Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
After two consecutive accidents, everyone could tell that whatever was lurking in the hospital was explicitly targeting Ji Dong.
The most troublesome part was that its appearances were sudden, catching even the sharp-minded Ren Jianmo off guard.
It became impossible to defend against.
If it were a normal person, they would have screamed and run away, never returning to this abandoned hospital again. But Ji Dong couldn’t do that.
They came to Tzu Chi Hospital to find clues, even though they knew it was haunted.
“So what is our mission objective?” Fan Luming nervously accompanied Ji Dong, like a cat with its ears standing up, ready to pounce.
“Are we supposed to eliminate that thing? But how should we do it?” Ji Xiao’niao was even more nervous than him, constantly turning his head, looking left and right, up and down, alert for the sudden appearance of the ghost.
They lingered in the internal medicine clinic, but the white figure no longer appeared.
“It’s already two o’clock,” Mo Tiangen looked down at his watch and said anxiously.
Everyone noticed that since they entered the haunted location, their watch hands had turned yellow, indicating “danger,” except for Ji Dong, whose hand was a bright red symbolizing “extreme danger.”
Based on this difference, they reasonably speculated that the ghost in the hospital must be selecting targets based on some criteria, and Ji Dong happened to meet its criteria, so he was targeted.
“I found it.”
Fan Hemian waved her phone. Thanks to the all-powerful internet and the fact that there was still a signal in this ruined building, even after more than 10 years, she was able to find some clues after searching for key phrases.
“I found the compensation judgment for Tzu Chi Hospital twelve years ago.” She waved her hand and shared the information she found with her companions: “In that year, the hospital had at least three accidents resulting in deaths. They were caused by a falling light tube, accidental falling from a building, and drowning in a toilet sink…”
Fan Hemian glanced at the sink in the corner, as if looking at some devouring ghost, and said, “The news said that the victims were all teenage boys.”
She then shifted her gaze to Ji Dong and said, “I think that’s why you are being targeted.”
It’s quite clear. Most likely, the accidents that happened in the hospital back then were caused by the same thing that attacked Ji Dong just now.
The reason they were “chosen” was because the victims were young boys, perhaps with some specific physical features.
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 confidentiality of online information back then was not as advanced, and Fan Hemian even found the compensation judgment details for the two victims, thus learning the real names of those two boys.
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“Wait a minute, this is a [Film] of strange stories. Do you think it’s a detective novel?”
Mo Tiangen scoffed at Fan Luming’s inefficient approach.
“But the killer is not human. Even if you find out that those three boys were treated by the same doctor or nurse, what does it matter? Can we go to the homes of the doctors and nurses and see if they are ghosts lingering in the hospital?”
“No, I think Xiao Lu’s suggestion makes sense.”
As the one in the most dangerous situation, Ji Dong just hoped to get out of this situation as soon as possible. But he knew very well that they still had very few clues.
“At the very least, I believe that whatever attacked me must have some connection to this hospital.”
They didn’t know the true form of the monster, so naturally they couldn’t come up with a solution. And time was ticking away. If they returned empty-handed on the first day and didn’t get the playing cards, then the problem would become dire.
The others didn’t have any better ideas for the time being, so they agreed, “Let’s go, let’s go to the medical archive.”
The medical records room of Tzu Chi Hospital was on the top floor of the inpatient department.
That meant they had to cross the outpatient building, go through a corridor to reach the inpatient department, and then climb the stairs to the ninth floor.
The five of them wasted no time and surrounded Ji Dong in the middle, leaving the internal medicine clinic.
The corridor leading to the inpatient department was filled with clutter and years of accumulated dust. As they walked, they could even see the traces of dust being stirred up by the airflow.
Almost all of the light bulbs along this stretch were either broken or removed, with only one remaining in the middle, reliably providing illumination for this unexpected group of visitors.
When everyone stepped onto this corridor, Ji Dong carefully and diligently confirmed that there was nothing suspicious around them, apart from the five of them.
However, when they reached the darkest part of the corridor, a sudden incident occurred.
With a loud “clang,” a piece of ceiling suddenly fell from above the heads of the group.
Fortunately, everyone reacted quickly. In the instant the ceiling fell, each person reflexively jumped in different directions.
Ji Dong’s method was to jump backward and then roll over while protecting his head, completing two full rotations.
The next second, the board landed with a loud “clang” right next to his feet, missing him by just half a palm’s distance.
He let out a breath and felt a lingering fear in his heart.
“How is everyone? Are you all okay?” Ji Xiao’niao asked loudly as he got up from the ground.
Ren Jianmo and Mo Tiangen managed to avoid the incident in time, without even falling.
Fan Hemian and Fan Luming, the two siblings, huddled together and rolled to the side, looking a bit disheveled.
The sister accidentally bumped into some clutter in the corridor and bruised her back. Though it was a bit painful, it didn’t affect her movement.
Just as everyone was reassuring each other, another unexpected incident occurred.
Without any warning, Ji Dong suddenly felt his neck tighten, as if a pair of hands were strangling his throat, almost squeezing all the air out of his windpipe.
In an instant, his feet were suspended in the air, and he was lifted from the ground, soaring towards the ceiling with a “whoosh.”
To the others, Ji Dong looked like a prisoner on a gallows, with an invisible rope around his neck, being pulled away from the ground and hanging in mid-air on the ceiling.
“Damn!”
Everyone was horrified.
Ji Dong floated in mid-air in front of everyone, desperately scratching his neck, trying to break free from the restraint above.
But they couldn’t see where the attacker was at all.
At this moment, Ji Dong was already experiencing oxygen deprivation, with his vision going black and his ears buzzing. In another second or two, he would suffocate and lose consciousness.
In the moment of life and death, he felt the two hands tightly gripping his neck.
Those hands were cold and bony, with a strange slippery sensation, damp on the surface, and the touch didn’t feel like that of a living person at all.
Before he was thoroughly suffocated, he activated his special ability.
A burst of blue electric arcs flickered and struck the hands gripping his throat.
The restraints loosened and Ji Dong free-fell from mid-air. He was caught by Ren Jianmo, avoiding the pain of hitting the floor.
“Ji Xiao’niao, are you okay?”
Ren Jianmo anxiously patted Ji Dong’s cheek, trying to bring him back from the sudden lack of oxygen-induced dizziness.
At that moment, he saw that Ji Xiao’niao’s neck had a circle of bruising in red, yellow, blue, and purple. In severe areas, blood vessels were visible, indicating that someone had exerted great force to strangle him.
Ji Dong groggily opened his eyes and subconsciously took a deep breath.
The air, filled with a musty and dusty smell, immediately choked Ji Dong.
He lay on his back in Ren Jianmo’s arms, clutching his injured neck, coughing violently with tears streaming down his face.
When the dizziness subsided a bit, he was finally able to open his misty eyes and see everything in front of him clearly.
Immediately, Ji Xiao’niao, like a startled mouse, leaped from Ren Jianmo’s embrace, jumped three feet high in place, and quickly retreated several steps.
Because he saw it, a pale and sallow face.
That face was like a failed wax figure, with the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth all squeezed together, lips wrinkled, revealing pale gum and uneven teeth.
But what scared Ji Dong almost to the point of having a cardiac arrest was the posture of this “person”.
He wasn’t standing upright, but hanging upside down from the ceiling, with a pair of dilated, lifeless fish-like eyes staring blankly at Ji Dong.
At that moment, they were very close, only two fists apart between their faces. If Ji Dong raised his head a little, he could touch the figure hanging upside down above him.
Even so, Ren Jianmo, who was holding Ji Dong, was utterly unaware of the hanging figure next to him.
In extreme terror, Ji Xiao’niao instinctively jumped and crawled backward, pointing at the man hanging upside down, desperately trying to tell the others about the presence of that thing.
But Ji Dong had just been forcefully choked, his throat injured. It was difficult for him to even make a sound, let alone shout or scream.
So everyone could only see Ji Dong trembling in the corner like a frightened hamster, pointing forward into the void, his lips constantly opening and closing, but only emitting a hoarse and out-of-tune sound.
“Xiao’niao, calm down…”
Mo Tiangen stared at the direction Ji Dong was pointing, desperately trying to figure out what had scared the child so much that his legs were shaking.
But no matter how wide he opened his eyes, all he saw was a dirty ceiling and a broken wall lamp next to it.
“What do you see?”
omg my poor boy 😭😭
looks to her sixth month old for comfort T^T