CHAPTER 5: X City First People’s Hospital (V)

To save or not to save? While Qi Leren was still hesitating, Dr. Lu had already rushed forward, kneeling beside the girl and asking, “What’s wrong? Where do you hurt?”

 

“My stomach hurts… I think…” The girl’s face was ashen. “I think… I’m going to miscarry.”

 

“………………”

 

The two men froze in place. Qi Leren cursed inwardly. This girl had been screaming at her ex-boyfriend on the bus, threatening to abort the baby and send it to him. The Word Spirit was about to fulfill half its promise.

 

But this was just too unlucky. Could anything be more tragic than miscarrying in a hospital haunted by ghosts? Oh, maybe encountering a Killer would be worse…

 

“Do you want to try to save the pregnancy? If so, I can give you a shot to stabilize it,” Dr. Lu asked earnestly, gauging the patient’s wishes.

 

The girl looked like she was about to lose her mind. “Save it? Just get it over with! This place is crawling with ghosts! What’s the point of saving a ghost baby?!”

 

“……” *Girl, can’t you stop saying such ominous things?* Qi Leren wanted to retort.

 

“Come help me! Help her lie down!” Dr. Lu called Qi Leren over to assist.

 

Qi Leren went over and, with Dr. Lu on either side, they carried the woman into the Abortion Clinic. She looked like she was about to die, barely managing to walk inside before collapsing onto the bed like a corpse.

 

“There’s a ghost here…” she murmured, though her expression remained relatively calm. “I just came out of here.”

 

“A ghost?” Dr. Lu fidgeted nervously, glancing around.

 

“Scared off by all the blood I lost,” she groaned, her voice barely audible through the pain. “Damn, this really hurts…”

 

“…I, I’ll get you a sanitary pad,” Dr. Lu stammered, quickly retrieving supplies. The Abortion Clinic was well-equipped, and he soon handed her a pad along with disposable underwear.

 

Qi Leren poured her a glass of water and helped her drink it.

 

“Thanks,” she said, her breathing steadier. Her hand trembled as she began to tear open the sanitary pad. “My name is Xue Yingying. What’s yours, handsome?”

 

“Qi Leren,” he replied, turning away. The situation felt awkward. *Don’t look at what you shouldn’t,* he thought.

 

“We’ll wait outside. Call us when you’re ready,” Dr. Lu said, apparently unable to stand the palpable tension between the “dog-and-bitch” couple, who seemed ready to hook up at any moment. He pulled Qi Leren out to stand guard outside the door.

 

“This Abortion Clinic has a really complicated layout,” Qi Leren remarked.

 

“Yeah, it’s easy to get lost the first time you come here. The doctors’ and patients’ corridors are separate, and the waste disposal route is on the other side. There’s a large room with four smaller rooms inside: a rest area, an operating room, an office, and a nurses’ station. And there’s a changing room sandwiched between the doctors’ office and the nurses’ station, making it easy to get disoriented,” Dr. Lu added with an ominous conclusion: “Perfect for a chase scene.”

 

“…Can we please stop making such ominous predictions? Don’t forget there’s a killer lurking somewhere in this hospital who could strike at any moment,” Qi Leren said, speechless.

 

Dr. Lu glanced at him sideways. “You just said it yourself.”

 

“…Oh.”

 

The two fell silent, each lost in thought about what to do next.

 

“Do you know how to perform an abortion?” Qi Leren tried to steer the conversation toward a less ominous topic.

 

Dr. Lu gave him a look that said, “Are you kidding me?”

 

“What are you thinking? I’m an internal medicine doctor! I can help a pregnant woman with an ultrasound, but you want me to perform an abortion?”

 

“…”

 

“But if it’s a matter of life and death… I could give it a try…” Dr. Lu genuinely considered the possibility.

 

“She’s been quiet for so long. Do you think something’s wrong?” Qi Leren couldn’t see inside from behind the door, but his intuition told him changing a sanitary pad shouldn’t take this long.

 

“AH—! A GHOST!!!” A bloodcurdling scream erupted from inside. Without hesitation, the two men burst through the door to find Xue Yingying sprawled on the floor, desperately crawling away. On the bed where she had been resting, a disheveled, semi-transparent ghost was crawling across the sheets in a grotesque, twisted posture, reaching down to grab her.

 

In that instant, Qi Leren didn’t think twice. He stepped forward, dragging Xue Yingying away by her arm. Dr. Lu’s hair stood on end as he turned to flee, but a gust of cold wind swept through the corridor, slamming the door shut with a loud bang! He twisted the handle twice, but the door wouldn’t budge.

 

“Holy shit, it’s a door-slamming kill!”

 

The Ghost on the hospital bed had already crawled onto the floor. Explosions echoed overhead—”Crack, crack, crack”—accompanied by Xue Yingying’s screams as the fluorescent lights in the rest room shattered one by one. Glass shards rained down, scattering across the floor.

 

The room was dim and cold. The faint light filtering in from outside barely illuminated the space, but they could still make out the Ghost crawling slowly and grotesquely across the floor, inching toward the three of them.

 

At the critical moment, Dr. Lu shouted, “Use blood! Try blood!”

 

*Where the hell am I supposed to get blood?! And now?!* Qi Leren’s nerves were so frayed that his mind was still racing. But Xue Yingying, whom he was dragging along, reacted even faster. She cursed under her breath and shoved her hand into her underwear. With a tearing sound, she ripped something away and, before the two men could react, slapped it onto the Ghost’s face just as it was about to grab her ankle.

 

A bloodcurdling scream erupted from the Ghost. Qi Leren finally snapped out of his shock and grabbed a nearby chair, smashing it against the creature. To his surprise, it made solid contact! Fueled by a surge of adrenaline, Qi Leren unleashed extraordinary strength, pounding the crawling Ghost until it vanished into dust.

 

The room fell silent, save for the three people’s rapid breaths and pounding hearts. Qi Leren dropped the chair and slumped onto the floor, exhaling deeply.

 

Taking that first step hadn’t been as difficult as he’d imagined.

 

Xue Yingying groaned softly, clutching her stomach. Dr. Lu, his hands and feet trembling, helped her to another bed. Seeing Qi Leren still sitting dazedly on the floor, Dr. Lu cautiously approached and asked, “Are you alright? Did you get hurt?”

 

Qi Leren snapped out of his daze and shook his head stiffly.

 

He wasn’t seriously injured, just shaken. Moments ago, he’d been swinging the chair like a madman, a memory that now felt both alien and unbelievable. The Ghost’s terrifying face and piercing shriek had combined to form the most vivid nightmare he’d ever experienced, sending chills down his spine.

 

The room remained dimly lit, but the oppressive, chilling atmosphere had dissipated. Xue Yingying lay half-dead on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling with a hand over her stomach, and asked weakly, “It won’t come back now, will it?”

 

“There should be a buffer period,” Dr. Lu said optimistically. “Are you hungry? I’ll go find us something to eat, and some weapons. We’re completely defenseless right now, which is a bit… cough cough… inappropriate.”

 

Recalling how he and Qi Leren had been brazenly tempting fate by saying “Ghost” and then actually encountering one, he swallowed the dangerous word.

 

“You know the hospital better. Why don’t you go? I’ll stay here and watch Xue Yingying,” Qi Leren suggested hesitantly. They couldn’t just abandon the patient.

 

“I…” Dr. Lu struggled for a long moment before finally admitting the truth. “I’m scared…”

 

Xue Yingying and Qi Leren fell silent.

 

“You two go,” Xue Yingying said bravely, despite being in a room that had been haunted just minutes earlier. “I might be safer here. If another one comes, I’ll just bleed a little more. But I’ll need you to bring me something to eat.”

 

Dr. Lu circled the room twice more, finding two surgical scalpels to serve as weapons before leaving with Qi Leren.

 

The corridor remained eerily silent, even in broad daylight, lit by glaring white fluorescent lights.

 

Dr. Lu muttered to himself, rambling on: “The cafeteria’s behind the outpatient building, but we can’t get there now. We should find weapons first, then get Xue Yingying something to eat and drink. Miscarriages are incredibly draining. What’s that fog all about anyway? Should we try to check it out later? I wonder if the main entrance on the first floor is open. If not, we’ll have to find the keys again…”

 

The two of them made their way to the Carpentry Workshop in Building B. There were plenty of tools they could use, but unfortunately, they didn’t find the Killer’s chainsaw. All they found were ordinary saws, files, drills, and other woodworking tools. After searching for a while, Dr. Lu returned, beaming, with two crowbars in his arms. “Look! The Holy Sword of Physics!”

 

…Seriously?

 

The tools could be stored in their backpacks, so they decided to loot both the Carpentry Workshop and the Electrical Workshop next door, taking anything that looked useful. Each of them grabbed a crowbar and prepared to search for food nearby. Dr. Lu began rambling about the supernatural incidents he’d encountered during his night shifts in the past.

 

“Quiet,” Qi Leren hissed, his heart pounding.

 

Dr. Lu blinked blankly, then froze when he saw Qi Leren’s grim expression.

 

The rhythmic tapping of footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor, slow and steady. In the blink of an eye, the figure rounded the corner.

 

A man stood there, brandishing a chainsaw and wearing a terrifyingly distorted expression.