Translator: Reina Editor: Killian
Entry by: Yang Fei (a nurse during 2004 to 2005)
I heard from several old nurses previously that there was such a record in the hospital, but I did not expect such a thing to really exist, and it was even passed to me today.
I don’t know what the dean wants me to write here either. Everyone knows that I have been having conflicts with Deng Yun anyway, so it is your choice if you want to believe what I write here or not.
I have heard the rumours about this hospital being haunted, and people have also seen things around. The old nurses said that the hauntings were pretty serious previously and there was a large accident involved, but ever since the old hag died, the frequency of the hauntings decreased.
As for who the old hag is, I have no idea. There aren’t too many nurses who decided to continue working in this hospital either. They all say that there was another record book before this, but no one knows what was written on the previous book. The nurses are curious about it, however, no one dares to look at the old book.
Anyway, to start off my entry, I will have to talk about Deng Yun.
I admit that the conflict between Deng Yun and me started because of my Xiao Wang. My Xiao Wang didn’t return her feelings, so if she hates me because of that, I can’t blame her. I only got together with Xiao Wang after that, and Xiao Wang had never given her any mixed signals.
That aside, this woman, how should I put it? She is too fickle. Think about it–in less than two months, I heard that she has taken a fancy to a patient who came to the hospital several days ago. Us nurses can’t be too casual with patients, but she runs over to that ward whenever she has free time, and she always goes there at night too, creating a scandal.
At first, I heard that the patient had an operation a few days ago and lived in a ward on the third floor of the inpatient department. Deng Yun was originally in charge of the fourth floor, but one day she helped someone take the night shift, and later applied for a transfer to the third floor, and only worked night shifts.
Within a few days, rumours that she had a flirtatious relationship with a male patient and how she always visits that ward at night, started spreading. It’s in part her own fault too, since she had a big mouth and loved to show off.
I bet the contents of these rumours were from things she spilled herself.
I heard that the patient was tall and handsome. When she was free, she would start boasting about how that male patient had a very good temperament and was kind.
She’s probably being delusional again. I mean, just think about it, how would a good man like this return her feelings? When others asked her what illness the patient had or how long he was going to be hospitalised, she couldn’t answer it at all. When others wanted to get his name to check the hospital records, she kept evading the topic and didn’t tell anyone his name.
Even when asked about the ward, she only said that it’s the one at the end of the corridor on the third floor.
A few nurses went there to see but didn’t find the temperamental male patient. When I thought in retrospect, I realised that she must have made up a story to annoy me.
Then, just two days ago, two days before Deng Yun disappeared, I ran into her once in the main building.
At that time, for some reason, a copy of the medical records of the patient in 205 was missing. I went to the surgery department to ask about it and coincidentally bumped into Deng Yun talking to Dr. Lu talking when I came out. I hurried away from them, but the elevator was delayed. She had finished speaking to Dr. Lu then, and was walking over towards the elevator.
Before she even reached to my side, a strong perfume washed over me.
It was a little awkward for the two of us to stand there waiting for the elevator. I don’t know when she started wearing such a strong perfume, but its scent kept assaulting my nose. I wanted to turn and go down the stairs instead, but the elevator opened with a ‘ding‘ then so I had no choice but to bite the bullet and step in alongside her.
There were only the two of us in the elevator. The atmosphere was already extremely stiff, and it was made worse when the elevator started acting strangely. The button for the first floor was pressed, but the elevator continued going up. I stared down at the ground and didn’t want to talk to her.
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 elevator door opened with a ‘ding‘..
P ibkfgfv ws tfjv jcv kjlafv obg j ktlif, yea atfgf kjr cb wbnfwfca, rb P olcjiis ibbxfv eq, bcis ab olcv er bc atf 6at oibbg? Ktfgf kjr cb bcf yfobgf atf fifnjabg vbbg. Pc ojma, atf fcalgf 6at oibbg kjr delfa jcv vfnblv bo qfbqif. P delmxis tla atf yeaabc obg atf olgra oibbg rfnfgji alwfr lc remmfrrlbc, jcv bcis atfc vlv atf fifnjabg vbbgr mibrf jcv tfjv vbkc ribkis.
And halfway through, she suddenly spoke to me.
“The same thing happened to me last time. I hit a button to go down, but the elevator went up to the 6th floor instead, and there was no one there when the doors opened.” Her voice was hoarse and tired. “Don’t you think it’s creepy?”
I was annoyed, so I replied to her, “What’s so creepy, it’s just someone who pressed the elevator but ended up taking the stairs again.”
“Then shouldn’t the elevator first go to the 6th floor then down to the 3rd floor, before going to the 1st floor?” she said persistently.
Why would I want to argue with her about the route of the elevator? As soon as it reached the first floor, I immediately rushed back to the inpatient department in large strides. I even felt as though that tacky fragrance of hers lingered on me for a long time.
This was the first time I met her before the incident. I didn’t feel anything wrong at that time. I only remembered that she looked quite tired and was wearing a strong perfume which smelled like a mixture of Florida water and sesame oil.
It took me two days before I finally realised that there was something wrong.
I was on the night shift that night, and it was almost 12 midnight. The patient in ward 201 bed 02 had a quarrel with his family members, and the commotion made the patient in the next bed unable to sleep. Xiao Zhang was helping to mediate while I went upstairs to call the head nurse over.
The head nurse told me to sort out the remaining patient files on her behalf.
Usually, when the hospital is overcrowded, there would be several beds with hanging drips in the corridor on the third floor, but it was quite deserted at this time this year. It was approaching midnight, and all there was was an empty corridor with a chilly wind. The walls were dilapidated, either peeling off in large areas, or full of grey marks.
I was just thinking about who would be in charge of the wards on the third floor tonight, when I saw a blurry figure walking down the corridor in the distance.
Before I could identify their face, the scent of Florida water and sesame oil assaulted my nose. God bless my darn luck, it was Deng Yun. When I got closer to take a look, I was alarmed. I hadn’t seen her for only two days, but she seemed to have lost a lot of weight. Her skin looked pale under the light in the corridor, and with the shadows casted on her white nurse’s uniform, she appeared immersed in a gloomy atmosphere.
“Why are you here?” She asked me, her voice still hoarse. The corridor was so quiet that it felt like it was sleeping, but when she spoke, the atmosphere in the corridor seemed to move.
“There is something wrong with bed 2 again. The head nurse went over,” I answered her superficially. In any case, I would be going to bed at 2 or 3 o’clock, and wouldn’t be here with her for long anyway.
She looked at me intently, then touched her face, and asked, “Do you think I look pretty today?”
“Huh?!” I stared at her dumbfounded, only to see thick dark circles, ghostly white skin, and blackened lips.
“I’m not very good at applying makeup yet.” Seeing me squinting at her, she turned her face away in embarrassment, “I’m practising.”
It turned out that she was talking about makeup. Why would you even apply makeup at this hour of the night? Even the fragrance on her was so potent that it started smelling pungent instead. I refused to answer her, ignoring how she lowered her head and continued touching her face for some time.
Suddenly, she whipped her head up and exclaimed, “He called me!”
I turned around subconsciously. The bell hadn’t rang and I didn’t see any bed lights turning on, so I simply turned back to her and looked at her strangely.
She put her finger to her lips. “Shh, let me tell you a secret. It is a ward that cannot be named.”
“What?”
She suddenly smiled. “I was opposite the building that day, and I saw him standing in the window, smiling at me. It was just like the sun in spring, it warms people.”
Before I had time to respond to her, she had quietly spun around, facing the corridor on the third floor.
What’s this ward that cannot be named? What ‘he’? Ridiculous! Is this woman right in the head?!
After she finished speaking, she left with that half-smiling yet somewhat blank expression, as though she were in the middle of reminiscing.
Hearing the sound of her footsteps, she was walking towards the corridor. Her whole body seemed to be floating.
Knock, knock.
There was a knock on the door in the distance, but there were no talking voices.
I craned my head around to take a look. That blurry figure stood at the end of the corridor over there. She stretched her hand out and pushed the door open, and her whole person drifted in.
The door must have been closed softly, that’s why I didn’t hear any sounds.
After seeing her enter the ward, I felt relieved and lay there waiting for news from the head nurse. While lying on my stomach, I started to feel sleepy and light-headed.
Just as I was in a daze, I felt a smell of something fragrant yet pungent wafting over. Because I was too sleepy, my tired brain was not functioning at optimum, but I subconsciously thought…it’s Deng Yun, right?
The fragrance lingered for a while, but I didn’t hear her voice. I was so sleepy, I was drifting off, my head nodding like a chicken pecking at rice.
I couldn’t remember if I talked to her at that time, but I vaguely felt like I asked her, Deng Yun, is the head nurse back yet?
She didn’t answer me.
All I felt was that there was something icy and cold supporting my head. It was so cold, yet soft… At that time, I was too sleepy, and only thought that this was probably a woman’s hand, that Deng Yun was patting my head with her hand.
Then I felt something scratching my head.
There was a gurgling sound by my ear, as if someone wanted to speak, but it got stuck in their throat.
The sound was intermittent. The sound was soft.
My head was also rubbed to the point of numbness. Perhaps it was because I was too sleepy then, but even now, whenever I recall that time, all I can say is my consciousness was not definitely no longer clear at that point.
I subconsciously grabbed the thing on my head, grabbed it very hard. And then I was startled awake all of a sudden.
When I woke up, my first reaction was to look for Deng Yun, yet I didn’t see her anywhere. I thought she had already left, but when I glanced down at what I had just grabbed, oh my god, it was such a frightening sight that all the hairs on my body stood on end!
Somehow, I was holding a handful of hair in my hand. It was a dark ebony black. The roots which were tangled together were so dry that it appeared yellow.
And the most crucial observation was that the hair was exuding the strong scent of Florida water and sesame oil.
I was so frightened that I quickly threw the hair into the trash can, and rubbed my hands for a long time.
I immediately went to find Deng Yun. I figured she must be in the room at the end of the corridor.
Because I didn’t find anything too amiss with the situation at the time, I was merely surprised by the hair, and so, I still had the courage to look around.
There was no one in the corridor, and it was painfully quiet. I couldn’t even hear the sound of patients snoring.
I don’t know if it was a psychological effect or what, but I was constantly catching whiffs of that unpleasant perfume smell all the way. It was like a fog which confused my eyes and head, everything looked blurry, and I couldn’t think clearly.
Eventually, I finally came to the end of the corridor, and realised a problem. The location of the room was actually farther from the end of the corridor than what I saw from the nurse’s station. Moreover, the ward at the end was 314. There were two female patients living in 314, and I was certain of this because these two patients happened to be my aunt’s friends and wanted to be put in the same ward.
So, there was no male patient.
I tried recalling it again. The place where she pushed the door was a little further than 314.
I took a few more steps forward, but 314 was indeed the last room of this corridor. After passing 314, there were only blank walls, which were, on the bright side, much cleaner.
I touched the wall, and vaguely recalled the dream-like situation in my mind.
Why was her hand supporting my head, why was her hair rubbing against my head?
What kind of strange posture did she need to be in to do this?
I was puzzled at the time, and I felt perturbed for a while. Could it be that Deng Yun was really not right in the head? I’d better hurry back to find the head nurse!
The next day, I specially made a trip down to 314 to ask about last night. Both aunts confirmed they slept well that night, and no nurses came in. Furthermore, I tried looking everywhere for Deng Yun but couldn’t find her.
That’s the story. It’s my first time writing this. I don’t know if it’s okay to write like this?
Besides, it hasn’t been long since I started working here, so I’m not sure about the situation. The head nurse told me not to ask random questions and not to run around at night. The staff roster for the 3rd floor of the inpatient department had always been carefully arranged. Thinking about it, I had indeed worked on all the other floors, but as for the 3rd floor, the one in charge was usually the head nurse. Except for that one night, I had never been put on the roster here.
But was there really a ward on the third floor that cannot be named? Why was there a need to be so secretive?
As for Deng Yun, why hadn’t anyone seen her these two days? I’m not worried about her, but I felt bad for grabbing her hair that day.
December 3, 2005
Deng Yun never appeared again. The hospital conducted an investigation about the incident among the inpatients on the third floor that night, but no relevant information was obtained, so the investigation was dismissed.
That’s so creepy man, was that even Deng Yuan holding her? 😭