Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 153

Chapter 153

Surrounded by ash-gray walls, Xinqing Mental Hospital only allowed one visitor per patient at a time. After completing the security check, He Xueyi stopped outside the visitation building and refused to go any further.

“Shop Manager Miss, if you need me, you can touch the Red Thread on your wrist. I will find a way to get to your side,” he said. Dressed in pure white as pristine as snow, his golden eyes shimmered with a cold light.

The Red Thread on Gu Huaiwei’s wrist was like a tattooed ring-painless and unobtrusive, but it served as a tracking device.

“Can’t you just climb over the wall?” Gu Huaiwei felt that bringing He Xueyi along would be safer, but it wasn’t possible through official channels.

“I cannot. That would be unethical.” He Xueyi didn’t even blush as he spoke such high-sounding words.

Gu Huaiwei gestured with her fingers. “Don’t you have some kind of invisibility technique? Or maybe you could just go ‘whoosh’ and disappear, then ‘whoosh’ and reappear, avoiding the surveillance cameras?”

“Shop Manager Miss, I am an upright and kind Assistant.” He Xueyi took a few elegant steps closer, his tone serious yet tinged with helplessness. “Please don’t incite me to do bad things.”

Gu Huaiwei silently complained in her heart. He had done plenty of unscrupulous things already.

Claiming to be upright and kind… she strongly suspected he was just trying to be lazy.

“Unreliable. Fine, just wait at the entrance. I’ll call you if anything happens.” Gu Huaiwei ignored him and walked inside alone.

A faint smile played on He Xueyi’s lips. “Shop Manager Miss, have a safe trip.”

The visitation room of the mental hospital was filled with the scent of disinfectant. The walls were padded with blue soft foam. Through a glass partition, Gu Huaiwei saw Yin Zhitao sitting by the edge of a bed.

Yin Zhitao was wearing a hospital gown, her long hair hanging messily and covering half her face. She held a laptop in her hands, which was playing the dating show previously hosted by the Oasis Matchmaking Agency.

“Damn ads, I can’t fast-forward! I hate these product placements! Even after paying for a VIP membership, there’s still ‘Advanced On-Demand’ fees!” Yin Zhitao poked the fast-forward key on the laptop irritably.

Seeing this, Gu Huaiwei placed her hand on the glass and said with a smile, “If you don’t mind spoilers, I can tell you the ending.”

Hearing the voice, Yin Zhitao turned her head. “Who are you?”

“The person who made an appointment to see you today.”

“Oh, I remember now. You’re the Operator of that Oasis Matchmaking Agency. I have something important to tell you.” Yin Zhitao set the laptop aside and tilted her head, her eyes glazed. “I thought you wouldn’t come. The electroconvulsive therapy always leaves my brain foggy. My memories keep having gaps.”

Despite these being very important matters, Yin Zhitao kept forgetting them.

“I received the message you sent, and it weighed on my mind. So, I applied to the hospital to see you in the name of a friend.” Since Gu Huaiwei was not a direct relative, she couldn’t enter the room directly. She could only gaze at the person inside through the transparent glass.

Gu Huaiwei’s application had only been successful because Yin Zhitao was willing to cooperate with the meeting.

“The nurse told me about it. I sent you private messages, but you never replied. I thought you didn’t want to hear what I had to say.”

Yin Zhitao scratched her hair anxiously, then pointed her index finger at her temple. Her expression broke into a manic, frenzied look, and her voice rose several octaves. “You really should have come sooner. My head hurts a bit now. They didn’t just pass electricity through here-they opened up my head and performed a prefrontal lobotomy on me.”
“I always feel like they’ve put worms in my head. Every night when I sleep, I can feel them burrowing around inside. It makes my head hurt so much I can’t sleep.”

Judging by Yin Zhitao’s current situation, the management of this Mental Hospital was actually quite humane.

Her room was clean and bright. High-concentration Magnetic Beverages sat on the cabinet, and she was allowed to use a phone and a computer. Her hospital gown was made of silk, and her body showed no signs of bruising or abuse… there were no suspicious marks.

Gu Huaiwei had done her research beforehand. Yin Zhitao’s Mental Value had already dropped below 10 points. Her medical records indicated she suffered from Persecutory Delusion, Compulsive Fantasy Disorder, severe memory confusion, and extreme emotional volatility. She had been hospitalized for three years.

One had to be selective about what to believe when she spoke.

Sitting in the chair outside the glass partition, Gu Huaiwei got straight to the point. “Miss Yin, I’ve come today to ask you a few questions in person. During your livestream, you mentioned Wang Tao. Why do you believe Wang Tao died in my shop?”

“Heehee, you don’t know why?” Yin Zhitao turned her head to stare at Gu Huaiwei. For a fleeting moment, the eye partially hidden by her hair flashed with a spark of clarity, only to sink back into chaos. “He used to visit me every week. Until last time, when he said the Dawn Alliance had given him a special mission. He went to the Oasis Matchmaking Agency, and after that, he never came back.”

“That doesn’t prove he died at the Oasis Matchmaking Agency.”

Gu Huaiwei had watched with her own eyes as Wang Tao was swallowed by the Dry Well in the backyard. She had checked the bottom of the well afterward; not even a bone or a scrap of clothing remained.

The problem was, Yin Zhitao had been locked in this Mental Hospital for three years. How did she know the well in the backyard had consumed Wang Tao? And why had she claimed during the livestream that she could smell the stench of a corpse coming from the well?

Yin Zhitao said with absolute certainty, “It was that shop of yours.”

Gu Huaiwei naturally wouldn’t admit to it. She offered a cold excuse: “If something like that happened, you should report it to the police. As the owner, I will fully cooperate with the investigation. If the police find evidence, they will surely bring justice for your fiancé.”

Hearing Gu Huaiwei’s words, Yin Zhitao reacted as if she had heard a joke. She giggled, her lips curling into a chilling arc. “You’re saying that on purpose, aren’t you? You know perfectly well what your shop represents in this Dimension.”

What did it represent?

Before Gu Huaiwei could answer, Yin Zhitao looked up, her eyes wide and round. Her tone was eerily calm. “Do you think I’m crazy? No, I’m very lucid right now. You don’t need to try and fool me with the police of this world. Just like you, I used to be a Dimension Operator. I know very well that no force in this world can stand against the Oasis Matchmaking Agency you run.”

Since the conversation had reached this point, there was no longer any need for Gu Huaiwei to play dumb.

“Oh? So you’re a Senior.”

The corners of Gu Huaiwei’s mouth lifted slightly, her tone relaxed, but the gaze behind her lenses turned sharp. “Since you were once a Dimension Operator, how did you end up locked in here?”

A Senior who was stranded in this Dimension and treated as a mental patient.

It seemed she had fallen quite far.