The Vanishing Floor

“What’s wrong?”

Liu Hanzhi leaned closer to Bai Wanwan, her gaze fixed curiously on the iron door before them.

What was strange was that while every other floor in the hospital had fire doors, this one alone was a heavily rusted iron door.

It had the distinct feel of an old Hong Kong horror film.

Peering through the rusty bars, they could discern a dim corridor stretching endlessly into the gloom, its walls peeling in places.

While the inpatient building was typically bright and spotless, with clean, tiled walls throughout, this particular corridor seemed trapped in a bygone era, its decor reminiscent of the last century.

It even exuded an air of decay.

Bai Wanwan scrutinized the scene, then, as if a sudden realization struck her, she hurried upstairs.

Her steps were frantic. When she finally reached the top, breathless from her ascent, the floor number prominently displayed ‘10’.

Just as quickly, she rushed back down. Liu Hanzhi, still bewildered, remained patiently by the iron door, awaiting her return.

“Wanwan? What’s wrong?”

“Stay right there, don’t move!”

Bai Wanwan descended the stairs swiftly, a flicker of apprehension stirring within her. She desperately tried to convince herself that this floor was simply an abandoned section of the inpatient building, closed off for some innocuous reason.

‘There was absolutely nothing wrong… absolutely nothing!’

Yet, when Bai Wanwan saw the floor number on the next level, she froze.

“It’s the 9th floor! It’s actually the 9th floor!”

The blue and white numerical sign now seemed particularly jarring.

Going up led to the 10th floor, and going down led to the 9th. This meant the floor where the iron door stood simply didn’t exist!

Still unwilling to believe it, Bai Wanwan tried numerous times, but the result remained the same.

An extra floor had inexplicably appeared between the ninth and tenth levels. Yet, upon their arrival, Bai Wanwan had specifically counted the building’s stories, confirming it was indeed only ten floors tall.

Now, however, an undeniable additional floor lay before her.

What appeared to be a ten-story inpatient building from the outside now mysteriously harbored an eleventh floor.

Bai Wanwan gazed at the iron door, a shiver running down her spine as she recalled the eye she had seen earlier at the floor-to-ceiling window. A sense of foreboding suddenly washed over her.

“Can this iron door be opened?”

Bai Wanwan attempted to push the iron door, but it remained stubbornly unmoving.

While Bai Wanwan certainly had a knack for folklore and the supernatural, against a massive iron door, she was still just a delicate young woman, utterly helpless.

“You want to open this door? Let me try; I should be able to.”

“You know how to pick locks?”

Bai Wanwan was surprised. She knew Liu Hanzhi could tell fortunes and apply screen protectors, but she never imagined she could pick and change locks too?

‘It’s truly difficult to earn a living these days; even a female ghost needs to learn a few extra skills just to scrape by…’

“Of course. Just find me a paperclip, and I can pry that lock open for you.”

Liu Hanzhi confidently patted her ample chest.

“Let’s go buy one at the convenience store downstairs.”

Bai Wanwan glanced at the shadowy corridor. No matter what, she had to investigate that floor.

‘The yin energy within… was exceedingly dense.’

“Alright.”

Bai Wanwan and Liu Hanzhi descended the stairs and exited the inpatient building. Bai Wanwan deliberately turned back to count the floors.

“One, two, three… ten, eleven floors!?”

Bai Wanwan felt her eyes must be playing tricks on her. How could she have counted eleven floors?

She counted again…

“One, two… ten floors!?”

Bai Wanwan confirmed it repeatedly, even pulling Liu Hanzhi along to count with her. Ten floors… it was indeed ten floors!

Not one floor more, not one floor less.

Bai Wanwan then located the hospital’s fire safety plan, which clearly stated that the inpatient building had only ten floors, with no hidden levels whatsoever.

Without time to ponder further, they bought a paperclip, and Bai Wanwan led Liu Hanzhi to the ninth floor via the elevator.

However, when they tried to re-locate the iron door from the stairwell, they found it was nowhere to be seen.

Going up from the ninth floor led directly to the tenth.

And going down from the tenth floor also led to the ninth.

Both floors were bustling with people, bright and clean, and the doors in the stairwells were all standard fire doors.

The rusted iron-barred door… was gone!