Hospital 444
Chapter 225 - 16 Pan Yizhen

Chapter 225: Chapter 16 Pan Yizhen

This moment...

Dai Ming’s fear, sealed away for many years, was once again awakened.

The intense fear of his childhood surged back into his heart, causing a tremor that seemed to be etched into his bones.

"You, you dare to paint her again?" Dai Ming walked up to Ming Yu and asked, puzzled, "You’re not afraid to paint her?"

Ming Yu’s paintbrush drooped down.

"I don’t know. In this matter alone, I don’t know what I’m thinking."

She looked at the ghostly female on the painting and said, "I haven’t told you my real name, have I?"

"True... what is your name?"

Ming Yu lifted her hand and brushed the bangs in front of her forehead.

"My name is Pan Yizhen. When I was very young, my parents divorced, and then I always lived with my mom. My mom has never remarried to this day, and she went through a lot of hardship to raise me. But to be honest, the only thing I’m good at is painting."

Dai Ming gave a bitter smile, "I’m the same."

"But I don’t have many options. I can only paint, anyhow... she can’t come out of the painting to hurt me, but the pile of bills in the mailbox can. Although I can only paint her, the fact that I paint her well is the truth. In today’s age, aesthetics are quite diverse, so there are people who appreciate this kind of painting."

"That’s right... all those who participate in the exhibition are a batch of new generation artists who are held in high regard..."

"So I can still make a bit of money. However, this painting is the only one publicly exhibited."

Dai Ming looked at Pan Yizhen and saw himself completely in her.

Because of his love for painting, every time he picked up the brush, he would feel fear.

The feeling of painting as if possessed by something was too terrifying. The shadows of childhood sometimes affect a person’s whole life.

Pan Yizhen then took the brush and began to apply color.

"Once I start painting, I can’t stop. You understand, right?"

"Mhm." Dai Ming nodded and said, "I understand."

The two, as the only ones who could understand each other, knew that only the other could fully comprehend their feelings.

"Why do we paint this woman?"

This was a question that had troubled Dai Ming and Pan Yizhen for many years.

As Pan Yizhen mixed the colors, she said, "When I was a child, I was really scared. I wondered whether I had some mental illness or if I was cursed. But I just couldn’t explain why I could paint... a woman I’ve never seen before..."

"In fact, painting the human structure is difficult," Dai Ming said, not daring to look at Pan Yizhen’s painting, "yet we can both easily paint it as if a spark of inspiration just comes to our minds..."

Then, the room fell into a silence as dead as death.

"I... I should leave," Dai Ming said, "staying in your room so late at night is not quite appropriate."

Pan Yizhen immediately looked at Dai Ming, and her paintbrush almost dropped to the floor.

"You’re leaving?"

"Yes, it’s getting late after all. We’ve already added each other on WeChat, we’ll contact each other tomorrow."

"Okay, I’ll see you out..."

"No need, finish your painting. I’m going."

Just as Dai Ming was about to open the door, Pan Yizhen uttered these words.

"Can you... can you not leave?"

Dai Ming was stunned.

No... surely not?

A girl asking a guy to stay in her hotel room? That... can’t have a second meaning, can it? Most importantly, it’s a single room, with only one bed!

"Um, Miss Pan, we’ve only just met today... isn’t this, well, inappropriate?"

Pan Yizhen looked at Dai Ming, and her eyes began to shimmer with tears.

"I’m just like you, I’m really scared too... Every time after I finish drawing, I have nightmares. In those dreams, I feel as if the person sinking to the bottom of the sea is me..."

Dai Ming felt an increasing kinship with Pan Yizhen upon hearing this. Hidden in her heart was a terrifying secret that she had been unable to share or make understood since childhood, a secret that had caused her severe psychological torment until... she finally met someone with the same experiences, who could fully understand her.

Pan Yizhen’s situation was even worse than Dai Ming’s, as she had been drawing this horrifying ghost woman all her life, and her psychological pressure must far exceed his own. She probably didn’t have depression but might well have been driven to it.

Otherwise, how could she dare let someone she just met today stay in her hotel room?

Dai Ming looked at Pan Yizhen with eyes filled with pity and sat back down.

"Let me draw one too."

Dai Ming did this hoping to provide Pan Yizhen with some small measure of relief.

After all... it was just a ghost drawn on paper, no matter what, it couldn’t possibly come out of the painting to harm him, could it?

Pan Yizhen could hardly believe her own voice.

Dai Ming sent a message to his parents on WeChat, saying he was going out to a food stall to eat with friends and was planning to stay overnight with them.

"Give me paper and a pen."

Even after so long, the moment Dai Ming’s pen touched the paper, he was able to sketch out lines with ease.

Dai Ming never expected that his first time drawing as an adult would be under such circumstances this year.

Even after so much time, his memory hadn’t faded in the slightest, as if he had always been very familiar with this painting.

As he was drawing, Dai Ming suddenly stopped his pen...

His head slowly lowered as if his throat was obstructed by something.

"Why on earth... would we two?"

Besides having a talent for art, Dai Ming and Pan Yizhen were two people without any intersections in their lives.

This couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

"Could it be we have some intersection that we ourselves haven’t discovered?"

That was a possibility that Dai Ming could think of.

Pan Yizhen said, "I never came to W City when I was a child. Have you been to D City?"

"No."

This phenomenon was just too bizarre.

Dai Ming continued to pick up the paintbrush, knowing that once he started, he could never stop.

As he drew...

The two eventually grew tired, and unknowingly fell asleep.

When Dai Ming woke up again, he found himself lying directly on the couch.

Pan Yizhen was also sleeping beside him, still holding a paintbrush in her hand.

Dai Ming checked the time, and it was four in the morning.

Then, through the light of the phone, he saw the painting he had created.

Dai Ming’s eyes widened.

He saw the ghost woman floating in the sea, reaching out with open arms as if to burst out of the painting!

Dai Ming was so scared that he almost screamed.

Maybe because he had drunk quite a bit of beer last night, he was especially sleepy toward the end, and his eyelids were constantly fighting a battle.

At that point, he was practically drawing with his eyes closed and head hanging down.

"No... this can’t be... that’s absolutely impossible!"

How could he possibly have drawn such a lifelike painting in such a half-asleep and groggy state?