“What’s the situation with patient 314?”
Dean Liu pressed for an answer.
“Dean Liu,” Ni Shanshan explained, “that patient tragically killed his wife over a property dispute. He was originally on death row, but due to a sudden illness, he was transferred here. It seems that traumatic event made him terrified of gunshots.”
“Forget it,” Dean Liu replied, his tone laced with impatience. “Just go and try to calm him down.”
Xiao Tong, wiping away tears, interjected. Her concern for her colleague was evident. “Dean Liu, she can’t go alone. That male patient is completely uncontrollable. Every time we’ve had to enter his room, we’ve always called security to accompany us.”
Ni Shanshan let out a long, relieved breath, casting a grateful glance at Xiao Tong.
“Captain Tang,” Dean Liu instructed the security captain standing nearby, “take a guard with her. Find a way to bring that patient under control.”
Captain Tang acknowledged the order. He then led a security guard and Ni Shanshan towards the designated ward.
Chen Xuanqiu watched Ni Shanshan with a growing sense of unease. Quietly, she decided to follow them from a distance.
Arriving at the ward, Ni Shanshan cautiously opened the door. To everyone’s shock, the male patient inside immediately lunged out, knocking her violently to the ground.
In that terrifying instant, a shiver ran down Ni Shanshan’s spine. She felt that familiar, icy coldness begin to seep into her very bones once more.
Chen Xuanqiu, of course, understood precisely what was happening. A faint black mist clung to the male patient, its source undeniably the female ghost perched on his shoulder.
The horrifying ghost rode atop the patient’s shoulder, her tattered, twisted limbs constantly dripping blood onto the floor. Long strands of hair obscured her face, revealing only glimpses of skin as pale as parchment.
A tangible black mist enveloped her entire form, yet the temperature around them still plunged by more than ten degrees in an instant.
The security guards felt the sudden, sharp drop in temperature and shivered. Despite the chill, they wasted no time in rushing forward to apprehend the male patient.
Chen Xuanqiu quickly dashed to Ni Shanshan’s side, helping her to her feet. The warm current within her body surged, swiftly dispelling the black mist clinging to the nurse.
Two security guards attempted to restrain the male patient, but his frenzy was absolute. With just a few violent movements, he flung their hands away and bolted down the corridor.
“Don’t execute me… don’t execute me…” he shrieked incessantly as he ran.
Sensing the grave danger, the two security guards gave chase with frantic urgency.
“Go take a look.”
Ni Shanshan gritted her teeth and followed. As a nurse, she couldn’t possibly abandon a patient in distress.
Having no other choice, Chen Xuanqiu hurried after her.
When the two women rushed to the end of the corridor, they found the two security guards standing frozen and bewildered at the stairwell.
“What’s wrong?”
Ni Shanshan walked forward, confused, only to let out a sudden gasp of alarm.
Chen Xuanqiu approached, puzzled, and saw the male patient lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs, blood pooling beneath him.
“What happened here?” Ni Shanshan demanded, her voice sharp with accusation directed at the two guards.
“We… we don’t know how this happened,” Captain Tang stammered, trembling. “We had just caught him here, but he fell during the struggle.”
“Oh, dear!”
Ni Shanshan sighed heavily. She then took a step towards the stairs, clearly intending to check on the patient’s condition.
“Don’t go!”
Chen Xuanqiu seized Ni Shanshan’s arm, stopping her. She had noticed something terribly amiss with the female ghost.
“What’s wrong?” Ni Shanshan asked, bewildered. “I need to check on him.”
“The female ghost is looking at us,” Chen Xuanqiu replied, her voice trembling.
In Chen Xuanqiu’s vision, the ghost had tilted her head to face them. Her long hair parted, revealing a jawless face. A tattered, twitching tongue was visible, and her bloodied features were horribly displaced, twisted into a grotesque knot. Both her eyes burned with intense resentment.
“What female ghost?” Captain Tang asked instinctively, his voice laced with unconscious fear.
In that very moment, all the black mist surrounding the female ghost abruptly receded into her body. Then, as if undergoing a physical transformation, she appeared vividly and tangibly before them.
“Ah! A ghost!”
The two security guards were scared out of their wits, scrambling backward in a panicked, disorderly retreat.
Ni Shanshan, however, was paralyzed by terror. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor. Though she had long known about the presence of ghosts in the hospital ward, she had never witnessed one with her own eyes. The shock was immense.
“Sister! We have to go!”
Chen Xuanqiu tried to help Ni Shanshan up, but found her utterly unresponsive. Having transformed into a girl, her strength was limited, making it impossible to drag Ni Shanshan away.
‘If I were still a boy, I could definitely pick her up and run,’ Chen Xuanqiu thought, consumed by frustration.
Just then, the female ghost made her move. Her long hair suddenly surged forward, like countless black projectiles, aiming to pierce through Chen Xuanqiu.
‘That Infant Spirit should come back to save me, right?’ This thought flashed through Chen Xuanqiu’s mind, so she wasn’t entirely consumed by fear.
Sure enough, a tiny body rapidly descended from the floor above. Its small mouth instantly stretched into a gaping maw, and a piercing shriek tore through the sky.
Visible sound waves rippled outwards from its front.
“Ah!”
Chen Xuanqiu felt a searing pain in her eardrums, and she instinctively clutched her ears in agony.
The sound waves collided with the ghostly hair, causing it to droop softly, like willow branches stripped of their wind.
“What’s wrong with you?” Ni Shanshan asked foolishly, only just now snapping out of her daze.
‘Such a loud sound, did she not hear it?’ Chen Xuanqiu wondered, enduring the throbbing pain.
She quickly realized that if ordinary people could hear the sounds of ghosts, they would surely be aware of the supernatural presence in the hospital ward. It seemed the frequency of the ghosts’ sounds exceeded the range of normal human hearing.
When the female ghost’s attack failed, her terrifying figure shot forward with lightning speed. Her nails elongated to more than ten centimeters, reaching out like ten sharp daggers to seize the Infant Spirit.
The Infant Spirit, leveraging its small size, deftly dodged through the air like a cicada. Whenever it found an opening, it would unleash a sonic attack by shrieking at the female ghost.
Wherever the sound waves struck the female ghost’s body, the black mist would scatter as if dispersed by wind, only to re-converge in an instant.
“Hurry and go!”
Chen Xuanqiu strained to help Ni Shanshan up. She was determined to protect Ni Shanshan from harm and avoid burdening the Infant Spirit any further.
Ni Shanshan used every ounce of her strength to finally stand, only to be dragged away by Chen Xuanqiu.
Seeing the two depart, the Infant Spirit didn’t engage in further entanglement. Instead, it floated behind them, covering their retreat.
The female ghost was enraged. Her hair surged once more, sweeping through the corridor like a breaching black torrent.
The Infant Spirit turned its head and emitted another ear-splitting shriek. The sound waves temporarily repelled the “torrent” of black ghostly hair, but it surged forward again in the blink of an eye.
“Hurry, there’s a ghost!”
As they passed the workstation, Chen Xuanqiu urgently shouted. Several people were still lingering there, including Xiao Tong, Dean Liu, and various security guards.
The group had already been unnerved by the security guards’ whispers of ghosts. Now, hearing Chen Xuanqiu’s urgent cry, they lost all composure, each one bolting away in a frantic rush.
Chen Xuanqiu glanced back and saw that the Infant Spirit’s cries were growing fainter, on the verge of being engulfed by the black torrent of ghostly hair.
“Sister Tong, please take her and go!”
Chen Xuanqiu gritted her teeth and rushed back without hesitation. She refused to let a helpless child take the fall for her.
“Xiao Qiu!”
Ni Shanshan cried out loudly, but Xiao Tong was already dragging her away.
Chen Xuanqiu ran back towards the black torrent of long hair with unwavering resolve. As she did, she murmured to herself, focusing on the warm current within her body: ‘No matter who you are, I can only rely on you this time.’
Chen Xuanqiu watched the horrifying ghostly hair surging towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. And just then, she finally felt the warm current within her body emerge, bursting forth from her Baihui acupoint at the crown of her head almost instantly.
Chen Xuanqiu subconsciously opened her eyes, then witnessed a vibrant crimson figure gracefully descending before her. The pleated red skirt twirled elegantly as its owner moved, appearing utterly enchanting.
Upon closer inspection, Chen Xuanqiu realized this was not the modern pleated skirt she had initially imagined. Instead, it was an ancient ruqun with a floor-length design and wide, flowing sleeves, making the name “Wide-Sleeve Immortal Skirt” far more appropriate.