Hospital 444
Chapter 83 - 24 Cursed Spirits and Demons

Chapter 83: Chapter 24 Cursed Spirits and Demons

"When it comes to wine, French wines have to be the best, particularly those from the Burgundy region."

Han Ming remarked this while swishing the wine in his glass.

"Romanée-Conti vineyard, that’s definitely one the finest producers of red wine in Burgundy. Yin Wuque and I have different tastes; he prefers strong spirits—vodka, tequila, rum, and the like. Our tastes are quite different."

Dai Lin slowly savored the red wine, its reputation as a fine wine truly unmatched.

Considering the risky job he was about to undertake, he felt perfectly justified in enjoying the wine.

"Vice Director Han," Dai Lin set the wine glass down and asked, "Our transaction here today, no one else will know about it, right?"

"Of course, no one else will know."

"That’s good." But Dai Lin sneered inwardly, I trust you about as far as I can throw you, you devious old man. He had already recorded their entire conversation on his phone. Should Han Ming use this event to drive a wedge between him and Yin Wuque later, he would reveal the recording. With someone so adept at office politics, one couldn’t be too careful.

Sometimes, humans can be more terrifying than Resentful Spirits.

Han Ming continued to gaze at the red wine in his hand and said, "Nearly thirty years ago, that was in 1995..."

Dai Lin immediately looked up upon hearing this.

1995!

That was the year the second victim of the mysterious series of murders had died!

Was it a coincidence? Or?

"That year, I was sent to the United States for medical training. The hospital wanted to capture a Devil in the northeastern part of the country to create a Devil’s Cursed Object."

"The northeastern part of the United States?" Dai Lin thought and asked, "New York?"

"No," Han Ming’s gaze remained fixed on the wine in his glass: "It was in Massachusetts, the New England region."

As a science major, Dai Lin wasn’t well-versed in history and geography, so he kept quiet and listened to Han Ming continue.

"Does Dr. Dai know of the witch hunts in Salem?"

"I don’t," Dai Lin shook his head, "Please enlighten me."

"After Europeans took over America, they brought the same medieval ecclesiastical practices to this land. It was the 17th century, in Salem town of Massachusetts, that the brutal suppression of witches began. Interestingly, those who judged them were the Puritans who had been persecuted in Europe, and they named their landing spot in North America New England after fleeing there on the Mayflower, because they were seen as heretics in Europe. Yet, ultimately, they practiced the same form of judgment upon those they deemed heretics. Perhaps it’s because of this history that occurrences related to Devil curses appear from time to time there."

"Were you in the Demons Department at the time, Vice Director Han?"

"I wasn’t. At the time, I wasn’t the vice director yet. The hospital leadership wished to obtain Devil’s Cursed Objects from the western continent to try and improve treatments for curses. Ah, in those days, even at Hospital 444, there was the idea that the grass was greener on the other side."

Dai Lin listened quietly.

"Dr. Dai, you might wonder which is stronger: the Devil compared to the Resentful Spirits, Malevolent Ghosts, and Evil Spirits of East Asia?"

"As for that... The hospital doesn’t understand it because there are too few actual clinical records. In the East Asian mainland, as well as in Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, and other places, cases of devil’s curses are very rare. Even if there are any, they would fall under the jurisdiction of the Demons Department, and their medical records are not shared with other departments for consultation."

Right after that, Han Ming suddenly turned to look at Dai Lin, staring into his eyes.

"That business trip will stay with me for life. I brought back a cursed object related to the devil’s curse and delivered it to the department responsible for curse relics. The trip was crucial to me becoming the Deputy Director."

Upon hearing this, Dai Lin faintly realized something.

"The devil is just our crude classification for evil spirits from Europe and America. We truly don’t know what real demons are like. Just like we don’t actually understand the nature of cursed spirits."

"Cursed... spirits?"

It was the first time Dai Lin had heard the term "cursed spirits."

"Cursed spirits are more terrible than fierce spirits in the East Asian region," added An Zhiyuan to the side. "If a patient cursed by a cursed spirit is brought to our hospital, all we can do is provide end-of-life care; all treatment can only lessen the pain the patient experiences before death."

"After that, I vowed to keep the Devil’s Cursed Object firmly in my grasp. Moreover, I could not allow it to fall outside and curse the people of our country."

Dai Lin was somewhat surprised to hear this.

Han Ming’s words were earnest and did not seem like a pretense.

"Of course, Dr. Dai, you might not believe these words. However, I am sincere. I am Chinese, and internal struggles are one thing, but there are some issues that are a matter of principle. I really wanted to go myself, but after thinking it over, I concluded that you are the most suitable candidate. If it were someone else, the probability of the Devil’s Cursed Object’s curse reviving would be significantly higher."

Dai Lin didn’t know whether to believe him or not. But, even if what he said was false, it did not matter because he also did not want a stray cursed object to harm others. However, Han Ming indeed understood psychology well, with a few sentences offering an incentive through a shared sense of national identity, he had managed to bind Dai Lin, a person from an opposing faction, together with Han Ming under the common identity of the Chinese people.

No wonder this man could become Deputy Director.

"The curse of the devil is distinct from other evil spirits’ curses in one major way," Han Ming then took a different tack. "That is... pure evil. In the East Asian region, whether it’s ghosts, Resentful Spirits, or malevolent specters, although they also embody pure evil, there’s usually a process in which a person’s humanity is gradually lost after becoming a ghost. Even among ghosts, a considerable proportion are benevolent spirits. Even Resentful Spirits may still retain some humanity, often choosing to seek revenge on their enemies rather than killing indiscriminately. But demons are different... They embody evil itself."

Dai Lin understood.

The four victims over the past thirty-nine years had all met with extremely tragic ends, and even in death, had their mouths stitched up with fragments of hand-drawn maps stuffed inside.

This was a curse of pure evil.

"So, this curse keeps sucking in those who have come into contact with the body, impacting one innocent person after another, is that it?"

"That’s one way to put it. Therefore, even if we investigate the very first victim from thirty-nine years ago, there is a high likelihood we won’t uncover much. This is a curse of pure evil that selects suitable sacrifices and then offers them to the devil. Curing your brother is definitely not going to be simple."

On hearing this, Dai Lin couldn’t help but feel heart-wrenchingly pained.

If only he hadn’t let Dai Wei go alone that night.

He had been too reckless. Based on the knowledge from Hospital 444, such a brief encounter shouldn’t have been enough for a ghost to curse a human, but he hadn’t expected it to turn out this way.

This was his negligence as a doctor!