The Anomalous Duty Room

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

“That’s hilarious! Haha! Truly hilarious!”

The atmosphere was undeniably lively.

Yet, this liveliness felt rather excessive.

Inside the duty room, including the doctor, there were five people in total.

These five individuals laughed incessantly, their hands continuously pounding the table. Their eyeballs bulged, and their mouths gaped wide enough to swallow an ostrich egg.

They resembled patients addicted to laughing gas, having inhaled an enormous amount.

Exaggerated, eerie laughter erupted from their throats, reverberating through the duty room before drifting out into the corridor.

The young nurses at the nurses’ station were terrified, their faces drained of color as they stared towards the source of the laughter.

But something peculiar struck them: despite the chilling nature of the sound, why did they, too, feel an urge to laugh the longer they listened?

Unconsciously, the corners of their mouths began to curl upwards.

Fu Ziyu also heard the wild, unrestrained laughter.

Initially, he merely cursed the doctors under his breath for their lack of decorum, but gradually, he sensed something was amiss.

Following the laughter, Fu Ziyu walked past the nurses’ station, glancing inside casually.

Several young, beautiful nurses in pink-and-white uniforms were all turned, looking out of the station with smiles gracing their faces.

Yet, their eyes held no mirth, only terror.

Their movements were unnervingly synchronized, as if they were puppets manipulated by strings, their smiles appearing more like forcibly drawn makeup.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

Fu Ziyu slammed his hand forcefully against the tempered glass window of the nurses’ station counter.

In an instant, the young nurses’ bodies went limp, as if they had suddenly been freed from an imposed force.

Then, screams, cries, and the clatter of falling objects erupted simultaneously, plunging the nurses’ station into chaos.

“Bang!”

Fu Ziyu slapped the glass window once more, pulling out his identification and shouting, “Calm down! I’m a police officer!”

The young nurses, their faces streaked with tears, looked at Fu Ziyu, finally settling down.

Seeing the terrified expressions of these young women, Fu Ziyu softened his voice. “Don’t run around, don’t scream. I’ll go see what’s happening.”

“Captain, what’s going on?”

Just then, Li Dong also rushed over. Fu Ziyu pointed at the young nurses and spoke to Li Dong in a low voice. “I’ve got a pleasant task for you. Go inside and stay with them.”

“Captain, this…” Li Dong glanced at the several pitiful young nurses, then said, “I think I should accompany the Captain to see what’s happening over there instead.”

“Get in there.”

Fu Ziyu flashed a remarkably kind smile.

“Yes, sir!”

Li Dong immediately stood at attention, saluted, and respectfully accepted the order.

He knew exactly what that kind of smile from the Captain implied.

Li Dong entered the nurses’ station, where pairs of wide, watery eyes stared at him with a mix of curiosity and wariness.

“Heh heh, heh heh, don’t be nervous. I’m a police officer too, heh heh.”

Li Dong felt even more pressured here than he had listening to the eerie laughter outside.

Fu Ziyu had now reached the duty room door.

From behind the door, the laughter grew even clearer.

It sounded as if it were right next to his ear.

Peering through the small glass window in the door, Fu Ziyu saw several people inside convulsing with laughter. Their hands frantically pounded the desktop, appearing completely lost to madness, yet the sound of their pounding was perfectly synchronized.

“Thump, thump, thump, slap!”

It was as if they were keeping time with their own laughter.

Their laughter was equally synchronized.

So perfectly aligned, in fact, that it sounded as if there was only a single, unified laugh.

Fu Ziyu narrowed his eyes slightly, his left hand gripping the doorknob as his right moved to his lower back, closing around the grip of his pistol.

Turning the knob, he found the lock well-maintained, likely oiled regularly, for it turned easily and without a sound.

With the pistol’s safety already disengaged, Fu Ziyu abruptly shoved the door open.

It was like suddenly changing a television channel.

The scene before him was one of complete peace and tranquility.

Some were dozing, others were scrolling on their phones, one was writing furiously at a desk, and another tapped away at a keyboard.

“Can I help you, sir?”

The doctor from earlier turned his head to look at Fu Ziyu.

It was only at this moment that Fu Ziyu’s scalp finally prickled with unease.

Throughout his many years as a criminal detective, he had encountered numerous bizarre and terrifying cases.

Yet, an encounter this profoundly eerie was a first for him tonight.

The incidents involving Old Wang and his team, after all, had been relayed by others; they certainly couldn’t compare to the direct, profound impact of experiencing something firsthand.

But this was far too profound now, making him wonder if he were dreaming.

“Excuse me, I just wanted to ask how long it might take for my two friends to wake up.”

Fu Ziyu forced a smile.

“All necessary medications have been administered. If things go quickly, they could actually wake up tonight,” the doctor replied with a professional smile.

“Thank you.”

No sooner had Fu Ziyu spoken than the doctor’s smile seemed to blur.

The doctor appeared to move his lips, saying something.

“What?” Fu Ziyu inquired.

“Hm? Is there anything else, sir?” the doctor asked, looking bewildered.

Fu Ziyu shook his head and pulled the door shut.

Before leaving, he glanced through the small window into the duty room once more.

It remained utterly peaceful and calm.

The previous madness and wild laughter truly seemed to have been nothing more than a hallucination.

Fu Ziyu felt a chill in the corridor.

Without further delay, Fu Ziyu walked towards the nurses’ station.

Inside, several young nurses huddled together, with Li Dong among them, of course.

The eerie, terrifying laughter had stopped, and Li Dong felt completely uneasy, unsure of the situation with the Captain.

“Thank you for staying with us, big brother. What should we call you?”

With the terrifying laughter gone, and the presence of many people and a police officer, one of the young nurses gradually grew bolder and initiated conversation.

“Li Dong.”

Li Dong glanced at the pretty young nurse, then his gaze drifted to the corridor.

“My name is Wu Xiaoxiao. Brother Li Dong, how long have you been a police officer?”

That address of “brother” made Li Dong’s head feel warm, and he started to feel a little lightheaded.

“Almost two years.”

“Where are you from, Brother Li Dong?”

“I’m a local, heh heh, from Chuanbei,” he replied.

“Me too!”

The rapid-fire questions and answers, much like a household registration check, caused the other nurses to cast strange glances at the pair.

How odd, they seemed to think. Who’s the police officer here, really?

Subsequently, their fear began to dissipate, and everyone started chatting animatedly.

Fu Ziyu passed the nurses’ station, saw that Li Dong seemed to be getting along quite well with them, and decided not to interrupt. He proceeded directly back to the ward.

When Cao Yun seemed about to ask something, Fu Ziyu simply told him to go to the nurses’ station as well.

In the quiet ward, Fu Ziyu made a phone call.

“Hello, Director Zhao.”

“Oh, Ziyu, it’s quite late. Is something the matter?” a somewhat casual voice came from the phone.

“Regarding the recently rumored Department of Anomalies, how much does Director Zhao know?” Fu Ziyu went straight to the point.

A brief silence followed on the other end of the line. When the voice spoke again, its tone had grown solemn. “After tomorrow, at least within our bureau, it will no longer be a rumor.”

“Oh?”

“An Anomaly Investigator from the Department of Anomalies contacted me tonight. He’s already arrived in Chuanbei and will report to the bureau tomorrow.”

“I need his phone number.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

Another brief silence followed on the phone, then a voice unfamiliar to Fu Ziyu spoke. “Where are you?”

Fu Ziyu raised an eyebrow. It seemed this so-called Anomaly Investigator was right there with Director Zhao.

“County Hospital.”

“Fifteen minutes.”

The other party hung up the phone.