Chapter 330: The Infant Spirit Approaches

I left the prenatal diagnostic testing center and searched the corridor for the female streamer. Most of the doors on both sides were locked, their handles layered with dust. The person I wanted wouldn't be hiding in any of those rooms.

"The scream definitely came from the second floor. There's no way I heard wrong, but where is she?"

It wasn't until I reached the end of the corridor that I noticed something amiss. Beside the emergency stairs was an inconspicuous wooden door—a utility closet where the hospital cleaners stored their tools.

"This door looks like it's been opened." I crouched down and examined the floor. Debris was scattered around the frame. The small closet was probably crammed with too many things; whoever opened it to hide hadn't expected that, and throwing the door open in a hurry had caused the clutter inside to spill out.

The larger objects had been picked back up, but the scattered debris couldn't be easily cleared away in a short time.

I knocked lightly on the door. No one answered from inside. My brow slowly furrowed.

"Come out, stop hiding," I said in a low voice from the doorway. The corridor was quiet; whoever was inside could definitely hear me.

"Not coming out? Then step back from the door. Don't get hurt." I took two steps back, aimed at the lock, and kicked!

The lock busted open. Something seemed to be propped against the back of the door, and I heard the snap of a breaking bamboo pole.

"Come out!" Rubber baton in hand, I stood a short distance away.

Before long, the utility closet door was pulled open. Knowing they had been found, the person inside stepped out sheepishly.

"Chen Xiaocang?" I looked at the well-proportioned female streamer. She was still in shock, staring at me with unease in her eyes.

"You were the one who just screamed, right?" I used Chasing Eye to peer into the utility closet behind her. The space inside was tiny, crammed with mops, dustpans, buckets, and other cleaning tools.

"Say something." The female streamer had completely abandoned the bold, carefree personality she had shown when she first arrived. Her gaze darted around, seemingly too afraid to meet my eyes.

But the more she acted like this, the more curious I became. Such a drastic change meant she had definitely encountered something. "Did you run into someone else?"

At my words, the female streamer's expression shifted. Striking while the iron was hot, I pressed further. "Did he try to hurt you?"

She took a step back, blindly groping around inside the utility closet until she grabbed a broom and held it in her palm.

"Are you going to talk or not?" She had been chattering non-stop before coming in, but now she was playing the silence is golden card. My patience was wearing thin.

"Stop acting. Let me leave, and we can pretend tonight never happened. I know what you want to do to me. Keep dreaming. There are over a hundred thousand people watching my livestream right now, and the police are already on their way." After holding it in for a long time, the female streamer finally blurted this out. Her tone was steady, completely different from her previous jumpiness. She held her phone in one hand; her selfie stick was already snapped in two.

"I'm acting? Did something happen between us tonight?" I didn't immediately deny it. First of all, her words confirmed that she had encountered a third person in this building while I was gone. The third person's identity was still unclear, but based on what she was implying, that person was likely an adult male, not the missing child.

The female streamer's face was as cold as frost. "It's just the two of us in this building. You made it sound so nice, going off on your own. And to think I actually trusted you! I even planned to help you boost your popularity, but I never expected you to be such dirty, filthy scum deep down! Do you dare say you weren't the one groping me at the corner of the stairs just now? Grabbing me from behind and trying to force yourself on me?"

Her voice trembled slightly. Even a layman could tell she was just putting up a brave front. Her words were tough, but on the inside, she was scared out of her mind.

"If you want to leave, I'm all for it. But you've gotten one thing wrong. I wasn't the one harboring malicious intentions toward you just now, and we aren't the only two people in this building." I spoke rapidly, cutting straight to the point. "I was checking the fourth floor earlier. I only ran over because I heard your scream. Try to recall the details of the person who attacked you. Compare his height and voice to mine."

She still wasn't reassured after hearing me out. "It's pitch black. How could I possibly see clearly?"

She made a fair point. After all, not everyone had the meticulous observational skills of a police officer.

Arguing further was useless. I shook my head. "Alright then, I'll escort you out right now. This building is dangerous. Once you leave, absolutely do not come back."

With that, I took the lead and walked toward the emergency stairs. The utility closet was right next to the stairwell, accessible just by turning around.

"Wait a minute," the female streamer said, looking conflicted. "Can we not take the emergency stairs?"

She looked at me warily, seemingly still traumatized by something.

"Is this the spot where you were attacked?" I pointed at the landing between the first and second floors of the emergency stairs. There were no lights in the stairwell, and not even the moonlight from outside could reach it. It was pitch black.

The female streamer wrapped one arm around her chest, gripping the broom in the other as a shield. "You already know the answer. I'm not going down there."

Her resolute attitude left me helpless. I looked her up and down, and the more I looked, the more suspicious I felt.

I had just taken a distress call from the Underworld Live Show, and then this female streamer immediately involved herself in my livestream. Although I hadn't exposed my location during the call, I couldn't guarantee that the other party didn't have other methods to track me down.

That was the first suspicious point. The second was the Talisman Paper in her satchel, which was highly questionable. For an entertainment streamer to carry so many authentic Celestial Master talismans, and even a Great Divine Mantra of the Big Dipper with power rivaling a standard Upper Vehicle Talisman—that was simply too abnormal.

'Could she also be an Underworld Live Show Streamer?'

The phone the female streamer was using was different from my Large-Screen Phone; hers was a pink lady's model. I glanced at her chest again. She wasn't wearing a pendant, nor was she wearing an Underworld Live Show Brooch.

"Where are you looking?! You're finally showing your true colors, aren't you?" Women were always exceptionally sensitive at times like this. She aimed her phone's camera right at me, as if trying to make sure everyone in her livestream got a clear look at my face.

Naturally, I wasn't going to waste my breath explaining myself on such a matter. The more I tried, the guiltier I'd look anyway. It was better to just hustle her out of here and reduce the potential variables inside the hospital.

"I'll lead the way. You follow me, and no more nonsense." We circled around to the stairs at the hospital's main entrance. I walked down briskly. As we reached the landing between the first and second floors, I suddenly heard the female streamer cry out. Both of us were standing on the stairs, surrounded by total darkness.

"What are you screaming for?" Following the female streamer's line of sight, I looked up. A dark silhouette, less than a meter tall, was draped over the third-floor stair railing.

The distance was too great. Even using Chasing Eye, I could only make out that it roughly had the shape of a child—a head, a torso, and two arms reaching outward as if wanting a hug.

"A dark silhouette? A child? It's the missing child!" A jolt of lightning flashed through my mind. Abandoning the idea of escorting the female streamer out, I sprinted up the stairs!

"Where are you going?" The female streamer froze in place, surrounded by complete darkness.

"I have something else to do. See yourself out." I ran with all my might, desperately trying to catch the child. But the dark shadow acted like a startled rabbit; the moment I took a step, it pulled its arms back and vanished without a trace.

I reached the third floor. The pitch-black corridor was completely deserted. The doors and windows were intact, and there were no shoe prints, footprints, or anything of the sort visible on the floor.

"Where could he have run off to?" Focused entirely on the task, I prepared to thoroughly search the third floor before midnight.

The departments on the third floor were newly added to the Qicun Maternity and Children’s Health Center this year, such as the VIP obstetrics ward and the Neonatal Disease Screening Center.

I tried pushing the doors to these ward rooms. Interestingly, none of the third-floor ward doors were locked. This highly abnormal detail made me feel a twinge of excitement.

"The child might be hiding in one of these rooms." I was just about to conduct a deeper search when the female streamer's scream echoed from downstairs once more. I hesitated for a moment before temporarily abandoning my original plan for the sake of the Great Divine Mantra of the Big Dipper, and I rushed back downstairs.

Faint glimmers of light flickered inside the hospital cashier and service desk near the first-floor main entrance. Without a second thought, I sprinted over.

"Why haven't you left yet? Do you really think you have too many lives to spare?" The moment I pushed the door open, I saw the female streamer standing deep inside the small room. The faint light filtering through the cashier's glass was coming from that very corner.

"No..." Chen Xiaocang had completely forgotten about her livestream. She pointed at a printer that was running automatically. "I was taking the same way out just now, but I forgot which room we came in through, so I came here to look for the keys. Then I just happened to find this machine running."

"Does that surprise you? I already told you there was a third person in the hospital."

"No, I screamed just now because of something else." The female streamer interrupted me and stepped aside, staring at the white paper continuously spitting out of the printer. "These pages have infants printed on them..."