Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
Entry by: Mao Zhonggui (a night watchman during 1999 to 2000)
I was on duty with Lao Zhang (Zhang Bing) again tonight. In addition, there were doctors in the emergency room on the first floor and a few nurses staying in the nurse station. The inpatient department, was still brightly lit at the moment but the visiting hours will end at around 11 o’clock.
At exactly 11 o’clock, the entire main building was empty. There were no sounds at all. The night in Tonghua Hospital was darker than other places. This darkness felt oppressive, but we couldn’t possibly leave all the lights on overnight. I was the one to do the first round of inspection tonight, so while Lao Zhang sat on the bed and ate his noodles, I picked up the torch and prepared to leave.
I had only been working here for 5 months so far, but I heard that the night watchmen in this hospital only lasted half a year at most. As usual, from 11 o’clock to midnight, I would patrol from the sixth floor down to the ground floor one by one, mainly checking the doors, windows, and fluorescent lights. The hospital did not have those lights which can store power, so they all had to be turned off at night.
I slowly climbed up the stairs. The light of the torch was a dim yellow. Although the elevator was built last year, it was rarely used, and we were even prohibited from using it during this late hour.
There were not many departments on the sixth floor. Other than the Department of Stomatology, most of them were used to store machinery. It was dark, so after a brief glance, I closed the doors and windows tightly and walked downstairs.
Everything in the hospital was normal.
Lao Zhang would be the one doing the second round of inspections at 12:30, so it was my turn to take a rest next.
From the sixth floor down to the first floor, everything was as per usual. The lights were still on in the hall on the first floor and the ones in the two emergency rooms were also bright.
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.
“Ojb Zjb, sbe jgf tfgf,” atf tfjv cegrf ugffafv wf.
“Lfs,” P gfqilfv mbgvljiis.
C ofk cegrfr kfgf qjlcalcu atflg cjlir iflregfis jcv mtjaalcu klat fjmt batfg lc ibk ktlrqfgr ogbw alwf ab alwf.
“Snfg rlcmf atf ijra rtloa, atfgf tjrc’a yffc j rlcuif qfgrbc ktb mjwf ys!” atf tfjv cegrf weaafgfv. Dbat bo er mbwf ogbw atf rjwf tbwfabkc. Megatfgwbgf, tfg tbwf kjr cfjg wlcf, rb P ogfdefcais mbecafv bc tfg jcv atf ofk cegrfr ab qgfqjgf rbwf iluta rcjmxr obg er veglcu atf cluta rtloar.
“Then I’ll go and lock the elevator up…” I said lightly while walking towards the elevator.
The elevator locked with a resounding click. I casted a brief glance at my watch, noting that it was exactly 12 midnight.
“I’m going back up! If there’s nothing much to do then you guys can go to rest early too!” I yelled in the direction of the nurse’s station, my voice echoing throughout the hospital.
When I returned to the duty room on the fifth floor, Lao Zhang had already finished his beef noodles and was staring at me glumly.
“Old Mao, I’m a little scared…”
“Scared?” I chuckled. “You’re a big man, what are you afraid of?”
“H-Have you forgotten what I told you at noon…”
I remembered. The thing Lao Zhang told me at noon-
“Old Mao, there’s a fierce ghost that entered this hospital,” he whispered while staring straight at me over lunch.
“About the fierce ghost?” I laughed heartily. “You’re afraid of it? Who knows, maybe it's afraid of you instead!”
“It’s really a fierce ghost, not an ordinary one.”
“Oh? Then tell me, how did you know? How did the ghost get in?”
“Do you still remember the corpse that was sent to the mortuary yesterday?” Lao Zhang rubbed his hands together nervously. “The one with shaved head and blindfold. He seemed to be the last one to be admitted…”
“So? There are tons of bald people in this world.” I patted the old man. To think that this usually bold old man would suddenly be this timid today. “We’re just night watchmen at the hospital, not grave watchers!”
“There’s a tradition in my hometown… If someone dies unjustly, we must shave their head and cover their eyes with a black cloth, then cremate their body immediately.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you know? Hair can still grow after a person dies. They say that this is the evidence that the person’s soul has yet to dissipate. We must seal the souls of those who died unjustly within their bodies, so we can’t leave even a single strand of hair, or his soul will escape. We cremate the body quickly so he won’t have the chance to become a fierce ghost. A fierce ghost is the most vicious kind of ghost there is. There’s no way we can be its opponent…”
The continuation of our conversation at noon began with the talk of fierce ghosts and gradually shifted to Chairman Mao pushing his agenda of believing in science not superstition, but Lao Zhang still refused to let up.
“There are no ghosts in this world… Hey, alright, you know what, I’ll accompany you for the patrol…” My heart softened when I saw his strange expression, and I picked up the torch again. “Let’s go!”
“That body hasn’t been sent out today yet. There must be something wrong…” Lao Zhang muttered to himself again, and walked out of the duty room with me.
“I’ll go up to the sixth floor. You head down first, I’ll catch up with you in a moment,” I tried persuading Lao Zhang again. “Come on, don’t worry so much.”
Lao Zhang nodded and took a few steps down the stairs. I could still see the dim yellow light of his torch in the distance. His expression was very conflicted, and he turned back to look at me once before averting his gaze to continue walking down.
I patrolled around the sixth floor again. Walking alone in the dark was indeed a bit creepy.
To be frank, I had actually heard the superstitions regarding fierce ghosts before, but I had never put it to heart. Assuming that people really did turn into ghosts after death, those who could become fierce ghosts were the ones who retain resentment from their previous lives. A normal human would probably not stand a chance against them anyway.
But these were all just baseless folk legends. In this day and age, no one believed them anymore.
After inspecting the sixth floor, I hurried downstairs, trying to catch up with Lao Zhang to allay his fears again.
reina: Here to give more detail about the 3 and 7 that was in one of the pop-up notes earlier. A human’s soul (Chinese beliefs) has 7 hun (ethereal soul) and 6 po (corporeal soul), while a ghost only has 3 hun and 2 po. So in this case, when a human and ghost meets, supposedly, the ghost should be more afraid of the human 
But does that help us from being irrationally afraid of ghosts? No.
I wonder how the supernatural stuff will manifest!!
Thank you for the update!
I want to know a little bit more details about ML…
Thank you for your translation 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛