Hospital 444
Chapter 269 - 5 Patrol

Chapter 269: Chapter 5 Patrol

This question had always greatly puzzled Dai Wei.

However, everyone had always been reverent towards the mysterious temple, not daring to defy it. Therefore, under normal circumstances, everyone would choose to count off, since it was just a few people and wouldn’t waste much time. Thus, it had always been a routine ritual.

However...

Dai Wei remembered very clearly.

It was when he was fourteen years old, one night, having already gone to bed when he suddenly heard a commotion.

Woken up by the noise, he got out of bed and went outside, only to see his dad’s friend, Uncle Lei San, looking for him.

"Uncle Lei?"

At that time, Dai Wei found that the usually robust Uncle Lei San was crying his eyes out.

"Lao Dai, something terrible has happened! The village head told us not to talk about it outside, but, but I’m scared!"

That was the first time Dai Wei had ever seen Uncle Lei San cry like that.

He remembered that even when Uncle Lei’s parents had died, he wasn’t that heartbroken.

At that time, Uncle Lei San was the patrol squad leader of the month.

"Stop looking, get inside." At that moment, his mother walked over and forcibly took him into the house.

And the last thing Dai Wei heard as the door was finally closing was...

"Something’s wrong, when we were counting off, there was one too many..."

Before he could hear the rest, the door closed.

"Dai Wei," his mother warned him, "don’t tell anyone that Uncle Lei San came to our house, and don’t tell your sister either, got it?"

One month later...

Uncle Lei San completely vanished from Nanmian Village.

And no matter who Dai Wei asked, he received no answer.

Uncle Lei San...

Where had he gone?

Nobody knew.

Dai Wei actually had a horrifying guess in his heart, but he dared not say it.

"Alright. Go to that room and write down on a piece of paper the food and supplies you want to collect, then burn it inside. But don’t ask for too much, it’s not possible to distribute as much as one desires; they only give as they see fit."

At that moment, Dai Wei heard someone nearby say, "This job is becoming more and more second nature to me. Work a few more years, and then I’m retiring."

"I heard the village head is considering to extend the retirement age for the patrol squad, as the number of able-bodied young men in the village is getting fewer. Now, young people are also afraid to have children since we only have that small clinic in the village. If anything goes wrong during childbirth, there’s no way to save them."

Ten years had passed...

The villagers had gradually grown accustomed to living as though they were trapped. Although nobody spoke of it directly, everyone was clearly aware of one thing: rescue was probably never going to come.

Nanmian Village, while remote, wasn’t some uninhabited area of the northwest, and when the incident happened, the village was a focal point of a poverty alleviation project, so there were even officials from higher up in the village when White Mist first arrived.

In such a situation, it made no sense that rescue hadn’t come yet; it was utterly irrational. Even if there were monsters in White Mist, people could be evacuated by helicopter!

For ten years, the villagers had tried every possible way to communicate with the outside world. They tried releasing balloons, arranging SOS signs in the open areas of the village, and if it were feasible, some even thought of trying to raise carrier pigeons to send messages out. About six years ago, the villagers had also tried to dig a tunnel, but it wasn’t long before everyone sobered up to the fact that the tale of the Foolish Old Man Removing the Mountains was just an inspirational story.

From initially encouraging each other with hope to fully accepting the harsh reality, one by one they began to "lie flat," accepting the fact they were permanently trapped by this supernatural force. Many had soberly realized a grim prospect: they might be stuck in the village for the rest of their lives.

Through the temple, they could get food and daily necessities but not medicine. Under such conditions, even a serious cold could be fatal. In case of a severe illness, there were simply no facilities to provide treatment. With the aging population of the village, in another ten years, there would be even fewer villagers. And now, the youth were also unwilling to have more children.

At least for Dai Wei, if he were to marry now, he absolutely wouldn’t want to have children. Apart from the great risk that the village’s medical conditions posed for childbirth, he didn’t want his child to be born in a village shrouded by White Mist, to only learn about the world beyond the mist from books, like Dylan.

The son of the village chief, Nian Cheng, was one of the first young people to recognize reality. He was the first person in the history of Nanmian Village to go to university. After he graduated, the village chief actually hoped he would become a college-educated village official, but he insisted on taking root in the city and even decided to buy a house there.

Ten years ago, around the time of the Chinese New Year, he came home and said he would bring his girlfriend back the following year. However, the thick fog forced him to stay permanently in the remote village he had once left behind, where he could only marry a girl from the village and settle down.

He also patrolled many times and even served as a patrol leader. Afterwards, Dai Wei often saw him sitting at the entrance of the village with a face full of sorrow, staring into the fog. The bright future he had and the fresh love of his youth were completely erased by the fog.

"It’s appeared! It’s appeared!"

Dai Wei’s thoughts were interrupted, and then he looked over.

The door to that room was opened again.

At that moment, nine straight bamboo sticks were arranged inside. Underneath the bamboo sticks were porcelain dolls that looked like roly-poly toys, each with a different expression, but all with their eyes squinted and rosy cheeks.

The dolls’ mouths were open, allowing one to see the scene behind their heads.

This section... was meant for inserting the bamboo sticks. The mouth area was actually quite tight, and once a stick was inserted, it would fit snugly on the bamboo stick.

The bamboo stick was green all over, about a meter in length, and seemed very light, but felt surprisingly heavy when actually picked up.

It was truly incredible. You see, just now, there was nothing inside this room. But now, as soon as the door was opened, all these things appeared!

To this day, no one knows what the connection between the temple and the White Mist really is.

"Choose your own bamboo stick and porcelain doll. Once you’ve chosen, take it straight home. We’ll meet at the old place in the eastern part of the village at 8:30 tonight."

"The old place?" Dai Wei asked curiously.

"Go back and ask your dad, he knows."

Choosing bamboo sticks wasn’t difficult, as they all looked pretty much the same.

The hard part was choosing the porcelain dolls.

The porcelain dolls were key to survival during the patrols, which was the same for every villager.

Dai Wei looked at each porcelain doll, some were smiling, some had a sorrowful face, some looked as though their eyes were wide open in anger, and others had expressions that were so bizarre they were beyond description.

Dai Wei had no choice but to ask Lin Tai, "Lin, Captain Lin, there isn’t any difference in the survival abilities of the different porcelain dolls, is there?"

"So far, we haven’t found any noticeable differences."

In comparison, obviously no one really wanted to choose a doll with a sorrowful face, it just looked too ominous!

So, when everyone else had made their choice, there was only one crying doll left.

"Alright, you take this one," Lin Tai picked up the doll and handed it to Dai Wei. "Hold on to it tightly... Remember, it’s with the porcelain doll that you can survive during patrol."

"Okay, got it."

"Head back and get some good sleep. You need to be well-rested because we have a three-hour patrol tonight, and sleep is important."

"Okay, got it."

On the way home, Dai Wei carried the bamboo stick under his arm and the porcelain doll in his hand, feeling a bit uneasy.

The porcelain doll had its eyes tightly shut, looking as if it was wailing...

Could this thing really help him?

When he got home, Dai Wei showed his parents and Dylan the porcelain doll.

"Dad," Dai Wei asked with some concern, "is it okay that this porcelain doll has such a sorrowful face?"

Dylan also looked worried, "Why does this doll look like it’s been bullied?"

"It’s fine," Dai Wei’s dad said directly. "Go to sleep now, you need to be well-rested!"