Chapter 611: Third Ward

There was a hidden meaning behind my words, and Zhang Heng seemed to catch on the instant I spoke.

"The Writer disappeared at the exact moment the monster showed up. Do you suspect there's some kind of connection between him and the monster?"

"That's right. I haven't known the Writer for long, but he gives me a bad feeling. He's selfish and treacherous—scouting ahead is something a guy like him would never do. The fact that he volunteered to check out an unknown patient room says plenty." I wrapped up the four Injections from the doll's belly and slipped them into my pocket. Two of the syringes held a liquid with suspended white particles, while the other two contained a colorless, transparent solution.

I opened one, squeezed out a few drops, and took a sniff. The scent didn't match what I'd smelled on the monster. "Strange. Did I guess wrong?"

"Injectable solutions are compounded from multiple drugs. What's in here might be an unfinished product," Chen Mo said, analyzing the situation like a professional. "Some drugs react with each other and can't be easily stored together, so they're kept separate."

"Where are injectable drugs usually kept in a hospital?"

"I can't really say. Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital has been abandoned for so long that, as far as I can tell, it doesn't even meet the basic conditions for storing medicine." Chen Mo still hadn't gotten used to the pain, speaking in halting bursts.

Injections tucked away, I shook my head. "Not necessarily. Come on, we've searched this whole place. It's time to go find that birth certificate in the morgue."

"Hold on, don't we need to search this building?" Zhang Heng asked, filming nonstop with his DV. His movements reminded me of myself; I probably looked much the same when I was livestreaming.

"We're running out of time. The monster has already shown up, and if it really is connected to the Writer, our situation is only going to get more dangerous." I swept my gaze across the two of them. "The three of us are grasshoppers on the same rope now. I hope neither of you is lying to me or holding anything back. I'll ask one more time: did you leave anything out about that note?"

That was aimed mainly at Zhang Heng. His story about how he'd gotten the note didn't hold up to scrutiny, so I was certain he was hiding a secret.

Neither of them answered, and I didn't press them any further. "Let's go. On to the Third Ward. I'd like to see for myself what kind of birth certificate needs to be retrieved from a morgue."

The doll with its chest sliced open lay abandoned in the middle of the patient room as I took the lead, flashlight in hand.

"Are we really not going upstairs for a look? If there's a connection between the Writer and the monster, his movements wouldn't be limited to just this one room. We might find some unexpected clues in the others." Zhang Heng held his DV steady, filming the pitch-black corridor.

"If that theory holds, there are definitely more clues in this building, but we don't have the time. Or how about we split up—you stay here and search, while Chen Mo and I head to the Third Ward?" I glanced at him, keeping my tone casual.

"On second thought, forget it. There's strength in numbers, and it's better to watch each other's backs, right?" He gave a couple of sheepish chuckles and dropped the subject.

"I get what you mean, but have you considered something? Why didn't that monster leave the Diagnostic and Treatment Building? Is it unwilling to leave, or is it just not ready to leave yet?" My voice grew heavy.

"You mean that monster might come out of the Diagnostic and Treatment Building? Hunt us through the whole hospital?"

"Obviously. Do you even need to ask?" I gave a wry smile. "Still, there's no need to be overly terrified of it. It's only so frightening because we know too little about it—fear comes from the unknown. The fact that it didn't chase us out of the Diagnostic and Treatment Building proves that thing isn't invincible. It has its flaws, and there are things it's wary of inside this hospital."

"When you put it like that, it doesn't sound quite so scary." Zhang Heng gave his DV a shake, putting on a fierce bluster. "If we'd known that when the three of us were together earlier, we should've just taken it on! Three against one, we might not have lost."

"You fucking ran faster than anyone! Why are you acting like a tough guy now?" I aimed a kick at him. Whether this guy was a live show streamer or not, that mouth of his was seriously begging for a beating.

Even with the DV in hand, Zhang Heng was remarkably nimble, dodging my kick with ease. "Business first."

Stepping out of the inpatient building, the three of us looked toward the Diagnostic and Treatment Building at the exact same time—an unspoken coordination forced out of us by that monster.

Activating my Judging Eye, I scanned the area from over ten meters away, then immediately clicked off my flashlight, my nerves pulling taut. "Keep quiet. Turn off all the lights and stay close to me!"

"What's wrong?" Moving with difficulty, Chen Mo had barely managed to limp down the stairs. Seeing me tense up as if facing a deadly enemy, he clutched his tree branch tightly and crowded in behind me.

"What are you freaking out about all of a sudden?" Zhang Heng didn't know what was going on either. Eyes wide, he cupped his hand over the indicator light on his DV.

"The main doors of the Diagnostic and Treatment Building are open!" Those doors had been locked before; the three of us had only been able to pass through freely because the glass panels above them were completely shattered.

"So what if they're open? What are you getting so worked up for? Stop being jumpy and scaring yourself."

Zhang Heng raised his DV and adjusted the angle to get a wide shot, and I quickly blocked its light. "The holes in the glass are big enough for a living person to climb through. Why would anyone go out of their way to push the main doors open? Think back to that monster's height and build. Do I really need to spell out what walked out of there?"

"Th-that thing came out?" Chen Mo and Zhang Heng shuddered in unison, barely able to get the words out straight.

"Weren't you ready to fight it a second ago? How come you can't even talk straight now?" I shot Zhang Heng and Chen Mo a sidelong glance. There was no counting on either of them; at this point, I almost wished the two of them really were live show streamers in disguise.

Knowing the monster might have already left the Diagnostic and Treatment Building, Chen Mo and Zhang Heng didn't even have the heart to talk back. They darted glances in every direction, their bodies wound as tight as compressed springs, ready to bolt at the slightest rustle.

"Don't get too tense. It could just be a trick meant to scare us off." My own words lacked conviction as I looked out across the eerie, desolate grounds of the abandoned hospital, where something could lunge out of the waist-high brush at any moment.

"Let's hurry and move. Somehow it feels even less safe out here than inside." Chen Mo gripped his tree branch with one hand and clutched Zhang Heng's clothes in a death grip with the other.

"Come on, let's get out of this goddamn place." Zhang Heng wasn't faring much better than Chen Mo; the monster had scared the nerve right out of both of them.

"Don't panic. The three of us aren't the only ones in this hospital—besides the Writer, there are others here too, so keep a close watch on your surroundings." I meant well with the warning, but their minds were completely consumed by the vanished monster, and neither of them took in a word I said.

"Let's go. I'll take the lead—you two stay right behind me." Not caring about wasting true qi, I kept my Judging Eye active the entire time as I crept toward the deepest part of the hospital.

Neither the map in the Diagnostic and Treatment Building nor the one in the Rehabilitation Center had any information at all about the Third Ward. It wasn't mentioned by a single word, which only deepened my curiosity.

That building seemed like a taboo in this hospital; everything connected to it had been torn out or destroyed.

After walking over ten meters, the three of us reached the main entrance of the Third Ward.

"How are we supposed to get in? All the doors and windows are boarded shut." More than twenty years had passed, yet most of the wooden planks sealing the doors and windows remained intact, showing just how deeply whoever had ordered the rooms sealed off dreaded this place.

"Two layers, inside and out—it's sealed completely shut." Using my Judging Eye to peer at the planks behind the windows, I saw a scene remarkably similar to what I had run into at Henshan Psychiatric Hospital.

Honestly, I was hesitating. That livestream at Henshan Psychiatric Hospital had left a deep scar on my mind, giving me an innate dread of completely sealed-off buildings like this.

"Stop waiting around. Let's find a way inside first and talk later." Even as Zhang Heng spoke, his head kept swiveling, constantly scanning our surroundings.

"Easy for you to say. Once we're inside, what if there's a monster in there too—or even several of them? Where are we supposed to run then? With all the doors and windows boarded shut, we wouldn't even have the chance to jump out a window!"

While Zhang Heng and I were going back and forth, Chen Mo hadn't said a word. Tilting his head back to stare up at the building, he suddenly spoke up. "Something's not right. A normal hospital usually only has two main buildings. Why does Xinhu Cancer Research Hospital have three?"

I turned to look at him and motioned for him to go on.

"The Diagnostic and Treatment Building has plenty of departments—it basically covers every medical service. There was no need to spend a fortune putting up a third building." Chen Mo clung to Zhang Heng and refused to let go. The wound on his leg was getting worse, fresh blood faintly seeping through his pant leg. "This is a redundant building—one that shouldn't exist at all."

"What good does talking about all that do? We still have to go inside." Zhang Heng badly wanted to shake Chen Mo off; in his eyes, Chen Mo was nothing more than useless dead weight.

"Stop arguing. Let's figure out where to get in first." I walked a few meters past the main entrance of the Third Ward. Sweeping my Judging Eye over the wall, I spotted a first-floor window that someone had broken, with shattered glass littering the ground. "Someone's been here?"

I hopped onto the windowsill and tapped each plank, surprised to find that the boards here weren't nailed shut. It didn't take much effort to pry them off.

"Did Gu Bei go into this building? The location written on the note is in here too. Could there really be no kidnapper at all, and everything was orchestrated by that 'Female Infant' herself?" I waved Zhang Heng and Chen Mo over, and together we climbed into the Third Ward through the window.

"We're getting closer and closer to the truth."

Even after we were inside, Zhang Heng still didn't forget to keep filming with his DV. I nudged him aside. "Don't let your guard down. The closer we get to the truth, the more dangerous it gets. The Third Ward might be hiding things beyond anything we can imagine."