Wang found me and asked me to find someone trustworthy to buy two fresh fish from the Cangshan River, saying that his son was coming back from the city and he liked eating fresh fish.”

”Tell me, how could such a kind person, who looks forward to a family reunion with his son, be a murderous monster?”

Uncle Xie hurriedly stood up to soothe his father’s back, waiting for him to calm down before asking, ”Dad, you were the one who called the police that night, why did Dean Wang commit murder that night?”

Recalling the events of that night, Grandpa Xie began to tremble in fear.

He said in terror, ”That night, I was carrying the fresh fish I bought from the Zhang Family upstream of the river to the hospital to find Dean Wang. When I reached his dormitory and found he was not there, I put the fish in a bucket in his yard and went to the office to look for him. His office was on the third floor, and when I reached the second floor, I saw blood on the stairs and realized something terrible had happened.”

”I thought it was a patient in the hospital who had a meltdown and was going to kill. Worried for the dean’s safety, I first ran downstairs to report to the police, then grabbed a shovel from the tool room and rushed to the third floor. I intended to save the dean, but as I ran to the third floor, I saw several corpses!”

”In all my years, I’ve never seen so much blood. The whole stairway was covered, with blood flowing down the steps and dripping onto my hair...” Grandpa Xie stretched out his left hand to touch his hair, his voice trembling, ”There were eight or nine bodies lying on the ground!”

Upon hearing this, Uncle Xie’s complexion changed, and he quickly put down the potato in his hand, got up, and took Aunt Cang, who was standing under the eaves, back into the house, locking her in the kitchen so she wouldn’t hear these blood-curdling words.

Both Huo Wen’an and Xu Xingguang could feel the old man’s fear and panic. They exchanged glances, both realizing that Dean Wang’s madness hid another conspiracy.

”Grandpa Xie, did you actually go up to the third floor?”

Grandpa Xie widened his eyes, staring at the dim sky of dusk, silent for a long moment before saying, ”I went up, and I saw Dean Wang, he...”

Grandpa Xie closed his eyes, his lips trembling uncontrollably.

He said, ”He was biting a patient’s face like a wolf.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xingguang’s expression became serious, ”Did he exhibit any other abnormalities at that time?”

Grandpa Xie shook his head repeatedly, lamenting, ”I was so scared I was senseless at the time. The shovel in my hand fell to the floor, and Dean Wang, hearing the noise, lifted his head to stare straight at me, as if he wanted to tear me apart.”

”I...” Grandpa Xie said pale-faced, ”My legs went weak, and I practically rolled downstairs. If it weren’t for a little girl suddenly picking up the shovel and knocking him out, I fear I would have died that night!”

”A little girl?” Huo Wen’an’s heart skipped a beat, and he asked urgently, ”What did the little girl look like?”

Grandpa Xie said, ”I don’t know, I don’t remember. The lights were so dim that night, everything I saw was blood-red. How could I remember what she looked like? However, when the police arrived, she seemed to have disappeared.”

Grandpa Xie rubbed his stiff, cold face and lamented, ”That night, Dean Wang didn’t look human at all. But I still feel that wasn’t the real Dean Wang. How could a father who eagerly anticipates a reunion with his child and talks about making grilled fish for his son turn into a murder maniac?”

”There has to be something strange about this!”

”However, Dean Wang was killed that night, and his son became the son of a murder maniac and could no longer live in Yujiang City. After that, I never saw Dean Wang’s son again and never went to the psychiatric hospital again.”

Grandpa Xie sighed deeply, ”I have a psychological shadow over that place.”

Leaving the Xie Family, not a word was spoken on the way back.

It wasn’t until they stood at the entrance of Uncle Xie’s car shop, beside the electric scooter, that Xu Xingguang broke the silence, ”That girl was Huo Xin.”

Now, Xu Xingguang was eager to meet Yin Su and talk with her about these matters in detail.

”I always felt that Yin Su’s unwillingness to acknowledge you might not necessarily be due to hatred,” Xu Xingguang said, her brow furrowing deeply with unease, ”Huo Xin might have her reasons.”

”Xingguang.” Huo Wen’an suddenly grabbed Xu Xingguang’s hand.

Xu Xingguang was surprised to find Huo Wen’an’s hand unusually cold.

”Huo Wen’an, what’s wrong?”

Huo Wen’an leaned gently against Xu Xingguang’s shoulder, his voice trembling, ”Yin Su seems like a normal person now, but how was her condition cured? Why was she there on the night Dean Wang went crazy?”

”Xingguang, don’t you think Dean Wang’s behavior after going mad seemed less like insanity and more like a mutation?”

Xu Xingguang felt her chest grow hollow.

She knew what Huo Wen’an was worried about.

”Are you suspecting that Dean Wang used something abnormal to experiment on Huo Xin, the experiment succeeded, and Huo Xin became normal, but Dean Wang was counterattacked by that thing?”

Huo Wen’an nodded lightly.

”If all my suspicions are correct, then Huo Xin staying to work at the Cangshan Nursing Home is no coincidence.” Huo Wen’an suddenly made a bold decision and said, ”Xingguang, tonight I am going to explore the psychiatric hospital.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Xingguang said, ”I’ll go with you.”