The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne)
Chapter 145

N&S Psychiatric Hospital.

By the time Vivienne arrived, the sky had turned black, and the hospital building looked hauntingly ominous in the dark.

She wore a sophisticated ghost mask on her face, standing with her hands in her pockets before the large iron gate of the hospital. Soon, a small door creaked open from inside.

As she stepped through the small iron gate, it banged shut behind her.

Without looking back, she continued walking forward, only to see a plump man sitting on the steps of the hospital building, tilting his head and drooling. His eyes were red, as if he had been crying.

He was the only one in the courtyard, so Vivienne took an extra glance at him. Upon seeing her, he immediately smiled at her, staring at the ghost mask on her face. "Miss, what's that that you're... you're wearing? It's... it's so scary."

Vivienne didn't answer and just stood in front of him, looking down at him coldly. He wanted to reach out and touch her ghost mask, but was frightened by her icy gaze and withdrew his hand. "I... I just wanted to... to see if you... you're pretty."

"Am I pretty?" Vivienne asked coldly.

"Miss, your voice...is nice." The plump man started laughing again. "If... if you're pretty, then become my wife."

But it seemed like he remembered something sad and immediately started crying again. "They... they... they took away my... my wife! They... they... said... said I'm impotent, so there's no... no point in me having a wife."

Then he started bawling. "Give me back my wife! I want my wife!"

"Shut up, you fatso! You're so noisy!" A gloomy-faced man walked out of the building and shouted at the plump man. "What are you shouting for?! You're impotent! What do you need a woman for?! Of course, they're for us!"

After scolding him, the man looked Vivienne up and down, licked his lips, and said, "Even with the mask, her figure is top-notch. Brody didn't mention that a woman was coming tonight."

He tried to pounce on Vivienne with a lecherous smile but found himself suddenly unable to move, standing stiffly in place. He looked at Vivienne in horror. "What... What did you do to me?!" "You've been poisoned." Vivienne bypassed him and walked into the hospital building.

"Poison?!" The man was taken aback and started shouting, "You bastard! You actually poisoned me! Brody, come out and cure me!"

No one responded to him.

As soon as Vivienne entered the building, she saw a dozen or so patients wandering around the corridor. As soon as they saw her, they wanted to pounce on her, but before they could get within three steps of her, she moved her fingertips slightly, and all the patients stood still.

She immediately noticed that all of these people had been poisoned by Brody.

She walked to the patient relaxation area of the hospital. Almost every row of chairs in the hall was occupied by a few patients, except for the middle row of benches, where only one man sat. He wore black- rimmed glasses and a hospital gown, leisurely reading a medical book.

The scene was quite eerie.

"You're still as morbid as ever." Vivienne glanced at the patients in the hall. All of them were frozen in place, looking at her in either fear or confusion.

Brody looked up, pushing up his black-rimmed glasses, and smiled at Vivienne. His tone was polite and gentle. He sounded nothing like a madman. "Specter Healer, you finally agreed to see me."

"If you're so eager to see me, why not obediently go to prison? I might visit you once a year." Vivienne said leisurely.

"Only if you're not afraid that I'll turn the prison into a poison lab." Brody replied with a smile.

"Enough chit-chat." Vivienne said coldly, "I'm in a hurry."

"Ah, you're still as impatient as ever." Brody shook his head in resignation. A fanatic look appeared in his eyes as he looked at Vivienne. "Turning you into a part of my collection would be beautiful." "What's the game?" Vivienne didn't want to say another word to him.

"Simple. Best two out of three." Brody stood up from the bench, gesturing to the paralyzed patients in the hall. "For the first round, let's see who can poison more people in a minute."

"No." Vivienne shook her head. "How about we see if my detoxifying methods can beat your poison?"

Poisoning someone was easier than healing someone, so it seemed that Vivienne was at a disadvantage.

"So arrogant!" Brody scoffed, and as his laughter fell, the patients in the first row began to froth at the mouth. Those in the second row turned pale, and those in the third row turned red. Their eyes were bulging from intense pain.

Then it was the fourth row, the fifth row...

Vivienne stood still against Brody's arrogant laughter, only moving her fingertips slightly. Starting from the first row, all the patients immediately improved.

Brody's face changed. He snapped the book in his hands shut, and another handful of poison powder was scattered.

Not only did the previously immobilized patients' conditions worsen again, but they also all suddenly stood up. While dancing and howling, they pounced on Vivienne.

Vivienne's eyes narrowed slightly. With a slight move of her right hand, in the next second, these people all stumbled and fell to the ground, once again unable to move.

Brody snorted coldly, and a strange scent suddenly emanated from his body. The patients began to struggle to get up again.

Vivienne lifted her hand. A flash of cold light emanated from her hand, and numerous silver needles precisely hit the patients. They all froze on the ground again.

Brody's face darkened. He also threw out a few silver needles, but Vivienne almost simultaneously countered. The silver needles shot from her hand knocked down Brody's silver needles mid-air. The needles fell silently.

"One minute is up. I won." Vivienne said slowly.

The hall fell silent for a moment, and Brody's face turned ugly. Since his debut as Brody, he had never failed, but he had lost to Specter Healer again and again.

"There are two more rounds." He emphasized reluctantly.

Vivienne shrugged, showing that nothing he could do would faze her. She was ready for anything.

"Fatso!" Brody shouted.

The plump man who had been crying on the stairs came running over, drooling.

"Go bring your wife over!" Brody ordered coldly.

"Oh, okay." The plump man drooled and trotted off.

After a while, the only sound to be heard was the squeaking of wheels on the tile floor as the plump man pushed a hospital bed back into the room. On it lay a woman who was as stiff as a board. Vivienne squinted and furrowed her brows, taking a moment to recognize that the woman on the bed was Arabella.

In less than a day, Arabella looked as if she had been transformed. After being tormented by the lunatics that inhabited this hospital, her face was a mess of bruises and swelling, and her clothes were tattered and stained with blood.

The exposed parts of her skin were an alarming mix of blue and purple, with numerous bite marks. One of her legs was twisted in an unnatural angle. It was clearly broken. It was as if she'd been caught in a bar brawl rather than a hospital.