In that instant, two thoughts sprang to mind, and Jin Xueli couldn't tell which came first.
First, Morando had startled her so badly that she aborted her lunge for Chaisi, spinning around mid-motion. As her peripheral vision swept across the hospital bed like a camera lens, Jin Xueli suddenly noticed a row of long, grayish-white shadows pressed tightly against its underside.
The glimpse was fleeting, but by the time her eyes landed on Morando, a lightbulb went off in her head, illuminating the answer.
'...So those were its hands.'
The resident was crying out in pain on the other side of the bed, but it had secretly snaked an arm under Chaisi's mattress, reaching all the way to Jin Xueli's side, lying in wait.
If Morando hadn't called out and stopped her, if she had just lunged straight ahead, she would have delivered herself right into the resident's grasp.
The second thought was: how dare Morando, the culprit behind all this, yell at *her*?
"You're glaring at *me*?"
