But now, it was too late for anything...
Dong... dong... dong...
A strange chime suddenly echoed through the hospital. The two turned to look—the clock on the wall was pointing to midnight.
According to the story's requirements, if they couldn't end the plot early, they had to complete the first task: stay in the hospital until 1 a.m.
That meant they had to hold out for an entire hour under the ghost's pursuit.
"Damn it, this vicious story!" Even Old Zhang, a veteran, couldn't help cursing aloud.
As Qi Dongsheng finished speaking, the surrounding temperature plummeted sharply.
"Run! Get out of here now!"
Old Zhang's roar came from beside him. "Split up!"
As a seasoned survivor, Old Zhang had considerable experience. In this story, there was clearly only one ghost. If they hid separately, the ghost could only chase one of them at a time, buying them as much time as possible.
The moment Old Zhang shouted, Chen Mo dashed in the opposite direction at full speed.
Crack.
A flash of lightning abruptly illuminated the entire operating room. Strangely, there was only lightning, no thunder.
But looking closely, under the lightning's glare, besides the frail young man standing in the center of the room, a dark shadow had eerily appeared behind him.
A woman's shadow.
Sensing something, Qi Dongsheng slowly turned around to look behind him...
"Zhou Xue, is that you... Did you finally hear my call and come to see me..."
A flush of excitement spread across Qi Dongsheng's pale face, his frail body trembling with emotional turmoil.
"Zhou Xue, I've finally seen you. I... I've come to take you away. Let's leave this place together, okay?"
When Qi Dongsheng turned around, full of anticipation, what he saw wasn't the Zhou Xue he had dreamed of, but a face that was a bloody mess, a horrifying death mask!
Half of that face's skull was smashed to pulp, a bloody eyeball dangling from its socket. Not only that, but the female ghost's body was twisted grotesquely on one side...
Yes, the vengeful spirit Zhou Xue still bore the appearance of her suicide by jumping.
"Ahhhhhhh—!"
Qi Dongsheng, who had been fantasizing about that beautiful woman, was instantly stunned by the sight before him and let out a terrified scream.
The horrifying ghost stared at Qi Dongsheng expressionlessly for a moment, then suddenly thrust out its clawed hand, grabbed his body, and tore him apart!
The moment she became a vengeful spirit, Zhou Xue lost all memory and humanity, dominated by the ghost's nature.
No thoughts, no emotions—only the instinct for frenzied slaughter!
After killing Qi Dongsheng, the ghost that was Zhou Xue crouched down eerily, seeming to savor licking his blood. After a while, it stood up again, its bloody eye sockets scanning around as if searching for other signs of life, then slowly moved out of the operating room.
If one looked closely, they would notice that as it moved, the female ghost's bare feet didn't touch the ground; it floated lightly outward.
Soon, the operating room fell silent again, leaving only a pool of blood and mangled remains. At that moment, the clock on the wall pointed to 12:10 a.m.!
Elsewhere in the hospital.
While sprinting frantically, Chen Mo was rapidly thinking of a plan in his mind.
A whole hour—he couldn't and didn't have the stamina to keep running at top speed. He had to find a hiding spot to catch his breath and recover.
Think—where could he evade the ghost's pursuit, or at least temporarily avoid it?
Despite the intense tension, Chen Mo forced himself to stay calm and think carefully, because this time, it truly was a matter of life and death.
Though only an hour, it was an hour filled with deadly traps.
Old Zhang had said that ghosts track humans by sensing the aura of the living. Judging by the direction Old Zhang had fled, it seemed he planned to use his old trick again—hiding in the morgue for a while.
Chen Mo had also considered hiding in the morgue, but since Old Zhang had already said they should split up, it wouldn't be wise to crowd together.
Besides, even hiding in the morgue had a major flaw: only one exit.
If the ghost cornered them inside, they'd have no way out.
However, even without the morgue, Chen Mo thought of another method.
It was simple but risky: go back to the operating room where the ghost had appeared!
Since the ghost was out hunting them, it couldn't stay in the operating room forever. The most dangerous place might actually be the safest right now.
It was like the principle of "darkness under the lamp."
But it was also incredibly bold!
If he returned at the wrong time and the ghost hadn't left, it would be no different from walking to his death!
Go or not?
Two conflicting thoughts clashed fiercely in Chen Mo's mind.
Finally, checking the time, he decided to test it out. If something felt wrong, he'd turn and run immediately.
So he stopped, felt his way down a different path, and doubled back toward the operating room.
Along the way, he saw no trace of the ghost, but the powerful supernatural force had turned the entire hospital into something like hell!
Blood—thick, viscous blood everywhere, scattered with severed limbs and bodies. Doctors, nurses, patients—all seemed to have been indiscriminately killed by the ghost. Behind the outpatient building, the large locust tree was hung with corpses dangling from nooses.
Though he knew these were illusions created by supernatural power, they still felt intensely real, carrying a palpable terror.
When Chen Mo returned to the operating room, he found it empty, with only a pool of blood and Qi Dongsheng's remains.
The rusty, metallic smell of blood hit his nose, but Chen Mo actually breathed a sigh of relief—because it also masked the living aura of his own body.
Fortunately, the operating room had two exits: one leading to the corridor, the other to a fire escape. Chen Mo carefully hid near one, keeping an eye on the wall clock while straining his ears to listen for any sounds around him.
If one pulled back the perspective, they would see a white shadow drifting aimlessly through the blood-soaked, eerie hospital, as if searching for something.
Yes, that was the vengeful spirit Zhou Xue.
The Seventh People's Hospital actually consisted of two seven-story buildings: the outpatient building in front and the inpatient ward behind. Between the third and fifth floors, two sky bridges connected the buildings at each end, allowing patients and doctors to move quickly between them without going around on the ground.
From above, the two buildings and the two corridors formed a shape like the character "口."
The operating room where Chen Mo was hiding was on the fifth floor of the outpatient building, while the morgue where Old Zhang was hiding was in the basement of the inpatient ward.
At that moment, the terrifying ghost was drifting in the middle of the fifth-floor sky bridge, not far from Chen Mo's hiding spot. Yet it seemed unable to sense his presence, only floating back and forth with some agitation.
Tick, tock, tick, tock. In the silent night, only the clock's hands moved slowly, gradually passing 12:30 a.m.
But just as the minute hand crossed the 30-minute mark, the ghost's figure suddenly halted, as if sensing something. It stopped its aimless drifting and abruptly sped up, floating toward the inpatient ward!
Without a doubt, at that moment, the story had lifted some restriction on the ghost, greatly enhancing its sensing ability!