Chapter 118: Stan Sterling’s Self-Harm
They say dreams are the opposite of reality, but Lily Hart felt that if she was dreaming about it, it was a premonition. She had to be prepared, just in case.
Just then, a resident from Fortune Base came to the door to buy scratch-off tickets, interrupting them. Lily Hart let out a long sigh of relief, adjusted her mood, and got ready for business.
Customers for the scratch-off tickets came in an endless stream, but when Lily Hart noticed Stan Sterling was among them, a headache instantly set in. ’This guy is still here, and I forgot to deal with him.’
’Should I have Frost Shaw just kill him? Or maybe capture and torture him until he tells me what he’s really here for!’
’No, forget it. I shouldn’t act rashly. He hasn’t even slipped up yet...’
Just as she was thinking this, Stan Sterling squeezed out from the crowd. He took out two Crystal Cores, held them cupped in his hands, and said with a beaming smile, "Boss Hart, I’m paying you back!"
"Okay." Lily Hart replied coolly, taking the cores and putting them away.
Stan Sterling was extremely perceptive and noticed the change in her attitude. His eyes darkened. Without a word, he walked away, looking utterly dejected. Even the sight of his back conveyed a sense of loneliness.
Lily Hart’s gaze followed him. For a moment, she wondered if her suspicions were wrong. ’He looks so pitiful, yet I’m thinking such awful things about him...’
Pah! Lily Hart cut off the thought. ’See? Stan Sterling’s pretty-boy act and his pity ploy are working!’
Stan Sterling returned to his hotel room and lay spread-eagled on the bed, his palms slick with sweat. Boss Hart was suspicious of him. He opened his Light Brain and sent a message.
His gaunt body slowly curled into a ball. He wrapped his arms around himself, his teeth chattering and cold sweat beading on his forehead. With his eyes shut tight, he unconsciously mumbled, "Give me the injection... please, I’m begging you..."
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Leo Colby stood outside, one hand in his pocket. "Anyone home? Stan Sterling? I’m leaving the towels by your door."
He put the items down and turned to leave, but he suddenly froze. He pressed himself against the door, trying to listen through the crack.
He could faintly hear some movement inside. The moment he registered the sound, Leo Colby’s expression changed. He kicked the door open. Upon seeing the scene inside, he was rendered speechless...
Stan Sterling was sprawled unconscious on the bed. His right arm was covered in cuts from a sharp blade—gashes so deep the bone was visible. Blood was gushing from the wounds, a shockingly gruesome sight.
It wasn’t just his arm. There were similar deep cuts on his left arm and his thighs. His chest rose and fell faintly, as if he would draw his last breath at any second.
Leo Colby had no time to think. He pulled a first-aid kit and a dose of hemostatic medicine from his spatial storage, injected Stan Sterling, and began to bandage the wounds.
The hemostatic medicine didn’t seem to be very effective on Stan Sterling. As Leo Colby applied the bandages, blood continued to flow.
He worried Stan Sterling would bleed to death before he could even finish treating the wounds. ’This... I can’t have someone die in my hotel. It’s bad for business.’
He sent a message to Lily Hart, telling her to hurry to Room 312, then dedicated his full attention to treating Stan Sterling’s wounds.
Leo Colby was using a lot of force, and the pain seemed to jolt Stan Sterling, causing him to regain consciousness for a moment.
"Mr. Leo... don’t save me," Stan Sterling said weakly. "Someone like me... isn’t worthy of this medicine... I don’t deserve it..."
Just speaking those few words caused a fine sheen of cold sweat to break out on his forehead.
Leo Colby couldn’t be bothered with his whining. He took a wad of gauze and shoved it right into his mouth. Lily Hart walked in just in time to hear Stan Sterling’s words and see Leo’s rough response.
Lily Hart stood at the doorway, hesitating to go further in. The white bedsheets were almost completely soaked with Stan Sterling’s blood, a deeply unsettling sight.
As for Stan Sterling, he lay weakly on the bed, his face ashen and his hair matted with sweat, completely at their mercy.
She bought a bottle of mineral water, chugged a large mouthful, but still felt parched, her mouth dry as she kept swallowing.
’This is the first time I’ve ever seen a scene this bloody.’ Lily Hart steadied herself against the wall as she walked over to Leo Colby. "How can I help?"
"Do you have anything to stop the bleeding?" Leo Colby asked.
Lily Hart immediately started searching through her system’s shop. At that moment, her mind was blank except for one thought: save him.
She bought the top-ranked hemostatic pill, crushed it in her palm, mixed it with water, and fed it to him.
He was unconscious and couldn’t swallow on his own, so Lily Hart also bought a special tool designed to help with that.
Sure enough, his throat convulsed a few times, and the pill went down. The effect was remarkable; the bleeding slowed and then stopped completely.
"Whew... Now, we bandage the wounds," Leo Colby said.
Lily Hart was surprisingly familiar with this task; she had just treated Frost Shaw that very afternoon. She worked quickly, and the two of them silently finished bandaging all of Stan Sterling’s wounds.
When they were finished, they both leaned against the wall to rest. Lily Hart rolled her eyes. ’I feel like a nurse.’
’My whole day has been nothing but treating wounds.’ She had been in such a rush earlier that she hadn’t checked the price of the hemostatic pill.
She took a look and got a shock—ten thousand points a pill! ’Stan Sterling is definitely paying me back for this!’
Unbeknownst to the unconscious Stan Sterling, the weight of his debt had just grown even heavier...
The two of them were leaning against the wall, resting with their eyes closed. The atmosphere was peaceful until, suddenly, Stan Sterling’s finger twitched. He slowly opened his eyes.
"Save me..." The two words escaped Stan Sterling’s lips. Perhaps because his throat was dry and itchy, he began to cough violently.
Leo Colby got up with a resigned sigh, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, and roughly tried to give him a drink, which only made him choke.
With all the commotion, the freshly bandaged wounds successfully tore open again... Lily Hart rushed over and pushed Leo Colby aside.
She popped another hemostatic pill into his mouth, and the effect was instantaneous. Seeing how weak he still was, she followed it up with a pill to restore his strength and blood.
Soon, color returned to Stan Sterling’s cheeks, and the aches that wracked his body eased considerably.
Lily Hart and Leo Colby exchanged a look. She then turned to Stan Sterling and said very seriously, "Stan Sterling, no more self-harming. Whatever the reason, your life and health are what’s most important!"
He lay on the bed, looking at her stern yet gentle face. Complex emotions churned within him, and a wave of guilt washed over him.
But in the next second, Lily Hart’s tone shifted.
"Three pills come to a total of thirty thousand points. You can do the math. As for the fee for treating your wounds... let’s tentatively call it ten thousand points. So that’s forty thousand points. Don’t forget to pay me back, ’kay~"
’Yep, that’s the Boss Hart I know.’ The corners of Stan Sterling’s lips curled up slightly, and he had to work to suppress the joy bubbling up inside him.
’Doesn’t this mean I have another reason to stick close to Boss Hart...?’
"Did you hear me? Why did you self-harm?" Lily Hart waved a hand in front of his face, her voice tinged with concern.
Stan Sterling hemmed and hawed, looking like he wanted to say something but holding back, which only made Lily Hart more curious.
Under their interrogation, Stan Sterling finally confessed, "It’s... a poison that Auspice Base gives us. It flares up at regular intervals, and you have to take the antidote on time. I... I escaped..."
Lily Hart understood. So did Leo Colby. They both sighed in unison, their minds filling in the blanks to complete the story.
He refused to yield to an evil power, but when the poison flared up, the pain was unbearable. His only recourse was a more direct, more brutal method to make it stop.
"So... what will you do now?" Lily Hart asked.