Chapter 10 The Road: Woodland
In the bumpy carriage, Watson, who was lame and disabled, leaned against the window, and hurried pedestrians passed by his eyes.
“Do you really believe this so-called Anti-Suppression Bureau investigator—Dr. Natalia Long?”
"I have verified that she does have the certificate produced by the House of Lords, and..." Holmes paused, as if thinking about it, "This is not the first time I have heard the name of the Anti-Suppression Bureau. When I was a child, I overheard elders in my family secretly discussing matters related to the Bureau.”
Watson couldn't help but look sideways and thought to himself: "I didn't expect you Charlotte to be so rebellious when you were a child."
"Then what she said about Si Chen...have you heard of it before?"
"That's not true." Holmes shook his head, "Today is the first time in my life that I have come into contact with these weird things that subvert cognition."
After the female detective finished speaking, she leaned back in her chair dejectedly, her brows furrowed, her eyes vacant, and she fell into deep thought.
Watson guessed that the female detective was confused as to why the elder who knew about the existence of the Anti-Suppression Bureau never revealed the truth about the world to her.
The carriage arrived at the Royal Free Hospital in wordless silence.
The Royal Free Hospital is a teaching hospital of the University of London Medical School, formerly known as the London Free General Hospital. It aims to provide free medical services to poor people who despise disease.
Later, the hospital admitted a large number of patients during a cholera epidemic that swept London. The Queen was impressed by its philanthropic heart and granted it a royal charter, giving it a special status. Since then, the Free General Hospital has been officially renamed the Royal Free Hospital.
The royal name is so noble that after the death of the founder, the hospital's service recipients began to rise along with this noble name, jumping to the aristocratic merchant class that is closer to the word royal.
As for the poor and dirty lower class people, they were ruthlessly abandoned.
On ordinary days, Watson would never dare to come here for medical treatment with his meager pension, but this time he was injured on the job, and Holmes, who came from a well-off family, took care of it, and he also had acquaintances in this hospital.
As soon as they entered the emergency room, they bumped into little Leland Stanford. He had experience as a military doctor and had excellent trauma management skills. Under the operation of the Stanford family, he had already served as the attending physician in the emergency surgery department.
"Watson, Holmes, why are you here!"
When little Stanford was happy to see two familiar faces, he saw Watson's left arm hanging down and shouted in surprise: "Watson, are you injured?! Why is it so dangerous to become a detective?"
Little Stanford hurriedly called the nurse below to come over.
Watson waved down the kind offer of the nurse with blond hair and big waves, "It's just a little skin injury, don't you know me well? This kind of injury is not even needed on the battlefield in Furstein."
This sentence woke up little Stanford. In fact, his recent contact with Watson always gave him a gentle impression. He almost forgot that this friend was a hero who had experienced hundreds of battles, and his fractures were nothing more than that.
Little Stanford nodded, "That's true. Such a minor injury is really not worth mentioning to you Watson."
"I've already diagnosed it for you. The proximal ulna of your left arm is fractured and there's minor vascular damage... Just give me a little bandage and a splint."
"Haha, then I really have to thank you, you saved me a lot of effort." Little Stanford smiled, but then changed the subject, "But as your attending physician, I still have to confirm the specific situation. "
He rolled up Watson's sleeve and gently squeezed the injured and swollen area with his upper hand. He found that the injury was far from being as minor as Watson said.
"Hiss... you are too modest. This is more than just a skin injury."
Little Stanford frowned slightly, lowered his head to write something in the medical record, and said, "I have to take a good rest in the near future. Should I just stay here in the hospital for a few days?"
"No need-"
"Stop!" Watson was about to refuse, but Holmes behind him had already answered first.
The female detective blinked slyly, "Watson, take advantage of this period to take a good rest. If you don't take good care of yourself, how can you continue to investigate the case?"
Watson understood immediately. It seemed that Charlotte was not planning to give up the case... Just what I wanted! He was not willing to let the first case of his detective career slip away through his fingers before he could taste the sense of accomplishment that made him able to solve the mystery.
"Then stay in the hospital."
It was already evening when all the busy work was finished. With the dual effects of money and connections, Watson was arranged to stay in a separate single ward.
The place here is spacious, quiet and elegant, clean and tidy... Everything is good, but the room is too plain. The ceiling is white, the walls are white, the floor is white, even the bed is white... …the color was so dull that it reminded Watson of his early years in confinement.
At first, the female detective and little Stanford were still accompanying Yi and Er, but as the sky grew dark, both of them had left.
Watson was the only one left in the large ward. His left arm was in a plaster and he was lying on the bed bored.
What he saw and heard during the day flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern. Corpses with unknown causes of death, deformed insect monsters, mysterious anti-suppression bureaus, incredible Si Chen... Watson's mind tried its best to combine these feelings of a hidden world. The door is gradually opening to itself, and through the cracks in the door, you can glimpse the scales and claws of that spectacular world.
But where should Watson go... The fact that he was able to defeat the insect monster Lance this time was entirely due to the opponent's carelessness and lack of brains in underestimating the enemy. If there were two more people, even if they had the power of firearms, they would probably be difficult to match.
"If my legs and feet were still sound..."
Watson glanced at his weak left leg and sighed regretfully. He knew in his heart that the next investigation of the case would probably become more dangerous. In addition to the mental competition, there was also a physical competition. It was really a struggle. It's dangerous and exciting!
Watson was not afraid of challenges, he was only afraid of dying ordinary and unknown, but he began to worry about whether his current physical condition... could cope with these challenges. He was not afraid of failure, but was afraid that it would hinder Holmes. , becomes a useless burden.
Time passed very quickly in my wild thoughts. It was already late at night and the hospital was eerily silent.
Watson looked at the shadows of the trees that were dancing like limbs gradually coming in from the window, and listened to the flapping sounds of flying insects whispering among the branches. His thoughts suddenly felt blessed, and it seemed that he had broken through some kind of limit.
Just like a frightened little animal running back to its lair crying, Watson began to recall the memories lost during the day - the ghost hidden in the kerosene lamp, and the Si Chen Zhijuan that aroused the strange hunger in his heart.
His bones stood up for a moment. It turned out that he had been exposed to these bizarre things without knowing it, but why couldn't he retain even a trace of the impression at that time, and he didn't suddenly wake up until this moment?
Watson was filled with confusion and bewilderment, which made him feel manic and uneasy, as if a grumpy mole was tugging at his brain... which actually made him dig out something abnormal inside his skull.
“The woodland gods delight in separating strands of hair from the scalp.”
"If you seek attention, burn it. If you seek opportunity, bury it."
“If you pay homage to the woodland god by cutting a lock of your hair before bed, you may be on the path to intuition.”
This strange text suddenly appeared in Watson's mind. He didn't know the source or origin, but he was deeply fascinated by it. He suddenly lost control of his body and tore a bunch of hair from the back of his head. The pain of uprooting it made him feel a burst of pleasure. It's as if the restlessness is really being pulled away along with the threads of worry.
This self-mutilating behavior seemed to coincide with some weird and mysterious ritual. Watson suddenly felt that his eyelids were as heavy as lead, and his sleepiness was like a turbulent wave, drowning him, and his consciousness sank rapidly into a dream.
In the dream, he was still in a white and colorless ward, lying on a hospital bed that smelled of disinfectant, but he was holding the cold and ashen copy of Si Chenzhi in his arms!
It was obviously a dream, but Watson's thinking was as clear as ever. He looked at the book in his hand with lingering fear. It stands to reason that dreams are a manifestation of the subconscious, but this is just Si Chenzhi who made up his mind.
But Watson still couldn't stop trembling. The bizarre loss of control just now made him feel extremely frightened. He looked at "Si Chen Zhi" warily.
Even in his dream, Watson could feel the cold and biting touch of the leather cover, as if the book was not his fantasy but a real object.
Could it be that this book is the forbidden knowledge mentioned by Natalia, an investigator from the Anti-Suppression Bureau?
He suddenly became very curious. What kind of knowledge could mutate an ordinary patrolman into a monster powerful enough to withstand firearms?
"If this power can be used for me..."
Watson's eyes seemed to be ignited with blazing flames, and a strange hunger roared in his heart. It was the ambition that had been suppressed for a long time!
When he first traveled through time, he had great ambitions, thinking that a man born in troubled times should make great achievements!
Since God has given him another chance, he should make great achievements!
However, the self-confidence of the time traveler could not withstand the cruelty of the war. The painful lesson of being shot and killed in Furstein made Watson understand that he was not the child of destiny in the novel after all. A brass bullet worth less than ten pence could be enough. Take his life easily.
Injury destroys fighting spirit, weakness extinguishes ambition.
But today's experience rekindled the fire of ambition in Watson's heart, and he realized that he might have held the key to another world.
He longs for power, to be stronger than the collective society!
He desires knowledge, the wisdom of the past and the future!
He craves excitement and feels the joy that no one has ever experienced before!
And... more efficient killing methods!
"The forbidden power beyond human limits... I am bound to win it!"
The long-suppressed ambition suddenly rekindled, Watson resolutely opened Si Chenzhi, only to see a dazzling light burst out between the lines on the page!
These little stars are like fireflies flying forward like a galaxy, condensing into a bright silver staircase, which rises into gray neon, leading to a window that appears at an unknown time.
Outside the window is a dark and silent forest. The low branches hang down with jade-green fruits that look like poison. The trees are covered with dark moss. The thick and knotted tree roots undulate like leaping pythons. Their colors are as bright as flesh-red stone marrow.
Among the moss, the ancient tree body shows a color as thick as ink, and is covered with dry bark like scales. When you touch it with your fingers, you can feel the coldness of steel and the pulsation like breathing.
etc!
Watson woke up with a start, and suddenly looked up. There were dense and towering trees on the top, and a incomplete moon could be vaguely seen. The cold moonlight dropped like pale blood, watering the shadows of the trees, which fell right on his own. It was as if I could feel the gentle caress of the moonlight on my face.
He was shocked. When did he enter this deep forest? !
Watson uses [Moth] to fall into a dream and obtain [Road: Woodland]