Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
The private institution, Xieji Hospital, on Tonghua Road Middle Street was only completed at the end of last year.
This hospital covered an area of about 500 square metres, with a total of three buildings. The run-down building near the entrance was the main wing, with six storeys and a gravel-styled path which was popular in the 1990s. Behind it were two five-storey buildings. The newly constructed pink building on the left was the Department of Surgery, while the building to its right was remodelled into wards and used by the Department of Internal Medicine.
The reason why such old buildings were a part of the newly-constructed Xieji Hospital was because it used to be a public hospital during the recession.
And it was not until this lone hospital in this small country changed owners, that Sun Zheng visited it.
To be frank, he really hated these small public institutions which had poor and chaotic management. The air there never sat well with his sensitive nose. It felt unclean, as though every particle was a super-explosive virus.
This small public hospital, whose original name was Tonghua Hospital, had been in decline for ten years until a boss surnamed Lu bought it over. After five months of renovation and reconstruction, it was finally put into operation again.
Nevertheless, if Sun Zheng hadn’t chipped his front tooth into an ugly mess a few days ago, he probably still wouldn’t have visited this hospital even in his wildest dreams.
The original Chinese-style gate of the public hospital was completely demolished and in its place at the entrance of the now private hospital was a beige gate in a popular European style. At first glance, the gate appeared more like those seemingly luxurious ones deliberately built by a real estate company to attract clients.
Sun Zheng stepped into the dimly lit main building.
He frowned. The feng shui did not seem optimal.
Indeed, it was as he’d expected. Due to the poor orientation of buildings, a peculiar situation had formed on the middle street of Tonghua Road. The left side of this road where Xieji Hospital was situated only had one operating business, which was the hospital itself. To its left was a seafood processing factory which had closed down five years ago due to various reasons, and remained as a dilapidated factory building. The exterior wall of the factory facing the road was battered, its glass windows broken. In addition, to the right of the hospital was a barren vacant lot, which had been converted into a temporary parking lot for the two restaurants opposite the road. Compared with the bleak business on this side, the business over there was booming with high foot traffic.
The reason for this stark difference was probably because there had been insufficient consideration put into the geographical orientation and lighting factors during the urban planning of Tonghua Road in the early 1980s, resulting in Tonghua Hospital being shrouded away from the sun for three-fourths of the day..
In short, after looking around, Sun Zheng had made a brief assessment of the old main building of Xieji Hospital, and his conclusion was: the architecture style is outdated, the dim lighting is insufficient, but the cleanliness is not bad.
Sun Zheng had to wait in line for a while at the registration office on the first floor before being registered.
The Department of Stomatology on the sixth floor.
It was truly rare for such a small private hospital to have a busy period. The elevator’s indicator lights were blinking on and off.
The elevator was probably still the old one which was repaired several years ago. A layer of green paint was slathered on the exterior, with a small part peeled off and exposing the silver metal inside. The buttons were not in optimal condition either. After having too many people pressing them, the transparent protective plastic had been broken and sunken toward the centre. Sun Zheng had to hit the button with vigour several times before it finally displayed the up arrow. At least the screen display still appeared to be relatively intact.
The elevator eventually stopped on the first floor. Its old doors opened terribly slowly, as if it was slowly separating inch by inch to the left and right.
A grey-haired old lady with a cane took a long time to exit the elevator.
Sun Zheng came to another conclusion: the elevator was slow even when closing the door.
This boss surnamed Lu was probably not a rich and powerful person. Why else wouldn’t he completely renovate this rundown main building?
Then, after an exceedingly tedious wait, he finally successfully reached the sixth floor.
Once again, the elevator doors slowly separated inch by inch to the left and right.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The first thing that greeted him was a mirror! Its bright polished surface reflected the slowly parting elevator doors and Sun Zheng’s stiff expression.
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Walking along the winding corridor, Sun Zheng finally found a room dedicated to dentistry, but the dentist on duty was busy drilling into a patient’s teeth.
Sun Zheng backed away, deciding to wait a while.
Suddenly, he felt a warm hand landing on his shoulder.
“Ha! It’s really you!” A man with two dimples, one deep and one shallow, laughed in an exaggerated manner. He stopped laughing when he saw Sun Zheng’s bewildered face, and said seriously, “Hey! Don’t tell me you don’t recognise me?”
Sun Zheng shrugged, very obviously having no recollection of who this guy before him in a dishevelled black suit, with an exaggerated yet not annoying smile, was.
“Hey, come on! We met at a lecture! Popular classical music and modernist theatre at C University!” The man lightly thumped Sun Zheng’s shoulder with his fist.
“Lu… Lu Xia?” Sun Zheng attempted weakly.
The man grinned, punching Sun Zheng on the shoulder. Sun Zheng took a step back involuntarily.
“It seems you haven’t forgotten me! I heard that you have become a screenwriter? Did you get inspired after listening to the lecture at C University?”
“No, I planned to be a screenwriter after I failed my last application at an insurance company,” Sun Zheng corrected.
Lu Xia leaned back, humming in acknowledgment then turned his head over, and said, “Then have you made any movies? Knowing your style, it probably has a classic touch—”
“‘Dark Redemption’, but I’ve only participated in a part of it.”
Lu Xia leaned back again, awe-struck. “Oh! That’s amazing!”
“It’s just a small part. Most of it was done by others.”
“Speaking of which, I have a question.” Lu Xia reached his left hand out and placed it on Sun Zheng’s shoulder. “Did you guys use a stunt double? There were a couple of thrilling sections, like the one with flying cars?”
Sun Zheng tapped his temple with his forefinger, and said, “Of course, the actresses are too weak to film those parts.”
“Then, she—” Lu Xia was about to continue asking, but his questions were interrupted by howls from the dental examination room which sounded like a pig being slaughtered.
“Looks like it wouldn’t be my turn anytime soon.” Sun Zheng shrugged helplessly.
Lu Xia glanced over at the dentist. “This dentist has been working here since before it was renovated. His skills aren’t that great.”
Sun Zheng seemed to have realised something upon hearing Lu Xia’s words. He tapped Lu Xia’s shoulder, and said, ” Your surname is also Lu, so the dean—”
“Uncle. The dean is my uncle. He bought this hospital!” Lu Xia couldn’t help feeling a little proud.
Your uncle was too short-sighted. Sun Zheng slandered the man in his mind.
“This main building is a bit old, and the internal medicine department over there is also very old on the outside, but the inside has been refurbished. Though you can’t quite see the interior from here—” Lu Xia seemed to not have noticed Sun Zheng’s thoughts as he continued elaborating earnestly.
Sun Zheng smiled slightly. He took out his mobile phone and pointed the small camera lens at the opposite building.
“It might be convenient to zoom in like this, but isn’t the image too blurry?” Lu Xia peered the image on the screen. Seeing Sun Zheng fiddling with the keys, making the interior come into focus, Lu Xia stuck out his tongue. “Hn, so it works pretty well.”
Lu Xia grabbed Sun Zheng’s cell phone and tinkered with it excitedly.
Suddenly, the image on the phone dimmed and the resulting dark screen reflected Lu Xia’s blurred face like a mirror. Glancing around, he noticed that the surrounding area was also plunged into a similar gloomy darkness.
“What happened?” Lu Xia glanced up in suspicion. Sun Zheng was also surveying the area.
“The lights are gone. Is there a power cut?” Sun Zheng glanced sideways at Lu Xia.
In just a split second, motionlessly, silently, everything suddenly went completely dark, leaving nothing but dim, fuzzy outlines.
And an eerie dead silence all around.
“Well, the power probably tripped. Once the lights are turned off in this hospital, it gets so dark even in broad daylight!” Lu Xia complained.
Sun Zheng took the phone and pressed a few buttons, but there was no response. He restarted his phone again, but the screen still remained dark.
What is this shit! Sun Zheng was furious. He dialled a random number and held his phone to his ear, but there was no sound at all, as though the two of them had been swallowed into a black hole.
Then after a long time, he heard a light buzzing sound, seeming like there had been an unknown interference to the signal, which resulted in the mobile phone also malfunctioning inexplicably.
Sun Zheng was so aggravated that he wanted to throw his phone, but Lu Xia held him by the shoulder and pointed to the opposite side. “Look, the internal medicine department has no lights too.”
‘Fuck, I knew there’s something wrong with this hospital!’ Sun Zheng thought dejectedly.
“Hey, this darkness reminded me of a story!” Lu Xia seemed to be in high spirits, as if he was not affected by the oppressive darkness at all.
Sun Zheng turned to look at him.
“It is said that the structure of the old hospital was very special. There was a ward in the internal medicine department opposite that could only be seen from the third floor of this building!” Lu Xia said casually.
What nonsense! Sun Zheng’s anger was ignited again.
“Anyway, I’m going to flip the breaker. It’s been so long, but there’s no one coming out into the corridor yet. Are all the staff in the hospital dead?” Seeing no one in the empty corridor, Sun Zheng trekked back towards the elevator.
If his memory serves him right, there should be a control panel with a green cover near the elevator.
Sun Zheng had just walked to the elevator and was about to turn the corner, but was stopped by Lu Xia.
“Hey, wait! Are you listening to me? I asked if you’ve heard of it.”
“Heard of what?!” Sun Zheng retorted impatiently.
“Ghosts—they can’t turn corners, so there are always a lot of ghosts gathered around the bend,” Lu Xia said in a very casual tone. “So you’d better not walk around the bends at this time.”
Sun Zheng’s heart twitched. I still want to ask what the hell are you doing, talking nonsense non-stop since just now.
Lu Xia didn’t seem to notice his unhappiness, and turned away leisurely.
Sun Zheng sighed and was about to take another step, but when he heard an “ouch”, he couldn’t help being startled. He spun around reflexively, only to find Lu Xia looking at the stomatology department through the light blue glass door.
“There is no one! Zheng, there is no one at all!” Lu Xia yelled, wiping the sweat on his forehead with his hand.
“How is that possible? The doctor was still there just now.” Sun Zheng frowned as he glanced over. The eerily dim lighting and the undulating shadows around them made him a little uncomfortable. “Also, don’t call me ‘Zheng’, okay—”
As soon as he finished speaking, his heart skipped a beat.
The moment he looked backwards, he felt something amiss.
Sun Zheng shook his head violently, then fixed his eyes on the gloomy wall under the bleak light.
The mirror facing the elevator was gone!
“Zheng, quick, come over and take a look. Stop standing at that corner and quickly come over here!” Lu Xia grumbled while seated at his original spot.
Sun Zheng slowly retreated quietly without making a sound, his eyes not leaving the now empty wall until he finally retreated to Lu Xia’s side.
At this moment, he felt fear in his heart.
Where did the mirror go?
He turned to look at the stomatology department, which he hadn’t paid much attention to just now.
The medical equipment was intact and neatly placed, and the imported treatment machinery from Australia was still new and undamaged.
But there was not a single person to be seen.
Ever since the blackout happened, he hasn’t heard any voices apart from theirs.
The hospital was eerily quiet.
“Zheng, hurry up! Let’s go to the dean’s room on the fifth floor. It’s safe there!” Lu Xia dragged Sun Zheng and ran downstairs.
As soon as Sun Zheng recovered from his momentary trance, he was already standing at the bottom of the stairs on the fifth floor.
But—if he didn’t mishear, it seemed like—
He’d heard the “ding” sound of the elevator reaching a certain floor…
reina: I’ve jumped into yet another danmei pit… It’s not exactly unlimited flow, but in a nutshell, they have to escape from different monsters/ghosts on every floor of this hospital, and eventually escape the hospital itself. I hope everyone will enjoy reading this story! 
Such a great start!! 😍 Thank you for picking this up!
I’m excited for this project and glad that I have the opportunity to translate it. Thank you for reading!🤗
Why am i always jump in horror pits? I’m afraid of everything
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
An amazing start, i’m excited~
Thank you for picking this up! ♡
Great start!
But didn’t he, like, need medical attention?
Sun Zheng chipped his front tooth, so this should be more cosmetic (or made chewing difficult) than anything life-threatening. At least, logically speaking, I’d say it’s less of a concern than being trapped in a hospital that had a sudden blackout and people vanishing. Though, I must say that the author literally never brings his chipped tooth scenario up ever again……. 😂