I picked up a boyfriend in the infinite game

Chapter 241, 4th Hall, 6

The silence was like a damp cotton wad, heavy and pressing on people's hearts. Even the wind outside stopped, leaving only the faint breathing sounds on the communal bed, as light as a feather falling to the ground.

Chen Wenyu slept restlessly. Ever since his memory became abnormal, things he forgot during the day would always replay in another form, perhaps as fleeting fragments, or like now, appearing in his dreams.

Chen Wenyu knew he was dreaming. He stood in front of the medicine cabinet, which was filled with neatly arranged medicines. Song Guicheng and Shi Sui were organizing equipment, Lin Caiwen was flipping through a data record book, and Su Xiao was sweeping the floor and wiping the table.

The overhead light flickered, casting a long shadow of him as he bent down to organize medicines onto the mottled wall. He was tiptoeing, putting a stack of glass medicine bottles into the upper shelf, his fingertips handling the bottles with extra care. Most of these bottles had fine scratches, and the labels were yellowed and curled, making the writing on them only visible when you got close.

“Aspirin… erythromycin…” Chen Wenyu read out the names of the medicines while ticking them off on the list in his hand with a pencil, the tip making a soft scratching sound as it scratched the paper. He was meticulous in everything he did, even when it came to organizing medicines, he would arrange them neatly according to pharmacology. However, his memory was terrible; he would finish checking one bottle and then forget the location of the previous one, having to constantly turn back to check the list, a thin layer of sweat already beading on his forehead.

Suddenly, the medicine bottle label on my fingertip wobbled.

Chen Wenyu was stunned for a moment, thinking it was a problem with the lighting. He blinked and leaned closer to take a closer look. The label that had clearly said "injection solution" just now seemed to come alive, the paper surface undulating slightly, the black ink twisting and fading, gradually revealing a dark red, wet outline.

It's the heart.

A fresh, still-beating heart, its surface covered with fine blood vessels and its edges oozing dark red blood droplets, as if it had just been dug out of a warm chest cavity, and even the sweet, metallic scent seemed to overflow from the label.

heart?

heart?!

……

……

The kerosene lamp in the main room had burned down to the bottom, its last bit of light shrinking to the size of a bean, barely illuminating the shadows in the corner of the room.

Song Guicheng leaned against the wall, closing his eyes to rest, his breathing even, but his hand never left the dagger. He wasn't really asleep; his senses were like a fully drawn bowstring, constantly on edge. The night in this instance was too quiet, unnaturally quiet.

Suddenly, a very soft rustling sound entered my ears.

It wasn't the sound of wind, nor was it the sound of mice gnawing on wood. The sound was faint, damp, and had a slightly grinding, sluggish quality, like something tearing at coarse hemp with its teeth, the soft sound of fibers snapping drifting in through the crack in the door. It didn't seem to be coming from inside the house, but rather from the direction of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Song Guicheng's eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly, and his body tensed instantly. He opened his eyes, his pupils appearing exceptionally clear in the dim light, and listened intently.

Something was slowly and persistently tearing at something with a chilling patience. By ear alone, the sound was very rhythmic, one bite after another, occasionally interspersed with the "ripping" sound of a burlap sack being torn apart, with a slightly sticky dampness, mechanically and stubbornly gnawing. Gradually, it didn't sound like gnawing at a burlap sack, but rather like gnawing at... something with texture.

Song Guicheng's fingertips twitched slightly, and he was about to raise his hand to wake Sun Zhida beside him when a sudden change occurred.

Chen Wenyu's voice suddenly rose, sharp and piercing, exploding in the deathly silent room: "Brother! Heart, heart!"

A short, sharp scream abruptly shattered the silence, startling dust from the roof beams and causing it to fall in a flurry. It was a hazy, dreamlike scream, yet it conveyed an overwhelming sense of terror.

Sun Zhida abruptly stood up, slamming the iron rod in his hand onto the ground with a clang, and asked in a deep voice, "What happened?"

Almost everyone on the communal bed was awakened at the same time. Shi Sui reacted the fastest, sitting up abruptly, rubbing his eyes and cursing, "What's going on? Has the zombie come back to life?"

Lin Caiwen also propped herself up and sat up, her brows furrowed, her hands on the bed board, and asked in a deep voice, "Chen Wenyu? What's wrong?" Her voice was hoarse from just waking up, but it was calm, clearly indicating that she had been on guard immediately after being startled awake.

Zhao Xiaoyun raised her hand to tidy her messy curly hair, her eyes showing displeasure at being disturbed, but even more so worry: "Xiaoyu, what happened?"

Song Guicheng strode into the room, his gaze falling on Chen Wenyu. Chen Wenyu sat on the edge of the bed, his chest heaving violently, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his hair sticking to his skin, his eyes staring unfocused ahead, as if he hadn't yet escaped from a dream.

He gasped for breath, his mouth agape, before finally finding his voice, which trembled with sobs as he stammered, "Label...the medicine label...I remember!"

He abruptly turned to look at Song Guicheng, his eyes bloodshot, his fingers trembling violently as he pointed in the direction of the clinic: "During the day... when I was organizing the medicine cabinet, there was a medicine bottle label that suddenly turned into a heart! A living heart, still beating, covered in blood... I forgot about it then, but I suddenly remembered it in a dream just now! It's true!"

He spoke more and more urgently, cold sweat streaming down his face and dripping onto his shirt, leaving a small, dark stain. He had clearly seen it with his own eyes, yet he couldn't quite describe the details. Now, the memory exploded in his dream, and the vivid sensation and the metallic smell still seemed to be stuck in his throat.

The room fell silent instantly upon hearing this.

Shi Sui raised an eyebrow, all sleepiness vanishing from her face. She stroked her chin thoughtfully: "Heart? That's exciting?"

Lin Caiwen's expression darkened as she looked at Chen Wenyu: "Are you sure you saw it clearly? It's not a lighting issue?"

"It's true!" Chen Wenyu was almost crying, gesturing frantically. "It's that glass bottle. The words on the label suddenly disappeared, and it turned into a red blob... wet, with blood droplets dripping down... I was so scared that my hand trembled, and the bottle fell... Then, when I looked again, it turned back into a label..."

"Which medicine bottle?" Song Guicheng placed his hand on Chen Wenyu's shoulder, the dry warmth seeping through his clothes to Chen Wenyu, carrying a soothing gentleness. "Is it the one that broke during the day?"

Chen Wenyu nodded vigorously, his words tumbling out incoherently, the fear in his eyes growing ever clearer: "That heart looks so painful... it looks like it's crying..."

Startled, Su Xiao shrank back to Lin Caiwen, then looked at Chen Wenyu in the last glimmer of light, her face pale: "Crying?"

"Cry?" Shi Sui raised an eyebrow. "The tag can cry? This dungeon is pretty fancy."

Zhang Haoqing looked impatient and snorted coldly, "You take dreams seriously? What a fuss."

No one cares about him.

Song Guicheng's gaze fell on Chen Wenyu, then turned towards the supply and marketing cooperative outside. The rustling sound had stopped sometime earlier, as if it had never happened.

He recalled Chen Wenyu's panic when he broke the medicine bottle during the day, the smell of formaldehyde he had caught, and the rustling sounds coming from the direction of the supply and marketing cooperative. These fragments strung together in his mind like a cold snake crawling up his spine.

Lin Caiwen had already taken out a match and relit the kerosene lamp. The orange glow spread out, dispelling some of the chill in the air.

"The drug label turned into a heart..." Lin Caiwen repeated softly, her fingertips tapping lightly on her knee. "This is definitely not a coincidence." She looked at Song Guicheng. "Did you notice anything similar at the clinic this evening?"

Song Guicheng shook his head, his gaze deep and somber. Outside, the silence returned, so profound it was unsettling.

“There was some noise from the supply and marketing cooperative just now,” he said in a low voice, but it was clear to everyone. “It sounded like something was gnawing on a sack.”

The moment those words were spoken, the air in the room seemed to freeze.

Chen Wenyu's face turned even paler, and he subconsciously shrank back behind Song Guicheng.

Sun Zhida gripped the iron rod tightly and said in a deep voice, "I'll go take a look."

"Wait a minute." Song Guicheng stopped him, looking at the kerosene lamp that had been lit again. "It's almost 1:30 now, and the curfew isn't over yet." He paused, then added, "Besides, the commotion stopped too suddenly."

It seemed like... they were startled by the noise inside the house.

The kerosene lamp wick flickered gently, casting the shadows of the crowd on the wall, sometimes long, sometimes short, like a group of silent observers.

Chen Wenyu finally remembered the "heart," the gnawing sounds that suddenly disappeared in the supply and marketing cooperative, and that damned curfew... The tranquility of the first night was eventually torn open, revealing the blood-soaked eeriness hidden beneath.

Song Guicheng spoke, his voice carrying a reassuring quality: "The fact that Chen Wenyu can remember is a clue." He looked at Lin Caiwen, "The problem with the medicine is confirmed."

Zhao Xiaoyun sighed, got up and walked to Chen Wenyu's side, handing him a clean handkerchief: "Wipe your sweat, it's alright. It's good that you can remember, at least we know which direction to investigate in."

Lin Caiwen nodded in agreement: "That's right, it's a good thing. It's almost dawn, so everyone should stay alert for the rest of the time and not fall into a deep sleep."

Shi Sui yawned, lay back down on the bed, but didn't close his eyes. Looking at the roof beam, he slowly said, "It seems that the plague in this case is related to the heart." He paused, as if talking to himself, "Or rather, it's related to 'heart-pulling'."

No one objected, except Zhang Haoqing who spat out, "Playing hard to get!"

In the latter half of the night, everyone went to sleep or rested with their eyes closed. They were all experienced high-level players, and this anomaly was not enough to throw them into disarray.

The clues have surfaced; we just need to follow them and investigate further.

The only thing that unsettled them was that the clues had surfaced, and death was not far off. Who would start this dance of death? No one wanted it to be them.

Song Guicheng sat back on the small stool, but his gaze went past the door and towards the supply and marketing cooperative.

The rustling sound stopped, but the sticky feeling he had just sensed overlapped with Chen Wenyu's description of a bloodstained heart. Could a heart be associated with sacrifice? His desire to go to the ancestral hall grew even clearer.