Chapter 1 Halloween

　　Every city has those few streets that people don't travel often. 　　Take this one, for example. 　　It was huddled next to 22nd Street, with no street signs, no light posts, no name, not even a sewer at the entrance, like a wall that was built from both ends but ran out of bricks when it was about to converge, so irresponsibly leaving such a gap so small that you could miss it if you sneezed. 　　Similarly, the street's amenities are a perfect match. 　　There's a streetlight that hasn't been repaired in 10 years, two garbage cans that are always piled high, a few feral cats that frequent the area, a never-ending supply of flies, and a small private hospital. 　　In fact, this small building can't even be called a hospital, it's not even a clinic, it only has two floors, it looks more like a gothic photo studio left over from a few decades ago, or a pawn shop or something like that, but I don't know who bought it, and then put up a sign that reads [HOSPITAL]. 　　...... 　　Three in the morning. 　　Dr. Zira stood at the sink, rinsing his hands with cold water. 　　He hated all holidays, he didn't understand why people had to pick out so many days out of the year to do something stupid and still act like it meant something. 　　Like this Halloween, for example, where everyone was wearing skulls and carrying pumpkin lamps and wandering the streets with cheers that didn't make any sense at all. Teenage kids, too, with their faces covered in their mother's foundation, are desperately trying to break down their neighbor's door for a few pieces of candy, which everyone knows they don't eat all year long, and they'd rather be smoking pot. 　　Thankfully, they didn't come knocking on this hospital's door, or else Zi Liang wasn't sure he would have poked a needle in their eye. 　　Turning off the faucet, Zi Liang hastily wiped his hands on his white coat, drying the water stains on it, he looked up, and in the mirror in front of him, a slimmed down face was reflected. 　　Messy hair, a picture of kidney deficiency-like miserable white skin, although only 20 years old, but has not been very shaved beard makes him look more like a person in his early 30s, and a pair of black circles under the eyes because of long-term insomnia and the increasingly serious ...... 　　Yeah ...... insomnia again. 　　It was amazing that those asshole residents outside kept making noise until midnight before they would go back to sleep, and just after it had subsided for half an hour, the streets surprisingly began to constantly have annoying alarm bells, and they became more and more intensive, and they didn't stop until this very moment. 　　No need to think, it must be a certain criminal escaped from prison again, probably that person felt that even if he stood on the street in a prison uniform today, no one would feel that there was anything wrong with him. 　　Another series of vehicles drove by, and police lights shone into the tiny doctor's office, flashing a few red and blue lights on the walls. 　　Zira went to the window and quietly pulled out a cigarette. 　　For some reason, he didn't turn on the light, so a scarlet highlight flared in the darkness. The smoke shrouded his face in a blur, and Zi Liang realized helplessly that it should be dawn in a few hours. 　　Solely, he just stood there in the darkness, puffing faintly on his cigarette, listening to the yowling of the wildcats, and watching the police cars that flashed by from time to time outside his window. 　　"Fuck Halloween." 　　"Fuck police cars." 　　"Fuck Gotham ......" 　　...... 　　...... 　　The long night finally passed, and on the first day of November, the heavens gave way to a bullish downpour, the sound of rain crashing on glass and the uproarious clamor coming through the windows and into Zira's ears. 　　The streets of this city were like a blood vessel leading to a dying heart, which was still in a state of arteriosclerosis. But that's not bad, because no one should be patronizing this unassuming hospital in this kind of weather ...... 　　So Zira leaned back in that sofa chair of his, trying to see if he could rummage around to find a little sleep amidst all this noise. 　　But immediately afterward, a sound of a pushing door completely shattered his plans. 　　"Hey, it must be those young people who get up early in the morning and find themselves with a sore lower body again." Zira thought so. 　　According to a very incredible statistic, around the time of whatever festival, it was the high time zone for the transmission of such diseases as gonorrhea, syphilis, and AIDS, as if young people nowadays always felt that having a date on a festival would seem even more sacred than on weekdays, and they didn't even let go of the Qingming Festival. 　　But ...... out of Zi Liang's expectation, the one who walked into his office was a police officer, and it didn't look as if he wanted to see a doctor. 　　"Hello?" Zi Liang asked. 　　"Hello." The policeman responded, hesitated for a short while, and turned back to point out the door, "Uh ...... in case you haven't noticed, those bags of garbage you piled up by the door are kind of stinking." 　　"Huh?" Zira shushed his eyes giving such a questioning tone as he didn't think the man had come in through the rain just to tell himself to throw out the trash. 　　The officer shrugged his shoulders ...... 　　"Well, I'm just stopping by to remind you." He said, before handing over a chapter of paper with a portrait printed on it, "Actually, the purpose of my coming is to inform you that a criminal escaped from Arkham Asylum last night, and you need to be careful." 　　Zi Liang took the notice and looked at it, it depicted a hideous looking fellow with a neck that looked like it had some kind of thyroid problem, thick and practiced with his cheeks, of course, it wasn't swollen but full of muscle, wearing a prison uniform, a shocking knife scar slung from his head all the way down to his chin, at a glance the stitches weren't very good, the marks of the needles and threads made it appear as if a large centipede was crawling under the skin. 　　"Oh, thanks." Zira muttered, and set the notice aside. 　　"Hey, I say doctor, don't be unconcerned, this man isn't just any prisoner, he's a madman ......" 　　"Crazy?" Zi Liang asked faintly. 　　"Yeah, the kind of homicidal maniac who goes around sawing people with a chainsaw." The officer said, and made a gesture of waving a chainsaw up and down with the end of it, "Total maniac, without a shred of humanity, so I hope you'll close up shop by 3:00pm for the rest of the week, it's no joke." 　　Zira frowned, "It's not as scary as you make it sound." 　　The officer froze, "What do you mean?" 　　"I mean I thought he was kinda cute when I saw him last night." Zi Liang muttered, then lit up a cigarette and took a breathless drag.