Hospital 444
Chapter 279 - 15 Who is... the 10th Person?

Chapter 279: Chapter 15 Who is... the 10th Person?

The sky suddenly became overcast at this moment.

The snow also intensified, continuously falling on Dai Wei’s face, making him feel like his skin was about to crack from the cold.

However, the chill of his body could hardly compare to the terror in his heart.

Team members had decreased in number before and been forgotten, but this was the first time in ten years that a team leader had died!

Everyone was completely unaware... that there was an extra person in the team!

Then suddenly, Dai Wei realized a problem: If no one else was aware, why did he alone remember Team Leader Lin Tai? After all, Dai Wei was a team member, not the leader!

"Dai Wei," at this point, a female team member spoke up, "are you trying to say that Team Leader Lin has been with this patrol team all along?"

"Yes..." Dai Wei quickly nodded, "He was here until just now!"

After a moment of contemplation, the female team member said to Li Jun, "Captain Li, this is very strange. After all, Team Leader Lin’s disappearance itself is quite abnormal."

"But the roll call was correct!" Li Jun had just said this when he suddenly thought of something.

The others also began to make the connection.

Back then, Lei San’s incident caused a storm of blood and fury in the village.

"I remember very clearly," the female team member continued, "After the ’tenth person’ appeared in Lei San’s patrol team, the first one to die was my older sister. It was the second day after that incident..."

The female team member’s name was Xia Meng, and her sister, Xia Lin, had indeed died the day after the accident in Uncle Lei San’s patrol team. However, the village chief quickly locked down the news and strictly forbade the leakage of the secret at the scene.

Still, the news spread like wildfire. At the time, Dai Wei remembered clearly, several terrifying versions circulated within the village, each more bizarre and shocking than the last, but even so, according to Xia Meng herself disclosed later, the actual scene was much more horrifying, to the extent that she still experienced nightmares to this day.

All versions of the rumors had one thing in common: Xia Lin’s body wasn’t found intact, her death was horribly gruesome.

Even the authority of the village chief was hard-pressed to control the spread of the rumors. More frighteningly, people noticed that the White Mist began to show a trend of creeping further into the village!

A mysterious murderer appeared in the village, and at this time the White Mist began to spread... it was difficult not to connect the two. Consequently, countless villagers started praying at the temple, hoping the temple could stop the White Mist from invading the village further. Everyone knew that once the White Mist engulfed the village from all sides, there would be no chance of survival for the villagers.

The uncontrollable panic began to escalate, but the village chief simply couldn’t identify the murderer, a key reason being that the crime scene of Xia Lin’s death was the standard locked-room mystery found in detective novels. Who could possibly kill someone in a locked room and then escape? The answer went without saying.

Even the patrol team couldn’t prevent the White Mist from continuing to spread, and after some time... another death occurred. This time, two people died. The deaths of these two villagers were even more mysterious, causing many villagers who dealt with the scene to turn pale, and no matter who asked, they refused to disclose what they had seen!

It was at this point that the news of the ’tenth person’ could no longer be contained. Villagers started accusing the village chief of hiding the news, and some thought that according to the Stele, they must kill one of the ten to resolve everything. That way, no one else in the village would die, and the White Mist would stop spreading.

Before such fear, it was difficult to keep people rational. Especially when it became known that Ge Nian Cheng, the village chief’s son, was among those ten, some believed that the chief was hiding the news to protect his son.

Others said that He Yun was also amongst those ten. Better to just kill He Yun, and with that, everything would come to an end. So, a group of people surrounded the house where He Yun lived, and the situation almost spiraled out of control. At that time, it was Lin Tai, following the village chief’s orders to maintain order, who prevented the riot from escalating.

Finally...

One day.

Uncle Lei San disappeared.

And with that, the spread of the White Mist stopped, and the murders in the village came to an end as well.

"Wait a minute..."

Li Jun immediately became frightened, "Dai Wei, are you saying that one of us is an..."

Their faces all changed dramatically.

If this were true, wouldn’t Captain Li, as the team leader, risk meeting the same fate as Uncle Lei San?

Back then, the village chief sacrificed Uncle Lei San to stop the disaster, regaining his authority. Since Lei San, as the team leader, was responsible, this was something everyone could theoretically accept. After all, if Lei San didn’t die, anyone could be the next one to be sacrificed.

But if the one to be sacrificed could be oneself, that was a completely different matter.

"No, no!" Li Jun rushed to Dai Wei, grabbed him by the collar, "You’re talking nonsense! We didn’t see Lin Tai! You’re just spouting nonsense!"

At this moment, another male team member said, "Captain Li, if the White Mist starts spreading tomorrow, or if there is an abnormal death in the village, then... what Dai Wei said will be true."

Li Jun immediately turned to the speaking person and shouted, "Chang Min, shut up! Shut up! Back then, you were one of the ones who protected He Yun! If we had just killed He Yun back then, would we have needed to sacrifice Lei San?"

"He Yun saved my father’s life back in the day! He had also treated your father’s rheumatoid arthritis!"

"So what if you looked? There’s no medicine in the village, and we can’t cure it! All we can say is that rubbish about keeping warm! But it’s different for you since He Yun performed CPR on your dad and saved his life. Of course, you’re grateful to him! But don’t you forget, he’s a murderer!"

"There’s no evidence to prove Doctor He is a murderer! I don’t believe Doctor He would do such a thing!"

"Stop arguing!" Xia Meng shouted, "What results can you get from arguing now! We need to face reality... Let’s continue the patrol, we must finish going around the village before midnight!"

Only then did everyone snap out of it; this was the pressing matter.

Yet a huge shadow had already cast over their hearts.

Moreover, everyone began to be on guard against each other; perhaps the person in front of them (him/her) was a ghost that came out of White Mist?

Back then, regarding Lei San’s case, the village held almost a hundred meetings, big and small. In the end, the villagers all agreed... that the "tenth person" who appeared was an unknown entity that came out of White Mist.

And at the time, a villager made a guess.

"Could the tenth person be... a ghost?"

Yes, a ghost!

A ghost stepping out of the White Mist could even easily alter people’s memories and cognition completely.

"Dai Wei, I’ll ask you once more," Chang Min said, stepping behind Dai Wei, "Are you sure... that it was Captain Lin who..."

"I’m sure!" Dai Wei said with certainty, "When I was hanging from the tree, it was Captain Lin who came to rescue me!"

"How could that be..." Chang Min quickly shook his head and said, "It was Captain Li who rescued you at the time!"

"What?"

"And you said before that you thought you heard Li Sheng’s voice in the White Mist? Could there be a connection?"

"But Brother Li Sheng never came out of the White Mist!"

"What if Li Sheng... became a ghost in the White Mist?"

"This..."

The subsequent patrol passed without any accidents.

And no strange sounds were heard from the mist either.

But everyone had a lot on their mind.

"Everyone get ready," Li Jun looked at his watch, "We start the roll call in five minutes."

At that moment, Dai Wei suddenly had a realization.

"Right! During the roll call just now, there was a delay before the ninth person spoke up!"

"What?"

"Yes!"

"The ninth person... wasn’t that you, Su Wenqing?"

As all eyes turned to him, Su Wenqing panicked.

"My, my throat was uncomfortable! With the heavy snow, it’s normal to have a sore throat, right? I called out the number later on!"

Dai Wei walked over to Su Wenqing and looked at him coldly.

"But you’re speaking quite normally now, aren’t you?"

"It’s not me... really, it’s not me! I’ve grown up in this village since I was a child!"

Indeed.

Su Wenqing had hardly ever left Nanmian Village from his childhood to adulthood.

And coincidentally, he was... Su Wenxin’s younger brother!