Eek

By now, Gu Mian and Xiao Qiao had reached the second floor.

In a circular building with an open center like this one, you should be able to see the lower floors from beside the railing.

But where the railing should have been on the second floor, there was now a wall. So all Gu Mian could see was a circular corridor, and it was pitch-black. It seemed the whole building had lost power.

The overhead chandelier was already off. At regular intervals along the ceiling were huge LED panels, which were still lit. They displayed the time: 20:23. They could start answering questions in an hour and a half.

As far as the eye could see, the rooms were still all identical, except that they had changed from mourning halls into hospital rooms. It looked just like the hospital Gu Mian knew so well.

But this place was different from an ordinary hospital.

In an ordinary hospital, there should be rooms on both sides of the corridor, but here one side was a wall and the other was lined with hospital rooms.

This floor corresponded to the ambulance outside.

If that was the case, the floor below should correspond to the funeral car.

And by the same logic, the third floor might be a prison, corresponding to the prisoner transport vehicle.

Fortunately, there were windows in the hospital rooms. So although the power was out here too, it was much brighter than the first floor.

Gu Mian carefully surveyed the second floor.

There was glass in each hospital room door, so they could see inside without going in.

Since the corridor formed a circle, they could only see some of the rooms at a glance. Most of the floor was out of sight.

"I bet there's a nurses' station on this floor. Let's look for it." Gu Mian glanced down at Xiao Qiao beside him.

As on the first floor, the clues about the ghost on the second floor were likely hidden in one of the hospital rooms. Searching them one by one would be too inefficient. It would be much faster to check the names at the nurses' station.

Xiao Qiao had never been one to have many opinions of her own. Whatever Gu Mian said, she just nodded and followed him.

She was very quiet. Compared with the other players, whose screams were practically as loud as automatic alarms, she was downright well-behaved.

Gu Mian swept his flashlight over the dark corridor.

Hospitals were always great places for a creepy atmosphere. Gu Mian had once worked late at a hospital, and even with all the lights on overhead, standing in the corridor had given him the chills.

What made it worse was that Gu Mian was an intern in the neurology department. Most of the patients on his floor had problems with their brains or nerves.

Cerebral infarctions, partial paralysis, and the like could make it hard for them to walk. Doctors would recommend that these patients move around more.

The patients were very obedient, too. They often came out to walk around when they couldn't sleep in the middle of the night. Gu Mian had often seen people shuffling down the nighttime corridors with the stiff, shambling gait of zombies who didn't care who they bumped into. Most people couldn't handle the sight.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any patients on this floor, nor any figures walking with an eerie gait.

But the building was huge, probably about as big as two sports fields combined. The two of them had walked for two minutes and still hadn't seen the nurses' station.

Instead, strange rustling sounds kept coming from behind them, as if something were following them.

Gu Mian turned around each time, quick as could be, but there was nothing behind them.

The sound behind them kept getting closer until it was practically right at their backs.

Xiao Qiao had obviously heard it too. She suggested something daring. "Why don't I walk backward and see what's behind us?"

As she spoke, she really started to turn around. Gu Mian hurriedly grabbed her and stopped her. "No need."

She seemed a little confused, but didn't ask any questions. She simply continued following Gu Mian.

They had only taken a few more steps when the sound behind them grew even closer. This time, it was practically right on their heels.

Gu Mian even felt something slowly leaning toward the back of his head.

He was just about to do something when, before he could act, alarm bells suddenly went off in his head.

It was as if something malicious had suddenly fixed its gaze on him. He knew the source of this scrutiny wasn't whatever was behind them, because in his twenty years of life, he'd felt this malicious gaze countless times.

Whenever he felt it, something was bound to go wrong!

Over the years, Gu Mian had mastered a unique skill: the moment he got that feeling, he'd leap straight to the place farthest from every threat.

For example, last time, his class had gone on a field trip by bus. When the bus was slowly turning at an intersection, he suddenly got that feeling. Gu Mian immediately jumped off the bus and ran without stopping along the escape route he'd planned long ago. When he looked back, a truck had already smashed into the bus and knocked it sideways.

As luck would have it, the truck was loaded with rebar. A piece that hadn't been secured properly shot out from above the cab and plunged straight through one of the bus's windows—the very seat where he'd been sitting.

More or less all of his classmates had been injured, but none of them too seriously. The worst injury belonged to Gu Mian, who had jumped out of the window and broken one arm in the fall.

After the bus incident, Gu Mian stopped taking part in group activities as much. Even when he did, he made a point of staying away from the crowd.

He knew his bizarre luck could bring misfortune to other people, too.

But now he was in an instance, and he couldn't deliberately keep his distance from everyone. All he could do was try to pull the person beside him out of harm's way.

So he grabbed Xiao Qiao's hand and yanked her forward with a sudden lunge.

Xiao Qiao didn't react in time. He dragged her off her feet, then accidentally hauled her along for a short distance. Her wrist gave a crisp crack.

But right after that, a much louder sound drowned out the crack from her wrist.

A huge object suddenly crashed down where the two of them had been standing. It seemed to hit something, too; the impact wasn't a clean, crisp sound.

The LED panel above them had fallen, right where Gu Mian's head had been. Fortunately, he'd been quick. If that thing had hit him on the head, it would have split him open.

Gu Mian shone his flashlight where the LED panel had fallen. It seemed to have hit something by accident. A dark shape lay beneath it.

He was just about to get a better look when the shadow let out a "woof" and disappeared completely.

The shadow was gone, and Xiao Qiao was still lying on the floor, face-down.

Several seconds passed before she began trying to get up on all fours. But the hand Gu Mian had grabbed seemed to have lost its strength, dangling limply from her wrist.

Preparing to be chewed out, Gu Mian crouched down to help her up.

But she didn't seem able to stand. She just plopped down on the floor and looked at Gu Mian with a bruised and swollen face.

Gu Mian crouched in front of her, awkwardly meeting her gaze. Then he asked a really stupid question. "Does it hurt?"

Only then did she show some emotion. Tears welled frantically in her eyes, and an indescribable expression spread across her face. "It hurts!"

She looked like she was about to cry, but somehow the way she played it was a little funny.

Gu Mian silently prayed that her legion of crazy fans would never find out what he'd done to her.