The Supernatural Tales of Xieji Hospital, the private hospital on Tonghua Middle RoadCh52.2 - Afterword

About the chasm:

This chasm is like what Liu Qn said, think of it as a circular flowing mechanism where the new will replace the old. ‘It’ is like a cog in this mechanism. It was originally just a natural phenomena, but because there would occasionally be people who would accidentally fall into the chasm and couldn’t come back out, humans started treating the chasm as a scary thing. They thought that the chasm was ‘eating people’ and thus by extension, saw ‘it’ as a foe. Eventually, Liu Qunfang’s grandfather as well as Lu Xiaoyun etc., recognised their mistake. ‘It’ was a natural occurrence and was not evil. qYSUE6

About Tonghua Hospital’s chasm and ‘it’:

This was a normal chasm. Liu Qin used the sacrificial ritual to modify the aura of the chasm. The first step of the ritual was to use the dead person in Ward 315A as an offering, to lure ‘it’ out. The second step was to give a ‘sacrifice’, which would be brought into the chasm by ‘it’ (note: entering the chasm does not equate to death). According to Liu Qin’s plan, she would be chosen by ‘it’ upon entering the chasm, and therefore, the only other person who entered the chasm will inevitably become the sacrifice. However, ‘it’ chose Lu Xiaoyun instead, so Liu Qin who was the other person in the chasm, became the sacrifice instead. The third step was the taboo of letting a dead person return to life. Hence there are four main criteria of this ritual: the dead sacrificial offering, the living substitute/sacrifice, the new life, it.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

About the relationship between ‘it’ and the chasm:

‘It’ is the cog of the chasm. Without ‘it’, the chasm will not function properly. won6G

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.

About Sun Zheng’s condition:

Vec Itfcu’r mjrf lr jc fzmfqalbcji mjrf. Frejiis, ‘la’ klii mtbbrf atf cfza remmfrrbg. Lbkfnfg, Vec Itfcu kjr vloofgfca. Lf kjr jilnf veglcu atf glaeji jcv kjr mbcrmlber. Llr mbcrmlbercfrr jcv klii yfmjwf ilxf j nlger, lcofmalcu jcv ajxlcu bnfg atf ktbif mtjrw.

About the ending:

1. Who put the tapes back?

Ktlr tjr akb qbrrlylilalfr: Oe Wljbsec bg Tjc Tjcu. Ktlr lr yfmjerf atfs jgf atf bcis akb qfbqif ktb xcbk bo atf ajqfr.

> If it is Lu Xiaoyun? This means that he had to put them back after he became ‘it’. This begets the question of if it is possible for ‘it’ to touch items outside of the chasm. According to the worldbuilding I created, I think it is impossible. Therefore, if the tapes were planted by Lu Xiaoyun, then he must have made it out of the chasm.

> If it is Yan Yang? This also answers the question of how Lu Xia got his hands on the giant clam key. This was something someone sent to him years later. The sender had to be Yan Yang. But why did it take so many years? Because Yan Yang no longer had a need to keep everything a secret. This means that Yan Yang is dead.

2. Since Sun Zheng became ‘it’, where did Lu Xiaoyun go to?

I think that there are two possibilities too: Either Lu Xiaoyun was swallowed by Sun Zheng’s consciousness, or Lu Xiaoyun was no longer in the chasm.

> If he was swallowed? OK, this is another probable route. Everyone can think further down this track (it will quite possibly be an annihilation BE!) yd4ZA2

> If Lu Xiaoyun was no longer in the chasm? Very possible! There is actually an easter egg in this novel for this scenario. Firstly, when Lu Xia was on the first floor, he felt as if he brushed past his brother. At that time, Lu Xia could already see the things in the chasm, but he didn’t see Lu Xiaoyun, what did this mean? This meant that Lu Xiaoyun could quite possibly no longer be in the chasm and was existing outside of the chasm in another form, and just coincidentally brushed past Lu Xia at that time.

3. So did Sun Zheng and Lu Xia actually leave the chasm at the end?

> They didn’t leave. This is one possible route. You can continue thinking down this track.

> They left. This possibility can answer both the questions above. From Q1 and Q2, we have seen that Lu Xiaoyun could possibly exist in another form outside of the chasm. This meant that, even if you became ‘it’, you could still leave the chasm, but you’d likely not be able to be seen by other normal humans (else Lu Xiaoyun would have gone to find Lu Xia during all those years). So let’s now take a look at the easter eggs planted in the ending:

“We can.” Lu Xia squeezed out a smile. His forefinger lightly stroked across something on the hem of his clothes, as if cleaning off something. aJlgLo

The tapes. Lu Xiaoyun. Yan Yang. It.

Only ‘it’ can take you from the operating room to 315A. Only ‘it’ can take you out.

What Lu Xia was thinking at the end was exactly these two questions we have just raised, and he had an answer for it: ‘it’ can take you out. So, he followed Sun Zheng to 315A. Then what happened in 315A? Now let’s see the hint Sun Zheng gave us:

“Mess around? You’re the one who messed around the most.” The reflection of the scholar in the elevator showed him giving a sharp look at the wide-brimmed glasses next to him. “How dare you lie to me again in 315A?! How dare you try to pull off those impossible stunts again?!” Ks0WuA

What did Lu Xia lie to Sun Zheng about? One huge possibility is, Lu Xia had already deduced from Lu Xiaoyun’s situation that ‘it’ could leave, that ‘it’ could exist in the outside world in another form. When that happens, this chasm will become a useless empty one. So in the last moment, he lied to Sun Zheng, who never believed there was such a possibility, and managed to bring him out too (as for how he lied, please exercise your own brain cell).

So if we continue down this line of thought, the overall ending for the characters would be:

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Although Lu Xiaoyun became ‘it’, but ‘it’ left the chasm and was living in the outside world as another form. Yan Yang was living in the outside world as a normal human, and so he would not be able to come into contact with Lu Xiaoyun. Furthermore, he also died after several years. This CP is a BE. In this scenario, the chasm also became a useless empty chasm, so the problem with it was resolved!

Next although Sun Zheng became ‘it’, but left with the heavily infected Lu Xia. So, both of them were living in the outside world in another form. Looking from the perspective of their aim of leaving the chasm together, their ending is a HE. If we consider it from the aspect of returning to a normal life, then it would be a BE. In this scenario, the chasm also became a useless empty chasm, so the problem with it was resolved! ec4 Sn

T/N: And this marks the end of this translation! Thank you to all readers for joining our journey. Although this is an open-ending novel, I think the author managed it splendidly and it is actually the very first novel to make me think that open-ending isn’t all that bad. In fact, I think it suits the atmosphere of this novel because just like how there is no definitive conclusion for the fates of all those missing people who entered the chasm, we also have no conclusion for these four men who were linked to the chasm too.