Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
“How could it be?!” Sun Zheng frowned, puzzled.
Lu Xia pondered slightly, then waved his hand and went back to the table. “Actually, these two things might not be completely connected. This middle-aged woman may not have anything to do with the fire. Let me take another look.”
*
I was terrified because of this matter for a good part of the day.
During lunch, I dragged Ma Yu over to the door to look but the aunt was not there. Ma Yu consoled me, saying that there had been a lot of things happening in the hospital lately, such as troublesome family members and the move over to this office, so everyone might have been too busy to notice the aunt.
That’s possible too. I mean, who’d usually pay attention to an aunt sitting at the door?
I finally calmed down after that, but Ma Yu came to find me again after our shift ended in the evening.
“Xiao Ting, I found someone to look into your matter,” she told me secretively.
“What matter? Who did you find?” I had no idea what she meant.
She whispered in my ear, “About that aunt at the door. You really have to thank me for this. I found you an impressive person.”
Ma Yu pointed towards the door. I followed the direction of her finger and was stumped by the figure I saw. “…Qunfang-jie?”
Qunfang-jie nodded her head in greeting and entered. She’s a nurse who had worked in this hospital for a long period of time. Furthermore, she frequently helped out with all things large and small, so everyone knew her. Although she was thirty this year, but since she was still unmarried and rather petite, and loved to smile, you couldn’t really tell her age.
Ma Yu patted me on the shoulder with a smile. “Qunfang-jie has a belt of experience in this, let her guide you with some tips.”
Qunfang-jie glared at her. “What sort of experience is there for something like this!”
I felt embarrassed. I had no evidence to back up what I’d seen. It’s okay to bring it up in a casual chat within my own department, but I’d never expected it to spread to the other departments, and even to Qunfang-jie. If I later found out that it was just my mistake, then where do I put my face?
Ma Yu said, “Aren’t you familiar with the fire in 2000? You even wrote a record about it. Who else would be considered experienced if not you?”
The expression on Qunfang-jie’s face shifted upon hearing about the fire. Her smile froze on her face.
It appeared that the incident had an extensive impact on her too, and any mention of it made her unhappy.
Seeing this, I stepped in. “Actually, it was nothing much… Why don’t we forget about it?
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.
Qunfang-jie stopped me. “No, no, I have to figure out the ins and outs of this matter too. After so long, I still couldn’t completely wrap my head around it. So I’ll be staying with you two later.”
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Qunfang-jie stopped me again, and the two of them worked together to persuade me to stay back, saying that we have nothing to fear with the three of them together, and there was even a nurse’s station downstairs. If they were scared, they could also go up to find the night watchmen. Besides, those stories they’d heard were from word of mouth. Such stories were naturally exaggerated each time they were passed along.
Seeing that Qunfang-jie was so determined and taking into account all the help she usually gave me, I reluctantly agreed.
I didn’t even know if her story about the women’s bathroom was true or exaggerated.
I was really, really scared, and even called home from the office.
None of us three were on duty tonight, so we had to find an excuse to stay back. We chatted while snacking downstairs, and before we knew it, it was night.
When it was almost 11:30 at night, Ma Yu started getting impatient. She repeatedly said that she wanted to go up to the fourth floor to have a look and forced us to go along.
My legs were weak just from looking at the dark corridor, but I couldn’t find an excuse to opt out, so I held on to Qunfang-jie and followed them towards the stairwell.
As soon as I reached the stairs, I immediately felt overwhelmed by panic and a sense of discomfort.
“Let’s turn back,” I told Ma Yu.
“We have come too far to hesitate!” Ma Yu tugged at me. “You’re not a kid anymore, what’s there to fear?”
Qunfang-jie shot her a glare. “Isn’t this because of you messing around!” She turned around to pat me on my shoulder.
I know that Ma Yu is a curious and meddlesome person. If we turned back now, she’d probably start spreading the story of my cowardice around the whole hospital over the next few days, so I had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow them upstairs.
The hospital in the middle of the night is completely silent. And once we went upstairs, there wasn’t even any light left.
The only light was from the torch in Ma Yu’s hands. But I was really too nervous and scared. Everytime the light flicked to a corner of the wall or a side of the handrail, I would flinch a little.
Who knew how many laughs Ma Yu got out from seeing me like this.
When we walked past the third floor and was about to head up to the fourth floor, she even flashed the torch up on purpose. The light danced through the dim stairwell, creating the impression that something would dart out from within.
“Hey Qunfang-jie, was this where you heard the baby’s voice the last time?” Ma Yu asked jokingly while shooting me a layered look.
Upon hearing the word ‘baby’, I was so frightened that I immediately grabbed Qunfang-jie’s arm tightly.
But Qunfang-jie merely replied blandly, “No, it was when I almost reached the fourth floor.”
She said it as though she was retelling a true story.
Trembling, I followed them for another few moments. The sound of our heels seemed to be particularly loud, and the echoes from the empty corridor made it sound as if there were more than three of us climbing the stairs. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen a number of horror films with the same concept that it made me become this paranoid.
Then when we were almost on the fourth floor, Ma Yu deliberately stopped.
She made the ‘shh’ gesture, telling us to keep quiet.
I didn’t know what she was trying to pull. After waiting for a while, she finally said, “See, there are no sounds at all. There’s no crying or giggling.”
Ma Yu raised the torch, trailing the light over the last few steps of the stairs and pointed it towards the women’s toilet, illuminating the ajar door and the white tiles beyond it.
She swept the light up and down along the edge of the door.
“Huh?” I grabbed Ma Yu’s hand.
They both turned to me at the same time, asking, “What’s wrong?”
“Did a figure walk in just now?” I asked, uncertain.
Qunfang-jie’s expression changed, and she gave me a light smack. “Why are you joining her in joking about these things too!”
I was sure that I saw a figure momentarily illuminated by the light earlier. “I guess there could have still been someone walking about…” Even I knew how absurd my words sounded.
Ma Yu also gave me a light smack. She wanted to shine the torch at me, but I grabbed her arm and pointed the shifting light back towards the women’s toilet behind her. “Quick, look! Your light shined on it again!”
Ma Yu’s hand went soft, and the torch almost fell from her grip.
I saw that she was startled, so I quickly added. “Don’t be afraid. I think that figure looked like the aunt I saw this morning. She’s still holding the baby.”
However my words seemed to have frightened Ma Yu further. Even her face turned pale.
I looked back to see Qunfang-jie who had the same pale expression, and suddenly I started feeling uneasy too, so I quickly tried to comfort them by saying, “No, I was just joking.”
I even forced a smile.
After saying that, I lowered my head and didn’t look at them anymore. But, it’s true. I really saw it.
At first, when the light shone through the dark corridor, all I saw was a vague shadow, like a figure, passing by the white tiles at once. But the torch moved too quickly, so all I saw was a blurry outline. The second time Ma Yu moved the torch, I saw a shadow at the door again, and it was holding something. The movement of the light was too fast and I couldn’t see it clearly, but my intuition told me that it was the aunt holding the baby.
When I raised my head again, I saw that Ma Yu’s torch was trained at the toilet door.
The darkness behind the door was akin to a black hole, unable to be penetrated by light at all.
And that blurry shadow I saw standing at the door of the women’s toilet with the child in its arms, I don’t know if it was staring at us in the same way now too.
“I, I want to go back.” My heart was panicked and flustered. I grabbed Qunfang-jie. Looking at the light shining straight on the door of the women’s bathroom made me feel very uncomfortable.
With such a straight beam of light illuminating that one spot, the rest of the surrounding darkness appeared much deeper and much more uncanny.
However, Ma Yu didn’t seem to hear my words. She went up a few more steps.
Qunfang-jie, too, comforted the trembling me while pulling me up the stairs as well.
By the time we were on the fourth floor, my legs were so weak that I could hardly stand.
“I want to go back…” I whispered. I felt like I was about to burst out crying.
But Ma Yu simply cast a bright smile at me. “I want to use the toilet.”
Qunfang-jie quickly yanked her back. “Stop messing around.”
Ma Yu pouted, unhappy. “Why are you two so serious? Isn’t this just the hospital which we work at? Which one of us haven’t used this same toilet before? Besides, I really want to go to the toilet. If you are really scared, then just stay outside and wait for me at the door.”
She was always boasting that she is naturally bold and not afraid of anything. She must have wanted to display her courage a long time ago.
Who knew if this was a dare given by the male doctors in the hospital?
But why did she drag me into the water too!
Qunfang-jie appeared to be moved by her words and started feeling as if we were all overreacting, so she said to Ma Yu, “Alright, then you go quickly. We will wait for you here.”
Ma Yu grinned widely and strode towards the toilet with the torch.
Because the head nurse only passed me one torch earlier, Qunfang-jie and I were huddled together, leaning against the wall as we waited for Ma Yu in the dark.
Watching as that little beam of light entered the women’s toilet.
reina: a part of me wants to strangle Ma Yu lol
I finally caught up with all the chapters! ٩(●˙▿˙●)۶…⋆ฺ This hospital sure is spooky, why are there so many supernatural instances?