Chapter 2: Reunion at the Hospital (Part 2)

  A man in his forties with a shiny name tag "Head Nurse" on his chest yelled from behind. I turned around and said, "What business do you have where I'm going?"

  "I've seen many patients, but it's the first time I've seen a few who are this old and yet so uncooperative, with such low quality. Visiting hours are over, please return to your ward, family members please leave immediately." The head nurse said in a commanding tone.

  Yang Cangcang chuckled and said, "Hey, if we leave, I'm afraid no one will be able to deal with these guys behind you." The head nurse was slightly stunned by Yang Cangcang's words. She turned her head to look back and saw that there were forty or fifty people standing behind her, their faces gloomy, their eyes fixed maliciously on us, including patients, doctors, and nurses.

  The head nurse was startled and shouted: "What are you all standing here for? Why don't you go back quickly?" The people behind her didn't react at all.

  "What's going on here?" I asked Old Xiao.

  "It should be like that little nurse just now, possessed by the abyssal creature, it should be the swirling black smoke we saw earlier." Xiao Lao replied.

  "Why attack us? Can't we just let the nine worms freeze them? Let's hurry and retreat?" I asked tentatively.

  Yang Cangcang hummed softly: "I think it's because of her." Her eyes glanced at the white-clothed woman behind Wu Zihan.

  "Wu Zihan waved his hand: "No way, if we keep it frozen, it will harm innocent people. We have to drive out the thing that's possessing him."

  "How can you drive him away? Your own body hasn't fully recovered yet, and you're going to get yourself half dead again with another extreme stunt?" Yang Cangcang said somewhat discontentedly.

  Fu Ma ran to the nurse who was standing there with a stupid expression, grabbed her and shouted at us: "What are you still stunned for? Let's run first!" Fu Ma rushed towards the nearest staircase, we followed closely behind, and the possessed people behind saw the situation and hurriedly chased after us.

  "How many floors is this?" I asked.

  "It's on the fourth floor." Yang Cangcang replied.

  "It's okay, not too high." I sighed and accelerated my run downstairs. People living in high-rise buildings generally have a feeling that going upstairs is tiring, but going downstairs is dizzying, and it's easy to get lost. However, things are much better now with elevators. The staircase on each floor of this hospital is longer than usual residential buildings. After walking down for half a day, my legs were getting cramps, why haven't I reached the entrance yet? I was still wondering when Yang Cangcang shouted loudly: "How did you all end up on the minus two floors? Don't you guys look at the signs? Hurry up and go back upstairs!"

  We started climbing up the stairs with a creak, after several floors, I looked up and felt a thud in my heart, and said to everyone: "How is this still minus two floors?"

  Fu Ma looked around and said: "This is bad, it should be the legendary ghost blocking wall, no matter how we walk, we are still circling in place."

  Xiao Lao was panting heavily, and it's hard for him at his age of over 70. He followed us through the wind and rain, and asked the head nurse: "What is the purpose of the two underground floors? Is nobody usually here?"

  "The hospital seems different from usual today. There are usually a lot of people coming and going at this time." Fu Ma stopped on the stairs, panting heavily.

  The head nurse's face turned pale, stuttering for half a day without saying a word. I sighed: "Are you going to say that this is the morgue? Okay, I've already expected it, as the saying goes, 'disaster doesn't come alone', now it seems that death is no longer scary."

  The head nurse hesitated and said: "It's...not...the mortuary has been...cancelled for many years"

  I breathed a sigh of relief as Yang Cangcang pinched her waist and said, "Is it or not? What are you stuttering about? Don't worry, we're here to guarantee your safety."

  The head nurse hid behind me and said, "The... the key is that the hospital doesn't even have a negative second floor." After hearing her say this, perhaps it was psychological, I suddenly felt that this dimly lit corridor was eerily cold.

  Fu Ma smiled wryly and said: "We're getting more and more capable, we can even open up a whole floor now."

  The nurse, seeing how calm we were, also calmed down a bit and asked: "What are you people after all? What's going on here?"

  Yang Cangcang pouted: "Mind your own business, anyway I'll get you out safely."

  The white-clothed woman on Wu Zihan's back was still sleeping soundly, he looked around and said: "The layout here is different from upstairs, it seems to be very old, it should have existed before." Just as he was saying this, he suddenly furrowed his brow, "Why is there a smell of paint?"

  "Our hospital was just built last year. The old building had a negative second floor, which used to be the morgue a few years ago. After some accidents happened, the morgue was cancelled," said the head nurse.

  "Wait a minute—" Yang Cangcang narrowed her eyes and stared at the head nurse, "I have a question, why were so many people possessed, but you're fine?"

  The head nurse said with a confused expression: "I don't know either."

  "There's an aura of righteousness about her, precisely what evil spirits fear. Do you have anything that can ward off evil?" Xiao Lao asked, sizing up the head nurse from top to bottom.

  "Is this the thing?" The head nurse recalled for half a day, "Could it be this one?" She took out a bunch of keys from her pocket and pointed to a ring-shaped object on the keychain: "This was given to me by a beggar I met on the street once. He was lying on the side of the road, seemingly injured. I happened to pass by and gave him some simple treatment and some money. He then gave this to me, saying he didn't want to owe me a favor, that in the future when the wheel of karma turns again, he would still have to repay it, and so on... I wasn't listening very carefully, but I thought this thing sounded quite unusual, so I hung it on my keys."

  Xiao Lao took the keychain and examined it carefully, I also leaned in to take a look. The ring-shaped object was semi-transparent with an amber color, its surface very smooth, looking like a ring. I tried putting it on my middle finger, there were black spots of varying sizes on top, from afar they looked like leopard spots. In the center of the ring, it seemed like some text had been engraved.

  Xiao Lao suddenly had golden light flashing in his eyes: "What does the person who gave you this ring look like?"

  The head nurse flipped her eyes and recalled: "I didn't see very clearly, his hair and beard were all stuck together, and his face was also very dirty, but there seemed to be a hexagonal tattoo on his hand."

  "It's him, it's really him..." Xiao Lao said excitedly. "I didn't think that after all these years I'd still be able to get news of him, how long has it been?"

  "It's been a year now." The head nurse replied.

  "Xiao Lao, who are you talking about?" Yang Cangcang asked.

  "It was the old man I often talked about, who met a noble person under the coincidence of fate. He is also considered half a master of mine, and most of my skills were learned from him." Xiao Lao sighed, as if recalling the past, "This ring is a thousand-year-old agate, which is a top-grade evil-repelling item. There are also talismans carved on the back to drive away ghosts, that's why you could escape the disaster." The head nurse was surprised, she didn't expect that the seemingly sloppy person would be such an impressive figure. People can't be judged by appearance, and there may be someone around us who seems ordinary but can achieve remarkable accomplishments.

  Just as we were talking, the lights in the corridor suddenly went out. This corridor was underground and had no windows around it. We came in a hurry and almost everything on us was left in the grand hall of the ancient country, including not even a lighting device. I could feel the gusts of cold wind blowing past my ears, and the surroundings were getting colder and colder. The head nurse's whole body was trembling as she grabbed onto my clothes, and I estimated that if we breathed out now, we would see white mist.

  Taking advantage of the dim light, I roughly looked at this corridor. There are two rooms on each side, and a large hall in the middle of the innermost part, with the door facing us. If it was a delivery room, it should be here, I guessed.

  Suddenly, the big door creaked open with a "clang", startling me. The head nurse let out a loud cry and from beside came Yang Can's impatient voice: "Can't you help without scaring people? Just watch quietly."

  A strange noise came from the middle hall, as if someone was whispering, and the dark wind kept blowing. Yang Cangcang walked forward with two green eyes shining brightly, I followed closely behind, and Jiu Chong circled around me. Since having this little guy, I've become more confident.

  We tiptoed to the door, and inside this house there was a dim yellow lamp. After scanning around, it was indeed a morgue with many beds covered in white cloth. The temperature here was extremely low, I kept rubbing my arms with my hands, while Fat Ma covered the nurse's mouth with her hand, fearing she would cry out again.

  Suddenly, a black shadow seemed to flash in the corner of the room. Yang Cangcang crouched down and gestured to us, after our cooperation in the desert, we had already become very tacit, almost understanding each other's meaning with just one glance.

  Yang Cangcang secretly hid under the bed, slowly approaching the wall corner with a black shadow. We all held our breath and moved forward slowly. After walking for a while, Yang Cangcang suddenly stopped in front of a bed and stared blankly. At first, we thought she was possessed by an evil spirit.

  Yang Cangcang looked at me with a puzzled expression, pointing to the bed. I raised my head slightly and took a glance, and was immediately stunned. The corpse on the bed wasn't covered with a white cloth, and it wasn't someone else - it was my grandfather. Why was my grandfather's corpse here? Didn't he already jump into the stone statue? Everyone else was also extremely shocked, especially Xiao Lao, who furrowed his brow in confusion, unable to understand what was happening.

  This position is already very close to that wall corner, carefully identifying it, it seems like two men's voices are talking in a low voice, we several people hide under the bed, I slightly stick my head out to see clearly, a familiar side face appears in front of me, that person is none other than Director Mu, there is another person in front of him, with his back facing us, only Director Mu looks different from what I usually see, very young.

  That figure in the back asked in a low voice: "What's going on with Zhou Yuanzhi? Why did he die here? What do your people think?"

  The director of the mother bureau replied with a look of grievance: "I don't know either, my man replied that he was still in the sanatorium yesterday, how could his body appear here today?"

  The conversation between these two people completely stunned us.