Chapter 192: Crossroads

It was a sound as dense as a summer downpour, splashing against the high partition windows, the atmosphere growing fervent.

Drowsy Kraft was shaken awake from his stupor, just in time to hear the host pronounce several familiar terms; he jolted violently, eyes wide, and from his high vantage point, the entire main hall lay fully visible.

A surging crowd pressed against the tiered steps; the inner circles were the more crowded, scholars vying for the baked, heated air. They did not like this environment, but there was no other place closer to the center at the lowest level. Thus, the more comfortable but distant upper private rooms were left empty.

The harried venue staff, hearing that close viewing was not required, almost gratefully handed over the partition keys to them.

"Time is up." Kraft saw a tall, slender figure approach from the perimeter, carrying a large wooden box. "Do you want to come and watch?"

"Mm."

To facilitate observation of her condition, Yin Feng had also been brought to the Rivers University residence. Since her second treatment, she had been in a state of constant drowsiness, missing several gatherings, though her appetite had not diminished with her activity. The snacks and drinks Kraft had asked Kup to bring along had already been unknowingly eaten more than half.

Before Kup could remind her, she stuffed the pastries into her mouth in two bites instead of three, moved to the terrace window, and easily recognized the next protagonist.

No effort was needed to identify him; wherever his signature glowing hair went, the crowd in black robes automatically parted to both sides, clearing a path for him to pass, like candles parting a dark tide.

And another thought, whose source she could not explain and which was completely at odds with the doctor's consistent image, sprouted in her mind: it felt more like some transparent giant pushing through the crowd, its massive bulk tall enough to reach the crystal pendants of the chandelier.

The feeling was too intense to ignore or explain as mere personal aura; in her daze, she even felt she could see the form of that giant, striding majestically through the hall, its body passing through the people's bodies and the surrounding steps, remaining unstained amidst the crowded hall; the emotionally fervent audience admired and praised that golden oak leaf badge.

The crowd, including her and Kup, was merely like the endpoint drifting on the sea's surface, spending a lifetime reaching only the water's surface, knowing nothing of the shadows beneath.

【Fear】

Fear generated toward the wrong object. This cleared her mind a bit; Yin Feng could not understand why she felt this emotion toward Kraft, as if it did not stem from reason or emotion, but was a thought transmitted to her by some entity connected to herself.

Indistinct whispers returned to her ears; this time she seemed to understand their meaning, an indirect conversion, expression, and re-understanding beyond spoken language and vocabulary, reaching the core intent directly: the desire to flee this place, to stay far from that figure carefully holding up a glass container.

This certainly would not do. She gripped the window sill, bit her tongue lightly, and tried to detach herself from the sensation, only to unexpectedly taste a hint of blood, realizing she had bitten her tongue too hard and broken it.

"It has begun." Kup occupied the other side of the window, his hand unconsciously rubbing half a cookie, crumbs constantly falling. He could not suppress that nervousness, even though the same procedure had been repeated many times at Comfort Harbor, and the patient came from the most familiar group—a dockworker accidentally injured at work and dragged down by folk remedies for too long.

The patient was ready, lying down in the prepared position.

The improved inhaler was a double-valve glass bottle, already quite close to the early version of the ether atomization device; the patient held one valve to breathe, while gas entering through the other valve would atomize the liquid in the round bottle before entering the mouth. This made the dosage smaller and more uniform, but also required more time to complete the anesthesia.

Surrounded by the crowd, the patient inhaled anxiously. The scene fell silent; amidst the gaze of doubt and expectation, he felt an irresistible sleepiness, his eyes gradually closing as he sank into dreams.

When the full set of metal instruments was laid out one by one, this silence reached its extreme; even the slightest breath was held, waiting for that moment to arrive. Only the crisp tinkle of small tongs clinking against the alcohol cotton bottle remained, followed by a blade picked up from the instrument tray, brought close to the patient's skin. The distance was too great to see clearly.

Just as Yin Feng suppressed the whispers in her heart, another murmur appeared by her ear. This time it was a real sound, coming from the group closest to the operating table and spreading outward.

"The anesthesia was successful."

No need to see the wound; this had often been heard in the clinic at Comfort Harbor. It was the exclamation upon seeing a breathing person show no reaction to the pain of flesh and bone being stripped away, and out of instinctive awe for such a scene, voices were lowered, quietly transmitting a shock that could not be shared alone.

Kraft lowered his head, focused on the operation; his movements were fast and clean, a speed requirement unavoidable under current conditions. He had explained that, given correct precision, the shorter the wound's exposure time, the better, as this would directly affect healing.

But watching, it still made one think of him wielding swords and knives. Kup looked enviously at that precise control over the human body. "I heard this is a minor surgery; just removing the gangrene, mostly localized near the distal phalanx."

"What?"

"Distal phalanx." Kup affirmed, spelling it out for her. This was part of recent teaching results; Kraft had mentioned the demonstration case, and the relevant vocabulary had just been added to the learning scope.

Yin Feng ignored him; she had no remaining energy to think about what that word meant, or why Kup had started learning these things that did not seem like normal progress.

After the groundless whispers ended, a vague phantom pain accompanied them, sometimes feeling like some part of an unclear body being pulled, sometimes concentrating on the back of the neck and shoulders.

Her hands increased their grip on the window frame, trying to shift the pain, but it was ineffective. This pain was not like the headaches or stomach aches of the past, where pressing the painful spot offered some relief; instead, like those voices, it stuck to her spirit, stubborn as if eating into her soul.

Instinctively she wanted to turn the pain into a shout or a groan, but her understanding of the importance of this gathering made her strive to restrain herself; the surgery needed to proceed smoothly, and it must proceed smoothly.

Perhaps the previous decision was indeed wrong; she should not have touched those things on her own. She could no longer remember what happened after drinking that bottle of liquid; her memory held only colorful, gorgeous illusions, a dim moon disk, and something responding to her strong wish, an meaning beyond the mortal world that needed no explanation to be understood.

【I do not regret it】

She did not wish to spend her life, having experienced the past and witnessed others' experiences, as a meaningless endpoint drifting helplessly under irresistible forces, unable to control herself, even if that might have been a life of ignorant happiness, still unable to see what lay beneath the water before death.

Kup was still saying something, about how exquisite the surgeon's technique was, and what could be done if one could learn it, and so on.

Using cumbersome and precise techniques to save an endpoint about to extinguish, extending its pitiful, fragile, destined-to-end brief journey by a little. The tall doctor held small instruments, bowing over the table.

In the haze of consciousness, that illusion of an invisible transparent giant returned; it seemed to straighten its posture on the difficult-to-tread ground, bending a waist unrestricted by angles, looking down at the patient on the table. Vast and tiny, the shadow beneath the water focused on the endpoint; everything was absurdly incredible, then shattered in an instant, gone forever.

The surgery process was quick; when she had slightly adapted to the pain and looked up at the operating table, Kraft was already wrapping cotton bandages around the affected area.

An old man with white beard and hair, also wearing an oak leaf badge on his chest, stepped onto the stage, took the healthy hand, and asked the patient, who had opened his drowsy eyes:

"Do you feel any pain?"

He obviously had not yet figured out the situation; still letting Professor Fermand shake his limbs, he only realized where he was a moment later, and asked back as if waking from a dream:

"No, is the surgery about to begin..."

That negative word clearly traveled through the hall, then bounced back from the walls, allowing those who still could not believe it to savor it a second time. The noise drowned out the unfinished words; amidst countless questions, the patient looked blankly at his tightly bandaged hand.

Kup cheered, releasing his hands, and joined the sound-makers; cookie crumbs fell, and the scholars, covered in them, paid no mind, leaning forward and standing on chairs to see over the crowd blocking the view.

Yin Feng finally did not need to maintain silence; she let go of the window sill and brushed clean the crumbs that had stuck to her at some unknown time.

But her action suddenly stopped; she puzzledly spread her palm, observing those somewhat prickly things that did not look much like cookie crumbs.

They were not baked, crisp grains. They were sharp and rough, coming from the hard wood window frame, twisted off in chunks and ground into powder.