A Forum for Patients of Fourth Hospital
Chapter 5: The ghost comes in during ward rounds

After a brief moment, Zhou Xiao Zhen tapped her phone and handed it to Yu Xiao. The note displayed on the screen said, “Smiley, we’ve decided to open the door.”

Yu Xiao glanced at them, and they returned her gaze. Their worried expressions and tight lips revealed their anxiety. Yu Xiao’s smile remained unwavering and determined. “Go ahead, I trust you.”

Zhou Xiao Zhen’s eyes welled up with tears as she thanked Yu Xiao profusely. “I’m grateful to have met you and become friends. Even if opening the door leads to our deaths, I would accept it. I have no regrets if I can face death with you.”

With these words, she placed her hand and took a deep breath. As she turned it to open, she stole a last deep look at her two cherished friends.

…Zhao Lan who stood behind the bed, wearing a slightly awkward expression. And then she glanced at Yu Xiao, who stood farther away next to the bathroom, clutching the talisman paper she had drawn, her eyes closed as she whispered incantations.

“Why are you standing so far away?!” Zhou Xiao Zhen felt betrayed.

Zhao Lan forced a laugh, saying, “It’s crowded when there are too many people.”

“No!” Zhou Xiao Zhen’s emotions dampened, and she grabbed Zhao Lan’s hand. “Come over here and open the door with us, and Smiley, come over here too.”

“Smiley can’t hear…” Zhao Lan said.

“I’ll go get her,” Zhou Xiao Zhen replied.

The three young women squeezed behind the door, and Yu Xiao looked troubled.

Despite being diagnosed with a terminal illness, she hadn’t reached the stage of accepting her fate. She could only pray that her ancestors would protect her and that the person outside was a genuine delivery person. However, she soon realised that if her ancestors truly had the power to intervene, she wouldn’t have developed a terminal illness at such a young age. Her distressed expression deepened.

Zhou Xiao Zhen and Zhao Lan opened the door together. The wooden door, with its natural colour, creaked open slightly. The thick, fog-like darkness tried to rush in, but it seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier.

Although Yu Xiao couldn’t hear anything, she could feel the coldness and malevolence.

The three of them stared at the crack, their nerves on edge, forgetting to even breathe.

Suddenly, the door shook slightly, as if someone outside was touching it. Zhou Xiao Zhen’s body went limp and she leaned against Zhao Lan, who was weak and unable to support her weight. Zhao Lan then leaned on Yu Xiao. Despite struggling, Yu Xiao clenched her teeth and silently braced herself against the wall.

Under the gaze of the six pairs of eyes, a white object approached the crack in the door. The object was so white that most of it was hidden in the darkness, making it impossible to discern its specific shape through the crack. Then, the object got stuck, as the crack was too narrow.

As the three of them contemplated whether to lock the door again, a pale, emaciated hand resembling that of a corpse suddenly thrust itself into the crack.

“Ah!” Zhou Xiao Zhen let out a brief and urgent scream, raising her leg to kick the hand. Just at that crucial moment, a calm voice from outside the door interrupted, “Don’t move. I’m here to deliver food.”

Zhou Xiao Zhen’s leg remained suspended in the air. The hand swiftly widened the crack and inserted a bulging white plastic bag. The shape of the bag indicated that it contained multiple boxes, and a faint aroma of food wafted out.

Overwhelmed with joy, Zhou Xiao Zhen burst into tears. “It’s really food!”

Zhao Lan, consumed by excitement, tightly grasped Zhou Xiao Zhen’s hand. “We did it!”

Though Yu Xiao couldn’t hear, she could sense their elation. She patted the arms of the two women and pointed at the crack. “The hand is still there.”

Their happiness quickly disappeared when they noticed that the hand of the dead body was still in the room, protruding through the crack with its palm facing upwards.

“We have received the food,” Zhao Lan said cautiously. “You can go now.”

There was silence on the other side of the door, and Zhou Xiao Zhen raised her leg once more. Yu Xiao turned around and got ready to fetch a knife from the drawer.

Just as the tension in the room became unbearable, an impatient voice came from outside, “What about the money? You haven’t paid yet!”

“……”

The room fell silent once again.

Zhao Lan hesitated before speaking up, “We don’t have any cash. Can we use Alipay?”

In the darkness, the corpse’s hand retreated for a moment and then emerged again, this time holding a QR code.

When Yu Xiao returned with the knife, she found Zhao Lan squatting on the floor, scanning the code with her phone.

After paying the bill, Zhou Xiao Zhen quickly locked the door as soon as the corpse’s hand disappeared. Both she and Zhao Lan let out a sigh of relief. But as they turned around, they were startled to see Yu Xiao standing behind them, gripping a fruit knife that was no bigger than half her thumb.

“What are you doing with that?” Zhao Lan asked, surprised.

“She can’t hear you,” Zhou Xiao Zhen typed on her phone to communicate.

With no danger present, Yu Xiao smiled and explained, “I was worried there might be danger, so I grabbed a knife.”

Seeing the small knife in Yu Xiao’s hand, Zhou Xiao Zhen was shocked. It was too small to even cut an apple, let alone a ghost’s finger. She asked incredulously, “Is this the knife you asked me to use to cut off the ghost’s finger?!”

Despite the twists and turns, the food was not an issue and in fact, it was quite delicious. The three of them often had no appetite due to illness, but today they surprisingly had good appetites, mainly because of the great energy exerted.

After finishing her meal, Yu Xiao felt drowsy and lay on the bed. She held the talisman she had drawn earlier in the day. The contents of the forum for the Fourth Hospital’s patients were genuine, so the seal script in the post must also be real. However, her own talisman had turned out to be a failure.

It was not surprising that she hadn’t succeeded, considering that even the person who posted the tutorial had a success rate of only one in five.

Feeling extremely sleepy, Yu Xiao placed the talisman paper under her pillow and closed her eyes. She quickly fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Zhou Xiao Zhen and Zhao Lan were tidying up after the meal. Suddenly, Zhao Lan noticed a heart-shaped sticker on one of the takeout boxes. They hadn’t paid much attention to it initially, as many takeout bags often had similar stickers with messages like “please give us a good rating.”

But just now, Zhao Lan suddenly had a thought, “Do the delivery men from the Sixth Hospital also need good ratings?” So she examined the sticker more closely and immediately called Zhou Xiao Zhen over, saying, “Precious, come and look at this.”

“Hey, what’s up?” Zhou Xiao Zhen crawled off the bed and took the heart-shaped sticker from Zhao Lan’s hand. After reading its message, “Remember to rest on time~ Meow~”, she remarked, with a disgusted expression, “Eww, this guy is so gross.”

“…”

“Is this really the main point?” Zhao Lan was on the verge of collapsing. “Why would a food vendor, who doesn’t even know how to behave like a normal person, attach something like this to our food container? Could it be a kind of warning?”

Zhou Xiao Zhen realised, “You’re right, what is he trying to remind us of?”

“Remember to get enough rest…” Zhao Lan pondered for a moment and suggested, “Every night, a nurse comes to check on us after we’re admitted to the hospital. What if we are not asleep when she comes to inspect our ward? What would happen?”

Zhou Xiao Zhen’s body hair stood on end. “Misty, stop talking! Smiley, say something. What should we do?”

As she turned around, she noticed that Yu Xiao’s bed, the farthest one, remained completely still and silent. If one listened closely, the only sound audible was her calm and steady breathing .

“…”

“No wonder she’s called Smiley,” Zhou Xiao Zhen exclaimed in awe. “Her mental resilience is truly impressive, as tough as a cow that fell from the sky and still remains badass.”

“It’s great that she’s like this,” Zhao Lan said seriously. “We should strive to be like her and aim to sleep until dawn.”

Although easier said than done.

At half-past eight, the lights in the ward suddenly went out, accompanied by a gentle tune.

A thin and sharp female voice, as if choked by someone, said, “Oh, the lights are out~ You better be a good girl and go to bed, or else you’ll be eaten~ Hehehehehe…”

“……”

As Zhou Xiao Zhen lay in bed, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness. It seemed that there were no young people who could fall asleep before 8 p.m. However, when she heard the deep and steady breathing coming from the bed next to hers, she couldn’t help but feel envious, even to the point of tears.

Human nature often works in mysterious ways. The more we desperately cling to something, the more elusive it becomes. This was precisely the situation for both Zhao Lan and Zhou Xiao Zhen. They had been lying in bed with their eyes closed for what felt like an eternity, but sleep continued to elude them, leaving them wide awake and growing increasingly restless.

Zhao Lan had never despised herself as much as she did in that moment. She longed to knock herself out and find some reprieve from her sleeplessness.

Time passed as the hospital room remained engulfed in complete darkness. Visions of the day replayed in their minds: the darkness lurking beyond the door, the sight of blood flowing in the dimness, and the eerie hands that emerged along with the blood.

Initially, they had attempted to fall asleep by counting sheep, but their thoughts had gradually shifted to listing vegetables, and eventually, unconsciously, to imagining unsettling dishes such as braised cheater tongue, boneless children’s feet, and cold shredded widows.

They now whimpered and trembled in fear, finding it even more difficult to find sleep.

“Misty…” Zhou Xiao Zhen whispered softly from the bed beside her.

Zhao Lan shifted her weight, then responded in a quiet voice, “Yes?”

“I can’t sleep.”

“…Me neither.”

“Is it true that someone will come to check on us?” Zhou Xiao Zhen fretted, her anxiety causing breast hyperplasia. “I’m so scared.”

Zhao Lan was about to say something when footsteps echoed in the hallway. The two immediately fell silent, as still as corpses.

When a person loses their sight, their other senses become heightened. In that moment, they could distinctly hear the sound of the door opening and closing, as well as the rustling of clothes.

Zhao Lan, lying in bed, made a deliberate attempt to hypnotise herself. ‘You are already asleep. You are already asleep. You are dreaming now…’

Suddenly, she sensed an eerie and chilling presence drawing near from her left side. Goosebumps raced across her arm under the covers, causing a shiver to run down her spine.

In that moment, a flood of terrifying scenes from various horror movies she had watched in the past flooded her mind.

“Whoo…”

A cold wind blew on Zhao Lan’s neck, sending shivers down her spine and causing goosebumps to appear all over her body. She tightly closed her eyes, remaining completely still.

“Naughty~” whispered a mischievous voice.

Zhao Lan felt a tingling sensation on her scalp. It had sensed her! It had realised that she wasn’t asleep!

Fear briefly consumed her, but she soon realised the issue. If it was certain that she was still awake, why hadn’t it eaten her yet?

Zhao Lan remained motionless, ignoring whatever the thing beside her bed was saying. She was resolute in her decision to pretend to be a dead pig until the very end.

However, her determination faltered in the next moment as a pair of icy hands forcefully pressed down on her and started rolling her like a rolling pin.

Zhao Lan: “~!!!”

Could it actually do that?!

She was being tossed and turned on the bed, but she was determined not to open her eyes. ‘I won’t open them, even if it means death!’

In the adjacent bed, Zhou Xiao Zhen heard the disturbance and became terrified. Suddenly, Yu Xiao, who was lying in the furthest bed, flipped over and scratched her neck, murmuring to herself.

“…”

Zhou Xiao Zhen’s mind went blank when she heard Yu Xiao sleep-talking. Of all times, she chose to sleep-talk now!

As the room fell silent, the hands that had been shaking Zhao Lan earlier suddenly stopped. In the next moment, the sound of footsteps could be heard, breaking the silence as they approached the bed in the innermost part of the room.