The Voice in the Corridor Chapter 3

  "Old man, my brother and I are the little Taoist priests from that mountain. This time we came down to eliminate evil spirits and monsters." Da Zhuang didn't believe in ghosts or evil spirits, so he immediately started joking around.

  "Listen to me, young man," the old fellow said, clearly displeased. Seeing his expression, I immediately elbowed Big Strong a few times, signaling him not to speak. After all, the old man was kind and willing to chat with us about the hospital situation, whether it was true or false. We always interrupted him when he spoke, which wasn't good either.

  Seeing that Da Zhuang didn't interrupt, the old man took a puff of smoke and spat out mist, smacking his lips. "In my previous years, I was always on duty during the day, just opening the door, at that time, I heard that the night shift colleagues were always changing, but I didn't know why. Now, there's no one on duty at night, the hospital leader said I'm getting old, and you young people are taking over the day shift, so they transferred me to the night shift." The old man sighed as he finished speaking.

  Listening to the words of the old man in front of me, who is nearly sixty years old, I couldn't help but feel surprised. "Old man, why didn't you ask why the night shift guards were always changing?"

  The old man shook his head and sighed bitterly, "I'm just a useless old fellow who's only good for keeping watch. What business do I have interfering in other people's affairs? Besides, they've all moved away."

  "Alright, let's not mention them anymore. So, as I was saying, at the beginning of this month, I was transferred to the night shift. That evening, I was reading a book in the duty room. There are hardly any people who come to the hospital for registration at midnight, so there are only three or four doctors and nurses on duty at night. Since there are hardly any patients coming in at midnight, they don't stay in the hospital but go out to have fun instead. If there's an emergency patient, I'll be the one to notify them."

  Hearing this, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the old man in front of me. Normally, the security guard is only responsible for preventing unknown outsiders from entering, but the old man on duty had to take on multiple responsibilities due to the doctor's and nurse's lack of diligence, which made me feel a bit indignant on his behalf.

  The old man took a long drag on his cigarette. "That night, I was reading until after midnight, and by rights, it was already past midnight, so no one should have come to the emergency room. I lit a cigarette and started thinking about things, planning to sleep for a bit after finishing it. Just as I finished smoking and closed my eyes to rest for a moment, I heard some noise in the corridor."

  "Old man, it must be the hospital patients coming out to use the toilet at night or something?" Da Zhuang couldn't help but say this. This kid has never believed in ghosts or evil spirits since he was young. If it really were a ghost, he would definitely say someone was playing a prank.

  "That sound could never have occurred in this hospital at night." The old man said, putting the almost extinguished cigarette butt into the iron box, looking at the dying sparks, as if he had returned to that day.

  "It's impossible for an outsider to enter the hospital at night, the duty room is right at the main entrance, and the inpatients live on the third floor. Even if they walked, they wouldn't make that kind of noise. They all wear soft-soled shoes issued by the hospital, which can't possibly produce a 'thud' sound!"

  "When I first heard the voice, I thought it was a patient making noise. When I came out of the duty room, there was no one in the corridor, but that 'thud' sound didn't stop. Then I went straight out the door and locked it up to find the doctor and nurse at their usual store and told them what happened in the hospital, but they didn't believe me at all. From that day on, I took a leave of absence and didn't come to work. Yesterday, I came to resign, and today I'm here to hand over the keys to my replacement. But I didn't expect it would be you two young people. I've told you so much because you seem like nice kids, but I advise you not to take this job, it's better for you."

  "Cough, it's not me saying you're an old man, but this might be due to your prolonged exhaustion causing hallucinations? How can there possibly be ghosts in this world? Even if there were, my brother and I could capture it." Da Zhuang patted his chest.

  Looking at the majestic scene in front of me, I didn't say anything. Firstly, this kid doesn't believe in evil spirits and doesn't believe in foreign gods like Jesus either. Secondly, I'm also half-believing and half-doubting about this aspect, after all, I've never seen a ghost before.

  The old man shook his head, "Young people, not listening to the elderly will suffer losses. Haven't you heard this saying before? Alas... I advise you to leave." With that, the old man walked out towards the door.

  Dazhuang looked in the direction of the old man who was leaving, muttering to himself "Damn, really stubborn, and also superstitious. This old man must have had an hallucination. Do you still remember that book we read in high school? I forgot its name, but it said people think during the day and dream at night. I think this old man is half asleep and thinks he met a ghost."

  I smiled awkwardly, and Da Zhuang was right. In the high school library, we did read a book together called "Dream Note". However, that book mainly explained the reasons, processes, and results of various dreams people have, without mentioning anything about ghosts.

  "Alright, stop grumbling, they're just being kind, you've really succeeded." As I listened to Da Zhuang's endless chatter about what had just happened, I couldn't help but feel like my head was inflated with air and was extremely swollen. Suddenly, Da Zhuang stopped talking, and the entire duty room fell silent at once.

  The duty room is not very big, about two square meters. One person staying there feels a bit empty, while two people feel just right. There is only one desk, one bed and one stool in the duty room, nothing else.

  When he came, he didn't prepare anything and didn't bring any books or newspapers, so at this time, he didn't know what to do to spend the long night. Dazhuang stared blankly at the ceiling with his eyes wide open, apparently not knowing how to kill time either.

  "Hey, what are you doing? Want to die?" Looking at Da Zhuang staring blankly at the roof, I poked his back, wanting him to stop this stupid behavior.

  Unexpectedly, Da Zhuang didn't react at all, still staring straight up at the roof with an expressionless face, not even blinking his eyes.

  I thought to myself, how could Da Zhu have the skill of not even blinking for such a long time. I hurriedly pushed Da Zhu, but he still remained in his original state, his two eyes still staring straight at the roof. This action made me recall what Old Han said before he left about this hospital being haunted.

  Thinking of this, I directly picked up the iron stool on the ground and carefully watched Da Zhuang. If Da Zhuang was really controlled by a ghost, as long as he made any strange move, I could knock him out with one hit of the stool. The stool is made of iron, even if it's a big wolf dog, one hit on its head would make it deeply unconscious.

  Like this, I held the stool and stared at the roof with Big Strong for a while. Suddenly, I saw a hint of smile in Big Strong's eyes. I immediately put down the stool and kicked Big Strong's belly with one foot: "Your grandma, you little brat is pretending!"

  I didn't use much force with that kick, but Da Zhuang was still clutching his stomach in pain. "Hey, hey, little comrade, you really know how to use your hands! You don't let me scold you, and you also don't say I can't stare at the roof in a daze."

  "What the hell is that called spacing out? It's just a dead pig that can't be any deader. I yelled at him like that and he could still wake up, but you say you spaced out? Why don't you say your soul went to heaven to see Chairman Mao?"

  "This, this is too embarrassing. Patting the back of his head, "Mao Ye (a nickname for a powerful person) is indeed a god, no matter how I try to get close, I still can't meet him. Little comrade, it's not that I'm saying you're wrong, but aren't you being a bit too petty? I was just joking, don't take it seriously."

  Actually, I'm not that angry either. Looking at Da Zhuang's sincere apology in front of me, I don't think it's right to keep being stubborn. As far as I know, when he was in high school, he even beat up someone and the other person's father came to find the teacher. The teacher asked him to apologize, but he said with a proud tone 'Your son is not good enough to fight me, that's why I taught him a lesson'. Someone like this actually apologized to me, so I shouldn't make things difficult for him either.

  "Alright, don't pretend to be like that again, I thought you were dead! Let me tell you, just now I was thinking, if you really behave strangely like a ghost, this stool of mine will have to take care of you." As I said that, I picked up the stool and sat down beside him.

  Looking at the stool, Da Zhuang smiled awkwardly and said, "I didn't expect that I just couldn't help but save my life earlier. But you're really bold, in just a short while, you've already prepared your murder weapon."

  "Isn't this still your fault?" I glanced at Da Zhuang with dissatisfaction.

  Dazhuang reached into his pocket and pulled out two cigarettes, one for himself and one for me. I looked at the cigarette in my hand and hesitated, thinking about how this small thing had choked me up so many times that it had even brought tears to my eyes.

  Seeing my hesitation, Da Zhuang chuckled and said "Come on, you can't not practice!" He then lit a match and brought it up to me, and once again I rolled a cigarette under his guidance.

  Watching Da Zhuang's enjoyable expression and the room full of smoke, I also imitated his smoking movements in a last-ditch effort, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get it right. After taking only a few puffs, I opened several drawers under my desk to see if there was anything interesting to look at and have some fun. After flipping through them, I found a few old newspapers and a book with an unknown content called "On War".

  After reading "On War" for a while, I raised my head and rubbed my tired eyes. When I looked at Da Zhuang again, he was already lying on the bed and had fallen asleep. The snoring sound was extremely loud. If someone slept with him, that person would definitely be like a spirit medium guarding him every night, waiting for him to wake up before falling asleep themselves.

  I looked up at the watch and it was already two o'clock. I heard that old man say he heard a strange noise after one o'clock, but now it's two o'clock and there's not a single sound, only Da Zhuang's drum-like snoring. Suddenly, I felt that Da Zhuang's idea was right, there are no ghosts in this world, even if there were, I haven't encountered any myself.

  Just then, I tidied up my thoughts, turned the book to the next page and prepared to continue reading. At this moment, I heard a humming sound that seemed to be mixed with another sound...