Eldritch Horror Theatre

'One trip every two days? Interesting.'

It was somewhat reasonable. It was perfectly normal for an unpopular route to run every other day.

The chagrin on Buyiren's face was incredibly genuine—like a student who had spent half a year studying for the graduate entrance exam, only to discover the registration deadline was yesterday.

"So it's not coming today?"

While deeply empathizing, Fu Qian offered no harsh criticism, merely confirming the fact casually.

"It's not coming. I'm sorry, this is my fault."

The man replied instantly, expressing profound apologies.

His apology was extremely formal; he stared straight into Fu Qian's face the entire time without blinking.

"It's fine. This sort of thing happens all the time. So, what should we do next?"

Hmm...

Yet judging by the other man's reaction, it was truly difficult to empathize in return.

With hope right in front of them, only to have it abruptly severed, it would be normal for anyone else to go mad.

But his reaction looked more like he had forgotten to eat lunch and simply planned to eat more for dinner.

"Are you sure? This sort of thing doesn't exactly happen all the time, does it?"

After a few failed attempts to hold back, Brother Buyiren finally couldn't resist retorting.

The subtext was clearly a renewed suspicion of Fu Qian's motives—whether he truly wanted to leave this place.

Didn't it?

Faced with such a rhetorical question, Fu Qian fell into thought for a moment, recalling his work experience since taking office.

"It happens often."

Soon enough, he nodded, confirming that this kind of situation—finding a way out of a desperate situation only to fall right back into it—happened far more often than not.

"Anyway, the most pressing thing right now is to hide you.

"We still have over twenty hours to wait. It's too dangerous to wander around like before, especially since it's daytime."

It was hard to say how much he believed, but after a brief silence, Buyiren seemed to accept the explanation, decisively choosing to look ahead.

"I understand what you mean. This situation is indeed dangerous."

Professor Fu was always one for readily accepting good advice. He immediately touched his chin and gave a slight nod.

"In that case, why don't we gather twenty-odd people to wait with us? That way, the train will arrive in just an hour, and our chances of being discovered will be much smaller."

Not only that, he had even put his mind to it and offered a suggestion.

...

"Are you joking?"

Buyiren had initially looked like he was already planning a retreat route, but after realizing what Fu Qian just said, he seemed to lose even the strength to retort.

"I just saw how tense you were. The more critical the moment, the more you need to relax."

Fu Qian freely admitted to it, providing an entirely justified excuse.

'In truth, your day might not even have twenty-four hours...' though he left that second reason unspoken.

Buyiren's logic might have been sound, but his cognitive limitations were vividly illustrated in this moment.

Unable to perceive the Well of Time, they naturally couldn't realize that there was a tiny sliver of possibility behind that joking remark.

The more people there were, the more volatile elements there would be.

And the more volatile elements there were, the greater the chance of an explosion—which, in this place, meant triggering the Well of Time.

Even Buyiren himself had just done something similar moments ago.

Yet the bizarre part was right here: in theory, as long as he did it one more time, their current predicament would most likely be solved.

But instead, after jumping around so enthusiastically earlier, he dropped the ball right at the critical moment.

...

Truly—he was harboring malicious intent deserving of condemnation.

Fu Qian sighed inwardly.

At first glance, that assessment sounded a bit harsh, but looking back at the entire process, it was well-founded.

When he left the VIP Area earlier and headed straight for the Head Physician's Office, his core motive had been extremely simple.

He hadn't necessarily needed to enter the place; what mattered was the Director's reaction to the attempt.

After conducting a preliminary survey of the Sanitarium, it was now time to take the initiative and control the tempo.

As luck would have it, he conveniently bumped into a righteous soul who led him all the way away from there.

Thus, to Fu Qian, no matter how exquisite the performance or how abundant the emotion, he always viewed it as the Director's response.

And the way Buyiren had guided him here, acting as if he wanted to send him down the mountain, merely raised curiosity about what kind of will the Director was projecting.

Looking at the final result, he had to admit it truly bore the Director's signature style.

On one hand, the character setup remained impeccable. Out of all the possibilities, he had miraculously singled out someone with the authority to lead him away from the office.

That alone wasn't enough. A night guard could take him away, but there was no reason to separate him from the crowd.

However, adding the identity of someone who had suddenly found their conscience, guiding him to minimize interactions with others—that made perfect sense.

On the other hand, the plot maintained the Director's usual style—full of dramatic twists and turns.

It kept the ending entirely unpredictable until the very last moment.

Although, to Fu Qian, Buyiren's actions weren't actually much of a surprise.

Once he concluded that this was the Director's will, judging by previous performances, didn't it seem like the latter never wanted him to leave this place?

So, in Fu Qian's assessment, the probability of successfully catching this train was never high to begin with.

Of course, theoretically, this was just malicious speculation lacking concrete evidence.

Even Buyiren's current behavior appeared flawless on the surface—but was it really?

This man's performance might have been commendable, but one thing remained difficult to explain.

Suppose the "darkness" deep in his heart was his desire to find the right opportunity to bring down Servis.

Under this intense obsession, that time jump just now occurred, shifting directly from night to day.

Except it lacked a bit of force. It should have jumped a day and a half, but instead it only leaped half a day.

At first glance, it sounded plausible. The problem was that when he left Mrs. Tracy, the time should have been the night of number 52.

Yes, unless another day had silently passed during his interaction with Madam Dark Room, the break of dawn should have landed squarely on the odd-numbered number 53.

Yet Buyiren claimed today was an even number, and the train indeed hadn't arrived...

"What date is it today?"

Facing Buyiren—who had fallen silent for a moment, seemingly weighing whether the man in front of him was reliable at all—Fu Qian suddenly asked the question.

"Number 54. You don't even remember that?"

The gloomy-faced guard froze for a moment upon hearing the question, but he still chose to answer.

...

'Sure enough, an extra day slipped by in secret.'

Fu Qian didn't doubt Buyiren's answer much.

After all, unless time could flow backward, the daytime of number 52 could not possibly appear again.

And since today wasn't an odd-numbered day, number 54 was already the most logical outcome.

As for how it was achieved?

It was simple. When Brother Buyiren's "darkness" triggered, it hadn't brought them to the noon of the second day, but rather the noon of the third.

Number 53—the day a train would have arrived—had been entirely skipped.

So, deep down in his heart, had he ever truly wanted to send him away?

"I can't help it. It's always easy to forget the time in this place."

In the face of Buyiren's surprise, Fu Qian looked around, acting as if he were already intoxicated by this otherworldly place.

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