If he couldn’t see the rabbit heads, he could probably just forget about them. But now they were sitting right in front of him and he wasn’t allowed to eat them—this kind of torment wasn’t something normal people could endure.

He even had a weird thought in his head: if suspects refused to confess in the future, first let them have a meal of rabbit heads, then line the rabbit heads up in front of them and say, "You talk, you eat. No confession, no rabbit head!"

Wouldn’t they end up confessing obediently just to eat rabbit heads?

That older guy saw Qian Zhijie staying silent, got off his own bed, walked over to Qian Zhijie’s bedside, and spoke with the tone of someone who’d been through it all: "I was the first one to move in here, and I’ll be discharged in another day. I’ve recovered pretty fast, so I kind of count as experienced."

"How about this, I’ll rinse it in plain water and try it for you first. If I think it’s not that spicy, you can have a couple bites. If even I think it’s too much, then you really can’t eat it, okay!"

He was, after all, the most experienced patient in the ward.

The old brother’s words immediately won everyone else’s approval.

"Yeah, Brother Wang was the first one here to get surgery. He’s basically almost fully recovered now. If he thinks it’s okay to eat, then it’s definitely okay."

"Yeah, let Brother Wang try it first!"

"That’s right, Old Qian, you can’t make your condition worse just for a bite of food. Just put up with it for a bit. Once the surgery’s done and you’re healed, then you can eat however you want, right?"

Under everyone’s persuasion, Qian Zhijie was finally convinced. He muttered, "Alright then, Brother Wang, you try it first."

Old Wang nodded solemnly, then put on gloves too. He picked up the little piece of meat that had fallen into the corner of the plastic bag, tossed it into the bit of soup left from his rice noodles just now, and stirred it hard with his chopsticks a few times.

He didn’t put the meat into his mouth until the surface of the rabbit head had completely turned into the color of cooked meat, with not the slightest hint of chili red left.

The rabbit head went into his mouth, Old Wang paused slightly, and didn’t feel any numbing spiciness.

Instead, it was an unbelievably intense savory fragrance!

Just think about it: the rabbit head had first been braised in Clear Soup, then Old Wang had rinsed it for ages in that milky broth—its umami was basically doubled on the spot!

He gave it a light bite. The rabbit head itself had been braised until it was extremely soft; he barely needed to use his teeth. Just a light press of his tongue and it melted in his mouth, sliding down into his stomach with his saliva.

Eh?

Old Wang’s expression went blank.

In that instant, his taste buds, which hadn’t tasted oil or salt in ten whole days and were about to slip into hibernation, seemed to snap awake all at once!

A faint numbness, a faint spicy burn, plus a faint five-spice aroma, the meatiness, the umami—every kind of flavor mixing together, bouncing up and down over his taste buds.

Old Wang smacked his lips a few times, trying hard to savor the taste. But sadly, the piece of meat was tiny to begin with, and it had been rinsed in the milky broth for so long that all those flavors flashed by in an instant, not giving him any chance to grab onto them.

"Old Wang? Brother Wang, how is it? Can I eat it?" Qian Zhijie saw Old Wang spacing out and asked anxiously.

Old Wang finally snapped out of it. "Ah? Oh, right, right, you can ea—no wait, that piece was way too small. I couldn’t even tell if it was spicy or not. Let me try another bite."

Anyway, Old Wang was the one getting discharged the fastest in the whole ward, so no one said anything. They all just stared at him with hungry eyes.

They watched Old Wang grab a whole rabbit head this time. He didn’t even bother rinsing it in water—he just shoved it straight into his mouth and started sucking!

"Ssss... hiss!"

In an instant, Old Wang sucked in a sharp breath from the heat, and his face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye. But he didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. Instead, he clenched the rabbit head tighter and sucked at the juices even harder.

"Ssss..." Old Wang sucked on it for quite a while, then tore off a chunk of meat from the surface of the rabbit head and slowly chewed it.

At this moment, only three words could describe how he felt.

Blazing hot!

From his lips all the way down to his stomach, everything felt blazing hot.

But this blazing heat didn’t feel painful at all. Old Wang was surprised to find that as long as he kept eating, it stayed pure bliss.

The moment he stopped, that blazing sensation immediately swept through his whole body, making him feel fidgety and unbearably uncomfortable.

"Damn! No wonder Old Qian said these rabbit heads were wicked. They’re freaking delicious!"

"It’s really that weird?"

The guy in the bed next to Qian Zhijie said, already reaching his hand over as he spoke.

"No, bro, you better not. You haven’t even taken a dump yet today. If you eat this and suddenly gotta run to the toilet..." Qian Zhijie said worriedly.

The older guy in the next bed chuckled. "You don’t get it. Old Wang’s getting discharged tomorrow, I’ll be discharged the day after. If he can eat it, I definitely can too."

With that, ignoring the worry in Qian Zhijie’s eyes, he just grabbed a rabbit head. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Sssssss...

Humans have always found it hard to resist food that’s a glistening shade of red and shiny with oil.

Watching the two older guys clutching rabbit heads and wolfing them down, making those greedy, lip-smacking sounds as they gnawed, the guy in bed No. 3 rushed over.

"I’m getting discharged the day after that, so it’s fine!"

Come on, man... Qian Zhijie was practically dumbfounded.

"I’m getting discharged the day after that too. It’s just a tiny rabbit head."

"I’m almost discharged as well!"

In the blink of an eye, Qian Zhijie watched in a daze as five of his ward-mates crowded around his bed, clutching rabbit heads and tearing into them, while he...

"Fuck it, you’re all about to be discharged. I haven’t even had the surgery yet, what the hell am I scared of?"

He stopped caring, grabbed a rabbit head, and thought, Screw it, I’m eating!

In the restroom, Zhang Xiaobin scrubbed the pot spotless, wiped it dry with a rag, hummed a little tune, dodged the nurses’ line of sight, and slipped back into the ward without a hitch.