"One. Hour." Lu Cheng interrupted, the two words falling like guillotine blades. Final. Absolute. Unquestionable.
A nurse rushed past, arms full of dical supplies, trying to navigate the chaos without becoming part of it. Madam Chen’s grief-maddened mind latched onto her as a target, as soone who might have answers, as soone to bla. "YOU!" She grabbed the nurse’s arm hard enough to bruise, hard enough that the woman cried out in pain and dropped half her supplies. "You were in the neonatal unit! You saw sothing! Tell what happened to my grandson!"
"I don’t, I don’t know!" The nurse’s voice was terrified, her eyes wide with fear as she tried to pull away from Madam Chen’s grip. "I swear, I don’t know! The baby was there one mont and then, and then there was light and..."
"LIAR!" Madam Chen shrieked, the word tearing out of her throat.
Her other hand ca up, fingers curled into claws, nails raking across the nurse’s face with deliberate cruelty. Four parallel lines of blood welled up imdiately, bright red against pale skin. The nurse scread, the sound high and piercing, hands flying to her face.
That was when everything exploded.
Security tried to restrain Madam Chen, but she fought them with the strength of soone who’d completely lost touch with reality, all social constraints burned away by grief and rage. Lin Feng broke free from the guards holding him and lunged at another doctor who’d made the mistake of stepping too close. Mrs. Lu, finally losing the icy composure she’d maintained for hours, shoved an orderly who’d tried to calm her, sending him crashing into a dicine cart. The cart tipped, sending bottles and supplies scattering across the floor in a cascade of breaking glass and rolling pills.
Chaos. Pure, violent, uncontrolled chaos.
Glass shattered. People scread. dical equipnt crashed to the floor with sounds like small explosions. The orderly hit the ground hard, crying out as his shoulder connected with the tile. More security guards rushed in from other floors, called by ergency alerts. Nurses scrambled to get out of the way, to protect patients, to save themselves.
"CALL THE POLICE!" soone shouted from behind the nurse’s station, their voice cracking with panic. "CALL THEM NOW!"
Within eight minutes, six police officers arrived, storming into the hospital with hands on their weapons, adrenaline pumping, ready for anything. The radio call had described an assault in progress, possible multiple victims, and a situation deteriorating rapidly. What they found when they burst through the ergency entrance doors was a war zone.
Lin Feng had sohow gotten a doctor in a headlock, the man’s face purple as he struggled for air. Madam Chen was being physically restrained by three nurses, still screaming incoherently about her grandson, about conspiracies, about incompetence and lies and theft. Mrs. Lu had grabbed a fire extinguisher from its wall mount and was threatening anyone who ca near her, brandishing it like a club. And Lu Cheng stood in the center of it all like the eye of a hurricane, directing his wife with cold precision while sohow managing not to touch anyone himself, maintaining just enough distance to claim plausible deniability later.
"EVERYONE ON THE GROUND! NOW!" The lead officer’s command cut through the chaos like a knife, trained authority forcing its way through the madness.
The police officers moved efficiently, fanning out, assessing threats, and prioritizing targets. It took force. Lin Feng fought like a man possessed, taking three officers to subdue him, their combined weight finally bearing him to the ground. Madam Chen had to be physically carried out by two large officers, her legs kicking, still shrieking about conspiracies and kidnapping and justice. Mrs. Lu only surrendered the fire extinguisher when two officers drew their tasers, the distinctive electric crackling sound finally penetrating through her rage-fueled haze.
Lu Cheng went quietly when they approached him, offering his hands for the cuffs without resistance. But his eyes, those cold, calculating eyes, promised retribution as they cuffed his hands behind his back. This wasn’t over. This was far from over. The hospital, the city, and everyone involved would learn exactly what it cost to lose a Lu family heir.
"You’re all under arrest," the lead officer said, reading rights in a flat, professional tone that suggested he’d done this a thousand tis before and would do it a thousand tis more. "Assault. Battery. Destruction of property. Disturbing the peace. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law....."
"This is a MISTAKE!" Lin Feng shouted as they dragged him toward the exit, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the blood-slicked floor. "My grandson is MISSING! The baby is GONE and you’re arresting US?!"
"Sir, you assaulted multiple staff mbers," the officer replied, unmoved. "You’re being arrested for assault and battery. The missing child is a separate investigation."
"I DON’T CARE! FIND THE BABY!"
They were loaded into police cars, the flashing red and blue lights painting the hospital entrance in garish, strobing colors. Lin Feng and Madam Chen in one vehicle, Lu Cheng and Mrs. Lu in another. All four are still shouting. Still demanding answers. Still refusing to accept that the baby they were looking for didn’t exist anymore, had never really existed at all, had been nothing more than an ancient spirit wearing infant flesh for less than an hour before transforming and vanishing across the city.
The police cars pulled away, sirens splitting the pre-dawn quiet, wailing into the darkness as they carried their cargo toward holding cells and processing and the slow machinery of justice.
Behind them, the hospital staff slowly began picking up the pieces. Literally and figuratively. Shattered glass swept into piles. Overturned equipnt was righted and checked for damage. Injured nurses were escorted to treatnt rooms, their wounds cleaned and bandaged. Doctors with torn coats and shell-shocked expressions gave statents to the remaining officers, their voices shaking as they recounted the violence.
And in the neonatal ward, untouched by the chaos, an empty incubator sat silent. A mystery with no answer. A baby that had vanished into impossible light, leaving behind only chaos and grief and questions no one could answer.
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