Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
The tape had yet to run to the end, but the recording ended abruptly. The pure British English sounded again from the repeater, and the female voice recited the English text in a serious manner.
Lu Xia hit the stop button impatiently. He took out the tape and stuffed it casually into his pocket, then immediately slotted another tape in.
Before he could press the play button, Sun Zheng blocked his hand. He narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he had noticed something.
Lu Xia glanced around from the corner of his eyes, yet except for the familiar and suffocating darkness, he couldn’t hear any sound or see anything out of the ordinary.
“What’s wrong?” He still asked Sun Zheng softly out of caution.
Sun Zheng pursed his lips and shook his head. He felt a sense of oppression and an indescribable dullness weighed on his chest, but neither of these might be something worth mentioning.
The recorder started playing again. In addition to worrying about whether the battery inside could last, Lu Xia was also getting worried. Would they be in danger if they stayed in this unsafe room for too long?
He was really hoping to hear Lu Xiaoyun’s voice in the fourth tape telling him, the exit, go downstairs, turn left, you can go out now.
However, the sudden uproar of human voices and noisy background told him that what was recorded in this tape must be a major event.
It was also the event that Lu Xiaoyun and Yan Yang were waiting for.
At the same time, Sun Zheng was stunned by the raucous noises. He glanced at Lu Xia with a dazed expression, but Lu Xia nodded at him firmly to signal him that they should continue listening.
The background noises in the tape suggested that it should still be in Tonghua Hospital, because the voice of calling for nurses could be vaguely heard. Seeing how lively the hospital was, the time of this recording should be in the daytime for the first time.
“Today is August 24, 2001,” Yan Yang cleared his throat, his voice was unexpectedly steady and serious. “Lu Xiaoyun wandered around the hospital for two months, we waited for two months, and according to his words, we have finally figured out the law of the flow of the chasm in this hospital. Of course I don’t know what those flows and laws are, but in short, he said that its breath is very close…”
Its breath? Lu Xia frowned slightly, trying to decipher the meaning of this sentence.
On the other hand, Sun Zheng bent down and turned his ear to the device, approaching it.
There was an astonishing amount of noise in the recorder, and coupled with the extremely poor sound quality of the old tapes, it was impossible for him to distinguish anything.
Lu Xiaoyun and Yan Yang seemed to be preparing for something, waiting for an opportunity—to discover the breath of the chasm and ‘its breath’, as well as an opportunity to trap Liu Qin and Chen Zhiwen.
Sun Zheng moved even closer.
Suddenly his body shook, and he looked at Lu Xia. “Listen!”
Lu Xia’s nerves tensed immediately, and he leaned over too. “What did you hear?”
He didn’t have Sun Zheng’s level of hearing ability. All he could catch was the sound of chaotic footsteps, the sound of doors opening and closing, and the most common sound was the sound of people talking to each other.
No, not only that…
There was also a girl giggling.
His gaze met Sun Zheng’s.
The light and soft airy laughter which sounded like a wicker swaying in the spring breeze should be a common girl’s laughter, but he felt that it was oddly strange.
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.
Ktf ijeutafg rffwfv j yla ibev. Pa kjr rb bynlber ab atfw jwlvra rb wemt cblrf.
Vec Itfcu gjlrfv tlr tfjv revvfcis.
Hehehe, hehehe, hehehe.
Oe Wlj jirb ragjlutafcfv eq jygeqais, tlr fsfr rtloafv ab atf kjii yftlcv atfw.
Ktlr ijeutafg kjrc’a mbwlcu ogbw lcrlvf atf ajqf!
Pa kjr mbwlcu ogbw atf kjii! Eluta lcrlvf atf ijybgjabgs ktfgf atfs jgf!
Almost subconsciously, Lu Xia grabbed Sun Zheng’s hand. “Run!!”
As soon as he took a step, his body suddenly tilted. He braced himself with his hands on the window sill and his expression changed instantly. At the same time, Sun Zheng felt Lu Xia’s hand tightened around his.
Hehehe, hehehe.
The laughter was coming closer, clearer. It felt as though a girl was about to float out from that wall, and the eyes which had been staring at the room were turning towards them.
Sun Zheng saw that Lu Xia was obviously limping again, so he stood up, grabbed him and dashed out the door.
The thing on his leg had spread to his thigh… No, it might have reached his waist…
They held the flashlight in one hand and turned off the device which was still playing with the other, and froze when they reached the door: Where were they going next?
Neither of them knew if it was just an illusion or the effect of the giggles coming from behind them, but as they face the large empty space outside the laboratory, they felt as though the whole building of Tonghua Hospital had seemingly revived from the dead darkness, and the ghosts and monsters were all coming out from the door, rustling. Rustling.
What was going on?
Yan Yang’s words in the tape emerged in their hearts at the same time: its breath is very close…
What is ‘it’? What has ‘it’ got to do with the chasm?
They don’t have the time to think right now. Lu Xia grabbed Sun Zheng’s arm and was about to dart back upstairs reflexively. The last safe spot was not far from the stairwell.
However, Sun Zheng was dragging him downstairs instead. He couldn’t say why, but the slightly open door of the operating room appeared in his mind…
“Go to the first floor!” Sun Zheng yelled, and at the same time tossed the hastily pulled out map onto Lu Xia.
Lu Xia hurriedly opened the map, searching the blueprint of the first floor with shaking eyes, go down, turn left, pass the nurse’s station… into the observation room?
No, they had no time to doubt anything right now. Lu Xia shouted: “Go to the observation room, just past the nurse’s station, next to the emergency room!”
The two flew down the steps. The loose body of the tape recorder rattling against their bodies.
“Lu Xia, the hospital, the hospital is a bit strange…” Sun Zheng said while running.
“This hospital, since when had it not been strange, haa,” Lu Xia responded between pants. “As long as there is still a last ray of hope… haa… tomorrow will be a bright day!”
Tomorrow will be a bright day. Sun Zheng didn’t know why he smiled because of this sentence. The corners of Sun Zheng’s mouth continued to be slightly curved into a smile even as he ran towards the first floor, panting, but his eyes started reflecting the deep darkness.
The laughter in the laboratory had disappeared behind them. It was impossible to know where the laughter had drifted to.
Everything was like a prelude that was gradually weakening, as if indicating that a serious act was about to begin.
First floor, we’ve arrived!
The hearts of the two people finally relaxed a little. While running past the nurse’s station, Lu Xia suddenly stopped.
“Wait, I’ll check if there’s a spare flashlight!”
He said while darting behind the nurse’s station.
Sun Zheng stared at the top of Lu Xia’s head without relaxing for a single moment. The atmosphere in the hospital made him unable to breathe.
Oppressive. There is also an inexplicable sense of sorrow.
He patted his chest.
It can’t possibly be a sense of foreboding. It definitely can’t be.
They just saw a glimpse of hope. This feeling must be because he stayed here too long.
How long has it been? More than half a day?
How long could a normal person last in the chasm?
While pondering about this, the eyes he was staring at Lu Xia with, flickered. Perhaps, maybe, it was just one day, a mere twenty-four hours.
Lu Xia came back with two new flashlights in his hands, and gestured with his chin to the side. “Let’s hurry over!”
As soon as he finished saying this, his entire expression suddenly froze.
He turned around slowly and looked behind himself. There was an undercurrent of gloom and silence, and the faint light of the flashlight only illuminated the corner of the stairs at the end of the corridor.
Sun Zheng heard Lu Xia call out in disbelief, “Brother…Brother?!”
What?!
He suspected he had heard wrong.
“Lu Xia!” He yelled.
Lu Xia was stunned, then came to his senses, and ran a hand through his hair.
“What’s going on?” He walked towards the observation room. “I… For a moment I felt like my brother passed me by…”
Sun Zheng was speechless. He knew that Lu Xia understood there was nothing but darkness around him just now.
Lu Xia’s hand which had just pushed open the door of the observation room was still trembling slightly. “It was the same feeling as when he walked past me in the past… Just that it felt a little colder…”
Sun Zheng followed Lu Xia in, and secured the door behind them. With the new flashlight switched on, the room suddenly became a lot brighter, and Lu Xia seemed to have regained some composure because of the excessively bright light.
“Let’s sit down,” he said.
But neither of them moved. Their hearts were still beating fiercely.
Sun Zheng dug out the contents in his pockets.
“Could it be that…” He looked down at the map, records and tapes on the table. “Could it be that ‘its breath’ is also approaching us?”
Lu Xia felt his heartbeat in his throat. The scene in the corridor earlier echoed in his mind for a long time.
“How long can a normal person survive in the chasm? Do you know, Lu Xia?” Sun Zheng asked again.
Lu Xia shook his head: “I don’t know…related to ‘it’…”
“‘It’?” Sun Zheng seemed to have remembered something. “Is it the same thing as what Liu Qunfang’s grandfather mentioned? The one from the chasm?”
Lu Xia held the edge of the table, acquiescing. “Probably… I don’t know either. Even the chasm itself is just an intangible metaphor. The chasm is moving, flowing, just like breathing, there is a way in and a way out. And we have to find our way out before you meet ‘it’.”
After he finished speaking, he also turned on the flashlight in his hand and scanned the observation room.
Probably because the observation room was near the end of the corridor and next to the emergency room, there were only a few rows of windows. There were some sparse infusion tubes hanging in the room, and the seats below look softer than those in the hall outside the laboratory. Without the hard plastic color, and it doesn’t feel so cold under the light of the flashlight.
There were indeed a lot of calendars and some medical knowledge posters posted around the room. Lu Xia and Sun Zheng roughly confirmed that the location was safe for the time being and quickly pulled out everything they had.
Sun Zheng was about to press the play button on the tape recorder, but couldn’t resist looking up and around. “Is such a room also safe from ‘it’?”
Lu Yan choked.
Sun Zheng was still about to say something more but the flashlight in his hand flickered suddenly. Lu Xia saw the flicker, and looked over in the direction of the light.
The edge of the light shone on the glass on the door of the observation room, revealing a dark shadow brushing past the outer edge of the glass.
It seemed to be walking unhurriedly, just like any passing figure.
The unreal but very clear movie-like scene made the hearts of the two people who had finally calmed down suddenly beat wildly again.
What was that? Whose shadow was that?
The most important thing was… Did this shadow just appear, or did it follow them all the way until here?
“Sun Zheng…” Lu Xia called Sun Zheng’s name, his voice trembling.
If one were to say that Tonghua Hospital was dead silent before, then now, you could say it was gradually reviving.
“Did you see it?!” Sun Zheng turned his head to look at Lu Xia in panic, trying to find a different answer from his eyes.
“We both saw it.”
The light in his eyes dimmed, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
Yes, we have both seen it, Lu Xia, Sun Zheng bowed his head, but has it ever occurred to you that it was not the hospital that was changing, but us? We are becoming a part of them, so we can now hear, can now feel, can now see them. Perhaps we have already met ‘it’, and it is already too late for us.
However, he didn’t say these words, and his eyes just trailed back to the tape recorder on the table.
Forget about this thought, Sun Zheng, he said to himself, because he couldn’t bear to destroy the fighting spirit that the two of them had finally built up.
I am your biggest fan and loudest cheerleader, don’t give up!!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️