Chapter 622: White Fiend (1)

The granular, light-colored spots on the clothing carried the metallic tang of blood, but they didn't look like actual bloodstains. "Normal blood is red. It dries dark on fabric. This doesn't seem to be blood." I shook the garment out. "Judging by the spray pattern, it looks like it was splashed on by accident. Do you recognize these clothes? Is this what your sister was wearing twenty years ago?"

"Don't bring her up to me. She's not my sister." Realizing the bundle didn't contain his daughter's corpse, Gu Bei let out a visible sigh of relief. He placed the intricately carved wooden box in the center of the bundle, pulled out an envelope, and pressed it flat against the lid.

"The kidnapper demanded you leave both the letter of commitment and the five million in the drawer. You didn't forget anything, did you?" I casually tossed out the question to cover my actions as I tore a strip of fabric from the ruined clothes and slipped it into my pocket.

"Do you have any idea how thick five million in cash is when it's stacked up?" Gu Bei threw me a wary glance. "Besides, what does that have to do with you?"

He slid the mortuary drawer shut. I had no idea what was actually inside that envelope.

With our business handled, Gu Bei and I walked toward the door. Zhang Heng and Chen Mo were still busy.

They had been a bit skittish at first, but after watching me march straight into the deepest part of the morgue, their courage had gradually swelled. They were rummaging through everything, occasionally yanking open the drawers meant to store corpses.

"Did you find the birth certificate?" I asked, intensely curious about the document myself.

"Not yet. Honestly, I'm starting to suspect that damn thing played us." Zhang Heng's hands were pitch-black with grime. They only had one flashlight between them, and he had even groped around the very back of the mortuary drawers searching for the certificate. Unfortunately, aside from the thick coating of dust on his hands, he had turned up empty.

"We basically tried every drawer we could open. Nothing." Leaning on his makeshift branch crutch, Chen Mo hopped on one foot over to the center of the room. He stared at the human skin resting on the slab, thoroughly astonished. "So flaying is actually a real thing? I always thought it was just a myth. Medically speaking, peeling off intact human skin isn't easy. You have to remove the fat, apply lubrication, use specialized tools..."

"You sure know a lot about flaying. What, have you tried it?"

Zhang Heng bumped Chen Mo's shoulder. Chen Mo's expression immediately shifted to something stiff and unnatural. "Us medical students get bored sometimes. I've tried it out on frogs in the past, but I swear to you, I've never flayed a person!"

Realizing he was only digging himself a deeper hole, he coughed awkwardly and rigidly changed the subject. "This human skin was chemically treated. It still has its elasticity, and there aren't any massive wounds on it. Oh, right! How do you guys think he died?"

Chen Mo had watched me analyze causes of death and reconstruct murder scenes, so he was trying to apply what he had just picked up. He rambled on for a good while, only to talk himself into a corner. Staring at the skin, he scratched his head. "The entire pelt doesn't have a single bit of damage. My god, how was this thing actually peeled off?"

"There's definitely a wound. If I had to guess, it's right down the line of the spine on the back, but whoever did this stitched it up with extreme professionalism, making it hard to spot." I turned and headed for the door. "But this isn't the time to worry about that. Our top priority is finding that birth certificate. If it's not here, our situation just took a turn for the worse."

"What's so bad about it?" Zhang Heng asked, exasperated. "We're already at the absolute bottom of hell. Can things really get any worse than this?"

"Yes, and they'll get worse very soon," I said with absolute certainty. "First, we can confirm there are at least two types of monsters in this hospital. The first is the bandage monster we already saw. It's larger than a normal person, and its skin is wet and slippery. We both made physical contact with it—it has a corporeal body, so it probably isn't a ghost. The second type of monster is whatever killed Gu Bei's wife. It can manipulate a person's will. I suspect this second type is the one that gave you those notes and texted Gu Bei to lure him out here in the dead of night. I'm not sure what its true form is—it might be a vicious specter, or a wrongfully deceased spirit."

"Don't spout nonsense," Gu Bei interrupted, but when he noticed the pale expressions on Zhang Heng and Chen Mo's faces, he realized I was likely telling the truth.

"Take a look at the clothes we pulled out of that human skin. Even with chemical treatments, there's no way a human skin could sit exposed to the air for twenty years without rotting. Therefore, this skin had to have been flayed recently. The owner of this skin wasn't a doctor or a nurse. He likely came here for the exact same reason you two did: he received a note." I took a deep breath, moving on to the most crucial point. "And you've seen his ultimate fate. Flayed alive, with his actual body stashed away God knows where."

"Are you saying the curse on the notes is fake? That it's just a trap to lure us here?" Zhang Heng instantly connected the dots. "But why would they trick us into coming? It doesn't make any sense."

"Why wouldn't it?" I sneered. "This is a shriveled human skin, and there are probably more bundles of skin stored inside the other mortuary drawers here. Also, do you remember Gu Bei's wife? She was drained of blood before she died, and her corpse was directly submerged in a chemical solution. Those two steps were entirely in preparation for being flayed!"

"Is this monster fucking sick in the head? Who likes flaying people this much?" Perhaps because it had dragged up his memories of the Xinhu flaying cases, Zhang Heng let out a vicious curse.

"Anything that deviates from common sense has an inevitable reason for appearing. Psychopathic serial killers flay their victims to satisfy a specific psychological need, a sick desire. But that's entirely different from what we're facing." I spoke with utmost certainty. "In Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital, flaying must serve a specific purpose. Think back to that bandage monster. You could see wounds through the gaps in the bandages, but no skin. Doesn't that prove the monster was actually a flayed victim? In other words, after the dead are flayed and undergo some special treatment, they come back to life."

The moment those words left my mouth, a deathly silence fell over Mortuary No. 2. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Come back to life?" A collective numbness swept over their scalps.

"Exactly. The monster's outer clothes were dry, but its body was soaking wet. They must have crawled naked out of some sort of liquid. Think about those water tanks we passed on the way here. They kept making that bubbling, gurgling sound. Didn't it sound exactly like someone exhaling underwater?" I stopped there, choosing not to elaborate further. Going into too much detail would only deepen the terror gripping their hearts.

After a long while, Zhang Heng was the first to speak. "So these monsters lured us here just to turn us into one of them?"

"I'm not sure." Shaking my head, I pointed at the freezer drawers. "Let's stop talking and focus on finding that birth certificate. If we still can't find it in five minutes, we won't bother going any deeper underground. We'll retreat immediately."

"Then what the hell are we still searching for!" Zhang Heng fumbled his way to the door in the dark. "Have you guys heard of the Xinhu flaying cases? The number of missing people in Xinhu City has been steadily climbing every year. Thinking about it now is fucking terrifying. The bodies they did find were completely flayed. Where did the ones they didn't find go? This damn hospital is right on the border of Xinhu. If the flaying cases are connected to this place, then the number of monsters in this hospital must be staggeringly high!"

My eyes slowly lit up at his words. Zhang Heng had once taken photos of Lu Xing, who was likely the culprit behind the Xinhu flaying cases. Following that line of logic, could Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital also be part of the Two-Faced Buddha's scheme?

The most terrifying thing in the world was the unknown. Once this was linked to the Two-Faced Buddha, it provided a clear direction for my thoughts, making it all slightly less horrifying.

"Xinhu, the Two-Faced Buddha, monsters. What kind of scheme is he plotting this time?" Stringing all the known clues together only gave me a general direction to think in. There was still far too much about Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital that I didn't understand—like the hint the Live Show had given me: why is everything in the hospital white? I had a gut feeling that this hint would be the crucial key to surviving tonight.

The five minutes passed in the blink of an eye. We failed to find the birth certificate mentioned on the note. Perhaps it was hidden in another morgue on Basement Level 4 or Basement Level 5.

The deeper we went, the more dangerous it became. Everyone was thinking about retreating, completely unwilling to continue the investigation.

"We just need to escape and hold out until dawn."

"The stairs aren't safe. How about we take the hidden passage Gu Bei used to get here?"

"Fine by me."

"That path leads to the Diagnostic and Treatment Building. Besides, the secret passage is extremely narrow. If a monster traps us in the middle, we're screwed."

"Good point. Let's just go back the way we came."

After a brief discussion, Zhang Heng and Gu Bei took the lead to clear the way, with me following closely behind. Because of his injured leg, Chen Mo trailed at the back of the group.

Having made the decision to flee, it was as if a massive boulder had been lifted off everyone's chests. Their footsteps were brisk, almost as if they were riding the wind.

"Do you need any help?" I slowed my pace to walk beside Chen Mo and look out for him.

"Thanks, but I can manage." Chen Mo's face was deathly pale as he leaned on his makeshift branch, struggling to hop forward on one foot.

"If you can't hold on, just tell me. I'll carry you on my back." After exchanging a few casual words, I cut straight to the chase. "I found something strange in Mortuary No. 2 just now. Take a look. What is this?"

I pulled out the strip of fabric I had torn from Gu Bei's sister's clothes. "These light-colored spots on the cloth look a lot like bloodstains, and you can smell a very faint metallic tang, but it's different from normal blood."

Chen Mo took the cloth, running his fingers over the spots. "The color is very faint. It looks a bit like the blood of a blood cancer patient."

"What's blood cancer?"

"If you haven't heard of blood cancer, you must have at least heard of leukemia, right?" Chen Mo aimed the flashlight at the strip of cloth. "The blood of a patient with hyperleukocytic acute leukemia is white, or a very pale color. It contains viscous impurities. After being left sitting for a period of time, it even separates into distinct layers."

"Leukemia?" My fingers subconsciously pressed against my pocket. Gu Tongtong's death certificate was in there, and her cause of death was exactly leukemia!

"Why is everything in the hospital white? Why are all the walls painted with white paint? If the blood is white, wouldn't a coat of white paint be enough to cover it all up?" Faintly, I felt as if I had just understood everything.