“Fellow Daoist,” and again, “Fellow Daoist.”
Do people nowadays all like to address others in this manner?
But that wasn't the main point.
Lying by the toilet was a woman. Because she was curled up, An Chen couldn't determine her exact height, but he estimated her to be around 1.7 meters. Her figure was well-proportioned, but overall, she was still quite slender, and her limbs were quite pale… slender!
An Chen swallowed, his heart unknowingly quickening.
The woman looked young, appearing to be just a girl on the cusp of adulthood, with a hint of childishness still lingering on her face.
Her appearance could certainly be considered very beautiful; her unadorned face was already sufficiently delicate and alluring.
If she matured for another two years, perhaps she could become a great beauty.
However, what made An Chen nervous wasn't why such a beautiful woman appeared in his home, but the dark red and somewhat congealed blood beneath her.
She was injured.
Analyzing the amount of blood on the bathroom floor, she had lost at least over 800cc of blood. Coupled with her pale complexion and weakly hanging limbs, An Chen was certain she was severely injured.
An Chen's gaze fixed on a patch of dark red on the woman's waist.
On her green robes, this large bloodstain was very obvious.
After speaking those few words, the woman tilted her head and her eyes drooped weakly.
An Chen, like an observer, overlooked every detail of the bathroom, but did nothing.
However, at this point, An Chen couldn't care about anything else. He pushed the bathroom door fully open and, taking a few quick steps, knelt beside the woman.
He had some first-aid knowledge and even a slight understanding of medical knowledge. While this wouldn't enable him to perform surgery, cleaning wounds and analyzing injuries was easy for him.
The woman only had this one external injury. An Chen did find some bruises elsewhere, but they were not serious.
An Chen walked into the living room, took out his medical kit, retrieved gauze, alcohol swabs, and other supplies. He then took out a pair of scissors, went into the kitchen to sterilize them at high heat on the gas stove, then turned off the flame and returned to the bathroom with these items.
An Chen took a deep breath, cut open the clothing on the woman's waist. Without tweezers, he gently used his hand to remove blood clots and clothing fragments from around the wound, then simply cleaned the wound before he could examine it.
The wound was about three fingers long, and its depth seemed considerable, having at least damaged several blood vessels.
“Caused by a sharp object.”
An Chen made his judgment, his gaze sliding to the side, landing on a blood-stained longsword on the other side of the toilet.
This person also had a sword.
The “murder weapon” was very likely such a longsword. Of course, there was no reason for the woman in front of him to stab herself.
However, An Chen didn't think much about it at the moment.
Saving a life was the priority now.
But when his gaze returned to the wound, to An Chen's astonishment, new flesh had already grown at the injury site.
For ordinary people, this was absolutely impossible.
For such a wound to recover to this extent, it would take at least a week, but the woman in front of him had clearly only just been injured a short while ago…
An Chen extended his fingers and placed them on the woman's carotid artery. He was surprised to find that the woman's pulse was still quite strong, completely unlike the state a person who had lost too much blood should be in.
He immediately noticed the woman's hand resting on her right side, beneath her body. In her palm was a white jade bottle.
An Chen picked up the jade bottle, shook it, and found that there was still something inside. Turning it over, a small black spherical object, resembling a large Liuwei Dihuang pill, fell into his palm.
The surface of this object was a bit hard, but it could probably be crushed with force. It smelled of a peculiar fragrance…
An Chen pried open the woman's mouth, extended his nose, and sniffed. Indeed, he smelled a faint, peculiar fragrance.
The woman had just eaten this thing.
There was only this one black pill left in the white jade bottle, probably dropped by the woman when she poured some out to consume.
This thing… could it heal injuries?
An Chen's eyes shifted. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the black pill in his hand, and sniffed it again.
Finally, An Chen sighed softly and put the item back into the white jade bottle.
This was not his item, and he could not fully confirm its function, so he dared not use it rashly.
If it was something to be ingested, it was better to be cautious.
An Chen took out his phone and dialed 120.
This woman was probably not in serious danger; her eventual unconsciousness was merely a temporary lack of Qi and blood, and she might recover after some time.
His thumb was just about to tap the dial button when An Chen suddenly paused.
He had no money.
Even if he sent the woman in front of him to the hospital, he wouldn't be able to pay her medical bills.
An Chen suddenly remembered that she was also carrying a sharp object and strange pills.
The thought of the blood still on the longsword sent a chill down An Chen's spine.
Should he call 110 and have this person arrested?
But he had no way to explain the woman's origins.
An Chen's memory suddenly began to rewind, returning to when he came home and unlocked the door.
The door was no different from when he left in the morning. There were no extra stains on the floor by the door or in the entryway, let alone blood.
And in the distance between the entryway and the bathroom, there were no stains or bloodstains whatsoever; all the bloodstains were concentrated in the bathroom.
It was as if the woman had appeared directly in the bathroom.
The blood on the floor was already semi-congealed but not completely solidified, indicating that the blood had been flowing for only about ten minutes.
At that time… it was probably six o'clock.
This amount of time was not enough for the woman to clean up stains elsewhere in the house, and present him with only a bathroom that looked like a crime scene.
If he didn't overthink it, then there was only one conclusion…
The woman had appeared out of thin air in the bathroom.
An Chen suddenly felt a splitting headache.
But how… how was that possible?
He couldn't tell the police this conclusion. If the outdoor surveillance also didn't capture this person, then he truly wouldn't be able to explain himself.
So, he couldn't call the police.
An Chen took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
“Such a hassle…”
An Chen bent down, picked up the longsword, and then took the scabbard from the woman's waist. After some thought, he threw it onto the balcony. Then he walked into the inner room, pulled out a utility box, found what he needed, and then walked into the bathroom, looking at the weak figure. He stood motionless for a long time, finally muttering to himself:
“What exactly happened? Why are there so many strange things?”
