**Headache.**

It felt like there was a stapler in his head, constantly hammering nails, with sharp pains coming in waves. He seemed to hear the piercing sound of glass shattering from when his parents used to argue.

“Have you ever taken care of your son? All these years, all you do is drink. Can you even manage this family?”

“Family? Who bought this house? Who bought this furniture? Damn it, you only remember when I get my paycheck but forget where that money comes from.”

“I don’t care about these things!”

“You don’t care, huh? I’ll smash it! I’ll smash it! You don’t care, right? I’ll smash it! I don’t want any of it!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Get away! Everyone, get away! Li Cu covered his ears tightly and jolted awake, immediately seeing the white canopy above his bed and the fluorescent light beside it.

He gasped for air, struggling to breathe as the arguing faded away. He forced his eyes wide open until he could hear nothing at all.

A nurse was changing the IV bag and was startled by his movement. “Do you need to exert so much effort just to open your eyes? It’s like you’re transforming from a corpse.”

Li Cu squinted, thinking: What a nightmare, it’s been so long since I had such a vivid dream.

He gradually regained his composure and realized he was in a hospital, trying to remember how he ended up there. “How did I get here?” he spoke, only to find his throat surprisingly dry, with a strange taste lingering.

“You were found in an alley on Changpu Street. Someone hit you on the head with a brick over a dozen times. You have a moderate concussion and were unconscious without any awareness. Honestly, it’s surprising you’re alive here; you should be in a crematorium,” the nurse said, looking worn out from years of late-night shifts. “The doctor said you have a thick skull and a small brain, so you’re lucky.”

Only then did Li Cu remember what had happened. It seemed he had been robbed, and he wondered if he had been raped. If that were the case, he really didn’t want to live anymore. He checked his backside and felt nothing unusual. Thinking about that guy, covered in blood, he guessed he must have been out for revenge or was a hitman who robbed him on the side.

“I just heard my parents arguing. Was that a dream or auditory hallucination?” Li Cu touched his head and noticed an IV in his hand.

“No, I can still hear your parents arguing now,” the nurse replied. “A few days ago, they were shouting in the hallway. We had to ask them to leave so they wouldn’t be in the same room with you. You might not know this, but you’ve been in a coma for over ten days.”

“Damn!” Li Cu cursed inwardly and gritted his teeth to sit up. As soon as he moved, a sharp pain shot through his back, even worse than his head.

“My back is injured too,” Li Cu asked.

“Your back? Yes, it’s injured,” the nurse said. “It’s a knife wound; you’d better not touch it.”

“Shit, he even stabbed me?” Li Cu asked. “Wasn’t it just for that 500 bucks? Was it really necessary to be so brutal? Hitting me with a brick wasn’t enough?” At that moment, he noticed a strange expression on the nurse’s face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What do you mean, what’s wrong? Are you talking about that guy covered in injuries?” The nurse suddenly smiled. “He wasn’t in any better shape than you; he’s already dead.”

“Dead?” Li Cu was very surprised. “Did you kill him when you caught him?”

“No, when they found you, he was already dead beside you, having bled out. He was pressing tightly against you, and you were both connected by blood.”

Li Cu was stunned. After thinking for a moment, he understood what the nurse meant. It seemed that this unfortunate soul had died halfway through the robbery. It was indeed dramatic; if he hadn’t been knocked unconscious at the time, the police might have thought he was the one robbing the other. But if he was already that injured, why even attempt a robbery? Shouldn’t he have gone straight to the hospital? Did he not even have money for a taxi at that moment?

If I had known this would happen, he could have just borrowed from me.

Li Cu felt a pang of guilt, but then he reassured himself that it was the other person knocking him out that was the main reason for the misfortune.

The nurse smiled at him again and said, “You should get some rest.” With that, she pulled the curtain around his hospital bed. Li Cu pinched the bridge of his nose, suddenly feeling surreal. Just a few hours ago, he was thinking about which internet café to spend the night in, and now he was lying in a hospital bed, almost dead.

After more than ten days of sliding through the country, he felt very uncomfortable. When he moved a bit, he suddenly felt something strange; a wave of pain surged from his back. He suddenly remembered the nurse’s expression and felt something was off. He reached behind him and, in one motion, touched the wound on his back.

The wound should have stopped bleeding; there was gauze on the outside. He reached inside the gauze and felt the wound; it had already scabbed over, and touching it was a mix of pain and itchiness. As he touched it, cold sweat began to break out.

The more he touched, the more something felt wrong. Why did the shape of these wounds seem oddly peculiar? Were these really from knife cuts? Gritting his teeth, he turned over, his legs felt so weak that he almost collapsed to the ground. However, he managed to support himself against a nearby stool, ripped off the IV drip from his hand, and staggered to the bathroom, tearing off the gauze from his back. He turned to look at his back.

He was stunned, thinking, what is this? His entire back was etched with an extremely bizarre pattern. It was entirely carved with a knife; all the wounds had scabbed over, but it wasn’t just one or two cuts; there were hundreds of deep marks forming an incredibly terrifying scar.

“What kind of drawing is this?” He felt a chill all over his body, an indescribable fear coursing through him, and he couldn’t help but scream out loud.